Actual Freedom ~ Frequently Asked Questions

RICHARD: As a generalisation it has been traditionally held that there are three ways: 1. Jnani (cognitive realisation as epitomised by the ‘neti-neti’ or ‘not this; not this’ approach). 2. Bhakti (affective realisation as epitomised by devotional worship and surrender of will). 3. Yoga (bodily realisation as epitomised by the raising of ‘kundalini’ and the opening of ‘chakras’). (Richard, List B, No. 45a, 6 January 2001a).

RESPONDENT: Richard, I’ve been following this discussion with interest and have a couple of questions for you: Which of the 3 ways did you use to achieve spiritual enlightenment in 1981?

RICHARD: Well, none of those 3 ways, actually ... I inadvertently ‘discovered’ another way: ignorance. I was aiming for the pure consciousness experience (PCE) and landed short of my goal ... and it took another 11 years to get here.

To explain: I have never followed anyone; I have never been part of any religious, spiritual, mystical or metaphysical group; I have never done any disciplines, practices or exercises at all; I have never done any meditation, any yoga, any chanting of mantras, any tai chi, any breathing exercises, any praying, any fasting, any flagellations, any ... any of those ‘Tried and True’ inanities; nor did I endlessly analyse my childhood for ever and a day; nor did I do never-ending therapies wherein one expresses oneself again and again ... and again and again. By being born and raised in the West I was not steeped in the mystical religious tradition of the East and was thus able to escape the trap of centuries of eastern spiritual conditioning.

I had never heard the words ‘Enlightenment’ or ‘Nirvana’ and so on until 1982 when talking to a man about my breakthrough, into what I called an ‘Absolute Freedom’ via the death of ‘myself’, in September 1981. He listened – he questioned me rigorously until well after midnight – and then declared me to be ‘Enlightened’. I had to ask him what that was, such was my ignorance of all things spiritual. He – being a nine-year spiritual seeker fresh from his latest trip to India – gave me a book to read by someone called Mr. Jiddu Krishnamurti. That was to be the beginning of what was to become a long learning curve of all things religious, spiritual, mystical and metaphysical for me. I studied all this because I sought to understand what other peoples had made of such spontaneous experiences and to find out where human endeavour had been going wrong.

I found out where I had been going wrong for eleven years ... self-aggrandisement is so seductive.

RESPONDENT: If people can use any of these three techniques, and I’m thinking in particular of the 3rd via raising of the kundalini, doesn’t this verify part of the spiritual theory?

RICHARD: The ‘spiritual theory’ needs no further verification than that it is indeed possible to become illuminated or enlightened. Similarly, it is also possible to become angry or sad or loving or compassionate ... and so on. It is also possible to be intuitive, to be telepathic, to be clairvoyant (not accurately though). As well as that it is possible to see fairies or sprites or goblins ... the whole range of psychic phenomena.

RESPONDENT: Does anybody else describe ‘Enlightenment’ as a turning over in the brain stem?

RICHARD: I have not read of anybody else using that description.

RESPONDENT: If that is the case, is it possible that your experience of it and other’s experience can be of different quality, though described with similar words?

RICHARD: The experience of something turning over in the base of the brain/ in the top of the brain-stem in 1981 was for me a feature of becoming actually free from the human condition, not of spiritual enlightenment/ mystical awakenment per se, and had the identity in residence back then known what is known nowadays ‘he’ would not have let the process stop halfway through its happening ... by my reckoning it would have all been over in a matter of maybe 6-10 seconds (rather than 6 seconds plus eleven years).

RESPONDENT: Richard, you wrote [quote] ‘Becoming free of the human condition is a physiological occurrence, centred at the nape of the neck (the top of the brain-stem/ base of the brain), wherein the ‘lizard-brain’ mutates out of its primeval state ... but if this mutation is not allowed its completion one becomes enlightened’ [endquote]. What do you mean by [quote] ‘but if this mutation is not allowed its completion one becomes enlightened’ [endquote].

RICHARD: What I mean is that if the identity does not allow the process to run its full course an actual freedom from the human condition will be still-born and spiritual enlightenment/ mystical awakenment will ensue (the survival instinct runs deep).

Speaking from personal experience: had the identity in residence in 1981 known what is known nowadays ‘he’ would not have let the process stop halfway through ... by my reckoning it would have all been over in a matter of maybe 6-10 seconds (rather than 6 seconds plus eleven years).

RESPONDENT: Is it physically not possible for some for this mutation to be allowed completion?

RICHARD: No ... that quote is clearly about not allowing the occurrence its completion.

RESPONDENT No. 45 (List B): By which way the first ‘I’ (ego or self) can expand and create the second ‘I’ (‘I’ as soul/ ‘I’ as ‘Self’ as ‘me’)?

RICHARD: As a generalisation it has been traditionally held that there are three ways: 1. Jnani (cognitive realisation as epitomised by the ‘neti-neti’ or ‘not this; not this’ approach). 2. Bhakti (affective realisation as epitomised by devotional worship and surrender of will). 3. Yoga (bodily realisation as epitomised by the raising of ‘kundalini’ and the opening of ‘chakras’). (Richard, List B, No. 45a, 6 January 2001a).

RESPONDENT: Richard, I’ve been following this discussion with interest and have a couple of questions for you: Which of the 3 ways did you use to achieve spiritual enlightenment in 1981?

RICHARD: Well, none of those 3 ways, actually ... I inadvertently ‘discovered’ another way: ignorance. I was aiming for the pure consciousness experience (PCE) and landed short of my goal ... and it took another 11 years to get here.

To explain: I have never followed anyone; I have never been part of any religious, spiritual, mystical or metaphysical group; I have never done any disciplines, practices or exercises at all; I have never done any meditation, any yoga, any chanting of mantras, any tai chi, any breathing exercises, any praying, any fasting, any flagellations, any ... any of those ‘Tried and True’ inanities; nor did I endlessly analyse my childhood for ever and a day; nor did I do never-ending therapies wherein one expresses oneself again and again ... and again and again. By being born and raised in the West I was not steeped in the mystical religious tradition of the East and was thus able to escape the trap of centuries of eastern spiritual conditioning.

I had never heard the words ‘Enlightenment’ or ‘Nirvana’ and so on until 1982 when talking to a man about my breakthrough, into what I called an ‘Absolute Freedom’ via the death of ‘myself’, in September 1981. He listened – he questioned me rigorously until well after midnight – and then declared me to be ‘Enlightened’. I had to ask him what that was, such was my ignorance of all things spiritual. He – being a nine-year spiritual seeker fresh from his latest trip to India – gave me a book to read by someone called Mr. Jiddu Krishnamurti. That was to be the beginning of what was to become a long learning curve of all things religious, spiritual, mystical and metaphysical for me. I studied all this because I sought to understand what other peoples had made of such spontaneous experiences and to find out where human endeavour had been going wrong.

I found out where I had been going wrong for eleven years ... self-aggrandisement is so seductive.

RESPONDENT: If people can use any of these three techniques, and I’m thinking in particular of the 3rd via raising of the kundalini, doesn’t this verify part of the spiritual theory?

RICHARD: The ‘spiritual theory’ needs no further verification than that it is indeed possible to become illuminated or enlightened. Similarly, it is also possible to become angry or sad or loving or compassionate ... and so on. It is also possible to be intuitive, to be telepathic, to be clairvoyant (not accurately though). As well as that it is possible to see fairies or sprites or goblins ... the whole range of psychic phenomena.

RESPONDENT: If one can practice to send the kundalini up the sushumna opening chakras along the way – for this to work mustn’t there be a kundalini?

RICHARD: Not only the ‘kundalini’ ... there must also be ‘the sushumna’, the ‘chakras’ and ‘prana’ (one cannot practice ‘pranayama’ if there be no ‘prana’). The word ‘prana’ (meaning ‘vital air’, from the root ‘pran’: ‘to breathe’) refers to what is known as the vital energy or vital force or life principle ... and has corollaries in other cultures (‘chi’ in China, pronounced ‘ki’ in Japan) and is also known as ‘vitalism’ (popular in Europe in the early twentieth century) or ‘vital élan’. And, as ‘pranayama’ basically means the practice of breath control (prana = outgoing breath, apana = incoming breath, vyana = retained breath, Udana = ascending breath and samana = equalising breath), it is relevant to remember that the word ‘psyche’ (Greek: ‘psukhe’: breath, soul, life; related to ‘psukhein’: breathe, blow) relates to breath and breathing ... and thus to life and living (as opposed to death and dying as in ‘taking your last breath’).

For many early peoples (called ‘primitive people’) what animated the body was breath (air, vital air, vital force, life force, life principle and so on), because when a person stopped breathing they were dead ... their soul had left their body as their last breath. In the animistic religions (called ‘pagan’) of the Bronze Age and earlier, spirit was everywhere, especially in the air (in the ‘ether’) and it is no coincidence that the ‘etheric body’ is considered the ‘vital body’ or ‘essential body’ (the Sanskrit ‘akasha’ means the same as ‘ether’ ... hence ‘akashic’ and ‘etheric’ refer to a similar psychic phenomenon). Lastly, there are some spiritual people who do not seem to ‘get it’ that the word ‘spiritual’ means of or pertaining to the spirit ... and take umbrage at being linked to the spirit-ridden animistic Bronze-Age peoples whence their much-vaunted ‘Ancient Wisdom’ comes from.

Facts, of course, are irrelevant to spiritualists ... even though, these days we know that the ‘vital force’ in the air we breath is oxygen and that what we breath out is carbon dioxide (amongst other elements) which is the ‘vital force’ that plants imbibe ... and plants exude the very oxygen we breath in. And, unless science can be proved incorrect about the physical element called oxygen, and the wisdom of the ancients proved right about the non-physical etheric force, called prana or chi and so on, the following has no relationship whatsoever to physical actuality. Viz.:

• The ‘sushumna’ is one of the ‘nadis’ (‘conduits’) and a ‘nadi’ is traditionally held to be a nerve fibre or energy channel of the subtle (inner) bodies such as the etheric body. It is said there are 72,000 and that these interconnect the chakras. In China the equivalent could be the ‘meridians’ made famous in the West through acupuncture advocates (acupuncture is based upon the flow of ‘chi’ energy or vital energy or vital force or life principle travelling along these meridians). The three main nadis are: 1. the ‘ida nadi’ (also known as the ‘chandra’ or ‘moon’ nadi) and is held to be pink in colour and downward-flowing, ending on the left side of the body, considered feminine in nature, and is said to be the channel of physical-emotional energy. 2. the ‘pingasa nadi’ (also known as the ‘surya’ or ‘sun’ nadi) and is held to be blue in colour, upward-flowing, ending on the right side of the body, considered masculine in nature, and is said to be the channel of intellectual-mental energy. 3. the ‘sushumna nadi’ is the major nerve current, which passes through the spinal column, from the ‘muladhara chakra’ (at the base of the spine) to the ‘sahasrara chakra’ (at the crown of the head). It is the channel of kundalini and it is through yoga that the kundalini energy, lying dormant in the ‘muladhara chakra’, is awakened and made to rise up ‘sushumna nadi’, through each chakra, to the ‘sahasrara chakra’.

• A ‘chakra’ (‘wheel’) is any one of the nerve plexes (known as the centres of force and consciousness) located within the inner bodies and there have been attempts to correlate them with nerve plexuses, ganglia and glands in the physical body. The seven principal chakras are psychically seen as colourful multi-petalled wheels or lotuses and are situated along the spinal cord from its base to the cranial chamber. Additionally, seven other chakras are held to exist below the spine and are said to be the seats of instinctive consciousness ... the origin of jealousy, hatred, envy, guilt, sorrow and so on (they constitute the lower or hellish world, called ‘Naraka’ or ‘Patala’). The seven upper chakras are: 1. muladhara (base of spine): memory, time and space; 2. svadhishthana (below the navel): reason; 3. manipura (solar plexus): willpower; 4. anahata (heart centre): direct cognition; 5. vishuddha (throat): divine love; 6. ajna (third eye): divine sight; 7. sahasrara (crown of head): illumination, enlightenment (Godliness). The seven lower chakras are: 1. atala (hips): fear and lust; 2. vitala (thighs): raging anger; 3. sutala (knees): retaliatory jealousy; 4. talatala (calves): prolonged mental confusion; 5. rasatala (ankles): selfishness; 6. mahatala (feet): absence of conscience; 7. patala (located in the soles of the feet): murder and malice.

• The ‘kundalini’ (‘She who is coiled; serpent power’) is considered to be the primordial cosmic energy in every human being which lies coiled like a serpent at the base of the spine and, eventually, through the practice of yoga, rises up the sushumna nadi. As it rises, the kundalini awakens each successive chakra. ‘Nirvikalpa Samadhi’ (spiritual enlightenment) comes as it pierces through the ‘Door of Brahman’ at the core of the ‘sahasrara’ (crown of head) chakra and enters. This ‘primordial cosmic energy’ is sometimes known as ‘Parashakti’, or ‘Satchidananda’, the supreme consciousness and primal substratum of all form. This pure, divine energy unfolds as ‘ictha shakti’ (the power of desire, will, love), ‘kriya shakti’ (the power of action) and ‘jnana shakti’ (the power of wisdom, knowing). This ‘primordial cosmic energy’ is most easily experienced by devotees as the sublime, bliss-inspiring life-energy.

The sublimated carnal passions (the ecstatically blissful sexual energies in the pleasure centre of the amygdala), coupled with a fertilised imagination, do have amazingly energetic manifestations.

RESPONDENT: My experience is that almost 100% of awakened people went thru the agency of some teacher or guru, that this is not the sort of thing that can be self-taught. Did you do that?

RICHARD: First ... I am not ‘awakened’ (for although to awake in a dream is to be lucidly dreaming one is still dreaming nevertheless), I am actually free of the human condition. Any ‘awakening’ is still within the human condition.

In 1980 I had a pure consciousness experience (PCE) that lasted for four hours. In that four hours I lived the peace-on-earth that is already always here now ... and I saw that ‘I’ (an emotional-mental construct) was standing in the way of this actual freedom being apparent twenty four hours of the day. In that peak experience I saw ‘myself’ for the social identity that ‘I’ was. ‘I’ was the end product of society and nothing more. ‘I’ was a passionate construct of all of the beliefs, values, morals, ethics, mores, customs, traditions, doctrines, ideologies and so on. ‘I’ was nothing but an fabrication in the psyche ... a social identity which is its conscience. Once I had seen this, I then saw that ‘I’ was a lost, lonely, frightened (and a very, very cunning) psychological entity ... what I later came to know as ‘ego’. Just as those Christians who are said to be possessed by an evil entity and need to be exorcised, I saw that every human being had been endowed with an identity as ego ... and it was called being normal. When ‘I’ saw that this was all ‘I’ was ... I was no longer that. I was me ... this flesh and blood body being apperceptively aware.

This was what ‘I’ had been searching for – for 33 years – and the joke was that ‘I’ had not known that this is what ‘I’ had been searching for! Thus, when I reverted back to normal in the ‘real world’, ‘I’ knew, with the solid and irrefutable certainty of direct experience, that ‘I’ was standing in the way of the actual being apparent ... and ‘I’ had to go – become extinct – and not try to become something ‘better’. That is, ‘I’ just knew that ‘I’ could never, ever become perfect or be perfection. It was flagrantly evident that the only thing ‘I’ could do – the only thing ‘I’ had to do – was die (psychologically and psychically self-immolate) so that the already always existing perfection could become apparent.

By being born and raised in the West I was not steeped in the mystical religious tradition of the East and was thus able to escape the trap of centuries of eastern spiritual conditioning ... I had never heard the words ‘Enlightenment’ or ‘Nirvana’ and so on until 1982 when talking to a man about my breakthrough into freedom via the death of ‘myself’ in September 1981. He listened – he questioned me rigorously until well after midnight – and then declared me to be ‘Enlightened’. I had to ask him what that was, such was my ignorance of all things spiritual. He – being a nine-year spiritual seeker fresh from his latest trip to India – gave me a book to read by someone called Mr. Jiddu Krishnamurti. That was to be the beginning of what was to become a long learning curve of all things religious, spiritual, mystical and metaphysical for me. I studied all this because I sought to understand what other peoples had made of such spontaneous experiences and to find out where human endeavour had been going wrong.

I found out where I had been going wrong for eleven years ... self-aggrandisement is so seductive.

RESPONDENT: There is such a thing as enlightenment, but not all enlightenment philosophies work. Maybe a different teacher would suit you better.

RICHARD: There is a sure-fire way to become enlightened ... if that is what one really wants. It is important to realise, deeply, that not only can ‘you’ not find Love Agapé ... Love Agapé does not come to ‘you’, either. The way it works is that when ‘you’ become ‘love’ then Love becomes You ... Love Agapé is You As You Really Are. Here is how to be Love Agapé:

1. First, get out of your head and feel deep within yourself, past the emotions, into the deeper feelings – the core of your ‘being’ – for there you will feel intense human love (the nurturing/desiring instinctual passion).

2. Identify totally with this love as pure feeling – live it as being it fully every moment of your day – and surrender your will to existence itself.

3. Your identity as ‘me’ as soul (‘me’ at the core of ‘being’) will transmogrify itself into the Absolute in an edifying moment of awakening as ‘The Truth’.

4. You will then realise that this is your ‘True Self’ ... the ‘Me’ that exists Timelessly and Spacelessly and Formlessly.

5. You will then be Love Agapé ... You will have come to bring Your message of ‘Truth and Love’ to a suffering humanity.

6. You will be utterly convinced that You will succeed because all the others who came before You were not as Enlightened As You Are.

7. The whole world has been waiting for You.

It is quite easy, really.

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(see also Richard, Articles, A Brief Personal History, #2).

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