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Peter’s Correspondence on the Actual Freedom List Correspondent No 66
RESPONDENT: I don’t presume to understand why Richard won’t answer my intended question. Could one of you please just let me know if I’m misunderstanding something here? I really don’t get why Richard seemed to be scoffing at me (or something, I don’t get it) about spouting the ‘virtues of materialism’. I mean, what the heck, actualism is a non-spiritual experience (or whatever, no matter what I call actualism I’ll get slammed). I’m not interested in money, women, fame, power or really any of that and yet this ‘materialistic’ label is thumped on me. By materialism I understand as ‘there is no spirit world’ and I leave it at that (I think). OK someone, could one answer the question please, in the first place which is: this is the MAIN question I have hear that you did not answer. If I’m at work and I have a situation where I have to balance the ‘rights’ or ‘needs’ or ‘wants’ of my staff, the consumers/residents of the program (the mentally ill), the community, and even another group (the developmentally disabled) then is not a system of cost/benefit analysis (i.e. consenquentialism/ utilitarianism), and some values (like dignity, value of human life, self-determination, justice, etc.) of great help in doing my job? I mean, lets say I have achieved actual freedom (have not of course). This wonderful thing (actual freedom) would not by itself guide me as to the ‘best’ course of action to take with my policy proposal. Nitty gritty, practical stuff, but very complex. So, does actualism allow for cost/benefit analysis (utilitarianism) and value based ethics in order for me to come up with as fair and just of a mental health policy as I can, or does it say ‘who cares, just self-immolate’ Do you get what I’m aiming at? and am I becoming clearer to you? Thank you. I know you wrote a lot today, so I expect this answer will be awhile in coming. It is practically important to me. Question for Peter or Vineeto 14.7.2004 PETER: In my experience, what you appear to be coming up against in attempting ‘to balance the ‘rights’ or ‘needs’ or ‘wants’ of my staff, the consumers/residents of the program (the mentally ill), the community, and even another group’ is the ages-old instinctive impulse to lay the blame for the ills of humankind on others, to concoct ways and means whereby others should change, all the while turning a blind eye to one’s own culpability in the instinctual emotive battle. The only way I managed to eventually free myself from the habit of taking sides in the mythical battle betwixt Good and Evil that human beings continue to wage was to fully take on board the fact that each and every human being is genetically-encoded with an instinctual survival program – as are all animate life forms. In the human animal, this survival program manifests itself as instinctual passions – chiefly those of fear, aggression, nurture and desire. It is these passions that give rise to the malice and sorrow that is endemic in the human condition, the appalling state of affairs that is eulogized as being a noble battle between Good and Evil. What I found was that this simple acknowledgement of the fact of what actually is the root cause of all of the mayhem and misery that human beings inflict upon each other, either intentionally or unintendedly, meant that I was then by and large free of the debilitating cycle of blame and guilt – that which underpins all of the human-concocted morals and ethics. Being thus freed, I was then vitalized to get on with the real business of being an actualist – being happy and harmless in the world as-it-is with people as-they-are.
RESPONDENT: I read a cor with u and someone about cognitive psy. I thought the Emoclear site (www.emoclear.com) might be of interest to you. I would like to hear your, Richard’s, and Vineeto’s ideas on the approach of this website. If I was ever to abandon the practice of actualism, this and cognitive psy. would be where I rest my hat. Looking forward to understanding more of the human condition and how to be free of it. PETER: If I remember rightly, my only interest in behavioural cognitive therapy I remember seeing a
RESPONDENT: Peter, I just read a large portion of BL’s site and it reminded my of the ‘Western teacher’ in either your journal or other writings. Is this the man you studied with? I found some of what he wrote insightful (of course I think he is at some level deluded with all his god talk delusions). He is clearly on record in his article ‘Love is not an Emotion’, saying that one must end ALL one’s emotions – the good and the bad. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone besides Richard say something like this. He also is against ALL religions and spiritualities (well he is clearly spiritual himself, but he is against ALL TRADITIONS of spirituality-yeah that’s more like it) ‘just like’ Richard. It was funny ‘watching’ the WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT editor fumble over himself in trying to comprehend how someone could live w/o emotions in an interview with BL (Barry Long). PETER: I am somewhat bemused that you should write to me asking questions and making comment
about a man who declared himself to be God-realized RESPONDENT: I am enjoying my emancipation of what I consider a enormous delusion (God, angels, demons, afterlife) very much. There is no need/desire/want to go back to creating a fake mental reality. To me a Higher Power of any kind is like Santa for adults. Life is very simple and fun without all the spiritual stuff ‘junking’ it up. I’m so glad that the disappointments in my life have opened me up to leaving a superstitious way of living behind. AT beatup 30.12.2004 PETER: In the light of this, why you would still be interested in the preachings of a self-declared God-realized ‘Western Master’ has got me well and truly stumped. As to your statement that he is ‘he is against ALL TRADITIONS of religion and spiritualities’ –
… this sounds mightily like very TRADITIONAL spiritual-speak to me. I have no interest in writing yet more about my experiences of the hypocrisy of the spiritual teachings and the duplicity of spiritual teachers. If you are interested you will find that I have already written a good deal on both subjects, much of which is catalogued for easy reference on the website. The following comment I recently made to a spiritualist is relevant to your current interest in spiritual matters –
RESPONDENT: Peter, I just read a large portion of BL’s site and it reminded my of the ‘Western teacher’ in either your journal or other writings. Is this the man you studied with? I found some of what he wrote insightful (of course I think he is at some level deluded with all his god talk delusions). He is clearly on record in his article ‘Love is not an Emotion’, saying that one must end ALL one’s emotions – the good and the bad. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone besides Richard say something like this. He also is against ALL religions and spiritualities (well he is clearly spiritual himself, but he is against ALL TRADITIONS of spirituality-yeah that’s more like it) ‘just like’ Richard. It was funny ‘watching’ the WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT editor fumble over himself in trying to comprehend how someone could live w/o emotions in an interview with BL (Barry Long). PETER: I am somewhat bemused that you should write to me asking questions and making comment about a man who declared himself to be God-realized and yet write to someone else on the list stating –
In the light of this, why you would still be interested in the preachings of a self-declared God-realized ‘Western Master’ has got me well and truly stumped. RESPONDENT: Well, Peter, I am an atheist, and secular. However, I like to read still so sometimes I do find what a spiritually deluded person has to say of interest. BL is one of those, yet I found it interesting that even he says ‘emotion has to go’ basically. PETER: Don’t you also find it interesting that Barry Long claims that love is not an emotion? If you see this claim as being the sleight of hand it is, then you would also understand what he is saying is that you should keep the good emotions (love included because according to his definition, love it is not an emotion) but all the rest have to go. In other words, he is simply trotting out the same-same old ‘take the moral high ground’ in the Good vs. Bad, Love vs. Evil game that has enthralled humanity for eons. * PETER: As to your statement that he is ‘he is against ALL TRADITIONS of religion and spiritualities’ –
… this sounds mightily like very TRADITIONAL spiritual-speak to me. RESPONDENT: Yes this is same old same old spiritual bullshitery. Basically he is against all traditions accept HIS (and yet the core of HIS is really no different as THEIRS as you pointed out). PETER: Does this mean that you now find what he is teaching less insightful because of what I said … or have you done some thinking for yourself about the matter since you last wrote? * PETER: I have no interest in writing yet more about my experiences of the hypocrisy of the spiritual teachings and the duplicity of spiritual teachers. If you are interested you will find that I have already written a good deal on both subjects, much of which is catalogued for easy reference on the website. RESPONDENT: All I was looking for Peter, was a simple yes or no as too if you had studied under this fellow. Or is he the teacher from Richard’s ‘a talk with a master’ article or not. I was inquisitive. PETER: If that was all you were looking for then why did you go on to tell me that you found some of what he said to be insightful and went on to give examples where you found it to be ‘‘just like’ Richard’? * PETER: The following comment I recently made to a spiritualist is relevant to your current interest in spiritual matters – RESPONDENT: Umm ... I’m not interest in spirituality really. Well, not in practicing or believing in it. Yes, sometimes a read it, to compare it to AF and sometimes I have an insight this way. PETER: I can only suggest that you keep in mind that what you find when you read any spiritual teachings will be entirely dependant on your mindset at the time of reading. If your mindset is such that you are looking for parallels between actualism and spiritualism your mindset will ensure that you ‘find’ them. If, however, you are genuinely inquisitive in that you seek to discern the facts rather than continue to be besotted by wanting to believe that what the spiritualists say has some validity, you will find a world of difference between actualism and spiritualism. Of course, this does require that one does one’s own thinking, by oneself, for oneself. I know this can be scary for we have all been taught from childhood that others are great authoritative thinkers, that the revered ancient ones had the market cornered on wisdom, that one should ‘not be too uppity’, that one should ‘know one’s place’ – all of which translates as ‘don’t think for yourself’, ‘let others do your thinking for you’ and ‘be meek and humble’ – i.e. above all, don’t dare stand on your own two feet. * PETER to No 58: ‘I am not ‘throwing stones at’ either U.G. Krishnamurti or any other
spiritual teacher, be they dead or alive – I am simply pointing out the inherent flaws of the spiritual teachings and of the very state of
enlightenment itself, *no matter who presents it and no matter whatever form it takes.* RESPONDENT: I have always understood that. Don’t know why the others don’t. Always eh? Well, if that is the case, then you are streets ahead of me and most other people on the planet for that matter. It took me 17 years of hands-on experience on the spiritual path before I got to experientially understand the flaws of spirituality in practice and the failings of spiritual teachers to live their teachings, off-stage as it were. And it was only when I met Richard did I start to find the flaws (that were there for the seeing all along, by the way) in the spiritual teachings themselves. * PETER to No 58: I’ve done my ‘road trip’ to the East and discovered first-hand the failings
of spiritual teachings and the experienced first-hand the duplicity of spiritual teachers. I’ve sat at the feet of more than a few God-men and
delved into several teachings sufficient enough to know that the whole pursuit of spiritualism is passé. RESPONDENT: That is truly good FOR you as a body and bad FOR your inner self. What I more had in mind when I wrote this was that the current fixation for spiritualism in the West is passé as we are now at the beginning of a new post-spiritual era. A little reading of history reveals that is took some 500 years for secularism to emerge from the dark shadows of religious tyranny and superstition that cloaked Europe in the Dark ages. And yet, even as secularism was finally gaining credibility in the eighteen century, the beginnings of the influence of Eastern religious philosophy, superstition and arcane practices were already to be seen. By the end of the twentieth century, eastern religion had come to dominate all aspects of Western society so much so that many astute observers are beginning to become aware of the fact that this current era is indeed the New Dark Ages. We currently live in a period where Eastern superstitions, Eastern archaic belief, Eastern restrictive morals and Eastern mind-numbing ethics have infiltrated science, philosophy, medicine, government, art, architecture, music and Western religion itself to an extent that was unthinkable a mere fifty years ago. And yet as has often been the case in history, out of this current period of darkness has come an alternative to remaining enthralled in the mythical battle betwixt Good and Evil – the grim fairy tale that forms the very basis of all religion and spirituality. Although in its nascent years, the emergence of actualism – the discovery of the autonomous means to become actually free of the human condition in toto – heralds the beginning of the end of the stranglehold that superstition and fear-driven imagination have over the current human species. * PETER to No 58: There is nothing to be found in searching through the dustbin of history, finding
a discarded belief or philosophy, dusting it off and re-running with it. It will become, and indeed is already becoming, increasingly obvious to
the astute seeker that only a radical new approach will actually bring an end to human malevolence and sorrow … and that is the total elimination
of human malevolence and sorrow.’ RESPONDENT: Yes, J Krishnamurti knew the old ways didn’t work, but he did not go far enough. He eliminated his social self, but the instinctual self lived on. Whilst the comment I made in this post was in response to someone who espouses U.G. Krishnamurti, it
equally applies to Jiddu Krishnamurti. As for him not going far enough, he frequently expressed that he had got himself to the top of the spiritual
ladder
RESPONDENT to No 78: Good luck No 78. I don’t think you or I are going to ever get any girls if they know love is not going to be involved. Maybe after we have attained a virtual freedom, we might be so enjoyable to be around that perhaps we’d then have a chance. You think I’m joking? Tell me how it goes when you tell a girl about actualism. I’m betting 99.99% of them would run away like Leatherface was running after them with a chainsaw. PETER: What made sense to me was the fact that I needed to do whatever was necessary in order to clean myself up such that I didn’t impose my own innate antagonism and sadness on someone with whom I wanted to share my time with. If you don’t happen to be with a partner right now then even better because you have the opportunity of getting a head start such that you will become an attractive companion to someone when the opportunity presents herself. * RESPONDENT No 73: I disagree, I am also a 21-year-old male in the States, and I get different reactions from people when discussing what is meant by actual freedom (females for this topic). Some are genuinely interested, and I have had many an intimate conversation relating to what it means to be alive and here now. The bottom line is that you could find people interested in eradicating misery in the forms of sorrow and malice and those that are not. RESPONDENT: Finding people interested in giving up sorrow and malice is easy compared to find people willing to give up compassion, empathy, sympathy, and love (particularly girls/ladies). You let me know when you have a live-in companion or even a wife who is not only happy that you’re involved in this, but even ready to do it herself (by the way, it is the last part that would insure success, I think). One can ‘disagree’ till the cows come home, and that don’t mean shit. Prove it for a fact; yes this is a challenge! Go! PETER: Quite a few people have casually dismissed my being able to live with a companion in utter peace and harmony on the basis that I have been lucky enough to find a like-minded compatible companion, thereby completely ignoring the fact that I am reaping the rewards of my own efforts to change myself (exactly as Vineeto is reaping the rewards of her own efforts to change herself). It is clear to me that such people were merely offering an excuse for not bothering to make the requisite effort to become happy and harmless themselves.
RESPONDENT to No 78: Good luck No 78. I don’t think you or I are going to ever get any girls if they know love is not going to be involved. Maybe after we have attained a virtual freedom, we might be so enjoyable to be around that perhaps we’d then have a chance. You think I’m joking? Tell me how it goes when you tell a girl about actualism. I’m betting 99.99% of them would run away like Leatherface was running after them with a chainsaw. PETER: What made sense to me was the fact that I needed to do whatever was necessary in order to clean myself up such that I didn’t impose my own innate antagonism and sadness on someone with whom I wanted to share my time with. RESPONDENT: Yes, this is my goal now. PETER: As a general observation, many who come across actualism often leap to the conclusion that the actualism method involves ‘not feeling’ … and this seems particularly so for men. Given that actualism involves on-going attentiveness of what it is one is feeling at this moment of time, it stands to reason that this is an impossibility if one is simultaneously busy denying or repressing one’s feelings. * PETER: If you don’t happen to be with a partner right now then even better because you have the opportunity of getting a head start such that you will become an attractive companion to someone when the opportunity presents herself. RESPONDENT: I do see how actualism would make one and ‘an attractive companion’, but the ‘no love’ thing is still going to make it much harder to find a partner. PETER: It may not only make it harder but it may well make it impossible. Why one would want to wave a ‘no-love’ flag when one can offer a 100% commitment to living with another in utter peace and harmony is beyond me. The first approach is likely doomed to failure, the second is far more likely to bring success and if it doesn’t for whatever reason, at the very least you will have experientially learnt a good deal about how and why you tick. * RESPONDENT No 73: I disagree, I am also a 21-year-old male in the States, and I get different reactions from people when discussing what is meant by actual freedom (females for this topic). Some are genuinely interested, and I have had many an intimate conversation relating to what it means to be alive and here now. The bottom line is that you could find people interested in eradicating misery in the forms of sorrow and malice and those that are not. RESPONDENT: Finding people interested in giving up sorrow and malice is easy compared to find people willing to give up compassion, empathy, sympathy, and love (particularly girls/ladies). You let me know when you have a live-in companion or even a wife who is not only happy that you’re involved in this, but even ready to do it herself (by the way, it is the last part that would insure success, I think). One can ‘disagree’ till the cows come home, and that don’t mean shit. Prove it for a fact; yes this is a challenge! Go! PETER: Quite a few people have casually dismissed my being able to live with a companion in utter peace and harmony on the basis that I have been lucky enough to find a like-minded compatible companion, thereby completely ignoring the fact that I am reaping the rewards of my own efforts to change myself (exactly as Vineeto is reaping the rewards of her own efforts to change herself). RESPONDENT: I don’t dismiss your report, in fact it was one of the main reasons I became interested in AF in the beginning. Still, I find you and Vineeto amazingly fortunate (lucky?). PETER: Lucky, hey? Well for my part it was a deliberate decision to approach Vineeto and the reason I did so was that I wanted to prove to myself that I could clean myself up sufficiently such that I could live with her in utter peace and harmony. I knew that if I was to road test the actualism method then it made sense to put myself to the test of a one-to-one relationship thereby avoiding the trap of treating actualism as a philosophy. I am not saying that this is what everyone should do, but I am simply making the point that meeting Vineeto had nothing to do with luck but that it had everything to do with serendipity. Serendipity is, after all, what happens when you take the opportunity that comes along. * PETER: It is clear to me that such people were merely offering an excuse for not bothering to make the requisite effort to become happy and harmless themselves. RESPONDENT: No excuses here anymore. I’m so committed to becoming H&H that I will give up the possibility of ever having a companion, to attain it. PETER: And another excuse that you can throw in the rubbish bin is the notion that you have to give up the possibility of ever having a companion as this has already been proven to have no basis in fact whatsoever. RESPONDENT: It’s ‘balls to the walls’ from here on in. I’d like to see how far I can go into this for the next year or so, before I get involved with a companion. PETER: I can only suggest that it would be silly to cut yourself off from the possibility of a serendipitous meeting happening solely on the basis of your own presumptions.
RESPONDENT No 61(R): Try to focus your attention only as these eyes and these brain thinking (for a considerable time, it was in my case like gazing in one point to calm down fidgeting ‘I’) RESPONDENT: Yes, this is basically Richard’s/Peter’s ‘mimicking the actual world’ tech. I found this to be the key to a more and more self-less experience of life. One has to ‘play’ with it on one’s own to see the best way to use it. After I check into ‘how I’m feeling’ I go right to this ‘special’ way of seeing. Given time (usually no more than 30sec to a minute) it automatically produces a EE, so I never have to ‘try to make myself happy’. A EE is much better than any normal ‘happiness’. PETER: I thought to comment on your reply to No 61(R) as it contains an agreement and a misconception that could lead others to imagining the actualism method to be something other than what it is. The phrase ‘mimicking the actual world’ means that ‘I’ do whatever ‘I’ can in order to mimic the actual world in both its purity and in its perfection … and the way that ‘I’ do this is by being as happy and as harmless as is humanly possible, each moment again. This intent is single pointed in that being happy and being harmless is one and the same thing – it is impossible to be happy unless one is harmless and it is impossible to be harmless unless one is happy. In the early stages of actualism I focused all of my attention solely on this aspect – the first task being to get my attentiveness as to how I was feeling and what I was feeling in each moment of my waking hours up and running such that it became a constant awareness. After I got a grasp of the method and of its single-pointed aim and found that I started to enjoy being here doing this business of being alive more and more then I was able – only whenever I was feeling particularly excellent – to bring my attention to sensate experiencing more and more. By bringing one’s seeing to the very surface of the eyeballs, bringing one’s touch to the fingers or the hairs on the skin, experiencing one’s taste as the activation of the taste buds on the tongue and the inside of the mouth, experiencing one’s hearing as it happens in the eardrums and experiencing one’s sense of smell as it activates the receptors in the nose what one is doing is mimicking the sensate-only experiencing that happens temporarily in a PCE or as a permanent experience in a PCE. The reason I make this point is that if someone focuses on this latter aspect of coming to one’s senses and ignores the first and foremost aspect of the actualism method – removing the obstacles to being as happy and as harmless as is humanly possible in this moment – then they are ignoring the crux of what actualism is all about and may well be doing nothing other than treading the well-worn traditional path of denial and dissociation.
RESPONDENT to No 60: I find it interesting that my recent ‘success’ with ‘actualism’ was hinted as being the stuff of disassociation (and therefore enlightenment/ ASC experience) by Peter. PETER: If you re-read my comment to you will see that I did not hint that your ‘recent ‘success’ with ‘actualism’ was hinted as being the stuff of disassociation’, rather that I was making a comment on something that you said in response to No 61(R). In hindsight the comment may well have been better addressed to No 61(R) but it never occurred to me that you would take it personally … particularly as in the very same post you made it clear what your primary focus was (and still is, I presume) – removing the obstacles in the way to feeling happy and harmless in order that you are sincerely able to crank up the felicitous feelings.
RESPONDENT: Will the videos be made available to buy as dvd/vhs for those of us who can/will not afford the necessary computer equipment to view the free samples? PETER: I take it you missed my recent post on the same topic –
The first job I did where I was involved in the complete building process (design, pricing and construction) was a small house extension for a couple with two young children. As the job progressed on-site they asked if we could do several additional items of work for them . Given that they constantly emphasized how much the job was costing them and how stretched they were financially, I decided to do the additional work and not charge them so as to ‘help them out’ as it were. By the time the job finished a few additional items were added to the free list and being the ‘good guy’ that I was I even called around the morning they moved back in to see if they needed any help. I remember being somewhat stunned to find that they had bought a new set of furniture for the house, new electrical appliances and a new home entertainment centre and a brand new car sat in the driveway – so much for their crying poor. The experience was an eye-opener for me as to the extent of the demands that some people will place on others in order to exploit them for their own ends ... as well as the fact that the only reason the ploy works is because there are some people who are gullible enough to fall for it. Needless to say – and yet apparently it needs to be said – when I became an actualist my intent to become both happy and harmless in the world as-it-is with people as-they-are compelled me to stop exploiting others and to stop allowing myself to be exploited hence bringing an end to the feeling of resentment that being a player in this particular social/instinctual game inevitably brings. With regard to your particular question, I don’t have a VHS recorder – a necessary piece of equipment if I were to consider producing the videos in a superseded low quality format – and nor do I see the necessity for purchasing one as I never intended to produce the videos in a superseded low quality format and nor do I intend to in the future.
RESPONDENT: Will the videos be made available to buy as dvd/vhs for those of us who can/will not afford the necessary computer equipment to view the free samples? PETER: I take it you missed my recent post on the same topic –
RESPONDENT: Hmm. I don’t see how that relates to making a DVD ... as I thought DVD was *high* quality. PETER: Given that your query mentioned both DVD and VHS, it will be useful to understand that VHS is a magnetic tape system designed to deliver analogue signals to standard definition television sets. As such the vertical resolution of VHS (and all other analogue recording methods) is determined by the TV standard – a maximum of 486 lines are visible in NTSC and a maximum of 576 lines in PAL. DVD on the other hand is the currently-new generation of optical disc storage technology. DVD is essentially a bigger, faster CD that can hold cinema-like video, better-than-CD audio, still photos, and computer data. DVD aims to encompass home entertainment, computers, and business information with a single digital format. It has replaced laserdisc, is well on the way to replacing videotape and video game cartridges, and could eventually replace audio CD and CD-ROM. DVD has widespread support from all major electronics companies, all major computer hardware companies, and all major movie and music studios. With this unprecedented support, DVD became the most successful consumer electronic product of all time in less than three years of its introduction. In 2003, six years after introduction, there were over 250 million DVD playback devices worldwide, counting DVD players, DVD PCs, and DVD game consoles. This was more than half the numbers of VCRs, setting DVD up to become the new standard for video publishing. All of which is why we have chosen to offer the video series ‘Conversations about the human condition and how to become free from it’ on DVD as distinct from VHS. * PETER: The first job I did where I was involved in the design, pricing and the construction was a small house extension for a couple with two young children. As the job progressed on-site they asked if we could do several additional items of work. Given that they constantly emphasized how much the job was costing them and how stretched they were financially, I decided to do the additional work and not charge them so as to ‘help them out’ as it were. By the time the job finished a few additional items were added to the free list and being the ‘good guy’ that I was I even called around the morning they moved back in to see if they needed any help. I remember being somewhat stunned to find that they had bought a new set of furniture for the house, new electrical appliances and a new home entertainment centre and a brand new car sat in the driveway – so much for their crying poor. <snipped> RESPONDENT: Whereas I’m asking if your making a dvd and willing to pay for a DVD. PETER: I was relating a story that had to do with the human condition as it has become a habit of mine to dig beneath the so-called problems that people have with what other people choose to do and investigate the underlying social and instinctual basis of the misunderstandings, resentments and conflicts that plague human interactions. In answer to your interjection, the videos will be offered on DVD in HD-WMV format which will allow a maximum of approximately one hour of 720P high definition video on a 4.7GB single-layer DVD disc and the Actual Freedom Trust is not only willing to pay for but indeed already has paid for the necessary hardware and software necessary to produce the DVDs. * PETER: The experience was an eye-opener for me as to the extent of the demands that some people will place on others in order to exploit them for their own ends as well as the fact that the only reason the ploy works is because there are some people who are gullible enough to fall for it. RESPONDENT: Whereas I’m asking if your making a dvd and willing to pay for a DVD. Given that you have repeated the question, it is apt to point out that this was not the question you originally asked of me. This is the question you asked –
I can only answer the question you asked, not the question you claim to have asked. From the thrust of your original question it appears that you were saying that you have not been able to view the free sample HD-WMV download but according to a more recent post I take it that you have since been able to do so –
If you have been able to play the HD-WMV sample video on your computer, then your computer should also be able to play the HD-WMV on the DVDs when they become available and the only issue that remains is whether you are sufficiently interested in the particular video-taped conversation such that you are willing to pay for it. * PETER: Needless to say – and yet apparently it needs to be said – … <snipped> RESPONDENT: Needless to say, if your going by my post alone, then it *does not need to be said* as I fail to see how it relates to my query of whether or not you will be making a DVD. PETER: Again, the story I told had to do with my previous experience of being an unwitting player in the habitual game of continually interfering in others’ lives or of allowing others to interfere in my life or of expecting others to comply with my whims and my demands or of living my life in accord with the whims and demands of others, a story which I thought relevant to the discussions on this list about the topic at hand. * PETER: ... when I became an actualist my intent to become both happy and harmless in the world as-it-is with people as-they-are compelled me to stop exploiting others and to stop allowing myself to be exploited hence bringing an end to the feeling of resentment that being a player in this particular social/instinctual game inevitably brings. RESPONDENT: Good for you, really. * PETER: With regard to your particular question, I don’t have a VHS recorder – a necessary piece of equipment if I were to consider producing the videos in a superseded low quality format – and nor do I see the necessity for purchasing one as I never intended to produce the videos in a superseded low quality format and nor do I intend to in the future. RESPONDENT: I don’t have a vhs either, PETER: Given that it appears you have been able to view the sample HD-WMV video, I take it you were talking on behalf of other people – taking it upon yourself to be a spokesman for other people as it were by voicing concern about something that does not relate to you personally nor to your current circumstances. I can only suggest that there is a wealth of information about the human condition to be had from exploring matters such as these, which by the way is why I told the story that I did in answer to your original question about ‘those (of us) who can/will not afford the necessary computer equipment to view the free samples’. Attentiveness reveals that one does not have to look further than oneself in order to study the human condition in action. RESPONDENT: I was more interested in dvd format. PETER: As I have said, if you have been able to play the sample video on your own computer then your computer will be able to play the HD-WMV on the DVD. On the other hand if you don’t have and cannot afford a computer capable of playing HD-WMV files as your original question implied, then I would suggest simply doing whatever you did that enabled you to view the sample.
RESPONDENT: Will the videos be made available to buy as dvd/vhs for those of us who can/will not afford the necessary computer equipment to view the free samples? PETER: I take it you missed my recent post on the same topic –
RESPONDENT: Hmm. I don’t see how that relates to making a DVD ... as I thought DVD was high quality. PETER: Given that your query mentioned both DVD and VHS, it will be useful to understand that VHS is a magnetic tape system designed to deliver analogue signals to standard definition television sets. As such the vertical resolution of VHS (and all other analogue recording methods) is determined by the TV standard – a maximum of 486 lines are visible in NTSC and a maximum of 576 lines in PAL. DVD on the other hand is the currently-new generation of optical disc storage technology. <snipped for length> All of which is why we have chosen to offer the video series ‘Conversations about the human condition and how to become free from it’ on DVD as distinct from VHS. RESPONDENT: I did not know all that. PETER: There is a lot that I have had to learn about filming, editing, producing and distributing good quality videos – most of which was gleaned from the very few practicing videographers who have whole-heartedly embraced a whole new paradigm – the ability to capture high quality (as in High Definition) video and subsequently to then edit it and arrange to distribute it worldwide for viewing on other PCs all on one’s own PC in one’s own living room for a (relatively) modest budget. * PETER: The experience was an eye-opener for me as to the extent of the demands that some people will place on others in order to exploit them for their own ends as well as the fact that the only reason the ploy works is because there are some people who are gullible enough to fall for it. RESPONDENT: Whereas I’m asking if your making a dvd and willing to pay for a DVD. PETER: Given that you have repeated the question, it is apt to point out that this was not the question you originally asked of me. This is the question you asked –
I can only answer the question you asked, not the question you claim to have asked. RESPONDENT: Ok, fair enough. But why did you not say anything about DVD in your first reply then? PETER: Simply because I thought to answer this part of your question first so as to then address the second part which I have since taken the opportunity to do so – see above and below. * PETER: From the thrust of your original question it appears that you were saying that you have not been able to view the free sample HD-WMV download but according to a more recent post I take it that you have since been able to do so –
If you have been able to play the HD-WMV sample video on your computer, then your computer should also be able to play the HD-WMV on the DVDs when they become available and the only issue that remains is whether you are sufficiently interested in the particular video-taped conversation such that you are willing to pay for it. RESPONDENT: My computer couldn’t do it but MSU’s could. PETER: Well done. As I have said before, I always assumed that anyone who was sufficiently interested enough in the video conversations would find a way of being able to view them. * PETER: With regard to your particular question, I don’t have a VHS recorder – a necessary piece of equipment if I were to consider producing the videos in a superseded low quality format – and nor do I see the necessity for purchasing one as I never intended to produce the videos in a superseded low quality format and nor do I intend to in the future. RESPONDENT: I don’t have a vhs either, PETER: Given that it appears you have been able to view the sample HD-WMV video, I take it you were talking on behalf of other people – taking it upon yourself to be a spokesman for other people as it were by voicing concern about something that does not relate to you personally nor to your current circumstances. RESPONDENT: Really, my point was that will we be able to watch the ‘dialogues’ on our tv with either a dvd or vhs or both. Just wanting to know specifically that’s all. In the USA DVD’s are usually watched on a DVD Player though one’s television. PETER: As you can see from the website, the Actual Freedom Trust is offering the video series ‘Conversations about the human condition and how to become free from it’ in a common consumer High Definition format able to be played on an appropriate media player on a suitable personal computer. We have yet to broach the issue of making the HD videos available on a DVD suitable for watching on HD television as the development of the necessary software and hardware – not to mention the adoption of the necessary formats and standards – is still in its infancy. To put it plainly – doing what we are doing is enough of a challenge for a couple of suburbanites who were born in what is known as the industrial age for now, besides which I am inclined to wait until the dust has settled in the HD television industry before considering a ‘next’ stage. * RESPONDENT: I was more interested in dvd format. PETER: As I have said, if you have been able to play the sample video on your own computer then your computer will be able to play the HD-WMV on the DVD. On the other hand if you don’t have and cannot afford a computer capable of playing HD-WMV files as your original question implied, then I would suggest simply doing whatever you did that enabled you to view the sample. RESPONDENT: Good suggestion. Thanks. I assume I can play it on my TV’s DVD player as well. That would be correct? PETER: No. See above for a brief summary of the reasons.
RESPONDENT: Peter, in regards to the HD video clips that will be available online, how are they coming? PETER: I think they are coming along very well, particularly given that I am a part-time hobbyist attempting to do something that is at what is sometimes referred to as the ‘bleeding edge’ of current technology. RESPONDENT: They are pretty much the only reason I’ve been online for a month or so now, and I’m just wondering if they are a few months (or weeks) away. PETER: My original estimate was ‘before the end of the year’, but it was after all only an estimate. The videoed ‘Conversation about the human condition and how to become free of it’ will only be a
part of each DVD as we also aim to provide other information that puts the ‘Conversations’ into context RESPONDENT: If so, I won’t be checking the list weekly, but rather monthly. PETER: How often you check the list is your call entirely. I know for myself that I am currently very interested in HDV and as a consequence I have many discussion forums in my Favourites list on my browser in order that I can easily check in to catch up with the latest developments. As such it takes me no time at all to keep abreast with the latest developments.
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