Please note that Vineeto’s correspondence below was written by the actually free Vineeto
(List D refers to Richard’s List D and his Respondent Numbers) Vineeto’s Selected Correspondence Authority December 13 2024 IAN: So now I can sense my self as a being, sometimes being a son, or being an employee, as in those ways of being occasionally come to the fore and my mood changes and i start thinking and imagining in the way of that being, and recognise that I am being this or that and decide to not go down those roads and come back to enjoying and appreciating instead … increasingly easily… so where in the past I may have been responding or reacting as a son, maybe a frustrated son or a worried son, and wanting to be a good son or a different kind of son, now I can more easily stop being a son and instead I carry on enjoying the moment as it is … this is a different way of being … not sure if it aligns with the in control different way of being but different than normal, right angles different. VINEETO: Hi Ian, This is such an enjoyable description. Now you are beginning to discover aspects of your social identity – a son, an employee and possibly others. And naïvely paying attention to the attributes of these aspects of identity you have the choice to decline those aspects and eventually allow them to wither so that you not only can continue to enjoy and appreciate being here but naïvely marvel in wide-eyed wonder at the magnificence of the physical world around you. This is still the same way of being even though much more enjoyable than before with less moods and triggers to diminish your enjoyment. As I wrote here (Actualism, Actualvineeto, JesusCarlos, 6 November 2024) a few weeks ago – It is so much fun to discover and allow naiveté, to be like a child again (with adult sensibilities) and to more be like what you are rather than what (internalized) other people want you to be. I have it on good authority that remembering to be naïve can/will boost your baseline of feeling good to feeling excellent. It’s the opposite of stressing, telling yourself off or pushing hard – it’s being playful, liking yourself and others and enjoying and appreciation being here without any cause or condition, just enjoying being alive. Have a look at Richard’s description where this being naïve can lead to – (Richard, A Quaint Clay-Pit Tale). Cheers Vineeto January 23 2025 CHRONO: I also had some insight into authority. I’ve been seeing that very clearly that no one has any idea what they are doing in regards to living happily and harmlessly. I had been reading up on social identity and saw that there’s a semblance of peace in the world but not actual peace. No one was acknowledging the root cause of why there has not been any peace in the world. They are doing anything but addressing it (the same as I had been). So there is a widespread insincerity. Everyone is playing pretend and I also had internalized this and pretended like everyone else. By choosing to feel good irregardless of circumstances, I sometimes feel I am standing up to all of Humanity. How dare I feel good while the world suffers (or something like that)? Yet I feel more authentic when I am feeling good than at any other time. It’s the doubt casted by my internalizing of Humanity’s many ways of being that pull me back every time. By choosing to be how Humanity is, I give up being authentic. Now I see all of this is because Humanity has not actually addressed the root cause of there not being any peace. VINEETO: It’s excellent that you more and more recognize the insincerity in ‘humanity’s’ morals and ethics because that will let you it shrug off more easily when you feel that ‘humanity’ is shaking its finger at you. There really is no such thing as humanity, it is a collectively felt phantom – there are only flesh-and-blood human beings (albeit all subject to instinctual passions and the identity formed thereof). As such the feeling that humanity is pulling you back is felt as real (as in you should obey the moral and ethical rules) but it is not actual. “Humanity has not actually addressed the root cause of there not being any peace” because it cannot – only individuals humans can do that – and it is delicious to slip out from under ‘humanity’s’ internalized yoke and devote one’s life to something really worth-while that can result in the perfection of actuality becoming apparent. CHRONO: So I had a unique experience after that. Unique because I had not experienced something like it before. So seeing as how Humanity does not know what it is doing, were there any real rules? Could I just become actually free if I wanted to? I had been contemplating this at home and then when I was at work as well. It was a particularly slow day at work so I just reflected on it more. As I was feeling somewhere between neutral to good at the time, I thought of this moment and how it has been this moment this whole time. I became aware of a ‘bigness’ or immensity. Not quite sure of how else to describe it. It grew and it was as if my awareness was drifting into outer space without any central focus. My normal way of being I’d describe as ‘indolent’ in the sense of I stayed the same fundamentally. But now I was electrified, invigorated, and exhilarated. It felt like something was performing surgery in my head. As awareness ‘grew’, I saw all of ‘me’ as a point and felt the sensation of it at my navel area. It reminded me of the ‘pale blue dot’. Except all of me was this pale blue dot. I felt all of sorrow and was on the verge of tears but the tears would not come. I’m not quite sure why after that, but I came back down to earth. I was back to normal and felt kind of frustrated after that. I felt frustrated that I couldn’t allow it to proceed further. The following days I allowed myself to slip below neutral. Then I once again gathered sufficient intent to feel good again. […] VINEETO: To me it sounds like a description of having made a connection with pure intent. The contrast to being normal can be quite overwhelming so your pulling back is a natural reaction. Let this awareness grow again via fascinated attention and reflective contemplation all the way to apperceptive awareness. Richard: Apperceptive awareness can be evoked by paying exclusive attention to being fully alive right now. This moment is your only moment of being alive … one is never alive at any other time than now. And, wherever you are, one is always here … even if you start walking over to ‘there’, along the way to ‘there’ you are always here … and when you arrive ‘there’, it too is here. Thus attention becomes a fascination with the fact that one is always here … and it is already now. Fascination leads to reflective contemplation. As one is already here, and it is always now … then one has arrived before one starts. The potent combination of attention, fascination, reflection and contemplation produces apperception, which happens when the mind becomes aware of itself. (Library, Topics, Apperception) What an exciting adventure it is to be on the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom. I really enjoyed your whole report. Cheers Vineeto April 10 2025 CHRONO: It feels more like I am now standing a little more outside that edifice of doubt. When I visited my parents again with all of this in mind, they no longer had the same effect on me. It became clear that they were the first authority from which the edifice of authority was built on. I could clearly see how they were operating and that they were operating the same way. Trying to instil the same fears in me, but this time it seemed just flat out silly. I knew these fears were of no substance. What a relief! This is like a breakthrough for me. VINEETO: While parents were the first authority for you – as for most children – it’s helpful to keep in mind that the situation was the same for your parents, and for their parents, and so on. This means that nobody is to blame for the mess one finds oneself in, and by taking the blame away, doubt will disappear as well because you realize that nobody is the ultimate authority – no one or no thing is in charge of the universe ... that there is no ‘Ultimate Authority’. It might be a shock at the start but realizing this fact is incredibly liberating. It puts you in charge of your own life … and your freedom (and your happiness and harmlessness) is in your hands alone. CHRONO: So to continue from where I left off, I can now see an alternative path from my usual modus operandi of how I interact with my partner and with others. A highlight being an alternative path from the road of sexual desire. A soft intimacy which was blocked due to the belief that I will be alone if I did not continue down the path placed before me by Humanity. A path supported with the belief in a ‘man’ and how that identity should be with his partner (a ‘woman’) and to society. Now it’s starting to become easier. I had the thoughts after my pure intent experience before like there’s ‘no way that this is possible’. Now it seems possible! VINEETO: You will find, when you dare to continue to live it more and more, that both naiveté and intimacy are contagious and enticing for those sensitive to it. The authority you used to believe in and obey is the same authority which set the rules for “the belief in a ‘man’ and how that identity should be with his partner (a ‘woman’) and to society”. This authority no longer has the full credibility now as it used to have for you, and with pure intent guiding you, you can explore in which way a male and a female human being can most beneficially interact with each other in a win-win interaction of two fellow human beings. Cheers Vineeto VINEETO: Yesterday I watched the ‘Virtual Freedom’ video again and Peter reminded me of something I had almost forgotten – how hard it was at first to allow himself to be happy and harmless. What was one of the two main objections that he would have to go against the whole thrust of human ‘wisdom’, that one is not allowed to be happy. (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Chrono, 28 June 2025). IAN: Exactly – this was the force field I encountered when choosing to be happy rather than stressed (translated as the feeling of authority); how dare I? I dare… The key was seeing that I am the feeling of authority, of the rule of allowance/ prohibition, it is internal and ‘me’ as much as the one who wished to be happy… VINEETO: That is a very good description! I said something similar to Chrono today, it is not only ‘out there’ how others want you to be, it all inside as well, internalised morals and ethics and principles. That means ‘I’ am my own slave-driver – and recognizing gives you autonomy and the power to change. Your freedom is in your hands and your hands alone – and who would want it any other way? Good hey. Cheers Vineeto June 29 2025 IAN: Hi Vineeto Yes fantastic really and so opposite to the old ways… There’s still a lot of seemingly important but actually silly inertia to being serious, so I can’t say that I am completely free of seriousness, but I’m certainly having more fun by incrementally allowing myself to have more fun and care more, and when I do, I get more confident (even though I already know, it’s that incremental experiential confirmation) that nothing is going wrong. Thought I am wobbly at times, and do get sucked temporarily into these plugholes of normalcy – but it’s all the more interesting to be more and more in tune with what’s happening in my psyche. It’s great to increasingly see those who I used to see as the authority figures (bosses, parents, partner, other men) – that I would be scared of frankly – as fellow human beings – which means that I can see their being and their suffering is the same as mine, and that becoming happy and harmless myself is the only way to care (to lead to the result we all want). Because we are all here doing it, living and breathing, we are all happening right now, and it’s like someone has to make the first move. VINEETO: Hi Ian, This is such a great description of how becoming free of seriousness and allowing naïveté naturally segues into caring – simply because of fellowship regard. Of course, there is a lot more to it than this summary suggests, and the insight and consequent actualising that it is ‘you’ who created the authority in others over you was essential to be able to eliminate the hierarchical perception/ classification of your fellow human beings – Ian: “The key was seeing that I am the feeling of authority, of the rule of allowance/ prohibition, it is internal and ‘me’ as much as the one who wished to be happy…” IAN: Which was Richard of course, but relatively it still feels like that… I can’t wait around for anyone else to make the move first, and I’ve already taken those steps anyway… VINEETO: Everyone needs to do the first step because each one is the only person one can change. Even if others make the first move to change themselves you will still have to do the changing yourself, unilaterally. And sincerely contemplating this it is very liberating in itself. IAN: The actual world is the actual world and I can’t puzzle it into existence, we live in it… veils or not. What cool creatures we are… VINEETO: Mmh, you don’t need to “puzzle it into existence” – the actual world already exists and has always existed, it is infinite and eternal and thus incomparable and perfect. It’s already here. But actuality can only become apparent when ‘I’ go into abeyance, either temporarily or permanently because the very passionate existence of ‘me’ completely obscures the perception of the actual world of the senses. In the meantime one can imitate the actual as much as possible based on one’s PCEs, and the way to do that is naively enjoying and appreciating this very moment being alive (and remove the obstacles to doing just that). More and more sensuousness comes to the fore the less affect power ‘good’ and ‘bad’ feelings and passions have. Then you become aware that now is the only moment you can actually experience. It is indeed marvellous and amazing that we humans are capable of being aware, sentient, intelligent and on top of it have the capacity to be aware of being conscious (apperceptive). IAN: and it’s win win win – I get to be happy, and everyone else gets to be not bothered by my interference/ demands/ pettiness – and the day to day ordinary conflict situations don’t get out of control/ don’t escalate/ don’t result in me feeling resentful and remorseful for ‘winning’ or morose and resentful for ‘losing’… and I don’t have to feel guilty that I am not ‘doing something’ to ‘fix’ the feelings of another person… and I don’t need the other person to feel guilty for not ‘doing something’ to ‘fix’ my mood… VINEETO: What a perfect set-up and you laid it all out – win, win, win for everyone. Getting rid of the oppressive feeling of authority is indeed a great liberation. I remember when ‘Vineeto’ suddenly grasped experientially that there is no possibility that there can be a God existing in this infinite and eternal universe. There is no actual physical place where he/ she/ it could hide or reside and this apperceptive insight resulted in a PCE – ‘Vineeto’: One evening, when talking and musing about the universe, I fully comprehended that this physical universe is actually infinite. The universe being without boundaries or an edge means that it is impossible, practically, for God to exist. In order to have created the universe or to be in control of it God would have to exist outside of it – and there is no outside! This insight hit me like a thunderbolt. My fear of God and of his representatives collapsed and lost its very substance by this obvious realisation. In fact, there can be no one outside of this infinite universe who is pulling the strings of punishment and reward, heaven and hell – or, according to Eastern tradition, granting enlightenment or leaving me with the eternal karma of endless lives in misery. This insight presupposes, of course, that there is no place other than the physical universe, no celestial, mystical realm where gods and ghosts exist. It also implies that there is no life before or after death and that the body simply dies when it dies. I needed quite some courage to face and accept this simple fact – to give up all beliefs in an after-life or a ‘spirit-life’. But I could easily observe that as soon as I gave up the idea of any imaginary existence other than the tangible, physical universe, everything, which had seemed so complicated and impossible to understand became graspable, evident, obvious and imminently clear. When the enormous consequence and implication of slipping out of this insidious belief in any God or Higher Being dawned on me, I was at the same time free of anybody’s authority. I was free of the fear that had been spoiling every relationship with every man in my life: father, brothers, male friends and boyfriends, employers, teachers and Master. Now I am my own authority, deciding what is silly and sensible, using the common and practical intelligence of the human brain. I am responsible for every action in my life and I can acknowledge that now. However, this means that from now on I cannot blame anybody for making me jealous, miserable, grumpy, afraid, angry or frustrated over any petty issue. Now there is no more excuse, no more hiding place. They are my reactions and my behaviour, which I have to face and change in order to be free. (A Bit of Vineeto, #oneevening) And, of course, there is pure intent, which is so much more reliable that ‘my’ own authority could ever be. IAN: What I mean is I don’t have to be petty anymore… I have allowed myself to feel happy, so no resentment that others or situations aren’t ‘making’ me happy, no feeling of authority telling myself I shouldn’t do it myself… It brought tears to my eyes and gut squeezing-out-all-the-stress/ tension-laugh relief… Wringing out the cloth. VINEETO: This is truly wonderful. Cheers Vineeto August 28, 2025 JESUSCARLOS: An ancient belief, both Christian and Buddhist! Perhaps older than religions themselves. And a mantra of today’s world, of meritocracy that justifies inequality between human beings. VINEETO: Here is a question for you – if meritocracy is the cause which *“justifies inequality between human beings”*, then why do *you* value the expertise, reports and explanations how to become actually free from those fellow human beings who have succeeded? (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Kuba9, 23 August 2025). JESUSCARLOS: I didn’t say that meritocracy was the cause that “justifies inequality among human beings.” I think I needed to provide more context. Meritocracy is a rationale that seeks to allocate resources based on effort and merit. I have no problem with that. I was rather talking about meritocracy as an ideology used by some people in the real world here in Mexico, to justify why some have more than others. They attribute everything to individual effort and erase the true reasons why many people obtained certain resources: social status, class, inheritance, corruption, theft, plunder, violence, etc. Of course, I value the testimonies of those who have succeeded in achieving actual freedom through their own merits, because it has nothing to do with anything other than their own merit and effort. In this case, the purpose suggested by meritocracy truly applies. That’s why, before writing that final statement, I was thanking Kuba for all his success and progress reports, which are very helpful to me. My apologies, I wrote a problematic final sentence without being clear and without providing context. And I think there are aspects I need to analyze more closely, as to why I came to link one thing with another. VINEETO: Hi JesusCarlos, Thank you for your clarification. Now that you provided the context, the ideological usage of the word, I do understand better what you meant. As you said, “meritocracy as an ideology used by some people in the real world” then you would be aware that other people would use ‘equality’ as an ideology to counteract the ideology of meritocracy and similarly make a hash of it. It is standard practice in the real world to cure one unpopular/ upsetting situation with its very opposite. For actualism it may be more useful to make a distinction between expertise (based on knowledge, skill and/or lived experience) and an authority connected with power, including psychic power for you to come to your own conclusions. What other human beings do is their own business. Richard: There are two meanings to the word ‘authority’ and the one that causes all the troubles is the one connected with power. (The power of the authority to enforce obedience; the power of the authority to enforce moral or legal judgements; the power of the authority to command or give the final decision; the power of the authority to control; the power of the authority of a governing body; the power of an authoritative holy book; the power of the authority to inspire belief and so on). The second – less used – meaning is: an expert on a particular subject. (Richard, Selected Correspondence, Authority and Expertise) For equity and parity to flourish, one looks at and eventually abandons all principles, ideologies, beliefs, convictions, attitudes and concepts. (see The Formation and Persistence of the Social Identity, #04). Cheers Vineeto November 6 2025 VINEETO: The word “respect” comes from the Latin respectus, meaning “a looking at” or “regard”, and the verb respicere, “to look back at”. (https://www.etymonline.com/word/respect). Development of meaning: From this original sense, the meaning evolved to include “regard”, “esteem”, and “consideration”. (Merriam Webster) As you can see the word has a perfectly neutral origin, it’s time that the meaning again expands from having “a connotation of some authority” only. I like both words. As for authority, that is a different issue for another conversation. For now, if you are interested, I recommend the selected correspondences found on the library pageregarding authority and the section on authority in the Basic to Full Freedom article. CHRONO: I think the reason that the word respect has the connotations of some authority (as opposed to authoritative) is because my parents would always say that I need to respect them (and anyone else who holds a particular position). Thus I have been differentiating that word when used usually in a real world setting from regard. But perhaps this takes a further looking into as I noticed in one of my previous posts way back that I had a habit of being a ‘victim’. I’ve taken on board that I need to ‘respect’ people but this means in a sort of psychic submission type of way. And also backed (originally from my parents) that if I don’t then I do not “care” and I will be physically punished. This way of operating demonstrates a complete lack of equity. And equally would not be a way to bring it about. At the core of this is the belief that I need to psychically submit or else people will get angry (sounds very silly and feels embarrassing when I write it out). VINEETO: I don’t know what holds authority, anyone’s authority, in place for you. For ‘Vineeto’ the very justification for any authority disappeared in one fell swoop with the startling apperceptive discovery – ‘Vineeto’: Usually, when I succeeded freeing myself of one authority figure, I soon found that I had only replaced them with a supposedly better one – but it never solved the problem. Slowly I started to understand that in order to be free from authority I had to eliminate the need for, and support of, those very beliefs and values underlying the authority Finally one evening, when talking and musing about the universe, I fully comprehended that this physical universe is actually infinite. The universe being without boundaries or an edge means that it is impossible, practically, for God to exist. In order to have created the universe or to be in control of it God would have to exist outside of it – and there is no outside! This insight hit me like a thunderbolt. My fear of God and of his representatives collapsed and lost its very substance by this obvious realisation. In fact, there can be no one outside of this infinite universe who is pulling the strings of punishment and reward, heaven and hell – or, according to Eastern tradition, granting enlightenment or leaving me with the eternal karma of endless lives in misery. This insight presupposes, of course, that there is no place other than the physical universe, no celestial, mystical realm where gods and ghosts exist. It also implies that there is no life before or after death and that the body simply dies when it dies. I needed quite some courage to face and accept this simple fact – to give up all beliefs in an after-life or a ‘spirit-life’. But I could easily observe that as soon as I gave up the idea of any imaginary existence other than the tangible, physical universe, everything, which had seemed so complicated and impossible to understand became graspable, evident, obvious and imminently clear. When the enormous consequence and implication of slipping out of this insidious belief in any God or Higher Being dawned on me, I was at the same time free of anybody’s authority. I was free of the fear that had been spoiling every relationship with every man in my life: father, brothers, male friends and boyfriends, employers, teachers and Master. Now I am my own authority, deciding what is silly and sensible, using the common and practical intelligence of the human brain. I am responsible for every action in my life and I can acknowledge that now. However, this means that from now on I cannot blame anybody for making me jealous, miserable, grumpy, afraid, angry or frustrated over any petty issue. Now there is no more excuse, no more hiding place. They are my reactions and my behaviour, which I have to face and change in order to be free. (Actualism, Vineeto, A Bit of Vineeto, #oneevening) It had been quite a startling and consequential PCE. CHRONO: I noticed in the From Basic Actual Freedom to Full Actual Freedom Part 1 correspondence that you wrote: Vineeto: Remember that ‘you’, the guardian, have a general backward outlook who one regards automatically, as in habitually, as a (non-expertise-related) authority, when, in fact, they don’t have any more authority than one is willing to give them. And ‘your’ choice to give certain people an unearned aura of authority has a lot to do with expected social rewards and punishment. One can then decide in each situation if this is worth one’s voluntary submission. The more one simplify/ reduces one’s need/ attraction for the perceived social rewards and thus anticipated ‘punishment’ of withheld ‘reward’, the less one will find oneself being drawn into power conflicts with supposed (guardian-created) authority figures. CHRONO: Would you say this course of action only applies if you are basically free? VINEETO: It was written with the social identity in mind who remains in part or entirely in situ when one becomes basically free. When your aim is to become actually free then obviously the outlook of the feeling being identity is equally backward oriented. As such everything I wrote in that paragraph also applies to feeling beings. You can dismantle your psychic and conditioning ties to authority at any time. CHRONO: I also noticed in the same correspondence Richard writes: Richard: … this ‘battle of the sexes’ need no longer hold sway if the need for power is seen at its source. (Richard, List B, No. 10d, 20 March 2000). CHRONO: I have been wondering if what I experience is an example of a “need for power” or if that need is something else. VINEETO: Are you asking if the habit of being a ‘victim’ is related to a “need for power”? It certainly is, it is the flip-side of the same power structure, which, being sourced in the instinctual passions of fear and aggression, is operating ubiquitously. By choosing to be naïvely happy and harmless you voluntarily withdraw from the battlefield (not as a pacifist or virtue-hunter) but as someone who prefers (i.e. values more) getting along in a beneficial way with your fellow human beings. You are playing a different game, so to speak. Or, as Richard called it – playing for fun, not for keeps. Cheers Vineeto November 13 2025 VINEETO: Yes, the real-world rules, morals and dogmas operate in opposites and have only two alternatives. There is a third alternative. CHRONO: Weirdly has taken me a longer time to figure that out experientially. I just had this realization about sexual desire and why I have “trouble” with it. It occurs in every human being to some extent, so why am I making a big deal out of its occurrence? And I finally realized it, it’s because of repression. There’s a guilt surrounding it as I mentioned previously. But what if there was no guilt? Then I am somehow morally reprehensible. As I previously saw that ‘I’ cannot end ‘me’ and ‘I’ am already born this way, then there’s no taking blame for my feeling this desire. I understand better now where you say: Vineeto: As for the second aspect of the “feeling of guilt” because “you are disregarding your partner” – when you deliberate shift your focus of interest from personal sexual satisfaction only to intimacy, the whole nature of sexual congress will change in the direction of including your partner, as a fellow play-mate, in the direct (bodily) intimacy of sexual congress. (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Chrono2, 31 October 2025) VINEETO: To ease the pressure of what was originally repressed may take some persistence because repression happened not only because of the “feeling of guilt” but also because it is something unfamiliar to be explored/ experienced as to what happens when you lift the lid, so to speak. It helps to be a friend to yourself and be gentle and consciously enjoy the adventure, without back-pressure from yourself. Richard’s second part of the quote explains why it has never really been allowed to be explored naïvely. CHRONO: And also this section from Article 2 in Richard’s Journal I am able to see in operation: Richard: Yet I discover that this actual world – in which this body is living – easily fulfils all the longings and desires that are commonly channelled into the Spiritual Realms. (…) Why then would people rather be Sacred, Spiritual, Holy … not actual? Because their only alternative is to be vulgar, worldly, pagan … which they associate with the Diabolical, the Demonic, the Sinister. Enmeshed in a world-view wherein everything is divided into opposites, nobody is able to consider a third alternative: to be actual. In the divided world-view, the actual is never seen, and the physical is perceived to be uncivilised, anarchical, and hedonistic … and categorised by them as being profane. My intent is to find a way to continue to live in this undivided and indivisible actual world as ascertained sensately, instead of the ambivalent world-view of opposites with its necessarily discriminating groups, its opposing camps. (Richard’s Journal, 1997, Article Two). I am understanding now that the shift to intimacy is a different game altogether from the one that gives sexual desire a central role. That is, my focus on getting rid of it won’t work. VINEETO: Indeed, half the job is to sort out what doesn’t work. The process of getting accustomed/ familiar with naïvely and gently shifting to intimacy in practice, might sometimes appear a balancing act between “holy” and “vulgar”. Don’t fall for either, keep looking for the fun and benevolent way (to yourself and your partner) – the third alternative. * VINEETO: Indeed, being in control is the sole function of this contingent ‘being’, ‘me’, the entity which does not exist in its own right and needs to control to prevent being exposed as such. ‘You’ need to keep working hard to justify ‘your’ existence, whereas “it’s actually enjoyable when I don’t”, when you can allow yourself to be what you are. You lessen control by progressively allowing the obstacles to enjoyment and appreciation to disappear via attentiveness and (if necessary) investigation – and thus by imitating the actual. CHRONO: Yes I recently noticed as it was happening how much that insults and compliments make up this being a someone. If ‘my’ whole point is to survive, then I’m only taking these on personally to survive. And now I have some more cues to look out for. VINEETO: Ha, it is indeed so, when you look at the content of what your “belonging” really consists of – “insults and compliments” – punishment and reward – made valid by the feeling of power or loss thereof. Another confirmation that you were right when you said “being a “someone” is a serious business” … and ”it’s actually enjoyable when I don’t”. * VINEETO: I don’t know what holds authority, anyone’s authority, in place for you. For ‘Vineeto’ the very justification for any authority disappeared in one fell swoop with the startling apperceptive discovery – <snipped> (Actualism, Vineeto, A Bit of Vineeto, #oneevening) CHRONO: Actually the only authority I can think of is the authority of Humanity through morals, ethics, and judgements. But it all hinges on the idea of caring. I have been reflecting again on what it means to be caring in the real world vs being carefree and considerate. Can I be carefree AND considerate? I am reading the chapter titled “It is possible to be sensitive without being vulnerable”. And being ‘vulnerable’ in the real world is perhaps the gateway into what real world caring is. VINEETO: The reason the described PCE (now snipped) was such a consequential event for ‘Vineeto’ because ‘she’ realised that every and all authority people assume stem’s from some god’s authority – god is the ultimate source for what is right and wrong, bad and good (=heaven and hell). All the values by which humans are socialised originate from the ‘Tried and Failed’ legacy of enlightened beings, gods and goddesses. Hence to realise that there is no room for god in an actual infinite, and perfect, universe, and the justification and ultimate origin of right and wrong disappears. The same applies to your “authority of Humanity” and “the idea of caring”. While being caring and considerate are aspects of being harmless, the word “caring” in the real world is generally synonymous with feeling caring, i.e. giving out affective vibes of caring, sympathy and compassion, together with or even instead of practical caring. This is because humanity’s idea of caring is tightly linked to “putting the other before oneself”, being compassionate and self-less. Hence the aim of being harmless together, including the considering the consequences of your words and actions might have, will a clearer guidance for what you want to be – Martin: Does harmlessness have nothing to do with ‘others’? Richard: (…) • [Richard]: “(...) it may be worthwhile bearing in mind that it is impossible to be happy (be happy as in being carefree), as distinct from feeling happy, without being harmless (being harmless as in being innocuous), as distinct from feeling harmless, and to be happy *and* harmless is to be unable to induce suffering – etymologically the word ‘harmless’ (harm + less) comes from the Old Norse ‘harmr’ (meaning grief, sorrow) – either in oneself or another”. [emphasis in original]. (Richard Actual Freedom List, No. 62, 26 March 2004). Thus to be harmless as per actualism lingo (being free of malice) is beneficial both to oneself – plus it feels unpleasant (hedonically) to feel malicious (affectively) anyway – as well to others due to being unable to induce suffering either in oneself or another, via affective vibes and psychic currents, and vice versa. (…) Martin: (…) I don’t think I’ve really understood what harmless means, as I can’t help but either put ‘myself’ or ‘others’ first (as a kind of denial of ‘self’) when I think of being harmless. (…) ‘Harmlessness’ feels like something you *do* to another human being – or an effect you have on them – but do you simply mean it as an absence of malice and sorrow? Richard: Do you see how almost all of that paragraph you wrote as a lead-up to your query about being harmless – as in “but do you simply mean it as an absence of malice and sorrow?” that is – stems from or revolves around that hoary religio-spiritual practice of putting each and every other ‘self’ before one’s own ‘self’ (a.k.a. being an unselfish ‘self’) so as to counter selfishness? (…) As being harmless does not feature in religio-spiritual practice – peace-on-earth is not on the religio-spiritual agenda – then the sooner that nonsense about being an unselfish ‘self’ is abandoned the better. (Richard, List D, Martin, 6 August 2016). CHRONO: But what does it mean to actually care? VINEETO: Richard: … near-actual caring is, of course, epitomised by a vital interest in the suffering of all human beings coming to an end, forever … (Richard, List D, Srinath2, #near-actual-caring). * Richard: Hence it came to pass one fine evening that feeling-being ‘Vineeto’ realised, with a profound visceral impact, how ‘she’ had never actually cared – although ‘she’ certainly felt caring (in fact ‘she’ had a deeply - ingrained and ongoing feeling of caring about all the misery and mayhem) – and upon that realisation transforming itself into an actualisation (as per the intimacy-yearning process detailed in the ‘Direct Route Mail-Out № 05 email part-quoted at the top of this page) it activated “a caring which is as close to an actual caring as an identity can muster” and there was indeed action which was not of ‘her’ doing ... to wit: the ending of ‘her’ and all ‘her’ subterfuge and trickery (just to stay in keeping with the above wording purely for effect). (Richard, List D, Srinath2, 6 August 2016). You can find some more on intimacy and caring in Vineeto, Selected Correspondence, Intimacy. I also found ‘Vineeto’s’ correspondence with Tarin on being harmless instead of merely feeling harmless useful. (Actualism, Vineeto, Actual Freedom List, Tarin, 13.8.2006). CHRONO: I was having an afternoon at work when there was a bout of increased delight. And I remembered that one of the objections that I feel is that ‘I’ need to be here to protect this physical body. When all of a sudden I realized that ‘I’ do not exist to protect this physical body. ‘I’ exist to protect ‘me’. The physical body is secondary to ‘me’. All of ‘my’ caring is self-centred. And I became aware of this most fundamental confusion. This just hit me in a very visceral way and I felt a shiver at the bottom of my spine. And I’ve just been aware since of all of ‘my’ caring since and the inherent self-centeredness of it. VINEETO: Well spotted – “‘I’ exist to protect ‘me’”. Once you are aware of this fact it is much simpler to discover the identity’s tricks and diversions. As always, there is a way of interacting being less self-centred, i.e. being naïvely harmless and considerate and preferring/ valuing intimacy over sexual prowess. CHRONO: Recently a different issue has cropped up and has taken the place of previous issues. I am seeing indignation and slights featuring more. I for some reason am feeling more keenly aware of iniquities in every day interactions. I am more aware of ‘injustice’ and ‘unfairness’. I feel it really deeply. Both in daily interactions and in an overall rule of the world way. Perhaps these are issues I have not looked at in-depth enough. (I’m writing at work so I’ll have to re-visit my response). VINEETO: Can it be that you notice indignation more because you discovered how much “‘my’ whole point is to survive”? You may find this familiar – Richard: Speaking personally, the feeling-being inhabiting this flesh-and-blood body all those years ago instantaneously rid ‘himself’ of the bulk of those school-age hurts and slights—whilst sitting out in the sunshine one fine morning, putting pencil to paper in order to finally record those dastardly events for posterity, as per a long-held and cherished ambition to do so at length—via seeing-in-a-flash that, as it was simply not possible to ever physically be a child again (and thus juvenilely susceptible to not only those bully-boys and feisty-femmes but any enabling teachers and principals as well), there was absolutely no need whatsoever to continue nursing them as a carryover grudge. It soon became increasingly apparent, thereafter, how those childhood hurts had been vital to the maintenance of the righteous indignation which fuelled ‘his’ plaints of injustice (a.k.a. ‘unfairness’) and, thus, ‘his’ mission to bring justice (a.k.a. ‘fairness’) to the world. (Richard, Selected Correspondence, Aggression, 21 Jan 2016). * VINEETO: Are you asking if the habit of being a ‘victim’ is related to a “need for power”? It certainly is, it is the flip-side of the same power structure, which, being sourced in the instinctual passions of fear and aggression, is operating ubiquitously. CHRONO: EDIT: Yes I was thinking they’re related. I can see it being a flip side of the same power structure but am trying to see the third alternative in it. I keep thinking then I’ll be taken advantage of. Actually I think my current issue is related to this being a ‘victim’ and is related to the need for power. Will have to reflect and write more on it soon. VINEETO: Ha, the role of being a ‘victim’ at first appears more virtuous but it is only the other side of aggression inherent to the instinctual passions in each and every feeling being. If you can recognize this and affectively acknowledge it, then neither repressing nor expressing the feeling might allow the third alternative to hove into view. Also the question ‘why do I need power’ may be interesting to contemplate. Personally, I have no power whatsoever. * VINEETO: By choosing to be naïvely happy and harmless you voluntarily withdraw from the battlefield (not as a pacifist or virtue-hunter) but as someone who prefers (i.e. values more) getting along in a beneficial way with your fellow human beings. CHRONO: This does make sense and I am thinking on it further so that I’m not repressing or expressing indignation in some cunning way. VINEETO: A reminder before you are getting too deep into thinking about the serious problems of life – Richard: You need to have a keen sense of humour. This business of becoming free is not – contrary to popular opinion – a serious business at all. Be totally sincere ... most definitely utterly sincere, as genuineness is essential. But serious ... no way. Humour is essential – it is inevitable in an actual freedom – and one has a lot of fun along the way. An actual freedom is all about having fun; about enjoying being here; about delighting in being alive. All that ‘being serious’ stuff actively works against peace-on-earth. One has to want to be here on this planet … most people resent being here and wish to escape. This method will bring one into being more fully here than anyone has ever been before. If you do not want to be here, then forget it. (Library, Topics, Humour) Cheers Vineeto November 21 2025 CHRONO: I can see how it can be a balancing act between “holy” and “vulgar” as I have noted on many occasions that libidinal feelings flip into feelings of deep revulsion and disgust. And perhaps that’s all because of how I’ve approached sexuality. I’ve noticed that I actually do have this belief of uninhibited sensuality and sexuality being “vulgar”. Even writing this I am getting doubts whether I should because I am saying something I shouldn’t be saying. I’m being animalistic by considering it. It’s most likely ‘my’ way of interpreting where I have not gone before and intuiting what would happen were I to lift the lid. But I am aware of this now in a way I was not before and as you suggested I will not fall for either and look for the third alternative. VINEETO: This quote from Richard’s journal (Richard’s Journal, 1997, Article Two) is a real eye-opener, how the dichotomy of all the moral and ethical injunctions one so obediently follows dates back to the qualities of enlightenment (the ‘Self’ or ‘God’) being the only acceptable alternative. And whenever you consider the third alternative of being naïvely and sensately/ sensuously intimate, doing something entirely new, those injunctions will do their utmost to keep you on the straight and narrow path. It all ties back to that life-changing discovery – that life is meant to be fun. Enjoy the thrill and adventure. * VINEETO: The reason the described PCE ( now snipped) was such a consequential event for ‘Vineeto’ because ‘she’ realised that every and all authority people assume stems from some god’s authority – god is the ultimate source for what is right and wrong, bad and good (=heaven and hell). All the values by which humans are socialised originate from the ‘Tried and Failed’ legacy of enlightened beings, gods and goddesses. Hence to realise that there is no room for god in an actual infinite, and perfect, universe, and the justification and ultimate origin of right and wrong disappears. The same applies to your “authority of Humanity” and “the idea of caring”. While being caring and considerate are aspects of being harmless, the word “caring” in the real world is generally synonymous with feeling caring, i.e. giving out affective vibes of caring, sympathy and compassion, together with or even instead of practical caring. This is because humanity’s idea of caring is tightly linked to “putting the other before oneself”, being compassionate and self-less. Ha, the role of being a ‘victim’ at first appears more virtuous but it is only the other side of aggression inherent to the instinctual passions in each and every feeling being. If you can recognize this and affectively acknowledge it, then neither repressing nor expressing the feeling might allow the third alternative to hove into view. Also the question ‘why do I need power’ may be interesting to contemplate. Personally, I have no power whatsoever. CHRONO: Yes I did note that God had been the ultimate authority for ‘Vineeto’ and I can see it all come together for me right now. This need for power, authority, and caring seem to be linked and it has clicked for me in the last week. This is because as I’ve noted before that I’ve unwittingly been applying the “putting others before oneself” injunction. It’s actually related to my being a ‘victim’. It does appear that being a ‘victim’ is more virtuous in the real world and gives the false feeling that I am ‘powerless’. I am actually also exerting power by being a ‘victim’ but just not in an overt way. And I noticed that inherent to being a ‘victim’ is the belief that one is then worthy of being saved from harm and suffering. Almost like that by choosing to be a ‘victim’, I am being humble. And an extension of that is the belief that one can be saved by some Higher Authority or Saviour. It is odd because I’ve never seen myself as believing in some Higher Power but I am acting and being as if there was. Perhaps there is more to unfold here. VINEETO: Indeed, it is excellent you start seeing the bigger pattern, and how ultimately all ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ injunctions stem from the ‘Tried and Failed’ paradigm Richard described in his Journal, Article Two, you quoted above. When you understand this in its totality, it loses its virtue, attraction and power over you. CHRONO: I can see how pernicious “putting others before oneself” is because it takes all eyes off ‘me’ and ‘I’ can wreak further havoc. I was wondering “why do I need power” and the answer was only in relation to me being a ‘victim’. Where I am not a ‘victim’ (or an aggressor), there is no need for power. I can fully see what it is to be harmless now. And the subsequent discussions on it have clarified a lot. I can see how setting the bar as ‘no malicious feelings present’ does not necessarily mean that I am being harmless. It’s self-centricity itself which is the issue. And in practice I can already see how much more ease and harmony there is. Making harmlessness a top and first priority easily allows happiness to follow because I am considering both myself and the other. VINEETO: Ah, this is wonderful. Diminishing ‘self’-centricity allows you to be increasingly naïve, liking yourself and others and discovering how much fun being alive really is. Here is a snippet from ‘Vineeto’ you might relate to – ‘Vineeto’: When I stopped supporting both my own feelings of sorrow and those of others I became increasingly aware of the extent to which my relationships were built upon mutual support for common grievances and loyal allegiances against what we perceived as difficult to deal with people, upsetting things and worrying events – in other words, when I sorted my own feelings out for myself I lost interest in other people’s sad stories and subsequently we had less in common to share. Friendships in the real world are by and large emotional allegiances against an adversarial world – where there is neither sorrow nor enemies, there is also no need for loyal and emotionally supportive friends. (Vineeto, Actual Freedom List, No. 60f, 7.2.2005). * VINEETO: Can it be that you notice indignation more because you discovered how much ‘‘my’ whole point is to survive“? You may find this familiar – Richard: Speaking personally, the feeling-being inhabiting this flesh-and-blood body all those years ago instantaneously rid ‘himself’ of the bulk of those school-age hurts and slights—whilst sitting out in the sunshine one fine morning, putting pencil to paper in order to finally record those dastardly events for posterity, as per a long-held and cherished ambition to do so at length—via seeing-in-a-flash that, as it was simply not possible to ever physically be a child again (and thus juvenilely susceptible to not only those bully-boys and feisty-femmes but any enabling teachers and principals as well), there was absolutely no need whatsoever to continue nursing them as a carryover grudge. It soon became increasingly apparent, thereafter, how those childhood hurts had been vital to the maintenance of the righteous indignation which fuelled ‘his’ plaints of injustice (a.k.a. ‘unfairness’) and, thus, ‘his’ mission to bring justice (a.k.a. ‘fairness’) to the world. (Richard, Selected Correspondence, Aggression, 21 Jan 2016). CHRONO: It does make sense now that I think about it. It seems much of my childhood hurts have been held on passionately deep down and are the source of much of my railing against “the system”. I was on a trip with my partner this past week and we finished watching “Mr. Robot” and I related very deeply with the protagonist especially towards the end. I felt his hurts as my own and the indignation and hurt reached fever pitch. This post from Richard is indeed very familiar and timely as it helped backing out of it. I find myself sometimes thinking that I am supposed to hold onto these hurts and slights, otherwise I will let people walk all over me and take advantage of me. But I am an adult now aren’t I? Something further to unfold here which I will come back to. VINEETO: Ha, here you have the old paradigm’s dichotomy again, being either angry/ indignant or being taken advantage of. It will be such a relief when you finally let go of “childhood hurts” and “railing against “the system””. Instead of looking for/ relying on emotional reactions to what you ought to do or avoid, why not make it a habit to assess each situation intelligently, in line with pure intent in order to work out if you can safely let go of your childhood hurts and resentments. Richard: When I use the word ‘intelligence’ I mean the same thing as the dictionary definition of intelligence: the cerebral faculty of understanding (as in intellect) and with the quickness or superiority of understanding (as in sagacity) or the action or fact of understanding something (as in knowledge and/or comprehension of something) which means the ability to rationally and thus sensibly reflect, plan and implement considered activity for beneficial reasons ... and to be able to convey information to other human beings so that knowledge can accumulate around the world and to the next generations. (…) And now that intelligence has developed in the human animal the blind survival passions are no longer necessary – in fact they have become a hindrance in today’s world – and it is only by virtue of this intelligence that blind nature’s default software package can be safely deleted (via altruistic ‘self’-immolation in toto). No other animal can do this. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 50, 19 November 2003). * VINEETO: A reminder before you are getting too deep into thinking about the serious problems of life – (snipped quote re humour) CHRONO: Also a great timely reminder haha. VINEETO: Richard: (...) the human species has been doing its thing for at least 50,000 years or so – no essential difference has been discerned between the Cro-Magnon human and Modern-Day human – and may very well continue to do its thing for, say, another 50,000 years or so ... it matters not, in what has been described as ‘the vast scheme of things’ or ‘the big picture’, and so on, whether none, one or many peoples become actually free from the human condition (this planet, indeed the entire solar system, is going to cease to exist in its current form about 4.5 billion years from now). All these words – yours, mine, and others (all the dictionaries, encyclopaedias, scholarly tomes and so on) – will perish and all the monuments, all the statues, all the tombstones, all the sacred sites, all the carefully conserved/ carefully restored memorabilia, will vanish as if they had never existed ... nothing will remain of any human endeavour (including yours truly). Nothing at all ... nil, zero, zilch. Which means that nothing really matters in the long run and, as nothing really does matter (in this ultimate sense) it is simply not possible to take life seriously ... sincerely, yes, but seriously? No way ... life is much too much fun to be serious! (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 25g, 22 December 2004). Cheers Vineeto
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