Andrew: One of the many threads that are sprawling out around this question of a life long aversion to putting in effort to self improvement/ talent, is this: fear. Nothing more, nothing less. Afraid of not being able to measure up to the example given.
My days are strange. I am interested in these questions. Actually interested. I am not making any effort to feel good, I just remind myself to “accept” things as they are, emotionally. That alone is quite a paradigm shift. The outcome is I feel generally better. That something gentle is happening.
There was always desperation in all my efforts. I wonder sometimes about something Kuba mused at one point, that this is all an “old persons” game. That Actualism was something that happened to older people, 40 plus.
There is something in that, but not necessarily because of age itself, but rather having exhausted so many desires. It does become obvious as one’s hair greys, and one doesn’t move like one used to (my weekly basketball sessions with guys half my age prove that!) which slows the blind ambition down. (link)
Since Vineeto recently endorsed again the Indian woman who became actually free within 48 hours of landing and meeting with the pioneers of this endeavour, and exactly how crucial this event is in the assessment that there are no pre-conditions to actual freedom, at least not in the ways we normally think of ( “X” amount of effort over “Y” amount of time, in “z” specific ways); I have to ask the obvious!
…
What happened to her and has she ever communicated with anyone after the event?
I remind myself often of this “no preconditions” assertion, for obvious reasons. It would be a decisive blow to all doubts if the mystery woman of the subcontinent had anything to say about her experience. (link)
Hi Andrew,
This is the information on the Actual Freedom website about the person of Indian birth you are talking about –
Richard to No. 6: Given that you say ‘I want to be free and will like to set up a meeting’ I am going to make it clear up-front that there is no guarantee being made here – be it either expressed or implied – other than to say that, when the conditions are ripe, magic happens.
For instance, a couple of months ago a person of Indian birth and upbringing flew into Coolangatta Airport late one night on a prearranged agreement to meet in person so as to talk about her life and to gain clarity in her life-style/ her livelihood situation.
Less than 24 hours after landing she was actually free of blind nature’s instinctual passions/ the feeling-being formed thereof.
In other words, the person who landed at the airport (that feeling being who needed to gain clarity in her life-style/ her livelihood situation) vanished without a trace, in a matter of seconds, the following afternoon.
She is now living the ‘peace-on-earth’ actual freedom (as per the reports on The Actual Freedom Trust website) which will, after a suitable transitional period of acclimatisation and accommodation and accustomisation (which period took 30+ months for me all those years ago), presumably also segue into the ‘meaning-of-life’ actual freedom (as per the reports on The Actual Freedom Trust website), and which is known colloquially as the ‘magical wonderland’ (a fairy tale-like pristine paradise where peerless purity abounds), given the requisite pure intent, of course. [Emphasis added]. (Richard, List D, No. 6, 19 Dec 2011).
That is all the information available.
Here is the occasion where I wrote what you called “Vineeto recently endorsed again” –
Kuba: OK so the only solution worth entertaining is that which comes from a deeply passionate and caring involvement?
Vineeto: Yes, this is what your naïve inquiry into a cause worth sacrificing your ‘self’ for has produced. I keep thinking of Richard’s quote –
Richard: No, I am more making the point that only altruism – self-sacrificial humanitarianism – will provide the enormous energy necessary for ‘self’-immolation … the instinct for individual survival is only exceeded by the instinct for group survival.
It takes a powerful instinct to overcome a powerful instinct. [Emphases added]. ( Richard, List B, James3, 28 Oct 2002a)
In case you discover a passionate doubt or fear or any other deeply felt obstacle to your desired aim, then you can harness the passionate energy by staying with the thrill whilst allowing pure intent to bring you closer and closer to your aim – “to offer (and demonstrate) a solid alternative to the hypocrisy, the lack of equity, the ignorant irresponsibility and the harm that was being done by all”.
The solution, as I can only surmise at this point, is accumulating and fostering this “enormous energy” required, which is a passionate energy (without frittering it away by doubt and confusion).
I have seen it happen with the woman of Indian birth. (Richard, List D, Rick, 23 Dec 2011). During the intense interaction which preceded her moment of becoming actually free she first talked about her deeply felt universal sorrow for all feeling beings including animals and her urgent question why that was so, and after Richard and I explained the nature of universal sorrow, her feelings turned to doubt, which was then followed by fear. As the conversation went on, she arrived back at her question of ‘why’ there is universal sorrow, only to be followed again by doubt and then fear once more, followed then by cycling back to her question of ‘why’. This pattern went on several times until I was able to point out how she was going round and round in a circle with the same question and the same feelings. She went another round, and was able to recognize the pattern herself … and her mind became very quiet.
Richard was then able to talk to her about actual time – that it is always now and that the person who arrived at the airport no longer existed, even the person who walked through the door a couple of hours ago no longer existed. She agreed and as she agreed she experienced time standing still … and the rest is history.
I am not sure if that made things clearer for you. [Emphases added]. (Vineeto to Kuba, 14 Mar 2025)
What you call ‘endorsement’ was me highlighting the situation “when the conditions are ripe, magic happens” – an enormous energy, in this case sourced in the “deeply felt universal sorrow for all feeling beings” and, amongst other unknown factors, of course, a full agreement to have it happen now.
Richard made it clear, in the interactions reported by Dona and Alan during their visit that “there are no conditions to become actually free”. Here is a forum discussion about this –
Kuba: I remember there was the lady of Indian descent who became actually free 24 hours after visiting Richard and Vineeto. In the past there was disbelief at this as ‘I’ had felt somewhat cheated. I am not actually sure if she did much in the way of applying the actualism method before hand. But the point is that ultimately it doesn’t matter, the method is an “in the meantime” method. That “last bit” or for some maybe the “first bit” haha – it is all the same.
VINEETO: Richard was always clear that the actualism method is what you do in the meantime. Also –
Vineeto: One of the major topics of this three-week event of answers to questions from forum members in 2017 was that there are no conditions to become actually free. [these two links give valuable contemplation of what this means to an actualist].
“Richard said there is no connection at all between feeling good each moment again and actual freedom. You can become actually free right now. But … In the meantime, while you’re living your life not actually free, why not feel good? As he says, this is your only moment of being alive, why waste it feeling bad?”
I found the whole message worth a re-read.
As for the “somewhat cheated” feeling, it is entirely self-induced. In fact, when “applying the actualism method” with the aim of becoming actually free you have deceived yourself, as you now discover, that you have not yet agreed to the last step. It is all par for the course when one sets out to untangle and extract oneself from the maze of the human condition. (Kuba, 9 Jul 2025).
You can probably work out how all the above applies to your personal situation –
Now that you discovered your fear of moving one step further because of being “afraid of not being able to measure up to the example given” – you muse how despite (or because?) this obstacle you can become actually free right away?
There are no conditions from the actual world, it is right here, happening right now. The question is, are the conditions right from ‘your’ side? Do you, without reservation, joyfully agree to ‘your’ demise? Or is this only a fantasy built from another’s experience as a way of avoiding your fear of not fulfilling ‘your’ standards, examples, conditions, should you decide to take the practical step of changing your ‘being’ to being more happy and more harmless?
You can also look at it thisaway – you want to be actually free because you don’t like being here –
Respondent: I think I’ve been trying to do it without really becoming a happy ‘being’ first.
Richard: As the general thrust of your e-mails has been that the ‘self’-immolation in toto, as described on The Actual Freedom Trust web site, is not [quote] ‘a new concept’ [endquote] it would appear that whatever it is you have been trying to do it has had nothing to do with what actualism is on about.
Respondent: I have (big) issues to sort out first before I will be able to make the leap.
Richard: As there is no ‘leap’ – an actual freedom is not a spiritual freedom – it would indeed appear so.
Respondent: I guess there are no shortcuts.
Richard: What I find telling – and this is a general observation – is just how much peoples object to being happy and harmless … the vast majority of the correspondence in the archives is, in fact, a cutting indictment on the human condition itself.
Do you realise – and this is a personal observation – you have just said, in effect, that you guess you will have to become a happy ‘being’ before you can become actually free from the human condition (as if were there a way to be thus free without having to do so you would not)?
Whereas it is actually such a delight to finally be able to be happy (and harmless) … and a relief. (Richard, AF List, No. 54, 27 Nov 2003).
Cheers Vineeto