Actual Freedom – The Actual Freedom Mailing List Correspondence

February 23 1999

RESPONDENT: It seems kind of narrow minded to dismiss all paranormal interests as mere ‘superstition’.

RICHARD: Oh? May I ask why living according to facts rather than fantasy is being ‘narrow-minded’ – according to you – and which ‘paranormal interests’ would you say are actual ... physical as distinct from metaphysical?

RESPONDENT: I think the idea of freedom should include freedom to indulge imagination ... to extend the boundaries of this ‘flesh and blood sensual body’ with keen discernment.

RICHARD: The idea of freedom can include anything you so desire – it being but an idea – but an actual freedom means an actual peace-on-earth as this body ... in this lifetime and here on this earth where all the wars and rapes and murders and tortures and domestic violence and child abuse and sadness and loneliness and grief and depression and suicides are happening. And you obviously have a different meaning to ‘keen discernment’ than the ‘Oxford Dictionary’, for example, (‘the act of distinguishing; a distinction; the faculty of discerning, discrimination; keenness of intellectual perception; insight, astute, shrewd, ingenious, clever, intelligent, perceptive, sharp, perspicacious, penetrating, critical, percipient, judicious, sensitive, subtle, prudent, sound, wise, aware, knowing, sagacious, sapient) because ‘expanding the boundaries of the body’ means that other people will call you ‘overweight’ (if polite) or ‘fatty’ or ‘tubby’ and so on.

RESPONDENT: There is ample hodgepodge out there ... but throw it all out?

RICHARD: Yep ... unless you want all the wars and rapes and murders and tortures and domestic violence and child abuse and sadness and loneliness and grief and depression and suicides to go on forever and a day.

RESPONDENT: Fascination doesn’t seem like such a hindrance of freedom to me.

RICHARD: Indeed not ... it is vital. If you do not become fascinated with the ‘workings’ of yourself and your fellow human beings (your condition is the human condition and your psyche is the human psyche) there will never be peace-on-earth.

RESPONDENT: And to say ‘we are the only ones who espouse ...’ seems kind of egotistical. I’m obviously puzzling over the dubious merits of such an attitude.

RICHARD: You may stop puzzling for there are no merits – dubious or otherwise – to such an attitude ... because it is not an attitude. It would be a statement of fact ... if I could ascertain where you gained the quote from, that is. I would be delighted to meet someone else who experiences life like I do ... I have scoured the books for eighteen years and found zilch. Do you know of anyone?

RESPONDENT: I’m suspicious of the idea that death is a finality ... too much stuff suggests otherwise.

RICHARD: First: it is not an idea ... it is a fact. Secondly: what ‘stuff’ suggests otherwise ... and is this ‘stuff’ factual?

RESPONDENT: It’s hard to believe that all the mystic traditions are just a vast conspiracy to suppress and enslave souls.

RICHARD: Nobody I know of is asking you to believe anything ... read and find out for yourself. It is the most stimulating adventure of a lifetime to embark upon a voyage into one’s own psyche. Discovering the source of the Nile or climbing Mount Everest – or whatever physical venture – pales into insignificance when compared to the thrill of finding out about life, the universe, and what it is to be a human being. I am having so much fun ... those middle-aged or elderly people who bemoan their ‘lost youth’ leave me astonished. Back then I was – basically – lost, lonely, frightened and confused. Accordingly, I set out on what was to become the most marvellous escapade possible. As soon as I understood that there was nobody stopping me but myself, I had the autonomy to inquire, to seek, to investigate and to explore. As soon as I realised nobody was standing in the way but myself, that realisation became an actualisation and I was free to encounter, to uncover, to discover and to find the ‘secret to life’ or the ‘meaning of life’ or the ‘riddle of existence’, or the ‘purpose of the universe’ or whatever one’s quest may be called. To dare to be me – to be what-I-am as an actuality – rather than the who ‘I’ was or the who ‘I’ am or the who ‘I’ will be, calls for an audacity unparalleled in the annals of history ... or one’s personal history, at least. To seek and to find; to explore and uncover; to investigate and discover ... these actions are the very stuff of life!

RESPONDENT: Has Richard ever met Michael Roads, a fellow Australian, author of works such as Talking With Nature, Journey into Nature, Journey into Oneness? Michael is as unpretentious as they come ... and I find a lot expansiveness in his perspective on life. Check him out and give me a critique if you please.

RICHARD: Hokey-dokey ... Mr. Michael Roads, a native of the United Kingdom, emigrated to Australia with his wife, Ms. Treenie Roads, in 1964 and farmed in Tasmania for twelve years; in the process he became known as an expert in organic farming and a consultant in the field. They are the founders of the ‘Homeland Community’ – based on the model of Findhorn in Scotland – and now live in Queensland, Australia. His ‘Journey Into Nature; A Spiritual Adventure Into Oneness’ is said by some to be a spiritual journey as profound as Mr. Carlos Castaneda’s in ‘The Teachings of Don Juan’ or Mr. Dan Millman’s in ‘Way of the Peaceful Warrior’. Mr. Michael Roads explores the nature of energy, the foundations of personal power, and the frontiers of reality. Through a dazzling series of visions, he goes beyond communicating with nature and becomes blackberry, dog, and crystal. He enters the ‘Guidestone’ and encounters the ‘Power Gates’; he accepts the ‘Great God Pan’ as his guide; he merges consciousness with water; he experiences the worldwide effects of pesticides on the plant kingdom and he fulfils the destiny of a dolphin as it travels from death to rebirth. In ‘Journey Into Oneness; A Spiritual Odyssey’ he has passed the initiations posed by the ‘Great God Pan’, and has earned the right in consciousness to enter into the non-physical realms. He says: ‘when I stepped through those Doors, linear time and normal reality ended. Everything of the known was abruptly replaced by an absolute unknown. Time, if it had any meaning at all, was spherical, so that all points of a sphere were the same time – always’. He then finds himself in his light body and, catapulted through one spiritual doorway after another, he meets numerous ‘Beings’ who expand his awareness of the dimensions of reality. Step-by-step, he is led to the greatest understanding of his journey into ‘Oneness’. As ‘Consciousness’, he evolves from gas, to mineral, to plant, to animal, and finally to human, experiencing the pull of ‘Self’ to express itself through physical form. He explores the infinite universe and comes to know the meaning of ‘I AM THAT I AM’. His ‘Into A Timeless Realm; A Metaphysical Adventure’ was followed by ‘Getting There’ which established this ‘New Age writer’s entry into ‘Visionary Fiction’ ... according to a critic. Mr. Michael Roads is not even enlightened ... let alone actually free of the human condition. His contribution to peace-on-earth is zero ... and may even help pull western civilisation, which has struggled to get out of superstition and medieval ignorance, back into the supernatural ... as the Eastern mystical thought that is beginning to have its strangle-hold upon otherwise intelligent people is becoming more and more widespread.

May I ask? Have you read much of what is available on the three linked actual freedom web pages yet?