Certain times I realize something, but may not have fully actualized it, but I’ll still go ahead and reveal such things to people sincerely…although mostly people will not buy such things if I’m not living that realization…so yes - criticism is very much possible…
A somewhat perfect case in example of such criticism I experienced few weeks back :
I was telling this friend about Actualism and PCE…to which she tells me to first achieve that final thing and then tell her about it because she thought its sounding impossible…she thought that Richard was a unique quirk of nature and it may not be possible for everyone
“He may be. But this is not about you either get a trophy that Richard got or you get a big zero. Your sincerity will be rewarded incrementally and increasingly more. That incremental reward is not a quirk for I am a proof to myself.”
MARK**:** I was ‘putting under the microscope’ yesterday my previous attempts (and their seeming importance at the time) at discovering the ‘meaning of life’ and upon reflection of my most memorable PCE I saw that the only meaning was simply that it (life, the universe and everything) is happening and the ensuing wonder at its glorious perpetuity was in fact, its meaning, no more or less.
RICHARD: Yes, the put-down of the universe goes on ad nauseam, wherever one travels throughout the world. This universe is so enormous in size – infinity being as enormous as it can get – and so immense in its scope – eternity being as immense as it can get – how on earth could anyone believe for a minute that it is all here for humans to be forever miserable in? It is foolishness of the highest order to believe it to be so … one can have confidence in a universe so grandly complex, so marvellously intricate, so wonderfully excellent. How could all this be some ‘ghastly mistake’? To believe it all to be some ‘sick joke’ is preposterous, for such an attitude cuts one off from the perfection of this pure moment of being alive here in this fantastic actual universe. When one takes one’s mental ability back from the decrees of the real world – to which one has surrendered – one has taken a courageous step. For here in the actual, this miraculous world as-it-is, is the secret to life. Here lies a healthy mind, for here only sagacity exists. Living here, where perfection and purity abounds, one experiences what is precious in living itself. Something beyond compare.
Something more valuable than any ‘King’s ransom’. It is not rare gemstones; it is not singular works of art; it is not the much-prized bags of money; it is not the treasured loving relationships; it is not the highly esteemed blissful states of ‘Being’ … it is not any of these things usually considered precious. Here is something ultimately precious. It is the essential character of the infinitude of the universe … which is the life-giving foundation of all that is apparent. The limpid and lucid perfection and purity of being here now, as-I-am, is akin to the crystalline perfection and purity seen in a dew-drop hanging from the tip of a leaf in the early-morning sunshine; the sunrise strikes the transparent dew-drop with its warming rays, highlighting the flawless correctness of the tear-drop shape with its bellied form. One is left almost breathless with wonder at the immaculate simplicity so exemplified.
When one lives the magical perfection of this purity twenty-four-hours-a-day; when one has ceased being ‘me’ and is being what one genuinely is, one directly experiences that there is no separation from this something which is precious. The purity of life emerges from the perfection that wells up constantly due to a boundless stillness which is utterly immeasurable in its scope and magnitude. This stillness of infinitude is this something which is precious. It is the life-giving foundation of all that is apparent. This stillness happens as me. This stillness is my essential disposition, for it is the principle character, the intrinsic basis of everything. It is life at its genesis. It is not, as it might commonly be supposed, at the centre of everything … there is no centre here. This stillness, which is everywhere all at once, is the be all and end all of life itself. I am the universe experiencing itself as a sensate, reflective human being.
Apart from a belated thank you for your ‘welcome back’ message there is not much else to say so I will attend to your current request for elaboration on going about deliberately setting out to induce a PCE via giving oneself completely to one’s partner – totally and utterly – during sexual congress. As you have inadvertently snipped off a vital component I will re-quote the relevant section here in full for convenience:
• [Richard]: ‘Accordingly, I deliberately set out to induce a PCE via giving myself completely to her – totally and utterly – whilst hovering indefinitely on that orgastic plateau which precedes an orgasm (something which I had discovered whilst pubescent)’.
It was only a few years ago that I found out that what I had discovered for myself, during an intensive masturbatory period from pubescence (12 years old) to my first wedding night (19 years old), had both names and descriptions … to wit (unromantic) titles such as ‘edging’, ‘coitus reservatus’, ‘orgasmic brinkmanship’, ‘peaking’, ‘surfing’ (and even ‘male continence’ and ‘coitus sine ejaculatione seminis’).
Here are a couple of examples: Entertainment; http://tinyurl.com/sexual-edging (Incidentally, once I had regular access to the real thing – a willing hetero-sexual partner as randy as myself – that mono-sexual practice discovered while pubescent, being devoid as it is of intimacy with a fellow human being, rapidly faded away into a vague memory where it languished unrecalled, for around 14 years, until being resurrected for the purpose of giving myself completely, totally and utterly to my first wife).
Now, to explain hovering indefinitely on that orgastic plateau which precedes an orgasm it may be of assistance to present it graphically: as an orgasm requires building up to a peak of sexual excitation, before tipping over the other side for a glorious slide down the slope on that other side of the mountain, it can be represented by an upside down ‘V’.
As the aim is to prolong that exquisite moment prior to tipping over the other side it requires a slight pulling-back downwards, of sexual excitation when an orgasm is imminent; within seconds, once the sexual excitation stabilises, it can be intensified once more; again, upon an orgasm being imminent, another slight pulling-back downwards, of sexual excitation is required; and once that sexual excitation stabilises, it too can be intensified once more … and so on and so on and so on. What will happen, upon much delicious practice – ain’t life grand! – is that the slight pulling-back downwards, of sexual excitation when the orgasm is once again imminent, becomes both easier and easier and less and less downwards; eventually there can be an easing back-and-forth, at the moment just prior to the orgasm’s imminence, along an ever-increasingly lengthening plateau at the peak; this can be represented by that upside down ‘V’ having a flat-line where there was once only an apex.
Again with much delicious practice – my word life is indeed grand! – that flat-line peak can be lengthened indefinitely as the need to pull-back downwards decreases with experience; eventually there is the aforementioned hovering indefinitely on that orgastic plateau which precedes an orgasm with but the slightest increase/ decrease in sexual excitation; at this stage the upside down ‘V’ with the flat-line plateau – where there was once only an apex – can be representative by that flat-line plateau disappearing off either side of this page (with no sloping sides at either end to represent the slope both up to and down from that indefinitely prolonged peaking plateau).
Please note that this disappearance of the slopes is vital as the aim is for there to be only that plateau and neither climbing up nor sliding down ever happens; there is only the hovering indefinitely on that orgastic plateau when all else drops away. Once this is established the sex takes care of itself and full attention can be paid to intimacy; with much delicious practice – oh how grand life is! – the attainment of that endlessly orgastic plateau can be obtained within 60-90 seconds after penile penetration (provided there be sufficient sexual stimulation just prior such as the oh-so-delicious soixante-neuf[](javascript:void(0)) – which perfect arrangement of face-to-genital distancing almost makes one think those credulous persons believing in an ‘Intelligent Designer’ may have a point after all – as there cannot possibly be a more delightful way to prepare for hours of orgastic hovering whilst intimacy unfolds in all its luscious wonder).
Now, the way to have intimacy unfold, in all its luscious wonder, is to be aware all the while (with that unique human ability to be conscious of being sentient) that your sexual partner likes being with you so much that they are willing to spend their most valuable asset – their time – not only being with you but having you inside them/ having them inside you (dependent upon gender) for this most physically intimate way of associating possible.
In other words one is always aware, with that second-level awareness, all the while primary consciousness is sexually engrossed, just how precious this opportunity is as – out of all 3.0 billion women/ out of all 3.0 billion men (dependent upon gender) – this fellow human being has chosen you, and only you, to be so intimately entwined with. In short: having sex/ being intimate with her/ with him (dependent upon gender) is very special – so special as to be precious – and this very preciosity readily enables giving oneself completely to one’s partner – totally and utterly – during sexual congress.
All this while the hands, fingers, lips, tongue and eyes can roam all about with much delicious kissing, nibbling, nuzzling, fondling, smelling, listening, tasting, touching, looking and all the rest which such a physical embrace, such physical proximity so exquisitely provides for; the neck below the ear- lobe, for instance, is an especial delight and to eventually indulge in never-ending open-mouthed kissing – at the heights of sexual arousal – is to be breathing each other’s breath in a most personal way of gradually depriving the brain of oxygen as to even further increase both arousal and intimate contact (togetherness, closeness, sweetness, richness, actuality).
(Meanwhile, back at the sex taking care of itself, that hovering indefinitely on the orgastic plateau has catapulted one into what I chose to call a sexual world: another dimension, as it were, where sex and sexuality is virtually dripping off the walls; a sexual dimension where all you are is an enormous penis/ an enormous vagina (dependent upon gender) which has grown legs and feet to walk to food and drink sources to sustain itself/ yourself, and arms and hands to assist in that process, so as to have yet more and more of what it/ you is/ are here for at this particular moment (endless effortless sexual congress); a rampant sexual dimension where all other people and things have receded into the background; a dripping-with- sex-and-sexuality dimension where there is only this beginningless and endless moment where you both cannot ever possibly have enough of each other; a consummately durationless moment where all there is is you and her/ you and him (dependent upon gender) hovering on that endlessly orgastic plateau of supreme sexuality and intimacy).
And then … !Hey Presto! … no separation whatsoever.
Regards, Richard.
Might write a journal article about sex soon, not that I have pulled off what Richard is talking about here. Sex has played a major role for me in the past couple weeks. But the most recent thing that happened was a moment of pulling back from intimacy through fear, and I am hoping to sort that out soon.
"The more you feel good the more feeling good happens; the more feeling good happens the better you feel; the better you feel the more feeling better gets … and so on and so on … gradually increasing ever-incrementally until one day you can get to the stage the identity in residence all those years ago got to where ‘he’ would say how ‘he’ had to invent a new word (‘bester’) because how on earth could best keep on getting better.
"…although it is hypothetically correct that the elimination of the instinctual passions would be the elimination of ‘I’/‘me’, it does not work that way in practice (for reasons such as already explained further above).
Not only is it dangerous it is an impossibility … only altruistic ‘self’-immolation will do the trick.
Which is why I advise minimising both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ feelings and maximising the felicitous feelings – as far as humanly possible – as a salubrious modus operandi in the meanwhile rather than trying to eliminate them. Not only does this approach have the immediate benefit of feeling happy and harmless as one goes about one’s normal everyday life but it has the ultimate benefit of assisting in the rewiring of the brain’s habitual circuitry before the once-in-a-lifetime event happens which wipes out the identity in toto."
"as a generalisation only, women tend to place more emphasis on intimacy than men.
…
Yet they are deathly afraid of intimacy – the fear of intimacy is a subject most women have talked to me about – for it means loss of self.
And therein lies the rub: the survival instincts can kick in big-time, especially during sexual congress, and the very opposite of the longed-for intimacy takes place (as in pulling-back, turning-away, closing-off, shutting-down, and so on).
As peculiar as it may sound, on a purely intellectual level, the very thing peoples most want is the very thing they most fear. When their very survival (as an identity) is at stake all manner of weird behaviour can take place – to the point of utter bizarrerie – as is readily evidenced in the archived correspondence on The Actual Freedom Trust website.
I have said before, and will say it again, how actualism is not for the faint of heart or the weak at knee as it requires nerves of steel to delve the stygian depths of the human psyche.
Put briefly: unless or until such a woman comes into my purview being single, in this respect, will remain my ongoing status."
(November 2009 - a month before Peter & Vineeto became free. Speaking of which, 2 days ago was the anniversary of Vineeto’s freedom)
“The seeing that it is this moment of being alive automatically makes ‘me’ feel felicitous feelings. It was also this approach that Richard responded to saying that it delineated the difference between caused and un-caused enjoyment. Further to that, it has been my experience that if you consistently stay with that seeing (which can also potentially devolve into “living in the present” if no attentiveness is applied) then a PCE will inevitably occur.”
VINEETO to No 16: When I look back to see what it was that gave me the first glimpses of the actual world as opposed to my only-known world of thoughts and feelings, I can say that it was a repetitious reading of Richard’s journal, extensive discussions with Peter to find out what his words actually mean and the desire to find out exactly what it was different to the spiritual teaching that I knew. I was looking for the difference, not for any seeming similarity. I was not satisfied with the outcome of my spiritual search, I was looking for something that worked – and Richard obviously had discovered something that worked.
Funny this actually because the common response from people coming across actualism is trying to fit it into the already existing philosophical or spiritual belief systems whereas Vineeto was focused on the opposite.
I always thought the same, especially when the 180 degrees opposite statement is constantly emphasised, for good reason of course.
I was so thrilled to throw the spiritual stuff in the bin, it had never sat comfortably for me. I remember the first days I found the AFT, I was chortling… “A new way to live life on this verdant planet has been discovered which eliminates the need to humble oneself in a degrading surrender and servitude to some imagined deity.” Yesssss lol
Probably because of my atheistic background before I got into buddhism etc.
Some of the criticisms of psychology & theoretical physics have taken longer to be ok with
RESPONDENT:Very interesting. Okay, so much for the theory. Give me some nuts and bolts. How do I do this while eating a hamburger?
RICHARD: By appreciating the fact that, at this moment of biting into this hamburger, this is the only moment that I am actually alive. All past ‘me’s and all future ‘me’s have no actuality at all. I am only ever here, now. Likewise, all past hamburgers and all future hamburgers do not exist at this moment … they are either memory or expectation and have no substantial existence. Of all the hamburgers I have ever eaten or will ever eat, only this one actually exists. This hamburger and I – and all that is around and about me at this moment – are it what we are living for. To experience this moment in time and this place in space fully is the whole point of existence. I am the universe experiencing itself as a sensate, reflective human being … and I am biting into a hamburger.
MARTIN:If I try to be happy now, my instinctual energy wants some stimulation as it operates with a sense of going somewhere. I sort of think ‘well I could be happy now, but what then – just sit here like a lemon?’ (that ‘wanting something more’ or ‘there must be more to life than this’ comes into play even in regards to the actualism method itself!).
RICHARD: Well, of course … after all, the ultimate aim of the actualism method is to uncover, for oneself, the ‘secret to life’, or the ‘riddle of existence’, or the ‘purpose of the universe’, or the ‘meaning of life’, or whatever one’s quest may be called.
The rest of Richard’s response to that respondent contains some more excellent bits, I think.
[continued from the “hamburger” quote above; abridged]:
The taste buds on the tongue are relishing the explosion of sensation . . . the fingertips are enjoying the touch of the texture of this hamburger . . . all this and more – the awareness of all this happening – is me at-this-moment.
I do not exist over time or from place to place. . . . Any ‘I’ that appears to have a duration is a psychological entity . . . which in no way is substantive. . . . I do not exist over time; I exist only as this moment exists, and now has no duration. Everything is immediate and direct. This is apperception. Apperception is when the immediate is experienced as the ultimate.
Time has no duration when the immediate is the ultimate and the relative is the absolute. This moment takes no interval at all to be here now. Thus it appears that it is as if nothing has occurred, for not only is the future not here, but the past does not exist either. . . . There are things happening, but nothing has happened or will happen … or so it seems.
. . . .
Apperception – which is the mind’s perception of itself – reveals that this moment is hanging in eternal time … just as this planet is hanging in infinite space. This moment and this place are in the realm of the infinitude of this actual physical universe. This physical universe is infinite and eternal. It has no beginning and no ending … and therefore no middle. There are no edges to this universe, which means that there is no centre, either. We are all coming from nowhere and are not going anywhere for there is nowhere to come from nor anywhere to go to. We are nowhere in particular … which means we are anywhere at all. In the infinitude of the universe one finds oneself to be already here, and as it is always now, one can not get away from this place in space and this moment in time.
. . . .
This moment is perennial, not timeless. . . . It is the universe that is eternal … not me.
. . . .
To be an entity is to be forever locked-out of eternal time. Complete security lies inside eternal time. ‘I’ will never look into eternal time . . . ‘I’ am driven to spin dreams and illusions because ‘I’ refuse to see what lies here on earth . . . . I can never be out of time, nor anywhere but here.
Little do people realise that what they are looking for lies just under their nose; the actuality of peace-on-earth is no further away than instantaneously now in time and properly here on this planet in space.
. . . .
Mortality is a fact and if one is to be at all exact, one must stick to the facts. . . . Mortality is essential in order to be here, in time. . . . Perennial happiness is only possible because of death and extinction. This physical universe is perfect to the nth degree and I would not presume to change one little bit of it. To live with the fact is to live completely. Nothing is missing, nothing has ever been missing, nor ever will be missing. Life is already complete. [my favorite bit]
I regard death with equanimity; when it happens I will welcome it as I do the oblivion of deep sleep each night. Like sleep, it is an agreeable actual occurrence.
To be the senses as a bare awareness is apperception, a pure consciousness experience of the world as-it-is. Because there is no ‘I’ as an observer . . . to have sensations, I am the sensations. There is nothing except the series of sensations which happen … not to ‘me’ but just happening.
. . . .
Consequently, I am living in peace and tranquillity . . . . the reason for existence lies openly all around. . . . It never goes away – nor has it ever been away. ‘I’ was standing in the way of meaning. I am completely happy to be here, securely inside time and space, eating this hamburger.
This is such a striking thing. Awareness is the most fundamental experience. What am I? I am awareness. Only awareness. Only consciousness. Purely consciousness.
The universe generates this consciousness at this moment in time. It is a product of time. It is never out of time. Consciousness is securely in time.
I am completely happy to be here, securely inside time and space, eating this hamburger.
Consciousness is really all you are, Richard? Pure consciousness. You are a such a wonder.
As consciousness, you are of time and of this universe. The universe made you; made consciousness. Where do you begin and end?
Consciousness is limitless.
Richard (2002): The apperceptive brain in action in the human skull is a ‘self’-less consciousness … as such is an unlimited consciousness. Mailing List ‘AF’ Respondent No. 3
Consciousness is boundless.
Richard (2005): An apperceptive consciousness . . . has no boundaries as it is the centre of normal consciousness (identity) which creates same. Mailing List ‘AF’ Respondent No. 25
You are boundless. So you are right here.
Richard (1998): An insight into the infinite and eternal character of this universe and the implications of that in regards to one’s situation in the scheme of things can indeed set something profound in motion. Speaking personally, I have no boundaries. Mailing List 'B' Respondent No. 12
The universe experiences itself. Which is to say, the universe is conscience of itself. Which is to say, infinitude is conscious of its infinitude.
The absolute knows it is absolute.
I am the universe experiencing itself as a sensate, reflective human being … and I am biting into a hamburger.
Where does consciousness begin, where does it end?
Begins at birth and ends at death here’s my line. I guess this is kinda important to bear in mind because consciousness is not so much a property of the universe as it is a function that this universe is able to manifest, so consciousness itself does have a beginning and end, whereas the universe itself does not. Perhaps it is that the scope of consciousness is boundless and as pure consciousness ‘casts no shadow’ it could be equally said that consciousness is boundless, although I am not sure if this is the best way of putting this across for practical purposes.
](javascript:void(0)) – which perfect arrangement of face-to-genital distancing almost makes one think those credulous persons believing in an ‘Intelligent Designer’ may have a point after all – as there cannot possibly be a more delightful way to prepare for hours of orgastic hovering whilst intimacy unfolds in all its luscious wonder).
here’s my line. I guess this is kinda important to bear in mind because consciousness is not so much a property of the universe as it is a function that this universe is able to manifest, so consciousness itself does have a beginning and end, whereas the universe itself does not. Perhaps it is that the scope of consciousness is boundless and as pure consciousness ‘casts no shadow’ it could be equally said that consciousness is boundless, although I am not sure if this is the best way of putting this across for practical purposes.