PELAGASH: I think I am applying the actualism method correctly for the first time. What I mean is that I am enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive willingly for the first time. Today, however, it suddenly hit me that I am lucky enough to have come across the method to end human suffering (thanks to accidentally finding the Actual Freedom Trust one day around 7 years ago) and still I am choosing not to apply it. Meaning, I know that enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive is the method that will end me, the human condition, with all my violence, fear, sorrow, and all the other harmful aspects that constitute myself, but I have still chosen to do anything but that.

VINEETO: Hi Pelagash,

It’s a pleasure to read your post, describing exactly what you missed out on with the actualism method and why, and how you discovered to apply it correctly. You are absolute correct – the actualism method is so simple and exactly this simplicity is what takes time to discover by discarding all one’s previously learned techniques which are in the way. As you say –

PELAGASH: In short, I have made the application of the actualism method so much more difficult than it needs to be. Enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive is the actualism method. I know I am stating the obvious, but it feels like I can see this clearly for the first time, almost like I have been reading the same thing over and over, but it finally sank in.

Another thing I want to add is that I realised that all this time, I’ve been applying a technique to explore emotions that I learned many years ago, which has been getting in the way with the actualism method. It is based on the belief that you need to stay with a feeling and “go to the bottom of it” by feeling it out in order to “get rid of it” (hello dissociation, my old friend). This has led to hours of feeling sorrow and other unpleasant emotions out in the hope that just feeling them out would change them.

VINEETO: This is a most valuable observation as that technique “to stay with a feeling” is very, very common and only too often applied in the mistaken belief that it would help, when it only prolongs the misery.

Your “pro tip” is priceless –

PELAGASH: Pro tip for myself: apply the method as it is, do not add or withdraw things from it.

VINEETO: I am reminded of a story I saw in a documentary many years ago – a manufacturer of a cake mixture was puzzled why they received reports that housewives had so many failures to produce the perfect cake when the ingredients in the packet were just right. They did an extensive survey, and lo and behold, learnt that almost all housewives added one or two ingredients to the mixture, such a milk or cream or an egg etc., and naturally the dough was then too heavy to rise as needed. It seems to be a common human trait to always having to add something of my own to any advice/recipe because I simply cannot believe that someone else’s formula can already be perfect.

Long story short, the manufacturer changed their recipe for the cake mixture, with a new instruction to add an egg to the mixture for the perfect cake – it worked, lol.

However, the actualism method still works perfectly only when you “do not add or withdraw things from it”. Sometimes this takes years to figure out.

Cheers Vineeto