I remember my experience of pure intent but I’m not remembering the exact word I used to rememorate it.
I remember it as a stillness or vastness but that is still not the words that did it for me.
I will keep looking.
2 Likes
Quietness also comes to mind. Still looking. Perhaps doing it instead of looking for a word might work.
2 Likes
Hi James,
James: I remember my experience of pure intent but I’m not remembering the exact word I used to rememorate it.
I think the exact word does not matter ultimately, it’s not that one is invoking pure intent as if summoning a spirit 
Ultimately it’s the experiential/existential connection which counts.
James: I remember it as a stillness or vastness but that is still not the words that did it for me.
The stillness is the source of pure intent but it is not pure intent per se, I think those words used to describe it really do it as well as it could be done - “a genuinely occurring stream of benevolence and benignity which originates in the perfect and vast stillness that is the essential character of the infinitude of the universe“.
As in there is the stillness of infinitude and from this stillness wells up this one of a kind flavour, which is as if infused into everything… That flavour is the “genuinely occurring stream of benevolence and benignity” ie pure intent.
1 Like
What is starting to work right now is remembering the exact experience and staying with it. In the past I haven’t stayed with it.
Your last paragraph above says it well:
“As in there is the stillness of infinitude and from this stillness wells up this one of a kind flavour, which is as if infused into everything… That flavour is the “genuinely occurring stream of benevolence and benignity” ie pure intent.”
2 Likes
Purity is the word I was looking for : There is purity in pure intent.
1 Like
Kuba: Hi Vineeto,
This is a lot of information so I am slowing taking it in bits. This morning I had a read of the post you mentioned regarding rememoration and presentation. A while ago Geoffrey described rememoration in his excellent succinct style and I think it clicked back then. Reading Richard’s thorough explanation was very interesting too although I think I will need to go over it a few times for it to properly click. It is amazing how Richard was able to thoroughly understand all manner of things by going right to the root of them and working through the topics diligently.
The way I understand rememoration currently, if I was to put it in my words, is that it is to intently bring forth the flavour of that which was experienced previously, now. In that I know I have experienced pure intent previously, and yet to cognitively remember this fact is not enough. So I experientially set my antennae to that flavour which I remember was tasted back then, and when that flavour is tasted, it is happening now i.e. it has been rememorated. (link)
Hi Kuba,
I have not answered for a few days to give you time to digest and integrate this “lot of information” I had sent in my last post. Now that you say you “I know I have experienced pure intent previously” you can follow this loadstone of your own experience. Has it “clicked back then” when you quoted what “Geoffrey described rememoration in his excellent succinct style” (18 May 2026)? –
Geoffrey: If I was to put any ‘conditions’ on it (I’m not) it would have to do with knowing what you’re aiming for and going for it (once you know, there is no choice). And for me this required numerous PCEs, and a solid connexion to Pure Intent.
The method is imitative of the actual. In my understanding the correct application of the method was through the ‘naive remembrance’/ the ‘presentiation’ of the PCE… (Geoffrey, Becoming Actually Free, Q2).
What you said to James was spot on –
Kuba: I think the exact word does not matter ultimately, it’s not that one is invoking pure intent as if summoning a spirit. Ultimately it’s the experiential/ existential connection which counts. (link)
– it’s not about a cognitive understanding tick-in-the-box, but having “the experiential/ existential connection” to let pure intent guide you, each moment again – “Pure intent is the connection between the intimate aspect of oneself, that one usually keeps hidden away for fear of seeming foolish, and the purity of the PCE”. (Richard’s Journal, Article 15).
You have Richard words, Geoffrey’s words, my words, but most of all you have “experienced pure intent previously” – do whatever you need to do to immerse yourself in the flavour of pure intent, each moment again, and thus allow it to change you to become more and more the benignity and benevolence of the flavour, via enjoying and appreciating being alive.
I still think the second part of Richard’s personal Webpage (link) is the most exquisite and detailed description about ‘how to’, this one for instance –
Richard: Then, as it was patently obvious in those experiences of pristine purity how this very moment of being alive is the only moment of ever actually being alive, I began to treat each moment again as precious. (link)
For an in-depth comprehensive study on Richard’s various descriptions of pure intent I can recommend Richard, List D James, 11 Jul 2015, especially the Info-Tooltip after “All-up there are eleven reports/ descriptions/ explanations as to what pure intent is”.
Cheers Vineeto
3 Likes
Hi Vineeto,
Thank you for your reply, actually I was going to take some time off from all things actualist but this just ended up with me getting stressed over a phone transfer that refused to go smoothly…
You wrote :
I also remember reading Claudiu’s report from visiting Geoffrey, and how he mentioned that Geoffrey’s wife found him to be a “safe haven” from the real world.
It’s a bit like that when I read your response, not even just the words specifically, but just the fact that there is this obvious actual caring, genuine good-will and a total lack of sorrow and malice. Somehow reading your words re-kindles the connection to that tenderness aspect. But also it reminds me that sorrow and malice are intrinsically connected, that even by ‘being’ stressed ‘I’ am inflicting hurt, and not just to myself - that is the main point really, that to ‘be’ sorrow and malice in any degree is to inflict hurt, to radiate (psychically) that very hurt which ‘I’ am. And then in your words this whole thing is completely absent, hence it is a “safe haven” and a reminder of the tenderness possible.
You know experientially it seems that ‘I’ as the ‘controller’ have ‘my’ claws dug in quite strong, ‘I’ can deceive ‘myself’ that everything is going smoothly but all it takes is for a phone transfer to go south and ‘I’ start grasping and arrogating and fighting etc.
We talked in the past about my “inner mother”, and this is not to apply any blame to my mother at all, but I am pretty certain this is a still unresolved aspect of it. I remember my mother from my youngest years to similarly have life tightly grasped in the claws of the ‘controller’, far beyond what ‘normal’ would be. It was like this mix of fierce attempts to control life with this constant underlying anxiety, expressed as an ongoing state of stress with angry outbursts. It seems that ‘I’ absorbed like a sponge the same kind of basic MO for life. And then the narcissism and the self-importance only cemented all this further.
Of course ‘I’ do not want to ‘be’ this any more, and not even just for ‘my’ sake but for everyone’s benefit. So this seems like a pretty big and obvious obstacle that is staring me right in the face, and I am not sure how it is to be addressed yet, I can see cracks in it but I cannot yet sincerely contemplate dissolving the whole thing.
1 Like
Actually I think I have some idea as to how to proceed with this obstacle, which is for now to allow that underlying anxiety/fear which feeds the ‘controller’ to come to the surface and see what it is all about.
2 Likes
Hi Vineeto, does that mean that a feeling being needs to be in proximity to a fully free human in order to experience pure intent as a feeling being?
Kuba: Hi Vineeto,
Thank you for your reply, actually I was going to take some time off from all things actualist but this just ended up with me getting stressed over a phone transfer that refused to go smoothly…
Hi Kuba,
It’s quite informative that when you are “going to take some time off from all things actualist” – perhaps because you remembered Geoffrey’s “So I decided I needed a holiday from ‘doing’, from ‘trying’” (Geoffrey, Report of Becoming Free, #Q5) – that you “ended up with me getting stressed over a phone transfer”.
That event might well be an indicator that you are not at the point where taking “a holiday from ‘doing’” is a path to take but rather that your imaginary map to actual freedom is giving you the wrong coordinates. This “getting stressed over” such a minor occurrence like a slow phone transfer is clearly a “warning buzzer”, a “flashing red light” that one has gone astray and that it’s time to take out the instruction manual (Richard, This Moment of Being Alive) to look up exactly what is amiss or where one has missed a vital ingredient. When I searched the AFT for “flashing red light” I found an excellent and very detailed email to Claudiu explaining the actualism method at the start, which you may have skipped thinking being already close to the finish line.
Richard to Claudiu: Whilst reading your above email online it occurred to me to post a brief note, there and then, and simply reiterate how ‘being attentive to my feelings’ only takes place, of course, on those occasions when/ where an otherwise ongoing enjoyment and appreciation diminishes.
Plus, how the very act of thus ‘being attentive to my feelings’ is initiated by that diminishment of enjoyment and appreciation.
In other words, being (cognitively) attentive to one’s (affective) feelings – instigated by the diminution in the quality of affectively enjoying and appreciating being alive/ being here, each moment again, come-what-may – happens less and less once one gets the knack of thus affectively monitoring one’s moment-to-moment (affective) mood and/or temperament via the increasingly subtle variations in one’s (affective) enjoyment and appreciation.
Essentially, ‘feeling good’ as a bottom-line each moment again for the remainder of one’s life means rarely, if ever, needing to (cognitively) be ‘attentive to my feelings’ due to that habituation of the actualism method (such as to result in a still-in-control/ same-way-of-being virtual freedom).
*
Howsoever, upon re-reading your email with the notion of just a brief note in mind, the very detail and thus expansive length of it persuaded me to expand somewhat upon the subject myself and especially so in view of your observations regarding a particular hangover from your earlier buddhistic practice.
(…)
As what is conveyed by that term is already provided in the ‘This Moment of Being Alive’ article – and specifically referred to elsewhere via words such as ‘diminishment’ or ‘diminution’ and ‘flashing red light’ or ‘a warning buzzer’ on more than fifty occasions on my portion of the website – then this expanded post is more about drawing attention to it, even to the extent of belabouring the point, than anything else. (Richard, List D, Claudiu4, 3 Feb 2016)
As you said you have practiced/ dabbled in buddhistic practice yourself, a similar reassessment to any ‘’hangover” might be needed to get the most benefit and lasting success from practicing the actualism method “as to result in a still-in-control/ same-way-of-being virtual freedom”. Now Richard goes into great detail in this particular post to Claudiu to highlight again that simply being attentive to one’s thoughts and feelings (à la buddhistic attentiveness) is not the actualism method –
Richard: The search-string returned 36 hits and a search for resulted in the following exchange.
Viz.:• [Respondent № 27]: Also specifically which emotions are advantageous to ‘not express’?
• [Richard]: All and any emotion … what I would oft-times say to people twenty one years ago, when I first put this into practice, was that *emotions are life’s way of reminding oneself that one has gone astray* (that one has wandered off the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom from the human condition).
An emotion is like a warning buzzer … or a flashing red light. [emphasis added]. (Richard, AF List, No. 27a, 24 Jan 2002).This particular quote is included because it depicts the identity inhabiting this flesh-and-blood body all those years ago uncritically declaring how it was via the emotions (i.e., per favour the affections generally) – and not cognition (i.e., not per favour being cognitively attentive) – that it became noticeable ‘he’ had gone astray. (Richard, List D, Claudiu4, 3 Feb 2016)
Here is another example from the above email –
• [Respondent № 04]: [Okay, then why is it important to ascertain causation and the succession?] Does it help to see the silliness?
• [Richard]: (…)
The name of the game is to habituate an affective imitation of the actual each moment/ each place again – to consistently feel as happy and harmless (free of both malice and sorrow and, thus, their antidotal pacifiers love and compassion) as is humanly possible whilst remaining a ‘self’ – so as to enable the already always existing peace-on-earth to be apparent sooner rather than later … therefore *whenever/ wherever there is the slightest diminution of that felicity/ innocuity it speaks for itself* that some event, which has been constantly granted the power such as to customarily render that peace and harmony short-lived, has been permitted, via a lifetime of continuous/ routine ignoration, to wreak its havoc once again. [emphasis added]. (Richard, AF List, No. 4a, 31 Jul 2005).
It’s too long to quote more, even though I can highly recommend to read it in full including the tooltips for anyone who is not clear about any aspects of the actualism method.
*
I appreciate your assessment of experiencing a “safe haven” – it also facilitates to be honest and sincere in our communications.
Now we come to what you perhaps consider “ascertain causation and the succession” –
Kuba: You know experientially it seems that ‘I’ as the ‘controller’ have ‘my’ claws dug in quite strong, ‘I’ can deceive ‘myself’ that everything is going smoothly but all it takes is for a phone transfer to go south and ‘I’ start grasping and arrogating and fighting etc.
We talked in the past about my “inner mother”, and this is not to apply any blame to my mother at all, but I am pretty certain this is a still unresolved aspect of it. I remember my mother from my youngest years to similarly have life tightly grasped in the claws of the ‘controller’, far beyond what ‘normal’ would be. It was like this mix of fierce attempts to control life with this constant underlying anxiety, expressed as an ongoing state of stress with angry outbursts. It seems that ‘I’ absorbed like a sponge the same kind of basic MO for life. And then the narcissism and the self-importance only cemented all this further.
Of course ‘I’ do not want to ‘be’ this any more, and not even just for ‘my’ sake but for everyone’s benefit. So this seems like a pretty big and obvious obstacle that is staring me right in the face, and I am not sure how it is to be addressed yet, I can see cracks in it but I cannot yet sincerely contemplate dissolving the whole thing. (link)
If what you describe is what counts for looking at the causation of getting upset about “a phone transfer to go south” then this clearly has not worked and will not work to prevent it from happening again and again. Your explanation is attributing causation of this event onto your mother, your childhood experience and habituation since having been a toddler, and this does more to justify and cement your reaction rather than uproot it. Also, “dissolving the whole thing” in one go is a typical all-or-nothing approach and certainly not the only option.
Whereas when you look at the event itself it is very simple – there was an expectation and a strong desire to have it happen quickly and smoothly (because you had probably already planned out the follow-up events) – and when things didn’t go your way you got “stressed”, perhaps even angry, and, as you say, you had this MO since forever.
Seeing the fact very clearly how destructive this MO is not only to your mood but for everyone else around you, there is no sensible reason at all to react in the same way again, ever. All it needs is seeing the fact and the sincere intent to be felicitous and innocuous and then put some such events which are not in your control genuinely on the preference basis.
Kuba: Actually I think I have some idea as to how to proceed with this obstacle, which is for now to allow that underlying anxiety/ fear which feeds the ‘controller’ to come to the surface and see what it is all about. (link)
Can you see that the deciding factor between analysing your past and seeing the fact now is that you have the choice, right now, to actually change – not because you are forced to for moralistic reasons but because you are intelligent and have a benign and benevolent aim in life? This intelligence with benign and benevolent intent means (according to the actualism method) you proceed by getting into the habit of affectively monitoring your mood and therefore detect finer and finer diminution and therefore catch the habitual “stressing” before it has time to grow into a large event. From the same above quoted email –
Richard: As to how simple, easy and thus effortless this way of living/ this course of action is, when sincerely put into practice, it may be handy to also anecdotally reference how the identity inhabiting this flesh-and-blood body all those years ago took the first step, on what has become known as the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom from the human condition,
(…)
For what ‘he’ had twigged to, in the beginning stages of their joint venture (and particularly exemplified by ‘his’ wife’s predilection for venting over voicing), was how it was far, far easier and simpler to stay in a good mood come-what-may – preferably a happy mood of course – than claw ‘his’ way back up to feeling good, again and again, after having habitually reverted to type.
Hence being (affectively) aware, each moment again, of more and more subtle variations in the quality of one’s moment-to-moment enjoyment and appreciation of being alive/ of being here so as to earlier and earlier pre-empt any potential reversion to type.
Also, repeated experience had shown ‘him’ that minor dips in that quality presaged each major diminution – indeed miniscule blips soon became evident even earlier than those minor dips as ‘his’ ability to (affectively) detect subtle variations in the affective tone of mood and temperament became evermore fine-tuned – and the earlier such habituated silliness could be (affectively) discerned the sooner ‘he’ could thus nip these instinctual potentialities in the bud. [Emphasis added]. (Richard, List D, Claudiu4, 3 Feb 2016).
To summarize –
-
Ignore the coordination markers of your imaginary map, start where you are at -
Don’t *“take some time off from all things actualist”*, i.e. continue affectively monitoring your mood until it becomes a wordless habit. -
The all-or-nothing approach is a typical ‘controller’ attitude -
Find out where you may have misunderstood or inaccurately applied the actualism method and adjust where necessary. -
Put everything in your life on a preference basis -
When looking for a causation of an emotional occurrence the trigger and attitudinal cause is much closer than you may have thought/ felt (actualism is **new**, not old as in psychology) -
If all else fails, read the instructions again, with fresh eyes and an active connection to pure intent.
Cheers Vineeto
3 Likes
Vineeto: However, nowadays pure intent can also be experienced from within the human condition (i.e., as a feeling ‘being’) when pure intent is experienced via that purity personified (i.e. those fully free human beings), reported by ‘Peter’, ‘Vineeto’ and ‘Pamela’ as “a sweetness that was palpable” – plus how ‘he’/ ‘she’ was “literally being bathed in this sweetness”. (link)
Ed: Hi Vineeto, does that mean that a feeling being needs to be in proximity to a fully free human in order to experience pure intent as a feeling being? (link)
Hi Ed,
No, “proximity to a fully free human” is not required. Viz.:
Richard: (…)
• [Richard]: (…). P.S.: Also, briefly, in regards to your ‘armed rebellion’ observations: please be assured that not only will there be a ‘bloodless revolution’ (i.e., non-destructive) but it will be a non-disruptive transition as well – e.g., no food-shortages or fuel-shortages; trains, coaches, planes, ships, and so on, still operating, no loss of creature-comforts, &c., &c. – when the global spread of actual freedom/ actualism eventually takes place’. ~ (Richard, List D, No. 32 a, 21 June 2015).
In other words, it is the consummate nature (i.e., the impeccable quality) of the overarching benevolence and benignity inherent to the utter purity of the pristine perfection welling ever-fresh as the vast and utter stillness of this universe’s spatial, temporal and material infinitude which informs, experientially, that a global spread of this completely original consciousness (a totally new way of being conscious) would, ipso facto, be both a non-destructive and non-disruptive transition.
Furthermore, there would also be the capacity at-that-moment to similarly apprehend, experientially, how it can now be said – as I happened to mention on a couple of occasions during the pre-arranged foregathering here, earlier this year, of half-a-dozen subscribers to this forum – that due to the overarching benevolence and benignity being demonstrably available immanently in human consciousness, nowadays both masculinely and femininely[5], and thus potentially accessible per favour naïveté regardless of spatial extension[6], there is no longer any reason why there cannot be a global spread of the already always existing peace-on-earth in our lifetimes. (More on this in those Footnotes № 5 and № 6). [Emphasis added]. (Richard, List D, No. 4b, #profoundreappraisal).
(see Footnotes in the original).
And –
James: So it is just a matter of seeing clearly that the real-world is an illusion? I see it but perhaps not clearly enough? I see it most clearly when thinking stops and there is just a sensate body sitting/ laying here. That is the time to have a pce and see the vast stillness of the universe. Is the pce necessary? ps: Is the pce necessary for pure intent to come out of this vast stillness?
Richard: Prior to 11.25 AM (AEDST) on Saturday, the 14th of November, 2009, a pure consciousness experience (PCE) was indeed necessary for pure intent – that benevolence and benignity of the vast and utter stillness of the universe itself – and the reason why a PCE was essential is reported/ described/ explained both on The Actual Freedom Trust website and in ‘Richard’s Journal’.
However, since then a PCE has no longer been a vital factor in the process of becoming actually free of the instinctual passions/ the feeling-being formed thereof … indeed, neither of the persons mentioned, as an example, in that first post of mine (Richard, List D, No. 6, 19 Dec 2011) to this forum in nearly two years could recall a PCE.
Also, what the feeling-being inhabiting this flesh-and-blood body all those years ago experienced as an ‘over-arching benevolence and benignity’ was experienced by the feeling-being ‘Peter’, on the 29th of December 2009, as [quote] ‘a sweetness that was palpable’ [endquote] and that ‘he’ was [quote] ‘literally being bathed in this sweetness’ [endquote]. (Those quotes are from Peter’s report on the original ‘A Long-Awaited Public Announcement’ webpage). (link)
James: Does the experiencing of the vastness and stillness of the universe bring on the ‘over-arching benevolence and benignity’ which then brings on the ‘sweetness’? Iow, does ‘experiencing the vastness and stillness’ of the universe come first?
Richard: G’day James, My response (above) was both in the context of your query as to whether a PCE is necessary for pure intent and your follow-up explanation to [No. 24] (Richard, List D, No. 24, 23 Jan 2012) about the last paragraph of ‘Addendum No. 7’ (that to be actually free from the human condition is to be that pure intent).
Prior to the physical death of my second wife (de jure) Devika/ Irene a PCE was indeed necessary for pure intent; since then it has no longer been a vital factor in the process of becoming actually free of the instinctual passions/the feeling-being formed thereof as the impenetrable psychic force-field which Devika had established to protect Richard from other people, and which Irene had transmuted into protecting other people from Richard, is no longer in existence (in existence psychically, that is, in the real-world).
Consequentially, that ‘over-arching benevolence and benignity’, which the feeling-being inhabiting this flesh-and-blood body all those years ago experienced [via a PCE] and named ‘pure intent’, became immanently accessible to some select associates during a specific situational setting called ‘The Second Convivium Gathering’, in late 2009/early 2010, and was variously experienced by them as a ‘palpable sweetness’, for instance, and an ‘infinite tenderness’, for example, and has been more generally described as ‘being bathed in intimacy’.
It was also accessible at-a-distance (hence the thirty-day trial at that time), as a rather remarkable man on another continent has amply demonstrated, and has been described by him upon meeting in person as a ‘gentle energy’ and a ‘harmless energy’ which is ‘emanating all around (not directional, like a guru to a devotee, and not at all coarse)’.
Thus to answer your first question: the direct (as in, immediate or unmediated) experiencing of the vast stillness of this physical universe’s infinitude – where the word stillness refers to there being no movement of time whatsoever (as in ‘this moment has no duration’) – is the way in which the feeling-being inhabiting this flesh-and-blood body all those years ago became consciously aware of pure intent [via a PCE] because, back in those days, there had not yet been someone of sufficient naïveté to enable that immaculate perfection to become purity personified.
Which means that, these days, when that ‘palpable sweetness’ (for instance) is experienced it is that ‘over-arching benevolence and benignity’ being experienced, by virtue of that immaculate perfection having become manifest in the everyday world as a flesh-and-blood body only, as they are both one and the same thing in essence. [Emphasis added] (Richard, List D, James, 6 Feb 2012).
*
James: Would it be possible to have this global spread online as we can’t all make it to Australia?
Richard: G’day James,
You raise two points there which can only be answered by mentioning the third point you left unspoken. (…)
Third, (the point you left unspoken): there already exists a world-wide network – requiring neither technological wizz-bangs nor competency in the English language – which has a truly global reach (inherently connecting every single man, woman and child alive today no matter what their age) and is instantaneous in its effect.
And, most importantly, it is where the real power-play takes place anyway – given that it by-passes both the cognitive and the affective filters – as its operation has the immediacy of ‘being’ to ‘being’ (‘me’ at the core of ‘my’ being is ‘being’ itself) directivity.
James: What would it take?
Richard: Ha … enjoying *and* appreciating being alive/ being here, each moment again come what may, by being as happy and as harmless as is humanly possible via minimising both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ feelings and maximising both the felicitous *and* the innocuous feelings.
Put simplistically (for maximum effect): the way to bring about global peace and harmony, in our lifetimes, is by having fun.
(I am having such a ball here at the keyboard). (Richard, List D, James, 2 Jul 2013).
(See explanatory footnotes in originals).
Cheers Vineeto
2 Likes
Hi Vineeto,
This was very useful thank you, where you wrote :
”Find out where you may have misunderstood or inaccurately applied the actualism method and adjust where necessary.”
I think there is something here and really I can summarise it with the word - rumination. And actually just the google definition for it speaks quite well of why it’s a dead end :
”Rumination is the focused attention on the symptoms of one’s distress, as well as its causes and consequences, rather than seeking solutions. It involves endlessly replaying negative thoughts, past mistakes, or worries in a mental loop”.
I remember a video with Geoffrey talking about the kind of ‘investigation’ that actualists can get caught up in (which now I see more as rumination) and how he was now wondering whether ‘he’ succeeded because of this kind of thing or despite of it.
And I think this may be similar here with me, in that throughout my involvement with actualism I have been applying rumination believing it was the reason for whatever successes I had, but actually this rumination was more a crippling effect, and there was some successes despite of it.
It has been fascinating having you write on this forum because the few years prior to that I was consistently doing something, but at the same time there were so many misunderstandings and self-deceptions thrown into the mix. So the past couple of years interacting with you it was like all those misunderstandings and self-deceptions have been slowly identified and cleared one after the other.
And there is for sure successes that have come from this venture, for example what Sonya wrote in her journal the other day about the vibes at home, it is really like that now where fundamentally every day we like each other and we get on together. It is the main reason why I simply could not have ‘me’ ‘being’ the stress, as in I could not accept it because I can see what it has the potential to do. But also I think since the talks we had about blame it clicked for both of us, so now there is this (very nice) outcome where we both naturally give each other grace when the other falls of the wagon for a bit. So this elimination of blame for us both was a solid success indeed, and it was not the outcome of rumination or an all or nothing approach, it was something more sincere that did it.
So I guess the main thing I need to experientially clarify for myself, is what leads to change.
You wrote :
”When looking for a causation of an emotional occurrence the trigger and attitudinal cause is much closer than you may have thought/ felt (actualism is **new**, not old as in psychology)”
This is also a good clue, because I do have this tendency to treat it as if it is some psychological case, that is where the rumination and the all or nothing approach comes in. That ‘I’ will observe these feelings and structures and ‘I’ will draw a map of the various past causes etc But then by the end of it, there is no change! It seems where change typically has happened is where I get sick of going round in circles and just stop . So it is like I get there in the end but with much time wasted.
And from what I can see, what leads to change is essentially what you wrote here :
“Can you see that the deciding factor between analysing your past and seeing the fact now is that you have the choice, right now, to actually change – not because you are forced to for moralistic reasons but because you are intelligent and have a benign and benevolent aim in life?”
So essentially this rumination is clutter, and it can be discarded, which means then I do not require some long thought out process to grant me the permission to get back to feeling good or to leave behind some dearly held aspect of ‘me’.
2 Likes
Thank you Vineeto, I should have known better and upon reflection I think I didn’t hone in on my question well enough. The part I’m still trying to comprehend is: “When pure intent is experienced via that purity personified (i.e. those fully free human beings)…”
It seems that because two human beings became that purity personified, it makes it possible for any feeling being to experience pure intent while still being a feeling-being. Where as before, it was only possible in a pure consciousness experience. Additionally, because Devika is no longer manifesting a force-field in the psychic-web protecting all from Richard, a feeling-being can now experience pure intent. That force-field she generated seemed to be blocking all-and-sundry from the purity personified which was Richard.
It’s all very fascinating and I do not know how it all works. I am under the impression that the best/only way I can make myself sensitive to pure intent is via being naive; so that is what I will continue to approach as much as humanly possible. I do believe that it is working in me, but that said, it still remain invisible to “me.” Perhaps all the better for now lest I make it one of my accomplishments.
It also seems like a very rare occurrence on a feeling-being’s journey towards a basic actual freedom. Feeling-being Vineeto only experienced it once(?) or twice? Namely, in the out-from-control dvd and the lead up to becoming basically free. For feeling-being Peter it happened in the lead-up to becoming basically free. But then there is this other gentleman in a different location that also experienced it at the same time as you and Richard - - fantastic. Does it rise-and-fall in intensity?
I’ve read much of what Richard wrote about pure intent as well as what feeling-beings Peter and Vineeto wrote and I notice a difference between the two. Often, what feeling-being Peter and Vineeto wrote makes more sense to me, while what Richard wrote does not. I believe it’s is an experiential issue on my end and I eagerly look forward to the day where I can verify and make sense of what Richard reports. For example:
When you have the intent to become free from your insidious good and bad feelings in order to experience the felicitous feelings each moment again, then the investigation into your beliefs and feelings has a purpose and a direction and as such will show incremental success. Vineeto SC Sincere Intent, Pure Intent
Is more understandable to me than:
Pure intent is a palpable life-force; an actually occurring stream of benevolence and benignity which originates in the vast and utter stillness that is the essential character of the universe itself. Once set in motion, it is no longer a matter of choice: it is an irresistible pull.
Though I can relate to the irresitible pull, I cannot detect a stream of benevolence.
Thanks for your continued responses and also thank you @Kub933 for putting yourself out there. These exchanges have lead to some exceptional pointers. I had a good chuckle at your comment about taking a break from actualism because in my experience such an attitude does not last very long. It is like Richard says:
Once launched it is impossible to turn back and resume one’s normal life … one has to be absolutely sure that this is what one truly wants.
2 Likes
Hi Ed,
Thanks! It’s really great to hear that it is all of use to others too, and maybe even getting some laughs out in the process 
2 Likes
Hi Kuba,
I am pleased you gained a useful insight/ understanding which could clear up part of the “many misunderstandings” you said you had, and rumination is a perfect word for your psychological ‘escapade’. Now there is an opportunity to apply the new understanding each time you notice is a diminishment in feeling happy and harmless. This new approach also might require an adjustment in your affective awareness when monitoring your mood.
Richard: Hence being (affectively) aware, each moment again, of more and more subtle variations in the quality of one’s moment-to-moment enjoyment and appreciation of being alive/ of being here so as to earlier and earlier pre-empt any potential reversion to type. (Richard, List D, Claudiu4, 3 Feb 2016).
I emphasise this because many people are considering their previous buddhistic ‘noting’ (including putting aside those noted emotions as ‘unsatisfactory’) equivalent to the actualist affective awareness and fascinated attentiveness. I had this confirmed by one actualist recently telling me of their habit to just being aware of a whole lot of a range of successive feelings occurring would give them the feeling they were ‘doing actualism’, whilst this ‘awareness’ actually did nothing to change their affective mood.
Which brings me back to the pure intent of which you said –
Kuba: “I think I have got the flavour now, of pure intent, it is exactly as those words describe – “a genuinely occurring stream of benevolence and benignity that originates in the perfect and vast stillness that is the essential character of the infinitude of the universe”. (link)
But promptly after discovering the flavour, which you pointed out was missing in your previous endeavours, you planned to “to take some time off from all things actualist”, which to me does not look like the action of someone who has a firm connection to pure intent. Was it, after all, only of the ‘been-there-done-that-bought-the-T-shirt’ variety?
In other words, when your affective awareness is imbued with the (now-discovered) flavour of pure intent, and becomes a present-time active ongoing connection to pure intent, then nothing can be swept under the carpet. Which means when you are looking for “what leads to change” the first item in the sequence of change is the affective awareness which may well require adjustment. When your aim is to imitate the actual, as experienced in the flavour of pure intent, then your attitude towards being aware of any diminishment in enjoyment and appreciation is equally imbued with a vital interest in getting back to, or increasing, the quality how you felt before the diminishment set in.
Kuba: And there is for sure successes that have come from this venture, for example what Sonya wrote in her journal the other day about the vibes at home, it is really like that now where fundamentally every day we like each other and we get on together. It is the main reason why I simply could not have ‘me’ ‘being’ the stress, as in I could not accept it because I can see what it has the potential to do. But also I think since the talks we had about blame it clicked for both of us, so now there is this (very nice) outcome where we both naturally give each other grace when the other falls off the wagon for a bit. So this elimination of blame for us both was a solid success indeed, and it was not the outcome of rumination or an all or nothing approach, it was something more sincere that did it.
It is a pleasure to read you are both having fun together – can you see how daring (to change) comes from caring? “Giving grace” is rather an ominous choice of words as it includes “showing compassion, extending leniency, offering forgiveness”, whereas when one doesn’t take offence then there is nothing to forgive or offer leniency. I am sure you will be working out those pitfalls in due course – the simple awareness to not blame oneself and/or the other for being a feeling being makes such perfect sense that to “give grace” would not be required once the habit of blaming is eradicated.
Kuba: So I guess the main thing I need to experientially clarify for myself, is what leads to change. You wrote :
Vineeto: “When looking for a causation of an emotional occurrence the trigger and attitudinal cause is much closer than you may have thought/ felt (actualism is *new*, not old as in psychology)”
This is also a good clue, because I do have this tendency to treat it as if it is some psychological case, that is where the rumination and the all or nothing approach comes in. That ‘I’ will observe these feelings and structures and ‘I’ will draw a map of the various past causes etc. But then by the end of it, there is no change! It seems where change typically has happened is where I get sick of going round in circles and just stop. So it is like I get there in the end but with much time wasted.
Ha, I guess you are not aware what Richard wrote of the aims of psychology –
Richard: Mr. Sigmund Freud’s (…) solution: A well-balanced personality is one that can juggle these conflicting demands in a compromise between social responsibility and personal gratification. His result: A troubled personality could, with analysis, be returned to normal. His definition of normal: ‘Common human unhappiness’. [Emphasis added]. (Richard, List B, No. 20b, 25 July 1998)
Respondent: It is a privilege to work in a field that interests oneself.
Richard: Be that as it may … as psychology/ psychiatry has not brought, is not bringing, and will not bring, peace-on-earth, then nothing that a psychological/ psychiatric approach has to offer has, is, or will, be of use/ be of service to a person setting foot on the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom from the human condition. (Richard, AF List, No. 68b, 1 Dec 2004).
A fellow forum-member reported his own experiential finding after having sought some psychological professional help –
Chrono: “everything in the real world is about ‘keeping my head above water’”. (link)
So, psychology is certainly not a feature of the Third Alternative and has no solutions for the disease called the human condition. Heck, they are as convinced as everyone else that ‘you can’t change human nature’.
Kuba: And from what I can see, what leads to change is essentially what you wrote here :
Vineeto: “Can you see that the deciding factor between analysing your past and seeing the fact now is that you have the choice, right now, to actually change – not because you are forced to for moralistic reasons but because you are intelligent and have a benign and benevolent aim in life?”
So essentially this rumination is clutter, and it can be discarded, which means then I do not require some long though-out process to grant me the permission to get back to feeling good or to leave behind some dearly held aspect of ‘me’. (link)
Yes, what you need is the sincere intent, an obsession if you like, to do whatever is necessary to get back to being as felicitous and innocuous as possible – both for your own benefit and that of your fellow human beings.
Cheers Vineeto
3 Likes
Hi Ed,
Neither do I, I only know that it does happen that way.
Your “impression” is correct insofar that one needs to be sensitive regarding pure intent, and being as felicitous and innocuous as possible (because it makes sense) means you are becoming more benevolent and benign, which are exactly the qualities you want to experience when you are looking for pure intent. What Richard said about a PCE applies equally to experiencing pure intent –
Richard: A happy and harmless person has a much better chance of precipitating a PCE … which is the essential pre-requisite for an actual freedom (otherwise this is all theory). It goes without saying, surely, that a grumpy person locks themselves out of being here … now. (Richard, AF List, No. 3, 14 Feb 1999)
Richard: Just this: the more one enjoys and appreciates simply being alive – to the point of excellence being the norm – the greater the likelihood of a PCE happening … a bored, nervous, scared, regretful, and etcetera, person has no chance whatsoever of allowing the magical event, which indubitably shows where everyone has being going awry, to occur.
It really is as straightforward as that. (Richard, AF List, Rick-a, 4 Mar 2006).Richard: In order to facilitate a PCE happening, one needs to see the place pride and humility plays in one’s life. ‘I’ am proud of ‘my’ major achievement … which is maintaining ‘myself’ as an identity. ‘I’ will do anything but relinquish ‘my’ grip on this flesh-and-blood body, including humbling ‘myself’ before some God in order to ameliorate the pernicious effects of pride. However, humility is merely the antidote to pride … and they feed of each other, continuously. For example, one cannot but feel proud of one’s accomplishment of self-abasing humility … it is in the nature of the entity to do so. A humbled self is still a self, nonetheless, leaving one proud of one’s performance. When one realises how silly all this is; when one sees that pride and humility are standing in the way of freedom from all self centred activity, something astounding occurs. ‘I’ vanish. I am simply here where I have always been … and pride, with its companion in arms, humility, has disappeared along with all the other feelings. I am free to be here now in 127 the world as-it-is. Unadorned and unencumbered, I can stand on my own two feet, owing allegiance to no-one. (Richard’s Journal, Article Seventeen, p. 127)
Ed: It also seems like a very rare occurrence on a feeling-being’s journey towards a basic actual freedom. Feeling-being Vineeto only experienced it once(?) or twice? Namely, in the out-from-control dvd and the lead up to becoming basically free. For feeling-being Peter it happened in the lead-up to becoming basically free. But then there is this other gentleman in a different location that also experienced it at the same time as you and Richard – fantastic. Does it rise-and-fall in intensity?
Ha, you just reiterated yourself that “because Devika is no longer manifesting a force-field in the psychic-web protecting all from Richard”, which manifestation ended with her death on 15 Nov 2009. Hence there was not much time to experience the benefit of Richard being pure intent personified before both Peter and myself became actually free. For you to be able to access it, it makes no difference if it happened rarely or was “very rare” but if you are sensitive to it or not. For the pioneers in 2009/2010 it had primarily to do with a near-actual intimacy, as you can see in the “Sweetness” Article.
You yourself spent a whole week in the presence of two fully actually free people and did not experience it once, nor did many others of the visitors. It’s a matter of “allowing it to happen” (not of demanding/ expecting it on some statistical precedence). You can read more in the many answers Richard gave to “How do I Induce a PCE”.
Ed: I’ve read much of what Richard wrote about pure intent as well as what feeling-beings Peter and Vineeto wrote and I notice a difference between the two. Often, what feeling-being Peter and Vineeto wrote makes more sense to me, while what Richard wrote does not. I believe it’s is an experiential issue on my end and I eagerly look forward to the day where I can verify and make sense of what Richard reports. For example:
‘Vineeto’: When you have the intent to become free from your insidious good and bad feelings in order to experience the felicitous feelings each moment again, then the investigation into your beliefs and feelings has a purpose and a direction and as such will show incremental success. Vineeto SC Sincere Intent, Pure Intent
Is more understandable to me than:
Richard: Pure intent is a palpable life-force; an actually occurring stream of benevolence and benignity which originates in the vast and utter stillness that is the essential character of the universe itself. Once set in motion, it is no longer a matter of choice: it is an irresistible pull. (Actual Freedom Library, Pure Intent).
Naturally, what a feeling being has written is more relatable for a feeling being. However, in the quote you gave, ‘Vineeto’ only talked about the sincere intent “to become free from your insidious good and bad feelings” not of experiencing “a palpable life-force; an actually occurring stream of benevolence and benignity”. It is indeed “an experiential issue”.
Ed: Though I can relate to the irresistible pull, I cannot detect a stream of benevolence.
Thanks for your continued responses and also thank you, Kuba, for putting yourself out there. These exchanges have lead to some exceptional pointers. I had a good chuckle at your comment about taking a break from actualism because in my experience such an attitude does not last very long. It is like Richard says:Richard: Once launched it is impossible to turn back and resume one’s normal life … one has to be absolutely sure that this is what one truly wants.
(link)
It’s good to hear you experience an “irresistible pull”, what I once called the “Fatal Attraction Syndrome” (see link) with someone who fervently fought against this “irresistible pull”. ‘Peter’ once said “it becomes an obsession” (link) and ‘Vineeto’ was definitely irrevocably hocked once ‘she’ had ‘her’ first PCE. It’s the most intelligent response when finding and recognizing something so incomparably superior to life in the real world.
Make good use of this “relating to the irresistible pull” – because being vitally interested in becoming actually free from the human condition is a necessary ingredient for success.
Cheers Vineeto
1 Like
Very good point, I did not clock that when I was writing.
I will be well forewarned should any fatal attraction syndrome develop. It is sobering that people who have had significant success with actualism found themselves in this situation.
2 Likes
Hi Ed,
This particular example was an unfortunate occurrence and can serve as a warning because as far as I know, this particular respondent has not (yet) changed their mind. When we coined the term it was meant as a jocular nudge for them to come to their senses because when one dares to experience an irresistible pull and follow it through, it will be fatal for ‘me’ and liberating for this particular flesh-and-blood body. There is nothing wrong with being fatally attracted to an actual freedom – everyone who succeeded in becoming actually free was, in fact, fatally attracted.
Also, you may have overlooked what I said afterwards, to “make good use of this “relating to the irresistible pull” – because being vitally interested in becoming actually free from the human condition is a necessary ingredient for success”. Any lukewarm dabbling in actualism will only result in a lukewarm outcome.
Cheers Vineeto
2 Likes
Indeed and I did not get that impression. I understood you to be describing two different things: the fatal attraction itself, and the fatal attraction syndrome which is an identity’s reaction of repulsion to said fatal attraction. Am I comprehending properly?
I have come to appreciate this fatal attraction and its persistence. It took some time and some more ingredients (developing sincerity) but it has allowed me to stop pushing myself - something which if left up to me I doubt I’d be able to maintain. (As well as taint by doing things my way). That pushing would make the actualism method unenjoyable and would lead to all sorts of internal complaints akin to, “the actualism method is too hard” or “I can’t do this,” etc.
One thing I’ve never attempted to do is repress it, as I’ve always seen it as helpful. But I also consider that there may still be unexpected holdouts that could pop up and replace that enticement with alarm. Or perhaps not. I will be pleased to meet any unexpected hold outs sensibly, rather than nurture their apparent reality.
Thank you, I intend to.
It is now 2026, and I have been at this for 7 years. There has not been a single day where I didn’t think about actualism/peace on earth in that time. With an affective awareness up-and-running it segued into a moment-to-moment participation - as in, I’m not just going to think about it, I will also do something about it. Its my over-arching life goal. I am so glad to have had the website as I could not have done this on my own, and there is still more to come!
4 Likes
Hi Ed,
I would not put too much weight on the term ‘syndrome’ as it was something that afflicted the first pioneers before the Direct Route was opened by Peter, so there may well be no reason to give the expression of ‘fatal attraction’ a scary connotation. The post to No. 4(List D) I linked to, the “FAS” was a bit of black humour, indicating that I could understand their dilemma because ‘Vineeto’ had had a comparable experience.
Richard used the expression “fatal attraction” only once on the AF list and once on List D (then it was copied as a quote into various correspondence), referring to the quality of ‘his’ pure intent required to succeed. Viz.:
Richard: Incidentally, just before/ just as the PCE starts to wear off, if one unravels (metaphorically) a ‘golden thread’ or ‘clew’, as one is slipping back into the real-world, *an intimate connection is thus established betwixt the pristine-purity of an actual innocence and the near-purity of the sincerity of naiveté*.
At least, that is the way it worked for the identity inhabiting this flesh-and-blood body, all those years ago, inasmuch ‘his’ recall of PCE’s was a naïve remembrance [i.e., rememoration (link) & presentiation (link); see Message № 19775, (Richard, List D, No. 32a, 19 Jun 2015) for context], rather than a cognitive memory, and ‘he’ thus experienced a constant pull, each moment again, into the immaculate perfection of the actual world … and thus away from the contaminated imperfection of the real-world.
Being a ‘fatal attraction’, so to speak, it rendered the entire process virtually effortless”. [emphasis added]. (Richard, List D, No. 13, 21 May 2009)
Ed: I have come to appreciate this fatal attraction and its persistence. It took some time and some more ingredients (developing sincerity) but it has allowed me to stop pushing myself – something which if left up to me I doubt I’d be able to maintain. (As well as taint by doing things my way). That pushing would make the actualism method unenjoyable and would lead to all sorts of internal complaints akin to, “the actualism method is too hard” or “I can’t do this”, etc.
One thing I’ve never attempted to do is repress it, as I’ve always seen it as helpful. But I also consider that there may still be unexpected holdouts that could pop up and replace that enticement with alarm. Or perhaps not. I will be pleased to meet any unexpected hold outs sensibly, rather than nurture their apparent reality.
It is indeed one of the most common obstacles and “hold outs” to get the actualism method up-and-running that one overlooks the term “entirely new” and automatically interprets Richard’s reports and explanations into the familiar parameters of the human condition in general and one’s previous practices and experiences in particular. Hence cleaning the workbench and starting afresh is the most effective way of avoiding misunderstandings and getting swift results.
After you understand that the whole actualism process is about diminishing the ‘self’ – both ‘I’ and ‘me’, controller and soul, good and bad feelings – and that enjoyment and appreciation is the successful way to do that, then you can more easily recognize (and decline) where and why ‘I’ cunningly step in to sabotage the endeavour. Then complaints such as “the actualism method is too hard” or “I can’t do this” are part of the same attempted sabotage and can be explored intelligently.
It’s helpful to remember that ‘I’ am a lost, lonely, frightened and very, very cunning entity and will invent and engender any trick to prevent one diminishing the scope of ‘my’ dominion. For ‘Vineeto’ it became more and more like a fascinating puzzle or mystery-solving game to discover and dismantle ‘her’ tricks, lies and furphies, which were preventing ‘her’ from feeling (unconditionally) good. Like a chess-game of intelligence vs. human nature.
-
Vineeto: Also, you may have overlooked what I said afterwards, to “make good use of this “relating to the irresistible pull” – because being vitally interested in becoming actually free from the human condition is a necessary ingredient for success”. Any lukewarm dabbling in actualism will only result in a lukewarm outcome.
Ed: Thank you, I intend to.
It is now 2026, and I have been at this for 7 years. There has not been a single day where I didn’t think about actualism/ peace on earth in that time.
I do remember (if I may mention it) your hesitation in the early stages to come down to earth and not only “think about actualism”. One could call it the gestation period.
Ed: With an affective awareness up-and-running it segued into a moment-to-moment participation – as in, I’m not just going to think about it, I will also do something about it.
Your description reads as if “an affective awareness up-and-running” did not yet include “participation”. Just to head a possible misunderstanding at the pass, the actualist affective awareness, which Richard emphasises wherever he explains the actualism method, is far more than sitting on the sidelines watching one’s thoughts and emotions go by – the affective awareness is employed for the sole purpose of taking action whenever one’s mood dips below feeling good and needs attention. I posted something on this very topic a few days ago (Kuba14, 4 June 2026).
With most people having had some previous experience in various forms of buddhistic practice it may well be of use to clear any remnants of one’s ‘workbench’ to freshly understand the actualist usage of affective awareness –
Richard: The more one enjoys and appreciates being just here right now – to the point of excellence being the norm – the greater the likelihood of a PCE happening … a grim and/or glum person has no chance whatsoever of allowing the magical event, which indubitably shows where everyone has being going awry, to occur. Plus any analysing and/or psychologising and/or philosophising whilst one is in the grip of debilitating feelings usually does not achieve much (other than spiralling around and around in varying degrees of despair and despondency or whatever) anyway[1].
The wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom from the human condition is marked by enjoyment and appreciation – the sheer delight of being as happy and harmless as is humanly possible whilst remaining a ‘self’ – and the slightest diminishment of such felicity/ innocuity is a warning signal (a flashing red light as it were) that one has inadvertently wandered off the way. (Richard, Articles, This Moment of Being Alive)
Footnote:
[1]What the identity inhabiting this flesh and blood body all those years ago would do is first get back to feeling good and then, and only then, suss out where, when, how, why – and what for – feeling bad happened as experience had shown ‘him’ that it was counter-productive to do otherwise.
What ‘he’ always did however, as it was often tempting to just get on with life then, was to examine what it was all about within half-an-hour of getting back to feeling good (while the memory was still fresh) even if it meant sometimes falling back into feeling bad by doing so … else it would crop up again sooner or later.
Nothing, but nothing, can be swept under the carpet. (Richard, AF List, No. 68c, 31 May 2005).
Can you see how the very activity of affective awareness includes your active participation else it be a variation on the ‘noting’ technique of buddhistic flavour? I highly recommend Richard’s above quoted article for repeated reading, with particular attention to the multiple explanatory tooltips.
Ed: It’s my over-arching life goal. I am so glad to have had the website as I could not have done this on my own, and there is still more to come! (link)
I appreciate you can recognize this and fully agree – ‘Vineeto’ knew full well ‘she’ couldn’t have done it on ‘her’ own either. Fascinatingly enough, whenever ‘she’ read Richard’s writing again, ‘she’ discovered more and more of what had previously been overlooked, misunderstood or forgotten. Even today, when I read the mailing list archives for the pleasure it is, I am marvelling at the level of masterly skill, detail, clarity and scope of comprehensive perception.
As you say, there is still lots more to come and it gets more and more fun along the way.
Cheers Vineeto
1 Like