1.9.2000

See Richard, List A, No 15

RESPONDENT: I’ve just stumbled upon a few of your posts and here are my thoughts below.

PETER: The search for a ‘spiritual’ freedom, peace and happiness, based on ancient superstition and metaphysical ‘other-worldly’ beliefs, has been on-going for thousands of years and has now had its day. It’s time for a modern scientific, practical approach to finding a genuine and actual freedom from the Human Condition in total.

RESPONDENT: And what approach is that?

PETER: Ah, I see you have stumbled upon this investigation into the failures of the traditional spirit-ual feeling of freedom and the unveiling of a new and actual freedom from the insidious human ‘spirit’ and its associated instinctual passions. Perhaps if I point out that the modern approach is totally non-spiritual and down-to-earth it may allay your interest. If not, I have outlined this new approach in response to several other similar questions in the last week so perhaps your question has in part been answered already.

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PETER: A freedom from ancient belief and spiritual superstition. A freedom from being a social identity attempting to obey pious spiritual/ religious morals and follow unliveable social ethics in order to keep one’s instinctual passions under control. And, finally, the elimination of the instinctual ‘being’...

RESPONDENT: Ok, but how do we eliminate it?

PETER: Well the first step would be that you – not we – would have to be interested in questioning the veracity of your own spiritual/religious beliefs. Thus far on this list, no-one yet seems willing to do this, so any posts to me have been of the usual dismissive objection type defending spirituality, rather than anyone daring to investigate their own feelings that arise from their own instinctual passions. Ridding oneself of malice and sorrow is a purely personal responsibility – not a mass ‘let’s all retreat from the world so we can all feel good together’ movement.

RESPONDENT: The spirit, or Self, Oh there it is, the self with a capital S. I was meaning to ask you, how are you defining ‘Self’? What is it (attributes, properties)? And is it finite? Or is it not-finite – the All, the totality of all there is? A part, or the whole?

PETER: At the core of the Eastern religious view of the world is the concept that all humans are born ‘innocent’ and have only been corrupted by ‘evil thoughts’ since birth. It is further believed that it is possible for a chosen few to regain this mythical ‘natural’ innocence, in this lifetime on earth, hence the search to find one’s ‘original face’ or Divine Self.

The fashionable practice of meditation, sitting silently and retreating from the world as-it-is, is but an escape from the ‘real’ world into an imaginary ‘inner’ world where feeling and fantasy can run riot. One is actively extolled to abandon sensible thought, to surrender one’s will to a Divine Energy or Entity, and to trust one’s feelings. Giving full reign to one’s ‘good’ tender instinctual passions while ignoring and denying the ‘bad’ savage instinctual passions has led to impassioned delusion – human beings who believe themselves to be God-realized or God-men.

The Eastern religious fervour for worshipping mortal men as immortal Gods is an affront to intelligence that does nothing but perpetuate human misery and suffering and human enslavement to ancient fears, superstition and ignorance. Any chance of an actual peace on earth is readily and eagerly forfeited for an imaginary peace after physical death ... or, for the rare few, the chance to become God on earth.

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PETER: Recent studies by LeDoux and others empirically confirm that the ‘quick and dirty’ instinctual, passionate responses of the primitive brain are primary and automatically over-ride the thoughtful, considered responses of the neo-cortex.

We are, in fact, genetically programmed to be driven, consumed or overwhelmed by the animal instinctual passions that give rise to malice and sorrow. <Snip>

RESPONDENT: None of this matters since chances are very high the testing was done on ordinary persons.

PETER: By your summary dismissal of these facts, I take it you do not regard yourself as an ordinary person, subject to the influence of feelings arising from instinctual fear, aggression, nurture and desire. If so, none of what I am saying will be of interest to you because it will be beneath your higher consciousness – as in, far too down-to-earth.

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PETER: The human body is a marvellous organism whose chief characteristic, apart from intelligence is an ability to be conscious of itself in operation. Given that each human being is born with an instinctual ‘self’ overlaid since birth with a further layer of social identity this consciousness is a ‘self’- consciousness. Thus a consciousness of ‘who’ I think and ‘who’ I feel I am is constantly predominant and the bare consciousness of the flesh-and-blood-body only gets a peek in during a pure consciousness experience when the ‘self’ is temporarily absent.

RESPONDENT: Ok, now could you explain what causes the self to do this, and where does it go?

PETER: There would appear to be many circumstances that can induce a pure consciousness experience. They commonly occur in childhood, often bought on by a naive observation, contemplation and fascination about the workings and vibrant physicality of this wondrous universe. Gradually, with increased life experience, a real-world cynicism inevitably replaces our childhood naiveté, but later in life occasions can occur when this same naïve observation contemplation and fascination about this actual physical world we human beings really live in can be triggered. Sometimes a period immersed in the sensual pleasures of being alive can evoke a sheer delight in being here which can lead to one’s social and instinctual identity slipping away. As the primary instinct of fear dissolves a pure consciousness experience can result where ‘I’ as a social identity and ‘me’ as an instinctual being dissolves away allowing a direct sensate-only experience of the vibrant actuality of this physical universe. Provided there is no ‘me’ present feeling awe, beauty, love or non-separateness, thereby degrading the experience into a ‘self’-centred affective experience, the experience can remain pure and ‘self’-less. It is important to realize that I am talking about a pure consciousness experience as opposed to the commonplace spiritual affective experiences induced by such practices as meditation, sensorial depravation, bioenergetics, sorrowful prayer, group highs, etc.

If one abandons the spiritual path, one can then resurrect one’s naiveté and begin to crank up a joie de vive about being here on the planet as a flesh and blood mortal. It is then possible to induce pure consciousness experiences and avoid affective ‘self’-aggrandizing experiences.

When one dares to temporarily let one’s guard down or, to be more accurate, ‘I’ contrive to allow ‘my’ guard to slip by itself, one discovers that rather than ‘me’ feeling fear there is utter safety in being alive, firmly locked in this moment of time, rather than ‘me’ feeling aggression there is a direct intimacy with all of one’s fellow human beings, rather than ‘me’ being blindly driven to nurture and feel love there is a kindly disposition and well-wishing for all of one’s fellow human beings and rather than unremitting desire and a lust for power one discovers one already has whatever one needs. Of course, I am talking of both purity and perfection and for these qualities to be apparent ‘I’ can claim no credit, for these experiences only happen when ‘I’, as a psychological and psychic entity have temporarily left the stage, so-to speak.

As for where do ‘I’ go in these pure experiences – it is startlingly clear in the experience that ‘I’ am nothing but a passionate illusion made very real by the flow of chemicals arising from the instinctual survival software package that blind nature has imbued in this flesh and blood body. In a PCE, both ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul, are seen as powerful all-encompassing illusions and it is also blatantly clear that to merely swap identity from being a personal self to being an Impersonal Self is nought but a massive delusion contrived to not only prevent ‘my’ demise but to aggrandize ‘me’ to the point that ‘I’ think ‘I’ am Real and Immortal and the physical infinite eternal universe is experienced as an illusionary dream world.

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PETER: The path to the extinction of one’s soul begins with gaily abandoning the belief in God and an eternal life, and setting about the process of total ‘self’-immolation,

RESPONDENT: And lastly Peter, help me understand what is going on here. What is the nature of this process? Is this how one achieves Enlightenment? Do you know of anyone who has accomplished this?

PETER: As I have said before, the process begins with daring to question the ancient beliefs in an all-encompassing God, the passion-fuelled aberration that causes human beings to feel that they are God-on-earth and the very notion of the human created duality of Good and Evil.

If you are looking to achieve Enlightenment – an altered state of consciousness whereby one feels oneself to be all-powerful, all-glorious, timeless and spaceless – then what I am writing will be useless for you. It would appear that very few have achieved the state of Enlightenment for few point to a seminal momentous event when their ego or personal self has collapsed and their soul or Impersonal Self has became Full. As such, it would seem that the spiritual world abounds with pretenders, would-bes and wannabes, exactly as the Net abounds with cyber disciples and cyber gurus, all unconsciously doing a valuable service by exposing the asinine secrets that the East has so jealously guarded and deliberately shrouded in mystery for millennia.

If however, you are asking if anyone has accomplished an actual freedom from the Human Condition – then yes, the way has been pioneered by someone who was himself Enlightened for some 11 years but who dared to question the veracity of the Divine state he was living. By thoroughly investigating the supposed virtues of the Divine state such as Divine Love and Divine Compassion, from the inside as it were, he was finally able to break through the stranglehold that the tender instinctual passions have had on human beings and become free of the delusion of Self-hood and the instinctual passions in total. A handful of others are currently pioneering the direct path to an actual freedom, avoiding the instinctual trap of Enlightenment that has beguiled and ensnared all previous seekers of freedom, peace and happiness.

I simply write to inform any others who have a burning discontent with their life as-it-is and have doubts about the traditional spiritual freedom, that there is now available a genuine and actual freedom from the Human Condition, in total.