Actual Freedom – General Correspondence

Respondent No.1

RESPONDENT: I read your book while I was visiting [name deleted] one day.

RICHARD: This must be a figure of speech, surely? You read 114,756 words in just one day?

I also maintain a Web Page on the Internet ... you will notice (and be aware from reading my journal) that I am continuing on from what developed in 1981. It has been the most stimulating adventure of a lifetime to have embarked upon a voyage into one’s own psyche. Discovering the source of the Nile or climbing Mount Everest – or whatever physical venture – pales into insignificance when compared to the thrill of finding out about life, the universe, and what it is to be a human being. I am having so much fun ...those middle-aged or elderly people who bemoan their ‘lost youth’ leave me astonished. Back then – prior to 1981 – I was, basically, lost, lonely, frightened and confused. Accordingly, I set out on what was to become the most marvellous escapade possible. As soon as I understood that there was nobody stopping me but myself, I had the autonomy to inquire, to seek, to investigate and to explore. As soon as I realised nobody was standing in the way but myself, that realisation became an actualisation and I was free to encounter, to uncover, to discover and to find the ‘secret to life’ or the ‘meaning of life’ or the ‘riddle of existence’, or the ‘purpose of the universe’ or whatever one’s quest may be called. To dare to be me – to be what-I-am as an actuality – rather than the who ‘I’ was or the who ‘I’ am or the who ‘I’ will be, calls for an audacity unparalleled in the annals of history ... or one’s personal history, at least. To seek and to find; to explore and uncover; to investigate and discover ... these actions are the very stuff of life!

I like communicating, sharing experience. We are all fellow human beings who, finding ourselves here, compare notes as to what sense we have made out of being alive ... about being here on this planet earth as a human being.

And what a joy and delight this is, eh? To not only explore and to investigate but to relate one’s experience to another and have another relate their experience to oneself. And thus, conversing together, a picture gradually emerges as to what it is all about ... to come upon the immaculate perfection of being here at this moment in eternal time and this place in infinite space. There are a few perspicacious people here, in particular, that I am delighted to be with ... and we gather together spontaneously to discuss a living peace-on-earth. As my discoveries about myself are rather original – to put it succinctly – we always have plenty to talk about. It is such a pleasure to be able to have candid conversation; to be able to pursue an inquiry into the depths of one’s psyche – with others – in the full knowledge that one does so with impunity ... for nothing we come across do we hold against each other. We are exploring together, and the frankness pays off. The rewards for doing so are both immediate and ultimate. Altogether, it is thoroughly fascinating to be here, doing this business called being alive. Ain’t life grand!

Given that your deep and abiding interest in Mr. Jehovah being 180 degrees away from what I propound, I look forward to hearing from you.

February 22 1999

RESPONDENT: Richard, yes you caught me out on a figure of speech. However, I was interested to browse through and read some of your journal. I am glad you have found the peace you have been looking for.

RICHARD: Aye, the purity of the perfection of the infinitude of this very actual universe was lying here under my nose all along. It is what I experienced during a four-hour ‘peak experience’ in 1980 ... without all that religious/spiritual/mystical self-aggrandisement that got me by the short and curlies. There is nothing metaphysical here whatsoever ... simply the clean and clear and pure actual world as-it-is. Perfection lies here in actuality – this actual-world actuality is not to be confused with the grim and glum ‘real-world’ reality that 6.0 billion peoples live in – and is so pristine that nothing ‘dirty’ can get in ... certainly not the vainglorious ‘Saviour Of Humankind’ identity of ‘81 to ‘87!

RESPONDENT: Unfortunately the world as a whole is not peaceful and never will be while we have the political systems that are prevalent today.

RICHARD: It does depend upon what you mean by ‘world’ ... this actual world that I live in is utterly peaceful and always has been so and always will be.

Peace-on-earth is already always here for each and every person to access for themselves. When there are 6.0 billion outbreaks of individual peace-on-earth there will be global peace-on-earth. It is common-place to blame the politicians, the teachers, the clergy, the parents and so on, for the troubles that beset the community and the citizen alike. It is to no avail to blame the politician, for example, for the antics they get up to, because underneath the politician – under the role and the image – lies a ‘human’ heart. The politician is making the best job of it that he or she can do, considering the burden that they carry ... which is the burden of being ‘human’. They have, like any other ‘human’, an ego and/or a soul nestled uncomfortably within them. They have an identity, a psychological and/or psychic entity that exists inside of their bodies. How many times is it heard said that ‘I’m only ‘human’’, or: ‘So I’ve made a mistake, nobody’s perfect’, or: ‘In an ideal world this wouldn’t happen’? These excuses for misdemeanours are readily forthcoming whenever someone’s integrity and probity are questioned. It is generally accepted that all humans have an inherent fault, a ‘dark side’ to their nature. Consequently they say: ‘you just have to accept people as they are’. I am at peace and in harmony with myself, for I have never accepted that I am condemned to remain as I was. I have enquired into myself and into the human condition, with gratifying results.

Hence I do not ‘just have to accept people as they are’ because I know, from personal experience, that it is possible to change ... and change radically, fundamentally, completely and utterly. I have been without an identity for many years now. So I know what I talk of: it is not theoretical idealism ... an actual freedom is no ‘pie in the sky’. It is possible for one human being to state, honestly and factually, that perfection is not only highly desirable but it is essential. I am not ‘only human’, I am the perfection of the stillness of infinitude personified as a sensate reflective human being.

The human condition is an affliction, not a curse. Human life is not a punishment for some metaphysical misdeed. Nor is it a random, chance-event in an empty universe. This universe – the only one there is – is eminently successful in producing a life-form that can sense, think and reflect upon its situation. I am the universe experiencing itself as a human being ... a truly remarkable state of affairs. As me, the universe is intelligent; I am the universe’s potential made manifest. After aeons of evolution the universe has succeeded in producing what it has proved itself to be capable of: an ability to know itself as-it-is intelligently. And what-it-is is a superb, unbeatable clean and clear and pure perfection.

The way is now unambiguously evident for humankind to surpass itself.

RESPONDENT: Because the whole world is in the power of the wicked one – The Devil. By telling Eve that God had lied and she would not die if she ate from the forbidden tree, Satan was actually challenging God’s right to rule. As God is the creator he was quite capable of ridding the world of Adam, Eve and Satan.

RICHARD: Yet is it not fascinating that nobody has ever been successfully able to explain why their Creator God created evil in the first place?

RESPONDENT: However all the other angels were witnesses of the challenge and had Jehovah just gone ‘Blip you’re History’ they would forever wonder if Satan was right and God wasn’t ruling as he should. In order to answer the challenge Jehovah has allowed Satan ‘enough rope to hang himself’ so to speak. Therefore Jehovah will step in and FIX things once and for all.

RICHARD: But what will the angels say now? Are they finally satisfied that your devil is the ‘bad guy’ and that your god is the ‘good guy’? Are you saying that it is these pesky angels and their opinions that are the cause of all the continued wars and rapes and murders and tortures and domestic violence and child abuse and sadness and loneliness and grief and depression and suicides? And why does your god allow 6.0 billion living peoples – plus maybe 4. 0 billion once living but now dead – to suffer just because he is concerned with ‘what the neighbours (the angels) might think’?

RESPONDENT: I believe that it will not be long before he does. We, the whole Christian world, have been praying for it since Jesus taught us to pray, ‘Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’.

RICHARD: Hmm ... a somewhat dicey subject to touch upon ... do you not think? The history of Christianity is littered with false predictions of an imminent apocalypse ... and your group in particular.

RESPONDENT: Long before Jesus though Isaiah foretold ‘They will have to beat their swords into plough shears’. The book of Revelation says ‘They will not learn war any more and that sickness and dying will be done away with’. I am going to send you a book which explains the Book of Revelation verse by verse. I hope you read it. Send me your thoughts on it OK.

RICHARD: Yes, please do ... I will certainly read it. I am only too happy to send my observations as I have a vital interest in these matters. A local member of your group visits my home regularly – she brings someone different with her each time – and we always enjoy an excellent conversation about life, the universe and what it is to be a human being living in the world as it is with people as they are. She has been coming for over a year now ... I am somewhat conversant with various factors of your group’s belief system.

March 29 1999

RESPONDENT: Richard, well I printed your letter and took it home to digest. Have you read the Proclaimers book?

RICHARD: No, I have not. I rarely read other people’s scriptures (given that there are trillions and trillions of words in all the different religions) and if I need to I go to the official Web-Page of the other person’s particular group.

*

RESPONDENT: You say humans have an ego and/or a soul within them: In the Bible ‘soul’ is translated from the Hebrew ‘ne’phesh’ and the Greek ‘psy-khe’. Bible usage shows the soul to BE a person or animal or the life that a person or an animal enjoys. Many people think that ‘soul’ means the immaterial or spirit part of a human being that survives the death of the physical body. Others think it is the principle of life. But these latter two are not Biblical. Gen 2:7 says ‘Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of the dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul’.(Notice that this does not say the man was given a soul but that he BECAME a soul or a living person).

RICHARD: Yes, I am well aware that your group does not believe in an immaterial soul ... that is why I wrote ‘an ego and/or a soul’. And if the word ‘ego’ does not mean anything to you according to your scriptures, substitute the word ‘self’ or ‘identity’ or ‘psychological and/or psychic entity’ instead ... after all, I did write: [quote]: ‘They have an identity, a psychological and/or psychic entity that exists inside of their bodies’. [endquote]. You see, I know, from personal experience, that it is possible to change ... and change radically, fundamentally, completely and utterly. Being an identity is because the only way into this world of people, things and events is via the human spermatozoa fertilising the human ova ... thus every human being is endowed, by blind nature, with the basic instinctual passions of fear and aggression and nurture and desire. These passions are the very energy source of the rudimentary animal self ... the base consciousness of ‘self’ and ‘other’ that all sentient beings have. The human animal – with its unique ability to think and reflect upon its own death – transforms this ‘reptilian brain’ rudimentary ‘self’ into being a feeling ‘me’ (as soul in the heart) and from this core of ‘being’ the ‘feeler’ then infiltrates into thought to become the ‘thinker’ ... a thinking ‘I’ (as ego in the head). No other animal can do this. This process is aided and abetted by the human beings who were already on this planet when one was born ... which is conditioning and programming.

However, I have been without an identity for many years now. So I know what I talk of: it is not theoretical idealism ... an actual freedom is no ‘pie in the sky’. It is possible for one human being to state, honestly and factually, that perfection is not only highly desirable but it is essential. The human condition is an affliction, not a curse. Human life is not a punishment for some metaphysical misdeed. Nor is it a random, chance-event in an empty universe. This universe – the only one there is – is eminently successful in producing a life-form that can sense, think and reflect upon its situation. I am the universe experiencing itself as a human being ... a truly remarkable state of affairs. As me, the universe is intelligent; I am the universe’s potential made manifest. After aeons of evolution the universe has succeeded in producing what it has proved itself to be capable of: an ability to know itself as-it-is intelligently. And what-it-is is a superb, unbeatable clean and clear and pure perfection. I have no evil in me whatsoever – I am unable to sin – as I am the perfection of the stillness of infinitude personified as a sensate reflective human being.

The way is now unambiguously evident for humankind to surpass itself.

*

RESPONDENT: Further on you say Humans have an inherent fault: This is because the genes of Adam and Eve were passed on to their children only after they had sinned and were no longer perfect. A similarity can be likened to a computer which has a virus. The original programs would have been ‘perfect’ however after the virus arrived all programs from then on would be effected by that virus. Unless a cleansing was done i.e. Jesus Ransom sacrifice. From that it is easy to see we are not being punished for a sin in a previous life (reincarnation) merely having imperfect genes passed to us by our forefathers.

RICHARD: Hmm ... that is the theory that was passed down by oral tradition for who knows how many years and first written down circa 1800 BCE by either Mr. Abraham or people associated with him (known as the patriarchs). Then nothing more was written down until circa 1300 by Mr. Moses or people associated with him. Mr. Abraham came out of the city of Ur, whose people worshipped the god ‘Nanna’ (which the Sumerian name for the moon god known by the Akkadian name ‘Su-en’, later contracted to ‘Sin’). ‘Nanna’ was the father of the sun god, ‘Utu’ (Akkadian ‘Shamash’), and, in some myths, of ‘Inanna’ (Akkadian ‘Ishtar’) goddess of Venus, and with them formed an astral triad of deities (a trinity). ‘Nanna’ and/or ‘Sin’ was represented as an old man with a flowing beard – a wise and unfathomable god – wearing a headdress of four horns surmounted by a crescent moon.

Now, Israelite oral tradition identified ‘YHWH’, the God of Israel, with the Creator God – the creator of the world – who had been known and worshipped since time immemorial. Mr. Abraham did not discover this god, but entered into a new covenant relation with him, in which he was promised the land of Canaan and a numerous progeny. This god fulfilled that promise through the actions of Mr. Moses: he liberated the people of Israel from Egypt, imposed Covenant obligations on them at Mt. Sinai, and brought them to the promised land. There is no evidence as to the continuity of ‘YHWH’ worship from Mr. Adam (the biblical first man) to Mr. Moses ... and the Hebrew tradition itself, moreover, does not unanimously support the claim of the continuity of ‘YHWH’ worship from Mr. Abraham to Mr. Moses. There is a statement in chapter 6, verse 3, of Exodus that the biblical god revealed himself to the patriarchs not as ‘YHWH’ but as ‘El Shaddai’ – an epithet (of unknown meaning) the distribution of which in patriarchal narratives (and Job and other poetical works) confirms its archaic and non-specific Israelite character.

Comparable is the distribution of the epithet ‘El Elyon’ (God Most High). Neither of these epithets appears in post-patriarchal narratives (excepting the Book of Ruth). Other compounds with ‘El’ are unique to Genesis: ‘El Olam’ (God the Everlasting One), ‘El Bethel’ (God Bethel), and ‘El Roi’ (God of Vision). An additional peculiarity of the patriarchal stories is their use of the phrase ‘God of my (your, his) father’. All of these epithets are evidence that patriarchal religion differed from the worship of ‘YHWH’ that began with Mr. Moses. A relation to a patron god was defined by revelations starting with Mr. Abraham (who never refers to the God of his father) and continuing with a succession of ‘founders’ of his worship. Attached to the founder and his family, as befits the patron of wanderers, this unnamed deity (if indeed he was one only) acquired various Canaanite epithets (‘El’, ‘Elyon’, ‘Olam’, ‘Bethel’ and ‘Qone Eretz’ (possessor of the Land) only after their immigration into Canaan. Whether the name of ‘YHWH’ was known to the patriarchs is doubtful to say the least ... it is significant that while the epithets ‘Shaddai’ and ‘El’ occur frequently in pre-Mosaic and Mosaic-age names, ‘YHWH’ appears as an element only in the names of ‘Yehoshua’ (Joshua) and perhaps of ‘Jochebed’ who were persons closely associated with Mr. Moses. The god known as ‘El’ (the Semitic word for ‘God’) was the chief deity of the West Semites. In the ancient texts from Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) in Syria, ‘El’ (El the Bull) was described as the titular head of the pantheon, husband of ‘Asherah’, and father of all the other gods (except for ‘Baal’). Although a venerable deity, he was not active in the myths, which primarily concerned his daughters and sons. He was usually visually portrayed as an old man with a long beard and, often, two wings. He was the equivalent of the Hurrian god ‘Kumarbi’ and the Greek god ‘Cronus’. Writers of the Old Testament used the word ‘El’ both as a general term for ‘deity’ and as a synonym for ‘YHWH’. Many texts discovered at Ugarit, including the ‘Legend of Keret’, the ‘Aghat Epic’ (or ‘Legend of Danel’), the ‘Myth of Baal-Aliyan’, and the ‘Death of Baal’, reveal an Old Canaanite mythology. A tablet names the Ugaritic pantheon with Babylonian equivalents; ‘El’, ‘Asherah of the Sea’ and ‘Baal’ were the main deities. These texts not only constitute a literature of high standing and great originality but also have an important bearing on Old Testament studies. It is now evident that the patriarchal stories in the Old Testament were of Canaanite origin, the discovery of which at Ugarit has led to a new appraisal of the Old Testament.

Thus there is much conjecture and speculation about the origins of what is written in the ‘Holy Bible’ ... whereas what I wrote is not theory but is an observable fact: [quote]: It is generally accepted that all humans have an inherent fault, a ‘dark side’ to their nature’. [endquote]. This is called ‘The Human Condition’ and it is a well-established philosophical term that refers to the situation that all human beings find themselves in when they emerge here as babies. Every human being is endowed, by blind nature, with the basic survival instincts like fear and aggression and nurture and desire (all sentient beings have – more or less – these basic survival instincts and animals, being unable to think and reflect upon their mortality, have not converted savagery and tenderness into ‘good’ and ‘evil’ ... they do not have values). Thus the term ‘Human Condition’ refers to the contrary and perverse nature of all peoples of all races and all cultures. There is ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in everyone ... all humans have a ‘dark side’ to their nature and a ‘light side’. The battle betwixt ‘Good and Evil’ has raged down through the centuries and it requires constant vigilance lest evil gets the upper hand. Morals and ethics seek to control the wayward self that lurks deep within the human breast ... and some semblance of what is called ‘peace’ prevails for the main. Where morality and ethicality fails to curb the ‘savage beast’, law and order is maintained ... at the point of a gun.

Peace-on-earth is possible only when there is freedom from the Human Condition. Freedom from the Human Condition is the ending of the ‘self’. The elimination of the ‘self’ is simultaneously the demise of both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ within oneself. Then ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’ vanish forever along with the dissolution of the psyche itself ... which is the only place they can live in. Because there is no good or evil in the actual world of sensual delight – where I live as this flesh and blood body – one then lives freely in the magical paradise that this verdant earth floating in the infinitude that the universe actually is. Being here at this moment in time and this place in space is to be living in a fairy-tale-like ambience that is never-ending.

I can heartily recommend committing both psychological and psychic suicide.

RESPONDENT: Why did our Creator God create evil?

RICHARD: By your use of ‘our’ in ‘our Creator God’ I am presuming that you mean ‘our’ as in ‘your group’ and not ‘our’ as in you and me ... I have no god whatsoever. Just to make sure that this point is clear: I am asking why your creator god created evil (there is no evil here in this actual world where I live).

RESPONDENT: Well, the answer to that is He didn’t.

RICHARD: Yet the Christian scriptures say ‘I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord that do all these things’ in their official translation (I decline to argue the pros and cons of various translations). As I remarked in my previous E-Mail: is it not fascinating that nobody has ever been successfully able to explain why their Creator God created evil in the first place? This is true for anyone who holds a religious view that affirms the following three propositions:

1. their god is almighty,
2. their god is perfectly good, and
3. evil exists.

As evil exists (no matter who created it), then either your god wants to obliterate evil and is not able to – thus he is not (1) almighty – or that your god is able to obliterate evil but does not choose to ... and thus he is not (2) perfectly good. The Hindus, for example, solve this dilemma by denying that (3) evil exists whereas you attempt to side-step the issue by denying that your creator god created evil ... thus he is not (1) almighty. Howsoever you deal with this hoary issue, could you please quote the text and chapter and verse number in your scriptures where it says that your Creator God did not create evil?

RESPONDENT: He created all things angels and humans perfect, with the freedom of choice.

RICHARD: Did your god create the choices available? If not, who created the choices? A perfect angel? And why (given that one of the choices is to be evil) would a perfect angel create evil? Also, did this perfect angel create evil ‘ex nihilo’? What is your definition of perfect? For me, the word ‘perfect’ precludes the ability to create or choose evil ... I could not be evil if my life depended upon it. I do not have the ability or capacity to sin ... let alone having the desire to do so. The freedom of choice that I experience does not include the choice to be anything other than happy and harmless ... this actual freedom is perfection personified.

RESPONDENT: One of the Angels used that freedom of choice to desire to become like God and be worshipped.

RICHARD: Is this desire not the result of envy? Are you saying that a perfect angel is subject to envy? Who created desire and/or envy if your god only created perfect angels? And why? Speaking personally, since the dissolution of any identity whatsoever in this body, I am unable to ever feel envious ... or any other invidious desire.

RESPONDENT: He then tricked Eve into thinking that she also would become like God if she ate the forbidden fruit.

RICHARD: What chemical was contained in the fruit? Who created what was contained in the fruit? Why was the fruit forbidden to perfect humans?

RESPONDENT: She in turn took the fruit to Adam and he knowing it was wrong chose to disobey God with his wife.

RICHARD: Why was it wrong? Who said that it was wrong? With the use of the word ‘wife’ are you suggesting that perfect humans had to have a marriage contract?

RESPONDENT: Job 1: 6-12 and Job 2:1-7 tell about conversations between Satan and Jehovah.

RICHARD: It is no use to just quote scriptural chapters and verse numbers to me ... please quote the text as well (there are so many interpretations of different religion’s scriptures and I do not have a ‘holy bible’ ... and as I correspond with Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims, Jews and devotees of many other minor religions, sects and creeds and I would have to have The Upanishad, The Vedanta, The Bhagavad-Gita, The Buddhist Sutras, The Koran, The Book Of Mormon and so on and so on).

RESPONDENT: The book of Job goes on to tell how Satan accused people of only worshipping Jehovah for what he gave them!

RICHARD: You have me puzzled here ... why else would someone worship a deity? For what he/she deprived them of?

RESPONDENT: However Job also confirms that faithful persons will not abandon Jehovah just because things are not going their way.

RICHARD: But is this not because they live in the anticipation (the hope) that their creator god will eventually be coming through with the goods? Things like peace-on-earth, for example, an end to all the wars and rapes and murders and tortures and domestic violence and child abuse and sadness and loneliness and grief and depression and suicides? Which would mean, of course, worshipping Mr. Jehovah for what he will give them!

RESPONDENT: And as for God allowing suffering just because he is concerned with what the Angels will think. The Bible again tells us that a year to Jehovah is like a day to us. Because he is eternal the time from Creation to now is not long in comparison.

RICHARD: Yet what has this answer got to do with what I asked? Even if 6,000 (or whatever) years is but a blink of an eye for your creator god (or six days) it still does not answer why he was concerned about what the neighbours (the angels) think of him for that six days, eh? And seeing that he created time, then he must be well aware that six days for him is not six days for humans ... and humans have been suffering for 6,000 (or 50,000) years. Has your creator god no comprehension of what it is like to be a human being? Is your creator god an aloof god?

Is he indifferent to human suffering?

RESPONDENT: Regarding the Dates yes various persons have over the years speculated on when the end will come.

RICHARD: Indeed, and these ‘various persons’ are from the governing body of your group’s organisation, are they not? Those who are the mouthpiece of the ‘faithful and discreet slaves’?

RESPONDENT: However if they had understood the Bible more clearly they would not have done so, because the Bible says ‘As to the time of these events no one knows when they will occur not even the son but only the Father’.

RICHARD: Yet the ‘faithful and discreet slaves’ still have not learnt their lesson: Vis.:

• [quote]: ‘Present-day ridiculers may think: ‘Nothing has changed since creation. Life goes on, with people eating, drinking, getting married, and raising families. Even if Jesus is present, he will not execute judgment in my day’. How wrong they are! If they do not die from other causes in the meantime, the fear-inspiring day of Jehovah will definitely overtake them, just as cataclysmic destruction in the Flood brought an end to a wicked generation in Noah’s day’. [endquote].

Here the start of Armageddon is tied to the lifetime of ‘present-day ridiculers’. This is simply an upside-down return of the old ‘this generation’ viewpoint that usually presented ‘Armageddon’ within the lifetime of the present day faithful. Note, also, that this prophecy clearly states that ‘if they do not die from other causes in the meantime, the fear-inspiring day of Jehovah will definitely overtake them’ ... which unambiguously means that your creator god will be putting the wicked through the grape-press in your present life-time.

RESPONDENT: It also says ‘Just as in the Days of Noah people were eating, getting married when suddenly it was upon them’.

RICHARD: Yea verily ... and the your group’s organisation makes it crystal-clear that they know when (in ‘only one age – our own’). Vis.:

• [quote]: ‘How do we know that our modern generation is the one foretold in these ancient prophecies?’ Let us consider three lines of evidence that proves that Jesus was talking about our time. First, while there was a partial, early fulfilment in the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple (...) Second, in this century some features of Jesus’ sign are being fulfilled in what we might call the ultimate degree. For example, is there any room for wars to become much worse than they have been since 1914? Third, the sign of the last days is especially convincing when taken as a whole. All told, when we take into account the features Jesus mentioned in the three Gospels, those in Paul’s writings, and those in Revelation, this sign has dozens of features. A person might quibble about them one at a time, arguing that other ages have seen similar problems, but when we consider all of them together, they point an unmistakable finger at only one age – our own’. [endquote].

Oh, well ... I guess that some ‘spirit-anointed’ people never learn, eh?

RESPONDENT: So we are ‘To keep on the watch and remain alert all the time’ Because Jehovah cannot lie and he has said it will come so it will come.

RICHARD: Aye ... and the two thousand years since your saviour’s birth passed by uneventfully at least three years ago. Therefore, another thousand years – or more – could easily pass without anything happening, eh? His notion of a generation is vastly different to anyone else’s ... two thousand years and still counting down. Yet even you said in your previous E-Mail:

• [quote]: ‘I believe that it will not be long before he does. We the whole Christian world have been praying for it since Jesus taught us to pray, ‘Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. [endquote].

Which all goes to demonstrate yet again that some ‘spirit-anointed’ people never learn, eh?

RESPONDENT: As for the book I want to send I think you may have already read it. Revelation – Its great Climax is at Hand.

RICHARD: No, I have not read it ... but I am aware of the general thrust of the argument.

RESPONDENT: Also since the publication of the Proclaimers book which was studied at the Ministry School Meetings last year All of us understand that dates and thinking have been clarified as we gained more knowledge and understanding.

RICHARD: Are you so sure that they have gained more knowledge and understanding? It would appear to me that they are still making predictions. For example:

• [quote]: ‘In the early 1920’s, a featured public talk presented was entitled ‘Millions Now Living Will Never Die’. This may have reflected overoptimism at that time. But today that statement can be made with full confidence. Both the increasing light on Bible prophecy and the anarchy of this dying world cry out that the end of Satan’s system is very, very near! (...) Why can we confidently expect that ‘millions now living will never die’? [endquote].

RESPONDENT: The Bible says that the Faithful and Discreet Slave would give the spiritual food at the proper time. Man was not born understanding electricity he had to learn it when the time was right.

RICHARD: Yet all the ‘faithful and discreet slaves’ have been atrociously wrong ... and are still making the same-same mistakes.

RESPONDENT: The Bible also tells in Acts how when the question of non-Jews needing to become circumcised to become Christians. The apostles sent the question to the Central Governing Body of Disciples in Jerusalem. This is the same roll that the organisation play today.

RICHARD: You may have gathered by now that I am not impressed by the governing body of your group. They have been – and still are – wrong, incorrect and in error.

RESPONDENT: Yes there has been much speculation of the term Generation but reading the Bible has clarified the usage as not a literal 70 year period but as a general term. Just as Jesus Generation was not the literal 33 years he lived.

RICHARD: Could you please quote the text and chapter and verse where you have read that the term ‘generation’ does not mean 70 years but means 2,000 plus many, many more years? I would be very interested to know the exact source of your reading of your ‘holy bible’ that has clarified it all for you.

I wonder if you realise that I experience everything as all so simple, here in this actual world; no effort is needed to meet the requisite morality of society. I have no ‘dark nature’, no unconscious impulses to curb, to control, to restrain. It is all so easy, in this actual world. The ‘dark nature’ was extinguished along with the extinction of identity ... and so too went its opposite ‘light nature’. The ‘Good’ is a psychic force that exist solely to combat the ‘Bad’. Thus a ‘God’ needs a ‘Devil’; ‘Love’ needs ‘Hate’; ‘Compassion’ needs ‘Sorrow’; ‘Beauty’ needs ‘Ugly’; ‘Truth’ needs ‘False’... and so on. There are no opposites here in actuality. I can take no credit for my apparently virtuous behaviour because an actual freedom automatically provides beneficial thoughts and deeds. It is all so spontaneous, here in this actual world; I do not do it ... it does itself. Vanity, egoism, selfishness ... all self-centred activity has ceased to operate when ‘I’ (identity and/or ego and/or soul and/or self and/or whatever name) ceased to be. And it is all so peaceful, here in this actual world; it is only because of actualism that human beings can have peace-on-earth without toiling fruitlessly to be ‘good’. All this is factual ... not speculative theory like this example written 2,000 years ago:

• [quote]: ‘[T]he heavens and earth that now exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (... ...) Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire! But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace’. [endquote]. (2 Peter 3:7-14).

The evidence of 2,000 years shows that all one gets by waiting is yet more waiting.

February 06 2000:

RESPONDENT: Have you heard of or read any books by a guy named Parmhansa Yogananda not sure if first name is spelt right but Yogananda is definitely correct.

RICHARD: Yes, I have heard of him and read some books many years ago. He was what could be described as a ‘Saint’ (‘God-Illumed’) as in fully surrendered to ‘God’ (as ‘Brahma’) ... somewhat analogous to, say, the Catholic Church’s ‘Saint Francis’ who was fully surrendered to ‘God’ (as ‘Jehovah’). An ‘Illuminated Saint’ (a devout and pious man or woman fully surrendered to ‘God’) is distinctly different to an ‘Enlightened Being’ (an embodiment of ‘God’ as according to their cultural belief). The Hindu religion allows for many ‘embodiments of ‘God’’ whereas the Christian religion (and ‘Jehovah’s Witness’) permits only one such ‘embodiment of ‘God’’. Mr. Mukunda Lal Gosh (aka Paramhansa) was not an ‘embodiment of ‘God’’ (aka ‘God-On-Earth’) whereas Mr. Mervin Irani (aka Meher Baba) was, for instance, as was Mr. Mohan ‘Rajneesh’ Jain and Mr. Jiddu Krishnamurti (well-known examples of modern-day ‘God-Men’). Mr. Mohandas Gandhi is revered by some as being a ‘Saint’ ... as is Mr. Abhay Charan De (of ‘Hare Krishna’ fame).

Here is an excerpt (from his own book) which describes his moment of awakening:

• [quote] ‘My body became immovably rooted; breath was drawn out of my lungs as if by some huge magnet. Soul and mind instantly lost their physical bondage, and streamed out like a fluid piercing light from my every pore. The flesh was as though dead, yet in my intense awareness I knew that never before had I been fully alive. My sense of identity was no longer narrowly confined to a body, but embraced the circumambient atoms. People on distant streets seemed to be moving gently over my own remote periphery. The roots of plants and trees appeared through a dim transparency of the soil; I discerned the inward flow of their sap.
‘The whole vicinity lay bare before me. My ordinary frontal vision was now changed to a vast spherical sight, simultaneously all-perceptive. Through the back of my head I saw men strolling far down Rai Ghat Road, and noticed also a white cow who was leisurely approaching. When she reached the space in front of the open ashram gate, I observed her with my two physical eyes. As she passed by, behind the brick wall, I saw her clearly still.
‘All objects within my panoramic gaze trembled and vibrated like quick motion pictures. My body, Master’s [Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri], the pillared courtyard, the furniture and floor, the trees and sunshine, occasionally became violently agitated, until all melted into a luminescent sea; even as sugar crystals, thrown into a glass of water, dissolve after being shaken. The unifying light alternated with materializations of form, the metamorphoses revealing the law of cause and effect in creation.
‘An oceanic joy broke upon calm endless shores of my soul. The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His body is countless tissues of light. A swelling glory within me began to envelop towns, continents, the earth, solar and stellar systems, tenuous nebulae, and floating universes. The entire cosmos, gently luminous, like a city seen afar at night, glimmered within the infinitude of my being. The sharply etched global outlines faded somewhat at the farthest edges; there I could see a mellow radiance, ever-undiminished. It was indescribably subtle; the planetary pictures were formed of a grosser light.
‘The divine dispersion of rays poured from an Eternal Source, blazing into galaxies, transfigured with ineffable auras. Again and again I saw the creative beams condense into constellations, then resolve into sheets of transparent flame. By rhythmic reversion, sextillion worlds passed into diaphanous luster; fire became firmament.
‘I cognized the center of the empyrean as a point of intuitive perception in my heart. Irradiating splendor issued from my nucleus to every part of the universal structure. Blissful amrita, the nectar of immortality, pulsed through me with a quicksilverlike fluidity. The creative voice of God I heard resounding as Aum, the vibration of the Cosmic Motor.
‘Suddenly the breath returned to my lungs. With a disappointment almost unbearable, I realized that my infinite immensity was lost. Once more I was limited to the humiliating cage of a body, not easily accommodative to the Spirit. Like a prodigal child, I had run away from my macrocosmic home and imprisoned myself in a narrow microcosm. <SNIP>
‘The soul must stretch over the cosmogonic abysses, while the body performs its daily duties. When we set out later for a stroll, I was still entranced in unspeakable rapture. I saw our bodies as two astral pictures, moving over a road by the river whose essence was sheer light. ‘It is the Spirit of God that actively sustains every form and force in the universe; yet He is transcendental and aloof in the blissful uncreated void beyond the worlds of vibratory phenomena’, Master explained. ‘Saints who realize their divinity even while in the flesh know a similar twofold existence. Conscientiously engaging in earthly work, they yet remain immersed in an inward beatitude. The Lord has created all men from the limitless joy of His being. Though they are painfully cramped by the body, God nevertheless expects that souls made in His image shall ultimately rise above all sense identifications and reunite with Him’. [endquote]. (Autobiography of a Yogi (The Original 1946 First Edition) by Paramhansa Yogananda;Chapter:14:‘An Experience in Cosmic Consciousness’: (www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/chap14/chap14.html).

Here are some URL’s of web pages dedicated to him and his message:

• Self-Realization Fellowship: ( The organization founded in 1920 by Paramhansa Yogananda to teach scientific methods of meditation and principles of spiritual living that lead to direct, personal experience of God). www.yogananda-srf.org/
• Yogananda: (Introduction to his life and links to other sites). www.meilach.com/spiritual/yogananda/yoga.html
• A Different Light: (A different light on Paramhansa Yogananda and a different view on his organization Self-Realization Fellowship). yogananda-dif.org/
• The Life of an Avatar: (Introduction to his life and excerpts from his writings). www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/9617/index.html
• Crystal Clarity Publishers: (Crystal Clarity Publishers, publishing books on spiritual living and meditation by Swami Kriyananda and Paramhansa Yogananda). www.crystalclarity.com/
• Autobiography of a Yogi: (Yogananda: Autobiography of a Yogi, the original 1946 first edition. Topics include: yoga, meditation, kriya yoga, self-realization, Mahavatar Babaji, Mahatma Gandhi, Paramhansa Yogananda, kriya, Swami Sri Yukteswar, Lahiri Mahasaya and more. Online Edition). www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/
• Ananda: (Ananda, sharing Paramhansa (Paramhansa) Yogananda’s Kriya Yoga and Meditation). www.ananda.org/

It is always fascinating to compare religions and religious messages ... and the gurus and god-men and the saints and prophets and so on who propagated these delusions of grandeur born out of their massive hallucinations (as I know only too well from personal experience).

Oh well ... c’est la vie, I guess.