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Richard’s Correspondence On Mailing List ‘D’ with Correspondent No. 14 (Please make sure java-scripting is enabled in order for the mouse-hover tool-tips to function properly; mouse-hover on the yellow rectangular image to enlarge; left-click on the image to hold).
Re: Peculiar Information # 5 RESPONDENT: The first actualists praised the iniciative of scientists like LeDoux. Me too. Anyway, sometimes I compare the ‘Reactive Mind’ experiences of Mr Hubbard (read Dianetics) with the ‘modern’ scientific approach and they are both similares: all in search for our biological ‘self/Self’ to fix(?) it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_mind. And if you change ‘reactive mind’ by ‘human condition’, maybe Mr. Hubbard was a pioneer in this strange land inside our skulls... RESPONDENT No. 37: Hubbard was a science fiction author. [snip disinformation]. Nobody can claim to be a ‘pioneer’ in any field. All the ‘pioneers’ stand on the shoulder of giants. RESPONDENT: Of course ... RICHARD: G’day No. 14, Because you have, perhaps hastily, thereby endorsed a mere assertion that all pioneers are
“nanos gigantum humeris insidentes” In mid-1980 I had an indelibly-imprinted-in-memory pure consciousness experience (PCE), which lasted for four hours, during which the pristine perfection of the significance of life itself was openly apparent in all its immaculate purity. Plus, of course, an individual peace-on-earth, in this lifetime, as a flesh and blood body only. This four-hour PCE – in conjunction with many other thence-recalled similar perfection experiences stretching away back into my earliest childhood – is what initiated taking my first step on what is nowadays known as the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom from the human condition. (And only upon taking that first step did the next step became obvious; whereupon taking that second step revealed the third ... and so on, and so on, right through unto the last step). I knew perfectly well that I was standing on no shoulders whatsoever – be they those of giants or otherwise – as that PCE indubitably informed that living such a condition was entirely new to human experience/ human history. Indeed, I would say to anyone prepared to listen to me, at the time, how everyone has got it 180 degrees wrong and that nobody has to physically die to be in paradise (inasmuch eternity does not cease at birth only to then recommence at death after a 70+ year interregnum). As all the above information, and more, is freely available on The Actual Freedom Trust web site there is no excuse for tamely acquiescing to any tendentious words to the contrary. Indeed, metaphysicist’s cherished giants (those many and various spiritually enlightened/mystically awakened ones) all had feet of clay. Had the venerated Mr. Gotama the Sakyan, for instance, gone all the way two and a half thousand years ago then peace-on-earth might very well have been a global occurrence by now. And that is quite something to bear in mind, eh? Regards, Richard.
Re: Peculiar Information # 5 RESPONDENT: The first actualists praised the iniciative of scientists like LeDoux. Me too. Anyway, sometimes I compare the ‘Reactive Mind’ experiences of Mr Hubbard (read Dianetics) with the ‘modern’ scientific approach and they are both similares: all in search for our biological ‘self/Self’ to fix(?) it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_mind. And if you change ‘reactive mind’ by ‘human condition’, maybe Mr. Hubbard was a pioneer in this strange land inside our skulls... RESPONDENT No. 37: Hubbard was a science fiction author. [snip disinformation]. Nobody can claim to be a ‘pioneer’ in any field. All the ‘pioneers’ stand on the shoulder of giants. RESPONDENT: Of course ... RICHARD: G’day No. 14, RESPONDENT: Hello Richard, I agree with you: I don’t want frittering this vital opportunity to dissect the Actualism method. RICHARD: Good ... having spent the best part of a decade writing many millions of words in meticulous detail I have far better things to do than just reiterate what is already available free of charge on The Actual Freedom Trust web site. Because you have, perhaps hastily, thereby endorsed a mere assertion that all pioneers are
“nanos gigantum humeris insidentes” RESPONDENT: If you was not the first and only one to experience PCE and to blame our obsolete Human Condition generated by blind Mother Nature – why your testimony are so special and exclusive? RICHARD: I am certainly not the first person – let alone the only one to have what is nowadays known as a pure consciousness experience (PCE) as it is something I spoke about with many and various peoples from many and various walks of life in the years before going public. Plus I have read accounts – and even seen some on television – of more than just a few people describing identical or similar-enough experiences ... which all go to demonstrate how it is common to all humans at some stage in their life (mostly in childhood). And I am also not the first person – let alone the only one – to make the connection between human beings’ instinctual urges, drives, impulses, and passions in general, and those of other animals. What makes my condition – living what the PCE’s provided evidence of as a permanent and thus irreversible condition – so special and exclusive (to use your phraseology) is that it is new to human experience/ human history. (What I have just written, and much more on this very topic, is freely available on The Actual Freedom Trust web site). RESPONDENT: Why only you had an indelibly-imprinted-in-memory 4 hours PCE if others in past had days and months of PCE? RICHARD: As I never said that only I had a PCE (be it four hours or otherwise) which was indelibly-imprinted-in-memory then your query has no basis for me to reply sensibly to. Why none of the others ever acted upon those priceless opportunities is something only they could answer. RESPONDENT: In academic institutions, the first to register a scientific article are the owner (see Albert Einstein patents). Is it your case? RICHARD: No, of course not. RESPONDENT: And please, don’t put serendipity phenomenon in the cards. RICHARD: There is no way I would ascribe having acted upon that four hour PCE – in conjunction with many other thence – recalled similar perfection experiences stretching away back into my earliest childhood – to opportune happenstance. No way at all. If what you are looking for is why would it be me (and not one of all those other persons) to have acted thusly then the simple answer is that somebody always has to be the first to discover something new/ venture someplace different in any field of human endeavour/ human exploration. (In other words, had it been one of those other persons it would be them such a query would be directed to). As there was nothing peculiar to my constitution – I was a normal infant, child, youth, teenager, young man and adult it can only be put down to a combination of the many and various situations and circumstances which preceded it. * RICHARD: [...] Indeed, metaphysicians’ cherished giants (those many and various spiritually enlightened/ mystically awakened ones) all had feet of clay. Had the venerated Mr. Gotama the Sakyan, for instance, gone all the way two and a half thousand years ago then peace-on-earth might very well have been a global occurrence by now. And that is quite something to bear in mind, eh? RESPONDENT: That time when you, I mean, the ‘old’ young Richard in the ‘Nam, saw that budist monk in fire, you shaved your head. Why if not a reaction behaviour in agreement with that bonzo ‘pacific’ (sic) protest? RICHARD: First of all, I did not see the physical self-immolation you refer to – it took place quite a few kilometres from the area where I was militarily engaged – but the news of it was no less compelling, in its effect, than had that been the case. Secondly, the ostensible reason (at the time) for shaving my head was quite prosaic: in those days I fancied a late-fifties/ early sixties rocker-style coiffure – complete with duck-tail and dangling forelock – and a superior officer had been on my case for quite some time to have my hair cut according to army regulations. So, rather than dutifully comply – and in quite a juvenile way – I up and shaved the whole damn’ lot off (only to be duly punished via the ‘conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline’ catch-all regulation). ‘Twas only many years later that the underlying reason – the fundamental cause for such an odd behaviour – came terrifyingly/ horrifyingly to the surface. Hence my aghastness at what we were both doing. Lastly, it was not being [quote] ‘in agreement’ [endquote] with the aims of the Buddhist community as they were quite zealously opposed to the Catholic government, at the time, and sought a political reunification of their country (via coming to an accommodation with the Communist regime which I was there to fight against). RESPONDENT: Do you made some researches in buddhism since that traumatic encounter? RICHARD: No, I was unaware of any distinction between a Buddhist monk and a Christian monk – I was humanist/ materialist at the time – and had lumped them all together under the quite typical rubric of being ‘religious claptrap’. It was only many years later – after having gone public on the internet and in response to questions and objections – that I made some researches in Buddhist scriptures. (Having lived that/ been that, night and day for eleven years, which those multitudinous words point to there was simply no need to research for my own edification as I already had intimate knowledge – experiential understanding – of what it explicitly is as a living reality). RESPONDENT: I find some gaps in your Richards Résumé RICHARD: Sure ... ‘tis only a résumé (a summary, an epitome) after all. I am gradually putting together a personal web-page – a more biographical account (plus many snapshots taken at various stages of my life going back to childhood) in a secular way of presentation – which goes into the personal details of my childhood experiences, my military experience, my marriage experiences, my parental experiences, my artistic experiences, my latter-day lifestyle and so on and so forth. I have long had the intention of presenting my discovery in that manner – in a secular way – so as to have more emphasis on the philosophical/ psychological features and a marked de-emphasis on the mystical/ metaphysical aspects. (I have, on occasion, verbally presented my story to peoples of a materialist/ humanist persuasion, without recourse to any metaphysicality at all, and they have had no difficulty in their comprehension of it when delivered in that manner). RESPONDENT: And this guys here too: www.theabsolute.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1558 RICHARD: I am none too sure why you directed me to a few snippets of ill-informed gossip (dismissive of something fundamental as being ‘a semantic contradiction’, for instance, and a very ignorant ‘repudiated his philosophy’ negation for another). I will continue with the other parts of your post later. Regards, Richard
Re: Peculiar Information # 5 RICHARD: [...] I knew perfectly well that I was standing on no shoulders whatsoever – be they those of giants or otherwise – as that PCE indubitably informed that living such a condition was entirely new to human experience/human history. Indeed, I would say to anyone prepared to listen to me, at the time, how everyone has got it 180 degrees wrong and that nobody has to physically die to be in paradise (inasmuch eternity does not cease at birth only to then recommence at death after a 70+ year interregnum). RESPONDENT No. 5: [...] It is clear to anyone familiar with Buddhism that it is you who is trying to present things in a new way ... RICHARD: As I am not presenting Buddhism in a new way – it is a religio-spiritual/ mystico-metaphysical way of deliverance from birth/ death through release from the bonds of tanha (the craving for earthly existence) and its resultant dukkha upon the realisation of, or the awakening to amata (deathless/ immortality) – then your ill-informed allegation is nothing but more noise. RESPONDENT: Of course. However you don’t can deny their vigorous and atavic task to tame our Human Condition. RICHARD: I have never denied that Mr. Gotama the Sakyan – or any one of a buddhistic persuasion in the ensuing two
thousand five hundred or so years – was engaged (be it vigorously or otherwise) in resolution Just how the dissolution RESPONDENT: Persons like Gautama and Muhammad tried and failed in this mission. The History and our evening news (or even soap-operas for that matter) attest it. RICHARD: Finding peace in some timeless and spaceless and formless realm is entirely different to discovering the already always existing peace-on-earth (here in space and now in time as form). Put succinctly: no religio-spiritual/ mystico-metaphysical way of deliverance/ salvation has peace-on-earth in its agenda. RESPONDENT: Anyway, like the old alchemists before the modern chemics, they created the roots to people like you and me investigate their failures and improve more. That’s the way of progress in all matters. I never suspected you don’t had reached a crucial discovery the possibility of self ego and Self Soul extinction without physical immolation – but your refusal to share the merits with others in the same game of life are very peculiar. RICHARD: Perhaps a re-read of what I wrote to you, specifically because of your [quote] ‘Of course’ [endquote] endorsement of a mere assertion that all pioneers stand on the shoulder of giants, will make it clear how there are no merits for me to refuse to share? (It is to be found right at the top of this email). RESPONDENT: And one guy in this following link show another point in this Buddhism polemic: http://sgforums.com/forums/1728/topics/374947?page=1 RICHARD: As you have directed me to where someone of a buddhistic persuasion alleges, at the top of the page, that my experience is [quote] ‘clearly in line with Buddhism Anatta’ [endquote] then I can only presume it to be that ‘another point’ you are referring to. If so, then it would be to your advantage to be cognisant of the fact that nowhere in the Pali Canon does Mr. Gotama the Sakyan deny the existence of self: what he expressly states is that the self is not to be found anywhere in phenomenal existence ... as he so clearly enunciates to compliant monks in the ‘The Discourse on the Not-Self Characteristic’. Viz.:
And, in regards to those last words [quote] ‘nothing further for this world’ [endquote] he has this to say:
He is unambiguously speaking of a totally away-from-the-world non-experienceable realm in that it has nothing to do with the physical whatsoever: ‘neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind’ (no physical world); ‘neither this world nor the next world’ (no more rebirth); ‘neither earth, nor moon, nor sun’ (no solar system). (All what I have just written, and more, on this topic is freely available on The Actual Freedom Trust web site). RESPONDENT: I have much more questions and I’m still reading the actualfreedom.com.au to more answers. RICHARD: Please, do continue reading ... having spent the best part of a decade writing many millions of words in meticulous detail I have far better things to do than just reiterate what is already available free of charge on The Actual Freedom Trust web site. Regards, Richard.
Re: Peculiar Information # 5 RESPONDENT: [...] And I had made some experiments during my actualism practice and I would appreciate to read your comments regard some facts I discovered in this adventure: 1. My health improve to much after some months of practice. But my body lost that sensibility to some foods and drinks. Today, if I eat only one piece of bread I’m feel a little dizzy. Before I had great tolerance to gluten. Now I need GF foods! RICHARD: Whilst a general improvement to physical health, after some months of practice, may have correlation with less stress/more ease (for instance) it would be imprudent of me to endorse the practice of actualism in terms pertaining more properly to the medical health profession. Similarly with you currently having less tolerance to gluten: as correlation is not causation – even though many anti-tobacco activists (for instance) have made a packet out of creating the public impression it is – it would be more productive to seek a cause-effect explanation. (For what it is worth, and simply as one fellow human being to another, there has been some recent publicity of hookworms in regards to both coeliac disease and asthma). RESPONDENT: 2. My female partner said after some months of practice: ‘Your libido are too much to me!’. But we still married and happy together. So, if you permit one correlated impertinence: Why are you single now? RICHARD: As libido is null and void for me then being sexually active or not is purely a matter of preference. What this means in effect is that sexual congress, because of its utter proximity, has more to do with intimacy than anything else. Now, here is where it becomes quite an intriguing matter because, and as a generalisation only, women tend to place more emphasis on intimacy than men. Indeed, many a woman has bewailed the dearth of men prepared to make the big commitment required for such connubial accord. Yet they are deathly afraid of intimacy – the fear of intimacy is a subject most women have talked to me about – for it means loss of self. And therein lies the rub: the survival instincts can kick in big-time, especially during sexual congress, and the very opposite of the longed-for intimacy takes place (as in pulling-back, turning-away, closing-off, shutting-down, and so on). As peculiar as it may sound, on a purely intellectual level, the very thing peoples most want is the very thing they most fear. When their very survival (as an identity) is at stake all manner of weird behaviour can take place – to the point of utter bizarrerie – as is readily evidenced in the archived correspondence on The Actual Freedom Trust website. I have said before, and will say it again, how actualism is not for the faint of heart or the weak at knee as it requires nerves of steel to delve the stygian depths of the human psyche. Put briefly: unless or until such a woman comes into my purview being single, in this respect, will remain my ongoing status. RESPONDENT: 3. Some old friends of mine – one muslim (sufi), another catholic (Kardecist) and others devotes, even one atheist expert in physics, put me in ostracism. Richard, your ex-wife Irene warned the same to Peter and Vineeto after they conquested virtual freedom... RICHARD: Aye, it is one of the greatest ironies that an outbreak of felicity and innocuity – a veritable peace-on-earth – should be a catalyst for such extremes of human behaviour. RESPONDENT: 4. I’m more alienated of mundane business, politics and routine talks in media, and started to watch more comedy movies, TV’s sitcoms, Discovery and Natgeo Channel like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri9bAtQDe00. Is it a type of subliminal suggestion? RICHARD: Have you ever noticed that many an otherwise intelligent person has been afflicted by the doomsday syndrome all throughout history? If so, the words ‘all throughout history’ should speak for themselves. The doom being felt – and projected onto the world at large – is, of course, ‘my’ own doom. There is no way out: ‘I’ am doomed. ‘I’ must, inevitably, cease to ‘be’ (if only at physical death). RESPONDENT: You said some thing about vibes web between humans, like invisible threads. Only one free of psychic identity are also free of this psychic web, so, how to minimize this menace to avoid this subliminal effects after the lecture of your words and journal? RICHARD: First, an intelligent appraisal (such as ‘all throughout history’ above); second, becoming cognisant of your own affective vibes and, thus, psychic currents (some peoples are naturally more sensitive than others); third, then discerning when an affective vibe/ psychic current is another person’s and not yours (although be aware of projecting); fourth, being as happy and as harmless (free of malice and sorrow) as is humanly possible can be contagious so to speak); fifth, the courage of the conviction born of the PCE is always immensely beneficial; lastly, remembering that to care to dare is to dare to care. RESPONDENT: 5. Why all this collateral effects resemble an exotic psychic allergy in my previous social habits? And if my organism are rejecting this internal changes during this re-wiring of my nervous system? RICHARD: Nobody said that the process of becoming actually free of the human condition would not be disturbing; indeed, such disturbance would have to be one of the primary reasons why it is entirely new to human experience/ human history. RESPONDENT: Anyway, this questions are my opportunity to not frittering away this message to you. RICHARD: Good ... I am not likely to be writing for too much longer, though, as there are other matters awaiting my attention (for most of the remainder of today and all of tomorrow, for instance, I will be otherwise engaged). Also, a certain event has shown to me that my experience and, thus, expertise in matters pertaining to consciousness may nowadays be put to better effect (now that millions of words are freely available online) when on a one-to-one basis. I am, of course, referring to a near-five month PCE incurred by such an interaction. Regards, Richard.
Re: Richard I have a question RESPONDENT No. 5: No. 14 and No. 14-sock-puppet, your posts asking for proof are excellent. RESPONDENT: I will repeat: I’m not a neo-buddhist skeptic like you [...]. Note about needs of proof: If that firsts astronauts didn’t have bring to Earth some rocks from the Moon, probably we will have much more than hoaxes today about Apollo 11. Credibility, dignity, sincerity, honesty, integrity, you name... in this consciousness business are the utmost, at least to me. RICHARD: Having swallowed the bait, hook, line and sinker you are being drawn in by an agent provocateur Look, there is no way that a scientific test (aka an objective experiment) can prove or disprove matters pertaining to consciousness (aka subjective experience). I have written about this before:
And the much-promoted fear response test – based solely upon the sound of a gunshot being fired close to the ears (Message
6990 At best it could only be inconclusive: there would then be demands for an aggression response test; then a nurture response test; then a desire response test. Shall I keep going? For instance:
Shall I continue? For instance:
I could go on and on, of course, but instead I will leave you with this to consider: the identity in residence all those years ago did not demand objective proof but, with the confidence born of the certainty which PCE’s provide in abundance, just went blithely ahead and gladsomely vanished into oblivion (as in extinction) for the benefit of this body and that body and every body. Just think about it: were ‘he’ not to have done that, but had instead sat about insisting on some scientific proof, this discussion forum would not exist, this conversation would not be taking place, and both the meaning-of-life and peace-on-earth would still remain yet to be discovered. Regards, Richard.
Re: It is impossible to locate and destroy ‘I’ RESPONDENT: [...] Sometimes I think we can run the risk of transform the PCE (or any other bliss state like EE) in another god, another subjective authority. RICHARD: Just a quick note en passant regarding terminology: neither a PCE or an EE can in any way be experienced as being a [quote] ‘bliss state’ [endquote]. Viz.:
As the affective faculty is in abeyance during a PCE there is no way such a powerful, rapturous feeling of bliss can happen and if there be a feeling of bliss in an EE (so near to being a PCE as to be almost indistinguishable from it) it is not an EE. Regards, Richard.
Re: It is impossible to locate and destroy ‘I’ RESPONDENT: Sometimes I think we can run the risk of transform the PCE (or any other bliss state like EE) in another god, another subjective authority. RICHARD: Just a quick note en passant regarding terminology: neither a PCE or an EE can in any way be experienced as being a [quote] ‘bliss state’ [endquote]. Viz.:
As the affective faculty is in abeyance during a PCE there is no way such a powerful, rapturous feeling of bliss can happen and if there be a feeling of bliss in an EE (so near to being a PCE as to be almost indistinguishable from it) it is not an EE. RESPONDENT: Ops! Not ‘bliss’. ‘Bless’. Richard, a total and complete absence of fear (and all of the instinctual passions), is a subjective (consciousness) or organic (physical) necessity to you? RICHARD: As how life is experienced when irrevocably sans identity in toto/the entire affective faculty is essentially no different than is experienced temporarily when having what you are now characterising as a [quote] ‘bless state’ [endquote] then, surely, you know the answer to that already, eh? If not, then here is a clue: the identity in toto/its entire affective faculty has no existence at all in actuality (never has existed nor ever will exist here). Do you still want to ask your question? Regards, Richard. P.S.: As a matter of related interest I wrote the following only thirteen days ago:
(Please note it is an impossibility to ignore anything at all which has no existence in actuality and how I do pay
lip-service, just as I am now, to the apparent existence of any identity feeling itself to be real). What my second wife was really referring to is
the total absence of any supportive identity rapport/ affective connection ...’.
Re: It is impossible to locate and destroy ‘I’ RESPONDENT: [...] Richard, a total and complete absence of fear (and all of the instinctual passions), is a subjective (consciousness) or organic (physical) necessity to you? RICHARD: As how life is experienced when irrevocably sans identity in toto/the entire affective faculty is essentially no different than is experienced temporarily when having what you are now characterising as a [quote] ‘bless state’ [endquote] then, surely, you know the answer to that already, eh? If not, then here is a clue: the identity in toto/its entire affective faculty has no existence at all in actuality (never has existed nor ever will exist here). Do you still want to ask your question? P.S.: As a matter of related interest I wrote the following only thirteen days ago:
(Please note it is an impossibility to ignore anything at all which has no existence in actuality and how I do pay
lip-service, just as I am now, to the apparent existence of any identity feeling itself to be real). What my second wife was really referring to is
the total absence of any supportive identity rapport/ affective connection ...’. RESPONDENT: Human life is basically voluntary motion against the gravity: unpredictable motion willed by the brain. In the same way, physical, material, organic and mechanic motion precedes thought, imagination, conscience and any abstract affective sensations. That’s why I asked this questions because PCE are not something supernatural and/or irrational. This temporary absence of self/ Self happens and has neuro-biological causes, and needs of determined conditions both in environment around and inside the cells of the own body with all his chemical reactions. I wonder how this neuro-biological pattern can regulate the Human Condition and also brings that amazing intervals when the identity in toto disappear. To me the actualism method works like an artificial technique to simulate this internal conditions and facilitate the arise of this natural phenomenon. So, after this constant body conditioning, progressively to change brain pathways to consolidate one new body free of that old and inborn instinctual self programation, definitely. In another words, to surf in the perfect wave we need to stay in the sea! Really an elegant and simple theory under an apparent cognitive/ subjective approach of life. Anyway, I still wonder what bodily alterations this Actual Freedom can would cause in our malleable nervous system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity Fortunately any opportunity to ask directly to you don’t can be wasted. ‘I’ don’t need or deserve personal attention and care. You are offering the indispensable to me: objective information to avoid reinvention of the wheel or failure. I must now take this opportunity to express my deepest and most enduring gratitude to you and his [=your] second wife, who help me since I first read Richard’s Journal some years ago. Your mentorship in AF respects, and including that situations and decisions I forced you to make, prevented me from making far more mistakes than I did. So, Richard, you have deeply honored me with your words and propose. I guess all we are making here, in this discussion list, is some thing similar to a mix of maieutics/socratic/dialectic approaches and your presence are one welcome privilege! Quote of the day: ‘A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.’ Oscar Wilde. RICHARD: Ha ... my second wife, who died a lonesome spinster, would often quote his ‘not getting what one wants/
getting what one wants’ I was pleased to see, at the link you provided, the author saying that [quote] ‘the adult brain is not ‘hard-wired’ with fixed and immutable neuronal circuits’ [endquote]. Over a quarter of a century ago my first wife, having had the entire hypophysis cerebri surgically removed because of a spreading tumour, was able to have the brain itself map new pathways, as it were, so as to reconstitute the production of all but two of the nine hormones which had ceased generation upon such radical, and life-saving, surgery (she has to ingest the other two orally to this very day). The human brain is a most amazing organ. Anyway, back to your question: yes, just as the PCE evidences, life here in this actual world is indeed not something supernatural and/or irrational. The reason why I responded as I did is because the total and complete absence of identity in toto/the entire affective faculty is dependent only upon the fact that nothing of that description has any existence whatsoever in actuality (never has existed nor ever will exist here). ‘Tis the same with my inability to ignore anything at all which has no existence in actuality. Perhaps if I were to put it thisaway: suppose you were to be sitting on a park bench in a botanical garden somewhere and a person next to you was to say ‘Look at that unicorn under the tree over there’. Would you not turn to check the person out in order to see if they had ingested an hallucinogenic substance? Now, suppose this person persisted and went on to say ‘Look, it’s right there in front of you; how can you possibly ignore it’? Would you not say it is impossible to ignore the total and complete absence of a unicorn? Now, suppose this person was then to ask you what this total and complete absence was dependent upon ... as in, for instance, is it ‘a subjective (consciousness) or organic (physical) necessity to you?’ Would you not say, while looking at the person quizzically, that the total and complete absence of any unicorn is dependent only upon the fact that nothing of that description has any existence in actuality (never has existed nor ever will exist)? Regards, Richard.
Re: Pragmatic comments RESPONDENT No. 12: Truly this is the greatest time in all of history to be alive. It will take time to bear collective fruit, but I think your discovery will gradually wash over humanity in due time, if humanity doesn’t destroy itself first (which is a very real possibility). RICHARD: Ha ... as what you are saying, in effect, is that every single man, woman and child on the planet – all 6.5
billion – are going to be destroyed, as a very real possibility, by every single man, woman and child on the planet (aka species extinction) then
here is a ‘word of the day’ for future reference: hyperbole: a figure of speech consisting in exaggerated or extravagant statement, used to
express strong feeling or produce a strong impression and not meant to be taken literally; [synonyms] exaggeration, overstatement, excess,
overkill. (Oxford Dictionary). RESPONDENT: Hi Richard, I would wish read your pragmatics comments about this topic (human race extinction), because maybe this subject can be much more than one hyperbolic speculation to us. UGK also made some predictions: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/actualfreedom/message/7498 (quoted from http://www.well.com/user/jct/reddi.htm) RICHARD: G’day No. 14, Reading down from the top: 1. Mr. Uppaluri Krishnamurti is self-contradictory about it being [quote] ‘the sheer terror of extinction’ [endquote] which will save humankind as he also says [quote] ‘no power on this earth’ [endquote] can halt extinction. Besides which, extinction of identity in toto/the entire affective faculty will do whatever saving is necessary (not that any such altruistic action ever occurred to him though). 2. He was wrong about the US being only [quote] ‘one of the superpowers’ [endquote] as the collapse of the USSR left it the only superpower (which says a lot about a market economy versus a command economy/ privatisation versus nationalisation/ democracy versus autocracy and so on). Besides which, having also lived through the ‘Cold War’ era myself it was obvious to me at the time how individual capitalism was streets ahead of state capitalism in terms of generating wealth (and thus economic, military and social might). 3. He was dissembling where he said [quote] ‘I am not a god man’ [endquote] as he unambiguously categorised his state of being elsewhere as ‘sahaja samadhi’ (the sanskrit term for ‘natural state’) which is generally held by more than a few to be superior to ‘nirvikalpa samadhi’. Besides which, it is obvious to anyone with the eyes to read how he still had the entire affective faculty intact and, thus, ‘being’ itself (usually capitalised as ‘Being’). 4. He was wrong about it being [quote] ‘the separative structure of thought’ [endquote], which has [quote] ‘created the violent world’ [endquote], that will probably push [quote] ‘life on this planet to the brink of extinction’ [endquote]. Besides which, the non-cognitive consciousness of many and various animals has not precluded them from creating their own violent worlds (so to speak) which has pushed other species to extinction. 5. He was wrong about [quote] ‘the first and the last freedom and all the freedoms that come in between’ [endquote] pushing humans into [quote] ‘a manic-depressive state’ [endquote]. Besides which, political freedom, economic freedom, social freedom, and so on, has resulted in health, wealth, leisure, pleasure and safety for the average citizen on a scale which is unprecedented in human history. 6. He was wrong about how human self-consciousness, in contra-distinction to the way consciousness functions in other species, is [quote] ‘threatening the extinction of all that nature has created with such tremendous care’ [endquote]. Besides which, only the human animal (with its unique capacity for self awareness and intelligence) can adapt blind nature in ways beneficial to a continuance of life. 7. He was wrong where he said [quote] ‘no power on this earth’ [endquote] can halt that above extinction and how [quote] ‘Man is doomed. He has no freedom of action’ [endquote]. Besides which, so what were the human race to die out sooner than later as the planet itself – indeed the entire solar system – is not going to last forever anyway. 8. And he was wrong in saying [quote] ‘all we can do is to wait for the end of the world’ [endquote]. 9. But he was right when he said that all the above may sound like [quote] ‘an apocalyptic warning of a prophet of doom’ [endquote]. As anyone would be well-advised to take everything he said with a pinch of salt then a large salt-shaker is a worthwhile investment prior to reading his books. RESPONDENT: Before we have discussed more about it here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/actualfreedom/message/7083. What the error behind Mr. Gaede’s theory? (quoted from http://www.youstupidrelativist.com/08Ext/00SumExt.html) RICHARD: Quite simply, Mr. Bill Gaede bases his hypothesis on the premise that, because palaeontological evidence – fossilised remains – demonstrates how more than 90% of all species ever living are now extinct, the human species will likewise be soon to die out. He says [quote] ‘all living organisms are born to die, individually and collectively’ [endquote] yet fails to take into account how the vast majority of those extinct species are either single- or simple-celled organisms, which were quite obviously barely sentient, or that even the higher-order creatures lacked self-consciousness (the capacity to be aware of sentience) and, thus, agency (the self-referential, self-serving ability) let alone the self-reflective facility called intelligence and its concomitant capability of language (rather than just the incoherent way of basic animal communication). In other words, a flawed premise is bound to result in a flawed (erroneous) conclusion. By way of illustration: in a famine or drought animals, just like plants (unless hardy), languish and die whereas humans, with their unique ability to observe, recall, compare/ consider and implement beneficial action do not only survive but can also prosper as well. The survival of the fittest does not necessarily mean, as more than a few take it to be, the survival of the most muscular but clearly speaks of the survival of the most fitted (adapted) to the environment living long enough to pass on their genes; and the human animal, with its exceptional capabilities, is not only well-fitted (adapted) to the environment but can also fit (adapt) the environment for beneficial outcomes. (As in tool-making, animal husbandry, agriculture, food-stocks, water-supply, horticulture, aquaculture, mining, industry, cold-storage, hygiene, medicines, vaccinations, and so on and so on). Although I am in accord with his take on theoretical physicists and had the odd chuckle at his expressive phraseology – his doom and gloom scenario left me decidedly unimpressed. Yet another doomsday merchant. RESPONDENT: He also put the blame in our Human Condition because it created and allow this artificial economy fated to a global collapse (we can live without God, computers, sex and even without virtual or actual freedom, but never without edible FOOD, the actual money in a natural economy). RICHARD: An internet search quickly showed he has hopped aboard the latest bandwagon to arrive in town: he has been peddling his scaremongering online for quite a few years and back in 2001, for instance, he was predicting the human race had less than 500 years left to live due to an inversion of the population pyramid. Viz.:
Now, fast-forward to the world-wide monetary situation of 2007 and, all-of-a-sudden, the end is nigh now! (And all because of a global financial situation which, although some say it is a global credit crisis/a global liquidity crisis, is more a monetary crisis brought about by an unprecedented level of both private and public debt per favour an inherently inflationary fractional banking system and non-governmental control of its nation’s fiat currency). The man is clearly a doomsday opportunist; wait a few years and he will be haranguing a gullible crowd from yet another one of his scaremongering barrows. RESPONDENT: Maybe something like an imminent menace to humanity can awake our potential altruism. RICHARD: Ha ... the only imminent menace to humanity (to use your term) is gullibility. RESPONDENT: Related to this, I bet you saw incredible feats in the ‘Nam. RICHARD: I mainly saw young men – callow youth barely out of their teens – doing their duty as per military training. Incredible feats (valour) are few and far between. For instance, there have been only 1,348 Victoria Crosses (the highest award in the British medal system) awarded since its inception in 1856. I have written about valour here: RESPONDENT: P.S.: one bizarre observation: two of your ex-wives had some type of cancer tumor. And even you had skin cancer some years ago... RICHARD: My first wife had a spreading tumour, not a cancerous one; my second wife did have a malignant tumour (MMMT); my so-called minor skin cancer (a populous term) was actually a benign, non-spreading, non-burrowing abnormal tissue growth. Here is what those two words can mean:
Incidentally, ever so slowly more and more cancers are being found to have a microbial or viral cause. Going solely from memory cancers such as a cervical cancer (HPV), a liver cancer (HBV), a throat cancer (HPV) and a stomach cancer (H. Pylori) for instance. There is also some too-early-to-say evidence that heart disease may (note ‘may’) be microbial/ viral as well. Regards, Richard.
Re: Questions To Richard RESPONDENT No. 19: [...] apart from the videos, it is primarily through the mails and the articles I know about you. RICHARD: As the mailing list format had reached its use-by date more than a few years ago (having out-lived its
usefulness), and as already signalled RESPONDENT: From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_experience: ‘Recent Developments: Prof. Gad Yair from The Hebrew University has developed a line of research on Key Experiences, especially relating to educational events. His papers on Key experiences in higher education and on the role of those experiences in educational turning points are readily available over the net. The concept of key educational experiences refers to singular, short and intense educational encounters that proved to have strong and long-lasting effects on adults. These encounters are at times associated with a specific person who led them (e.g. teacher, parent, youth leader), at others with the structure of the episode itself (e.g. progress toward a peak event which is then associated with insight and hindsight). Indeed, many respondents speak of their key educational experiences in terms of sight: Exceptional activities cause prior blinders to be suddenly lifted off, producing clear vision and insight, notably about students’ own selves.’ Richard, is this your intention? RICHARD: No, not educational as such as all the reports/ descriptions/ explanations freely available online are already of a sufficiently informative nature as to render any further instructive material superfluous to requirements. (Items for sale are optional extras – luxury items as it were – and are not at all necessary in order to be fully-informed of just what is involved in becoming either actually or virtually free). As to my intention in regards not only facilitating direct access to me but also enabling an informal interaction with some other actualists as well: being sans identity in toto/ the entire affective faculty (plus its epiphenomenal psychic facility) any residence or venue of mine is marked by an absence of both affective vibes and psychic currents ... a pristine ambience made all the more marked, for many a person, upon returning from the ‘real-world’ environs after a previous visit. (For instance, my second wife would say, upon her return after an outing on her own into town, that it was like coming back in to a sanctuary. Even a stranger, a real-estate agent (known as a realtor in some places), after showing some potential clients around the duplex I was at the time renting, took me aside and told me how fresh and clean the ambience was; I said it must be because of no children, no cats or dogs, no wild parties, etc., but she looked straight into my eyes and said, ‘no, it’s you; it’s you who makes the ambience clean and fresh’). Now, this pristine ambience is conducive to a sincere actualist activating their potential – albeit temporarily – as in some form of an out-from-control/ different-way-of-being (to whatever degree of intimacy they be comfortable with at the time). Furthermore, experience has shown that these intimacy experiences can be contagious, so to speak, for other sincere actualists also present as the atmosphere generated affectively/ psychically by the first to be out-from-control/ in a different-way-of-being can propagate a flow-on effect, on occasion. In short: a felicitous and innocuous atmosphere, begotten in an ever-fresh affectless/ selfless ambience, fosters a milieu where happiness and harmlessness can be the norm rather than the exception. As I have already provided one of the reasons There was no way I could deny it/ ignore it/ dismiss it and/or brush it aside – even if I had wanted to – as she was quite clear to others that, were it not for this interaction, it would never have happened. It thus became obvious that by continuing to keep myself locked away, so to speak, in an exclusive nuclear couple/ nuclear family type of living arrangement there would continue to be a denial of access, to my fellow human beings at large, for any such potentially potent interactions. (Please note that nothing is guaranteed, however, as anything of such a nature is entirely dependent upon where the other is currently at, where they are coming from, and what their overall intent is). RESPONDENT: I ask this because you (or Peter, I don’t remember) also wrote about the mentorship in actualism practice. RICHARD: Maybe you are referring to this:
I speak of acting as a mentor in Article 19, of ‘Richard’s Journal’, entitled ‘War is the inevitable outcome of being
‘human’ (The inhumanity of humankind is legendary)’ and a copy of the three relevant paragraphs can be found here (fourth section down): Incidentally, for those who find the word mentor off-putting the following is worth a read: Nothing at all formal ... just an easy chat about whatever. Regards, Richard.
Re: Questions To Richard RICHARD: As the mailing list format had reached its use-by date more than a few years ago (having out-lived its
usefulness), and as already signalled RESPONDENT: Oi Richard, Does you pretend to record/ register/ divulgate/ share this future encounter? RICHARD: Boa Noite No. 14. No, I do not intend to tape/ chronicle/ publish/ disseminate these forthcoming sessions ...
just as the personal conversations which are currently taking place with an outstanding fellow human being, well-known to this forum, are not being
recorded either. Indeed, here is the postscript I appended to the where, when and how email I sent prior these personal conversations taking place:
When I say ‘informal’ I mean just that (informal). Besides which, these personal conversations, in order to be fruitful, needs must be candid, frank and are, thus, always held strictly in confidence. (The only occasions where an interaction is recorded – such as the video shoots on the DVD’s – is at the other’s behest and even then primarily for the benefit of their fellow human beings). Basically, the essential reason for these interactions is for there to be something out-of-the-ordinary happen, by moving (experientially) with me as the conversing takes place, as the reports/ descriptions/ explanations freely available online are sufficiently informative as for my clarificatory services to be no longer required. I spent a decade of my life making sure everything needing to be known was made known; those who objected to being happy and harmless were particularly helpful in this regard as information not ordinarily occurring to me to write about came forth, in abundance, as a direct result. Ain’t life grand! Regards, Richard.
Re: Questions To Richard RICHARD: Basically, the essential reason for these interactions is for there to be something out-of-the-ordinary happen, by moving (experientially) with me as the conversing takes place, as the reports/ descriptions/ explanations freely available online are sufficiently informative as for my clarificatory services to be no longer required. RESPONDENT: Fine. One last question into this subject: Are you a ‘Black Swan’? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory RICHARD: Hmm ... as Mr. Nassim Taleb has made a lot of money selling the idea how peoples unaware of randomicity have a tendency to see (ex post facto) chance events as anything but acts of randomness your question serves to illustrate how he has so successfully managed to do so. But, as to your query itself: as the way in which this flesh and blood body became freed from the human condition was the direct result of the identity in residence all those years ago deliberately, consciously and with knowledge aforethought setting in motion a ‘process’ which ensured ‘his’ extinction then, obviously, my freedom cannot be yet another of Mr. Nassim Taleb’s innumerable ‘Black Swan Events’. (And I say ‘innumerable’ because anything unforeseen by others qualifies as one, in his money-making schema, such as the hunter-gatherer peoples of the Swan River area of Western Australia some centuries ago presumably thinking all swans to be black). This is all such fun, eh? Regards, Richard. Continued on Direct Route: No. 22
RETURN TO MAILING LIST ‘D’ 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.
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