Hi! 
How are you experiencing this moment of being alive? 
This is a compilation of lessons I learned somewhat recently from reading about the human condition, mostly from the Actual Freedom website, and, most importantly, from my own experience of applying the actualism method for around a month now. This may or may not be useful to someone new to Actual Freedom, but I’m sharing it in case it helps. I chose to focus on a few core concepts and avoided introducing too many terms, which I think can be helpful for non-native english speakers like me. If you notice any errors or misunderstandings, please let me know so I can improve it!
To start at the beginning, we need to have a basic understanding of what we are and what the nature of the universe is. Science has given us a deeper understanding of both, yet many people hold beliefs about this that lack scientific evidence or have been conclusively disproven. For the sake of brevity, I’ll simply state my view: The universe is not conscious. Even if it were, it is clear that it has no intentions or desires. It is indifferent to our existence and has no intrinsic meaning. Somehow, life emerges from complex physical systems. And somehow, complex physical systems give rise to something undeniable, which is this subjective experience of being alive in the universe, which we refer to as consciousness. We share this planet with many other conscious beings, including humans. As mentioned, this consciousness is the result of complex physical systems, from which the most important is our brain. We also all have senses that allow us to interpret all that surrounds us. So humans around the world experience reality in a very similar way to each other, which is not surprising due to our shared biology. It’s harder for us to imagine how a bee or a dog experiences reality because their senses are very different from ours.
Now, when we are born, it is quite clear that we are not born with a clean slate. We inherit thousands of years of evolution of this human animal. Beyond a clear instinct for survival and reproduction (which some reduce to the survival of our genes), we are clearly social creatures (and the way we relate to others through competition and cooperation could also be explained as an instinct for survival, since we wouldn’t be able to survive alone). For whatever reason, we humans ended up developing an identity that we use to define us. We can say that this identity is an illusion, in the sense that, while it definitely exists, it seems to be something that is not. We define ourselves as being this identity that possesses a body and a mind (we say things like “this is my body” or “this is the way my mind works”) while we can, upon closer inspection, see that this is not true. We are a body that is part of the universe and interacts with it all the way down to the subatomic level. This body that we are is constantly changing. Our brains interpret the data that comes from our senses and are able to store memories. All of this put together is what gives us this experience of being a person and allows us to make sense of it through time. But you can see how questionable it is that this identity, that we call ‘I’, is required for us to function. This identity may have served a purpose in our evolutionary history, however society has evolved much more quickly than the human brain, and that raises the question if this “feature” of our brain still serves a purpose nowadays. But you may ask, why does this matter? In which way is this identity a problem?
As said earlier, we are born with specific instincts. We are also impacted in incredible ways by culture throughout our lives. We form all sorts of beliefs and are conditioned by all sorts of biases, and these become a part of the identity (and this is why when other people challenge our beliefs, we feel as if we are being attacked). Now, put this together with the fact that everything we experience is perceived by this identity, and you can see how this becomes the root of the problem that we call the human condition. So at this point, a pragmatic person may ask: So would that mean that to stop human suffering, I simply have to deconstruct and remove all of these ingrained beliefs and instincts? I simply have to deconstruct this ‘I’ construct? And the answer to that question is “Yes”. The Actual Freedom website includes very clear explanations on how to become free from the human condition. What I’ll explain from now on, in my own terms, concerns what is called the “actualism method” and “virtual freedom” on the website.
In short, the “actualism method” is the simulation of what life would be if you were actually free. An “actually free” person is both “happy and harmless” and has "no feelings”, and being “virtually free” means being in this simulated state almost all of your time. Now it’s important to understand what being “happy”, “harmless”, and having “no feelings” means, because these words are used in a very specific way, and even if you read their definitions in the dictionary, you will need more context to understand them. For someone that has never examined their living experience, it might take some time to understand what is being discussed. More importantly, most of what is being discussed is not something that you can simply learn intellectually. It is only through experience that you are able to gradually realize these things. This is great because you don’t have to believe any of what is written. The only way is to try it for yourself and see if you can verify it.
The way I see it (as someone who is still learning), an actually free person fully comprehends experientially the identity we call ‘I’ and has been able to fully deconstruct it. As we have seen, this identity can be explained as the feeling of being this person. We can see that all beliefs, for example, are a part of it because we identify with them. If we examine these beliefs and are able to determine that they are not true, we can let go of them. An actually free person has done this consecutively with all their beliefs and instincts until all that remained was a shallow identity that is clearly seen as illusory. At that point, you can’t really call it an identity anymore (on the website, this is called “self-immolation”).
From my own experiences, what is meant by “happy” here is the sense of experiencing our situation as perfect, in that we don’t want anything else. Even if we could change our present moment somehow, we wouldn’t. One doesn’t have any thoughts or desires about changing this moment. Even if you are feeling physical pain of some sort, it doesn’t translate to emotional suffering. You are aware of the pain but it doesn’t “feel bad” or affect your mood negatively. And that’s what is meant by an actually free person having “no feelings”. You are aware of the same physical sensations that accompany, for example, anxiety, but you don’t “feel anxious”. It doesn’t matter whether these sensations are there or not. Normally, when you have bad or good feelings, they translate to negative or positive thoughts which will completely alter your mood, potentially for long periods of time. But for an actually free person, the sensations and thoughts are completely decoupled in the sense that there is no causation, and that’s why pain won’t translate to suffering. For example, if an actually free person burns themselves on the stove, it is still sensed and can be effortlessly understood as undesirable and stopped. But it still has no effect on their mood.
Our identity, with its beliefs and instincts, will unavoidably cause harm to others. Even without a conscious intent to cause harm, it will happen and end up causing suffering to others and ourselves. Deconstructing the beliefs and instincts is the only way toward being harmless. “Harmless” here is not meant in the sense of “being a pacifist” or “turning the other cheek”. By “harmless,” it is meant simply that one is not conditioned (by beliefs, biases, and instincts) to do harm. So for example, if you insist on punching an actually free person, I’m pretty sure you’ll get punched back. But it won’t happen out of malice. It will be done as a means to alter a situation and stop the associated physical sensation of pain.
I think at this point it is clearer that there’s nothing “spiritual” (in the sense of mystical or metaphysical) about this process of achieving actual freedom from the human condition. I think it’s also clear that actually free people are still human beings. They are not zombies. It is quite the opposite. They have gained full control over their body and mind, and as a consequence, they have a different experience of senses. It is often stated that they stop “feeling the senses” and “become the senses,” which I guess can only be fully understood experientially. You can also probably see how freeing it must be to be able to stop compulsively having self-centered thoughts, such as ruminating about the past and worrying about the future. And finally, just imagine about how profoundly your life would change if events no longer altered your mood.
So how do you begin working on deconstructing your identity? First of all, in my experience (which is consistent with reports on the website), you have to start from a good place. You recognize intellectually that this identity is a construct and is not what it seemed at first. Now, if you hate yourself or have any negative or positive beliefs about yourself (which you surely have), you first need to get yourself into a state of feeling good about yourself and your situation. At least for me, I was unable to make any progress when I was too hard on myself. You also need to be open to change and be willing to let go of aspects that are clearly part of the identity. For example, if you want to be famous, and you honestly want to be famous for the sake of the social advantages and recognition it gives you, or from a deep need to feel superior to others, you need to realize that this goal is in direct conflict with becoming free. But you can work on these. I have definitely been able to make progress on my need for different forms of external validation, for example. Besides this, you obviously need to be able to think for yourself and you need to be honest with yourself.
The method basically requires us to examine our present moment. It starts with the question “How am I experiencing this moment of being alive?”. When you are feeling bad, it may be hard to do anything about it. But when the feeling stops — and there are feelings that, you start to realize, come and go very quickly (like anger) — you can then work on examining what happened. Anxiety, for example, can be quite interesting to examine. The physical sensation is the same as excitement and can be, at least for me, described as butterflies in the gut. Contrary to anger, this one can be felt for quite some time, but I’m able to work on it while it is happening. And it becomes easier with practice to identify its cause. On the website, they describe things as being either “silly” or “sensible,” instead of good or bad, or positive or negative, because those terms can have different meanings. Good and bad, for example, are usually interpreted in terms of morality. In actual freedom, there’s no morality. You judge things through the prism of happiness (contributes to overall wellbeing) and harmlessness (doesn’t cause suffering to any conscious beings).
With practice, you will soon see that some things that were important to you, and that are seen as desirable, are really “silly”. In my experience, most of these things can be grouped in a bucket labeled “sophistication”. We have this deep need to be special. We feel special and believe we deserve to be treated that way. And we resort to all sorts of ways to validate that we are special. We also desire to be independent and self-sufficient, and that leads to all sorts of behaviors. I’ve found that embracing the present moment with a child-like mindset is incredibly helpful. It encourages open questioning, free from the worry of how others might perceive you.
Finally, there will be times when you will question all of this. It is completely normal. All of this - the state of affairs, the identity - all of it is perfectly normal, so you don’t have to feel bad about it. But it is undesirable. Being “happy and harmless” may not have been a top priority for more primitive human beings. But it is clear that we can work on it and improve our lives a great deal in a relatively short period of time. For me, it has helped to not have “becoming actually free” as a goal (yet this doesn’t mean that your intentions are not pure or that you are not committed to becoming “happy and harmless”). I’m simply focused on improving my experience moment by moment.
Besides that, the authors of the Actual Freedom website have spent a great deal of time detailing what is called the “pure consciousness experience.” This is, in short, a state of being without the identity; it’s simply the conscious experience, hence the “pure consciousness experience.” This is something that is somewhat similar to what is referred to in popular culture and psychology as flow states or peak experiences, though for some reason, those descriptions are usually given in the context of productivity or athletic or creative pursuits. But you can have experiences such as these at any moment. It doesn’t have to be about work. You can be simply watching the sunset. To be more precise, a pure consciousness experience is a sensate and selfless experience. This means it’s free of feelings, without any sort of self-referential thoughts, free of concerns. Our perception of time is also significantly altered. It is our identity and our memories that make it possible to construct the idea of us continually existing, and without that idea, and without thoughts about past or future, you perceive time simply as the present moment. Most of our regular worry is connected to the fear of death (not to say all of it), so you can also see how not perceiving the passage of time is a big deal in this regard too. Finally, you can see how compelling this state of being is and how it must be closer to what an actually free person experiences in their moments. You can use your memories of previous pure consciousness experiences as a guide.
As stated before, this is a practical and pragmatic endeavor. It works better when you expose yourself to the real world, contrary to some traditional “spiritual” methods, because if you retreat from the world, it may be harder to experience the kind of mundane day-to-day situations that can allow you to be aware of your conditioning. With the actualism method, any circumstance you encounter that disturbs your mood is an opportunity to work on yourself.
