Vineeto: All seems to go swimmingly.
JesusCarlos: Well, in general terms, I could say yes. Even two months ago, I was thinking I might have reached a stage of virtual freedom, since my feeling good was constant or very easily recovered after some episode. Let’s say that feeling good was becoming my baseline. But after a while, I began to notice that I was returning to a neutral feeling as a baseline. Trying to detect what caused this regression, I find that there are aspects of my identity that haven’t been fully resolved (I know there’s no total solution until the final extinction occurs). And some of them have narcissistic characteristics, such as an inflated sense of self-importance or the need for recognition (an aspect we’ve already discussed here). For example, certain (work-related) events occur in which if I’m not taken into account as I consider I should be taken into account for a decision, then I got upset or very upset, sometimes for some couple of hours (and had a recent event that lasted almost a day). The good news is that it takes me less and less time to detect it, recognize it, and turn it around. But I still see a need for more investigation to root out these reaction patterns and achieve a more stable baseline.
Hi JesusCarlos,
This is certainly good news (that it takes less time to detect it) – it means your affective attentiveness is more and more continuously operating. I wondered if putting everything on a ‘it doesn’t matter basis’ might solve most of the problem of ‘self’-importance?
Richard: ‘There is no worry, no, but I am not too sure that this is because there is no ‘I’ … it is simply silly to worry as worrying does nothing whatsoever to get an event changed.
I correct – and thus improve – what can be corrected … according to a preference for creature comforts and ease of life-style. For example: if I can sit upon a cushion instead of the brick pavers of the patio I will … that is a preference. But if a cushion is not available it does not matter … I thoroughly enjoy being alive at this moment in eternal time and this place in infinite space irregardless of what is happening. I could be just as happy and harmless on bread and water in solitary confinement in some insalubrious penitentiary … but I would be pretty silly to act or behave in such a way as to occasion that outcome!
The ‘I’ that used to inhabit this body did everything possible that ‘I’ could do to blatantly imitate the actual in that ‘I’ endeavoured to be happy and harmless for as much as is humanly possible. This was achieved by putting everything on a ‘it doesn’t really matter’ basis. That is, ‘I’ would prefer people, things and events to be a particular way, but if it did not turn out like that … it did not really matter for it was only a preference. ‘I’ chose to no longer give other people – or the weather – the power to make ‘me’ angry … or irritated … or even peeved, if that was possible. (Richard, AF List, No. 7, 27 Jan 1999).
JesusCarlos: And something I keep in mind and try to achieve is the ability to experience a PCE without the need for certain conditions (the two PCEs I have recorded as such have been after taking psychotropic substances). For this I notice that I have a particularly difficulty going from feeling good to feeling excellent. And where I find right now the most effective way to get close to this is through the naivete that gets activated after the more intimacy is allowed with my partner. In those moments, several EIs or even EEs have emerged, but not yet PCEs. (link)
The answer in Frequent Questions (link) is to allow it to happen. When you feel good and want to feel excellent, just loosen the control a bit, then another bit, not letting yourself get distracted by worrying and allow a bit of naïveté to happen. From there marvelment and wonderment happen easily and appreciation for all this amazing happening will do the rest.
Richard: What I can say is this: as the many and various emotions/ passions are the same affective energy, at root, then directing all of that affective energy into being the felicitous/ innocuous feelings (that is, ‘me’ at the core of ‘my’ being, which is ‘being’ itself), via minimisation of the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ feelings and maximisation of the happy and harmless feelings, will have the effect of involuntarily radiating felicitous/ innocuous vibes and currents as a matter of course. [Emphasis added]. (Richard, List D, No. 25c, 29 Oct 2013)
Cheers Vineeto