August 26, 2025

JESUSCARLOS: Thanks for your kind and detailed reply Vineeto.

VINEETO: Have you ever thought that it might be the other way round, that your fear is created by ‘me’ wanting to force ‘me’ to do something ‘I’ am not ready to voluntarily do?

JESUSCARLOS: This makes a lot of sense. And now I can see that in the last 2-3 weeks I’ve pushing myself to feel good when not. Or I have been reproaching myself for not being able to feel good in the midst of the sea of ​​difficulties I am facing now. So it makes sense to me to think that I caused that fear myself by trying despite everything to feel good, excellent, perfect and to become extinct. (…)

VINEETO: Hi JesusCarlos,

You are welcome.

When you notice not feeling good, instead of “pushing myself to feel good”, stand still and let the feelings ebb away, perhaps go back before the trigger event until you get back to feeling good again. Then you can look at the cause which triggered the diminishment of feeling good. Here is what Chrono reported –

Chrono: Something I re-read a few days ago that helped immensely as well was tracing back to feeling good before the trigger which caused a diminishment in feeling good. That itself automatically restores feeling good and when look at the trigger after that, it amounts to almost nothing and easily seen as habitual. [Emphasis added].

*

VINEETO: I don’t know the film but this is not synchronicity but real-world sentimental fantasy for bitter-sweet feel-good effect.

JESUSCARLOS: I didn’t realize it until I read it, and now I can see it clearly. It makes sense to me, especially because at that moment I felt very different than I did after the PCE a year ago. This time there was no lightness, but rather a kind of feeling of shock after the trauma, and with that feeling I fell into the trap of seeking shelter in good feelings…

Thanks to this feedback, I see that I need to further refine my differentiation between good feelings and happy, harmless feelings.

VINEETO: I am pleased you can see that. Of course, one notices the bad feelings first, and now you can refine your attentiveness to distinguish “between good feelings and happy, harmless feelings”, which in normal-day parlance are lumped together in one category.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, JesusCarlos, 26 August 2025).

February 12 2026

ANDREW:  

‘Vineeto’: If one wants to be actually free of the Human Condition, one has to examine and recognize that ‘good’ simply means ‘morally acceptable’ and ‘right’ is just another ethical value, both of which vary from tribe to tribe and from society to society. (Actualism, Vineeto, Actual Freedom List, James, 11.1.2000)

This reaffirms the startling and terrible premise; if for the most extreme, and historically accurate example, a child is sexually exploited and then slaughtered on an altar, both the child and the sexual exploiter and slaughterer would have experienced good feelings.

Or is that a misunderstanding?

VINEETO: Hi Andrew,

Why do you find it bizarre that ‘good’ feelings arise from feeling virtuous (obeying the general moral (and ethical) code of the tribe?

Have you really understood what the aim of the actualism method is – being happy and harmless (experiencing the felicitous and innocuous feelings)? You cannot be genuinely happy unless you are harmless. ‘Good’ feelings, such as love, compassion or being virtuous is not equivalent to feeling good the way it is used on the AFT site.

Richard: (‘feeling good’ is an unambiguous term – it is a general sense of well-being – and if anyone wants to argue about what feeling good means ... then do not even bother trying to do this at all). (Richard, Articles, This Moment of Being Alive).

*

Richard: Here it is, again, at its most basic: it is nice to feel good (whereas feeling bad is not nice).

Many years ago, now, I was sitting out to the side of my cave-site on a steep hillside, in the rain-forested hinterland to the north-west of where my dwelling is currently located, conversing with someone known to me from my art-college days – we had met-up on the Indian sub-continent a year or so before and had travelled together up into the foothills of the Himalayas (staying for a few months on a ridge about ten kilometres above Almora, Uttarakhand, known as Kasar Devi after a 2nd Century temple situated there) where many a deep and meaningful discussion had taken place (about life, the cosmos, and what it was to be spiritually enlightened/ mystically awakened, as he had been a spiritual-seeker of many years standing) with some profound experiences happening for him, thereof, including a three-day peak experience which settled into an unmistakable ASC thereafter – when all-of-a-sudden he stopped mid-sentence and, looking at me with head tilted quizzically, asked: ‘Why would you want to feel good all the time’?

Quite frankly, I sat there in near-astonishment, for a moment, before answering with what probably sounded to him somewhat tautologous: ‘Because it feels good to feel good’, and then adding, upon seeing him looking askance as if at listening to a simpleton, ‘whereas feeling bad doesn’t feel good, it feels bad; feeling good doesn’t feel bad, it feels good’. And, furthermore, for good measure: ‘It really is as simple as that ... and, as feeling good is a nice feeling to be feeling, all of the time, why would you want to feel bad instead’?

To this very day, thirty years hence, it is still somewhat astounding that there be so many who do not grasp this simple fact which the naïve boy from the farm had embraced whole-heartedly. (Richard, List D, No. 4b, 4 July 2015).

ANDREW: To go further, to prove this isn’t written with an adversarial intent; I have never examined “good feelings”.

Thanks for the quote. Hopefully all can see my smiling and perplexed face in writing this.

VINEETO: To save you further speculations here is what Richard has to say –

Richard: The words ‘good feelings’ – which refer to the affectionate and desirable emotions and passions (those that are loving and trusting) – and the words ‘bad feelings’ – which refer to the hostile and invidious emotions and passions (those that are hateful and fearful) – are but a way of describing the effect of those feelings both on oneself and others.

Sometimes they are called the positive and negative feelings. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 44e, 1 October 2003a).

And to make the difference clear between feeling good and ‘good’ feelings –

Jonathan: [Richard]: What actualism – the wide and wondrous path to actual freedom – is on about is a ‘virtual freedom’ (which is not to be confused with cyber-space’s ‘virtual reality’) wherein the ‘good’ feelings – the affectionate and desirable emotions and passions (those that are loving and trusting) are minimised along with the ‘bad’ feelings – the hostile and invidious emotions and passions (those that are hateful and fearful) – so that one is free to feel good, feel happy and feel perfect for 99% of the time. I make this very clear in my writing: [snip]. What I am reading here is, ‘good feelings along with bad feelings are minimized so that one is free to feel good feelings and thereby make a PCE more likely. Could you clarify?

Richard: Sure ... the [quote] ‘good’ [endquote] feelings mentioned are the affectionate and desirable emotions and passions (those that are loving and trusting) and the [quote] ‘bad’ [endquote] feelings mentioned are the hostile and invidious emotions and passions (those that are hateful and fearful) whereas feeling good/ feeling happy/ feeling perfect are the felicitous and innocuous feelings (those that are delightful and harmonious).

Thus what you are reading – ‘good feelings along with bad feelings are minimised so that one is free to feel good feelings and thereby make a PCE more likely’ – would look something like this when spelled-out in full:

• [example only]: ‘the affectionate and desirable emotions and passions (those that are loving and trusting), along with the hostile and invidious emotions and passions (those that are hateful and fearful), are minimised so that one is free to feel the felicitous and innocuous feelings (those that are delightful and harmonious) and thereby make a pure consciousness experience (PCE) more likely’. [end example].

Furthermore, as I say in that text of mine you quoted, I make this very clear in my writing:

• [Richard]: ‘... by asking ‘how am I experiencing this moment of being alive’ the reward is immediate; by finding out what triggered off the loss of the felicitous/ innocuous feelings, one commences another period of enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive. It is all about being here at this moment in time and this place in space ... and if you are not feeling happy and harmless you have no chance whatsoever of being here in this actual world (a glum and/or grumpy person locks themselves out of the perfect purity of this moment and place). And by having already established feeling good (a general sense of well-being) as the bottom line for moment-to-moment experiencing then if, or when, feeling happy and harmless fades there is that comfortable baseline from which to suss out where, when, how, why – and what for – the feeling of being happy and harmless ceased happening ... and all the while feeling good whilst going about it. (...) These are all feelings, this is not perfection personified yet ... but then again, feeling perfect for twenty three hours and fifty nine minutes a day (a virtual freedom) is way beyond normal human expectations anyway. Also, it is a very tricky way of both getting men fully into their feelings for the first time in their life and getting women to examine their feelings one by one instead of being run by a basketful of them all at once. One starts to feel ‘alive’. Being ‘alive’ is to be paying attention – exclusive attention – to this moment in time and this place in space (...)’. (Richard, Articles, This Moment of Being Alive).

(Richard, Actual Freedom List, Jonathan, 4 January 2006).

The admission that “The thought being, I find anger so refreshing! Sadness too. I have not had motivation to be free of being “mad” and “sad” as they are a holiday for me” may well be an explanation why you have a certain resistance to examine “good feelings”.

I have given you these extensive quotes so that you can base your exploration on factual information and experiential reports, and thus your investigation into your psyche can be more sincere (in accord with the facts).

*

ANDREW:  

‘Vineeto’: As humans we don’t want to lose the other’s affection and reassurance, the appreciation of our peers, the cozy safety of being part of a family or group, the comforting knowledge of doing what everyone considers the ‘right’ thing or the ‘good’ deed.

Freedom lies in the opposite direction. (Actualism, Vineeto, Actual Freedom List, James, 11.1.2000)

So, there is something missing in this thought between the “cozy safety” and the thought that one would want to be “free” from it.

Where is the trigger that anyone would want to be free?

VINEETO: This is such a silly question. Have you been having continuous ‘good’ feelings doing “the right or good deed”? If not, why not? I am genuinely wondering about your intent of writing this?

Weren’t you once relieved to understand your guilt, the feeling of not “good”?

Andrew: It’s always been a huge source of guilt, that I would desire there to be something “wrong” with me. Whilst these entire time, there was indeed always something that was “off” but it was not directly those things at all. (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Andrew 2, 21 October 2025)

Andrew: Thank you Vineeto!

I appreciate your time on this topic, as it has been so central to me, even when I didn’t know it was!

This quote above, supports something that has been in my thinking lately, at least it’s a similar insight. That ‘being’ uses ‘morality’ and indeed any ‘value’ system at all, as a tool. the ‘self’ is surviving through the very tools which are “supposedly” keeping it in check! (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Andrew 2, 22 October 2025)

I can somehow understand you are not interested enough to read other people’s posts here on the forum, who lately talked a lot about the role ‘good’ feelings play in the scheme of their investigations of being able to enjoy and appreciate being alive, but to forget your own significant insights is quite an achievement.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Andrew3, 12 February 2026).

February 24 2026

SYD: Hi Vineeto – With Ms. Morel (formerly ‘WomanFromNov’), right after falling in love, I was more than putting my personal happiness first, in fact that’s all (my own emotions) I could think of. She felt that caring and sharing from my part was lacking, and I didn’t consider her perspective much (which is no wonder as I was panicking all the time). So yes, that’s a stellar example putting personal happiness over harmlessness. (…)

VINEETO: Hi Syd,

I will stop you right here. When you say you have been “putting personal happiness over harmlessness” you are under the erroneous impression that you have done half of what the actualism of becoming happy and harmless represents by simply following your drives and urges.

I wonder if you read, and digested, what Claudiu wrote to you –

Claudiu: I want to add to what Vineeto wrote, which is that you’re even though you say that happiness and harmlessness are two different elements of the same thing, you’re nevertheless establishing a sequence of happiness first, then harmlessness second.

In practice, as they are both different ways to describe the same “motion”, there is no intrinsic sequence like you say here..

In other words, if being happy does not contain being harmless, or if being harmless does not contain feeling happy, it ain’t actualism. It is what everybody is already doing, and it hasn’t worked.

I can only recommend to read my post and Claudiu’s post again, and again, until you comprehend the fundamental change that is required in your thinking and assessment in order to understand what we are talking about.

Until then there is no benefit for me to comment further on your writing. I cannot do the thinking for you.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Syd2, 24 February 2026).

February 28 2026

ANDREW: (…) People who explored and found this obscure “cult” where feeling good is the ultimate entry point!

VINEETO: Hi Andrew,

As you enjoy writing on this forum and, besides “cringing”, consider it an achievement that you are doing it, perhaps it is beneficial to look closer at the above statement.

Recently I had long discussions with Syd because I discovered that for him ‘feeling good’ initially included all the feelings which hedonically feel good, i.e. the ‘good feelings’. He even tried to make out that actually free people said so – and before others are infected with the same misunderstanding I want to make sure that this short-cut representation of “this obscure ”cult“ where feeling good is the ultimate entry point” is not misunderstood in the same way.

I also had a detailed discussion with you about the nature of ‘good’ feelings and how they, being ‘self’-enhancing, have nothing to do with the term feeling good as explicated in This Moment of Being Alive. I am putting in this note of caution because after you expressed interest in information for putting “everything on an ‘it-doesn’t-really-matter’ basis”, and you now titled your new thread “Unlocking the power of being empowered to be you”, which somehow seems to contradict your previous intent. Viz.:

Richard: A general rule of thumb is: if it is a preference it is a self-less inclination; if it is an urge it is a self-centred desire. [Emphases added]. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, 25d, 14 Jan 2004)

As this title sounds more self-aggrandising or at least ‘self’-enhancing, in contrast to putting everything on an ‘it-doesn’t-really-matter’ basis, I am rather baffled as to your intentions and your understanding of the term ‘feeling good’.

Perhaps all is well and you are throwing off old cobwebs of the past because you also say, in the middle of it all –

Andrew: “I had a wonderful walk today. It was vibrant. I was perky and energetic. Great times!”

Just checking.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Andrew2, 28 February 2026).

March 24 2026

VINEETO: The change happens on a deep feeling level, verbalisations follow the feeling change.

ANDREW: I have yet to experience this, on any topic. For me, I take it on advice that this is possible, as it would be no use trying if it was not possible, but I will continue to do what occurs to me as useful.

Exactly how can a change happen “on a deep feeling level”?

VINEETO: Hi Andrew,

Taking fully on board that ‘I’ am my feelings and my feelings are ‘me’ you enables a decision that you no longer want to be the feeling of being ashamed for ‘taking up space’, for instance, because you sensibly and intelligently see that it is silly to do so. Fact is you are here and obviously take up space by being here, and hence it is silly (if not outright absurd) to apologize/feel ashamed for being here on this amazing planet.

You also understand that nobody forces you to be this feeling but yourself. So it is in your hands, and your hands alone, to be a felicitous and appreciative feeling instead of a shameful and sorrowful feeling.

What complicates or compounds this apologetic feeling of being here is that ‘I’, the alien identity, having usurped control over the flesh-and-blood body from birth onwards knows deep down that it is a contingent ‘being’, exerting dominance via the instinctual passions whilst wholly dependent on your compliance. The more you diminish this dominance via minimising the ‘good’ and bad feelings and maximise the felicitous and innocuous feelings, the more your native intelligence can operate – as you put it so well the other day –

Andrew: Minimising the malice and sorrow, while maximising the felicity and innocuous, IS minimising the entire ‘self’ automatically.

ANDREW: It’s very much a starting where I am scenario. I respond to people who speak nicely. I enjoy them, so I am setting out to imitate this type of self talk. My understanding is that habits are shaped through repetition, rather than any moment of instant change.

I am indeed aiming at change at a “deep feeling level” but I see no option than to continue to change habits and verbal self talk. If there is an “instant” way, then I am all “eyes”. 

VINEETO: Of course, it makes sense to be attentive to any left-over habitual behaviour and adjust it as soon as you become aware of it but the recognition that it is unnecessary and silly to continue being ashamed makes the adjustment a breeze.

ANDREW: Looking around at the river, feeling my skin occasionally itch, seeing a mosquito or a fly. Considering the vast variety of life all around me, on me, and in me, gave me something to both appreciate, and also dispel some of the “special” I feel I should be.

VINEETO: This is a potent discovery which you mentioned here en passant – as part of the whole emotional topic of feeling shame and blame there is hidden a ‘good’ feeling, which needs to be recognized and acknowledged in order to dismantle the whole pattern – in this case, feeling to be “special”. You cannot abandon the bad side of this particular feeling-complex without also abandoning the ‘good’ feeling which enables you to keep it in place.

Richard: By the time I had worked my way through this philosophical dilemma [of pacifism] I had to turn my sights upon the last thing that stood between me and an actual freedom. I would have to let go of the deeply ingrained concept of ‘The Good’. For this to happen I would have to eliminate ‘The Bad’ in me, or else I would be likely to go off the rails and run amok. Little did I realise that it was ‘The Good’ that kept ‘The Bad’ in place. I was soon to find this out.

(…)

One has to be scrupulously honest with oneself to go all the way and no longer be a someone, a somebody of importance. One faces extinction; ‘I’ will cease to be, there will be no ‘being’ whatsoever, no ‘presence’ at all. It is impossible to imagine, not only the complete and utter cessation of ‘me’ in ‘my’ entirety, but the end of any ‘Ultimate Being’ or ‘Absolute Presence’ in any way, shape or form. It means that no one or no thing is in charge of the universe ... that there is no ‘Ultimate Authority’. It means that all values are but human values, with no absolute values at all to fall back upon. It is impossible for ‘me’ to conceive that without a wayward ‘me’ there is no need for any values whatsoever ... or an ‘Ultimate Authority’. [Emphases added]. (Richard, List B, No. 31, 7 Mar 2000).

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Andrew3, 24 March 2026).

April 7 2026

ANDREW: Thanks Vineeto

I have been contemplating something along these lines in my thoughts about alcohol and see that the seriousness talked about in Richard’s conversation with “Respondent” is just about as good a description of my MO as ever.!

VINEETO: Hi Andrew,

Here is what Richard is saying in the above quote and how you described your own MO regarding alcohol –

Richard: Which means that nothing really matters in the long-term and, as nothing actually is of enduring importance (in this ultimate sense), it means that life can in no way be a serious business. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 66, 26 May 2005a)

Andrew: Alcohol; Softer me. Free association thoughts. Less social anxiety. Less internal critic. Something other than “Me” in control. Physical effects feel comforting. (…) There may be a natural hedonism available in leaning into that.

What alcohol does, according to your description, it softens the impact of the social identity – the critic, the one who believes he has to fail, the one who is anxious … and while those instinctual passions are normally curbed by the social identity they get more of a free reign under the influence of alcohol. This is not “something other than ”Me“ in control” – what you experience are the less socially-controlled instinctual passions, which are nevertheless “Me” in control.

Your description of using alcohol to lessen the impact of your social control is the very reason why Richard gave this warning, repeatedly –

Richard: Warning: It is an utterly fundamental proviso that pure intent [derived from the purity of the PCE] be dedicatorily in place – as an overriding/ overarching life-devotional goal which takes absolute precedence over all else – before any such whittling away of the otherwise essential societal/ cultural conditioning be undertaken. (Library, Topics, Social Identity, #Warning)

And:

Richard: “(...) the social identity cannot safely be whittled away unless there be the pure intent to be happy and harmless, each moment again, born of the PCE, because this socialised conscience, the moral/ethical and principled entity with its inculcated societal knowledge of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ (cultural values), has been implanted for a very good reason.

It is there to control the wayward self which lurks within the human breast ... which is why dedication to peace-on-earth is paramount.” [Emphases added]. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 25b, 24 June 2003).

What you call “natural hedonism” is one of the ‘good’, hedonically pleasant, feelings, which you confuse with being happy and harmless – it is not. Your shortcut of using a mind-altering drug (alcohol) to temporarily escape the socially conditioned critic is understandable but regarding actualism is leading you into a blind alley. For clarification and further information, I recommend Richard, Abditorium, Hedonic Tone.

We corresponded about the difference of feeling good and ‘good’ feelings before (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Andrew3, 12 February 2026) –

Richard: The words ‘good feelings’ – which refer to the affectionate and desirable emotions and passions (those that are loving and trusting) – and the words ‘bad feelings’ – which refer to the hostile and invidious emotions and passions (those that are hateful and fearful) – are but a way of describing the effect of those feelings both on oneself and others.

Sometimes they are called the positive and negative feelings. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 44e, 1 October 2003a).

And to make the difference clear between feeling good and ‘good’ feelings –

Jonathan: [Richard]: What actualism – the wide and wondrous path to actual freedom – is on about is a ‘virtual freedom’ (which is not to be confused with cyber-space’s ‘virtual reality’) wherein the ‘good’ feelings – the affectionate and desirable emotions and passions (those that are loving and trusting) are minimised along with the ‘bad’ feelings – the hostile and invidious emotions and passions (those that are hateful and fearful) – so that one is free to feel good, feel happy and feel perfect for 99% of the time. I make this very clear in my writing: [snip]. What I am reading here is, ‘good feelings along with bad feelings are minimized so that one is free to feel good feelings and thereby make a PCE more likely. Could you clarify?

Richard: Sure ... the [quote] ‘good’ [endquote] feelings mentioned are the affectionate and desirable emotions and passions (those that are loving and trusting) and the [quote] ‘bad’ [endquote] feelings mentioned are the hostile and invidious emotions and passions (those that are hateful and fearful) whereas feeling good/ feeling happy/ feeling perfect are the felicitous and innocuous feelings (those that are delightful and harmonious).

Thus what you are reading – ‘good feelings along with bad feelings are minimised so that one is free to feel good feelings and thereby make a PCE more likely’ – would look something like this when spelled-out in full:

• [example only]: ‘the affectionate and desirable emotions and passions (those that are loving and trusting), along with the hostile and invidious emotions and passions (those that are hateful and fearful), are minimised so that one is free to feel the felicitous and innocuous feelings (those that are delightful and harmonious) and thereby make a pure consciousness experience (PCE) more likely’. [end example].

(Richard, Actual Freedom List, Jonathan, 4 January 2006).

ANDREW: That is that my body is “all for” living. It doesn’t need me at all. Like any animal without a ‘me’. Like a jellyfish for example that are washed up on the river’s edge. Those cells are not serious about anything at all! They are spawned, do what jellyfish cells do, and at some point end.

My focus has been to understand how to work with what I have right now. In all aspects. Rather than allowing the “seriousness”. That’s good to be reminded of, as it was what I was seeing in myself. Good to have a name for it.

VINEETO: The instinctual passions are also called animal instinctual passions – because all animals are endowed with instinctual programming/ passions to ensure their survival and species proliferation – even jellyfish operate by the principle of attraction/ repulsion, the most primitive instinctual behaviour. Jellyfish are not free from the instinctive/ instinctual programming or behaviour, they are not felicitous either, let alone harmless. They operate under the same principle as all instinctive/ instinctual programmed creatures – what can I eat, what can eat me?

If you choose to find relief in regressing to thoughtless, purely instinctive/ instinctual animal status that is your prerogative but please don’t claim you were thus inspired by actualist writings.

I can only recommend finding your initial sincere intent to feel good via the actualism method as you summarized it only recently –

Andrew: “Minimising the malice and sorrow, while maximising the felicity and innocuous, IS minimising the entire ‘self’ automatically” (19 March 2026)

… whereby minimising malice and sorrow means minimising both ‘good’ and bad feelings via attentiveness to how you feel and then, by recognizing that you are your feelings, choosing to feel good. It might require some firm common-sense to root out long-term acquired bad habits or longstanding training in feeling bad.

ANDREW: Thanks for the links.

VINEETO: Perhaps on sober re-reading you gain some better understanding and benefit.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Andrew3, 7 April 2026).

Richard: Also, as you have titled this e-mail ‘actualism = hedonism’, the following will be informative:

• [Richard]: ‘... what I write is a report, a description, and an explanation, of what life is like in this actual world – the sensate world of this body and that body and every body; the world of the mountains and the streams; the world of the trees and the flowers; the world of the clouds in the sky by day and the stars in the firmament by night and so on and so on ad infinitum – which is the world which becomes apparent when identity in toto (both ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul) become extinct.

In other words, the affective faculty in its entirety (which includes its epiphenomenal psychic facility) has no existence whatsoever ... meaning that it is impossible to ever be hedonic (aka ‘a pleasure-seeker’) as the affective pleasure/ pain centre in the brain is null and void.

The following passage is how I have described the anhedonic actualism experience: [quote]: ‘To feel pleasure affectively (hedonistically) is a far cry from the direct experiencing of the actual where the retinas revel in the profusion of colour, texture and form; the eardrums carouse with the cavalcade of sound, resonance and timbre; the nostrils rejoice in the abundance of aromas, fragrances and scents; the tastebuds savour the plethora of tastes, flavours and zests; the epidermis delights to touch, caress and fondle ... a veritable cornucopia of luscious, sumptuous sensuosity. All the while is the apperceptive wonder that this marvellous paradise actually exists in all its vast array’. [endquote].

Coupled with the inability to affectively feel pleasure is, of course, the inability to affectively feel pain (as in the pleasure/ pain principle which spiritualism makes quite an issue out of yet never does eliminate) even though most, if not all, definitions of anhedonia only say ‘the inability to feel pleasure’ ... actualism, being *most definitely not hedonism*, can never be sadistic, masochistic, or sadomasochistic’. [emphasis in original]. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 74, 2 September 2004).

(Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 49c, 21 January 2006).

*

Richard: Yes, the sex drive is an instinct ... and this instinct – and other instincts – can be eliminated entirely. Then one is free to act appropriately according to the circumstances – and not out of an instinctual reaction. Instincts are not set in stone, they are simply ‘blind nature’s’ way of ensuing survival. With our thinking, reflective brain we can improve on nature in this respect, as we have done in so many other ways. Any instinctual drive can be eradicated.

Then one is free to enjoy the sexual act as a physical, sensual pleasure (not as an emotional or passionate ‘solution’ to loneliness and sorrow via love) or free to enjoy celibacy as an idiosyncratic celebration of singularity (not as a dispassionate or detached way to dissolve the ego via craftiness). It is then an act of free choice to have sex, or not have sex, just as easily in either alternative. No drive means no urge. With no urge there is nothing to have to deny, nor anything to have to indulge. Thus it is neither ‘Asceticism’ nor ‘Hedonism’ ... this is an actual freedom.

I do not have any emotions to enjoy (or to dislike) as all feelings – emotions and passions – are no longer extant. (Richard, List A, No. 1).

I can only say it again for emphasis – nowhere in any of these quotes, taken from the selected correspondence on Hedonism, can I find Richard endorsing the “straight colloquial usage of pleasure”. Perhaps, if you looked up his correspondence, you overlooked the word “anhedonic” and “actualism, being *most definitely not hedonism*”.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Andrew4, 8 April 2026).

‘Peter’: What I came to see was that any resources I used or possessions I owned I had to pay for which meant I had to work for – i.e. sell my time to someone else in return for money. This realization was a slow dawning but I did have the sense to have a vasectomy after having two children, and soon adopted the quality-not-quantity approach to possessions. After meeting Richard I pushed the envelope a bit more, eventually trading my car for a new-age typewriter and reducing my work hours to a minimum in order to devote myself to the business of actualism as much as possible. Nowadays I find myself living a life of indulgent consumption that borders on hedonism yet at a level that would be easily be possible, sustainable and feasible for all human beings on the planet. To be an actualist is to become an ideal and model citizen of the world. [emphasis by Andrew]. (Peter, Selected Correspondence, Hedonism, 28.5.2000).

Was it this ‘attractive option’ of “indulgent consumption that borders on hedonism” what coloured your understanding when you read Peter’s correspondence?

Of course, if one only focuses on feeling being ‘Peter’s’ experiential description one has to ignore that his experience was the result of practicing the actualism method which he described elsewhere, for instance –

‘Peter’: The essential method was to undertake a total investigation into anything that was preventing me from being happy and harmless now – after all, the point of living is to be happy and harmless now, not at some time in the future, or at some time in the past. The question to ask myself was, ‘How do I experience this moment of being alive?’ Now is, after all, the only time I can experience being happy. Any emotion such as anger, frustration or boredom that is preventing my happiness now, has to be traced back to its cause – the exact incident, thought, expectation or disappointment. At the root of this emotion is inevitably found a belief or an instinctual passion. The ruthless challenging, exposing and understanding of these beliefs and instinctual passions actually weakens their influence on my thoughts and behaviour. The process, if followed diligently and obsessively, will ultimately cause the beliefs to disappear completely and the instinctual passions to be greatly minimized. The idea, of course, is to eliminate the cause of my unhappiness, ‘me’, so that I can experience life at the optimum, here, now. (Peter’s Journal, Introduction).

And because you referred to Kuba’s recent message about sexual enjoyment (2 April 2026) “for context” here is another snippet of Peter’s report –

‘Peter’: So, it was obvious that the sex drive was the problem and the problem was in me. As an experiment, I decided to plunge fully into both masturbation and fantasy, to allow myself to push beyond the feelings of guilt and shame that had plagued me since my teenage years. I kept going beyond self-indulgence; and something curious began to happen. It became clear to me that this was just plain silly, stupid, mad and destructive. Here I was with a willing woman, to whom I was sexually attracted, and there was this drive in me that prevented me from being with her as a real woman. When I was with her sexually I would be thinking of other women, and I knew this to be a common male situation. When I saw other women I would be sexually attracted to them and fantasise about them. Facing this squarely in myself and contemplating it led me to a devastating conclusion. This sex drive within me is not concerned with me being happy with one woman; in fact, it is actively conspiring to prevent it! (Peter’s Journal, Sex).

This is to demonstrate that despite ‘Peter’s’ exuberant expression of “living a life of indulgent consumption that borders on hedonism”, it is not a philosophical advice but the lived description of the result of successfully applying the actualism method.

Just for completeness, because you seemed to have stopped looking after you found Peter’s quote – here are two examples of feeling being ‘Vineeto’s’ comment on hedonism –

‘Vineeto’: Those who overlook the second half of the phrase ‘happy and harmless’ often confuse actualism with hedonism and thus completely miss the point. You might be advised to check the topic of hedonism in The Actual Freedom Trust library – you will find that hedonism is diametrically opposite to an actual freedom from the human condition. (Vineeto, Selected Correspondence, Hedonism, 8.10.2003)

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‘Vineeto’: Becoming free from the Human Condition of malice and sorrow means to pursue becoming happy and harmless. Whereas traditional Hedonism like the Charvakas have tried to suffocate or at least balance human sorrow by indulging in pleasures and avoiding pain, actualism aims to eliminate the root cause of malice and sorrow, one’s very ‘self’ – the animal instinctual passions with one’s overlaying social identity of beliefs, morals and ethics. (Vineeto, Selected Correspondence, Hedonism, 22.7.2000)

I only present this, plus the series of Richard’s quotes in my last message, to say there was no need for you to misunderstand actualism being equivalent to hedonism, unless you chose to and then hold actualists responsible for leaving a “large confusion” –

Andrew: Regarding “hedonism” I was using it in the way Peter and Richard used it, as in straight colloquial usage of pleasure. I would say that the contradiction of the definition you linked and the many colloquial uses on the AFT leave a large confusion on exactly what was being encouraged when sex is endorsed as something to be explored. In everyday speech, hedonism refers to chasing pleasure for pleasure’s sake. Simple as that. [Emphasis added].

As a final clarification a quote from Richard in the Actual Freedom Library –

Richard: … and quite another to delightedly enjoy the ripples of pleasure that this body is patently capable of manifesting whilst actualizing benignity and blitheness.

These organic waves of sensational pleasure are usually constrained by the demands of the entity for emotional and passionate feelings … which are the synthetic compensations for the supposed indignity of having to be here at all as this despised body. When the psychological – and psychic – entity willingly abdicates its sovereignty and takes its leave, the senses can act in their optimum manner … just as when a normal person becomes blind, for instance, all the other senses are heightened. The result is a phenomenal increase in the pleasurable sensitivity of being a corporeal body in this very physical world. The resultant benevolence produces easy good-will, kindness and benevolence, for one is living in a friendly world … made all the more amiable because of the innate munificence and magnanimity of the purity of the perfection of the infinitude of the universe as is evidenced only at this moment in time.

This is important to comprehend, for under different conditions thoughtful people are prone to jumping to the conclusion that one would then be an out and out hedonist – an unfortunate appellation for I rather like the term and wished it received far better press – yet as a matter of fact and actuality, one is demonstrating one’s appreciation of all that the universe can offer by being here in a palpable and tangible sense. Instead of standing back and expressing a feeling – an emotion or passion – about this world, one is saying yes to existence in the most evident and obvious way … with tactile approbation and sensibly discernible relish. One is fully committed, for one has realised that life is inherently perfect ... and it is possible to live that perfection all the time. Then – and only then – is one being here. Being here is a direct experiencing of the actuality of this moment that is hanging in time and is vastly superior to ‘me’ as an identity ‘living in the present’. When one is actually being here, one is totally immersed, completely involved in living. One is no longer ‘holding back’, saving oneself for Something after death or Someone who is deathless. One is out from control; no more is one keeping part of oneself in reserve, for this moment is freely living me ... and I am all of me. Being here as an actuality is to be doing what is happening with the full endorsement of one’s entirety. [Emphases added]. (Actual Freedom Library, Hedonism)

It would be more beneficial and crowned with success to not put the cart before the horse – in other words, first removing the obstacles to feeling good as they occur, such as resentment or anger or hurt (hiding), rather than artificially creating pleasure via practicing hedonism via using alcohol and imagination. When those obstacles occur, you can look squarely at the feeling on a ‘deep feeling level’ (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Andrew3, 24 March 2026) as in ‘I’ am my feelings and my feelings are ‘me’, and recognizing this you can see how silly it is to waste this precious moment of being alive by being resentful, angry or hurt, and be feeling felicitous/ innocuous instead.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Andrew4, 9 April 2026).