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Richard’s Correspondence On The Actual Freedom Mailing List with Correspondent No. 25
RICHARD: ... yet there was indeed ‘love in that state’ when you first wrote to this mailing list: [Respondent]: ‘The experience of the state is like that of an atomic bomb detonated over your head, an atomic bomb made of love, bliss, freedom, will and extraordinary ecstasy ...’. (‘Verification’; 30 July 2001). RESPONDENT: I used the word ‘love’ in the sense of feeling excellent and not in the sense of feeling love, as the love memories were the highest rated in terms of joy & happiness. RICHARD: Yet as there is no ‘feeling excellent’ in a pure consciousness experience (PCE) it makes no difference how you were using the word ‘love’ in your description of the enlightened experience ... nor is there ‘bliss’ or ‘ecstasy’ in the PCE either (in case you were using those words in terms other than what they normally mean as well). In short: the entire affective faculty is no longer extant (which includes its epiphenomenal psychic facility). RESPONDENT: I also used it as the experienced ‘I’ was that of my ex-girlfriend which whom I was very much in love. I’m also not convinced about her ‘diabolical nature’. RICHARD: Are you saying that there is a human being, of the female gender, alive on this planet who does not have a diabolical nature (aka the ‘dark side’ or ‘bad’ side or ‘negative’ side of human nature) ... and, furthermore, this human being only has a divine nature (aka the ‘light side’ or ‘good’ side or ‘positive’ side of human nature)? Or are you saying that love has no opposite? RESPONDENT: Maybe what you’ve experienced was what Jung referred to as ‘anima’ archetype which is something different from the Self archetype. RICHARD: No ... I was most specific as to what I was referring to (‘The Absolute’ is ‘The Self’ by another name):
I was not even referring to the ‘Anima Mundi’ (the soul of the world or a power supposed to organise the whole universe and to coordinate its parts) let alone merely the ‘anima’ (the source of the feminine component of a personality). RESPONDENT: [quote] ‘The anima is the female aspect present in the collective unconscious of men, and the animus is the male aspect present in the collective unconscious of women. Together, they are referred to as syzygy. The anima may be personified as a young girl, very spontaneous and intuitive, or as a witch, or as the earth mother. It is likely to be associated with deep emotionality and the force of life itself. The animus may be personified as a wise old man, a sorcerer, or often a number of males, and tends to be logical, often rationalistic, even argumentative. The anima or animus is the archetype through which you communicate with the collective unconscious generally, and it is important to get into touch with it. It is also the archetype that is responsible for much of our love life: We are, as an ancient Greek myth suggests, always looking for our other half, the half that the Gods took from us, in members of the opposite sex’. [endquote]. So, we might just speak of different things. RICHARD: No ... this is what Mr. Carl Jung had to say in regards ‘the Self archetype’:
Mystical literature often mentions how the polar opposites continue to exist (as complimentary poles) in enlightenment. Indeed, one of the appellations used to describe the integration of the divine/diabolical divide upon transcendence, wherein the opposites unite without ceasing to be themselves, is the phrase ‘coincidentia oppositorum’ (coincidence of opposites). My capacity to penetrate into the nature of ‘complexio oppositorum’/‘coincidentia oppositorum’ was due to an intensity of purpose arising out of being driven by some ‘energy’ for six years to spread ‘The Word’ (by whatever name) and that had never been my intention when I first had a pure consciousness experience (PCE). That peak experience initiated my incursion into all matters metaphysical, culminating in the ‘death’ of ego and catapulting me into the sacred ... imbuing me with/immersing me in love and compassion and beauty and truth. My original intent had been to cleanse myself of all that is detrimental to personal happiness and interpersonal harmony ... in other words: peace on earth in our life-time. Instead of that rather simple ambition, I found that I was impelled on an odyssey to be the latest ‘Saviour of Humankind’ in a long list of enlightened ‘Beings’ ... and that imposition did not sit well with me as they had all failed with their ‘Teachings’. After something like five thousand years of recorded history humankind was nowhere nearer to peace and harmony than before. Indeed, because of the much-touted love and compassion, much hatred and bloodshed had followed in their wake. That abysmal fate was something I wish to avoid repeating, whatever the personal cost in terms of losing the much-prized state of ‘Being’. My diagnosis back then, which enabled me to be apparent today, was simple: If I am driven by some ‘energy’ – no matter how ‘good’ that ‘energy’ be – then I am not actually free. * RICHARD: It would seem that you are engaged in a rewrite of your enlightenment experience ... because you are also on record as saying the following: [Respondent]: ‘Also I disagree with Richard’s claim that the affective capacity can become extinct (...) the heart cannot and must not be extinguished’. (‘self vs. Self’; 30 July 2002). [Respondent]: ‘Also, about the instinctive brain, I don’t think that one can eliminate the primary instinct of fear. (...) The point is not extinction of these innate primary impulses but the wrong functioning of them’. (‘self vs. Self’; 30 July 2002). If I may suggest? It is impossible to marry spirituality with actuality. RESPONDENT: You made me laugh with this one; perhaps a Christian performed marriage. RICHARD: Ha ... except that in this analogy it would be a Hindu ‘performed marriage’ if any (Hinduism has a well documented track-record of subsuming everything under its all-embracing umbrella). RESPONDENT: Yes, it’s true. I try to understand what’s on offer here, and the only thing to which I can relate it’s a past experience, as I do not possess any memory of a PCE. RICHARD: Perhaps this may be an opportune moment to re-examine your enlightenment experience ... rather than maintain it as being the endpoint it purports to be? Viz.:
Could it be the attitude, that in enlightenment ‘there is nothing more to know’ as ‘You have Absolute knowledge of Everything’ and that ‘this state contains all possibilities’ and that it seems ‘Impossible to exist something beyond that’ and that enlightenment is ‘the ultimate state available for humans’ and that you have ‘read ignorant sayings on this list about the Self’ and so on, which is what is blocking access to memories of the PCE ... or even hindering a fresh one happening? I am in no way denying that the enlightened experience is a powerful experience – after all it has had many otherwise intelligent peoples by the short and curlies for aeons – and I only suggest a re-examination of spiritual enlightenment as I have personal experience of putting it under the microscope, as it were, so as to find out why it has not delivered the goods so longed for by countless generations ... just as I also put an actual freedom from the human condition under scrupulous examination for five years before going public. What have you got to lose? RESPONDENT: I’m also amazed looking at the dates of my first emails how long a period has passed (although knowing the value of AF) before actually getting started ... RICHARD: Aye, it can take some time to absorb the full impact of what the very first words on The Actual Freedom Trust web site say: (Actual Freedom Homepage) RESPONDENT: ... it also seems that most of the website visitors are former spiritualists. RICHARD: That could be because, not only am I a former spiritualist myself, I make it very clear in the first paragraph, on my part of The Actual Freedom Trust web site, where an actual freedom from the human condition lies (beyond enlightenment):
RESPONDENT: And that’s because it is hard to relate actualism to anything one has encountered in terms of knowledge and experience. RICHARD: As an actual freedom from the human condition is entirely new to human experience there is no ‘knowledge’ about it other than what is available via The Actual Freedom Trust publications ... as in regards ‘experience’ one of the many things I did, in the years before I went public, was to ascertain whether people from all walks of life could recall having had a pure consciousness experience (PCE) – as distinct from an altered state of consciousness (ASC) – for obvious reasons. Sometimes it took a quite a while for them to remember – once it took over three hours of intensive description/discussion – as being sans any affective content whatsoever the PCE cannot be stored in the affective memory banks (which is where the ASC is primarily located) ... plus they are much more common in childhood and require further reach. Everybody I spoke to at length – everybody – could recall at least one PCE ... and usually more. * RESPONDENT: The state is its very ‘raison d’être’, needs nothing for its confirmation. The troubles come afterwards when the id takes it and uses for its own purposes, mainly survival. RICHARD: I am not at all surprised that there be a ‘self’-fixation on ‘survival’ ... after all you are at least 900 (or 1000) years old: [Respondent]: ‘My real I resembles a 900 years old child, extremely powerful and intelligent yet vulnerable’. (‘Verification’; 30 July 2001). [Respondent]: ‘The Self I’ve experienced is a very old archetype, resembling somehow a printing press, a matrix, it looked like a 1000 years old child, very powerful yet very vulnerable’. (‘self vs. Self’; 30 July 2002). RESPONDENT: As I’ve said, it was not my ‘I’. The only reason for keeping this aspect secret in my earliest posts, was that of not putting an irrelevant issue (for me) on the table, but to understand what happened. RICHARD: If, as you say, you wish to understand what happened, and as you used the word ‘id’ (the inherited instinctive impulses of the individual, forming part of the unconscious and, in Freudian theory, interacting in the psyche with the ego and the superego), is it at all surprising that there be a ‘self’-fixation on ‘survival’ when the instinct for survival is genetically encoded at conception? It is this very instinctual ‘being’ itself – under an illusion regarding its presence and a delusion regarding its immortality – who creates the enlightened state, which you say is its very reason for being and which needs nothing for its confirmation, in the first place. ‘Tis nothing but narcissism writ large. * RESPONDENT: Another thing I’d like to mention is that living systems, and I might say, all systems (economy, internet, human and animal bodies, solar system, etc.) are functioning in this universe and thus are subject to its laws and thus to a process I would call ‘crime’. Disease, fraud, rape, theft, viruses, asteroids, violence, abuse, lying are all examples of this process. Let’s take for example a fact, the number of people killed in war this century alone: 160.000.000, this is roughly 1% of the total living population. It’s crime taken to the scale of ‘humankind’. How many have died from diseases and accidents? I suppose many more. RICHARD: Are you saying that peace-on-earth is just not possible, then? RESPONDENT: Not at the scale of humankind ... RICHARD: I am asking about an individual peace-on-earth, of course, as global harmony starts at home (only where there are 6.0 billion people living in peace-on-earth is there world-wide peace). RESPONDENT: ... as every new generation would have to delete the instinctive innate survival program. And some might just refuse to do so. It’s much more probable for genetics to achieve this long before actualism. RICHARD: This just does not make sense: on the one hand you are saying, in effect, that some people ‘might just refuse’ to voluntarily live in peace-on-earth ... yet on the other hand you say, in effect, that it is ‘much more probable’ these people will agree to genetic engineering. It is this simple: as ‘every new generation’ is currently spoon-fed life-management skills Because even if an actual freedom from the human condition is a long time coming there is a truly remarkable virtual freedom that can be attained through application and diligence borne upon pure intent ... as it is humanly possible to be virtually happy and harmless then world-wide amity and comity is the most likely immediate outcome of the discovery of the third alternative to both materialism and spiritualism. Furthermore, as scientists, for all of their RI scans (Radio Isotope), CAT scans (Computerised Axial Tomography), CT scans (Computed Tomography), NMR scans (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance), PET scans (Positron Emission Tomography), MRA scans (Magnetic Resonance Angiography), MRI scans (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), and fMRI scans (functioning Magnetic Resonance Imaging), have been unable to locate either ‘I’ as ego or ‘me’ as soul do you not consider that peace-on-earth via genetic engineering may be the stuff of science fiction? RESPONDENT: Yet, it’s possible for an individual human being. RICHARD: What then of the ‘crime’ of the universe you mentioned (such as diseases, viruses, asteroids, and accidents) ... what was that all about? * RESPONDENT: And one more thing: the emotional mind sets an idea in stone and then accepts or rejects the information presented according to its conviction. The conclusion determines the series of information being accepted. That’s how the cults work, no matter if they are based in Himalayas or on the web. RICHARD: All the more reason to re-visit your earlier assertion, perchance? Viz.: [Respondent]: ‘Also I disagree with Richard’s claim that the affective capacity can become extinct (...) the heart cannot and must not be extinguished’. (‘self vs. Self’; 30 July 2002). RESPONDENT: The intellectual mind works the other way around: the conclusion is determined from a series of factors: information, experiments and observable facts. After all, it might just work. RICHARD: Whereas actualism, being neither affective nor cerebral, actually works. RESPONDENT: I’ve already guess that as my general state is getting better, a thing which was not common during my spiritual years despite all my best efforts and intentions. I’m not very clear though about the affective capacity in humans. I’ve read some books about emotional intelligence and how people centred in this brain are more considerate and have a better lived life, with much more meaning and all that stuff. It seems that this part is responsible for our artistic expression and creativity, relating to others, understanding and it’s also genuinely interested in experiencing an interesting life, not just surviving. RICHARD: The popular focus on ‘emotional intelligence’ (which is an oxymoron if there ever was
Mr. Daniel Goleman is a prolific writer and has written many books and articles ... for example:
Mr. Don Salmon, in an article titled ‘Indic Influences on Modern Psychology’, writes:
Mr. Steve Hein has this to say about Mr. Daniel Goleman’s book ‘The Meditative Mind’:
Editorial reviews for Mr. Daniel Goleman’s latest book ‘Destructive Emotions: How Can We Overcome Them? A Scientific Dialogue With the Dalai Lama’ have the following to say:
I have provided these detailed quotes because the problem with the peoples who discard the Christian/Judaic god is they do not realise that by turning to the Eastern spiritual philosophy they have effectively jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. Eastern spirituality is religion ... merely in a different form to what people in the West have been raised to believe in. Eastern spirituality sounds so convincing to the Western mind which is desperately looking for answers. The Christian/Judaic conditioning actually sets up the situation for a thinking person to be susceptible to the esoteric doctrines of the East. It is sobering to realise that the intelligentsia of the West are eagerly following the East down the slippery slope of striving to attain to a self-seeking divine immortality ... to the detriment of life on earth. At the end of the line there is always a god/goddess/truth, of some description, lurking in disguise wreaking its havoc with its ‘ancient wisdom’. Have you ever been to India to see for yourself the results of what they claim are tens of thousands of years of devotional spiritual living? I have, and it was hideous. RESPONDENT: There are 4 brains in the human body: intellectual, emotional, motor and instinctive. Why are the all emotional and instinctive brains’ functions considered as ‘unuseful’ and the others (thinking and moving) as useful? It’s a point I don’t understand. RICHARD: As all I am pointing the finger at is the instinctual passions and the intuitive ‘presence’ they form themselves into – and not the instincts per se – then in your ‘4 brains’ model it is only the ‘emotional brain’ which is the spanner in the works. A readily observable instinctive reaction in oneself, that is not necessarily affective, is the automatic response known as the reflex action (inadvertently touch a hotplate, for instance, and there is an involuntary jerking away of the affected limb) or the startle response. A classic example of this occurred whilst strolling along a country lane one fine morning with the sunlight dancing its magic on the glistening dew-drops suspended from the greenery everywhere; these eyes are delighting in the profusion of colour and texture and form as the panorama unfolds; these ears are revelling in the cadence of tones as their resonance and timbre fills the air; these nostrils are rejoicing in the abundance of aromas and scents drifting fragrantly all about; this skin is savouring the touch, the caress, of the early springtime ambience; this mind, other than the sheer enjoyment and appreciation of being alive as this flesh and blood body, is ambling along in neutral – there is no thought at all and conscious alertness is null and void – when all-of-a-sudden the easy gait has ceased happening. These eyes instantly shift from admiring the dun-coloured cows in a field nearby and are looking downward to the front and see the green and black snake, coiling up on the road in readiness to act, which had not only occasioned the abrupt halt but, it is discovered, had initiated a rapid step backwards ... an instinctive response which, had the instinctual passions that are the identity been in situ, could very well have triggered off freeze-fight-flee chemicals. There is no perturbation whatsoever (no wide-eyed staring, no increase in heart-beat, no rapid breathing, no adrenaline-tensed muscle tone, no sweaty palms, no blood draining from the face, no dry mouth, no cortisol-induced heightened awareness, and so on) as with the complete absence of the rudimentary animal ‘self’ in the primordial brain the limbic system in general, and the amygdala in particular, have been free to do their job – the oh-so-vital startle response – both efficaciously and cleanly. Cattle, for example, are easily ‘spooked’ by a reptile and have been known to stampede in infectious group panic.
RESPONDENT: I’ve been thinking lately (with all this war occurring) about what it’s usually called a ‘doomsday scenario’ and if that is to be considered a possibility in the near future. There are some things that triggered these thoughts; the Apocalypse (Revelation) by St. John or Luca, I don’t remember exactly, a book which I’ve read a couple of years ago; the fact that humans have never invented a weapon without making use of it; the current state of affairs within the human psyche (which is widely explained on this site). RICHARD: The ‘current state of affairs within the human psyche’ is essentially no different to the state of affairs in the human psyche 3,000-5,000 years ago (according to recorded history) and 5,000-50,000 years ago (according to legendary pre-history) and, presumably, 50,000-120,000 years ago (according to archaeology and palaeontology). Have you never noticed that many an otherwise intelligent person has been afflicted by the doomsday syndrome all throughout human history? If so, the words ‘all throughout human history’ should speak for themselves. RESPONDENT: I bring this topic into discussion although I know it is not a desirable or too pleasurable subject for discussing. I don’t know how many of you have read the Apocalypse ... RICHARD: I started to read it yet had some difficulty getting past the first sentence (Rev. 1:1) ... by the third sentence (Rev. 1:3) the writer has used up the last remnants of any credibility he had left. Upon writing the second-last sentence (Rev 22:20) the writer should have twigged to the fact that, as a (biblical) generation is 40 years, it was all but a frantic hallucination and gone and sought psychiatric help. RESPONDENT: ... but when I’ve read it, there were many things which resemble the current global situation. RICHARD: There is nothing in it which resembles the current ‘global’ situation as the earth was flat for most people in that part of the world, when the writer had his delusory visions, and the Americas (the continents) did not exist as far as they were concerned. Mr. Yeshua the Nazarene (if he ever existed that is) was a flat-earth god-man with a limited comprehension of worldly affairs. RESPONDENT: As I’ve personally experienced an ASC-PCE?, I know firsthand that in these kind of states it’s possible to know things which are not available in an ordinary state of consciousness ... RICHARD: As the above ‘things’ are an example of what is knowable in an altered state of consciousness (ASC) it is just as well they are not available in ordinary states of consciousness ... the global situation is in a parlous enough state with sanity running rampant. RESPONDENT: ... and that these states have the possibility to transcend time. RICHARD: As long as you keep on insisting that an ASC is a PCE (a pure consciousness experience), despite the correspondence you have had with me these last 22 months on that very subject, you will not comprehend a single thing on The Actual Freedom Trust web site. Time is *not* transcended in a PCE ... all of the above is the fruit of ASC’s. RESPONDENT: So, I somehow regard what’s written there, with all the rudimentary language trying to describe things of the future, as a highly possible outcome. RICHARD: What is ‘a highly possible outcome’ is that human beings, being contumacious For such is the case with stubborn perversity. RESPONDENT: If you are interested I can bring about exactly those passages in the book which are the most relevant ... I’m very much interested in what you have to say. RICHARD: Hmm ... if you actually were you would have been reading with both eyes and this conversation would not had to have taken place. Plus by now you might even have been making your contribution to global peace-on-earth.
RICHARD: [quote] ‘As all this was happening, a passing thought occurred to me, which was briefly contemplated ... then banished: Who or what was it that was observing these two ‘me’s ... the ego ‘me’ and the grand ‘Me’? This trifling question was to be of immense benefit years later when I realised that I was living in a delusion and that there was an actual freedom lying beyond ... but I jump ahead of myself’. (page 245, ‘Richard’s Journal’; ©1997 The Actual Freedom Trust). RESPONDENT: I remember the same peripheral question occurring out of nowhere. That’s the reason why I’m here. Are there any enlightened beings you talked to who could recall this question? RICHARD: No. RESPONDENT: Thank you, it’s truly a wonder-full site ... RICHARD: Yes, it is wonderful when read with both eyes, eh?
RESPONDENT: Richard, if I were to knock-knock on your brain there will be no-one to answer, let alone your heart? RICHARD: My previous companion would oft-times say ‘there is no-one in there’ or ‘there is no-one home’ when feeling me out whilst looking at me quizzically ... she also would explain to others that, contrary to expectation, it was sometimes difficult to live with Richard (it could be said that living with some body that is not self-centred would always be easy) as it was impossible for her to have a relationship because there was no-one to make a connection with. She would also say that Richard does nor support her, as an identity that is, at all ... which lack of (affective) caring was disconcerting for her, to say the least, and my current companion has also (correctly) reported this absence of consideration. Put simply: I am unable to support some-one who does not exist (I only get to meet flesh and blood bodies here in this actual world). RESPONDENT: And from what stuff are we made of (our identities) anyhow that it cannot be determined by any magnetic scanning? RICHARD: Primarily the identity within is the affections (the affective feelings) – ‘I’ am ‘my’ feelings and ‘my’ feelings are ‘me’ – as the instinctual passions form themselves into a ‘presence’, a ‘spirit’, a ‘being’ ... ‘me’ at the core of ‘my’ being is ‘being’ itself. MRI scans, and all the rest, cannot detect a phantom being, the ghost in the machine. RESPONDENT: Are we as Shakespeare put it ‘... such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep’? RICHARD: No ... put expressively the affective feelings swirl around forming a whirlpool or an eddy (which vortex is the ‘presence’, the ‘spirit’, the ‘being’): mostly peoples experience ‘self’ as being a centre, around which the affective feelings form a barrier, which centre could be graphically likened to a dot in a circle (the circle being the affective feelings) which is what gives rise to the admonitions to break down the walls, the barriers, with which the centre protects itself. Those people who are self-realised have realised that there is no ‘dot’ in the centre of the circle ... hence the word ‘void’. RESPONDENT: Please feel free to reply to the whole post, if your views do not fundamentally differ from Peter’s. RICHARD: This part of your initial post seemed to be addressed to me:
First, it is not a question of whether I am ‘right’ and the other ‘wrong’ – I am simply describing what is actual – as my communications are expressed in a way which give a clear description of the direct experiencing of being this flesh and blood body sans ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul ... and this report is a factual account. That which is actual is neither right nor wrong: it is evident. A fact cannot be argued with ... it can only be reported. For example, if I were to say ‘this glass and plastic object you
are reading these words on is a computer monitor’ I am reporting a fact which cannot be argued with (without being silly It is the fact which pulls the rug ... not me. Second, the ‘lack of personal ‘touch’ in our email exchange’ which you were quite irritated by is easily explained: if you were to knock-knock at this brain there would be no-one there to answer ... my previous companion eventually became so disappointed by the lack of personal touch (as in ‘no-one to make a connection with’ so as to have a relationship) that upon making a deeply passionate connection with another person she packed her bags and moved out. You may find this exchange helpful:
In all fairness to my previous companion it must be remembered that the person she met, and initially formed an (undying) relationship with, was an enlightened being – she was showered with, drenched in, and subordinated by, Love Agapé and Divine Compassion – and not this actual Richard ... whereas my current companion only knows me as-I-am (thus there is no-one to miss). Third, as ‘qualia’ (qualities) are sourced in properties – and not in the perceiver as some peoples contend – it is the percepts, and all the feeling memories associated with the percepts, which prevent the direct experiencing ... actual values are derived from qualities. Lastly, I am a strict teetotaller – I do not take any mood enhancing or mind altering drugs at all – as even caffeine (a chemical cousin to cocaine) has a psychotropic effect. Back when I was a normal person a fine port after a meal was my favourite tipple – these days I thoroughly enjoy a short black (decaffeinated) instead – and a sparkling apple-juice in a stemmed glass satisfies the social occasion admirably. Needless is to say that I do not miss alcohol at all?
RESPONDENT: You said actualism is an effective method compared with spiritual ones (that is, one which really works) if applied in practice (it’s probably a failed act ;)) with sufficient diligence and pure intent, in order to make one happy and harmless. RICHARD: The actualism method, first put into action in 1981, is indeed an effective method, when practiced with application and diligence and patience and perseverance, and guided by the pure intent to enable peace-on-earth in this lifetime as this flesh and blood body, as it resulted in this flesh and blood body being actually free of the human condition ... this is the method which delivered the goods. There is no valid comparison with spiritual methods ... spirituality does not have peace-on-earth on its agenda. RESPONDENT: First, how many people have attained virtual freedom apart from your close associates Peter and Vineeto? RICHARD: How each and every person is experiencing this moment of being alive, each moment again, is a matter for themselves to determine ... I long ago declined to be a probity policeman (for obvious reason). RESPONDENT: What do you think is the core reason that a person like Konrad hasn’t got it? RICHARD: The core reason why anyone does not ‘get it’ is because the actualism method does deliver the goods (total dedication to peace and harmony means that the end of ‘me’ in ‘my’ entirety is inevitable). RESPONDENT: I ask this as there are now almost 6 years since you went public with your discovery and the method to achieve it, you must have some feedback ... RICHARD: The only feedback is what can be read publicly ... I rarely, if ever, conduct a private correspondence these days. RESPONDENT: ... or is it a perfect method needing no improvement? RICHARD: There may be other methods, yet to be discovered, but this is the only one so far which has delivered the goods. RESPONDENT: I’m also curious about your former partner, Devika, the one who got away with an enlightened man (after spending approx. 10 years in your company) ... RICHARD: Golly ... this is the information I supplied to you:
I neither said ‘enlightened’ nor ‘man’ ... or even said she ‘got away’ with this other person. RESPONDENT: ... what happened to her after leaving you? RICHARD: She set up a home for herself, by herself, so as to experience the nature of love, and its power, free of my influence ... and, as far as I know (as of March 2000), she is still waiting for what she called ‘the true peace of true love’ (a love which she further informed me is ‘matrilineal love and not patrilineal love’ that she said ‘only a female can manifest via true intimacy’) to manifest itself. She already had a leaning towards mystical feminism long before we met. RESPONDENT: Was the virtual freedom she experienced (for how long?) not satisfactory enough for her? RICHARD: Oh yes, and she wrote extensively about it in ‘Richard’s Journal’ (in the italicised paragraphs of Articles 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and 33) ... what happened after that is detailed in Article 36 of ‘Richard’s Journal’ (presumably you have not read that far yet):
The transcription of the taped conversation mentioned above can also be found at the following link: My explanation of the event follows on immediately after the transcription of the taped conversation:
‘Tis only my explanation of course ... if, as you say, you are curious as to how it was for her she wrote to The Actual Freedom Trust mailing list in October, November and December 1998 (under her given name ‘Irene’) which correspondence you can find in the archives if you are so inclined: www.actualfreedom.com.au/archives/1998/afarchives10-1998.htm www.actualfreedom.com.au/archives/1998/afarchives11-1998.htm www.actualfreedom.com.au/archives/1998/afarchives12-1998.htm I had loaned her one of my computers so as to get at least some of the things she was then saying about me, and actualism, on the public record ... it does help to get both persons’ explanation of what happened. * RESPONDENT: Can you determine weather someone is living a virtual freedom ... RICHARD: It is entirely up to the person concerned to determine how they are experiencing this moment of being alive each moment again ... if another wishes to fool me, by reporting something which is not the situation then, when all is said and done, they only end up fooling themselves (when I go to bed at night I have had a perfect day and upon waking another perfect day is presenting itself). RESPONDENT: ... or is enlightened (one with the Absolute, for there are many who pretend and the bar is lowering) when meeting face-to-face? RICHARD: It makes no difference whether I hear their words or read their words (there are no ‘energies’ here in this actual world). * RESPONDENT: What I’ve been most puzzled when involved in a love relationship were the ‘intervals’, those periods when boredom, indifference, possessiveness, sexual drive towards others ruled and obscured the happy times. They seem to occur more and more often towards the end ... as opposed with the beginning of a love affaire. RICHARD: ‘Tis the identity within who queers the pitch ... no matter how powerful, or divine, their love is. RESPONDENT: I’ve been also thinking about the relationship developing between two enlightened persons ... I’ve always thought that such persons if they were to meet will have the time of their lives, will very much enjoy each others company, live in Peace and understand each-other. You seem to say the opposite. RICHARD: Again it is the identity within who is the spanner in the works ... it is intrinsic to the nature of being enlightened that, for the person concerned, they are more special, or more enlightened, than anyone else. * RESPONDENT: I must honestly admit that in the beginning I thought when stumbling over AF site that here it was someone who really had the courage and honesty to strip a consciousness experience from its divine attributes (God, Love, Destiny) which are just a hindrance for a self on the road towards Enlightenment. These attributes are attached mainly afterwards when a bewildered recovering self (with all its various reference systems) tries to understand what happened. I then thought that you were aware of the necessity for the third state of consciousness (awakening from the waking-sleep humans live in) first to occur with a satisfactory frequency and not to talk so much about a remote peak as Enlightenment and God is (fourth state) which can be best compared with raising from the dead. My reasoning back then was that here was someone sufficiently honest and aware of the Human Condition (and Enlightened of course) who devised an efficient method for people to achieve their birth-right: to be conscious about themselves and consequently happy (third state) and as a possible bonus for the rare few, enlightenment (forth state). RICHARD: You are not the first ... it is somewhat surprising just how many people overlook the very first words on The Actual Freedom Trust home page:
They were not put there for decorative purposes. RESPONDENT: Consciousness in my view is strongly linked with objectivity (seeing the facts), first in yourself and then regarding the outside world (so two or more equally conscious persons would have no problem in understanding each-other). RICHARD: Hmm ... many is the time I have had a fellow human being tell me that the physical world is an illusion: when I enquire as to why they are talking to one of their illusions – why they feel the necessity to tell one of their illusions that he is one of their illusions – the conversation generally goes rapidly downhill. My experience is that objectivity is an incredibly subjective thing for more than a few people ... and in an altered state of consciousness (ASC), and the enlightened state itself, there is only pure subjectivity (which is where such solipsistic notions as the above are sourced). Hence such terminology as ‘Consciousness Without An Object’ to describe enlightenment. * RESPONDENT: As you say that you have reached a permanent, immutable and ultimate state of consciousness (beyond enlightenment) possible for a human being, what were the thoughts of that enlightened man concerning you? RICHARD: As I am not a mind-reader I can only go by whatever thoughts another chooses to verbalise: one of the awakened teachers I spoke to face-to-face one fine afternoon, I was later informed, had made Richard’s condition the subject of their evening discourse that night as a warning of one of the many perils on the spiritual path ... to wit: Richard was insane. As the ubiquitously called ‘straight’ people in the West (regular society) consider that anyone dabbling in things mystical are the ‘lunatic fringe’ (conveniently ignoring the fact that their ‘God On Earth’ is one of them), I am sure that they must find it quaint that one lunatic would declare another lunatic to be insane (thereby implying that they are not). RESPONDENT: I suppose he was interested in meeting you and vice-versa, so perhaps a mutually interesting exchange of ideas emerged. RICHARD: What ‘ideas’ are you referring to? The whole point of discussing with such persons, of either gender, is an experiential sharing. RESPONDENT: If it’s the ultimate in human development, are you fully aware of the implications? Were we (humans) not to evolve any further than that (in reference to consciousness) in 10.000 years, 100.000 or even a million years? RICHARD: Here is how I have described the apperception which epitomises both a pure consciousness experience (PCE) and an actual freedom from the human condition:
In what way do you propose that infinitude * RESPONDENT: Have you read or met someone who spoke about experiencing another person’s Self in an ASC? RICHARD: Not specifically, no ... it is a common event, though, to experience another person’s Self where that other person is enlightened (if nothing else it is what makes a disciple a true disciple) which could, and often does, induce an ASC in the disciple. RESPONDENT: I’ve personally ‘heard’ a first-hand report and seen the photos of someone (male gender) while in the activity of being enlightened with the same person’s (female gender) Self as experienced by me. We chatted a bit about that but it’s far from being clarified. RICHARD: Where a person is enlightened they can see the Self of all human beings in all human beings ... there is no reason why such a seeing would not occur in an ASC. * RESPONDENT: I saw from your discussion with Konrad that he was speaking about the poverty of the East (as a consequence of derealisation and Self & consciousness-obsession) and the wealth of the West (as a consequence of the self (personality)-development and the practical skills ensuing from that). It is assumed by Konrad that the development of one hampers the development of the other, his assumption pointing to the core of the meaningless choice between Spiritual and Material worlds. Out of this comes his subsequent quest of uniting the Eastern wisdom with Western knowledge, yet some have tried that before him ... and failed. One good example is George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff and his western thought translator P. D. Ouspensky. His book ‘In search of the Miraculous’ and his searches is a must read for someone who is trying to understand both the degree in which eastern philosophy has permeated western scientific thought and also the fact that uniting a false thing with an equally false one can lead at best to mutants. Or perhaps I’m not getting right what Konrad tried to convey. RICHARD: It sounds right enough. * RESPONDENT: What I’m interested in, to be more precise, is the interaction between various brains (intellectual – located in the head, affective – located in the chest-heart-solar plexus area, moving-instinctive – located at the bottom of the spinal cord, sex – primary location easy to determine, but I suspect is related to the whole body) with their correspondent functions (moving, thinking, feeling, sensing, reproducing) and consciousness. During the altered ASC :-) my body, after the initial shock, went about its usual business, driving my car, thinking and talking to various people, eating, I’m not yet sure if feeling!, none of the usually experienced sex drive being present ... and the functions ran smoothly, unhindered by the self (personality), the skills these brains acquired over the years being performed with stunning accuracy. So the skills one has and ego are somehow different? RICHARD: Yes ... any repetitive activity is largely done on automatic pilot, as it were, once the necessary skills are acquired (such as driving, cycling, typing, and so on). * RESPONDENT: The whole point of immortality is if consciousness can exist independent of the functions (the physical body). RICHARD: As immortality implies that the physical body is a function of consciousness (consciousness giving rise to matter rather than matter giving rise to consciousness) it has occasioned all manner of implausible explanations as to how, when, where and why it would do so ... the one that tops the list on the scale of nonsense dressed up as wisdom is the Eastern concept of Leela (aka dance, play, sport, diversion). As a child still in short pants I would ask Western religious persons just what their soul would do in their heaven (no hair to brush, no teeth to clean, and so on) as everything done on earth is bodily-determined or body-related ... when pursued rigorously queries such as these always elicit the classic fall-back position (only their god knows). Yet ask a god-on-earth (or be one oneself) and the answer is ... it is unknowable. So much for omniscience, eh? RESPONDENT: I know that (some) functions can manifest themselves without consciousness. I remember one time being totally drunk with a sudden blackout occurring, something like turning the lights off, yet my friends told me the next day that in the following hours I’ve danced, I’ve joked, I’ve walked alone to a taxi and finally got home. RICHARD: Yet you said (just above) that the whole point of immortality is consciousness existing independent of the functions (the physical body) ... why do you give an example of what the body did during a drug-induced amnesia (which is quite common with many ingested substances)? An examination of amnesia itself can throw light upon your experience: for example, I watched a documentary of a chronically amnestic woman (with a three-minute memory) who, unless she writes down in a notebook she carries everywhere with her what she has done during that period, does not know whether she has done something or not (such as accepting and drinking the glass of water offered by the interviewer). RESPONDENT: It was like someone has taken control, someone I’m not acquainted with. Have any idea who/what it was as I was not conscious of myself (no self to be held responsible)? RICHARD: It would have been your normal self, of course, albeit totally inebriated ... and with nothing being consigned to memory. * RESPONDENT: Some comments about the ASC ... During and after the ASC it became crystal clear to me that all we humans called ‘progress’ has no value whatsoever, that is mainly the result of moving-intellectual brain’s skills applied to the world for the benefit of the silent lazy god within each man: the instinctive brain and its mission – survive and reproduce the species (in this way being connected with the sex). RICHARD: I would not say that all material progress has no value whatsoever (anaesthesia during surgery for just one example) nor would I say that the material results of progress are mainly for the benefit of the identity within either. I would agree that there has been no progress (thus no benefit) in regards the instinctual passions ... essentially there is no difference between, say, the Cro-Magnon homo sapiens and the Modern Day homo sapiens when it comes to the instinctual drives, impulses and urges. There has been much intellectual progress – and this advancement of human knowledge continues unabated – but there has been zilch spiritual progress ... the ancient wisdom of the bronze-age still has a large proportion of the peoples currently alive by the short and curlies. Witness the resurgence of a New Dark Age, for instance, wherein all manner of shamanic hocus-pocus is being ardently embraced. RESPONDENT: It must be said that these brains have an innumerable number of connections with each other, re-wiring them being an appropriate term indeed and a hard job to look after. RICHARD: I have generally used the term ‘rewiring’ to refer to sorting out conflicting beliefs and ideals (oft-times cunningly disguised as truths) which tend to be compartmentalised ... for example I saw a bumper-sticker on a car only recently:
It was positioned immediately below another bumper-sticker:
The major rewiring of the brain happens of its own accord due to the felicity/ innocuity born of pure intent ... other than sorting out such blind spots as the one above, and investigating inculcated social conditioning, or exposing factoids for what they are, and so on, all one has to do, basically, is be as happy and as harmless as is humanely possible, each moment again, and provided there be pure intent a benignity and benevolence which is not of ‘my’ doing becomes apparent and operates spontaneously. It is what does the major rewiring ... as such there is no ‘hard job’ to do. RESPONDENT: The problem is that they are interconnected quite wrongly, mainly due to the contents (personality – social construct), and as such no happiness can occur ... RICHARD: Somehow I am reminded of that well-known phrase ‘consciousness is its contents’ ... what about the instinctual passions (such as fear and aggression and nurture and desire) and the ‘presence’ or ‘being’ they automatically form themselves into? RESPONDENT: ... it seems that these brains have also lost the ability (in most humans) to adequately respond to various situations. RICHARD: As the legendary ‘Golden Age’ of antiquity is a myth I do wonder what the adequacy was you say has been lost. RESPONDENT: A common to all situation is for a brain to react to a given circumstance where another’s response is more appropriate – if attacked an instinctive response is more appropriate than a an emotional one: pacifism for example. RICHARD: Am I to take it that the lost yet adequate ability you spoke of is none other than the response of the instinctual passions? RESPONDENT: Of course you say there is no affective faculty left, a thing I’m quite intrigued as I’ve experienced no feelings either in the ASC, yet is something to be further explored. RICHARD: In spiritual enlightenment one no longer has affective feelings as one is the affective feelings (‘me’ at the core of ‘my’ being is ‘being’ itself) ... the affective feelings have become a state of being. RESPONDENT: ‘Love’ (big L) is a misleading word for someone to be told as I think you are quite aware that in Enlightenment this ‘Love’ is much better to be described as a ‘state’ rather than a ‘feeling’ (has no relation with the affective brain, except as a starting point, a gate as it were). RICHARD: You were going fine until your parenthesised explanation (which is a classic example of disembodiment if there ever was): if it were not for the affective faculty there would be neither love nor Love. RESPONDENT: It’s better for the sake of a more accurate report to use the term ‘orgasm’ or ‘ecstasy’. RICHARD: By whatever term the experience is still an affective experience. * RESPONDENT: As for ‘Divine Compassion’, I’ve encountered a madman poorly dressed, and as it seemed I’ve had some magnetic properties (people being driven towards me), he came towards me only to look at him, equally peaceful and registering just this body reaction: wonder at the fact that there was no judgement, pity or desire to help (do something to him). It seems there were no positive/negative qualities to be overlaid on the world. RICHARD: First, if ‘madman’ and ‘poorly dressed’ and ‘equally peaceful’ are not judgements I would like to know what are. Second, of course there was no pity ... in enlightenment, just as the feeling of love has transformed itself into a state of being called Love Agapé (or some-such name), so too has the feeling of pity become a state of being called Divine Compassion (or some-such name) ... which is radiated to all and sundry. Third, no desire to help is required as the Divine Compassion itself is the very help needed ... as evidenced by its magnetic property (people being drawn or driven to the enlightened one) whereupon being bathed in their radiant ‘presence’ is (supposedly) the cure for all the ills of humankind. Lastly, as ‘positive/negative qualities’ are determined by judgement then any denial of judgement creates the illusion that such qualities are not being overlaid on the world. RESPONDENT: You don’t speak much about the extraordinary Intelligence of the enlightened State and its Benevolence, far surpassing any human intelligence or wisdom, as I’m still in doubt about those ‘feet of clay’, I had all the practical skills very much in place. RICHARD: The expression ‘feet of clay’ In what way does the ‘extraordinary Intelligence of the enlightened State and its Benevolence’ far surpass human intelligence? Can you provide some examples? What immediately leaps to mind is human intelligence sussing out that the earth is neither flat nor at the centre of everything ... one can search through all the scriptures, of the enlightened ones over the last 3,000-5,000 years, for any reference to such basic information to no avail. What I recall, during an ASC very early in the piece, is the impression of being all-knowing (omniscient) ... yet even then I could readily acknowledge that I did not know how to read, write, or understand any other language than the English language. For a documented instance of this: Mr. Sathyanarayana Raju (aka Sai Baba), a currently living example of being considered a god-on-earth by tens of thousands of people, required the head of one of his ashrams in the USA to submit daily reports of all that went on. This man – a devout follower – sincerely wondered why this was necessary ... seeing that Mr. Sathyanarayana Raju was omniscient and would already know every detail of what occurred in the ashram. So he wrote a letter humbly asking clarification ... Mr. Sathyanarayana Raju replied that he was checking on the disciple’s ability to record the events accurately. Another example is Mr. Mervin Irani (aka Meher Baba) – another god-on-earth for many people – who was asked by a puzzled devotee one day as to why he was reading a newspaper. Another – more wily disciple – went and listened to the overseas weather report and came back to the feet of the master and asked him whether it was raining in New York. I particularly mention this because of the following:
If Mr. Mervin Irani (aka Meher Baba) and Mr. Sathyanarayana Raju had lived more than five hundred/one thousand years ago they would have been ‘flat earth’ god-men ... but because of human advances in knowledge they were able to know that the earth is an oblate spheroid circling the sun. It is all to do with the human knowledge of the material universe current to the era one is born in ... and has nothing to do with fantastical notions of having ‘Absolute knowledge of Every thing’ at all. Nobody but nobody is omniscient ... it is this simple. RESPONDENT: Is this the Intelligence of the species? – as I’ve compared this big ‘I’ in a poem (it seems that an experience like that upgrades your artistic expression – a proof perhaps for its affective starting point, agree?) with a matrix, a printing press for the human race. RICHARD: The cognitive capacity to understand and comprehend (as in intellect and sagacity) which is the cerebral ability to sensibly and thus judiciously think, remember, reflect, appraise, plan, and implement considered activity for beneficial purposes (and to be able to rationally convey reasoned information to other human beings so that coherent knowledge can accumulate around the world and to the next generations) – which other animals cannot do – is intelligence in operation. The affective feelings – emotions and passions and calentures – are non-cognitive instinctually reactive survival feelings at root and, no matter how refined and cultivated the feelings may be honed to, are not intelligence in operation ... and neither is the affective faculty’s epiphenomenal psychic facility. * RESPONDENT: As for asking myself the same question as you did ‘what/who’s looking at whom’ stuff, it’s very understandable as there I was, with no Respondent left of me, busy being somebody else’s Self, conditions were as such that a highly possible logical intelligent outcome resulted: ‘what am I’? as it’s clear I was no Goddess, ha? RICHARD: Behind all gods and goddesses lies the genderless Absolute ... which can manifest in or as whatever form it likes. RESPONDENT: But the impact and relevance of it was like thinking why the albatross wings are two meters instead of four when having an intense orgasm. RICHARD: Hmm ... ‘nuff said about how (supposedly) all-surpassing the ‘big-‘I’ Intelligence of the species’ is then, eh? * RESPONDENT: As for ‘ASC-PCE?’, the state I’ve experienced back then had had in my view the same properties as the PCE, the same fairy-tale magic, things being covered with sparkling silver, continuously living in the split-of-a-second, etc. But I guess you’re more entitled to speak about it as 3 hours can hardly be compared with 11 years. RICHARD: As well as that there is a vast body of mystical literature which gives many, many descriptions of the ASC (and the enlightened state itself) which, despite your earlier rewrite of your enlightenment experience, and your recent redefinition of love, speak unambiguously about love not only being one of the key features but affective into the bargain. For example:
In other words, spiritual/sacred love is human love transformed into a state of being called Love Agapé (or some-such name). Also, there is no Divine Compassion in a PCE (hence no magnetic properties to draw people to one) thus one can pass unnoticed in the world – a definite plus if there ever was – and judgement operates very well indeed as whatever qualities are apparent are easily recognised for what they are (arising out of properties) so that actual values easily ensue. Plus the delusion of omniscience (the impression of having absolute knowledge of everything) does not arise in a PCE. Incidentally, there are no ‘things being covered with sparkling silver’ here in this actual world and, as there is only ever this moment, it is eternal ... hence no ‘continuously living in the split-of-a-second’. RESPONDENT: It is also the fact that after it ended no memory of it remained (no possible representation or residual taste), just a feeling of peace and perfection for the following days. Yes, and the Vortex, resembling a tornado ... swirling above and around. Who let the dogs out? RICHARD: As the Self is the Vortex that is easily answered, non? RESPONDENT: Is it that the instincts can escape our psychical body ... RICHARD: No, the ‘psychical body’ is a product of the affective faculty’s epiphenomenal psychic facility ... the psyche, and all its other-worldly adumbrations, is the instinctual passions in action. RESPONDENT: ... or is it this greater reality created, the last stand? RICHARD: Ha ... the ‘last stand’ has been lasting, at the very least, over 3,000-5,000 years of recorded history. RESPONDENT: And the same definite sensation: people are cut off from the felicitous World (these ideas are taken directly from the 2 poems I’ve wrote in order not to mix with what I’ve learned in the meantime). I’ve contemplated lately what would have happened if that big I vanished ... it would probably would have been the same. RICHARD: No, not the same ... without ‘the big I’ it would have been a PCE. * RESPONDENT: There is so much to talk about, for instance why when I’m interested in something I find that thing? Your email list is no exception. For instance I was thinking how many people are subscribed to this discussion list and a day later a response arrived. RICHARD: What generally happens with intuitive/psychic events is that people conveniently forget all the times when whatever it was they had prescience, precognition, or a premonition about did not occur. When tested properly it usually works out at about 50-50 ... the same as guessing. RESPONDENT: I appreciate your sense of humour (...) may we have more of it? RICHARD: There is so much about life which is irrepressibly comical there is bound to be more. RESPONDENT: And alcohol is indeed a bad choice, as you’re feeling quite nasty afterwards. RICHARD: True ... although it is a blessed relief to be rid of the need for any mood-enhancing or mind-altering substances. RESPONDENT: And a few words about me ... I’m a young adult, 26 years of age, single, male, quite sane, living in Eastern Europe, with an above the average IQ, a normal personality, earning an above the average income, quite happy with my life as-it-is, yet I know that much more is possible. RICHARD: Much, much more ... here in this actual world lies the pristine perfection of the peerless purity that the infinitude of this material universe actually is. RESPONDENT: Only when 20 years old, this life came so close to never happen. RICHARD: Now that the third alternative (to either materialism or spiritualism) is available there is the distinct possibility that more than a few people will similarly escape such a fate. The days of nonsense passing for sagacity are numbered.
CORRESPONDENT No. 25 (Part Three) RETURN TO THE ACTUAL FREEDOM MAILING LIST INDEX RETURN TO RICHARD’S CORRESPONDENCE INDEX The Third Alternative (Peace On Earth In This Life Time As This Flesh And Blood Body) Here is an actual freedom from the Human Condition, surpassing Spiritual Enlightenment and any other Altered State Of Consciousness, and challenging all philosophy, psychiatry, metaphysics (including quantum physics with its mystic cosmogony), anthropology, sociology ... and any religion along with its paranormal theology. Discarding all of the beliefs that have held humankind in thralldom for aeons, the way has now been discovered that cuts through the ‘Tried and True’ and enables anyone to be, for the first time, a fully free and autonomous individual living in utter peace and tranquillity, beholden to no-one.
Richard's Text ©The Actual Freedom Trust: 1997-. All Rights Reserved.
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