General Correspondence ~ Peter

with Correspondent No 4

6.3.2000

Hi G. G.,

Just a little New Dark Age Article you might think worthy of publishing. I am the author and it has appeared in a local spiritual magazine but I thought you might like to post it. If so, feel free to ...

Austradamus’ New Millennium Predictions.

7.3.2000

Hi G. G.,

A friend found your site and forwarded me the article on Andrew Cohen. I had been on the spiritual path for years but now have found a down-to-earth, non-spiritual freedom. As my spiritual search dwindled into disillusion and disbelief of the Gurus, I came across a man who had been Enlightened but had managed to break free from the delusion that he was a God-man. He saw all religion, spirituality and the Master-disciple system as nothing other than institutionalized insanity.

If your interested I’ve posted a bit that I wrote about my spiritual search –

But the problem is that Eastern religions, by trying to eliminate the ‘self’, aim to transform it into the ‘Self’ – in other words realising that you are God or at one with God. And then, of course, as the latest saviour of mankind, one gathers disciples, scorns others who have seemingly found a different God, and eventually form yet another Religion. And so on ad nauseam.

In the end, the apparent solution to suffering actually contributes mightily to the problem – and with horrific consequences. The religious wars, persecutions, torture and perversions of the self-righteous God men are legendary and appalling, and they continue today. One needs only to look at Northern Ireland or Jerusalem to see the end result of Western God-men. Of course, the East is equally appalling when one takes off the rose-coloured glasses and really looks. I only have to remember that I would have been willing to kill or be killed for Rajneesh on the Ranch to know this is so.

Hinduism is too silly to even be taken seriously – a little reading will show that – but then again it forms the basis of much of modern spirituality! The brutality of the clashes between Hindus and Muslims in India rivals any of the atrocities man has inflicted on man.

You only have to look at the East with its appalling ignorance, arrogance, oppression, poverty, class structure and religious persecutions to see the results of thousands of years of intense devotion to Eastern religions. To believe that spirituality holds the solution to violence and misery is to maintain faith, hope and trust in the face of the fact of total and continuing failure, after thousands of years, to bring even a semblance of peace to the planet.

If the aim of the spiritual path was to deliver to me the much sought-after ‘peace of mind’ then I had to admit that it had also failed. It was possible, through intensive effort and surrender, to still the mind, but from what I had experienced and seen in others, this involved a ‘getting out of it’, into some ‘other’ world. I came to see meditation as no more than sitting in the corner with my eyes shut, pretending the world didn’t exist. When they say the ‘real’ world is an illusion, they do indeed experience it that way. The inner, imaginary world becomes real and the actual physical world becomes an illusion!

I myself have known this when, after six months of withdrawing from the world, intensive spiritual reading and meditating, I was walking along a beach and had an experience of being ‘pure love’. I was Love, and love for everything poured out of me. ‘Existence’ and I were one, and all was love. I, as I normally was, was definitely not there – I had become pure love. Or, put another way, I had an experience of the ‘self’ becoming the ‘Self’. It eventually wore off after about two hours but, on reflection, if I had continued on the spiritual path for longer with the same intensity, I could well have been typing very different words now – no doubt proclaiming myself as the latest saviour of mankind!

Somehow I knew that this was not what I was after, as I wanted to be an ordinary human being, not an extraordinary one like the Enlightened Ones. Besides, I had not met one whose life I would like to emulate. I had also seen enough of the power and authority, with its subsequent demand of worship and adoration, to be dismayed at the thought that this system represented the pinnacle of human endeavour. Some spiritual teachers, seeing this objection in people, are now deliberately trying to appear ‘ordinary’ and make much of the fact. Was it set in concrete that the only way to get rid of the ‘self’ was to become the ‘Self’? Was the only way to escape the misery of being a human being to become a God or God-realised? Well, not according to Richard, and that was encouraging – and inspirational!

Well, why is Enlightenment just for the ‘chosen few’, and why – when it happens to someone – is he or she worshipped and revered like some God? Is it that it is such a miracle to get Enlightened in the first place that we bestow divinity on them, and then curry favour with them and worship them in the hope that it might rub off on us? I posed these and many other questions, as I tried to see what actual good had come out of a system that had been followed by billions of people, for thousands of years. Buddhism has been in existence for at least 2500 years and Hinduism supposedly twice as long. I was looking for evidence and facts – not hopes or beliefs.

The case for the defence was definitely not looking good, but I still found myself defending at least something of the spiritual and hanging on grimly. Surely there was a ‘Something’ else? Was it possible that I, and everyone else on earth up until now, had got it wrong and that only Richard was right? I had been reading widely throughout this time to check out the facts of what Richard was saying and what I found was astounding. I found that the whole of philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, astronomy, physics, indeed all of man’s knowledge, and wisdom is based on an underlying assumption of a ‘something more’ than the physical universe. A belief in the meta-physical permeates all human thinking and wisdom. If one eliminated this assumption or belief the whole lot comes crashing down like those card stacks I used to make as a kid. Then it all started to make sense to me, to fit the facts – everyone has got it 180 degrees wrong – everyone!

There has been no actual evidence or facts after thousands of years to support the belief that there is a God or a Something else. The cry in the churches, temples, ashrams and satsang halls is still one of trust, faith and hope to maintain the belief in a Something else. It was as though I was able to begin to see through the whole charade and fantasy of the spirit-ual world – to be able to see things from another perspective. It was like a mist or a veil clearing. It was then that I realised that Richard was the only atheist I had met and seemingly the only one that has ever been.

I was obviously in the company of a mad man and a super-megalomaniac to boot. But then again, the wise men in the other camp were calling themselves God or at least ‘one with God’, and this seemed totally insane to me! I reached a stage when I thought I was going mad, but then again the whole world was mad anyway. I only had to watch TV, read history, or listen to the next-door neighbours fighting to know I lived in a mad house ... and here I was worrying about going mad!! In particular I remember one day on the building site when one of the subcontractors said to me that he was having a bad morning and that he felt he should meditate, and did I mind. Given he was a straight sort of guy I thought he was joking until I saw him ten minutes later in full lotus position sitting right in the middle of the noise and chaos. And it was just at the time that I was thinking I was going mad!

In the end I ruled the mad bit out of court as I somehow knew all this was just going on in my head anyway, a sort of a last defence battle of the psyche, refusing to let go of cherished beliefs in the face of facts. Further, it was not only my belief, it was insidiously permeating every human brain – it was wired-in, instinctual, genetic if you like. Stubbornness drove me on – I was, after all, in this to find out the meaning of it all; to make sense of being a human being on this planet.

Fear welled up in me as I realised I no longer believed in the Spiritual – it was obviously just the religion of the East, and religion had obviously failed in the East as it had in the West. After thousands of years, nowhere is there peace on earth or happiness. But I knew I could not just believe Richard either. The enormity of it all was beginning to dawn on me. Nobody could help me. I could only rely on the facts, my own intelligence and experience. But the facts were undeniable. And a fact is a fact, whereas a belief is only a belief. In short it meant everybody else has got it wrong and I have got it right. I knew that would place me as a heretic – the very people who are persecuted and burnt at the stake! Besides, what about all those years of belief and faith – how could I have been such a fool!

Pride reared its ugly head, but I recognised it as the same pride that had bound me to the spiritual path in the first place and had given me a feeling of superiority. I then realised the connection between pride and humility, so subtly hidden beneath the ‘good-ness’ of the spiritual world. In the end I came to realise that I would be a greater fool to continue pursuing something that didn’t work, simply because everybody else was! It was useful to see Vineeto also struggling with exactly this same pride, as I often saw something in someone else that was relevant to turn in on myself. In the end I realised it was my life, and to worry about what other people thought is not to be free – and freedom was the very thing that I was after.

It seemed to me an instinctual grab for power by my psyche, which rightly felt threatened with elimination. I also had to admit to myself that power and authority was a definite attraction in my desire for Enlightenment – a sort of spiritual version of ‘Money for nothing and your chicks for free’.

It was further brought home to me in my situation with Vineeto, as I would try to tell her where she was wrong and ram it down her throat. Finally I saw that it was up to her to do what she wanted to do with her life, and that I had no power over her. Now I would not want it any other way; it would not be perfect otherwise. A similar thing happened with friends when I tried to inspire them; they usually felt attacked and no wonder – this path is anathema to the ‘self’. To see power and authority in myself and to have seen them in the Enlightened Ones was to prove the critical point in the process of eliminating them in me.

No longer would I be seduced down that spiritual path towards power and glory. I had reached the point where the spiritual path and the path to actual freedom radically diverge and go 180 degrees in opposite directions. There is an apparent similarity at first glance in that both identify the ‘self’ as the problem. One, the traditional, goes to God, glory, power and authority; the other goes to actual freedom, which I had glimpsed in peak experiences and which was becoming more and more obvious and apparent in my life. In my experience the other difference is crucial– one works, the other doesn’t. I was becoming increasingly happy and harmless, and therefore different from other people, who remained firmly entrenched in sorrow or were still trying the traditional paths as a remedy. They were still searching while I was busy arriving.

However, what a freedom to see others as fellow human beings who choose to do what they want with their lives, and not as people I had to save. This path to freedom was proving to contain no power or authority. But then again I had only to observe Richard and how he was – and, of course, I did continuously. I could see that the path to actual freedom was eminently sensible, practical, workable yet utterly magical. And that Enlightenment has had its day; it’s finished, redundant, obsolete, archaic, primitive, harmful and silly! Peter’s Journal, God

18.4.2000

Hi G. G.,

I’ve been reading Richard’s site and to be honest it’s too much to plough thru. How did you manage with him?

Aye, Richard is indeed a prolific writer. Having devoted his life to the search for freedom, peace and happiness, having been afflicted with the condition of theomania aka enlightenment and managed to free himself of it and having become actually free of malice and sorrow, he has something to write about that is invaluable for any who are sufficiently interested. The writings on the AF web-site are probably total well over a million words and yet are but a drop in the ocean compared to the trillions and squillions of words parroting and trumpeting the ancient spiritual gooblygook. When I serendipitously came across Richard three years ago, his writing only consisted of his Journal and I avidly read it front to back many times and I would dip into it whenever I deliberately made the time available. It took me months and months, often contemplating sentence by sentence, to even begin to understand the mind-bending enormity of the fact that everyone has got it wrong – everybody is looking 180 degrees in the wrong direction.

As I managed to free myself of my spiritual beliefs and became virtually free of malice and sorrow, I swapped my car for a computer and sat down to write a journal that described the process that I went through. I wanted to record it fresh in order that the excitement, passion and adventure did not get lost as my memory faded. It is written with unabashed fervour for this new third alternative, so you may find it inspiring. I say ‘may’ deliberately for it has evoked zilch response from those people I gave it to read. It’s proved a popular failure in the spiritual world which I take as a sign that it must be good.

What became clear to me from the fact that no-one took up the challenge offered by my journal is that one needs to have a burning dissatisfaction with one’s life as-it-is coupled with a healthy skepticism about the traditional spiritual path. I say skepticism deliberately for if one has sunk to the level of cynicism one may not have sufficient naiveté to even consider that it is possible to become actually free of the human condition. One definitely needs a pioneering spirit in order to reject the tried and failed and set off following the words and experiences of a madman and a handful of others. Stubbornness, bloody-mindedness and perseverance are other qualities that come to mind but a burning dissatisfaction with your life as-it-is is the most essential. ‘Nothing left to lose’ rang in my head when I met Richard. I also would half-jokingly say he should hang a sign on his door that said ‘Abandon hope, all ye who enter here’ for being a pioneer is not for the faint of heart.

So, to get back to the web-site – you will have noticed that there are three sub-sections to it, one of which contains only Richard’s writings. In the other sections there is a host of valuable information about the putting of the method into action, personal experiences and anecdotes on the path to actual freedom, etc. Vineeto has devoted an amazing amount of time organizing a cyber-library that classifies the writings of Actual Freedom by topic in order to facilitate and aid anyone who is sufficiently interested, in their personal investigation of the human condition. I have already mentioned my Journal – as a primer perhaps – and Vineeto’s writings are also equally excellent in this respect. It’s good to read of the putting into practice of a method lest you mistakenly think AF is merely a philosophy.

The other section that may be useful is the Introduction to Actual Freedom – a very simple straightforward presentation accompanied by pictures and schematic diagrams that aims to summarize the human condition we find ourselves in, looks at the traditional ways we humans have used to keep malice and sorrow within acceptable limits and makes explicit the failure of the traditional efforts to become free of the human condition. The actual source of human malice and sorrow is identified and the method to become free of it is set out in a simple step-by-step process.

It’s hard to see that we can do more, be more upfront, be more sincere, be more transparent, but we delight in the challenge. It’s such good fun and such a delicious hobby.

As for ‘How did you manage with him?’ If you mean as a fellow human being – disarmingly easily, comfortably, harmoniously, affably, amicably, genially, friendly, candidly, straightforwardly, cordially. It took me a while to relate to him as he did to me, but once I managed to rid myself of my spiritual conditioning, my suspicion and doubt, I clearly see and experience him as a fellow human being, with one quite remarkable and totally unique faculty – there is not a skerrick of malice or sorrow in him. And I say that after three years of close observation of him in the world as-it-is, with people as-they-are, and under many circumstances that were indeed genuine tests. After 17 years on the spiritual path, including being closely involved with three of the so-called ‘self-less beings’, I had a suspicious nose and a good eye for duplicity and deceit.

What I am saying needs not be believed – anyone who is willing to read his correspondence can make their own judgement on the basis of his responses. Making one’s own and sensible pragmatic appraisal is 180 degrees opposite to merely following the Gurus where you have to be ‘in their presence’ to feel their energy thus making a heart connection. As you well know, from your own experience when the feelings of love and lust kick in any sensible and sane judgement rapidly flies out the window. What I am saying is that there is nothing to be gained from personal meetings other than to affirm that there is a flesh and blood human called Richard. I make countless sensible judgements based on others’ experience and knowledge without having to meet them, feel them out, etc. In this world of 6 billion people, it happens all the time. Also making an assessment based on written words used to conveyed information and substantiated facts has the advantage of preventing the very-often unreliable affective feelings such as intuition, gut feelings, body language, cultural conditioning, etc. from distorting one’s own judgement and assessment.

Two events from my early meetings with Richard may be worth relating. I had come to the end of another dead end in my globe trotting spiritual search and was ready to admit to yet another defeat and failure, and lo and behold ... I ran into a man who claimed to be free and who happened to live in a suburban house just down the street. ‘Yet another Guru’, I thought and so close – they’re literally coming out of the woodwork. It took a few months to get to the stage where my spiritual conditioning was beginning to wane but I couldn’t quite break through. At the end of one particular afternoon of amicable chatting about life, the universe and what it is to a human being, I dared to pose a question that had nagged me for a while. ‘Okay... you have got me hooked, what’s behind it all, what’s the secret hidden agenda?’

Richard had been busy making coffee and he turned around a little bemused and said ‘There is none – this is about you being happy and harmless, in this lifetime’. It was then that I got it – he was the genuine article and Actual Freedom was the genuine product. Here was a man who had managed to free himself of the human condition and who was simply offering his expertise to others ... should they be interested.

I had been so long on the spiritual path that I had to rekindle my naiveté by months of persistent effort in order to see actual innocence personified. Again, what I am saying is amply evidenced should you want to peruse his writing with a naïve scrutiny. I am talking of naiveté and not gullibility as in believing others, and sensible scrutiny not a spiritual cynicism as in ‘you can’t change human nature’. It’s a tough trick to read with fresh eyes as it takes repetitious effort to break from ingrained habits and conditioning – both real-world and spiritual.

The other event was one that I had forgotten until Richard reminded me the other day. Evidently, at one stage I said to him ‘You aren’t going to do this for me, are you? I have to do it for myself, and by myself?’ Again you have to remember that I was coming from the spiritual path where merely being ‘in the presence of’ a God-man or God-woman and surrendering to their love or Love or God was sufficient to tip one into the dissociative state of enlightenment – to get out of being here, on this planet, where we human beings actually live. Having to do something about one’s lot in life, and having to work damn hard to be free, is 180 degrees different to the tradition spiritual path to a synthetic freedom and many who have come across Richard have turned away when they realized this fact. The path to the ultimate effortlessness and laziness – self-extinction – does require that one overcomes one’s innate inertia and fear, that one gets one’s head out of the clouds, gets off one’s bum and earns it. Pioneering is not, and has never been, an easy business.

For me, the very idea that I could do something about the malice and sorrow in me was a daring liberating challenge that made profound sense – if there is no God then it’s up to me and me alone. What a freedom.

Having forgotten this last event, I realize how good it was that I was moved to write my Journal. It is serendipitous that there are two Journals on the Web, as well as Vineeto’s writing and the Library. It helps to debunk the fashionable humiliating business of human beings worshipping other human beings as God-men, to make clear that Actual Freedom is most definitely not Richardism. He is a fellow human being who has managed to discover what is always here, has always existed, and will always exist – the perfect and pure actual world that is directly experienced when the ‘self’ is absent, either temporarily in a pure consciousness experience or permanently as in Richard’s on-going experience. His expertise is now freely offered to others on the AF web-site together with a host of valuable writing and a mailing list. The advantage of being in the following wave of pioneering is that there is a map to follow, a lot of written information, and a track that will be increasingly marked out and made easier, as each successive person makes the journey.

Good, hey.

By the way, serendipity is what happens when you take the opportunity that comes along.

So that’s about it. Thanks for your note; it has been a good opportunity to get this down in words.

28.4.2000

Hi G. G.,

I’ve been reading Richard’s site and to be honest it’s too much to plough thru. How did you manage with him?

Aye, Richard is indeed a prolific writer. Having devoted his life to the search for freedom, peace and happiness, having been afflicted with the condition of theomania aka enlightenment and managed to free himself of it and having become actually free of malice and sorrow, he has something to write about that is invaluable for any who are sufficiently interested.

Is he visibly different from others or just got a way to bend your ear?

No, the affliction of theomania aka soulism aka Enlightenment does not make anyone visibly different from anyone else. Being a mental affliction it all goes on in the head. Thus anyone meeting Richard before, during or after the theomania stage would have noticed no visible differences from others. If you passed in him in street you wouldn’t know he was different, you have to read his words to know.

As for bending my ear, I would describe it more as affirming to me that it was possible to get rid of my social identity – real and spiritual – and venture on to tackle my instinctual being – ‘me’ at my core. By example he gave me the inspiration to go all the way to freedom.

It is amazing what is now possible for anyone – the complete eradication of malice and sorrow.

*

He has something to write about that is invaluable for any who are sufficiently interested. The writings on the AF web-site probably total well over a million words and yet are but a drop in the ocean compared to the trillions and squillions of words parroting and trumpeting the ancient spiritual gooblygook.

But no one reads all of them or his words.

No, all seekers of freedom peace and happiness are seduced by the ancient spiritual gooblygook for t’is sweet music to the soul and very, very few even bother to read spiritual words with a sensible clear eye for they are usually in-love with the whole fairy tale idea of spirituality.

Actual Freedom is a new third alternative that has only recently been pioneered and will appeal neither to fervent believers or cynical disgruntlites. To be interested one needs to have a burning dissatisfaction with one’s life as-it-is coupled with a healthy scepticism about the traditional spiritual path. I say scepticism deliberately for if one has sunk to the level of cynicism one may not have sufficient naiveté to even consider that it is possible to become actually free of the human condition. One definitely needs a pioneering spirit in order to reject the tried and failed and set off following the words and experiences of a madman and a handful of others. Stubbornness, bloody-mindedness and perseverance are other qualities that come to mind, but a burning dissatisfaction with your life as-it-is is the most essential.

By the way, the other reason no-one reads his words is that the few who read even a bit are unwilling to point others to the fact that a third alternative exists. You have at least read a bit of what he has written I take it. You even asked Richard if he would write something for your Web site, which he did, yet now I see you have taken it off a mere fortnight later.

Maybe it is actions like these that contribute to the fact that no one reads his words?

You seem interested in what others think of him, his appearance, etc. but what do you make of the content of what he is saying?

*

When I serendipitously came across Richard three years ago, his writing only consisted of his Journal and I avidly read it front to back many times and I would dip into it whenever I deliberately made the time available. It took me months and months, often contemplating sentence by sentence, to even begin to understand the mind-bending enormity of the fact that everyone has got it wrong – everybody is looking 180 degrees in the wrong direction.

As I managed to free myself of my spiritual beliefs and became virtually free of malice and sorrow, but your writings on women seem quite lusty I swapped my car for a computer and sat down to write a journal that described the process that I went through. I wanted to record it fresh in order that the excitement, passion and adventure did not get lost as my memory faded. It is written with unabashed fervour for this new third alternative, so you may find it inspiring.

I say ‘may’ deliberately for it has evoked zilch response from those people I gave it to read. It’s proved a popular failure in the spiritual world which I take as a sign that it must be good.

Really – why?

I would have been suspicious if it was popular precisely because everyone has got it 180 degrees wrong. What is popular, fashionable or rebelled against is that which is within the human condition. What I write about is freedom from the human condition and ‘self’-immolation – not a popular subject in a ‘self’-possessed world.

*

When I serendipitously came across Richard three years ago, his writing only consisted of his Journal and I avidly read it front to back many times and I would dip into it whenever I deliberately made the time available. It took me months and months, often contemplating sentence by sentence, to even begin to understand the mind-bending enormity of the fact that everyone has got it wrong – everybody is looking 180 degrees in the wrong direction.

As I managed to free myself of my spiritual beliefs and became virtually free of malice and sorrow, ... <Snipped>

But your writings on women seem quite lusty.

By daring to remove the socially-instilled moral and ethical inhibitions that act to shackle and spoil all human sexual play I was able to investigate the base instinctual sexual passions ... whereupon I discovered the very reasons that society imposes its shackles and no-nos in the first place. The human sexual passions are inseparably intertwined with our genetically encoded animal survival instincts, the main ones being fear, aggression, nurture and desire. As such, I discovered deep-down in me the reason men and women are perpetually at war, the source of jealous murderous rage, the rapist in me, the sexual hunter, the sexual animal, the hellish sexual realms, the fear of being consumed, etc.

It is a fascinating journey to travel to the depths of one’s very own psyche but it is immensely rewarding for I have faced my demons and found them to be very, very real but not actual. These discoveries have enabled me to free myself of being driven by the instinctual sexual passions and blind, driven sex and what remained is open eyed, luscious, scrumptious, sensuous, sensual, sumptuous, voluptuous, delightful, delicious; sometimes sweet and gentle, and sometimes bawdy and risqué, sometimes a frolic, a gamble a dance, a lark, or a romp – never-ever the same, and never-ever boring.

To have broken free of my sexual predatory instincts and from societal mystiques and taboos has made all of the effort, and all of the fears faced, well, well worth it. Sexual play puts a ‘three lemon grin’ on my face every time, to use Vineeto’s term.

Sex is one of the most fascinating explorations on the path to freedom for it encapsulates the extent to which human sensuousness is inhibited in the real world and denied in the spiritual world. I wrote about sex in my journal but sex is not something that interests spiritual seekers – it is definitely off the agenda. They do tend to deliberately hide themselves away from sensuousness.

What a silly thing to do, for the actual world abounds with sensual delight.

1.5.2000

Hi G. G.,

I suspect that you are inappropriately pasting standard answers to my questions. Why would you do that? I can suppose you have picked up something of Richard’s preaching style – but it is not sensitive to the listener. See below:

Your suspicion is wrong, none of what I wrote to you was pasted as a standard answer. Why would you assume that? I do tend to write with gusto and enthusiasm if that is what you are supposing. If the style of writing easily upsets you, which I take it is what you mean by ‘it is not sensitive to the listener’ then maybe the easy solution is to stop reading.

You still objecting to style and have yet to comment on content of what is being written.

*

I’ve been reading Richard’s site and to be honest it’s too much to plough thru. How did you manage with him?

Aye, Richard is indeed a prolific writer. Having devoted his life to the search for freedom, peace and happiness, having been afflicted with the condition of theomania aka enlightenment and managed to free himself of it and having become actually free of malice and sorrow, he has something to write about that is invaluable for any who are sufficiently interested.

If you look I asked about you not Richard. Where is your answer?

You have posted the first part of my reply to the question and cut out the rest and then you impeach me for not looking. I’ll paste the reply to your question that you obviously missed in the last post –

As for ‘How did you manage with him?’ If you mean as a fellow human being – disarmingly easily, comfortably, harmoniously, affably, amicably, genially, friendly, candidly, straightforwardly, cordially. It took me a while to relate to him as he did to me, but once I managed to rid myself of my spiritual conditioning, my suspicion and doubt, I clearly see and experience him as a fellow human being, with one quite remarkable and totally unique faculty – there is not a skerrick of malice or sorrow in him. And I say that after three years of close observation of him in the world as-it-is, with people as-they-are, and under many circumstances that were indeed genuine tests. After 17 years on the spiritual path, including being closely involved with three of the so-called ‘self-less beings’, I had a suspicious nose and a good eye for duplicity and deceit.

What I am saying needs not be believed – anyone who is willing to read his correspondence can make their own judgement on the basis of his responses. Making one’s own and sensible pragmatic appraisal is 180 degrees opposite to merely following the Gurus where you have to be ‘in their presence’ to feel their energy thus making a heart connection. As you well know, from your own experience when the feelings of love and lust kick in any sensible and sane judgement rapidly flies out the window. What I am saying is that there is nothing to be gained from personal meetings other than to affirm that there is a flesh and blood human called Richard. I make countless sensible judgements based on others’ experience and knowledge without having to meet them, feel them out, etc. In this world of 6 billion people, it happens all the time. Also making an assessment based on written words used to conveyed information and substantiated facts has the advantage of preventing the very-often unreliable affective feelings such as intuition, gut feelings, body language, cultural conditioning, etc. from distorting one’s own judgement and assessment.

Two events from my early meetings with Richard may be worth relating. I had come to the end of another dead end in my globe trotting spiritual search and was ready to admit to yet another defeat and failure, and lo and behold ... I ran into a man who claimed to be free and who happened to live in a suburban house just down the street. ‘Yet another Guru’, I thought and so close – they’re literally coming out of the woodwork. It took a few months to get to the stage where my spiritual conditioning was beginning to wane but I couldn’t quite break through. At the end of one particular afternoon of amicable chatting about life, the universe and what it is to a human being, I dared to pose a question that had nagged me for a while. ‘Okay... you have got me hooked, what’s behind it all, what’s the secret hidden agenda?’

Richard had been busy making coffee and he turned around a little bemused and said ‘There is none – this is about you being happy and harmless, in this lifetime’. It was then that I got it – he was the genuine article and Actual Freedom was the genuine product. Here was a man who had managed to free himself of the human condition and who was simply offering his expertise to others ... should they be interested.

I had been so long on the spiritual path that I had to rekindle my naiveté by months of persistent effort in order to see actual innocence personified. Again, what I am saying is amply evidenced should you want to peruse his writing with a naïve scrutiny. I am talking of naiveté and not gullibility as in believing others, and sensible scrutiny not a spiritual cynicism as in ‘you can’t change human nature’. It’s a tough trick to read with fresh eyes as it takes repetitious effort to break from ingrained habits and conditioning – both real-world and spiritual.

The other event was one that I had forgotten until Richard reminded me the other day. Evidently, at one stage I said to him ‘You aren’t going to do this for me, are you? I have to do it for myself, and by myself?’ Again you have to remember that I was coming from the spiritual path where merely being ‘in the presence of’ a God-man or God-woman and surrendering to their love or Love or God was sufficient to tip one into the dissociative state of enlightenment – to get out of being here, on this planet, where we human beings actually live. Having to do something about one’s lot in life, and having to work damn hard to be free, is 180 degrees different to the tradition spiritual path to a synthetic freedom and many who have come across Richard have turned away when they realized this fact. The path to the ultimate effortlessness and laziness – self-extinction – does require that one overcomes one’s innate inertia and fear, that one gets one’s head out of the clouds, gets off one’s bum and earns it. Pioneering is not, and has never been, an easy business.

For me, the very idea that I could do something about the malice and sorrow in me was a daring liberating challenge that made profound sense – if there is no God then it’s up to me and me alone. What a freedom.

*

He has something to write about that is invaluable for any who are sufficiently interested. The writings on the AF web-site probably total well over a million words and yet are but a drop in the ocean compared to the trillions and squillions of words parroting and trumpeting the ancient spiritual gooblygook.

But no one reads all of them or his words.

No, all seekers of freedom peace and happiness are seduced by the ancient spiritual gooblygook for t’is sweet music to the soul and very, very few even bother to read spiritual words with a sensible clear eye for they are usually in-love with the whole fairy tale idea of spirituality.

Are those your words? They seem old-fashioned and like Richard.

No they are my words typed on this very keyboard. If they do seem similar to Richard then it is due to the fact that we use consistent terms and that we are talking of the same thing. If they seem old-fashioned to you it may be due to obsession with style and not content.

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Actual Freedom is a new third alternative that has only recently been pioneered and will appeal neither to fervent believers or cynical disgruntlites. To be interested one needs to have a burning dissatisfaction with one’s life as-it-is coupled with a healthy skepticism about the traditional spiritual path. I say scepticism deliberately for if one has sunk to the level of cynicism one may not have sufficient naiveté to even consider that it is possible to become actually free of the human condition. One definitely needs a pioneering spirit in order to reject the tried and failed and set off following the words and experiences of a madman and a handful of others. Stubbornness, bloody-mindedness and perseverance are other qualities that come to mind, but a burning dissatisfaction with your life as-it-is is the most essential.

By the way, the other reason no-one reads his words is that the few who read even a bit are unwilling to point others to the fact that a third alternative exists. You have at least read a bit of what he has written I take it. You even asked Richard if he would write something for your Web site, which he did, yet now I see you have taken it off a mere fortnight later.

Maybe it is actions like these that contribute to the fact that no one reads his words?

Too convenient. You may have got rid of some religious conditioning and enjoyed reading Richard. But his style is tiresome.

...And his content not suitable for your web-site, I take it.

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You seem interested in what others think of him, his appearance, etc. but what do you make of the content of what he is saying?

Too tiresome for the most part. PCEs exist – so what? I don’t think it as astonishing as he makes out. He obviously still has an ego because he talks about himself. You now repeat yourself twice – duplicating two paragraphs. Are you trying to bore me?

Not at all. You are the one who is bored yet still writes to me in order to be even more bored. I’m having the time of my life writing to people about being happy and harmless and logging up countless objections for the record.

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By daring to remove the socially-instilled moral and ethical inhibitions that act to shackle and spoil all human sexual play I was able to investigate the base instinctual sexual passions ... whereupon I discovered the very reasons that society imposes its shackles and no-nos in the first place. The human sexual passions are inseparably intertwined with our genetically encoded animal survival instincts, the main ones being fear, aggression, nurture and desire. As such, I discovered deep-down in me the reason men and women are perpetually at war, the source of jealous murderous rage, the rapist in me, the sexual hunter, the sexual animal, the hellish sexual realms, the fear of being consumed, etc.

It is a fascinating journey to travel to the depths of one’s very own psyche but it is immensely rewarding for I have faced my demons and found them to be very, very real but not actual. These discoveries have enabled me to free myself of being driven by the instinctual sexual passions and blind, driven sex and what remained is open eyed, luscious, scrumptious, sensuous, sensual, sumptuous, voluptuous, delightful, delicious; sometimes sweet and gentle, and sometimes bawdy and risqué, sometimes a frolic, a gamble a dance, a lark, or a romp – never-ever the same, and never-ever boring.

To have broken free of my sexual predatory instincts and from societal mystiques and taboos has made all of the effort, and all of the fears faced, well, well worth it. Sexual play puts a ‘three lemon grin’ on my face every time, to use Vineeto’s term.

Sex is one of the most fascinating explorations on the path to freedom for it encapsulates the extent to which human sensuousness is inhibited in the real world and denied in the spiritual world. I wrote about sex in my journal but sex is not something that interests spiritual seekers – it is definitely off the agenda. They do tend to deliberately hide themselves away from sensuousness.

What a silly thing to do, for the actual world abounds with sensual delight.

I thought Richard’s path is beyond such things as desire – sexual or otherwise – because his reality is emotionless

Ah, well. To move beyond merely thinking what ‘Richard’s path’ is about you would have to read what he is saying but that would be too tedious and boring according to you. But unless you do so you are merely objecting to something you know nothing about and obviously do not want to find out about. Objection for objection’s sake? No wonder you are feeling bored.

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