RESPONDENT: Your mantra is ‘tried and failed’ but you cannot know that for sure.

VINEETO: For you it may be a mantra, but to me it is blatantly obvious that spiritualism is tried and failed. Countless millions of people have trod the spiritual path over the 5000 years of recorded human history and none of the revered spiritual methods have succeeded in bringing peace-on-earth … because all of them are solely concerned with achieving a personal peace after death.

RESPONDENT: 5000 years is infinitesimal compared to the preceding millions of years in evolution that led to the human mind.

VINEETO: Are you proposing that because it took millions of years for the human mind to evolve, it will have to take millions of more years for the human mind to become free from malice and sorrow? If so, then it is no wonder you react in suspicion when Richard reports that he has succeeded in bringing the evolution of the human mind to its next stage by freeing himself from the genetically inherited instinctual passions – complete with a method to replicate his pioneering discovery.

RESPONDENT: No, I’m not. I simply don’t know what the pace of evolution (or more precisely, change) should be. I am suggesting that given the length of time it has taken for minds to evolve it should not be surprising that a freedom from the human condition has not become widespread yet.

VINEETO: If you look at the above dialogue you can see that it was you who introduced ‘the pace of evolution’ in order to justify that the spiritual methods have not yet failed to bring peace to this verdant planet.

The question relevant to this conversation is how much longer do you want to wait before you consider questioning the effectiveness of your spiritual methods in bringing about peace-on-earth for you?

RESPONDENT: The writings on the Actualism website suggest that this is a failing of all systems and approaches prior to that of Actualism. Given the underwhelming interest in Actualism so far, should I conclude that it has failed? Of course not. It’s one approach amongst many. Given the hurdles in the way of attaining freedom from the human condition it could take hundreds or thousands of years for benefits to emerge in a majority of humanity.

VINEETO: Can you see how your firm conviction that actualism is ‘one approach amongst many’ obstructs any further understanding of what actualism is about and how it leads you into ever increasing circles of questions of ever decreasing relevance to the nub of what is actually on offer on in actualism? As a temporary experiment, a working hypothesis only, you could apply naiveté and gay abandon in lieu of your preconception of ‘reasonable doubt’ and see how the writings on the Actual Freedom Trust website make sense if you simply take the words at face value.

*

VINEETO: Contrary to popular belief, evolutionary development is not a gradual imperceptible process but has always been the result of changes bought about by singular abrupt mutations. Today circumstances have changed for human beings in that humans are no longer reliant on their instinctual programming in order to survive because human intelligence unobstructed by instinctual passions can do the job much more efficiently and far more beneficently. The adaptation that needs to happen for human beings now – and is already happening for practicing actualists – is to accept the challenge of being happy and harmless – to put an end to the instinctual battle to survive and to rid ourselves of malice and sorrow.

But in order to want to change one needs to admit that the methods of the past have indeed failed – they did not go far enough.

RESPONDENT: That is certainly not the consensus view in scientific circles. Such a contentious view has been propagated by popular writers like Stephen Jay Gould. Having said that, I agree that it’s possible that something like a freedom from the human condition may take off quickly once a ‘critical mass’ is reached. The 100^th monkey theory comes to mind. However, let’s be careful with terminology here – we’re not talking about evolution in scientific terms when we talk about the spread of methods and ideas.

VINEETO: As I understand ‘the consensus view in scientific circles’, the recent mapping of the DNA sequence makes it even more clear that evolutionary changes within species and the changes that produce successful sub-species are the result of random, as in accidental, mutations in the DNA sequencing only when and only as strands of DNA combine.

However, the point of this conversation is the possibility of change for No 59, available immediately and not in some millions of years for some yet-to-be-born people via some hypothetical ‘spread of methods and ideas’. The ‘critical mass’ you are talking about is a mythical fantasy – the assumption that everyone living at the time will miraculously all get it at once that ‘we all’ better stop battling it out with each other in a grim and senseless battle for survival.

Actualism is an individual and unilateral solution to a universal problem, applicable this very moment.

As for ‘we’re not talking about evolution in scientific terms’ – the evolutionary change that happens in my brain when I use the method of actualism is that my brain is being rewired, which is a scientific and repeatable process. This is how it is described in the Introduction to Actual Freedom –

Peter: The modern scientific empirical discoveries of neuro-biology and genetics, with regard to the human brain and how it functions, have revealed two very fascinating aspects –

1. That the brain is programmable in the same way a computer is programmable. The program is formed by physical connections or pathways between neurons, and this program is mostly formed after birth. These pathways (synapse) are also capable of being changed at any time. The old connection simply ‘dies’ for lack of use and a new one is formed.
2. That the human brain is also pre-programmed, via a genetic code, with a set of base or instinctual operating functions, located in the primitive brain system which causes automatic thoughtless passionate reactions, primarily those of fear, aggression, nurture and desire, to be transmitted via chemical messages to various parts of the body including the neo-cortex. Physiological alterations that could eliminate this crude programming, as a biological adaptation to changed circumstances, are well documented within the animal species.

• The first discovery accords with the practical experience of being able to radically change one’s social identity – the program instilled since birth that consists of the morals, ethics, values and psittacisms that make up our social identity. It stands to reason that a psychological identity that is malleable to radical change is also susceptible to total elimination.
• The second discovery accords with the practical possibility of eliminating one’s very ‘being’ – the emotive source of the instinctual survival passions of fear, aggression, nurture and desire. This blind and senseless survival program is now well and truly redundant for many human beings and can now be safely deleted, for the human species has not only survived … it is now beginning to flourish. Introduction to Actual Freedom, Actual Freedom 1

VINEETO: Therefore I do not need to ‘ever accomplish the hard-wiring’ as you suggest – what I do in the continuous process of increasing attentiveness is to become aware of and remove the redundant software programming. Then the hard-wiring, human intelligence, can function undisturbed and undistorted and the senses perceive unfiltered delight.

RESPONDENT: Regarding your last sentence above... the implication is that the underlying human intelligence (including the unique personality components) by its very nature is ‘happy and harmless’, sensately revelling in the universe. Is that a general case or could there be instances of specific human intelligences that do not have that nature, but revel in e.g. causing misery to others? Animals appear to thoroughly enjoy life, unless they’ve been damaged psychologically. Is being happy our birthright, which we typically squander?

VINEETO: Human intelligence is indeed an ‘underlying’ function of the human brain, underlying in that intelligence is subordinate to, and hence crippled by, the instinctual survival passions emanating from the now-redundant primitive or archaic brain. This is the ‘general case’ in that survival instincts are genetically encoded in each and every human brain. The experience of the actualism practoce is that intelligence, when freed from the instinctual passions, is by its nature benevolent, sensible and intelligent.

I don’t know which kind of animals you have in mind, but animals on farms or in the wild do not enjoy life – they are driven by the survival instinct of ‘what can I eat, what can eat me’. In the wild animals are constantly on the alert, vigilant for predators and scanning for attack on prey. Animals that are provided with shelter, food and security become domesticated such that the survival instincts are not as pre-eminent but when push comes to shove the wild animal instantly re-surfaces – exactly as it does in the domesticated human animal when push comes to shove.

Animals are not aware that they are cruel, in panic, pining or bored but some are nevertheless are run by feelings and all of them are driven by instinctive imperatives. The idea that animals are innocent or happy is a myth.

Spiritual teachings have always maintained that one only needs to dissociate from one’s social conditioning in order to be ‘who you really are’ – the feeling ‘self’ which is none other than the animal instinctual passions. In contrast, actualism recognizes that the root cause of human malice and sorrow lays in the animal instinctual survival passions and not, as ancient wisdom has it, in conditioned thought and cultural socialization. A freedom from the human condition can only be achieved via ‘self’-immolation, which is both, the death of one’s ego (the social identity) and the extinction of one’s ‘being’ (the instinctual identity).

As for ‘is being happy our birthright’ – it does not make sense to call happiness our ‘birthright’ because there is no court where you could claim your ‘right’. I would rather describe it that the animal survival passions, universally manifest in humans as malice and sorrow, are our biological heritage – ‘me’ being as old as the first human – but a path to freedom from this software programming is now laid out. You can jump right on with both feet and complete the next step in human evolution.

VINEETO to Alan: While contemplating upon where I could possibly stand on the brakes, I noticed a slight shift in my determination. How long am I going to play in this safe ‘sandbox’ called Virtual Freedom, and when will I finally grow up and actually do what I have been thinking and talking about for two years – to be free, irreversibly, without leaving a backdoor open to revert to ‘normal’ or slip back into having an identity should being free become too scary? It was like straightening from a hunched position of playing in the sandbox, leaving the well-known safe area behind and standing upright. Virtual Freedom has become a nursery and it is becoming too small a playground. And it seemed immensely sensible to move on, just like leaving home when I have grown up. When leaving my parent’s home there was no regret, not much fear but an immense excitement to explore the big wide world. Now the situation seems similar. Just the next sensible thing to do. Just doing it. Stop imagining it, stop desiring it, stop thinking about it, and, for heaven’s sake, stop feeling about it. Just doing it. I don’t mean repressing any upcoming thoughts or feelings, but to stop feeding the ‘engine’, whenever I have a choice.

In my head the line of the American folksong was playing over and over again: ♪ ‘The night, they drove ol’ [Vini] down, and all the bells were ringing...’ ♫ I went to the couch to follow up on this hot trail of contemplation and there it was – the sudden recognition and experience that the universe was breathing me, I was part of the big rhythm of life in its infinite variety, just one of 6 billion people, one human being out of the vast and boundless immensity and magnificence of this infinite, eternal, alive, magical and perfect universe, being breathed, being lived, being here, moment by moment. And it is safe, utterly safe, because this experience also makes clear that the physical universe is benevolent. As much as there is no fear in a rock or a tree there is no malice in a rock or a tree. There may be volcanic eruptions or earthquakes as part of earthly events, but there is no malice in that the rock is directed at me to destroy me. The universe is not out to get me, on the contrary, it is supportive and benevolent; the idea of danger was simply part of my chemically-supported instinctual imaginary identity.

In this moment I understood that survival instincts are indeed redundant. With no identity there is no threat and no need to fight for survival. The instinctual survival program has done a great job to facilitate evolution, species by species, to this point in time. Now sensate and reflective human beings are the peak of this development so far – and the next opportunity for evolving has come into reach – life without the instincts of fear, aggression, nurture and desire, life without identity, life without the feeling of separation from the rest of the universe.

RESPONDENT: It is great you are here Vineeto.

VINEETO: Yep, it is great to be here, to be alive in this thrilling time of adventure and investigation, right at the forefront of something that will be the turning point in human evolution from the Savage Ages to Peace on Earth. It may well take another 500 years to get a foothold in human consciousness to judge by the amount of silly objections that most people raise or by the immensity of fearful misunderstanding that I find happening with almost everyone I talk to – but nevertheless, the discovery is made, the method has proven failsafe and watertight and the words are out.

RESPONDENT: Great that your friend Richard encouraged you to set this list up so that you would be – in many different ways, including this one – be confronted with your own personal conditioning that keeps you trotting around the circuit.

VINEETO: Just for the records – Richard has set up this mailing list for a sincere and thorough discussion about an actual freedom from the Human Condition. You yourself have corresponded with him about a year ago on this very mailing list, so you are well aware of this fact. And yes, I welcome ever opportunity to be confronted with my remaining ‘ghosts in the cupboard’, my instinctual passions, whenever they occur – it is always a splendid opportunity to get rid of another passionate illusion, another notion of ‘me’ and it all brings me closer to the day of my final destiny. And there seem to be many people who make it their business to confront me for whatever motive.

What for you might look like ‘trotting around the circuit’ is for me an ongoing investigation and the key to the ultimate freedom that I have searched for all my life. Yes, all my dreams are coming true. Funny, today I consider everyone else trotting around in useless circles of their ‘self’-maintained passions and I am glad that I haven’t missed the bus to freedom.

You know, I never thought going mad could be so sensible.

KONRAD: Again, I do not deny that there is something in the way Richard says the world can be experienced. Only what I see is that it destroys a capacity within us that has taken no less than one million years to develop, and is even now not yet completed in its development.

VINEETO: Richard’s method destroys the psychological and psychic entity , that has taken no less than one million years to develop. But now it is redundant and harmful to be driven by blind nature’s instincts and it is time to be replace them with intelligence and apperception. Konrad, it is time for pioneers, and I thought you may be one, but it seems as though you are gripped by logic and the failed solutions of the past. Logic is a good tool to find the proportion of white and red wine in those two glasses, but it is utterly hopeless and useless to question and remove sexual instincts.

*

KONRAD: This denies the fact, that I have investigated Richard’s actualism very thoroughly. Especially in my last mail. I do not deny Richard’s actualism out of fear, but out of a thorough analysis. I have learnt a lot from my investigation about human nature. But, still, it is clearly the result of a malfunction of our brain you are running after.

VINEETO: Yes, it is a malfunction, if you want to call it that way. Being free, I won’t be able to feel sorrow and malice, to act out of those emotions, to act out of instincts, to follow beliefs. According to what every single one of the 5.8 billion human beings on the planet believe, it is a malfunction, a madness. But if you investigate into the facts of the so-called ‘well-functions’ of those 5.8 billion people, I very happily run after Richard’s malfunction. Peace on earth, no more wars, peace and equity between man and woman, plus the experience of the vastness and magnificence of this splendid physical universe without the separation of the ‘self’, ‘Self’ (and ‘being’) – yes, for evolution it is needed that we do that next jump and develop brains that are not capable of running on instincts, emotions and beliefs. And someone has to have been the first madman – and madwoman.

I am sure, the apes thought the Neanderthals were mad (they didn’t even have a tail) and the Neanderthal people thought the Cro Magnum people were mad – but history proved them wrong – at least there was a technological evolution. You can stay where you are and who you are, if you want to, Konrad, I choose to be a pioneer for the next evolutionary jump that is due in humanity – humans free of malice and sorrow.

KONRAD: I agree, that it might make you feel at ease when you have this malfunction. But the price is just too big, if you can do this to you, that is.

VINEETO: What price are you talking about? The precious human emotions that cause war and misery, the highly praised instincts that are responsible for overpopulation, murder, rape, territorial wars? The numerous beliefs give birth to religious wars, arrogance, superiority, ‘chosen’ peoples all over the planet, misery perpetuated for the sake of a few compassionate ones? To be free from the ‘self’ and ‘Self’ not only makes me at ease with everybody I meet, but also makes me a non-contributor to all the madness and insanity that is happening in the name of ‘proper function’.

RESPONDENT: Noting further, the ‘me’ in a low voice says ‘I agree but…’ and some kind of self-talk is required to expose the resistance in the form of ‘but’ and the non-sense behind it. Once all is exposed, the suffering in the form of guilt or any other negative feeling disappears. It seems to be reasonably long lasting… however there still maybe unexposed tricks and tactics and buts.

VINEETO: I found that when *all* is exposed in connection to one issue the disappearance of this issue is not only ‘reasonably long-lasting’ but for good. There are, of course, other issues that can then come to the surface and cause me to stop feeling good and then these in turn need to be exposed.

RESPONDENT: I wonder how all this got into ‘me’.

VINEETO: Ah, but this is asking the wrong way round.

Every sentient being is born with a set of instinctual passions which in humans, us being capable of being self-conscious, forms itself into a ‘self’, an entity who resides in everyone’s flesh-and-blood body from the very beginning, by default, so to speak.

To understand the nature of ‘me’ and why we are inflicted with the survival passions and the ‘self’-perpetuating entity I began to look at how inanimate matter, animate matter, sentient matter and finally human beings work – how all things and beings are all essentially made of the same stuff and how we all follow the same basic principles of life.

In its most primitive form animate life – even the inanimate elements do so – consists of two functions – attraction and repulsion and scientists have observed this behaviour in microbes, single cell creatures up to more complex life forms. As living things become more complex so does their reaction to their environment until we arrive at warm-blooded sentient creatures (mammals in particular), which are endowed with very much the same set of instinctual survival patterns as human beings. When you follow the ladder of evolution from the most primitive to the more complex you can see that life could not happen in any other way – this is the way life on this planet developed and the instinctual passions are vital in this chain of development in order to ensure the survival of each species and as such benefit all the other species that rely with their survival on the existence of those particular species.

Human beings are in a special position in that they have the additional capability to be aware of themselves, of their thoughts and feelings. This capability of being conscious that I exist gives rise to a more complex function of the survival instincts – the ‘self’. This ‘self’ is in a continuous automatic feedback-loop focused on its own survival interests which naturally and inevitably makes ‘me’ not only very cunning but self-centred, self-perpetuating, self-oriented (as well as species-oriented).

However, human beings have also developed a brain capable of common sense, intelligence and apperception – the ability to be aware of being aware … which is where actualism comes into play.

RESPONDENT: So why is it that when all physical objects are taken together as a physical universe, suddenly benevolence appears. This is beyond my common sense. Moreover, benevolence isn’t physical, is it.

VINEETO: To understand that benevolence is physical you first have to understand the term ‘actual’. Actual means ‘not merely passive’. It describes the experience that nothing in this physical universe is dead, things are continuously evolving and changing. A seed grows into a carrot, when I eat them they turn into my skin, flesh, bones and brain. A timber table has its own life from seed to tree to timber to crafted furniture to aged wood and then it is deteriorating into soil. The continuous movement is a physical one – there is nothing meta-physical in it. It never stops, never ends.

Benevolence is the intrinsic movement of the physical universe to be its best. A tree grows the best way it can, using whatever resources are available. Animals have an instinctual capacity to ensure the survival of the fittest, the strongest, the most adaptable. Vegetation and animals on this planet have evolved from the simplest to the most complex. Human beings with our incredibly refined ability to think and make sense of the world are the only intelligent species of the physical universe.

This very computer is a visible outcome of the human brain, with colour-screen, background, sound, storage capacity and all its gimmicks. But this human brain is still restricted and distorted by our animal instincts in the primitive brain. The benevolence with its urge to be the best it can be has now evolved to a stage where it is possible to break free of the animal instincts, of the Human Condition. Fed by our intent to be the best we can be the brain can fix itself up, it can re-wire itself and eliminate the redundant instincts altogether. There is no divine, mystical or ethereal energy doing it, the urge to be its best is a physical quality of the universe. To put the idea of God into this obvious perfection and purity is to completely miss the point of the very magnificence happening around us all the time. Should you want to read a bit more on this issue, Peter’s chapter ‘Universe’ and ‘Evolution’ explain these fact a bit deeper, and Richard has written about it at length in his journal and correspondence.