Actual Freedom ~ Frequently Flogged Misconceptions
Frequently Flogged Misconceptions
Actualism is only a Belief System/ Viewpoint/ Philosophy/ Theory
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 confirmation ... and affirmation in that a fellow human being has safely walked this wide and wondrous path.
RESPONDENT: I have known for years that believing
in god, soul, afterlife, and free will are all becoming increasingly suspect, but I would always think: hey what’s the alternative – to
live a godless, nihilistic, unhappy life? Now I know from personal experience that removing superstition from life can clear the way to a
abundantly happy life if one has a good secular philosophy(ies). I’m loving life as it is right now, and having a blast trying to leave a
positive impact on this world right now and hopefully this effect will even pass on to the next generation. Actualism has been helpful in this
journey, but I have serious doubts about it as a well rounded, all embracing philosophy. It is very sensible in some areas, but seems very
narrow.
RICHARD: As actualism – the direct experience that matter is not merely passive – is not
a philosophy then the question as to whether or not it is well-rounded and/or all-embracing and/or sensible and/or narrow one is irrelevant.
For example:
• [Co-Respondent]: ‘You represent the ultimate step of a philosophy that is totally existence
oriented.
• [Richard]: ‘It is not a philosophy ... it is an accurate description of an on-going and fully-lived experiencing of life ... complete
with consciousness operating perfectly well as apperceptive awareness.
RESPONDENT: I meant by philosophy the ‘love of wisdom’ ...
RICHARD: I am only too happy to re-phrase my response so as to be in accord with what you
mean by saying that actualism is a philosophy:
• As actualism – the direct experience that matter is not merely passive – is not ‘the
love of wisdom’ then the question as to whether or not it is well-rounded and/or all-embracing and/or sensible and/or narrow love of
wisdom is irrelevant.
And just so that there is no misunderstanding: actualism is not the love of an ideology either ...
or of an idea, an ideal, a belief, a concept, an opinion, a conjecture, a speculation, an assumption, a presumption, a supposition, a surmise,
an inference, a judgement, an intellectualisation, an imagination, a posit, an image, an analysis, a viewpoint, a view, a stance, a
perspective, a standpoint, a position, a world-view, a mind-set, a state-of-mind, a frame-of-mind, a metaphysics or any other of the 101 ways
of down-playing/ dismissing a direct report of what it is to be actually free from the human condition and living the utter peace of the
perfection of the purity welling endlessly as the infinitude this eternal, infinite and perpetual universe actually is.
RESPONDENT: [I meant by philosophy the ‘love of wisdom’] ...
which is an experiential knowledge, application, and living of wisdom.
RICHARD: I am only too happy to re-phrase my response so as to be in accord with what you
mean by saying that actualism is a love of wisdom:
• As actualism – the direct experience that matter is not merely passive – is not ‘an
experiential knowledge, application, and living of wisdom’ then the question as to whether or not it is well-rounded and/or
all-embracing and/or sensible and/or narrow experiential knowledge, application, and living of wisdom is irrelevant.
And just so that there is no misunderstanding: actualism is not an experiential knowledge,
application, and living of an ideology either ... or of an idea, an ideal, a belief, a concept, an opinion, a conjecture, a speculation, an
assumption, a presumption, a supposition, a surmise, an inference, a judgement, an intellectualisation, an imagination, a posit, an image, an
analysis, a viewpoint, a view, a stance, a perspective, a standpoint, a position, a world-view, a mind-set, a state-of-mind, a frame-of-mind,
a metaphysics or any other of the 101 ways of down-playing/ dismissing a direct report of what it is to be actually free from the human
condition and living the utter peace of the perfection of the purity welling endlessly as the infinitude this eternal, infinite and perpetual
universe actually is.
RESPONDENT: Actualism’s living w/o ego/soul falls under this
description.
RICHARD: Au contraire ... it does no such thing.
IRENE to Peter: Believing Richard’s words to be
true and repeating them as teaching does not make Richard factually free from malice and sorrow.
RICHARD: I couldn’t agree more ... I am factually free of sorrow and malice irrespective
of whether person (A) believes my words to be true. Also, conversely, I am factually free of sorrow and malice irrespective of whether person
(B) believes my words to be false. My freedom from the human condition has nothing whatsoever to do with what other people believe or
disbelieve. However, their own freedom from the human condition – which is what is of crucial importance here – is dependent upon their
remembering at least one of their PCE’s accurately ... and herein I can play a part in affirming and confirming their personal experience of
the perfection of the infinitude of this material universe. What I have to say is this:
• [Richard]: ‘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’. Of course, if they believe my words to be
false they close the door on their own freedom from the human condition and have to invent a synthetic freedom ... be it a freedom from human
conditioning or whatever substitute for the actual they manage to spin out of dreams and visions.
IRENE to Peter: It [being factually free from malice and sorrow] is
what he himself believes.
RICHARD: And you believe that I am not ... this ’tis/’tisnt persiflage gets us nowhere
fast.
RESPONDENT: (...) actualism ‘works’ just as
well as other religions. And why wouldn’t it? It’s simply a moral injunction to avoid ‘malice’ and ‘sorrow’ at all costs, and to
arrange your life accordingly.
RICHARD: The word ‘moral’, from the Latin ‘moralis’ (rendering Greek ‘ethikos’
or ethic) from the Latin ‘mor-’/‘mos’ meaning custom (plural ‘mores’ meaning manners) + the suffix ‘-al’ with the sense ‘of
the kind of, pertaining to’, refers to the values – ‘the principles or moral standards of a person or social group’ (Oxford Dictionary) – instilled from birth onwards to direct/guide human behaviour and/or conduct ...
and the word ‘injunction’ (from the Latin ‘injunct-’ meaning prohibit or restrain) refers to ‘the action of enjoining [to
prescribe/forbid] or authoritatively directing someone; an authoritative or emphatic admonition or order’ (Oxford
Dictionary).
How actualism – the direct experience that matter is not merely passive – can, even to the most
jaundiced eye, be ‘simply a moral injunction’ has got me beat.
*
RESPONDENT: (...) Would you say that ‘altruistic self-sacrifice’,
or ‘self-immolation for the good of this body, that body and every body’ lies outside the scope of morality?
RICHARD: Indeed so ... only I tend to say altruistic ‘self’-sacrifice, and ‘self’-immolation
for the benefit of this body, that body and every body, as I follow the useful convention of putting references to the identity within in
scare-quotes so as to distinguish same from references to the flesh and blood body.
Put briefly: although the word ‘altruistic’ has also come to mean the same as ‘unselfish’
(and thus moralistic/ethicalistic) it is used on The Actual Freedom Trust web site and The Actual Freedom Trust mailing list in its
instinctive self-sacrificial meaning. Vis.:
• altruism: 2. (zoology) instinctive cooperative behaviour that is detrimental to the individual
but contributes to the survival of the species. (©The American Heritage® Dictionary).
• altruism: 2: behaviour by an animal that is not beneficial to or may be harmful to itself but that benefits others of its species. (©Merriam-Webster).
As this instinctive self-sacrifice is epitomised by the honey-bee – when using its sting to
defend the hive it dies – there is no way morality (or ethicality) comes into it ... it takes a powerful instinct (altruism) to overcome a
powerful instinct (selfism).
Put simply: moral injunctions/morality have never set anybody free from the human condition – and
never will – as they cannot.
RICHARD: (...) although you may say actualism ‘works’ just as well as
other religions (and, by way of explanation, that actualism is simply a moral injunction to avoid malice and sorrow at all costs and to
arrange one’s life accordingly), you do acknowledge you cannot demonstrate that actualism is indeed a religion. Which means you cannot
provide the evidence for the very basis of your many and various assertions, claims, and comments ... yet what do you go on to aver
(immediately after your ‘to amuse myself by observing the games people play’ disclosure)? None other than this gem:
• [Respondent]: ‘Anyway, the evidence are out there. People who retain the capacity for
independent thought will be able to draw their own conclusions’.
Needless is it to mention, being a trifle nonplussed by this adroit sleight-of-hand, I looked for
the ... um ... the evidence being referred to?
RESPONDENT: Look around you. The evidence being referred to is the
dozens of people who practice your method with varying degrees of dedication ranging from casual interest to rabid fanaticism without becoming
actually free. The method doesn’t work any better than moral precepts/injunctions.
RICHARD: Perhaps an every-day-life metaphor might be of assistance: a person, wanting to be
a concert pianist, asks a concert pianist how they changed from not being a concert pianist into being a concert pianist (as in ‘what did
you do to become a concert pianist’ for instance) and the concert pianist says, amongst many other things about intent and dedication, for
example, and practice and perseverance and diligence and application, for another, that they practiced a method of their own devising which
has nowadays become known as the pianism method (for instance) and yet, after x-number of years of doing all that, the person concerned –
whilst having achieved a level of excellence way beyond normal expectations – was still not a concert pianist.
Here is my question: how does that make pianism a religion (albeit devoid of metaphysical dogma and
overt moral trappings)?
And here is my follow-up query: how does that make the pianism method not any better than moral
precepts/injunctions?
RESPONDENT: The standard of ‘concert pianist’ is a somewhat
arbitrary fine line, but surely there is a striking discontinuity between being a ‘self’ and being extinct?
RICHARD: There is no fine line – let alone a somewhat arbitrary one – between a work of
art (masterwork/masterpiece) and a work of craft (no matter how excellent the craftsmanship may be) ... there is, to deliberately use your
phrasing for effect, a striking discontinuity between the one and the other.
To explain: I was not only a trained art teacher, in the fine arts, but a practicing artist for a
period in my working life and honed my skills to a high level of craft (so much so that I was eventually able to discontinue teaching and
support both myself and my then wife plus four children all the while paying off a mortgage and a car on hire purchase) yet it was only when
‘self’ was absent during the process of putting paint on canvas (or moving a pencil on paper or shaping clay on a pottery-wheel or
whatever) that the product became art – as distinct from craft (and ‘I’ was a good craftsman) – inasmuch the expression ‘the
painting painted itself’ was how I would respond, with no false modesty whatsoever, when complimented/praised/admired for my supposed
genius.
I have written about this before (where I explain how my wanting to have my life live itself, in
the same way that the painting painted itself, is what started me on this whole business) but I happen to have to hand a transcribed interview
with Mr. John Lennon, where he is talking about ‘Across The Universe’, which says much the same as above. Vis.:
• [Mr. John Lennon]: They [the words] were purely inspirational and were given to me as boom!
I don’t own it, you know; it came through like that. I don’t know where it came from, what meter it’s in, and I’ve sat down and looked
at it and said, ‘can I write another one with this meter?’ It’s so interesting: ‘words are flying out like [sings] endless rain
into a paper cup, they slither while they pass, they slip across the universe’. Such an extraordinary meter and I can never repeat it! *It’s
not a matter of craftsmanship; it wrote itself*. It drove me out of bed. I didn’t want to write it, I was just slightly irritable
and I went downstairs and I couldn’t get to sleep until I put it on paper, and then I went to sleep’. [emphasis added/italics in
original]. (pages 192-193; ‘Last Interview’ by David Sheff; first published 2000 by Sidgewick &
Nelson).
And (where he is talking about ‘John Sinclair’):
• [Mr. John Lennon]: ‘They wanted a song about ‘John Sinclair’. So I wrote it. That’s the
craftsman part of me. If somebody asks me for something, I can do it. I can write anything musically. You name it. If you want a style and if
you want something for Julie Harris or Julie London, I could write it. But I don’t enjoy doing that kind of work. I like to do the
inspirational work. I’d never write a song like that now’. (page 220; ‘Last Interview’ by David
Sheff; first published 2000 by Sidgewick & Nelson).
*
RICHARD: Here is my question: how does that make pianism a religion (albeit devoid of
metaphysical dogma and overt moral trappings)?
RESPONDENT: It doesn’t.
RICHARD: Okay.
*
RICHARD: And here is my follow-up query: how does that make the pianism method not any
better than moral precepts/injunctions?
RESPONDENT: Both piano exercises and the daily observance of moral
precepts/injunctions are ways to condition oneself.
RICHARD: Speaking personally I spent three years in full-time art college, plus two years
full-time practice after that, in painstakingly acquiring the necessary skills so that the painting could paint itself (and the drawing draw
itself and the pot form itself and the sculpture sculpt itself and so on) ... if you see the acquisition of skills, the honing of talent, as
conditioning oneself then it is doubtful whether you will comprehend what I am talking about.
RESPONDENT: The entity or method or concept or
mindset or viewpoint known as ‘Actual Freedom’ I refer to is all the words and communication that is labelled ‘actual freedom’.
RICHARD: Yet there is no ‘entity or method or concept or mindset or viewpoint known as
‘Actual Freedom’’ other than what exists in your mind.
RESPONDENT: Not true; anther example of Richard pretending there is
a fact when there is not. There are as many viewpoints into actual freedom as there are people who come in contact with the teaching you
present. Each viewpoint exists autonomously and discretely in the mind of each person who comes into contact with your teaching.
RICHARD: If some other person reads my description and likewise creates an ‘entity or
method or concept or mindset or viewpoint known as ‘Actual Freedom’’ in their mind then that is their business ... I am talking
about you and your viewpoint (the one which you hold to be ‘correct and true’).
RESPONDENT: And the entity known as actual freedom exists in your
mind also.
RICHARD: Nothing I write or say about an actual freedom from the human condition is either
an ‘entity’ or a viewpoint or a mindset or a world-view or a philosophy or a metaphysics or a thesis and so on as all that I write
is a description which comes out of my direct and spontaneous experiencing at this moment in time at this place in space ... my words are an
‘after the event’ report, as it were.
RESPONDENT: You have concepts and a viewpoint – that is clear.
RICHARD: As I have remarked before, I do not have a viewpoint in regards to an actual
freedom from the human condition. In other areas where I do have opinions, make estimations, find it reasonable to presume and so on, I never
hold it to be ‘true and correct’ in the first place ... for I am well aware that it is only a current appraisal until further
investigation shows otherwise.
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 confirmation ... and affirmation 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: Okay, actualism isn’t an ideology but
it is conveyed using a body of language, right?
RICHARD: Having taken pause to read the above you will see that what is being conveyed is
that actualism is the direct experience that matter is not merely passive.
RESPONDENT: The body of language is an ideology that attempts to
point to actualism.
RICHARD: No, the words are a description of the direct experience that matter is not merely
passive.
Or, to put that another way, the words and writings on offer on The Actual Freedom Trust web site
make it quite clear that actualism – the third alternative to either materialism or spiritualism – is not ‘an ideology that attempts
to point to actualism’ ... they are an invitation for the reader to directly experience for themself that they do not live in an inert
universe.
Put succinctly: actualism is experiential not ideological.
And just so that there is no misunderstanding: actualism is not an ideal either ... or an idea, a
belief, a concept, an opinion, a conjecture, a speculation, an assumption, a presumption, a supposition, a surmise, an inference, a judgement,
an intellectualisation, an imagination, a posit, an image, an analysis, a viewpoint, a view, a stance, a perspective, a standpoint, a
position, a world-view, a mind-set, a state-of-mind, a frame-of-mind, or any other of the 101 ways of dismissing a direct report of what it is
to be actually free from the human condition and living the utter peace of the perfection of the purity welling endlessly as the infinitude
this eternal, infinite and perpetual universe actually is.
RESPONDENT: I should like to tell you, that the moment you are speaking about consciousness, PCE, etc., and that you perceive the infinity
of the universe through apperceptive awareness, then you have already entered the field of metaphysics.
RICHARD: No, the unmediated experience of infinitude – the apperceptive awareness of
boundless space, unlimited time, and perpetual matter (mass/energy) – is not a metaphysical experience ... the metaphysical experience,
during the eleven years of spiritual enlightenment and called by some as being ‘choiceless awareness’, was of a timeless and spaceless and
formless ‘infinitude’ known as god or truth or ground of being or implicate order and so on.
When I am speaking about consciousness I am referring to the condition of a flesh and blood body
being conscious (the suffix ‘-ness’ forms a noun meaning a state or condition) as in being alive, not dead, awake, not asleep, and
sensible, not insensible (comatose), and when I am talking about pure consciousness I am referring to the condition of a flesh and blood body
being conscious sans identity in toto – both ego-self (the thinker) and the feeling-self (the feeler) – which means that perception is
bare perception (unmediated perception) ... the term ‘apperceptive awareness’ is but another way of referring to this simple perception
(aka naïve perception) and being thus direct it is non-separative (not separated from the physical).
Thus there is nothing metaphysical about being apperceptive ... indeed, if anything the normal way
of perception – a mediated, or indirect and thus separative, perception – being once-removed from the physical, is arguably already well
on the way to being beyond time and space and form.
RESPONDENT: I define metaphysics as ‘meta ta physsika’, a Greek
word meaning beyond nature and physics.
RICHARD: As the word ‘physics’ – plural of ‘physic’ from the Latin ‘physica’
from the Greek ‘ta phusika’ (‘the natural’ understood as ‘things’) – is derived from the Greek ‘phusis’ (‘nature’) it
properly refers to the science of the natural world (as in knowledge of the physical world of animal, vegetable and mineral) ... thus to say
nature and physics is to separate it [physics] from the physical.
And I am not just nit-picking over the meaning of words here as it is glaringly obvious that the
late nineteenth-century/early twentieth-century physics departed from being a study of the natural world (the physical world) and entered into
the realm of the mathematical world ... an abstract world which does not exist in nature.
Indeed the word ‘metaphysical’ also refers to that which is ‘based on abstract general
reasoning or a priori principles’ (Oxford Dictionary) as well as the more common meaning of that which
transcends matter or the physical (as in immaterial, incorporeal, supersensible, supernatural and so on).
And quantum theory, for an instance of this, is most definitely based on a mathematical device (Mr.
Max Planck’s ‘quanta’) initially designed to solve the hypothetical problem of infinite ultra-violet radiation from a non-existent
perfect ‘black-box’ radiator and never intended to be taken as being real (until Mr. Albert Einstein took it up for his own purposes).
RICHARD: I had occasion, recently, to provide the following explanation in
regard to a bibliography I had appended as an adjunct to a response to a query: [Richard]: ‘I provided a ‘lengthy bibliography’ because
my experience on this Mailing List has shown that my reports of what I experientially discovered for myself – an intimate ‘hands-on’
experiencing – are capriciously dismissed as being ideas, beliefs, opinions, viewpoints, points of view, concepts, theories, conjectures,
speculations, assumptions, presumptions, suppositions, surmises, thoughts, inferences, judgements, positions, mind-sets, stances, images,
intellectualising, analyses ... the entire 101 stock-standard denials of the possibility of being happy and harmless, here on earth in this
lifetime, as this flesh and blood body’ [endquote]. Perhaps this is an opportune moment to flesh this (apparently) insufficient explanation
out a trifle: actualism is not, and has never been, a philosophy, a religion, a metaphysics, a psychology, a mind-set, a state-of-mind, a
frame-of-mind, a view, a view-point, a point of view, a world-view, a perspective, a standpoint, a position, a posit, a stance, an opinion, a
belief, an imagining, an intellectual understanding, an idea, a concept, a theory or a cult.
RESPONDENT: Why, then, is what you are explaining have an ‘ism’
attached to the end of it?
RICHARD: Because in the English language the application of ‘-ism’ (and ‘-ist’) has
a very common usage ... it enables someone to say, for example, ‘I am studying feudalism’ or ‘I am learning about existentialism’ or
‘I am interested in relativism’ or ‘I am exploring actualism’ and so on (and ‘I am an artist’ or ‘I am a scientist’ or ‘I am
a pianist’ or ‘I am an atheist’ or ‘I am a communist’ or ‘I am an actualist’ and all the rest). In other words it is a name, a
classification, a descriptive label, of what would otherwise be a long-winded explanation each time one talked about oneself and one’s
interests, simplified into a single word.
I chose the name rather simply from a dictionary definition which said that actualism was ‘the
theory that matter is not merely passive (now rare)’. That was all ... and I did not investigate any further for I did not want to know who
formulated this theory. It was that description – and not the author’s theory – that appealed. And, as it said that its usage was now
rare, I figured it was high-time it was brought out of obscurity, dusted off, re-vitalised ... and set loose upon the world (including upon
those who have a conditioned abhorrence of labels) as a third alternative to materialism and spiritualism. My memory of the dictionary
definition was obviously somewhat hazy as I see from my records that I first re-formulated it thus:
[Richard]: ‘... actualism is the direct experience that matter is not inert’.
Some years later someone told me they had heard about a ‘Philosophy of Actualism’. The ‘Encyclopaedia
Britannica’ CD reports:
• [quote]: ‘for Giovanni Gentile, propounder of a philosophy of Actualism in Italy, the pure
activity of self-consciousness is the sole reality’.
I could not disagree more (he also has a philosophy called ‘Actual Idealism’) ... also, there
is a Web Page in the US of A titled ‘Actualism’ which I found via a search engine. But it is religious and spiritual ... which I find
strange as the word ‘actual’ commonly means ‘existing in act or fact; practical; in action or existence at the time; present, current
and not merely potential or possible’ and usually means being objectively accessible sensately or sensuously.
I am yet to find the origin of the dictionary’s definition.
RESPONDENT: The world is actual.
RICHARD: Not for maybe 6.0 billion human beings ... they live in the ‘real world’, a
grim and glum illusion pasted over this pristine actual world, by the affective filters of the entity within their flesh and blood bodies, as
a veneer that obscures the already always existing peace-on-earth.
Which is why I say that naiveté is essential less all the misery and mayhem continue.
RESPONDENT: We do not need a doctrine to explain that.
RICHARD: I see that I inadvertently left ‘a doctrine’ and its synonyms off my
list ... I appreciate you drawing this to my attention and will amend my paragraph forthwith: actualism is not, and has never been, a doctrine, a policy, a canon, a dogma, a code, a tenet, a creed, a credo,
a rule, a principle, an ideology, a faith, an act of faith, an article of faith, a philosophy, a religion, a metaphysics, a psychology, a
mind-set, a state-of-mind, a frame-of-mind, a view, a view-point, a point of view, a world-view, a perspective, a standpoint, a position, a
posit, a precept, a stance, an opinion, a belief, an imagining, an intellectual understanding, an idea, a concept, a theory or a cult.
‘Tis no wonder my E-Mails become more and more lengthy, eh?
RESPONDENT: There are actual murders; actual rapes; actual child
abuse; actual joy; etc.
RICHARD: Indeed (apart from the ‘actual joy, etc.’ ) ... and even though I only
ever get to meet flesh and blood bodies – there are no psychological and psychic entities here in this actual world – the evidence of
their very real (to them) existence within these bodies is played-out here in this actual world in all its stark, grisly detail.
Yet all this misery and mayhem is unnecessary.
RESPONDENT: If you are living in peace, why call it actualism,
unless it is something you are trying to push.
RICHARD: I do indeed have a barrow that I push – I make my agenda crystal-clear, up-front
and out-in-the-open, for all to see – and push it relentlessly and unstintingly. Vis.:
It is possible to live in the already always existing peace-on-earth, in this lifetime, as this
flesh and blood body only.
RESPONDENT: The theories about the role of
instincts on the website ...
RICHARD: If I may interject? Just what [quote] ‘theories’ [endquote] are you referring
to? And the reason I ask is because what I have to report/ describe/ explain is experiential ... as in coming out of direct experience.
RESPONDENT: They are theories to me because I haven’t had your
particular ‘experiential’ revelation.
RICHARD: If I may point out? Just because experiential reports/ descriptions/ explanations
are theories to you does not make them [quote] ‘the theories’ [endquote] ... and neither does your lack of similar experience make them a
[quote] ‘revelation’ [endquote] either.
RESPONDENT: I take it that you’re not talking about a
scientifically verifiable report then?
RICHARD: What I am talking about is experientially verifiable ... as explicitly spelled-out
on the homepage of my portion of The Actual Freedom Trust web site. Vis.:
• [Richard]: ‘I invite anyone to make a critical examination of all the words I advance so as
to ascertain if they be intrinsically self-explanatory ... and if they are all 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* (which personal experiencing is
the only proof worthy of the name). The PCE occurs globally ... across cultures and down through the ages irregardless of gender, race or age.
However, it is usually interpreted according to cultural beliefs – created and reinforced by the persistence of identity – and devolves
into an ASC ...’.
Did you overlook that when you read what was on offer there preparatory to asking me these
questions?
*
RESPONDENT: ... are confidently expressed as if they are describing
something factual but there is considerable debate amongst researchers about the role of genes and environment on conditioning. See www.beyondintractability.org/m/aggression.jsp for an overview of theories on aggression. Clearly, there’s not a consensus
amongst researchers but actualists seem confident.
RICHARD: Maybe, just maybe, that is because what actualists report/ describe/ explain is
experiential and not theoretical.
RESPONDENT: Are you suggesting that researchers only ever deal with
theory and that they never employ observation to arrive at their own experiential revelations?
RICHARD: All I was doing was responding to your invitation to see a web page you cited for
an overview of [quote] ‘theories’ [endquote] on aggression ... however, in view of your ‘they are theories to me’ explanation (further
above) are you now suggesting that the overview on aggression at that web page you cited should be read as being [quote] ‘experiential
revelations’ [endquote] and not theories after all? For example:
• [example only]: ‘See www.beyondintractability.org/m/aggression.jsp for an overview of
experiential revelations on aggression’. [end example].
*
RESPONDENT: On the website it is confidently said ‘contrary to
popular belief instincts are not ‘hardware’ but ‘software’ and as such they can be deleted’. See www.actualfreedom.com.au/library/topics/instinctualpassions.htm.
What proof do actualists use to assert these claims?
RICHARD: They are neither claims nor an assertion of such ... and the ‘proof’ is the
experience of the very deletion of same.
RESPONDENT: How is it known that any of the programming removed by
the actualist method is actually genetically endowed programming?
RICHARD: In a word: experientially.
RESPONDENT: So you seem to have a special class of experiential
proof ...
RICHARD: No, as I was born and raised on a farm there was no need for a special class of
experiential proof – the human animal was demonstrably born with instinctual passions (such as fear and aggression and nurture and desire)
just like the other animals were – thus the common or garden variety of experiential proof was all that was required.
RESPONDENT: ... I’ll call it actualist proof.
RICHARD: Suit yourself ... it is your argument, when all is said and done.
RESPONDENT: Using actualist proof are you able to tell us which
particular genes or gene complex are involved in genetically endowed programming?
RICHARD: As I do not have what seems to you a special class of experiential proof, which you
have seen fit to inform me you will call actualist proof, I am unable to answer your query as-is ... perhaps you may be inclined to rephrase
your question?
RESPONDENT: That would be very interesting if you could. If you
could tell researchers which particular gene sequence to look into, imagine what could be achieved.
RICHARD: As it obviously escaped your notice, when reading all of my responses to you before
replying, that there is no imaginative facility extant in this flesh and blood body it would be conducive to clarity in communication to draw
it to your attention here:
• [Respondent]: ‘Are all instincts ‘software’ as implied in the quote above?
• [Richard]: ‘As the altruistic ‘self’-immolation, of the identity inhabiting this flesh and blood body all those years ago, was
simultaneously the extirpation of all instinctual impulses, drives and urges – the entire affective faculty (*including its epiphenomenal
imaginative and intuitive facility*) in fact – then the analogy to computer software is reasonable enough for the purpose of
communication’. [emphasis added].
RESPONDENT: Scientists could switch off the responsible genes in
laboratory animals and scientifically validate your actualist proof. Can you do it?
RICHARD: As I do not have what seems to you a special class of experiential proof, which you
have seen fit to inform me you will call actualist proof, then scientific validation of what you have fabulously seemed into pseudo-existence
(quite possibly per favour an intact imaginative facility) might be a long time coming ... if ever.
Meanwhile, all the wars and murders and rapes and tortures and domestic violence and child abuse
and suicides, and so on, keep on going on unabated.
*
RICHARD: As the author of the web page article you cited clearly says right up-front [quote]
‘... I find it helpful to look at *theories* of aggression by dividing them into three schools ...’ [emphasis added], as well as
using the word ‘theorists’ more than once, further on, to refer to what you describe as [quote] ‘researchers’ [endquote], then the
reason why I responded to your initial paragraph the way I did might become more readily apparent were it to look something like this:
• [example only]: ‘The experiential reports/ descriptions/ explanations about the role of
instincts on the website are confidently expressed as if they are describing something factual but there is considerable debate amongst
theorists about the role of genes and environment on conditioning. See www.beyondintractability.org/m/aggression.jsp
for an overview of theories on aggression. Clearly, there’s not a consensus amongst theorists but actualists seem confident’.
• [Richard]: ‘Maybe, just maybe, that is because what actualists report/ describe/ explain is experiential and not theoretical’. [end
example].
RESPONDENT: You are artificially dividing theory and the
experiential.
RICHARD: Here is the example you provided from The Actual Freedom Trust web site ... and my
succinct response:
• [Respondent]: ‘On the website it is confidently said ‘contrary to popular belief instincts
are not ‘hardware’ but ‘software’ and as such they can be deleted’. See www.actualfreedom.com.au/library/topics/instinctualpassions.htm. What proof do
actualists use to assert these claims?
• [Richard]: ‘They are neither claims nor an assertion of such ... and the ‘proof’ is the experience of the very deletion of same’.
Given that more than a few ... um ... researchers posit/ postulate/ propose that the instincts
being referred to (instinctual passions such as fear and aggression and nurture and desire) are ‘hardware’, and not ‘software’, then
if you could explain how I am [quote] ‘artificially dividing theory and the experiential’ [endquote] it would be most appreciated.
RESPONDENT: You simply say that your experience is ‘experiential’
and therefore superior.
RICHARD: Unless you are suggesting that ‘hardware’ can be removed non-surgically (in an
experiential process that currently goes by the name altruistic ‘self’-immolation) then my experiential ‘proof’ as to their ‘software’
nature – the experience of the very deletion of same – is so vastly superior to those posits/ postulates/ proposals as to make them not
even worth the mass-produced papers they are printed on.
RESPONDENT: Good theories are not completely divorced from
experiential evidence.
RICHARD: If you could provide me with the name of one – just one – of those researchers
you allude to who has experiential evidence that the extirpation of the instinctual passions, such as fear and aggression and nurture and
desire, is a matter of the removal of ‘hardware’ (in a non-surgical process that currently goes by the name altruistic ‘self’-immolation),
and not the deletion of ‘software’, it will be most appreciated.
RESPONDENT: As soon as you open your mouth to describe the
experiential you are expounding theory.
RICHARD: So as to keep it topical here is what I wrote in my first response to you:
• [Richard]: ‘... the altruistic ‘self’-immolation, of the identity inhabiting this flesh
and blood body all those years ago, was simultaneously the extirpation of all instinctual impulses, drives and urges – the entire affective
faculty (including its epiphenomenal imaginative and intuitive facility) in fact ...’. [endquote].
If you could point out where I am [quote] ‘expounding theory’ [endquote] in that instance of me
opening my mouth it will be most appreciated ... as it is a fact, and not theory, that it was an act of altruism (and not an act of selfism)
whereby ‘self’-immolation occurred; it is a fact, and not theory, that it was the identity inhabiting this flesh and blood body all those
years ago who altruistically ‘self-immolated; it is a fact, and not theory, that the identity’s altruistic ‘self’-immolation was
simultaneously the extirpation of all instinctual impulses, drives and urges; it is a fact, and not theory, that the simultaneous extirpation
included the entire affective faculty (including its epiphenomenal imaginative and intuitive facility).
RESPONDENT: It’s unavoidable. A description cannot capture all
the details of a situation, so it is necessarily a distillation of experience ...
RICHARD: If I may interject? Since when has a distilled description of experience rendered
the experience a theory? Or, even more to the point, how can experience be theoretical?
RESPONDENT: ... it’s a theory that could be modified or disproved
by further experience or a change in perspective.
RICHARD: Here again is what I wrote in my first response to you:
• [Richard]: ‘... the altruistic ‘self’-immolation, of the identity inhabiting this flesh
and blood body all those years ago, was simultaneously the extirpation of all instinctual impulses, drives and urges – the entire affective
faculty (including its epiphenomenal imaginative and intuitive facility) in fact ...’. [endquote].
If you could demonstrate how [quote] ‘a change in perspective’ [endquote] can modify or
disprove that factual account it will be most appreciated.
RESPONDENT: ‘The chair is blue’ is untrue at 10,000X
magnification.
RICHARD: I will draw your attention to what you wrote a scant three sentences ago:
• [Respondent]: ‘As soon as you open your mouth to describe the experiential you are expounding
theory’. [endquote].
As you have, perforce, opened your mouth in order to share that bit of wisdom then, by your own
reckoning, you are expounding theory and I can only guess that your theory, that the chair miraculously ceases to be blue per favour the
transmogrifying power of a human eye looking at it through a magnifying lenses, is as valid or as invalid as any other in the factless world
you live in.
So be it then ... end of discussion.
RICHARD: Just as a matter of associated interest ... why did you entitle
this e-mail of yours [quote] ‘exit ism’ [endquote]?
RESPONDENT: I don’t know what I will
do with AF, I am still trying to understand it and me and the world but in the moment of writing that message and questioning your:
distinctive doctrine, system, theory, etc., in short, investigating your ism ...
RICHARD: As I neither have a doctrine, etcetera, nor an ism perhaps you might be inclined to
write whatever it is you are wanting to convey in a way that makes sense?
RESPONDENT: Hmm? Here is the definition of ism: A distinctive
doctrine, system, or theory. Which is what I wrote.
RICHARD: Indeed it is ... the mere fact of writing something does not miraculously turn it
into a fact, however.
RESPONDENT: Ism, you know as in actulISM.
RICHARD: It is no such thing ... the following is:
• ‘-ism: forming usu. abstract ns. expr. a peculiarity or characteristic of a nation,
individual, etc.’. (Oxford Dictionary).
As contrasted to this:
• ‘ism: chiefly derog. a form of doctrine, theory, or practice having, or claiming to
have, a distinctive character or relationship’. (Oxford Dictionary).
You are not the first and, given the endemic nature of the human condition, you will probably not
be the last to try and score a cheap point out the word actualism. Vis.:
• [Richard]: ‘... there are those who attempt to get mileage out the word actualism, as it is
used on The Actual Freedom Trust web site , as being indicative of a cult – complete with both cultists and a cult-leader being in denial
– merely because of the ‘-ism’ suffix. [footnote: the suffix ‘-ism’ simply forms a noun signifying a characteristic quality]’.
RESPONDENT No 54: Of course, if the Richard’s
method does begin to produce, not just believers in actualism, but people who are effortlessly and without interruption residing in the PCE of
actual freedom, we will have the confirming data that I assert is so needed at this point.
RESPONDENT No 21: While of course I cannot know your intention with
this comment, it occurs to me that a ‘need’ for ‘confirming data’ could also be a desire for something believable to have faith
in.
RESPONDENT No 38: There’s the rub. Without the direct experience,
everything must be taken on ‘faith’. Since that’s a loaded term, let’s replace it with ‘something that sounds like it might make
sense and is worth exploring further’. That resolves to common sense. And, don’t forget the repeated admonishment to prove this to
yourself... that’s the bottom line. No faith required.
*
RESPONDENT No 47: Faith: NOUN: 1. Confident belief in the
truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. The American Heritage® Dictionary
While reading your last post, at the University Computer Lab, a fervent believer sat down beside me
and we talked for hours long about spiritualism. One of the things I asked was, what did ‘faith’ mean to him? He responded: To believe
before seeing. He then continued admonishing those who expect to see in order to believe. Well, Actualism does away with both of these.
After I suspended my major beliefs in spiritualism I started believing in Actualism ... hence I
started doubting Actualism. I had the ‘actualist calenture’ you speak of, which has absolutely nothing to do with actualism, and this was
finally dispelled with by common sense, naivety and the remembrance of a PCE...it’s so simple that it is darn nearly impossible to
comprehend whilst being a believer. Can a believer know what it is like not to believe? You might argue that it was a necessary stage that
helped me to understand more about an Actual Freedom, but I factually report to you that it digressed and stalled my understanding.
If you believe/ doubt in actualism then you are not following the ‘Wide and Wondrous Path’ but
your own conclusion of it.
I write this without any defence whatsoever, a little intimidation perhaps, for you are far too
smart and would definitely leave me at a loss if I were to try to intellectually compete with you ... but I talk out of the confidence of
experience. An experience that, by what I have been reading, will not be too difficult for you to achieve. Anyhow, keep writing. I’m
following your posts with avid interest.
Wish you well.
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