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Now

At the present time or moment; under the present circumstances. In the time directly following on the present moment; immediately, at once. In the time directly preceding the present moment. Oxford Dictionary

  1. now (normal) – A pretty wobbly ‘now’ they have in the dictionary – it’s a now that manages to include the bit following – future moments – and the bit preceding – past moments. The normal state of being here is to fluctuate between feeling and worrying about the past and feeling and worrying about the future, all of which makes it impossible to be here now. One has an affective and cerebral interpretation of this actual moment of time for what one feels and thinks oneself to be is a psychological and psychic entity dwelling inside the physical body. One is therefore forever ‘out of time’ – locked out of the direct, intimate experience of this moment by instinctually -sourced feelings and self-centred neurotic thoughts.

  1. now (spiritual) – When a direct intimacy is experienced with the physical universe it is so profound that many interpret the experience as religious – a feeling of Oneness with the Whole and a feeling of timelessness ensues. This affective interpretation leads one to feel Eternal – without beginning and without end – and therefore Immortal. One then resides in a metaphysical dimension, a spiritual ethereal imaginary world, which is to remove oneself even further from the perpetual flow of moments evidenced by the ticking of the clock. The Altered State of Consciousness, so sought after in the spiritual world, alters one’s sense of time to such an extent that one is anywhere but here in the physical world and anytime other than actually here in this very moment hanging in eternal time and in infinite space.

  2. now (actual) – With all our neurotic thoughts and churning emotions we are only able to be here, now, in the actual world, in brief flashes – usually known as a peak experience or Pure Consciousness Experience. Often induced at first by shock, drugs or intense contemplation, it is a period when one is temporarily free of the neurotic and feeling ‘self’, and one magically finds oneself here in the paradisiacal fairy-tale like perfection of the actual world. Being here and now in the actual world is to ‘be doing what is happening’ with no sense of ‘I’ or feelings of ‘me’ – no ego and no soul. I am mortal, the universe is eternal; my experience is of being perpetually here, apart from sleep and until death when my consciousness of being here will irrevocably and permanently cease. To be fully here, now, without a fearful self or a Grand Self is to be innocent, perfect and pure – fully and intimately engaged in this, the only moment I can experience being alive.

Freedom from the Human Condition – Happy and Harmless

© The Actual Freedom Trust