Ido Portal movement practice as a faciliation to bringing upon an Actual Freedom

Actualism
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Hi.

Is anyone familiar with the method and the philosophy? Through specific physical challenging movement and working in groups, and through friction with physical and psychological difficulties it ought to facilitate awareness and contemplation and ultimately bring upon self immolation.

I consider it a very worthwhile listen to get the hang of it:

What are your thoughts on how well it may compliment Actualism practice?

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Hi @Mikha_Rlin, what is the aim of Ido Portal movement practices?

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Hi @Mikha_Rlin,

I have had some exposure to the “movement practice” philosophy of Ido portal. I did parkour when I was younger and through that met some people in those kind of circles, my brother actually went to a ido portal camp some years back.

I haven’t listened to the full video you included as it’s over 1 hour long but I have listened to ido portal on other occasions.

What is clear is that ido portal has essentially re-packaged those same ‘tried and true’ spiritually-based philosophies into this seemingly new paradigm of “movement practice”. It has nothing to do with the means and the end of actualism however.

I do utilise 1 piece of ido portals teachings, which is this cool squat warm up routine I tend to do before my BJJ training :grin:

It does a good job of getting the body mobile, but that is as far as it goes.

Actually thinking about this a little more it is quite bizarre just how far spirituality reaches, and just how well hidden it can make itself, parkour was the same - Seemingly a new worldview and it turned out to be spirituality in disguise once more! As David Belle was inspired by the martial arts culture and Bruce Lee in particular, and this does a nice big circle right back to the ‘tried and true’ philosophies.

The self must survive at all costs apparently! And what better way than to become the Self.

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How is that spirituality? He talks about us as physical bodies only, and that the aim of the practice is to help get rid of fake self, but he doesn’t mention any true self that arises from that, nor anything transcendental, so it may mean he refers to the full self, emotional and instinctual too.

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Hi @Mikha_Rlin,

Perhaps you can provide a more succinct excerpt from Ido Portal? I haven’t watched the 1h video and likely will not but perhaps there is something a bit shorter that we can dissect.

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Thanks for your interest, but I couldn’t find any. It takes time to get good impression of his view. Only on his latest videos (1y old or less) is his vew mature enough to suggest he might be very close to actualism

His main points are:

That we are our body

That the practice should dismantle all what is fake inside us. Its a challenging practice and so its easier to expose fakeness with it as it is more difficult for it to lurk in shadows.

No mention at all of anything metaphysical or spiritual or transcendent.

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Hi @Mikha_Rlin,

OK so I asked chat gpt to summarise the video you included, it provided the below :

  • Movement + Practice
    Ido starts by defining two core words: movement and practice. Movement is the medium (the doing, the body, the change), and practice is the container (the ongoing, process-based work of self-investigation). He emphasises that the work isn’t only about moving physically, but also the investigation of the self via that medium. YTScribe
  • Intelligence Re‐framed
    He challenges the traditional view of intelligence (data, memorisation, calculation). Instead he proposes a fuller concept: intelligence is the interplay of bodily, emotional, sensory, and intellectual capacities. He argues that purely cerebral/intellectual intelligence is very limited. YTScribe
  • Loss of Practice in Humanity
    Ido observes that as modern life has made survival easier (technology, conveniences), the need to practice movement, struggle, adaptation has diminished. That loss of effort and meaningful challenge undermines development. YTScribe
  • How Practice Works
    He describes how a genuine practice works:
  • Engage with tasks that are difficult but possible — they stretch the individual. YTScribe
  • Observe not just the technique but the internal response (emotion, frustration, mental patterns) as you engage. YTScribe
  • The practice builds tools to deal with unexpected life-challenges (illness, loss, ageing) because we’ve already been doing the work of confronting discomfort. YTScribe
  • Teacher / Student Relationship
    Ido clarifies his role as guide, not dictator. He emphasises the importance of honesty, self-responsibility, questioning, and not blind loyalty or obedience. A “good student” is someone who leans into the process, struggles, questions, does the work. YTScribe
  • Misunderstandings & Entry-Points
    He talks about how many people are attracted to the visuals (handstands, mobility, acrobatics) or the emotional/emphasis side (freedom, expression), but may miss the deeper intention: to practise a way of being, to investigate self through movement. Entry points matter (positive, neutral, negative) but what matters is the depth of engagement.

Which none of the above give any indication that what he is proposing is the same means and end as actualism. Now of course you could try stretching what is being said and fit it into something that apparently looks like actualism but why? It has to be mentioned too that Ido Portal himself is neither actually free nor even virtually free from the human condition, so how could his practice provide that which he himself has not achieved? Of course if you wanted to prove that Ido Portal’s practice can allow one to become free from the human condition you would need to become a pioneer of such task.

Now on the other hand there is the information provided on the actual freedom trust website which not only ‘looks like actualism’ but is bone fide actualism, it does not need any stretching or interpretation as it means what it says and it says it plainly and unequivocally. Not only that but the very method described has actually delivered the goods, not once or twice but multiple times. In that there are people in the double figures now walking this planet who are actually free from the human condition and the means they utilised were the ones described on the actual freedom trust website.

So I guess the pertinent question would be just what is your interest with actualism?

Also I will add that in terms of “red flags” a practice/method which cannot be described succinctly, plainly and unequivocally is likely because it is enigmatic, mystical, ineffable etc which is to say that it is indeed rooted in the metaphysical, spiritual or transcendent. Isn’t it telling that you could not provide me with a succinct explanation (which did not necessitate your own interpretation) of just what Ido Portal’s method is all about? As you said “it takes time to get good impression of his view”.
It takes no time at all to be able to unequivocally describe what the actualism method is - Enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive, each moment again. And it takes no time to unequivocally describe it’s end - Actual freedom from the instinctual passions and the feeling being formed thereof.

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