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Richard’s Selected Correspondence On The Actual Freedom Trust
RESPONDENT: Richard, have you given any thought that your past state (enlightenment) and present state might have been caused by what is known as Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) or any other affection of the Temporal Lobe? (snip). RICHARD: No 25, have you given any thought to doing a site-search, not only before asking a question, but also before copy-pasting such random, by no means exhaustive or precise, collections of available information pointing to a possibility that it accords with the descriptions of my experience (now snipped)? It is this easy: type, or copy-paste, the following into the box provided at a search engine of your choice: jamais vu site:www.actualfreedom.com.au Or even this: TLE site:www.actualfreedom.com.au Here is an example of what that very useful function of the search engine finds (in 0.06 seconds):
* RESPONDENT: Richard, have you given any thought that your past state (enlightenment) and present state might have been caused by what is known as Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) or any other affection of the Temporal Lobe? (snip). RICHARD: No. 25, have you given any thought to doing a site-search, not only before asking a question, but also before copy-pasting such random, by no means exhaustive or precise, collections of available information pointing to a possibility that it accords with the descriptions of my experience (now snipped)? RESPONDENT: Yes ... of course. Jamais vu is identical to a PCE. RICHARD: Surely you are not suggesting that everybody – absolutely everybody – who has had, or is having, a pure consciousness experience (PCE) has had/is having a temporal lobe epileptic (TLE) episode? RESPONDENT: The passage you posted is in no way showing that you are not suffering from TLE or any other Temporal Lobe disorder. (snip). RICHARD: And the copy-pasted short collection of symptoms and/or the random, by no means exhaustive or precise, collection of available information you posted, both this time around and the previous, is in no way showing that I am suffering from TLE or any other temporal lobe disorder. Whereas the passage I quoted shows that I am, and have been for many a year, well aware of TLE ... do you really think I would not have considered such a thing before this exchange? RESPONDENT: (...) Perhaps you should arrange a meeting with a psychiatrist because if your condition is indeed linked to (Right) Temporal Lobe damage, the + 4 million words on the website might prove to be more harmful than harmless. RICHARD: Ha ... nice try, No. 25, nice try indeed. RICHARD: Surely you are not suggesting that everybody – absolutely everybody – who has had, or is having, a pure consciousness experience (PCE) has had/is having a temporal lobe epileptic (TLE) episode? RESPONDENT: What I’m suggesting is that altered and pure states are triggered by this part of the brain (which is involved in processing emotion and sensation) ... RICHARD: As the temporal lobes are situated on each side of the brain, at about the level of the ears, you may find the following to be of interest (from the quote you provided in the previous e-mail):
There are many, many more descriptions all throughout my portion of The Actual Freedom Trust web site describing the very same thing ... for instance:
Here is another:
And another:
And again:
And yet again (this one is a classic):
There are more ... but maybe that will do for now. RESPONDENT: ... why is it that an accidental PCE (everyone has experienced and remembers at least one, making for an estimated .... umm ... 100 billion ‘za best’ experiences) cannot become permanent the same way as enlightenment or an ASC? RICHARD: For the same reason an intentional PCE cannot become permanent ... the persistence of identity (who is only in abeyance in a PCE). * RESPONDENT: The passage you posted is in no way showing that you are not suffering from TLE or any other Temporal Lobe disorder. (snip). RICHARD: And the copy-pasted short collection of symptoms and/or the random, by no means exhaustive or precise, collection of available information you posted, both this time around and the previous, is in no way showing that I am suffering from TLE or any other temporal lobe disorder. RESPONDENT: Is it all just a big coincidence then? RICHARD: There is no ‘coincidence’ – be it either big or small – outside of your imagination. For example:
You would have to be referring to the following (re-posted only five days before your first e-mail in this thread):
* What you say is ‘extensive day-dreaming as a child’ is actually ‘many an occasion’ of experiencing ‘the magical world where time had no workaday meaning’ (aka PCE’s) ... just because various school-teachers classified me as being a dreamer, upon rudely awakening me to everyday reality, does not mean that those PCE’s were day-dreams. Here is the very next example you proffer as ‘a good indication of TLE’ (immediately after the first example above):
I was neither experiencing ‘panic attacks’ nor was the intense fear/stark terror I did experience ‘unprovoked’ ... see for yourself (from the quote you provided):
Incidentally, what you say is ‘the feeling’ I was going to die ‘tomorrow’ was actually a revelation six weeks prior ... see for yourself (from the quote you provided):
And here is the third example you provide as ‘a good indication of TLE’ (immediately after the second example above):
I was not ‘laughing without any reason’ ... see for yourself (from the quote you provided):
* RICHARD: [The ... information you posted ... is in no way showing that I am suffering from TLE or any other temporal lobe disorder] whereas the passage I quoted shows that I am, and have been for many a year, well aware of TLE ... do you really think I would not have considered such a thing before this exchange? RESPONDENT: So did your psychiatrist at the time? RICHARD: There were no psychiatrists (or a psychologist for that matter) ‘at the time’ ... the following is from the passage being discussed (above):
The psychiatric assessment (and the psychological monitoring) occurred 13-14 years later. Viz.:
Although, in light of the following, why you would ask such a question anyway has got me beat:
And:
The following one, coming as it does from the very-same post as your ‘I repeat ...’ admonition
* RESPONDENT: (...) Perhaps you should arrange a meeting with a psychiatrist because if your condition is indeed linked to (Right) Temporal Lobe damage, the + 4 million words on the website might prove to be more harmful than harmless. RICHARD: Ha ... nice try, No. 25, nice try indeed. RESPONDENT: I wish it to be just that, a nice try. RICHARD: Well, your wish is granted as that is all it is ... no amount of words, no matter how eloquent or erudite they may be, could possibly bring about a *neurological* condition (aka an *organic* disorder) in anybody. Here is an example of what does cause TLE:
RESPONDENT: For now the evidence points in the opposite direction ... RICHARD: There is no ‘the evidence’ – be it either for now or earlier – outside of your imagination. RESPONDENT: Richard, have you given any thought that your past state (enlightenment) and present state might have been caused by what is known as Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) or any other affection of the Temporal Lobe? (snip). (...) RICHARD: [The ... information you posted ... is in no way showing that I am suffering from TLE or any other temporal lobe disorder] whereas the passage I quoted shows that I am, and have been for many a year, well aware of TLE ... do you really think I would not have considered such a thing before this exchange? RESPONDENT: So did your psychiatrist at the time? RICHARD: There were no psychiatrists (or a psychologist for that matter) ‘at the time’ ... the following is from the passage being discussed (above):
The psychiatric assessment (and the psychological monitoring) occurred 13-14 years later. Viz.:
RESPONDENT: I meant ‘at the time’ of the consultation(s) not at the time of your experiences. RICHARD: The title you gave to this thread is ‘Jamais Vu’ – and not ‘Temporal Lobe Epilepsy’ (TLE) – thus I could only presume you had made a (tenuous) connection between the fact I had provided, in a re-post of a passage of mine five days previous to you posting your initial e-mail, the name ‘jamais vu experiences’ (amidst the names ‘‘Technicolor Land’ experiences’, ‘nature experiences’, ‘peak experiences’, and ‘aesthetic experiences’) as being descriptive of the same/similar experience as what the moments of perfection I nowadays describe as ‘pure consciousness experiences’ (PCE’s) are and had, as a consequence, asked me whether I had given any thought to having been both spiritually enlightened/mystically awakened for eleven years, and being currently actually free from the human condition for twelve years, as the result of temporal lobe epilepsy or any other affliction of the temporal lobe for no other reason than the fact that some of the peoples who have jamais vu experiences are suffering from TLE. Amnesiacs, for instance, are another grouping which tend to have jamais vu experiences. So I provided a passage of mine which showed that it was in 1980-81 when I was describing such moments of perfection as ‘jamais
vu experiences’ and made the observation that this, plus the detailed reference therein to TLE (amongst references to acute psychotic diagnoses
such as ‘depersonalisation’, ‘alexithymia’, ‘derealisation’, ‘anhedonia’ Now you inform me you meant at the time of the consultations (1994-97) – and not at the time when I was describing such moments of perfection as ‘jamais vu experiences’ (1980-81) – as if there were/was some other time, than at the time of consultation, which the psychiatrists in question might have/could have considered it and, presumably, got in touch with me in these latter years (1997-2004) to inform me of their considerations. Bearing in mind that you have just recently expressed reservations about one of those psychiatrist’s expertise * RICHARD: Although, in light of the following, why you would ask such a question anyway has got me beat:
And:
The following one, coming as it does from the very-same post as your ‘I repeat ...’ admonition
RESPONDENT: TLE or any other temporal lobe affection not being included in DSM IV, they have missed taking into account a possible cause for your condition. RICHARD: Golly ... psychiatrists (and psychologists for that matter) can, and do, have a mind of their own ... they are not necessarily ruled by a manual which is not at all scientific in its formulation (specific mental disorders get included/excluded from that manual by the vote of a select group). RESPONDENT: Is it clear now? RICHARD: It is about as clear as mud ... do you think there is some kind of demarcation dispute, as it were, between the psychiatric profession and the neurological profession (so much so that I ought to hot-foot it to a neurologist on the basis of your amateur diagnosis)? RESPONDENT: Why were you taking that drug (psylocibin) for? RICHARD: I was not ‘taking’ psylocibin ... I (mistakenly) took it on the advice of an (erstwhile) associate under the (misguided) impression it was similar in effect to tetrahydrocannabinol (only much stronger). For your information: having personal acquaintance with a person who has suffered from epilepsy all their adult life I was sufficiently well-enough informed about such neurological conditions before both 1980-81 and 1994-97 to make my own appraisal ... even so it was a possibility I raised with the psychiatrist whose expertise you questioned in that other thread and had extensive and free-ranging discussions about same (just as I canvassed many other possibilities with them and they with me). All-in-all it was a most informative and productive association for the entire three-year period ... for example, I subscribed to an on-line university-based ‘Consciousness Studies’ forum at their suggestion after they had initiated discussion into matters pertaining to consciousness in general and pure consciousness events (aka altered states of consciousness) in particular. They were most bemused that various professors, and the ilk, on that forum were of the opinion that consciousness per se did
not exist. RESPONDENT: I’ve had basically two questions in regard to a possible neurological condition for your current state. 1. Were the psychiatrists aware of the possibility of TLE or any other Temporal lobe affection ... RICHARD: You do have a strange way of putting such a question, then, as this is what you actually wrote:
In other words what you asked was if I were aware of the possibility of TLE or any other temporal lobe affliction, not if the psychiatrists were, and then specifically stated that the psychiatrists did not have all the necessary tools to make such a diagnosis as TLE is not included in the DSM-IV ... a statement you repeated in your next e-mail:
Yet a simple search shows that the DSM-IV, under the heading ‘Personality Change Due to a General Medical Condition’ and the coding note 310.1, has the following words:
RESPONDENT: ... [1. Were the psychiatrists aware of the possibility of TLE or any other Temporal lobe affection] and whether or not you have discussed the matter? I understand a ‘yes’ from your below response. RICHARD: I presume you are referring to this:
RESPONDENT: 2. Have you had/have they recommended a brain scan? RICHARD: Before advocating specialist tests of any description a psychiatrist (who, unlike a psychologist, is a duly qualified medical doctor) has to first make their diagnosis from the symptoms and signs being presented in order to warrant such a course of action ... and to recommend a (as yet undesignated) ‘brain scan’ to test for the organic basis – the neurological cause – of TLE, or any other temporal lobe affliction, there does need to be evidence symptomatic of such afflictions so as to reasonably make such a diagnosis. Perhaps if I were to spell it out in no uncertain terms you may finally desist with this beat-up Indeed, the DSM-III-R, which was replaced by the DSM-IV in 1994, the very year I first consulted the psychiatrist in question,
specifically used the term ‘Organic Medical Disorders’ for those ailments (whereas both the DSM-IV and the current manual, DSM-IV-TR, use the
phrase already mentioned ‘Due To A General Medical Condition’). RESPONDENT: I’ve had basically two questions in regard to a possible neurological condition for your current state. 1. Were the psychiatrists aware of the possibility of TLE or any other Temporal lobe affection ... RICHARD: You do have a strange way of putting such a question, then, as this is what you actually wrote: (snip). RESPONDENT: (...) 2. Have you had/have they recommended a brain scan? RICHARD: Before advocating specialist tests of any description a psychiatrist (who, unlike a psychologist, is a duly qualified medical doctor) has to first make their diagnosis from the symptoms and signs being presented in order to warrant such a course of action ... and to recommend a (as yet undesignated) ‘brain scan’ to test for the organic basis – the neurological cause – of TLE, or any other temporal lobe affliction, there does need to be evidence symptomatic of such afflictions so as to reasonably make such a diagnosis. Perhaps if I were to spell it out in no uncertain terms you may finally desist with this beat-up: I have never had, nor am I currently having, any epileptic seizures/auras of any description (...) Apart from the fact that a simple search shows the DSM-IV does indeed refer to Temporal Lobe Epilepsy mystical experiences are not the inevitable and/or only outcome of TLE auras ... according to a source you initially quoted they are rarer than four percent of the cases. Viz.: (snip). RESPONDENT: I see your point, I guess I was carried out by the wave. In retrospect ... I saw myself quietly ignoring/dismissing the data pointing to the contrary, but that’s probably the case when emotions get involved and set on a course to prove something ... RICHARD: Aye ... it is known as ‘cherry-picking the data’ in the lingo. RESPONDENT: ... even though with the justification/g-rationalization of playing the ‘devil’s advocate’. RICHARD: Yet is the ‘Advocatus Diaboli’ (a role adopted by the promoter of the faith in the Roman Catholic Church who critically examines the life of and miracles attributed to an individual proposed for beatification or canonisation and who presents all the facts including everything unfavourable to the candidate) a person set on a course of proving something? Is it not beholden upon them to examine all the data impartially so as to be able to conduct an open investigation, in the manner of a magistrate or scientist, inasmuch as the facts then speak for themselves? Never mind that such impartiality is, quite possibly, observed more in the breach than in practice in real-life ... I am
talking of a person sincerely examining such data. RESPONDENT: Before we close the subject of pathology, do you remember when you discussed TLE (Temporal Lobe Epilepsy) with No. 25 recently? RICHARD: Aye, that was the discussion which elucidated how mystical experiences are not the inevitable and/or only outcome of TLE auras ... according to the source my co-respondent initially quoted they are rarer than four percent of the cases. Viz.:
More to the point, however, is nowhere was it ever explicated that actual experiences have anything to do with the temporal lobe. RESPONDENT: In wrapping up the discussion, you mentioned that the issue had been tabled with your psychiatrist ... RICHARD: I canvassed numerous issues, of course, yet the only issue professionally diagnosed by two specialists in the field as having a demonstrable causative effect was my war-time experiences ... a diagnosis – ‘the process of determining the nature of a disease etc.; the identification of a disease from a patient’s symptoms etc.; a formal statement of this’ (Oxford Dictionary) – which clearly illustrates, by the way, that your older sibling’s assertion that Richard has [quote] ‘a severe and incurable psychotic disorder of *unknown aetiology*’ [emphasis added] is nothing but rhetoric (the art of using language so as to persuade or influence others). RESPONDENT: ... and, I can’t quite remember how you put it, but I was left with the impression that you were somehow familiar with TLE at the time. RICHARD: Just as I was familiar with a momentary other-worldly crystalline-like clarity which can immediately precede an acute migraine attack (for example) via extensive discussions with a next-door neighbour of my first wife’s parents ... or just as I was familiar with a similar uncanny acuity which can occur in persistent malarial attacks (for another instance) from numerous ad hoc discussions with quite a few peoples over many years. RESPONDENT: Are you able to say whether you have a close blood relative with TLE? Or a close blood relative with some other significant neurological abnormality? RICHARD: For obvious reasons I will not be responding, either in the negative or the affirmative, to any such queries about any living person having a genealogical linkage ... what I will say, though, is this: I do find it cute that both you and your elder sibling are saying, in effect, that peace-on-earth is a disease, an illness, with an unidentified cause. RESPONDENT: As for my ‘near certainty’ that your condition is pathological, I am of course talking through my hat. RICHARD: I see ... and were you also talking ‘foolishly, wildly, or ignorantly; bluffly, exaggeratedly’ (Oxford Dictionary) when you wrote the following? Viz.:
The reason I ask is that, otherwise, not only is peace-on-earth a disease, an illness, with an unidentified cause but even the very intent itself to actually be peaceful and harmonious is just as much a sickness. RESPONDENT: Instead of saying I am ‘nearly certain’ that your condition is/was pathological, I should say that I simply have not ruled it out ... RICHARD: I see ... so you have not ruled out that neither the intent itself, to actually be peaceful and harmonious, nor the outcome of that intention involves, is caused by, or is of the nature of disease or illness, then? RESPONDENT: ... and its degree of likelihood mysteriously increases when I am throwing a tantrum. RICHARD: Okay ... what happened, then, between Saturday 5/03/2005 10:38 AM AEST and Friday 13/05/2005 12:47 PM AEST
such as to set-off this latest tantrum?
RETURN TO RICHARD’S SELECTED CORRESPONDENCE INDEX The Third Alternative (Peace On Earth In This Life Time As This Flesh And Blood Body) Here is an actual freedom from the Human Condition, surpassing Spiritual Enlightenment and any other Altered State Of Consciousness, and challenging all philosophy, psychiatry, metaphysics (including quantum physics with its mystic cosmogony), anthropology, sociology ... and any religion along with its paranormal theology. Discarding all of the beliefs that have held humankind in thralldom for aeons, the way has now been discovered that cuts through the ‘Tried and True’ and enables anyone to be, for the first time, a fully free and autonomous individual living in utter peace and tranquillity, beholden to no-one.
Richard’s Text ©The Actual Freedom Trust: 1997-. All Rights Reserved.
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