RESPONDENT: Now about Richard’s method, he calls it ‘tried and tested’. If nobody objects, I would say, at least you, Vineeto and Alan have tried it sincerely. If success is to be defined by achieving Actual Freedom, then you have not succeeded by your own admission. I guess then it is Richard and maybe Vineeto and Alan. I do not know anybody else in the running. So, by my count, it is one definite success (Richard), two may-be-successes (Vineeto and Alan) one not succeeded yet (Peter).

PETER: If nobody objects? You’re free to indulge in whatever fantasies you want. Have you ‘placed’ yourself in the Freedom ranks yet, or are you happy to remain on the sidelines as a resident critic and ‘keeper of the score’? You could consider a move from ‘scorekeeper’ and ‘critic’ to participant, or would that be too radical a move? Is there a saying that goes something like ‘There are those who do and those who merely criticise?’

Given that you have been on the list for a while now I’ll let you in to some inner-circle secrets. Actual Freedom, as you already know is completely non-spiritual and is in fact a front for the I.H.S. (International Hedonists Society). The I.H.S. grew out of the N.H.S. which was established by M. Python, H. Wilson, T. Beatle and L.S.D in England in the 60’s. The Indian mystics M.A.Rijuana and M.E.D.Tation attracted many of the followers away but it is currently enjoying a clandestine revival using the A.F.T. as a front. The original N.H.S. charter extolling the virtues of H.H (Happiness and Harmlessness) was derailed by esoteric and meta-physical influences but is now firmly back on the rails, sailing full steam ahead, has a full tank of petrol, is soon to turn the corner and then you won’t see it for the dust of the mixed metaphors left in its wake. So, your interest could not have come at a better time for both the organization and yourself, as the revival is in full swing. You are definitely right about Richard – he is the genuine article. He has demonstrated an unswerving ability to remain totally happy and harmless despite the severe provocation of Web mailing lists and the abounding cynicism of ex. N.H.S. members. I did, however, manage to draw level with him for several hours at our last competition where, despite the extreme provocation of no less than 6 eager spiritual-ist volunteers, I managed to remain both happy and harmless. I almost had to apply some effort in the last 10 minutes but I managed it right to the end un-assisted. A deep breathe and I leaped up on the top step of the dais, arm in arm with Richard, claiming my share of the trophy. It’s definitely a tough business, this being happy and harmless – the training is gruelling, the opposition relentless and uncompromising, the social ostracising palpable – but the delicious slide into an anonymous, selfless happiness and harmlessness is delectably delightful.

GARY: It is becoming of greater and greater importance to me to have people like yourself and the others here on the list to talk to and compare notes with. I have also noticed the ‘herding instinct’ operating, in the sense that I am aware of the desire to have friends and people to talk to.

PETER: The value of being able to talk to others who are also doing what you are doing is invaluable. Goodness knows how Richard did this by himself and no wonder he went through a period of ‘adjustment’ after he became actually free of the Human Condition. In comparison, those who follow have it cushy. It is such a sensible thing to do – to follow in the footsteps of those who know the path and the pitfalls and who are willing to describe them to others. You also get to know where you can take shortcuts with confidence, because someone else has tried that way and it produced no results, or it was simply a dead end diversion like the usefulness of trolling in the dustbin of past hurts.

As for exclusive club ... it is totally inclusive for anyone wishing to join. The primary qualifications are a sense of adventure, and a sense of humour so you don’t take your self, or anybody else’s, too seriously ...

RESPONDENT: ^Note1: I have the last couple of days indeed experienced the ‘Amygdala-effect’; in fact, yesterday night it came to some sort of climax I felt some sort of a cracking at the back of my head next I found myself a bit giggling and I heard myself say ‘this must be the Amygdala’. Now it feels somehow as if the Amygdala is ‘pricked’ up on my spine a bit ET-like, as if indeed I can feel that part in my head. There’s also a bit of muscular activity in my neck, which very much seems to be related to breathing^.

PETER: I remember when I first read that Richard reported that the precursory event to becoming free of the human condition was accompanied by a physical sensation at the top of the brain-stem. As I recall, he likened it to the turning over of record on one of those old 50’s record players. This happened when Richard became Enlightened and it subsequently took eleven more years until the process of ‘self’-immolation was complete.

I was curious at the time that the event of becoming free of the human condition appeared to have a physical component as well as the obvious psychological and psychic components – the extinction of the psychological and psychic entity in total. I say ‘appeared to have’ because we only have Richards’s report of the event and no other tangible evidence to support it. Even so, what I made of the report of the physical sensations was that it could have been related to the physical extinguishing of the instinctual animal survival programming – the genetically-encoded programming that gives rise to the instinctual passions of fear, aggression, nurture and desire in the human animal.

Now of course, all this is at best speculation, a working hypothesis until proved as a fact or abandoned as nonsense. But at the time I found the assumption very useful because it set me off on a course that made me open to the possibility that the root cause of my malice and sorrow was utterly non-spiritual and that it was physical in nature – my instinctual survival programming. It made good sense to me that there was a physical cause to human behaviour and this was a breath of fresh air after spending years believing in spiritual esoterica or blaming someone else or something else for my own feelings of malice and sorrow.

My particular interest in the physical origins of the instinctual passions led to Richard writing more on the subject of instinctual passions and to my own attempts to explain their origins in what someone recently described as pseudo-scientific terms. (see The Actual Freedom Trust Library)

The reason I am writing this is to give you some background to what you are now terming the ‘Amygdala affect’ – and I like the term, by the way. There is no doubt that on the path to actual freedom many weird and wonderful psychic and psychological events can and do happen and that sometimes there can even be physical sensations that occur. From my experience, these events may well be par for the course but they are neither the main event nor are they a sure sign of anything in particular. The only sign of success on the path to an actual freedom from malice and sorrow is the incremental reduction of feeling malice and sorrow and the subsequent emergence of more and more of the felicitous feelings in everyday life. For a sincere actualist there can be no other measure of success than this.

Consequently I came to see that marking my success in becoming free by the occurrence of physical sensations was akin to a spiritualist marking their success in becoming God by how much their Kundalini was rising or how much their third eye was opening. I also saw that if Richard had said his ankle twitched when he became free there could well be a generation of followers all limping around saying ‘all is going well, I’m nearly there’. As I write I am reminded of the ‘Placebo effect’ wherein a patient does not know whether any improvements are a physical result of the treatment or purely imaginary.

My point is not to take what is written about other people’s experiences as a gospel because believing can lead to all sorts of imaginations. And not to confuse sincerity with humourlessness – it’s essential to be able to laugh at all the weird and wonderful experiences, be they psychological, psychic or physical, which happen on the path to actual freedom.

The last thing an actualist does is take one’s ‘self’ seriously – that’s what the spiritualists do.

RESPONDENT: ^note2: my tendency to over explain has been previously discussed (I have taken notice of that).

PETER: I seem to have the same tendency as I have had numerous complaints that my posts are too long to even bother reading. And just to make it clear, I personally have no problem with over explanation because actualism is brand new in human history and as such takes a lot of effort to both intellectually and experientially understand. My comments about your posts relate to the desirability and usefulness of keeping the conversation ‘on topic’ and my inability to understand your ‘patafok’ instructions to yourself.

RESPONDENT: So ... as to your [I have no idea what any of this means.] and [I’ll pass on the offer, as I long ago gave up taking a walk in someone else’s imagination.] I leave it with that for now.

PETER: Hi Everybody,

I thought to post the latest article I have penned for the local spiritual magazine. I didn’t write one for their last issue as I found it a bit difficult to water the facts down sufficiently in order that the perpetual pursuers of Truth would consider publishing it. But the editor gave me a ring the other day asking if I would write another article for the next issue. He said that ‘people really like my writing’, so I asked him did he want me to pursue the theme thread of instinctual passions a bit more. There was a silence on the end of the phone and when I questioned further it was obvious that he hadn’t really understood what I had been trying to say at all. Musing about it later I wondered what I could write that would make any sense to any reader of a New Dark Age magazine. When I sat down to write, what came out was obviously influenced by those wonderful social and religious commentators of the 60’s and 70’s – Monty Python – who I had just happened to have been watching on television the evening before.

Any serious or thoughtful consideration of the Human Condition is obviously lost on the folks from La-La Land, so I decided to write a bit of millennium humour. It’s hard to send ‘up’ those who are already so far ‘up and away’ – there is only one thing madder than the ‘real’ world and that’s the ‘spiritual’ world – but I gave it my best shot anyway ...

Proposed Article for the NDA magazine ...

[Peter]: Austradamus’s New Millennium Predictions

Well, now that the Millennium has passed and the end of the world didn’t happen, the usual air of gloom-now and doom-soon should reform and settle over the planet. The reason for this on-going existential human predicament can be gleaned from the fascinating insights of a little known prophet called Austradamus who lives in seclusion in the sub-tropical rainforest, just inland of Byron.

Born some 2,000 to 3,000 years ago from the miraculous union of Buddha’s mum who was travelling through at the time and a Persian fellow named Ugh or Urr – the bark scrolls are a bit white ant-ridden at this point – he lived a typical Guru’s life and upon death went off astral back-packing for hundreds of centuries. He has recently re-incarnated to settle down to a leisurely semi-retirement on earth. His newly penned and Self-published book, called Austrababbles, chronicles not only his miraculous earthly life and his subsequent visit and adventures on the Further Shore, but also offers a tantalizing preview of this next millennium of human existence.

Having come across his book recently, I thought it would be fun to visit him and check out his current earthly manifestation. I tried in vain over several long sittings to tune into his vibrations to contact him for an appointment and finally out of desperation tried the dolphin frequencies. Going deeper and deeper, suddenly there was a distinct sound of Om Shanti Om in a broad Australian-dolphinese accent. Waiting until the incantations finished, I introduced myself and asked if we could meet for an interview. He was most reluctant until I mentioned the possibility of an article reviewing his book in ‘Here and Now’ and all of a sudden the deal was done. He matter-of-factly said that he could do with some book promotion as having amphibians as disciples didn’t pay at all well. He was wearying of living off their offerings of fish, and could I bring some lamb chops and rollie papers from Woollies as he was running low.

On meeting, my first impression was how normal he looked but I quickly remembered that his body may have looked earthly but it was the who that was ‘inside’ this body that was extraordinary. We tootled up his path together, exchanging the usual introductory small talk and settled down on his veranda for a cup of lemon grass chai and some vegan cookies. He said the vegan crop had been particularly good this year but, waving the papers I had brought, welcomed the chance to smoke some rather than bake it. I nodded in agreement and suddenly found that I could not stop nodding, in fact the nodding lasted throughout the afternoon and did not wear out fully until two days later. It was obvious that I was in the presence of no ordinary, mortal human being. I mentioned my nodding to him and he simply nodded back, casually mentioning the difficulty he had at first in getting his new disciples to nod. I nodded sympathetically and knowingly, adding just a touch of humility to cover my swelling pride at being such a good nodder.

He explained to me that the major problem with dolphins was that they couldn’t stomach vegan cookies and smoking was not culturally acceptable in their society. He had to revert to mass meditation sessions which, while resulting in a good deal of nodding, he felt was not as effective as direct vegan infusion. He then launched into a story chronicling the close relationship between hallucinogenics and altered states of consciousness throughout Guru-history. I stretched out on the deck chair, bathing in his energy and immersed in his tales of the phantasmagorical, when all of a sudden a mosquito bit me. I took this as a sign from Existence and immediately struggled to make sense of it.

Ah, yes. It was a reminder of why I was here – to glean from this mystic his prophecies for the future of mankind. I patiently waited for his current story to end, desperately running my question around and around in my head lest I forget it and lapse back into my state of UA. Some mystics propound that one should strive to achieve a state of UL (Universal Let-go) but what makes Austradamus’s teachings truly unique is his emphasis on UA (Universal Agreement). I had gleaned from his writings that his emphasis on UA had, as its cultural roots, the ancient Austra-wisdom of ‘She’ll be right mate!’ which has been since been abbreviated into the current Austra-vernacular of ‘No problems’ or ‘No worries’ It occurred to me that this was a good line of enquiry to pursue with him but I was suddenly awash with another wave of UA and subsequently lost the plot completely.

Then, appearing as though out of the mists of time – had it been a minute, or an hour, or an eternity – I heard his voice chanting in a strange intonation. Opening my eyes I saw him peering into the top of the rainwater tank, miraculously blowing smoke from his mouth, chanting Om Shanti Om, scratching his crotch and swatting a passing mosquito – all at the same time. Despite being in awe of his sublime grace, I rose and edged closer in order to see the object of his attention. There before my very eyes was a bottle-nose dolphin, head peeking out of the water, eyes aglaze with ecstasy, snorting in the smoke. What struck me as unusual was the fact that the dolphin was laying back in the water on a deckchair with its tail up on an old whipper-snipper petrol can, exactly as I had been only moments before.

My head swam at the sight before me and I struggled to come to grips with the evolutionary consequences of what I was witnessing. That this was definitely no ordinary man was already obvious and that this was no ordinary dolphin was startlingly apparent. The air was literally alive with static, as I could feel the love mutually emanating from both man and dolphin. I was truly blessed at being present at an event that I knew instinctually was the mere precursor to the extraordinary developments that were to unfold in this new millennium. In a flash of insight I saw that the evolutionary process of Existence is, in fact, a gigantic, endless relay race and I was privileged to witness the first tentative steps of the ‘handing on of the baton’ from human to dolphin.

In deep reverence at the significance of the spiritually-rich event I was honoured to be a part of, I watched enthralled. Soon the dolphin closed its eyes and went within and after a suitable pause Austradamus reached up and, unclipping a pair of headphones from the veranda post, slipped them on to the mammal’s head. ‘It’s a bit old-fashioned I know, but Pink Floyd did a lot for me in the early days. Besides, if the buggers would only learn to talk it would make my job easier and this may help. There is so much wisdom I need to pass on and, although he’s cute, he’s still a bit slow on the uptake. Still, it’s early years’ he said reflectively.

We left his chief dolphin-disciple to its blissful state and settled back on the veranda again, my head swimming with questions. As though he was reading my mind, Austradamus launched into explanations.

It seemed that his current second coming arose from a vegan-fuelled rave he had with a few of his LDM (long dead master) mates at a cosmic trance dance. The thorny old subject of ‘returning to Earth’ was raised by some spoilsport, whose name Austradamus compassionately refused to reveal when I pressed him. I did, however, glean that we are talking about some pretty well known LDM’s from the names of his ‘mates’ that he casually dropped into the conversation during the afternoon. It seemed that none present at the cosmic gathering were at all keen to come back again for another bout of earthly misery and frustration and besides, as Austradamus put it, on the Further Shore ‘the vegan’s for nothing and the chicks are free’.

To cut a long story short, it was agreed that someone should do the ‘right thing’ and go back and, in order to decide, they would all go for an aura reading the next day, and whosever’s aura was dirtiest would have to go back to Earth. Needless to say, Austradamas lost – ‘my mantra of ‘she’ll be right’ caught up with me’ he noted glibly. So, about the middle of last century, he re-incarnated into a human body and here he was back on earth again.

He said he had a normal earthly upbringing and tootled off to the East with the rest of his hippy mates and subsequently watched with interest the spread of Guruism through the West. Since his teenage years he had been keeping an eye on the human battle betwixt good and evil, Divine and animal, Immortal and mortal and, by his score card, human beings were losing the battle. ‘Guruism has become a crowded market, competition is fierce and the returns aren’t good’ he noted with just a touch of fatalism. The other issue was that he couldn’t reveal his true mission on earth – that of ‘returned-messiah elect’, as he would either be taken as a nutter and lynched or would have to spill the beans on those of his cosmic ‘mates’ who had shunned the mission – not a revelation guaranteed to endear him to his mates’ disciples.

While mulling over his Existential dilemma one day, in a cloud of vegan-inspiration, he had hit upon the scheme of preparing a New Species to replace the self-destructive human species – to hand on the ‘Baton of Consciousness’.

He said he is currently also looking for some like-minded human helpers who are qualified in genetic engineering to aid his vision. ‘Some arms and legs would be good for the New Species’ he said. ‘The feelings and emotions are already similar in both animals but t’would be good to put more ‘good’ into the dolphins before we increased their brain size, or we would just end up with more dolphin wars, I guess.’ A question pushed off from the deep end of my mind and slowly swam into form. ‘Surely it is the animal passion to fight that causes wars and not thinking ability?’ but the thought faded like a hung-over millennium reveler as another wave of UA engulfed it. Powerful stuff this UA!

Austradamus’s hypnotic voice droned on explaining that he spends long hours in another rainwater tank at the opposite end of the balcony sitting underwater on a deck chair, feet up on a whipper-snipper petrol can, listening to tapes of dolphin-speak. ‘I am preparing myself’ he said. ‘If I am to be the messiah of the dolphins I must be able to live among my people and effectively communicate with them’. The cute thing about his new idea, he said, is that ‘Existence gets the chance to wipe the slate clean of human beings altogether and I get to be the One-and-Only Messiah of the New Species. For I am the Creator of the New Species! Now it can be truly said that I am Existence and Existence is Me’.

His voice boomed through the gum trees, seemingly rattling their very leaves, on its thundering journey through the valley. I squirmed a bit in my chair, feeling uncomfortably mortal and insignificant in the face of his Divine Vision. Overcome with weariness – or was it wariness – I bade my leave and wound my way back home. A troubled night’s sleep followed and I awoke as though I had been having a dream. Then I remembered the spiritual teachings that in the spiritual world all is an illusion anyway, and the memories of my visit suddenly all made sense again.

As I recently reflected it was obvious that the most meaningful and lasting thing that came out of my visit to Austradamus was that it gave me a story to write for ‘Here and Now’.

Oh, and Austradamus’s prediction for the new millennium – gloom-now, doom-soon, whoopee after death (same as usual) – and get ready to trade your meditation cushions for snorkels and deckchairs ... [endquote].

Well that’s it from me folks.

PETER: Some replies to your post. I’ve just picked a few that have some substance to them and not merely of the ‘Up Yours’ variety. Doesn’t your delete button work? But I do enjoy your comments anyway as you persist in not only reading my posts but even go through effort of replying.

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PETER to No 16: I had thought that Sannyasins might have been a market but it seems I was wrong. Peter to No 16, 2.1.1999

RESPONDENT: That’s right. Look for another market (there are suckers all over the world) Funny? It’s boring that’s why nobody wants to buy it.

PETER: I am definitely wrong with you but there are and will be others who welcome a sincere and ‘open’ discussion even if it steps over that sacred and holy barrier of daring to question the teachings themselves. I use the word sincere deliberately as I think it is this sincerity that you confuse with a lack of sense of humour. It is just that billions of people have followed, trusted, surrendered to, and worshipped God’s and God men for millennia with an appalling lack of success.

Could it be the teachings that are at fault? A simple question to pursue and I would put it to you that it may be a worthwhile exercise?

If not for you, then there will be others who consider personal peace and happiness a worthwhile pursuit deserving of investment in time reading something new and radical.

As for humour I recommend the film I saw yesterday – ‘Adventures of Baron Münchhausen’ – particularly the King and Queen of the Moon.

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PETER to No 16: It’s a funny thing trying to sell a book on how to become happy and harmless, and be able to live with a woman/man in peace and harmony and equity. To not only find no takers, but a myriad of objections or nihilistic responses. Peter to No 16, 2.1.1999

RESPONDENT: There are a lot of intelligent people and you cannot fool them.

PETER: I was kidding about selling a book! It is free to read on our Web-site and deliberately so. There are too many Gurus, therapists, shamans, diviners, Healers and the like who prey on the suffering of others offering snake-oil, palliatives and platitudes. I watch in amazement as the next wave of fashion sweeps through the town I live in and the desperate fork out hundreds, even thousands of dollars, for a quick fix, a feel-good week, or to sit adoringly at the feet of the next self-proclaimed God-man. Are these the intelligent people you are talking about? I was one of those seekers only 2 years ago, the difference being I was willing to ‘dig deep’ and question the teachings itself – the whole construct that is revered as Ancient Wisdom.

RESPONDENT: No 27 who is deeply enslaved in the love of that ignorant self serving Rolls-Royce driving Guru Osho, I wallow in the humiliation of gratitude for all that his graceful presence has done for me and my brothers and sisters in love of for him.

PETER: ‘Ignorant self serving Rolls-Royce driving Guru Osho’ are certainly not my words, if that is what you are implying. To attribute them to me is but a cheap shot that misses its mark completely. You seem to be putting words into my mouth and then become offended by what you then claim I said.

This tactic is the cause of so much conflict, abuse and mis-understanding in the world, used equally by the peace lovers as it is by the war-mongers. We humans love to fight, and if not much is happening and we are bored, we invent something that we feel someone is doing or thinking or saying, simply to get offended.

Yet, when I state the fact that humans are born with the instincts of fear and aggression everyone says ... ‘I’m not!’

Remember Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ when Brian says ‘you’re all individuals’, and one guy pipes up... ‘I’m not!’

RESPONDENT: If you look carefully you will see that this list comes from a site called Friends of Osho. That doesn’t mean that others are not welcome, but at least for me enough is enough...

PETER: So it’s not that I am not welcome, but not by you. Fair enough. I’m sure that what I am saying, and the fact that I am saying it, is not welcome by most on the list. The facts I present are not at all palatable by any who pursue the spiritual path. I am indeed spoiling everyone’s game and calling the bluff of the Gurus, I am amazed I have not been censored off the list but until then, or until I stop, I’ll keep writing.

RESPONDENT: I would rather read No 14’s and No 4’s cat fights. At least they have a sense of humour.

PETER: I went back through some archives the other day and the only sense of humour readily apparent was people sending in jokes by others. Apart from that I found some who were serious in their spiritual beliefs, a lot of quotes from many Masters and pundits, some cat-fights and a bit of social stuff.

And I come along, an ex-sannyasin, willing and able to challenge the teachings, encouraging a lively discussion about life, the universe and what it is to be a human being and the standard response is – you’re too serious!

Oh well, if you find all this discussion too serious and boring – fair enough.

It’s just that, as Mary Poppins sang in the ‘Sound of Music’ ...

♪♫‘these are a fewww .. of my favourite thingsss’ ... ♪♫

... which are: life, the universe, and being a human being ...

... ... Accompanied, obviously, by the rhythm of clicking delete buttons.

RESPONDENT: Please consider this to be a polite letter.

PETER: Please consider this to be a polite reply.

I’ll try to be polite, more sensitive, not so serious, less arrogant, more grateful, briefer, more humble, less verbose, more sensitive, less ignorant, more loving, less boring, more concise, ... ...

Yeah Gads, I’ll end up being normal (or spiritual) again if I took everybody’s advice.

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