Actual Freedom ~ Frequently Asked Questions

RICHARD: Actually it is not such an obvious question after all as the words ‘a man of enlightenment’ and the words ‘a man of apperception’ refer to two entirely different things: enlightenment is the release from the otherwise endless round of birth/death/rebirth and apperception is the release from the human condition.

‘Tis only from within the human condition that such concepts as karma and samsara arise (along with their rebirth/reincarnation implications).

RESPONDENT: I’d say: be careful with your response here ... ‘five hundred rebirths as a fox’ ... wow! On the other hand better then ‘five hundred rebirths as a roach’.

RICHARD: It essentially makes no difference (be it either as a fox or a roach) because, according to eastern spirituality, it is only as a human being that a sentient being has a chance for enlightenment (which is the main point of being sent back down the metempsychosical path).

RESPONDENT: To be fair on that my guess is ‘Yes’ ... but then again the risk is high.

RICHARD: The only risk on the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom is that one may be enticed to wander off the path and become enlightened instead.

I kid you not.

RESPONDENT: So ... I say I don’t know.

RICHARD: Okay ... here is a hint: both karma and samsara have no existence here in this actual world.

RESPONDENT: A few more questions: 1. Richard, what is the physiological nature of the ‘process’ that you (and J Krishnamurti, Konrad Swart and numerous others) underwent during ego dissolution?

RICHARD: In a word: electrochemical (the spinal cord, through which all the main nerve fibres go, transmits all kinds of electrochemical signals ... which can result in all manner of psychic manifestations on occasion).

In the Indian Tradition they are known as ‘Kriyas’.

RESPONDENT: 2. Is ego dissolution a necessary precursor to ‘soul death’ ...

RICHARD: No ... if I had known, back in 1981 at the moment of ego-dissolution, what I now know I would not have let the process stop halfway through its happening.

RESPONDENT: ... or would ego dissolution be an automatic consequence of dissolving the affective self first?

RICHARD: Yes ... by my reckoning it would have all been over in a matter of maybe 6-10 seconds (rather than 6 seconds plus eleven years).

RESPONDENT: 3. Do you think it is possible to experience the complete dissolution of ego (leaving affective self intact) without lapsing into a delusory ASC?

RICHARD: No ... the soul-self is extremely powerful (affectively powerful that is).

RESPONDENT: In other words, is ‘spiritual enlightenment’ a necessary consequence of ego death (sans soul death) ...

RICHARD: Yes ... without the ego-self to keep the soul-self under some semblance of control it runs rampant and totally rules the roost.

RESPONDENT: ... or is ‘enlightenment’ simply a risk of same?

RICHARD: No ... some form of an altered state of consciousness (ASC) would immediately establish itself.

RESPONDENT: In my case, this me, this ‘I’ is very skilful of somehow sneaking in through ‘a back door’.

RICHARD: It is important not to view ‘I’ and/or ‘me’ as an enemy – blind nature is the culprit – and to be friends with yourself ... only you live with yourself twenty four hours a day. Coopt any aspect of yourself as an ally in this investigation into the human psyche ... eventually ‘I’ come to realise that the very best thing that ‘I’ can do is altruistically ‘self’-immolate for the benefit of this body and all bodies. Peace-on-earth is the inevitable result when ‘I’ go out in a blaze of glory ... unless ‘I’ am seduced by the Glamour and the Glory and the Glitz into becoming the Saviour Of Humankind. It is a risk well worth taking, however.

RESPONDENT: (...) Perhaps you should arrange a meeting with a psychiatrist because if your condition is indeed linked to (Right) Temporal Lobe damage, the + 4 million words on the website might prove to be more harmful than harmless.

RICHARD: Ha ... nice try, No. 25, nice try indeed.

RESPONDENT: I wish it to be just that, a nice try.

RICHARD: Well, your wish is granted as that is all it is ... no amount of words, no matter how eloquent or erudite they may be, could possibly bring about a *neurological* condition (aka an *organic* disorder) in anybody. Here is an example of what does cause TLE:

(Temporal Lobe Epilepsy) Causes:
• Approximately two thirds of patients with TLE treated surgically have hippocampal sclerosis as the pathologic substrate.
• The etiologies of TLE include the following:

• Past infections, eg, herpes encephalitis or bacterial meningitis.
• Trauma producing contusion or haemorrhage that results in encephalomalacia or cortical scarring.
• Hamartomas [a focal malformation that resembles a neoplasm, grossly and even microscopically, but results from faulty development in an organ].
• Gliomas [any neoplasm derived from one of the various types of cells that form the interstitial tissue of the brain, spinal cord, pineal gland, posterior pituitary gland, and retina].
• Vascular malformations (ie, arteriovenous malformation, cavernous angioma).
• Cryptogenic: A cause is presumed but has not been identified.
• Idiopathic (genetic): This is rare. Familial TLE was described by Berkovic and colleagues, and partial epilepsy with auditory features was described by Scheffer and colleagues.

• Hippocampal sclerosis produces a clinical syndrome called mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). MTLE begins in late childhood, then remits, but reappears in adolescence or early adulthood in a refractory form.
• Febrile seizures: The association of simple febrile seizure with TLE has been controversial. However, a subset of children with complex febrile convulsions appear to be at risk of developing TLE in later life. Complex febrile seizures are febrile seizures that last longer than 15 minutes, have focal features, or recur within 24 hours. (www.emedicine.com/neuro/topic365.htm).

RESPONDENT: For now the evidence points in the opposite direction ...

RICHARD: There is no ‘the evidence’ – be it either for now or earlier – outside of your imagination.

RESPONDENT: In light of a post today (R: Case <name deleted>) does this method throw up such risks?

VINEETO: The disclaimer on The Actual Freedom Trust homepage clearly states, that actualism is for a normal people, sensible human beings who understand what a word means, who have learned to function prudently in society with all its legal laws and social protocols, and who is a reasonably ‘well-adjusted’ personality who has a deep-seated interest in finding ultimate fulfilment and complete satisfaction.

As for risks – there are, of course, risks that one might loose courage on the way to becoming free and choose to remain trapped in one or the other mental-emotional states that pass for being ‘normal’ or ‘spiritual’ but by far the greatest risk in practicing actualism is what Peter has called ‘grounding on the Rock of Enlightenment’. To be seduced off the path to an actual freedom into the institutionalized delusion of a permanent altered state of consciousness is a real risk and a warning that I did not discard lightly. Whilst practicing actualism and investigating the root of the so-called ‘good’ emotions I personally experienced a few altered states of consciousness, some of which lasted for several hours and one for more than a day. After these experiences I made it a point to become acutely aware of the ‘self’-aggrandizing symptoms of this passionate trap in order to be able to recognize the warning signs and nip any onsets in the bud.

RESPONDENT: Yeah I can see the need to be vigilant. And that’s why I asked the query about risks of mental health, just as you have no intention or wish to go enlightened way! I have no intention or wish to go crazy. Some stuff pertaining to this issue (and my worries) can be read at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/lecture5.shtml

VINEETO: The link you provided gives a general overview about many possible types of mental disorders. Some people have queried Richard about what is described as ‘Capgras delusion’, which is a result of the non-functioning of the amygdala, whereas Richard describes the change that made him actually free from the instinctual passions happening in the brain-stem. If you read more of Richard’s writings you can recognize for yourself that an actual freedom has nothing at all to do with this particular illness. However, you may be interested to know that an actual freedom has been classified by psychiatrists as being afflicted with a chronic and incurable psychotic mental disorder – not only depersonalisation and derealisation but anhedonia and alexithymia as well. In Richard’s selected correspondence on ‘Sanity, Insanity and the Third Alternative’ you will find the explanation for this and some further clues regrading your query.

Personally, I can understand your concerns very well as I had a short period where I was genuinely afraid of going mad myself. The only thing that helped me to overcome my fear was to have straightforward to-the-point discussions with the two only actualists at the time, Peter and Richard, about the nature of the human condition, about the all-pervasiveness of the instinctual survival passions, about the cunning of my ‘self’ and about the delusion of spiritualism. It then dawned on me that what they were saying made sense – in other words, that what they were saying was simple, sensible, straight-forward, matter of fact and down-to-earth. My determination to get to the bottom of the matter finally resolved the issue of sanity and insanity when my ‘self’ temporarily disappeared and I had a pure consciousness experience. In fact, it was my burning desire to know for sure who was right and who was crazy that brought my inquiry to a peak and caused the bubble of ‘me’ to temporarily burst. This particular pure consciousness experience confirmed, without doubt, that an actual freedom from the human condition (the extinction of both ego and soul) is the only salubrious solution to bringing an end to my malice and my sorrow. If society, in its wisdom, classifies someone who is free of malice and free of sorrow as having a chronic and incurable psychotic mental disorder, then what to do – stay ‘sane’?

*

VINEETO: Be that as it may, the risk that most people I have spoken to or written to seem to fear most is to commit themselves wholeheartedly to something, particularly if this something will result in irrevocable change.

RESPONDENT: I will tell you what my fear is. I am quite a happy and cheerful guy, I mostly feel its stupid to be sad, mostly sorrow seems to self generated, imagined ones and by accepting the society norms and then unable to live up to it, the divide between the ‘goal, the ideal’ and where I am now, brings sorrow. Take ‘success’ for e.g. or any of the other norms that exist in values or material field. That much is clear.

VINEETO: There is much more to being unconditionally happy than being disillusioned with society’s goals and ideals, much, much more.

RESPONDENT: Am I harmless, definitely not, not always. Am I always happy, no. Why not? DO I have the clarity of the ways of what and how to live, No.

VINEETO: The question at this point would be if your realization that you are not always happy and ‘definitely not’ always harmless is motivation enough for you to want to change and change radically.

RESPONDENT: So for clarity one looks into various avenues. I want to do the right thing; In my teens I rmbr keeping a diary for sometime, and I rmbr writing what if I was first man on earth, then concept of God goes, (of course I would have imagined and created one soon enough!) the so called values materialistic and religious, of the society goes, that gave me a huge release, in a sense that even now nothing has changed, I don’t have to follow all the aims and ambitions that culture places before me and feel disappointed or sad when I don’t meet them. Richard writes ‘An Unexamined Life Is Second-Rate Living (../richard/audiotapeddialogues/anunexaminedlifeissecondrateliving.htm ) and I see the point. My worry as it was in earlier attempts at this examination through other avenues (JK, Vipassana or Ramana) is what if it’s just a hallucination or wrong on part of respective teachers and in this case Richard. That’s my great worry.

I have been pondering over this recently, there doesn’t seem to be anything, any power that guides one through the journey of life, there are few individuals who seem to have got somewhere and say this is the way, this is the right thing to do, or alternatively there is nothing to do, this is your destiny, etc. I have tried moving away but I keep coming back to it again and again, An unexamined life is second rate living. But what if tomorrow somebody else comes and says with certainty that what Richard says is all wrong, it’s just a brain damage or altered state! I see the predicament of living on borrowed word, borrowed ideas, it has to be a self lived, certainty can come from that only. Why do I believe in what Richard says or anybody else of those gurus for that matter. Then of course the thought aimed at oneself pops up, that’s fine sunshine! But he is saying ‘you’ are just a idea, a bundle of beliefs, just a biochemical discharge even! And now shouldn’t you be questioning, investigating and finding out, isn’t that what you wanted to do while you were young and looking at the stars lying down on the beach and wondering what’s all this about?

VINEETO: Okay, it strikes you that an unexamined life is second rate living and you have a certain amount of suspicion and doubt about the traditional spiritual ‘freedom’ based on your personal experience with some of the spiritual ways. You read some of what is written on The Actual Freedom Trust website and it makes sense to you. The next step is to find out, for yourself, if what Richard and Peter and Vineeto are saying is factual and it is my experience that the only way to find out the facts for yourself is to dare to set in motion your very own process of ‘self’-investigation, a process which will inevitably result in you remembering having had a PCE or evoking one afresh.

PETER to Gary: This broadening of one’s awareness – still triggered by asking ‘How am I experiencing this moment of being alive?’ is a win-win situation, for without it all of one’s gains in virtual freedom can be lost as one slips back into self-centredness and self-indulgence.

Virtual freedom is by no means a permanent state, it is only a stepping stone on the path. To stop at any stage on the path is to risk losing all that one has gained from one’s hard work, but to push on requires a passionate dedication and obsession that can only be fuelled by altruism – the innate unselfishness that is programmed into all human beings as part of the survival instincts. When one takes the blind senselessness out of altruism then one’s ‘self’-sacrifice is made for peace on earth, not God or country.

Actualism is about peace on earth – bringing an end to war, murder, rape, torture, domestic violence, corruption and child abuse.

RESPONDENT: I was a little surprised by this statement of yours. It seems to imply that after having effectively done away with social identity one can easily go back to having one. This seems somewhat of a contradiction with the idea that the world would be better if we all did no better than virtual freedom. It does seem to me that the sensibility gained along the way is somewhat permanent and one would not simply go back to their old ways particularly if one was in a state of virtual freedom. What was your experience of the time you spent holidaying in virtual freedom? Did you find any tendencies to revert back to your old ways?

PETER: It is my experience that in virtual freedom one’s social identity and instinctual passionate identity is so reduced as to enable increased periods of ‘self’-less awareness or apperception to begin to operate.

I am on record as saying that I regard the social identity as the easiest of the two aspects of identity to minimize and this is, I think, due to several reasons. My experience on the spiritual path did involve questioning some of my real-world values and ethics and some degree of ‘self’-awareness, even though my efforts were misguided and misdirected. I also had experienced the relative ease with which one can change one’s social identity from normal to spiritual, so the challenge of change, per se, was not foreign to me, even if that change meant eradication.

The instinctual identity or ‘being’ is another kettle of fish however, for the core ‘me’ is sourced in and sustained by actual hormonal substances in the body and it is universally held as not only sacred but biologically inviolable. As a consequence, the strength of human instinctual passion is the very stuff of legends – most of it an appalling legacy of unspeakable human cruelty and unimaginable human suffering while the remainder is an endless kaleidoscope of escapist fantasies and bizarre dreamings or yearnings.

This innate strength of one’s ‘being’ is not to be underestimated and an actualist needs to both understand and experience this strength if one is to ever become free of its clutches. The toughest of the passions to escape from are those that humanity holds most dear – the tender passions, and it is these bleeding heartstrings that can either suck you back into the real-world or catapult you into spiritual aggrandizement. To put it plainly, the desire to love or be loved is powerful stuff and when love fails to bring sufficient fulfilment in the real-world there is always the seductive lure of narcissism – Self-Love.

Not that this is a problem in any way – if you revert to normal, there will always be some gain from being a little more sensible and a little less passion-driven and if you do end up Enlightened and it doesn’t sit well with you, you just work your way out of it as Richard did. Actualism is by no means a serious business, it is above all an adventure of exploration and discovery and in an ultimate sense nothing can go wrong.

What I wrote to Gary was meant to be both a generalised warning and an encouragement, for to be virtually free of malice and sorrow is an unprecedented and salubrious condition in the annuals of human history, bar one – an actual freedom from the human condition in toto. To be forewarned is to be prepared and nothing can go astray, provided your intent is pure and your ‘self’-investigations are thorough and sincere. You may well be beginning to reap the benefits of actualism in becoming more happy and less malevolent and, if so, you will have a good inkling that there would indeed be an end to the endemic wars and senseless conflicts between human beings if actualism became the norm for the human condition.

On a personal note, my ‘holidaying in virtual freedom’ is an ongoing holiday, so much so that I now know that I will never go back to grim reality, led alone be seduced into delusions of grandeur. It was not a cute throwaway line when I subtitled my journal ‘nothing left to lose’. I was at a crossroad in my life at the time, I had well-travelled the other roads and had learnt enough about what didn’t work and had suffered enough and dreamed enough to take heed of a really way-out proposition – ‘Do you want to be happy and harmless, in the world as-it-is, with people as-they-are?’

For me it was a serendipitous discovery, a priceless proposition, a golden opportunity – a seductive invitation to turn a life-long thirst into an actuality. As such, once started on the path, I never had any thoughts or feelings to revert back to my old ways at any time – I always burnt my boats behind me or, to put it another way, painted myself into a corner. I was always aware that my writing in particular was a way of doing both – that I would be not only agreeing to ‘my’ own demise but, by documenting it, I would leave my ‘self’ with no place to hide and no way to turn back.

Just as a bit of an aside, but it something that has just come to mind. I always put harmless before happy in my priorities because I realized quite early on that it is impossible to be happy unless one is harmless. The realization that twigged me to this was when I finally stopped wanting Vineeto to change and I finally stopped doing battle with her – trying to get ‘my’ own way. In hindsight, putting being harmless before being happy was the beginning of altruism – the only passion capable of countering the innate narcissistic craving.

The other issue about putting becoming harmless first is that fear and aggression are simply opposite sides of the same coin. The survival instincts are essentially attack and defence mechanisms – stand and fight or cut and run – or at their most basic in the animal world – ‘what can I eat ... what can eat me’. It is my experience that the way to eliminate fear is not to try to become fearless but to concentrate on becoming harmless. By progressively eliminating aggression towards others you take the very wind out of fear thereby simultaneously progressively eliminating fear of others as well.

It takes extraordinary naiveté to do this and it is only possible if you have experienced the actually occurring benevolence that is the very nature of this astounding universe we humans live in. This direct experience of ‘self’-less purity and perfection is ultimately the beacon that will guide you. The words on The Actual Freedom Trust website, the journals and the screen saver are but a proposition – the proof of the pudding is one’s own PCE and this ‘self’-less experience then becomes one’s own touchstone. Provided ‘you’ don’t personally covert the experience as ‘my’ precious experience or crave it as an escape route for ‘me’ to get out of being here in the world as-it-is, you will merrily go about your business of instigating, then co-operating and finally agreeing to ‘my’ demise.

I’ve wandered a bit again, but does that make things clearer? My aim in writing is always to encourage others to at least set a minimum goal of becoming virtually free from malice and sorrow but never to make light of the difficulties of such a pioneering ground-breaking endeavour. The magic on the path to freedom is that the rewards come initially from ‘my’ efforts, are then continued to be reaped with ‘my’ ongoing willing co-operation, and can only be made permanent by ‘my’ immolation.

As such there are no real dangers in actualism – you can start or not start, you can take on a bit or you can take on the lot. This ensures you never get more than you can handle and also that you can stop whenever you really want to. It’s just that stopping can lead to a sense of failure which in turn can lead to feelings of resentment, blame, anger or sorrow and these undercurrent of feelings mean you will end up losing some of your hard-won gains – which is what I was alluding to in my comment to Gary.

A good note to end on I think, before I go off on another loop.

PETER: Yep. If you have a belief then for ‘you’ it is a truth and you are then obligated to hold on to your truths no matter what the facts of the matter are. The only reason that one would want to give up one’s beliefs was if one had something better to do with one’s life – and what better thing than eliminating malice and sorrow from one’s life.

RESPONDENT: This explains why it is so difficult to find these beliefs!

PETER: I wouldn’t recommend anyone to try to simply abandon all of their beliefs willy-nilly because there is a high risk that one would simply end up repressing or denying one’s beliefs and run the risk of feeling depressed – the hope inherent in most beliefs are often antidotes to despair. The only reason for daring to enquire into the efficacy and sensibility of one’s own beliefs is if one had a clear over-arching motive for doing so – the ‘new job’ of eliminating both despair and antagonism from one’s life.

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