Intimacy

The top-level dichotomy isn’t between ‘affectional’ and ‘actual’ – the “near-innocent intimacy of naïveté” doesn’t fit in either one (it’s not an affectional, as in loving, intimacy, and it’s not actual either)

Rather the dichotomy that I think you’re looking for at the highest level is affective vs. actual. Affective is the intimacy feeling-beings experience, while actual is the intimacy only in a PCE or when actually free.

Then, within affective intimacy you have a further split between affectional intimacy (what people typically mean) and then naive intimacy, which is the gateway into an EE/IE and then a PCE/self-immolation from there.

The trick for a feeling-being then is to go from wherever one is, towards the naive way of being intimate/way of being, which is what will deliver the goods

Also I think that thinking of actual intimacy as a “sensate immediacy” (‘just’ or not) is rather underselling it. It’s not just that you sense the other person, as in visually, ocularly, tactilely etc. There is also the immanence of being with another flesh and blood body, another human being. It is way, way more than just a sensate thing. There’s a delicious aspect to it that comes from being with someone else in and of itself, that is more than the sum of the parts of the senses. Maybe it relates to how one experiences pure intent not sensately, but, with one can say an “existential” sense – perhaps it is that same sense that senses the other’s presence? (@Vineeto what you think?)

Also I really like that post I wrote! I would second (or third, as it were) what I said there :smile: (Sweetness in the arms of the other - #10 by claudiu)

Lastly I would say the near-innocent intimacy of naivete applies not just to people, but to places and things too – there is an immediacy to the surroundings. Richard has oft talked about intimacy with an ashtray, for example, which often amuses people. So this is not something restricted only to being around other people – however, the more you go up the animate scale, the more of that other delicious quality comes into play – eg more with a dog than with an ashtray, and more with a human than with a dog.

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