Actual Freedom – Selected Correspondence by Topic

RESPONDENT: I have just brought online a new website – <www.actualfreedom.com> – on which I intend to publish my understanding of what it means to be free; and in particular my relationship with the entity or method or concept or mindset or viewpoint known as ‘Actual Freedom’.

RICHARD: I took note, where you wrote ‘my relationship with the entity or method or concept or mindset or viewpoint known as ‘Actual Freedom’’, that for you an actual freedom from the human condition is an entity or a method or a concept or a mindset or a viewpoint ... rather than the experiential, moment-by-moment, direct experience of the actual. Perhaps this explains why you quite rightly see me as not being ‘open-minded’ towards the multifarious philosophies (by whatever name) which abound in the ‘real world’.

RESPONDENT: You so often misunderstand ... I was not referring to you being not open-minded to the ‘multifarious philosophies’. I was referring to you being less than open minded when a real and actual breathing experiencing human writes to you.

RICHARD: Shall I put it this way? When a ‘real and actual breathing experiencing human’ writes to me, saying that they intend to publish their understanding of their relationship with ‘the entity or method or concept or mindset or viewpoint known as ‘Actual Freedom’’ , then I engage in a conversation designed to elucidate why they are busy turning two million words (at a guess) into an entity or method or concept or mindset or viewpoint in order to not only have a relationship with it ... but to also study ‘General Semantics’ so as to find out what the nature of their relationship is.

To clarify: the only entity which exists is a legal entity named ‘The Actual Freedom Trust’ ... created by an accountant in accord with the laws of this country. The only method offered is to run the question ‘How am I experiencing this moment of being alive?’ until it becomes a non-verbal attitude or approach each moment again. As for the remainder of what you are busily having a relationship with – a concept or a mindset or a viewpoint – they do not exist outside of your mind.

*

RICHARD: A philosophy (by whatever name) that does not deliver the goods in regards to peace-on-earth, in this life-time, as this flesh and blood body, is not worth the paper it is printed on. I am as open-minded towards them as I am to ‘Santa Claus’ and the ‘Tooth Fairy’.

RESPONDENT: EXACTLY. So perhaps it is time for you to re-examine the role of The Actual Freedom Trust.

RICHARD: The legal entity, known officially as ‘The Actual Freedom Trust’, has one role and one role only: ‘To promulgate and promote the words and writings explicating the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice’.

What is it that you would wish me to ‘re-examine’ about this role?

RESPONDENT: I stumbled onto the actual freedom homepage one day at work ... in what was surely a moment of what you have labelled quite appropriately a PCE I entered unthinkingly WAY TO FREEDOM FROM WORLD OF ILLUSION into a search engine and wow pow came up with the AF Homepage as one of the thousands of links ... .

Serendipity? Perhaps.

RICHARD: Yep ... ‘serendipity’ is a better description than ‘a PCE’ (there is more to inducing a PCE than being thoughtless).

Although, as The Actual Freedom Trust web site has 5,316 files (97.8MBs) it leaves quite a large footprint for web crawlers to index ... maybe it was not just a happy and unexpected accident but also the sheer volume which produced the hit.

RESPONDENT: Hah! Well it is great to be here! Thankyou!

RICHARD: You are very welcome ... just as any further contribution you may make is (the more and diverse the input the better is human knowledge advanced).

RESPONDENT: Richard, how is the AFT funded?

RICHARD: The Actual Freedom Trust is funded by the voluntary contributions of three suburbanites.

RESPONDENT: How do you cover the costs of the web site and your staff?

RICHARD: The costs of The Actual Freedom Trust web site are met by the voluntary contributions of three suburbanites and, as the staff are those three suburbanites, any and all staff-type activities are also voluntary.

RESPONDENT: I was going through your intro. Its pretty impressive in its simplicity and logic.

RICHARD: The simplicity of an actual freedom from the human condition, if that is what you mean, is indeed impressive ... it has nothing to do with logic, however, and everything to do with actuality.

RESPONDENT: If you really want to have an effect on this world, you have the perfect framework for a standard education course.

RICHARD: Are you implying that, because The Actual Freedom Trust is not running standard education courses, that I do not really want to have an effect on the world?

RESPONDENT: Surely the world is ready for this subject ... what could be more important?

RICHARD: Once the five basic needs are met – (preferably clean) air, (preferably pure) water, (preferably healthy) food, (preferably adequate) shelter, and (preferably suitable) clothing if the climate be inclement – there is indeed nothing more important than peace-on-earth, in this lifetime, as this flesh and blood body ... and were the majority of the population to be living peacefully and harmoniously the provision of those basic needs would be such a matter of course that the preference for quality would be easily met.

‘Tis a cutting indictment on the ‘you can’t change human nature’ mentality that it is not already happening in this age of plenty.

RESPONDENT: You must have thought of this, no?

RICHARD: I thought about it for five years (1992-1997) before I finally went public, as I value my privacy highly and prefer anonymity over publicity any day of the week, yet nothing thought could do had any effect at all on the intrinsic fellowship regard which epitomises the actual intimacy (no separation) of being a flesh and blood body only.

RESPONDENT: Any such plans?

RICHARD: None at all. Vis.:

• [Richard]: ‘The Actual Freedom Trust is a statutory legal body that five nominal directors established in order to operate under for sensible commercial reasons.
The words and writings promulgated and promoted by The Actual Freedom Trust explicate the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice in the market place. There is no meditating in silence or living in a monastery shut away from the world. There are no celibacy or obedience requirements. There are no dietary demands or daily regimes of exercise. No one is excluded by age or racial or gender origins. There are no prescribed books to study ... upwards of maybe two [now four] million words are available for free on The Actual Freedom Web Page. There are no courses to follow or therapies to undergo or workshops to endure. There are no fees to pay or any clique to join ... there are no rules at all.
*I have no plan whatsoever* ... there is no authority here in charge of a hierarchical organisation. [emphasis added].

What I do is sit at my computer, when the whim takes me, and share my discovery with my fellow human beings ... being retired, and on a pension, instead of pottering around in the garden I am pottering around the internet. It is a leisure-time activity, a retirement pastime-come-hobby, as it were, and a very pleasant thing to do indeed.

I am having a lot of fun here at this keyboard.

RESPONDENT: It is not new ...

RICHARD: As an actual freedom from the human condition is new to human history then any method to enable this to come about is also new.

RESPONDENT: ... it is not the only method that works but it is fine.

RICHARD: As no one else is actually free from the human condition, as yet, then other methods are still in the experimental stage. Until one of them works then this method I offer – which worked for me – is the only one available.

RESPONDENT: The problem I have is with you setting up an organisation that takes your claims and makes a system of belief from them.

RICHARD: I am aware that this is your viewpoint ... these discussions serve to examine your viewpoint to see if it has validity.

RESPONDENT: I know a system of belief is not actual freedom; you do also ...

RICHARD: Yes ... I do not want any one to merely believe me. I stress to people how vital it is that they see for themselves. If they were so foolish as to believe me then the most they would end up in is living in a dream state and thus miss out on the actual. I do not wish this fate upon anyone ... I like my fellow human beings. What one can do is make a critical examination of all the words I advance so as to ascertain if they be intrinsically self-explanatory ... and only when they are seen to be inherently consistent with what is being spoken about, then the facts speak for themselves. Then one will have reason to remember a pure conscious experience (PCE), which all peoples I have spoken to at length have had, and thus verify by direct experience the facticity of what is written.

Then it is the PCE that is one’s lodestone or guiding light ... not me or my words. My words then offer affirmation ... and confirmation in that a fellow human being has safely walked this wide and wondrous path.

RESPONDENT: ... and I know that what you are creating is a new system of belief that superimposes itself on top of the actual freedom you seem to cherish.

RICHARD: I am well aware that this is your viewpoint ... and, as I said, these discussion are serving to elucidate whether your viewpoint has validity.

So far it has shown no validity whatsoever.

RESPONDENT: You set up the system and everybody who comes along gets examined on the basis of that system.

RICHARD: I did not individually set up The Actual Freedom Trust. The Actual Freedom Trust is a statutory legal body that five nominal directors established in order to operate under for sensible commercial reasons.

The words and writings promulgated and promoted by The Actual Freedom Trust explicate the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice in the market place. There is no meditating in silence or living in a monastery shut away from the world. There are no celibacy or obedience requirements. There are no dietary demands or daily regimes of exercise. No one is excluded by age or racial or gender origins. There are no prescribed books to study ... upwards of maybe two million words are available for free on The Actual Freedom Web Page. There are no courses to follow or therapies to undergo or workshops to endure. There are no fees to pay or any clique to join ... there are no rules at all.

I have no plan whatsoever ... there is no authority here in charge of a hierarchical organisation.

This is my position: we are all fellow human beings who find ourselves here in the world as it was when we were born. We find war, murder, torture, rape, domestic violence and corruption to be endemic ... we notice that it is intrinsic to the human condition ... we set out to discover why this is so. We find sadness, loneliness, sorrow, grief, depression and suicide to be a global incidence ... and we gather that it is also inherent to the human condition ... and we want to know why. We report to each other as to the nature of our discoveries for we are all well-meaning and seek to find a way out of this mess that we have landed in. Whether one believes in re-incarnation or not, we are all living this particular life for the very first time, and we wish to make sense of it. It is a challenge and the adventure of a life-time to enquire and to uncover, to seek and to find, to explore and to discover. All this being alive business is actually happening and we are totally involved in living it out ... whether we take the back seat or not, we are all still doing it.

I, for one, am not taking the back seat.

RESPONDENT: I hope that you have enjoyed the last week or so when I have been corresponding fairly regularly with you on the actual freedom list.

RICHARD: I am having so much fun here at the keyboard.

RESPONDENT: I consider my role to be more of journalistic than as a seeker after actual truth ...

RICHARD: The measure of one’s success is, of course, proportional to one’s intent. Generally speaking, commitment is avoided like the plague lest one’s friends call one ‘obsessed’ and start issuing atavistic warnings of dire consequences ... and slip the word ‘insanity’ into their conversations every now and then.

RESPONDENT: ... or as a potential client of your way.

RICHARD: Is this really how you still see it after all these discussions? Oh well ... c’est la vie, I guess.

RESPONDENT: I do hope that we can continue to be friends on that basis.

RICHARD: You have raised this before in a previous exchange some months ago. Vis.:

• [Respondent]: ‘HEY! Richard!! I like you! I like your Actual Freedom Mailing List!! Now are you able to say Respondent I like you? Hmm?? Or are you too busy making a point’.
• [Richard]: ‘I like everybody irregardless of what mischief they get up to ... and I do not stop liking them when I am making a point’.
• [Respondent]: ‘The point does not seem so important now’.
• [Richard]: ‘The point is important irregardless of what the other does or does not do or does or does not say for there is no compromise possible here in this actual world ... nothing ‘dirty’ can get in’.
• [Respondent]: ‘I’d like you to be my friend. Because you know ... I got tired of all the rape and murder and war and opposition on this planet’.
• [Richard]: ‘As I like everybody anyway I never have to sell out for the sake of a friendship. Besides, I never need the other to fulfil me ... or whatever it is that makes people bargain and compromise for the sake of such a fickle thing as a relationship. I like being here ... I am totally fulfilled and utterly satisfied each moment again’.
• [Respondent]: ‘... and I think people who think like you and me could be friends ... how about it?? Wanna come and have a coffee with me?? Relating is so simple. As simple as freedom actually’.
• [Richard]: ‘There is more to an actual freedom from the human condition than merely thinking alike ... one gets off one’s backside and actually does something’.

It would appear that personal friendships are important to you ... as is being respected, being valued and being accredited (to name but three of the things you have wanted from me in this current exchange of E-Mails). There is only one thing which will impress me: the other person being actually free from the human condition. This is because then they too, just like me, will be incapable of not liking another just because of whatever mischief it is they get up to.

It is impossible to ‘switch off’ an actual intimacy ... ever.

RESPONDENT: In fact, in around 48 hours, it is highly likely that a friend and I will begin driving north to Byron Bay and I would like to meet you once again for the enjoyment of each others company; and my friend, [name witheld] from Holland, has expressed interest in meeting the Richard I have been corresponding with. Would you like that?

RICHARD: I have experimented, over the three years or so since I went public with my discovery on the internet, to see whether I am correct or incorrect (and not merely theorising) in saying that it is the words that convey an actual freedom from the human condition, and to thus find out for myself as to whether it is pointless coming to see me in person or not.

It is indeed pointless coming to see me in person.

RESPONDENT: When I return, I will most like continue my examination of the human condition by setting up some even newer ‘Viewpoint into’ sites by Respondent. There are many possibilities. At some time I would like to come back and be involved intensely again on this list; I will keep reading the most interesting contributions until that time. Once again; I politely and genuinely thank you for engaging with me in this online examination of actual freedom.

RICHARD: You are very welcome ... it is what The Actual Freedom Mailing List is set up for.

RESPONDENT: I consider my role to be more of journalistic than as a seeker after actual truth; or as a potential client of your way.

RICHARD: Is this really how you still see it after all these discussions? Oh well ... c’est la vie, I guess.

RESPONDENT: Of course. I do not want to be a client. And I do not want you to be a server. And vice-versa; both. The client-server model of effective structuring of systems was very popular a decade or so ago; but is fast losing validity and respect; and even is losing the possibility of remaining a viable option; as the autonomous peer model that the internet is built on becomes understood more widely. The internet was built to survive a nuclear attack; so the underlying structure is a great model to utilise for human communication systems; and for understanding and increasing immersion in; the underlying actual state of affairs underneath all that. I trust you picked all that up from my communication above when you were reading my words at face-value.

RICHARD: What I ‘picked-up’ then, and what I ‘pick-up’ now (as in reading your words at face value), is that you are still not talking to me. You are persisting in talking to an image in your mind called ‘Richard The Server’ (in this instance you cite) created in situ by the viewpoint which you hold to be ‘correct and true’ ... and which, although you allow it may not be, you never actually do. And the resultant problems you thus create is what ‘empty rhetoric’ and ‘mindless repetitions’ and ‘vacuous statements’ actively look like when played-out in print (this E-Mail exchange goes on and on around this one issue).

I will put it this way: a potential client (a customer, a shopper, a buyer, a purchaser, a consumer) can only flower to their full potential if a merchant has set-up their stall in the market-place, fully stocked with their product, so as to peddle their wares. A client/merchant relationship, in other words, has to mutually pre-exist as a potentiality for the colloquialism ‘it takes two to tango’ to swing into gear. In the context which you wrote your sentence ‘or a potential client of your way’ (the ‘Actual Freedom’=‘Actual Truth’ aka ‘God’ by ‘Whatever Name’ context) you can only be talking to an image in your mind ... as I am not that personality (the merchant) your viewpoint seeks to superimpose over my words and thus attempts to insert into this flesh and blood body.

Hence I wrote: ‘is this really how you still see it after all these discussions’ (as in does your viewpoint really still manipulate you into fondly imagining that you and this flesh and blood body answering to the name ‘Richard’ have, or have ever had, a merchant/client relationship)? There never has been such a relationship; there is no such relationship now; and there never will be such a relationship. The personality you are wanting friendship from, the personality you want to respect you, the personality you want to be valued by and the personality you want accreditation from has no existence outside of your mind.

RESPONDENT: It looks like [name withheld] and I will indeed be in Byron by the end of the week; and as you state clearly that ‘it is indeed pointless coming to see me in person’ I will take your words at face-value and ring you when we are in town for a nice friendly pointless lunch and chat together. Great.

RICHARD: It is to no avail whatsoever to come seeking that personality (the merchant) here in Byron Bay, to endeavour to make contact with that entity personally, as there is only a flesh and blood body here being apperceptively aware. There is no person answering to that description at this address. Or to put it another way: all you will get by ringing me is an answering machine playing the same-same message as is displayed for all the world to see on The Actual Freedom Web Site.

Only the Web Site says it better ... I tend to waffle on like all get-out in voice.

*

RESPONDENT: Great. I will ring your answering machine if and when my friend [name witheld] and I arrive; and ‘we’ can perhaps arrange a lunch or coffee ‘together’. I can imagine that the ‘flesh and blood body’ would enjoy ‘being apperceptively aware’ in the beach hotel restaurant or some such.

RICHARD: Yet I already enjoy my current lifestyle, as it is, totally, completely, utterly. I fully enjoy my own company; I fully enjoy the company of a choice companion; I fully enjoy the company of select associates; I fully enjoy all current associations ... my social calendar is thus fully booked out by simply living. I live a normal lifestyle: this is the lifestyle I have chosen; this is the lifestyle I wish to live; this is the lifestyle I am living. I enjoy normal things: I live in a normal suburban duplex; I eat at normal restaurants; I meet normal people at cafés; I chat about normal things; I have normal pastimes ... to be able to freely live this normal lifestyle in a seaside village is why I set out to become free of the human condition all those years ago. I never intended – and I do not intend – to become some sort of latter-day atheistic-saviour of humankind wherein I cannot live a normal lifestyle. I do indeed value my privacy highly ... which is one of the reasons why I chose the internet to share my discovery of peace-on-earth with my fellow human beings.

You have been persistent in attempting to intrude into this normal living – and thus violate both my lifestyle and that of my companion and associates – so as to make me into some kind of public figure-head replete with publicity photographs and pay-as-you-participate workshops ... even though I have been consistent in providing the following pertinent information, relevant reasons and articulate answers:

• [Richard]: ‘I am having too much fun, living my life in the way I see fit, to clutter up my lifestyle with ‘guru-circuit’ peoples, who cannot think for themselves, trooping daily through my front door’.

• [Richard]: ‘I will put it this way: a potential client can only flower to their full potential if a merchant has set-up their stall in the market-place, fully stocked with their product, so as to peddle their wares. A client/merchant relationship, in other words, has to mutually pre-exist as a potentiality for the colloquialism ‘it takes two to tango’ to swing into gear ... I am not that personality (the merchant) your viewpoint seeks to superimpose over my words and thus attempts to insert into this flesh and blood body’.

• [Richard]: ‘I am a fellow human being sans identity: the affective faculty – the entire psyche itself – is eradicated. There is no ‘charisma’ nor any ‘energy-field’ here as I have no ‘energies’ ... no power or powers whatsoever. Therefore it is the words that convey ... words are words, whether they be spoken, printed or appear as pixels on a screen’.

• [Richard]: ‘Ultimately it is what is being said or written, by the writer or the speaker that lives what is being expressed, that is important ... and facts and actuality then speak for themselves.

• [Richard]: ‘It is the words that communicate what needs to be said and not me. Nor is the number of words presented ... I initially presented 114,000 words’.

• [Richard]: ‘Now the words exist – as the actual freedom writings – and I am not necessary for the process at all’.

• [Richard]: ‘The words ‘connect up’ with the person reading them with both eyes open ... I am not necessary for the process’.

• [Richard]: ‘It is entirely possible that I will cease writing one day and go and live on a tropical island and watch the fish leap in the lagoon’.

• [Richard]: ‘The Internet is my chosen means of dissemination for the obvious reason of being interactive and rapid’.

• [Richard]: ‘The electronic copying and distribution capacity of a mailing list service – with it’s multiple feed-back capability – is second to none’.

• [Richard]: ‘A self-confessed guru-seeker from the other side of the world came to see me, having had some contact with the actual freedom writings, with the view of being able to be finished with gurus forever. Every afternoon for nearly six weeks this person had a private face-to-face interaction – for four to six hours every afternoon for 39 days this person had a one-on-one intimacy – and then this guru-seeker went back to their guru’.

• [Richard]: ‘I have experimented, over the three years or so since I went public with my discovery on the internet, to see whether I am correct or incorrect (and not merely theorising) in saying that it is the words that convey an actual freedom from the human condition, and to thus find out for myself as to whether it is pointless coming to see me in person or not. It is indeed pointless coming to see me in person’.

I have said before that the words and writings promulgated and promoted by The Actual Freedom Trust fully explicate the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice in the market place (which means there is no meditating in silence or living in a monastery shut away from the world). I have pointed out that there are no celibacy or obedience requirements or dietary demands or daily regimes of exercise ... nor is one is excluded by age or racial or gender origins. I have emphasised that there are no courses to follow or therapies to undergo or workshops to endure or any clique to join ... I have been emphatic that there are no fees to pay. Furthermore, not only are there no prescribed books to study, the latest count shows that more than 3.1 million words are available for free on The Actual Freedom Web Page.

It pleases me immensely that the way to access an actual freedom from the human condition is available for free.

However, one is well-advised to read about the way thoroughly ... thus it is apt to quote some words shared to the world at large, by one of your fellow human beings, on The Actual Freedom Web Page:

RICHARD: With reference to your private communication yesterday (11.59 AM Thursday 7 December 2000) I would suggest that ...

RESPONDENT: ‘[I am not willing to meet you]’. There is only one position to take in order to bring an end to suffering and malice and sorrow and ignorance. When you meet another person enjoy their company. When another person offers you their company freely, enjoy the opportunity. Richard missed an opportunity. ‘I enjoy your company; you enjoy mine’. Simple. The position of Richard, and of the ‘Actual Freedom Trust’ – however – is not to actually meet people but rather, to tell people who offer their company to first get an understanding. First (or instead) ‘discuss any aspect of an actual freedom from the human condition on this freely available venue’. The practice of Richard and of the ‘Actual Freedom Trust’ is to deny the Actual Human Freedom of all other people, and to tell all other people that they should first read the website of the ‘actual’ ‘freedom’ ‘trust’ and from there discussion is possible. First listen to us because we know and you don’t ... (we have Richard, and you don’t). This has been the position of people down thru the ages. It is the old ancient wisdom – and it is a position that does not work. Old ancient wisdom is – first listen to me because I know and you don’t; and from there we can move into an understanding and thus form into a grouping of people who know, and we will be better – more Actual, in the current lingo – than those who do not know. And then we will tell those other people that we know and they don’t so they had better listen to us. Trouble is those other groups also want to tell that they are right and you are wrong ... hence conflict, war, rape , sorrow and malice. The ‘Actual Freedom Trust’ should in fact be investigated by consumer affairs – Fair Trading NSW – to answer for the claim they make. Actual Freedom? Actual Foolishness! The rearrangement of old ancient wisdom that the ‘Actual Freedom’ trust is propagating is that some of the trust have made it as far as ‘virtual freedom’ and that one – and only one – can take on the role of being the only actually free one – and that in fact, someone HAS already taken that role (and has convinced some fools to believe him). That way there is a hierarchy and an authority and ... that way leads to conflict, dissension, rape, war and apocalypse. And shoddy logic on mailing lists. The way of natural affection, and of enjoying each others company, and of acknowledging one’s self (in other words one’s point of view) is the ACTUAL way that Actual Freedom can be recognised and acknowledged. The way of denial of human emotions and denial of the ‘self’, as proposed by the ‘Actual Freedom Trust’ is the way to a concept known as ‘Actual Freedom’ as distinct from Actual Freedom. The way to Actual Freedom is simple. Step one, is to welcome people as they are and enjoy their company. The other step one, is to welcome yourself as you are and enjoy your own company ... all the time welcoming experiencing the Actual World in this very moment, as it is (if you need to ask yourself questions to facilitate entering into actuality, then do that). Actual freedom. Simplicity. Acceptance. Natural ease-of-process of being human (with ‘self’). Obviously Richard does not want to enjoy my company; he refused my invitation to meet ACTUALLY in Byron Bay, preferring a Virtual Interaction. He wants to communicate wisdom and he wants to construct and defend his intellectual positions and rearrangings over the internet – and I enjoy that process also, that is why I am here; and that is why I established xxx.com and xxx-xxx.com, amongst other ‘Viewpoint of Respondent’ websites. I enjoy this process and like Richard I am thrilled (a good Richard word, ‘thrilled’, I think) at the possibilities of the internet; but clearly Richard does not enjoy my company in the Actual world and is more interested in convincing me that he is right and I am wrong. Again; that way is Ancient wisdom: ‘We are right; listen to us. You are wrong; by listening further you can be right just like us; and then we can be right all together and the others can be wrong, and that way the world will be better – our way – and those who disagree can find another planet to live on ...’. My point of view is my own and I enjoy meeting people who also have a point of view – such as Richard – and I think it is sad that people like Richard – who has the capability if not the intent, of entering into actual freedom – remain dogmatic – ‘I am right and you are wrong; listen to me; read my wisdom and then you can also be right like me’. (And Richard; I am well aware it is not a case of being right or wrong; it is a case of what are the facts; the fact is you are a writer; so when you construct your intellectual rebuttal of my point of view; you need not concern yourself with that one). Now; I wonder if next time I am in Byron Bay, Richard would like to have coffee with an Actual Human Being or he will be too busy Teaching the Masses and the Fools how to be (step one) Virtually Free (step two) A Director of the ‘Actual Freedom Trust’. It would seem that the guru of ‘Actual Freedom’ reserves the Actuality of ‘Freedom’ for ‘him’ ‘self’ ... and if it were not for the fact that he has found some fools who buy all this and have become ‘Virtually Free’ I would not be concerned about The Intellectual Art of Richard at all. I have always stated that Richard is a great writer. One of the best. In fact he has told me he was previously an artist and he was in charge of some sort of art studio; and obviously nothing has changed. Richard’s art is great. He has taken a million or so words (borrowing many of them from his correspondents without seeking permission; even cross-posting my words to other lists without the simple courtesy of asking me first) ... he has taken all those words and created something at least as valuable and interesting as any other literature; and not only that he has signed up two or three or maybe 5 Virtual Fools to naively accompany the virtual King With No Clothes, on his virtual parade thru the virtual streets of ‘his’ virtual empire. And all the time Richard keeps saying he does not suffer fools gladly. And the fools keep on believing that Richard has no ‘self’. One day the fools will wake up and see that they have been fooled; and they will be embarrassed that many have seen their foolishness all the time; and they will regret that all this time they could have been enjoying the company of other Actual Human Free Beings instead of making fools of themselves; and Richard will move on to set up another studio. Richard is an artist, and the material he works with is fools.

RICHARD: I am more or less cognisant, by now, of the content of what you tell me is your viewpoint ... yet in stark contrast to what your viewpoint persuades you to see, I live what I say. My words are a description of what is actually happening inasmuch as what I write comes out of my living experience. None of what I am living is applied theory, concepts or beliefs ... there is this which is actually happening and what I write is an account, a report, a narrative, written as a direct experience as it is happening. In other words, it is located in or based upon or drawn from actuality – factual experience – as peace-on-earth is eternally here, as it already has been, and always will be. No one needs to invent it: it is all a matter of entering into its magic; enabling its pristine purity to become apparent; allowing its consummate perfection to emerge; watching its wondrous virtuosity unfold, or permitting its marvellous benediction to happen.

Everyone is either endeavouring to make an imitation peace via the affections or sitting back moaning and groaning about the inequity of it all. I did not devise, concoct or contrive peace-on-earth – it is eternally here as it already has been and always will be – I just happened to discover it, that is all. And it being so perfect that I wished to inform my fellow human beings of its existence.

What they do with this information is their business.

RESPONDENT: Long replies Richard. I will read them later and reply again. For now ... are you happy to continue this exploration? You have clearly stated that you are the only human to become actually free and I would like to explore a bit deeper into your claim. To do that I will need to ask some more probing questions than I have until now. Are you willing to be examined in that way? I would not even have transcended your limits and boundaries as much as I did by requesting your surname and photo if you were not subjecting the whole human race including me and others who I love or have natural human affection for or who I respect and value in my life; such as OSHO, and such as various other teachers and gurus and writers who have at times almost seemed to me to be my master or my guru or to have something that I do not. As I write to you I no longer see anyone like that and you do not seem capable of understanding that. I told you I am not a sannyasin; I am one of the ones who heard osho say clearly that it is not needed; so I moved on and I respect deeply the work he did for and on this planet. I respect also your work Richard. The reason I dig deeply into you; and the reason I now intend to dig a level deeper is that you insist on deriding the life and work of people – including myself – who have benefited me on my way into immersion and understanding of what Actual Freedom is. You have clearly stated in a previous email that you consider me not actually free. You are free and I am not? I do not accept such rude arrogant manipulative slimy dumb and wicked and stupid and illegal slander and gossip and shit from you Mr. Richard; I just do not accept it. I do not accept it from you and I do not accept it from the ‘Actual Freedom Trust’ that was set up to support your point of view; and to accept donations. Have donations been made by the way?

RICHARD: The Actual Freedom Trust was not set-up ‘to accept donations’ at all. I have said before that The Actual Freedom Trust is simply a statutory legal body set-up to promulgate and promote the actualism words and writings by fully explicating the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice. It has no need of ‘donations’ whatsoever ... it only costs a few hundred dollars per anum to keep the millions of words available for any one at all to access totally free of charge.

I mean it when I say that there is no hidden agenda.

RESPONDENT: I now want to state clearly that the Way to Actual Freedom is not via denial or dispensing of the self. The way to actual freedom is via full acceptance of the self. In other words the way to actual freedom is by living one’s point of view. Points of view change. Now; is it clear we have a dissenting voice on your cosy little community Richard? Up till now there have been 3 choices: 1. the normal fucked-up way; 2. the spiritual fucked-up way; 3. the selfless actual freedom fucked-up way as promoted by Mr. Richard; 4. the self-full actual freedom fucked-up way as promoted by Respondent. More ways are also welcome by (4.) but not by (3.). Richard, once again, you insist on calling OSHO Mr ‘Rajneesh’ Jain. He wanted to be called osho. I would like him to be called osho because that is what he wanted. I respect that. You do not. So I began to wonder whether I want to continue respecting your clear statements that you like your privacy. I wonder if you do not respect what others want do you expect that others respect your clear wishes? Now; you insist on referring to all manner of people by their title and surname. I would like to address you as in that way; so could you please provide your surname please. What is good for the goose is good for the gander Mr. Richard Gander of Byron Bay. Please provide your surname so you can be treated in the way you treat others. Walk your talk Richard. Once again I ask you for a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’ ... shall we go deeper into an examination of Richard; his claims; his state of mind; the existence or otherwise of his ‘self’; and the role of the Actual Freedom Trust in NSW Australia, 2000? Once before I asked for a clear yes or no. I wanted to know whether to invite you to our normal coffee meeting in a normal cafe in the normal town of Byron Bay on one of my normal visits to the town – as normal. You replied neither yes nor no; but rather that a meeting with you would be pointless.

RICHARD: I have also given you other reasons ... one of which was, as my social calendar is already fully booked, I have no room for more socialising. I did not come onto the internet to make social contacts ... I came onto the internet to provide the third alternative, to being either a materialist or a spiritualist, in printed form so that the words no longer disappeared into the air, as they do in face-to-face discussions, when the other does not listen with both ears.

I wanted the words to indelibly exist in the world ... and now they do.

RESPONDENT: I took that at face value and called you.

RICHARD: What you did is make a big thing out of this ‘taking words at face value’ theme you are running instead of comprehending that it means not imputing anything into another’s words – as in reading between the lines – or intuiting something that simply does not exist in actuality.

RESPONDENT: The meeting would be pointless.

RICHARD: What I said was that, as it is the words that convey an actual freedom from the human condition and not me, it is pointless coming to see me in person. It was you who changed that into ‘the meeting would be pointless’ (in complete disregard for taking words at face value) in that a ‘pointless lunch and chat’ would be ‘great’. Vis.:

• [Respondent]: ‘In around 48 hours it is highly likely that a friend and I will begin driving north to Byron Bay and I would like to meet you once again for the enjoyment of each others company; and my friend, [name withheld], from Holland, has expressed interest in meeting the Richard I have been corresponding with. Would you like that?’
• [Richard]: ‘I have experimented, over the three years or so since I went public with my discovery on the internet, to see whether I am correct or incorrect (and not merely theorising) in saying that it is the words that convey an actual freedom from the human condition, and to thus find out for myself as to whether it is pointless coming to see me in person or not. It is indeed pointless coming to see me in person’.
• [Respondent]: ‘... as you state clearly that ‘it is indeed pointless coming to see me in person’ I will take your words at face-value and ring you when we are in town for a nice friendly pointless lunch and chat together. Great’.

I had previously explained at length how I am having too much fun, living my life in the way I see fit, to clutter up my lifestyle with ‘guru-circuit’ peoples who cannot think for themselves trooping daily through my front door. I had also previously explained that it is the words that convey an actual freedom from the human condition in that there is no ‘energy-field’ here ... I have no power or ‘powers’ at all. In addition to that I had previously explained many other aspects of why it serves no purpose to come and see me in person as well ... yet despite all that I had to say you saw fit to contrive a phantasm of your own making and have tilted against it ever since.

Maybe you comprehend now what taking words at their face value means?

RESPONDENT: Great. At last Richard seems to be getting what actual freedom actually is. The freedom to be alive and human and pointless (or point-full) and to be alone with all that or to hang out in the normal cafe with other normal people drinking a normal short black and discussing normal things that come to our normal minds normally.

RICHARD: Only in your dreams and schemes. I did notice in your most recent E-Mail that you described when, where, how and why you go about having a ‘pointless (or point-full)’ hanging out in cafes in reality. Vis.:

• [Respondent]: ‘... recently in a cafe in Byron Bay when Vineeto came to me and I invited her to sit down and I was half way thru a sentence when she interrupted I immediately spontaneously told her to fuck-Off. And she did. She activated her Free Actuality and fucked off to the next table. I told her to fuck off because I am a human being with self with a history with value ...’.

This reality is in marked contrast to your recently stated idealism. Vis:

• [Respondent]: ‘There is only one position to take in order to bring an end to suffering and malice and sorrow and ignorance. When you meet another person enjoy their company. When another person offers you their company freely, enjoy the opportunity. Richard missed an opportunity. ‘I enjoy your company; you enjoy mine’. Simple’.

Is it not obvious that sitting in a caff nursing malice and sorrow and the antidotal pacifiers of love and compassion to one’s bosom will never, ever enable the already always existing peace-on-earth to become apparent?

RESPONDENT: Normally I would not persist in persisting Mr. Richard. but you have claimed you are free and I am not. In fact; I am beginning to suspect it is the other way around ... but at least I accord you the right to claim freedom for yourself Mr Richard.

RICHARD: There is more to an actual freedom from the human condition than having ‘the right to claim freedom for yourself’ ... it means getting off one’s backside and actually doing something about one’s malice and sorrow and the antidotal pacifiers of love and compassion.

It means enabling peace-on-earth, in this lifetime, as this flesh and blood body.

RESPONDENT: Richard, I assume that the Actual Freedom Trust will retain copyright of your life work after your demise. Will the Actual Freedom Trust at that time begin to accept donations to support their work in presenting Richard as the Only Person to have Transcended Enlightenment and Entered Actual Freedom?

RICHARD: I have not ‘Transcended’ anything ... let alone ‘Enlightenment’. There is one way, and only one way, to enable an actual freedom from the human condition: the total extirpation of ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul (the ‘self’ and the ‘Self’).

In a word: extinction.

RESPONDENT: Will the position you take that you are not a guru be upheld by the Actual Freedom Trust after you are no longer around to contradict that?

RICHARD: It is not a ‘position’ that I take ... it is an actuality that I am no latter-day atheistic ‘guru’ in any way, shape or form.

RESPONDENT: Will the Trust be a vehicle for establishing a new Non-Spiritual Organisation that sells Richard’s words to the masses by a carefully orchestrated P.R. campaign?

RICHARD: I have said before that The Actual Freedom Trust is simply a statutory legal body set-up to promulgate and promote the actualism words and writings, by fully explicating the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice, for any one at all to access on-line totally free of charge.

I mean it when I say that there is no hidden agenda.

RESPONDENT: Will The ‘Actual Freedom Company’ be selling Richard (tm) merchandise after your death?

RICHARD: The Actual Freedom Trust is already offering two items for sale: ‘Richard’s Journal’ (© 1997) in paper-back form, the essence of which is available for free on-line; and ‘Peter’s Journal’ (© 1997) in paperback form, which is currently available for free on-line in its totality. There are some rather vague notions to eventually offer an interactive CD for an, as yet undetermined, price ... and there may very well be other similar non-essential items as time goes by. These items have a price as they require assets to produce ... and any profits from the sale of these items goes toward meeting the cost of ensuring that the actualism words and writings, fully explicating the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice, remain on-line for any one at all to access totally free of charge.

I mean it when I say that there is no hidden agenda.

RESPONDENT: By the way; what was your intention in registering the trading name ‘Actual Freedom Company’ operational since 1 June 2000?  ... and ... how come the existence of the ‘Actual Freedom Trust’ has been clearly announced on this list; as it should be; but as far as I am aware no mention has been made of the Trading Arm of the organisation?

RICHARD: First, neither myself nor any of the current directors devised the legal laws of this country; second, the law states that that a legal entity called a ‘Trust’ must have a legal entity called a ‘Trustee’ (in this case The Actual Freedom Company Pty. Ltd.); third, The Actual Freedom Trust is the ‘trading arm’ of The Actual Freedom Company Pty. Ltd. and not the other way around.

I mean it when I say that there is no hidden agenda.

RESPONDENT: Do you expect that the current or future directors of the trust that you helped establish will continue to understand that you are a normal man and not a Great Enlightened Master to be marketed like that?

RICHARD: I am not a ‘normal man’ ... I am a fellow human being sans ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul (the ‘self’ and the ‘Self’).

RESPONDENT: Do you have any knowledge at all about how the Actual Freedom Trust will develop in the propagation of your work in the future?

RICHARD: I see that I have already provided you with the following information:

• [Richard]: ‘I did not individually set up The Actual Freedom Trust. The Actual Freedom Trust is a statutory legal body that five nominal directors established in order to operate under for sensible commercial reasons. The words and writings promulgated and promoted by The Actual Freedom Trust explicate the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice in the market place. There is no meditating in silence or living in a monastery shut away from the world. There are no celibacy or obedience requirements. There are no dietary demands or daily regimes of exercise. No one is excluded by age or racial or gender origins. There are no courses to follow or therapies to undergo or workshops to endure. Furthermore, not only are there no prescribed books to study, the latest count shows that more than 3.1 million words are available for free on The Actual Freedom Web Page. There are no fees to pay or any clique to join ... there are no rules at all. I have no plan whatsoever ... there is no authority here in charge of a hierarchical organisation’.

It pleases me immensely that the way to access an actual freedom from the human condition is available for free.

RESPONDENT: Richard ... a few days ago I put forward my point of view that ‘Richard is an Artist and the material he works with is fools’. I have changed my viewpoint Richard. My current viewpoint is that ‘The Actual Freedom Trust’ is a vehicle and the driver they are using is a fool. My current viewpoint is that Richard you are being, or will be, used.

RICHARD: Hmm ... I recall that on 14/06/2000 you were proposing to the contributors to The Actual Freedom Mailing List that they consider participating in ‘... an actual freedom workshop, a weekend of exploring together what it means to be actually free on this planet in the year 2000 ... Byron Bay in the Spring’. This proposal of yours came just after your circular on 6/06/2000 advertising and promoting a spiritually-based tantric-sex workshop that you were collecting the $375.00 participation fee for.

You are not the only person to try to turn an actual freedom into a pay-as-you-participate religion ... and you will not be the last.

RESPONDENT: Exactly; my point exactly.

RICHARD: Good. Have you ever noticed how honesty and facts sit so well together?

RESPONDENT: The Actual Freedom Trust will turn ‘your’ Actual freedom into a ‘pay-as-you-participate religion’, whilst all I and you do is write words.

RICHARD: If I may point out? Whatever it is that The Actual Freedom Trust may or may not do in some indeterminate future is purely speculative ... whereas, far from what you do is to merely ‘write words’ , you have been and are currently attempting to turn an actual freedom into a pay-as-you-participate religion.

RESPONDENT: By the way; from various responses you give and have given and from discussions I have had back-channel there is a perception in me and certainly at least one other list member that you seem to lack the ability to discern irony when it is served up to you. Could that be part of your condition Richard?

RICHARD: No, I easily detect ‘irony’ ... along with sarcasm, derision, scorn, cynicism, disdain, mockery, insincerity and all other pathetic forms of wit. I simply do not dignify it into the status of being a valid comment by responding, by pandering to that thinly disguised malice that passes for humour in the real world. It is very obvious that sarcasm is a subtle form of abuse – verbal violence – and to be sarcastic is to obtain amusement at another’s expense ... it is a particularly cutting form of teasing, with vindictive undertones, and thus qualifies for the lowest rating on the humour scale. It is less obvious with irony yet, just as sarcasm is designed to make the recipient feel ridiculed, irony is designed to make the recipient feel rueful. They are thus both pathetic wit, even by definition, as the word ‘pathetic’ is derived from the root ‘pathos’, which indicates sorrow. Which all goes to show that the giver of either sarcasm or irony wishes the recipient to feel the incipient sorrow that is endemic among humans. Sorrow is a sickness that can lead, in extreme cases, to depression and suicide ... which I would not wish upon anyone. Thus sarcasm and irony are not what I, for one, consider fun.

Whereas to be facetious or droll, for example, is waggish ... a non-serious jesting.

RESPONDENT: By the way; do you pay for your lunch when you go to a restaurant? I am sure you do; it is curious to me why you continue to insist that the wisdom and experience of experts in delivering people further along the path to freedom SHOULD be given for FREE ...

RICHARD: Except that I never said that the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom ‘SHOULD be given for FREE’ at all. I said that it pleases me immensely that the way to access an actual freedom from the human condition is available on-line for free.

RESPONDENT: ... when you would hardly argue that the cook and the waiter and the corporation which built the restaurant deliver their services for free. I surmise from this fact that you Richard are not so free from Spirituality as you declare. Still you segmentalise understanding into 1. normal life which must be paid for 2. the religious, which must be free.

RICHARD: There does seem to be a rather pertinent fact you are overlooking in this theory of yours: this that pleases me immensely to be available on-line for free is the third alternative to either normal life or the spiritual life. As an actual freedom from the human condition is entirely new in human history the existing reasons and rationales do not apply ... there is no precedent for you to go by.

And why it pleases me immensely that the way to access an actual freedom from the human condition is available on-line is that is simply marvellous that I can sit here in my lounge-room in a seaside village and have my words be available, and potentially accessible by all 6.0 billion peoples on this planet (‘potentially’ meaning, of course, being given access to computers – such as in internet cafes – and the ability to read and comprehend English), totally free of charge ... and with nary a tree being chopped down in order to do so.

RESPONDENT: ... the ‘Actual Freedom Trust’ that was set up to ... ... to accept donations. Have donations been made by the way?

RICHARD: The Actual Freedom Trust was not set-up ‘to accept donations’ at all. I have said before that The Actual Freedom Trust is simply a statutory legal body set-up to promulgate and promote the actualism words and writings by fully explicating the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice. It has no need of ‘donations’ whatsoever ... it only costs a few hundred dollars per anum to keep the millions of words available for any one at all to access totally free of charge. I mean it when I say that there is no hidden agenda.

RESPONDENT: Have donations been made by the way?

RICHARD: Yes ... the various directors of The Actual Freedom Trust have, to differing degrees and according to their inclination and/or interest, either donated umpteen hours of time and expertise to researching, writing, composing, formatting, uploading, downloading and so on or have put-up differing amounts of cash out of their own pockets as required (legal expenses, book-printing outlays, bank charges, registration fees, equipment costs and so on).

The purchase, upgrades and maintenance of all the computers and software alone amounts to over AUS$35,000.00. It would be well nigh impossible to put an accurate monetary value upon the time and expertise: the accountant who attended to the legalities of establishing The Actual Freedom Trust has, as a going rate, AUS$120.00 per hour for their time and expertise ... therefore, over the last three or so years, a conservative estimate (5,000 hours at $100.00 per hour) would put the donated time and expertise in researching, writing, composing, formatting, uploading, downloading and so on somewhere in the vicinity of AUS$500,000.00.

‘Tis only an approximate guess, though.

RESPONDENT: So my findings so far are that I value the actual freedom trust and the work of the people for or with that organization (that includes you Richard) as a possible valuable device (from the second category) to invite people to embark on the journey of self-discovery and maybe make it a little easier then it used to be traditionally.

RICHARD: Hmm ... The Actual Freedom Trust is simply a statuary legal body, with four nominal directors, set-up to promulgate and promote the writings explicating an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice. When I write it is me writing and nothing else. That I assign copyright for all my writing to a statuary legal body does not make my writing into anything other than my writing ... and I am a flesh and blood fellow human being. I did not make the legal laws of this country ... if there were some way of having the legal body exist without directors there would be no directors (which is what the word ‘nominal’ refers to).

As for the writings, being promulgated and promoted under the aegis of The Actual Freedom Trust, being but a variation on the ‘Tried and True’ metaphysical path of denial and dissociation all I can say is ... keep on reading!

RESPONDENT: One thing I have to note is that something that I find unique to Actualism is that there has never been a financial basis to it.

RICHARD: It pleases me greatly that the writings about actual freedom (upwards of 4,000,000 words at the latest estimate) are available for free on-line ... such is the power of the internet. The only articles for sale are the journals ... and there may be a CD for sale in the far distant future (it will possibly be a DVD by the time we get around to producing it).

Basically we are having a lot of fun.

RESPONDENT: This is totally unlike anything I’ve ever encountered and lends an innocence and credibility to it. You have never asked for our financial support or set yourself up as a leader.

RICHARD: I have no ambitions whatsoever to be anything other than what I am now; I thoroughly enjoy my current lifestyle, as it is, totally, completely, utterly. I fully enjoy my own company; I fully enjoy the company of a choice companion; I fully enjoy the company of select associates ... this is the lifestyle I have chosen; this is the lifestyle I wish to live; this is the lifestyle I am living.

I enjoy normal things: I live in a normal suburban duplex; I eat at normal restaurants; I meet normal people at cafés; I chat about normal things; I have normal pastimes ... to be able to freely live this normal lifestyle in a seaside village is why I set out to become free of the human condition all those years ago. I never intended – and I do not intend – to become some sort of latter-day atheistic-saviour of humankind wherein I cannot live a normal lifestyle.

Which is why Peter suggested the relative anonymity of the internet to make my discovery public.

RESPONDENT: That said, I’m finding your site useful and insightful.

RICHARD: Good ... all I ever wanted, all those years ago when I scoured the books to no avail, was for the words and writings of an actual freedom from the human condition, and a virtual freedom in practice, to exist in the world. Now they do – they have taken on a life of their own and will continue to exist after my demise – and I am well-pleased.

I did not want anybody to have to repeat what I went through.

RESPONDENT: I’m grateful for the content and the attractive interface as well.

RICHARD: The way the web site is set-up and maintained, other than my portion of it, is all Vineeto’s doing and the content of the web pages which do not have my name in the URL is either by Peter or Vineeto (unless otherwise referenced) – the entire library, for instance, or the introduction to actual freedom, for another, is not of my doing at all – and I do not vet anything that either Vineeto or Peter publish on the web site ... meaning that I do not decide, as you put it in another e-mail, what is of value and what is not (when I say there is no authority here in charge of a hierarchical organisation I mean it) as in a PCE actuality speaks for itself.

It is all so simple here.