Actual Freedom Library

Related Discussions

Peter: The studies of psychology and psychiatry are relative newcomers to science, with systematic studies and treatments really only begun this century. The fundamental premise upon which these studies and therapies are based is the existing range of human ‘mental health’ and includes the acceptance of sorrow and malice as inherent in the Human Condition. Thus the aim of any psychological therapy is to return anyone who is either ‘too’ depressed or ‘too’ violent back to a level considered acceptable to both patient and society in general. If therapy fails to return the patient to ‘normal’ then chemical sedation or institutionalization (or both) is usually required. Given the current wisdom that ‘You can’t change Human Nature’, most of the therapies are synonymous with a mere ‘re-arrangement of the deck-chairs on the Titanic’.

The later half of the 20^th century has seen an experiment in many areas of psychotherapy of expressing, re-living or re-visiting past emotional memories even to the point of fantasying past emotional hurts and traumatic situations. This expressing of emotions – usually anger or sorrow – has been upheld as a viable alternative to the failed approach of strict suppression, but no substantial evidence is available as to its effectiveness and the practice now seems to be dying out. The bottom-line cure, and one increasingly favoured, is chemical treatment either in the form of represents or supplements. It does make some sense for those unwilling to dig deeper because, at core, all human emotion is chemically induced.

Some spiritual therapies are deliberately pitched at achieving blissful feelings through the use of bio-dynamic breathing techniques (altering the oxygen and blood flow to the brain) and many Yogic postures and meditations aim to do the same by inducing the release of pain related endorphins into the body. In the current New Dark Ages there has been a return to many traditional primitive therapies involving divinations, ‘energy’ fields, shamanistic rituals, etc. and in spite of their ancient roots in superstition, many label these ‘alternative’ therapies, implying modernity rather than fashionable re-cycling. It is clear that spiritual therapies are aimed at escaping from real-world ‘normal’ emotional problems and ‘alternative’ therapies aim at shifting the problem of one’s own emotional turmoil, and instinctive actions, on to the supposed influence of ethereal energies, entities, forces and the like.

Actual Freedom offers the possibility for the sincere seeker to rid themselves of the ‘normal’ affective mental illness of fear and aggression, offering, at last, a genuine mental health or peace of mind, the like of which has not existed before in humans. To do this involves letting go of one’s grip on reality and abandoning one’s instinctual animal survival instinct – both of which society in general and the spiritual wise-men, in particular, advise against. It is most curious that to be free of the Human Condition is to be considered as insane by ‘normal’ psychiatric definition and to be happy and harmless is considered to be in league with the Devil by ‘spiritual’ therapy standards.