Richard’s Selected Writings

I am engaged in a stimulating conversation with an acquaintance of several years standing; she is a psychologist by profession and specialises in counselling people under stress. She is particularly attracted to what makes up the ‘Human Condition’ and is always interested in what I have to say about my discoveries into the matter of eliminating suffering and aggression. She often jokes that if everybody were to follow my example, she and her colleagues would be put out of business; but as that day will be a long time coming I assure her that her superannuation is safe. As she is in the business of alleviating suffering and aggression, not eliminating it, I wonder what she gets out of our discussions ... yet she avers that they are of inestimable help. She views me as being at the forefront of the evolutionary mutation into the next stage of human development, all the while realising that people in general have a long way to go. Although she loves to theorise about actual freedom, she is learned enough to realise that virtual freedom is the more realistic goal for people to aim for. Thus most of our talk centres around the practicalities of working through the ‘Human Constitution’, as much as she would love to institute an ultimate breakthrough herself.

Although I have made a study of psychology myself, I am not limited to just the one discipline. I am vitally concerned with ontology – the science of ‘being’ – which takes in many different fields of expertise. Accordingly, my studies have included such various subjects as sociology, philosophy, theology, cosmology, anthropology, archaeology, palaeontology, physics, politics and so on. Of course I only have an encyclopaedic knowledge of all these diverse topics, I do not pretend to have made an in-depth analysis ... just sufficient to meet my requirements. I favour the empirical approach to such a subjective study as ontological matters ... all my findings are personally verified experientially. My avowed aim was clear: to find that which is actual. I maintained from the very beginning of my exploration into the human psyche that it was just not possible that this fantastic universe, in all its marvellous diversity and intricate form, could be forever hopelessly ‘wrong’. I could not believe that human beings were fated to be everlastingly miserable, with only scant reprieve from the endless grind. I asked why it should be set in stone that we humans could have only moments of happiness, only temporary periods of harmony. It seemed such an absurdly preposterous premise that ‘you can’t change human nature’.

In the face of many such contumacious admonitions I set out to solve the ‘Mystery of Life’.

To unilaterally relinquish one’s esteemed identity is to go in the face of all received ‘wisdom’. Any psychiatrist would readily advise against such a foolish move ... they will state that one would fall into a condition of mental and emotional ill-health. They would diagnose that one is likely to suffer from a severe mental disorder known as ‘Depersonalisation’ – with its accompanying anxiety and panic attacks – resulting in the prescribing of anti-psychotropic medication and prolonged psychological counselling. To lose one’s identity is considered a very serious psychiatric illness indeed. So one must proceed carefully – with the indispensable aid of pure intent – in order to dismantle, step by step, one’s accrued identity. It is important to examine all the beliefs – masquerading as ‘truths’ – that one has accumulated since birth. These beliefs support and encourage the emergence of the much-prized psychological or psychic entity inhabiting the psyche of all human beings. This apparent disembowelment is initially resisted, for not only has it never been contemplated before, it also goes against the egocentric, ethnocentric and anthropocentric mind-sets that all humans have been endowed with since time immemorial. It is a radical break with the past ... something akin to an evolutionary mutation, so personally seditious is its revolutionary opening gambit.

In order to mutate from the self-centred licentiousness to a self-less sensualism, one must have confidence in the ultimate beneficence of the universe. This confidence – this surety – can be gained from a pure consciousness experience, wherein ‘I’, the psychological entity, temporarily ceases to exist. Life is briefly seen to be already perfect and innocent ... it is a life-changing experience. One is physically experiencing first-hand, albeit momentarily, this actual world – a spontaneously benevolent world – that antedates the normal world. The normal world is commonly known as the real world or reality. Repeated peak experiences can be brought about on virtually a daily basis with constant application of pure contemplation. In pure contemplation, ‘I’ cease seeing and seeing takes place of its own accord. Then this actual world – this benign world – that the real world was superimposed over, becomes apparent.

Except that ‘I’ am not here to experience it.

Innocence is something entirely new; it has never existed in human beings before. It is an evolutionary break-through to come upon innocence. It is a mutation of the human brain. Naiveté is a necessary precursor to invoke the condition of innocence. One surely has to be naive to contemplate the profound notion that this universe is benign, friendly. One needs to be naive to consider that this universe has an inherent imperative for well-being to flourish; that it has a built-in benevolence available to one who is artless, without guile. To the realist – the ‘worldly-wise’ – this appears like utter foolishness. After all, life is a ‘vale of tears’ and one must ‘make the best of a bad situation’ because one ‘can’t change human nature’; and therefore ‘you have to fight for your rights’. This derogatory advice is endlessly forthcoming; the put-down of the universe goes on ad nauseam, wherever one travels throughout the world. This universe is so enormous in size – infinity being as enormous as it can get – and so magnificent in its scope – eternity being as magnificent as it can get – how on earth could anyone believe for a minute that it is all here for humans to be forever miserable in? It is foolishness of the highest order to believe it to be so. Surely, one can have confidence in a universe so grandly complex, so marvellously intricate, so wonderfully excellent. How could all this be some ‘ghastly mistake’? To believe it all to be some ‘sick joke’ is preposterous, for such an attitude cuts one off from the perfection of this pure moment of being alive here in this fantastic actual universe.

To defend the belief that this life is imperfect, to the point of idiocy, is actually a cowardly attempt to stay hidden inside ‘humanity’. To skulk behind a sick social contract, which is so utterly orthodox, unyielding to even the slightest amendment, is a desperate ploy to remain ‘human’. If one takes one’s intellectual ability back from the decrees of the real world – to which one has surrendered – one has taken a courageous step. One has cast oneself out of the only group there is. If one stays within the group, for its perceived safety and security, one is selling out to the system because of a pusillanimous character. Thus one secretly despises oneself, with disastrous consequences. The intellect of such a person who justifies this long-ago invented ‘Human Constitution’ – and will fight to make certain it will remain imperfect forever – has to be numbed to such a degree that defies credibility in order for nothing but truisms to come from their mouths. Humankind is so stultified – stupefied by centuries of socialisation – that only madness can be allowed ... and it masquerades as ‘normal’. This status-quo is defined as being sanity ... and anything outside this description is classified as insanity.

Such a blatant reversal of the facts begs the question as to just who is salubrious.

I do not subscribe to the doctrine of doom and gloom. For me, my lot on earth is a matter of cheery destiny, here and now. To put perfection and purity off into the far future – after physical death – or to disclaim the possibility entirely, is to act as a mournful harbinger of fate. One is alive only now, at this moment. The past does not exist as an actuality, it is gone forever and the future has not yet arrived ... it does not exist as an actuality, either. Nostalgia for what once was and could have been and apprehension for what could be – and probably will be if the past dictates through the present – are poor substitutes for the joyfulness of living as this moment is. Merriment abounds where one dares to be what one actually is: alive only at this moment. If one is not happy, then the universe’s purity is telling one, via suffering, that one is doing things incorrectly. If one is feeling bad – be it sadness, anger, loneliness, or whatever – then that is a signal that something is amiss. Unless there is a general sense of well-being, right now, then there is something that can be looked at. Life is immensely beneficial in this situation; any suffering is the universe’s perfection steering one back on course. To continue to suffer for the sake of a belief that ‘suffering is good for you’ is imbecilic. The only good thing about suffering is when it stops ... and one can make it stop, easily, by altering the insidious view that humankind is fated to failure.

The ‘Human Folly’ is an affliction, not a curse. Human life is not a punishment for some Metaphysical misdeed. Nor is it a random, chance-event in an empty universe. This universe – the only one there is – is eminently successful in producing a life-form that can sense, think and reflect upon its situation. I am the universe experiencing itself as a human being ... a truly remarkable state of affairs. As me, the universe is intelligent; I am the universe’s potential made manifest. After aeons of evolution the universe has succeeded in producing what it has proved itself to be capable of: an ability to know itself as-it-is. And what-it-is is a superb, unbeatable clean and clear and pure perfection. The way is now unambiguously evident for humankind to surpass itself. If what humans have achieved so far, physically, is amazing, then what will eventuate when the ‘Human Folly’ is abolished forever is impossible to imagine. It will have to be lived to find out.

It is now possible to find that out.

Nothing more needs to be done now, except to freely assist another person to actualise this vital break-through for themselves. When that person is also free they can similarly facilitate the freedom of another person ... and another ... and another ... and so on.

By operating in this manner, on a one-to-one basis, freedom from being an identity could spread throughout the entire population of this planet. A truly evolutionary change will have taken place; a mutation of human consciousness. The much longed-for golden age will have finally been ushered in ... and by the peoples concerned. There was no need for a Supernatural Agency all along. The ‘Human Condition’ is such that it can readily respond to the do-it-yourself method; the ability is within the human character to fix things up for itself. The intervention of some Supernatural Outsider is never going to happen anyway, for there is no such creature. Human beings are on their own, free to manage their own affairs as they see fit. Whenever one thinks about it, would one have it any other way? If that fictitious Almighty Creature was to come sweeping in on a cloud, waving a magic wand and putting everything to rights, would not one feel cheated? Would not one question why human beings had to wait so long upon the capricious whim of some self-righteous God who could have acted long ago? It is all nonsense, upon sober reflection!

With freedom spread like a chain-letter, in the due course of time, global freedom would revolutionise the concept of ‘humanity’. It would be a free association of peoples world-wide; a utopian-like loose-knit affiliation of like-minded individuals. One would be a citizen of the world, not of a sovereign state. Countries, with their artificial borders would vanish along with the need for the military. As nationalism would expire, so too would patriotism with all its heroic evils. No police force would be needed anywhere on earth; no locks on the doors, no bars on the windows. Gaols, judges and juries would become a thing of the dreadful past. People would live together in peace and harmony, happiness and delight. Pollution and its cause – over-population – would be set to rights without effort, as competition would be replaced by cooperation.

It would indeed be the stuff of pipe-dreams come true, here-on-earth ... if one wants it.

Humankind is poised on the cusp of the dawning of a fresh era; an era wherein an evolution in the brain-stem is beginning to happen. The seat of the instincts, tentatively located in the popularly named ‘reptilian brain’, is capable of undergoing a mutation. No longer will Blind Nature have to operate; the perpetuation of the species will become a matter of lucid thought and personal choice. No longer will vicious wars of group survival be necessary. Already, with the advent of mutually assured destruction because of nuclear capability, people are questioning the advisability of war as a means of settling disputes. The apprehension of a cataclysmic end to human life has shaken the habitual and apathetic ‘human’ complacency to such an extent that the mind is now ready to be receptive to something entirely new in human history.

Something new is already here. I call it actual freedom, the third alternative. One can be actual; no longer ‘human’, no longer straining to become Divine in order to escape from being ‘human’. To become Divine is the result of a well-meant but fatally flawed desire to be humane. It is the instincts that mark out human beings as being ‘human’ and in the Divine Realm those instincts still hold sway; it has been merely a transmogrification of the gross into the refined ... nothing fundamental has happened. The gross, the ego, has sublimated itself as the soul into the refined, the Self or Spirit. The instincts remain intact, heightened now by the Authority conferred by the psychic Power that reigns in the Supernatural World. Any attempt to escape from the ‘Human Condition’ is doomed to failure ... and the Divine Realm is an escape. It is incumbent upon one to stand fast, as a flesh and blood body only, without moving in any direction at all ... and be what-one-is.

It is possible.

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The Third Alternative

(Peace On Earth In This Life Time As This Flesh And Blood Body)

Here is an actual freedom from the Human Condition, surpassing Spiritual Enlightenment and any other Altered State Of Consciousness, and challenging all philosophy, psychiatry, metaphysics (including quantum physics with its mystic cosmogony), anthropology, sociology ... and any religion along with its paranormal theology. Discarding all of the beliefs that have held humankind in thralldom for aeons, the way has now been discovered that cuts through the ‘Tried and True’ and enables anyone to be, for the first time, a fully free and autonomous individual living in utter peace and tranquillity, beholden to no-one.

Richard’s Text ©The Actual Freedom Trust 1997