RESPONDENT: Here are some questions that I have: [...]

VINEETO: Good to hear from you. So you have been reading the web-sites and experimenting enough to come up with some very precise questions.

First, it is good to get some method in one’s way of thinking. When I met Richard, this is what I remember as one of the first things we talked about – how to think, contemplate and inquire in a way that there is some result. He told me that it is useful to always come back to the question or topic from where I started and not – as our untrained brains tend to do – get lost in the different alleys and branches of speculation, imagination or irrelevant side-issues. Particularly when the subject is emotionally challenging, when a dearly-held belief is questioned and when fear arises, we are usually very quick in changing the subject and steering away from the ‘dangerous’ area. But when investigating the Human Condition in oneself, there will be lots of ‘dangerous’ areas of contemplation, there will be beliefs to be dismantled and emotions to unveil. That’s the whole purpose of the investigation in the first place, to discover the underlying beliefs and instinctual passions of a certain behaviour or emotional reaction, to uncover and eliminate one’s very ‘self’. (Vineeto, List AF, No 15, 08.5.1999)

*

24.5.2003

VINEETO: (...). Obviously, in order to learn something brand-new to human history you will have to put aside any inkling of insistence that you ‘already know’ and that ‘you are right’ and consider the possibility that you have been on the wrong track all along. This can, of course, be a devastating blow to one’s pride but, then again, the question is ... would you let pride stand in the way of learning something new about the human condition? In order to understand actualism it is vital that you are open to the possibility that all of humanity has got it 180 degrees wrong.

It is vital to understand that the word ‘wrong’ has nothing to do with a moral or ethical judgement as in ‘you have been a bad person’ but that it is a simple statement of fact that none of the traditional real-world methods or spiritual beliefs and teachings has brought peace on earth, i.e. they are wrong in that they don’t work. Despite their perpetual promises, none of the religious and spiritual movements, none of the self-help-therapies and none of the revered philosophies has come up with a practical down-to-earth, workable solution to eliminate malice and sorrow in human existence. Their solutions do not work, basta [=enough! stop!]. So the first requirement is to overcome the hurdle of pride so that you are able to admit that you know nothing about what actualism is on about.

The next requirement of learning something new is to become aware of and reign in one’s initial automatic reaction of ‘self’-defence – an instinctual knee-jerk reaction, which sabotages any intelligent inquiry into facts before one has even started. This almost-instantaneous reaction is always thoughtless, as it is activated prior to the possibility of any thinking happening, be the thinking sensible or otherwise. This ‘quick and dirty processing pathway’ results not only in a direct automatic bodily response, but the Amygdala’s direct connection to the neo-cortex is much slower – causing us to then emotionally experience the instinctually-perceived danger – i.e. we feel the fear a split-second later than the bodily reaction.

This is crucial to understand in order to be able to gather some factual information as opposed to merely having an intuitive-instinctual thoughtless gut-feeling of what feels ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. In order to be able to think clearly – free from the grip of one’s own instinctual passions – one first needs to decide to let one’s initial instinctual thoughtless reactions pass by and then assess carefully the facts of what is being said.

The third requirement of learning something new is to dust off and polish one’s somewhat rusty capacity to think and reflect in a less ‘self’-centred set-in-your-ways manner, to contemplate and question, to inquire and explore, in short, to develop one’s non-affective intelligence. When I first discovered actualism, I had to re-learn how to think, to contemplate and inquire in a way that produced some tangible result from the effort. For instance I learnt that it is useful to always come back to the original question or issue from where I started and not – as our usually untrained brains tend to do – get lost in different alleys and branches of speculation, imagination or irrelevant side issues. Prior to discovering actualism, I was usually very quick in inadvertently changing the subject and steering away from ‘dangerous’ areas, particularly when one of my dearly held beliefs was in question.

When I started investigating the Human Condition in myself, there were lots of ‘dangerous’ areas of contemplation, beliefs to be dismantled and feelings to be unveiled, lots of issues that I felt needed to be avoided at all costs. I remember I was literally stunned by the outcome of applying straightforward thinking and I was also surprised to find out how roundabout my usual way of thinking had been, particularly as I had been so totally influenced by Eastern spiritual teachings of ‘above all, do not think’. Autonomous thinking has such a bad press in the spiritual world where one is taught that the gateway to heaven is to ‘follow your feelings’, ‘trust you intuition’ and ‘leave your mind at the door’, some of Mohan Rajneesh’s favourite admonishments.

When I started on the path to Actual Freedom it was an adventure and a delight to re-instate, lubricate and develop my common sense, autonomous thinking and intelligence in order to understand the actual and factual world, to make sense of all of the beliefs that I had adopted that were the very substance of my social identity, and to study and examine the instinctual passions that are the very substance of my instinctual identity or ‘being’.

It was fascinating to observe and experience my brain clicking into crystal clear functioning – at first only once in a while with what one would call a ‘striking thought’ or realisation and then I soon noticed that I could actually make sense of the down-to-earth conversations about Actual Freedom I had with Richard or Peter. Eventually I was able to think straightforward autonomous thoughts, unclouded by fear or imagination and come to startlingly obvious conclusions and realisations. The outcome of such applications of common sense was often very staggering, new, fresh, shockingly different to what I had believed, ‘felt’ or ‘intuitively known’ to be true.

Down-to-earth practical common sense, of course, has nothing to do with theoretical rationalisation, useless philosophising, cerebral masturbation and conceptual imagination. For me, the crucial test always is – how can I put my sensible understanding into practice, how can I put my realisation into practice, how can I act on the ‘striking thought’. I enjoy the astonishing clarity that the human brain is capable of and I have applied it to my behaviour in order to become free from malice and sorrow. The outcome is dazzling, to say the least. (Vineeto, List AF, No 52, 24.5.2003