Actual Freedom – Selected Correspondence by Topic

RESPONDENT: Are there instinctual thoughts just as there are instinctual emotions?

RICHARD: Not per se ... no (an instinctive reflex, such as the startle response, can trigger associated thought on occasion).

RESPONDENT: Very helpful, particularly this: [quote] ‘the thinker essentially arises out of the feeler (aka ‘me’ at the core of ‘my’ being ... which is ‘being’ itself) and is not just a product of thought’ [endquote].

In observing the processes of falling asleep I have discovered that first thinking become progressively more graphic, then the graphics become emotionally charged. When and only when they become emotionally meaningful do they become more vivid and therefore entertaining like a fascinating movie and with this combination of an emotional story loving mind and the body resting on the bed a smooth gear shift of attention takes place and before long one sleeps. Hypnotists most probably use the same diversion tactic, the winding back till images are loaded with feeling.

RICHARD: For what it is worth: that falling asleep state is called the hypnagogic (pre-dormient) state – as contrasted to hypnopompic (post-dormient) state – and Mr. Emanuel Swedenborg, for example, as evidenced in his ‘Journal of Dreams’ (1743-44) was an exemplar of the hypnagogic state.

RESPONDENT: Suffice to say that I am now fully aware that in sleep all images are emotionally conducted, and when they stop being so the brain re-awakens. But because of the prominence of conscious thought in the waking state is combined with bodily sensations, seeing the primary impact of emotions is more difficult. It is still easier to mistake thought and not emotions as the primary mover when awake.

RICHARD: Yes ... and even judges, magistrates, and the ilk, whilst supposedly impartial rarely, if ever, are guided in their deliberations solely by judicious thought.

GARY: Richard, it occurred to me awhile ago to ask you about dreams. It really is a very simple matter: do you dream at night? From reading your website, Journal, and correspondence with others, it is clear that the imaginative faculty was eliminated when you underwent the radical mutation which resulted in an Actual Freedom from the Human Condition. I find your comments about the lack of the imaginative faculty to be, well ... honestly, fascinating. After the mutation you experienced, did you notice anything about dreaming at night? I saw a program on TV recently in which dream experiments were being conducted on human subjects, with the object of understanding what happens when human beings dream. An expert on the program opined that dreams originate in the lower, more primitive sections of the brain which sends signals or transmissions into the higher, cortical centres which then get remembered as dreams. The expert also opined that dreams have little significance other than just being random transmission from these deeper emotional parts of the brain. This caused me to consider what happens when the primitive animal instincts are extirpated and eliminated: do dreams then stop completely?

RICHARD: As I drop off to sleep at night there is the diminishing awareness of being a flesh and blood body situated in physical surroundings – always delicious – until there is no awareness at all ... whereupon there is the growing awareness of being a flesh and blood body – always delicious – situated in physical surroundings upon awakening a ‘split-second’ later. Upon looking at the bed-side clock I can determine whether I have slept for three or four or five hours ... for there is no other way of knowing: sleep is total oblivion. If there be dreaming occurring during the three, four or five hours I have no awareness of it whatsoever.

I sleep like a log, as an old saying goes ... unconscious, unaware and (probably) dreamless. It would take an unusual noise (a window being broken) or an unusual smell (something burning) or an unusual sensation (a creature crawling) to awaken me. Usually upon waking I find that I am lying in the identical position (flat on my back) that I went to sleep in – complete with reading glasses perched on nose and book/magazine held in hands slumped to the belly – indicating no movement at all.

It has not always been like this ... I tracked down the dreamer of dreams in the same way as the waking entity is tracked. I used to have horrific nightmares as a child, as a youth and as a young man (which I recall always considering terribly unfair, back in those days, as living in the ‘real-world’ was traumatic enough and night-time repose should be a relief). For all those years both dreams and nightmares were in full-colour imagery (same-same as ‘seeing in my mind’s eye’) with a fully-committed ‘dreamer’ participating helplessly. After the end of the intuitive/ imaginative facility the dreams were ‘word-scenes’ of circumstances or ‘word-descriptions’ of events (no images) with no ‘dreamer’ as a participant ... somewhat akin to arbitrary, or stray thoughts, which sometimes wander around in day-time and are associated with nothing at all.

Any examination of the content or meaning of dreams always showed them to be nothing but haphazard, unsystematic thoughts – generally taken from events such as depicted on TV programs or in other media combined with daily experience – all mixed-up and firing erratically ... like pulling items from a ‘lucky-dip’ at a fair. There is nothing to be learned or gained from dreams other than what one wishes to read into them ... the disconcerting part of dreaming is the ad-hoc juxtaposition of seemingly real events happening in a seemingly real world. I also observed that a portion of the ‘dream-scape’ would be drawn from past dreams and making it difficult to discern whether they be drawn from real-life or not. There would also be a mix-up of the ‘dream-people’, with characteristics of one ‘dream-person’ all-of-a-sudden being the characteristics of another ‘dream-person’, or an admixture of the two ... leading to further confusion or perplexity. And so on ... and so on.

So I would say that the emotional content (and the imagery itself) of the dream-process is, as the expert on the program you write of opined, originating in ‘the lower, more primitive sections of the brain which sends signals or transmissions into the higher, cortical centres which then get remembered as dreams’ ... but not dreaming per se (night-time arbitrary or stray thoughts). It would be beneficial to compare notes with another like myself so as to distinguish between what is humanly common and what is bodily specific ... the particular genetic arrangement of this individual body as compared to the general genetic arrangement of every human body. But, until then, what I have to report is all that exists so far ... just do not take it as being set in concrete and typical.

Nothing I have to say is carved in stone tablets.

*

GARY: ... what happens when the primitive animal instincts are extirpated and eliminated: do dreams then stop completely?

RICHARD: As I drop off to sleep at night there is the diminishing awareness of being a flesh and blood body situated in physical surroundings – always delicious – until there is no awareness at all ... whereupon there is the growing awareness of being a flesh and blood body – always delicious – situated in physical surroundings upon awakening a ‘split-second’ later. Upon looking at the bed-side clock I can determine whether I have slept for three or four or five hours ... for there is no other way of knowing: sleep is total oblivion. If there be dreaming occurring during the three, four or five hours I have no awareness of it whatsoever.

GARY: Hmm ... interesting. Your comments are confirmatory of what I suspected: no dreams. This seems to hold true for both the sleeping and waking state. While this post was concerned with your experience of sleep and dreaming, your other correspondence makes it abundantly clear that you do not lucidly dream in the awake state either.

RICHARD: As a child, a youth and a young man ‘day-dreaming’ was a common occurrence ... it was a way of having time pass, for example, whilst working for wages in any job that required only mindless repetitive movements to achieve the desired result. Then one day I caught myself looking at the clock and thinking ‘damn, only 2.00 PM; three more hours to go’ and it dawned on me, with upsetting intelligibility, that I was wishing large parts of my life away. Many years were to pass spent in finding better jobs, better locations to live in, better lifestyles and so on before I finally faced the fact that, while changing the physical situation is not to be sneezed at, it was how I experienced this moment that was vital ... only this moment is actual.

The question I asked was this: could I be in solitary confinement, in some hypothetical penitentiary, and be so delighted with being just here right now that ‘day-dreaming’ never need occur?

*

RICHARD: I sleep like a log, as an old saying goes ... unconscious, unaware and (probably) dreamless. It would take an unusual noise (a window being broken) or an unusual smell (something burning) or an unusual sensation (a creature crawling) to awaken me. Usually upon waking I find that I am lying in the identical position (flat on my back) that I went to sleep in – complete with reading glasses perched on nose and book/magazine held in hands slumped to the belly – indicating no movement at all.

GARY: Must be nice to sleep like a log ... I should think it would be a welcome development.

RICHARD: It required application and diligence, patience and perseverance ... in late 1983 a three week period serendipitously occurred wherein I would drop off to sleep only to wake up a ‘split-second later’ as already described (further above) and I was determined to have this as an on-going event.

That intent has paid off handsomely.

*

RICHARD: It has not always been like this ... I tracked down the dreamer of dreams in the same way as the waking entity is tracked.

GARY: Interesting expression – tracking down the dreamer of dreams in the same way as the waking entity is tracked. Is this the same thing as ‘chasing a dream’?

RICHARD: Not the same as ‘chasing a dream’ , no ... I mean ‘tracking down’ in its literal sense of tracing the tracks, following the trail, until one comes upon the creature itself. The human mind has the amazing ability to not only be conscious of what it is doing ... but to simultaneously be aware that it is being conscious of what it is doing. To enable this to operate in the dreaming state required ‘coming to’ whilst sleeping sufficient to be cognizant that there was dreaming occurring and ‘dropping back’ into the dreaming with conscious awareness that there was dreaming happening.

Some years later I read that this process is called ‘lucid dreaming’ ... wherein one is no longer taking the dream to be real-life. One is no longer only a helpless participant for there is this amazing alibility of the brain to be aware that it is being conscious of what it is doing, concurrent to being conscious of what it is doing, in the dream-state as well as in the waking-state.

This is where it all becomes fun.

GARY: I gave some thought as to whether I am ‘tracking’ the waking entity, and I think I am. I seem to go over the same emotions over and over again and the same repetitive thoughts until I give up the chase and relax, often to but take up the tracking the next day.

RICHARD: If it be not fun to track oneself in all of one’s doings then one might as well ‘give up the chase and relax’ ... however what you describe as a modus operandi does not make sense to me (‘go over the same emotions over and over again and the same repetitive thoughts until I give up the chase and relax’ ).

To need to (and to be able to) ‘relax’ means there must be tension in the first place to relax from ... thus the tracking down has changed from tracking down the ‘same emotions’ or the ‘same repetitive thoughts’ to tracking down the tension ... and you did not notice that the game had changed horses in mid-stream. The need to ‘relax’ is a flashing red light that the game-play has changed: ‘when did this tension start?’; how did this tension begin?’; ‘what was the event that initiated this tension?’; ‘what were the feelings at the time?’; ‘what was the thought associated with that feeling?’ ... and so on. Usually one has only to track back a few minutes or a few hours ... yesterday afternoon at the most. Then one is free from both the tension and the ‘Tried and True’ cure of ‘relax’ .

Speaking personally, I never relaxed in all those years of application and diligence, patience and perseverance ... upon exposure to the bright light of awareness the tension always disappeared.

*

RICHARD: I used to have horrific nightmares as a child, as a youth and as a young man (which I recall always considering terribly unfair, back in those days, as living in the ‘real-world’ was traumatic enough and night-time repose should be a relief). For all those years both dreams and nightmares were in full-colour imagery (same-same as ‘seeing in my mind’s eye’) with a fully-committed ‘dreamer’ participating helplessly. After the end of the intuitive/imaginative facility the dreams were ‘word-scenes’ of circumstances or ‘word-descriptions’ of events (no images) with no ‘dreamer’ as a participant ... somewhat akin to arbitrary, or stray thoughts, which sometimes wander around in day-time and are associated with nothing at all.

GARY: I think your pre-self-immolation description of your dream life fits in more with my own experience, both in past and now. My nights are always extremely ‘busy’. I often awake feeling that I have not had enough rest – I seem to sleep very fitfully, and dream sporadically throughout the night, sometimes having nightmares. I also sometimes experience what is called ‘terminal insomnia’ – in that I awake very early in the morning and can’t get back to sleep. I usually just get up and get busy, but then by the end of the day I feel exhausted by the lack of sleep. Many people would go to their doctor and get some kind of medication to help them sleep, but I do not want to be on any medication at all. This terminal insomnia thing is not as bad as it used to be right now. Recently, about a week ago or so, I had awoken having had extremely vivid dreams that were very fresh in my mind. This, and other things, made me wonder what happens when the primitive instincts are eliminated.

RICHARD: Okay ... to sum up, then, my experience shows that both the imaging and the emotional content disappears but not necessarily the arbitrary and stray thought. To this very day there sometimes is, upon waking, a vagrant thought aimlessly occurring just as during the waking hours there sometimes is the sporadic wandering around of a meaningless thought.

But in the main there is nothing going on at all ... let alone any ‘busyness’.

*

RICHARD: Any examination of the content or meaning of dreams always showed them to be nothing but haphazard, unsystematic thoughts – generally taken from events such as depicted on TV programs or in other media combined with daily experience – all mixed-up and firing erratically ... like pulling items from a ‘lucky-dip’ at a fair. There is nothing to be learned or gained from dreams other than what one wishes to read into them ... the disconcerting part of dreaming is the ad-hoc juxtaposition of seemingly real events happening in a seemingly real world. I also observed that a portion of the ‘dream-scape’ would be drawn from past dreams and making it difficult to discern whether they be drawn from real-life or not. There would also be a mix-up of the ‘dream-people’, with characteristics of one ‘dream-person’ all-of-a-sudden being the characteristics of another ‘dream-person’, or an admixture of the two ... leading to further confusion or perplexity. And so on ... and so on.

GARY: Yes, I now think dreams are just random events representing nothing in particular. The content of dreams often concerns real life events, but is woven together willy-nilly with many other things that don’t make sense. I had been conditioned to think that there is some value in dreams in promoting self-understanding but I no longer waste my time trying to figure them out or make sense of them. I do think, however, that the emotional content of dreams often leaves a person in a particular emotional state either while dreaming or right after dreaming – for instance, I have awoken feeling terrified and the feeling has persisted for awhile, colouring what happens next during the day. I have also had dreams with a lot of sexual content that leave me in a state of sexual arousal when I wake up, unusual for me as I have inhibited sexual desire.

RICHARD: What you say here is of vital import: ‘the emotional content of dreams often leaves a person in a particular emotional state ... colouring what happens next during the day’ . If for no other reason (such as getting a good night’s rest) the dreamer of dreams is well worth tracking for this reason alone.

For not to do so is to start each day with an unnecessary handicap.

*

RICHARD: So I would say that the emotional content (and the imagery itself) of the dream-process is, as the expert on the program you write of opined, originating in ‘the lower, more primitive sections of the brain which sends signals or transmissions into the higher, cortical centres which then get remembered as dreams’ ... but not dreaming per se (night-time arbitrary or stray thoughts). It would be beneficial to compare notes with another like myself so as to distinguish between what is humanly common and what is bodily specific ... the particular genetic arrangement of this individual body as compared to the general genetic arrangement of every human body. But, until then, what I have to report is all that exists so far ... just do not take it as being set in concrete and typical.

GARY: Dreaming per se you describe as night-time arbitrary or stray thoughts. Do you mean arbitrary or stray thoughts devoid of emotional content or devoid of emotional impact’?

RICHARD: Both ... but in the beginning of one’s investigation to be free of the ‘emotional impact’ is a major achievement by any standard.

GARY: I often find myself thinking at night about, for instance, a particularly vexing problem at work. But usually there is an underlying anxiety about the matter in question, so that the arbitrary thoughts about the situation are emotionally charged.

RICHARD: Try shifting from thinking about the ‘vexing problem at work’ to being with the ‘underlying anxiety’ ... then when the ‘underlying anxiety’ vanishes through exposure to the bright light of awareness the thinking about the ‘vexing problem at work’ will have changed to thinking about the ‘problem at work’ .

The human brain is a great problem solver ... it is what it excels in doing when not crippled before it starts.

GARY: It’s a lot like night-time worrying. But it occurs more or less in a sleeping or semi-sleeping state. But I do see that this is different from the Technicolor dreaming with visual imagery.

RICHARD: The issue of ‘worrying’ is a subject in its own right: sufficient for the purpose here is to say that ‘worrying’ never achieves anything other than to make ‘me’ feel that ‘I’ am needed ... and that ‘I’ care deeply.

RESPONDENT: I was just reading the correspondence between Richard & someone about dreams. Richard, could you please tell me a bit more on how to become conscious that one is dreaming while asleep? I don’t understand what is meant by ‘tracking down the dreamer’, ‘tracing the tracks’, ‘following the trail’, ‘tracking the waking entity’. To avoid being unconscious over & over, & never getting anywhere, did you use a dream diary to give yourself feedback? Thanks very much.

RICHARD: First of all I did not know that what I was doing was called lucid dreaming as I only found out about all the research on that subject later on when describing what I had done to another person. Which means that I was not preconditioned to either take control of the dreams nor steer them into particular directions (which is what a lot of lucid dreamers are interested in).

I wanted to understand the mechanics of dreaming – the nuts and bolts functioning of the dream process itself – with the aim of having dreaming cease ... period. What prompted me to investigate was a three-week period wherein there was, serendipitously, no dreaming happening at all: I would fall asleep and wake up a few seconds later, totally refreshed, only to discover upon looking at a clock that I had been asleep for quite a few hours ... a full night’s sleep, in other words, had the impression of being but a few seconds of unconsciousness.

All I did, basically, was make use of a strategy I had developed out of necessity as a child: I suffered from terrible nightmares at various times throughout my childhood and learned to wake up (albeit in sheer terror in the dead of the night) when nightmarish dreams occurred. I soon discovered that if I did not sit up and force the sleep-hungry eyes open for maybe a minute or so – so as to be able to then lie back down and sleep a dreamless sleep – I would drop back into the nightmare. Therefore, in order to investigate the dreaming process many, many years later I would form the intent, just like programming oneself to wake at say dawn without an alarm clock, before going to sleep that the commencement of a dream would trigger-off coming to the surface of consciousness whilst dreaming – but not fully wake up as in the nightmare strategy – and then slip back into the dreaming knowing that it was a dream.

It took a little practise but soon became a matter of course ... so much so that every ninety minutes or so, which is how often researchers have determined that dreaming may occur (in what is called rapid eye movement or REM sleep), I would half wake, become sufficiently conscious, and recommence dreaming with the awareness of being aware which daytime consciousness so deliciously allows ... thus ‘the dreamer’ could be tracked just as ‘the thinker’ and ‘the feeler’ can be tracked in waking awareness.

By ‘tracked’ (and ‘trailed’ or ‘traced’) I mean in the sense of locating, pinning down, and thus exposing, the entity within ... the identity cannot stand the bright light of awareness as its presence depends upon being able to lurk in the shadows protected, at root, by the very fear that it is. With the end of ‘the dreamer’ then dreaming became as if watching TV with the sound turned off (rather banal) and could be seen for the spasmodic play of ad hoc dreamtime representations of the real-life people, things and events (and previous dream-people, dream-scapes and dream-events) that it was ... there was nothing worthwhile to be discovered as only ‘my’ presence had made the dream sequences meaningful.

And, no, I never kept a ‘dream diary’ as there was nothing of value to record.

*

RICHARD: ... with the end of ‘the dreamer’ then dreaming became as if watching TV with the sound turned off (rather banal) and could be seen for the spasmodic play of ad hoc dreamtime representations of the real-life people, things and events (and previous dream-people, dream-scapes and dream-events) that it was ... there was nothing worthwhile to be discovered as only ‘my’ presence had made the dream sequences meaningful. And, no, I never kept a ‘dream diary’ as there was nothing of value to record.

RESPONDENT: Perhaps lucid dreaming would prove useful while investigating my beliefs, etc. Could you please give some precise details on how you programmed your mind to wake up when dreaming began?

RICHARD: Nothing more complex is required than the simple reminder, while composing oneself for sleep, to be aware of dreaming when it happened.

RESPONDENT: I imagine if I simply told myself while falling asleep the words ‘Wake up when dreaming begins’ that I’d get nowhere. How did you make your mind know when dreaming had begun, then to become conscious?

RICHARD: There are various cues which can trigger off an awareness that one is dreaming: basically anything which is at odds with normal daytime experiencing (in the jargon it is called doing a reality check) ... such as the illusion of being able to fly, for example, or to be conversing with media personalities or historical or other deceased peoples, or being in an exotic location and so on.

Also, the dream-state has a certain ambience which the waking-state does not have ... it soon becomes easily recognisable.

RESPONDENT: Perhaps you also used a certain sequence of mental pictures, sounds, etc.?

RICHARD: No ... what it took was the intent to have it happen (the same as the intention to wake at a certain time so as to obviate the need for an alarm clock): intent is the unswerving commitment, a devotion of purpose not to be confused with will-power, to be having the objective of such dedication come to fruition ... intent is not a vow or a resolve (as in a new year’s resolution).

Having said that, what can be of assistance in achieving lucid dreaming is first practising what is known as hypnagogic (pre-dormient) or hypnopompic (post-dormient) hallucinations – the illusions, delusions, deliriums or calentures of one who is half asleep – which occur, respectively, in the drowsiness state of intermediate consciousness preceding sleep or in the semiconscious state of transitional consciousness preceding waking ... of the two I found the pre-dormient state the easier to manifest.

This surreal state can be brought about whilst sitting in a deckchair on the patio, for instance, or in an armchair whilst idly watching television, or any other situation where napping is likely to occur: the very drowsiness stage is the cue to remind oneself not to fall asleep but to hover in the twilight zone between waking consciousness and sleeping consciousness. All manner of things recondite can, and do, come to light – Mr. Emanuel Swedenborg, for example, as evidenced in his ‘Journal of Dreams’ (1743-44) was an exemplar of the hypnagogic state – none of which esoterica can stand close scrutiny, of course, and the basis of most of humankind’s metaphysics can be thus exposed for what it is.

As for inducing lucid dreaming by ‘sounds’ ... there are repeating time-based mnemonics available, that may very well be worth experimenting with, several of which can be downloaded from here: www.xs4all.nl/~pasquale/TTM/4/index3.html

This seems to be the simplest programme: www.xs4all.nl/~pasquale/TTM/4/3/dreamscape.zip

You would either need to have a laptop nearby where you sleep or have set up a small speaker on an extension cable from a desktop ... a suitable time-period to start off with would be every 90 minutes. I have never used something like this myself but I do not see why it would not work ... another way is to wake up say two hours before normally arising, occupy yourself simply for that period, then go back to sleep for the missing two hours (with the intent to be aware of dreaming) as either lucid dreaming or the hypnopompic state happens more readily after a nearly complete sleep.

But the intent to be aware is the main thing.

RESPONDENT: Lately I was reading the section on AF site where you reported about your lack of dreaming. I was confused by this part:

[Richard]: ‘...After the end of the intuitive/ imaginative facility the dreams were ‘word-scenes’ of circumstances or ‘word-descriptions’ of events (no images) with no ‘dreamer’ as a participant ... somewhat akin to arbitrary, or stray thoughts, which sometimes wander around in day-time and are associated with nothing at all.’  https://www.actualfreedom.com.au/sundry/frequentquestions/FAQ60a.htm#1

Weren’t you telling on other place of the same page that you aren’t aware of anything during the sleep or that sleep is oblivion?

RICHARD: Yes ... the reference to sleep nowadays being oblivion is towards the end of the paragraph just before the one immediately preceding this paragraph you quoted from. Viz.:

• [Richard]: ‘(...) sleep is total oblivion’. [endquote].

And the reference to not currently being aware of anything during sleep is at the beginning of the paragraph immediately preceding the one you quoted from. Viz.:

• [Richard]: ‘I sleep like a log, as an old saying goes ... unconscious, unaware and (...)’. [endquote]..

RESPONDENT: Thanks for your attention.

RICHARD: Perhaps the confusion you speak of comes from not taking notice of how the paragraph you quoted from began. Viz.:

• [Richard]: ‘It has not always been like this ...’. [endquote].

To put those three paragraphs as succinctly as possible:

1. In all the years before the ending of the intuitive/ imaginative facility dreams were in full-colour imagery (same-same as ‘seeing in my mind’s eye’) complete with a ‘dreamer’ participating ... somewhat akin to a fully immersive three-dimensional surround-sound first-person computer gaming experience.
2. Immediately after the end of the intuitive/ imaginative facility the dreams were ‘word-scenes’ of circumstances or ‘word-descriptions’ of events (no images at all) with no ‘dreamer’ as a participant ... somewhat akin to arbitrary, or stray thoughts, which sometimes wander around in day-time and are associated with nothing at all.
3. Whereas nowadays sleep is total oblivion; if there be dreaming occurring during the three, four or five hours I have no awareness of it whatsoever ... I currently sleep like a log, as an old saying goes, unconscious, unaware and (probably) dreamless.

I am none too sure just how long it took, with the continued application of (what I later found was called) lucid dreaming, to get from situation No. 2 to situation No. 3 ... probably somewhere around thirty months or so.

If you were to want more information on how that works you could access the e-mail exchange at this link (and the one immediately following it):

*

RESPONDENT: I’m adding this mail to my earlier request

Upon further reading the whole dreams section trying to understand what was discussed and shared there, not being fussy but consistent and attentive in my reading, I found more content, which, if I’m right in evaluating the description of the condition upon those descriptions had been written about being after-expiration-of-the-intuitive-facility, is blatantly inconsistent and I don’t understand as to why it is so, and what to conclude. Let me share: http://actualfreedom.com.au/richard/selectedcorrespondence/sc-dreams.htm

[Richard]: ‘For all those years both dreams and nightmares were in full-colour imagery (same-same as ‘seeing in my mind’s eye’) with a fully-committed ‘dreamer’ participating helplessly. After the end of the intuitive/ imaginative facility the *dreams were ‘word-scenes’ of circumstances or ‘word-descriptions’ of events (no images) with no ‘dreamer’ as a participant ... somewhat akin to arbitrary, or stray thoughts*, which sometimes wander around in day-time and are associated with nothing at all…

(…)

‘By ‘tracked’ (and ‘trailed’ or ‘traced’) I mean in the sense of locating, pinning down, and thus exposing, the entity within ... the identity cannot stand the bright light of awareness as its presence depends upon being able to lurk in the shadows protected, at root, by the very fear that it is. *With the end of ‘the dreamer’ then dreaming became as if watching TV with the sound turned off* (rather banal) and could be seen for the spasmodic play of ad hoc dreamtime representations of the real-life people, things and events (and previous dream-people, dream-scapes and dream-events) that it was ... there was nothing worthwhile to be discovered as only ‘my’ presence had made the dream sequences meaningful....

(…)

‘Okay ... to sum up, then, my experience shows that *both the imaging and the emotional content disappears but not necessarily the arbitrary and stray thought.* To this very day there sometimes is, upon waking, a vagrant thought aimlessly occurring just as during the waking hours there sometimes is the sporadic wandering around of a meaningless thought.

But in the main there is nothing going on at all ... let alone any ‘busyness’...

(…)

‘As I drop off to sleep at night there is the diminishing awareness of being a flesh and blood body situated in physical surroundings – always delicious – until there is no awareness at all ... whereupon there is the growing awareness of being a flesh and blood body – always delicious – situated in physical surroundings upon awakening a ‘split-second’ later. Upon looking at the bed-side clock I can determine whether I have slept for three or four or five hours ... for there is no other way of knowing: sleep is total oblivion. *If there be dreaming occurring during the three, four or five hours I have no awareness of it whatsoever.*’ [endquote]

Is it possible to have it cleared out for the sake of clarity of reading the correspondence?

RICHARD: Sure, the first quote you provide above is about what occurred during the thirty months or so after the end of the intuitive/ imaginative facility. Here is how I explained that to you in my previous e-mail:

• [quote]: ‘2. Immediately after the end of the intuitive/ imaginative facility the dreams were ‘word-scenes’ of circumstances or ‘word-descriptions’ of events (no images at all) with no ‘dreamer’ as a participant ... somewhat akin to arbitrary, or stray thoughts, which sometimes wander around in day-time and are associated with nothing at all’. [endquote].

The second quote you provide above is about how those thirty or so months were experienced: it was all rather banal (as banal as watching TV is with the sound turned off) inasmuch there was nothing worthwhile to be discovered as only ‘my’ presence made dream sequences meaningful.

The third quote you provide above is about how my experience shows that while both the imaging and the emotional content disappears, immediately after the intuitive/ imaginative facility ends, the arbitrary and stray thoughts do not necessarily cease.

Indeed, to this very day there sometimes is, upon waking, a vagrant thought aimlessly occurring (just as during the waking hours there sometimes is the sporadic wandering around of a meaningless thought).

The fourth quote you provide above is about how it is all currently experienced (after the thirty or so months of continuing to apply the lucid dreaming process) in that sleep is total oblivion and if there be dreaming occurring I have no awareness of it whatsoever.

In short: there is nothing inconsistent at all (let alone blatantly so).

*

RESPONDENT: After not having a response,

RICHARD: My records show that I responded to your e-mail entitled ‘Further Request For Clearance’ at 8:49 AM on Friday 7/09/2007 and, given that this further request of yours had arrived in my mail box at 6:02 AM on that day (Friday 7/09/2007) it means that I sent my response a mere 2 hours and 47 minutes later.

RESPONDENT: I’m adding something,

RICHARD: You are not adding something. On the contrary, you are removing something ... to wit: the words [quote] ‘rather banal’ [endquote] from the second sentence of mine. Viz.:

• [Richard]: ‘With the end of ‘the dreamer’ then dreaming became as if watching TV with the sound turned off (rather banal) ...’.

And this is how I explained that passage to you in thee-mail I sent a mere 2 hours and 47 minutes later:

• [Richard to Respondent]: ‘The second quote you provide above is about how those thirty or so months were experienced: it was all rather banal (as banal as watching TV is with the sound turned off) inasmuch there was nothing worthwhile to be discovered as only ‘my’ presence made dream sequences meaningful’. [from ‘Re: Further Request For Clearance’; Fri 7/09/2007 8:49 AM AEST].

RESPONDENT: Please don’t read it with prejudice:

RICHARD: Why on earth would you even consider for a moment that I would read it with prejudice? Look, here is how a dictionary describes the phrase [quote] ‘as if’ [endquote]:

• [Oxford Dictionary]: ‘as if : as the case would be if (with cl. containing an explicit or understood past subjunct. or an inf. expressing purpose or destination)’.

RESPONDENT: Since I didn’t have the chance to meet and get acquainted with Richard, and I’m on my first groping with the AF method, it would be helpful to have a consistency from the composer of the content,

RICHARD: What would actually be helpful would be for you to not chop bits off sentences of mine.

RESPONDENT: In the same way, If I’m to guess, that Vineeto would have more confidence to explore the AF method if what Richard have said to her when they met would be basically consistent, than if it wasn’t consistent.

RICHARD: As I observed in my previous email: there is nothing inconsistent at all (let alone blatantly so) in my words.

RESPONDENT: I’m not asking to open a new debate nor I’m suggesting new objections to the material. What I’m asking is very simple and as the content on the AF site may change fates,

RICHARD: Ha ... the content on The Actual Freedom Trust web site is not going to changes fates (whatever that may mean) just because you have seen fit to chop bits off sentences of mine.

RESPONDENT: It would be more than fair to explain this basic inconsistency in correspondence:

RICHARD: What would actually be more than fair would be to not chop bits off sentences of mine.

... dreams were ‘word-scenes’ of circumstances or ‘word-descriptions’ of events (no images) with no ‘dreamer’ as a participant ... somewhat akin to arbitrary, or stray thoughts ...

... With the end of ‘the dreamer’ then dreaming became as if watching TV with the sound turned off ...

...both the imaging and the emotional content disappears but not necessarily the arbitrary and stray thought ...

... sleep is total oblivion. If there be dreaming occurring during the three, four or five hours I have no awareness of it whatsoever ...

RESPONDENT: Thanks again.

RICHARD: All I can do is provide a modified version of what I sent to you at 8:49 AM on Friday 7/09/2007, in an e-mail entitled ‘Re: Further Request For Clearance’, as there is nothing new to say on the matter. Viz.:

• The first part-sentence you provide above is abstracted from a paragraph which is about what occurred during the thirty months or so after the end of the intuitive/ imaginative facility. Here is how I explained that to you in my first response to you: [quote]: ‘2. Immediately after the end of the intuitive/ imaginative facility the dreams were ‘word-scenes’ of circumstances or ‘word-descriptions’ of events (no images at all) with no ‘dreamer’ as a participant ... somewhat akin to arbitrary, or stray thoughts, which sometimes wander around in day-time and are associated with nothing at all’. [endquote].

The second part-sentence you provide above is missing the parenthesised words: [quote] ‘rather banal’ [endquote]. Viz.:

• [Richard]: ‘With the end of ‘the dreamer’ then dreaming became as if watching TV with the sound turned off (rather banal) ...’.

And that part-sentence is abstracted from a paragraph which is about how those thirty or so months were experienced: it was all rather banal (as banal as watching TV is with the sound turned off) inasmuch there was nothing worthwhile to be discovered as only ‘my’ presence made dream sequences meaningful.

The third part-sentence you provide above is abstracted from a paragraph which is about how my experience shows that while both the imaging and the emotional content disappears, immediately after the intuitive/ imaginative facility ends, the arbitrary and stray thoughts do not necessarily cease. Indeed, to this very day there sometimes is, upon waking, a vagrant thought aimlessly occurring (just as during the waking hours there sometimes is the sporadic wandering around of a meaningless thought).

The fourth part-sentence you provide above is abstracted from a paragraph which is about how it is all currently experienced (after the thirty or so months of continuing to apply the lucid dreaming process) in that sleep is total oblivion and if there be dreaming occurring I have no awareness of it whatsoever.

In short: there is no inconsistency at all (let alone a basic one).