From my reading of you, [Virtual Freedom] is a stage on the way to Actual Freedom. Is that so? Can you explain more about this?

It would also seem to make sense to have some sort of an actualist map that points out the major noticeable goals along the way. This has been commented on, of course, but I do not know of any official map. This map will invariably vary from one individual to the other but in general terms should prove useful. Does this sound like a good idea?

I have always been a bit unsure what ‘Virtual Freedom’ is, so I read your comments with interest. I have also read what Richard has written on this, though it is not something I consider of great importance – the fact that one’s life is improved and the knowledge of one’s ultimate goal (to experience the perfection and purity 24 hours of the day) are the important points for me. If this is ‘Virtual Freedom’ then fine – I’m enjoying it. One possible benefit of ‘Virtual Freedom’, I did discover, was that it threw ‘me’ into a blue funk, at one stage. ‘I’ wanted to know if ‘I’ had managed to achieve Virtual Freedom, was ‘I’ doing well, had you and Vineeto managed it and I hadn’t? Now, I could not care less – this is my life and what another is doing or achieving is of no consequence at all.

Richard, I have been thinking about virtual freedom in last days. I have some logical problem. You have clearly said that feeling happy and harmless most of the time is helpful for one to have actual freedom becoming apparent. But I have also read on the web-site that the essential ingredient for success (on this path of actualism) is a burning discontent with your life as it is. Now the next question. If there is no discontent and one is happy most of the time in virtual freedom what keeps one still going towards actual freedom?

And, to insert a quick ‘plug’ for the benefits of virtual freedom, even if one does not go all the way. At a time considered to be the most stressful there can be in a persons life – selling a house, selling (or closing) a business and a likely break up of a marriage – here I am, enjoying every moment and delighting in the experience of being alive – I thoroughly recommend it.

There is one more thing that I would like to ask you about though. In a previous post (I tried to find it in the archives but could not find the exact passage), you stated that you had had recently a glimpse or a preview of Actual Freedom, and that it occurred to you to mention that one would have to be considerably well prepared to ‘self-immolate’. I responded to you from that previous post, but skipped over this section entirely and then, after I sent the post off, found myself wondering just exactly what you had gone through. So it has occurred to me to question you about this experience you had:

How long have you been experiencing what is called Virtual Freedom?

I note you describe yourself as ‘virtually free’. Does this mean that you either expect to arrive, or believe that you will also arrive, (like Richard), some day if you continue to search and investigate verbally and experientially?

Next! A little advice for you Vineeto – get a life!

I don’t want to end up acting like Richard. Or Vineeto. Or Peter. And I don’t want to try to bootstrap myself into ‘virtual freedom’.