PETER to No 60: In my case I don’t have any spiritual beliefs left due to my own intent to expose my spiritual beliefs but I do acknowledge that ‘I’ am a spirit-like being and will remain so until ‘self’-immolation occurs.

Unless I am having a PCE, ‘I’ experience myself as being inside this body, looking out at the outside world through the body’s eyes, hearing through the ears, smelling smells through the nose and so on. There is no question of my not believing ‘I’ am a spirit being – sincere observation reveals that ‘I’ am a non-material entity.

RESPONDENT: I am interested in understanding more of actualism. Will someone please explain to me re the words above. Are you an actualist? Is Peter an actualist? I may be getting confused. My understanding that what you are saying above, about the feeling of a non-material entity, is the very sense of a psychological center, of an independent ‘me’ existing as an entity, that actualism believes to be causing many problems of the world and much suffering (and I agree) and is trying to do away with. I have written one email re this message and received no response, and yet you are quibbling back and forth over little details.

PETER: The reason that you are confused is that actualism, unlike spiritualism, unconditionally acknowledges all aspects of ‘me’, the non-material entity that parasitically resides within each and every human being – not only the psychological but the psychic as well, not only the thinker but the feeler as well, not only the ego but the soul as well.

This is precisely why actualism is radically different to spiritualism.

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RESPONDENT: I have twice posted your comment, with questions about it, but have received no answer of any kind from anyone. The first time I thought you did not see it. The second time I thought your maybe were out of town, but now I see you have answered someone else. I am not trying to cause any trouble, just find out more about actualism and enquire. I have joined this list because I thought I may have found some human beings who did NOT believe that the ‘I’ or ‘me’ was a non-material entity. (I believe I read something to this effect on the original website, which is what prompted me to join this list. The thought of finding such people filled my heart with joy and happiness.

PETER: Having trod the spiritual path for years, I am well acquainted with the fact that spiritualists arbitrarily divide ‘me’, the non-material entity that parasitically resides within each and every human being, into two entities – spiritualists regard the psychological aspect (aka ego) as being illusionary and the psychic (aka soul) as being real and by doing so they lay the blame for the ills of humankind on the psychological aspect (aka ego) and let the psychic aspect (aka soul) off scot free.

RESPONDENT: The point is, if you do experience your ‘I’ in this way, are you an actualist?

PETER: The whole point of the practice of actualism is that the on-going process of being attentive to how one experiences this moment of being alive experientially reveals that not only are the genetically-encoded instinctual passions the fundamental cause of human malice and sorrow but this same attentiveness also reveals that ‘I’ am the instinctual passions at core.

RESPONDENT: Does this method work if you still perceive yourself in this way?

PETER: It was only by patiently and persistently being attentive to how I am experiencing this moment of being alive that it became possible for me to fully understand what ‘I’ am made of and how ‘I’ tick.

As you know, an intellectual understanding is one thing, hands-on experience as to how something works in practice is another.

RESPONDENT: Are you and others fooling yourselves?

PETER: My experience is that I was fooling myself when I believed what the Ancient Ones taught about how ‘I’ function and operate and what ‘I’ am made of. All of the revered spiritual teachings are rooted in 3,000 year old misunderstandings of the nature of the human psyche and actualism is such a radical and fundamental update to these misunderstanding that it makes all of the ancient teachings utterly redundant. When I came to understand this, I stopped being a believer and to set off to find out for myself what ‘I’ am made of and how ‘I’ tick.

RESPONDENT: Personally I do not believe it is that easy to transform the sense of the I as a non-material entity into an ongoing perception of reality as it actually is, and that most people, almost everyone, perceives ‘reality’ in exactly the same way you do, from this false perspective. I would appreciate some response to this from you and other actualists, so we can open into enquiry and all of us learn together.

PETER: I heartily recommend finding out for yourself – it completely does away with the need to either believe or disbelieve what others tell you. The actualism method of on-going attentiveness as to how I am experiencing this moment of being alive is nothing other than a down-to-earth uncomplicated process of finding out for oneself, by oneself, what ‘I’ am made of and how ‘I’ operate. In-depth instructions for the process of actualism can be found on The Actual Freedom Trust website.

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