# Actual Freedom – Definitions

# Definitions Apperception Awareness-Cum-Attentiveness Self-Awareness Apperception: The word ‘apperception’ literally means: consciousness being conscious of being consciousness ... as distinct from the normal ‘self’-conscious way of perception (‘I’ being aware of ‘me’ being conscious). Viz.: • ‘apperception (n.): the mind’s perception of itself: apperceptive (adj.): of or pertaining to apperception: apperceptiveness (n.): the condition or quality of being apperceptive: ‘apperceptively’ (adv.): the experience of being apperceptive: ‘apperceptivity’: (n.): the capacity to be apperceptive’. Thus: ‘apperceptiveness’ (n.): the condition or quality of being apperceptive; also: ‘apperceptively’ (adv.): the experience of being apperceptive and: ‘apperceptivity’: (n.): the capacity to be apperceptive). [Fr. aperception or mod. L apperceptio(n-) (Liebniz), f. (non-productive) prefix ap- (assim. form of L ad-) + perception]. ~ (Oxford Dictionary). __________ Some examples of usage of ‘apperception’ gleaned at random from the Internet: • Mr. David Rosenthal wrote, on August 9, 1997, that [quote]: ‘apperceptive awareness is traditionally thought of as direct ... because nothing seems intuitively to mediate between the [mental] states we are aware of and our apperceptive awareness of them. Such apperceptive awareness seems to us to be spontaneous, giving rise to the intuitive sense that it may even be intrinsic to the states apperceived. And directness of this sort implies nothing about the relevant scanning process, but only that we are unaware of any factors mediating between apperception and what is apperceived’. [endquote]. (http://web.gc.cuny.edu/cogsci/nelkin.htm). • Mr. Immanuel Kant wrote, in ‘Critique of Pure Reason’; I; Second Part; First Division; Book One; Chapter II; Section II; Observation SS 17: [quote]: ‘the unity of apperception; [is] a faculty, therefore, which cognises nothing per se, but only connects and arranges the material of cognition, the intuition, namely, which must be presented to it by means of the object. But to show reasons for this peculiar character of our understandings, that it produces unity of apperception a priori only by means of categories, and a certain kind and number thereof, is as impossible as to explain why we are endowed with precisely so many functions of judgement and no more, or why time and space are the only forms of our intuition’. [endquote]. (www.rbjones.com/rbjpub/philos/classics/kant/kant039.htm). • Mr. Philip Rudisill wrote, on October 30, 1998, [quote]: ‘transcendental apperception [is] a formal unity (the form of which is the system of categories) which precedes all recognitions of objects in order that objects might arise through the spectres and/or appearances and/or Erscheinungen such that these spectres are found to be merely images and/or effects of these objects and not things on their own’. [endquote]. (www.pvv.unit.no/~torfer/filosofisenter/lister/Kant-L/Kant-L-Oct-1998/0056.html). • Mr. Immanuel Kant wrote, in ‘Critique of Pure Reason’; ‘Transcendental Logic’; Part II; Section 3: [quote]: ‘all necessity, without exception, is grounded in a transcendental condition ... this original and transcendental condition is no other than transcendental apperception ... to render such a transcendental presupposition valid, there must be a condition which precedes all experience, and which makes experience itself possible ... this pure original unchangeable consciousness I shall name transcendental apperception. That it deserves the name is clear from the fact that even the purest objective unity, namely, that of the a priori concepts (space and time), is only possible through relation of the intuitions to such unity of consciousness. The numerical unity of this apperception is thus the a priori ground of all concepts, just as the manifoldness of space and time is the a priori ground of the intuitions of sensibility’. [endquote]. (http://world.std.com/~awolpert/gtr77.html). RICHARD: I know precisely what apperception is as I termed it that myself back in 1997, before going public with what had first become manifest, as a living actuality 24/7, five years earlier (in 1992), in close consultation with my second wife, Devika, about the most apposite nomenclature for the immediate, direct, unmediated perception she too had experiential comprehension/ intimate knowledge of due to numerous PCE’s both before she met me and whilst living together. Viz.: • [Richard]: ‘I found the word [apperception] in the Oxford Dictionary in 1997, when I was assembling an ad hoc collection of articles into some semblance of being a book form [‘Richard’s Journal’] so as to be suitable for publishing, which simply said (as the first of several meanings): • ‘apperception: the mind’s perception of itself’ (Oxford Dictionary). It was that definition – as contrasted to the normal ‘I’ being aware of ‘me’ being conscious type of perception – which appealed and not any historical usage of the word. I have never looked-up the way other peoples have used the word; I simply mean it as un-mediated perception (as in no identity whatsoever mediating the perceptive process)’. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 97, 18 August 2005). In that brief scintillating instant of bare awareness, that twinkling sensorium-moment of consciousness being conscious of being consciousness, one apperceives a thing as a nothing-in-particular that is being naught but what-it-is coming from nowhen and going nowhere at all. Apperception is very much like what one sees with one’s peripheral vision as opposed to the intent focus of normal or central vision. This moment of soft, ungathered sensuosity – apperception – contains a vast understanding, an utter cognisance, that is lost as soon as one adjusts one’s mind to accommodate the feeling-tone and subverts the crystal-clear objectivity into an ontological ‘being’ ... a connotative ‘thing-in-itself’. In the process of ordinary perception, the apperception step is so fleeting as to be usually unobservable. One has developed the habit of squandering one’s attention on all the remaining steps: feeling the percept; emotionally recognising the qualia; zealously adopting the perception and getting involved in a long string of representative feeling-notions about it. When the original moment of apperception is rapidly passed over it is the purpose of ‘how am I experiencing this moment of being alive?’ to accustom one to prolong that moment of apperception – a sensuous awareness bereft of feeling content – so that uninterrupted apperception can eventuate. Apperception is the clear and direct experiencing of being just here at this place in infinite space right now at this moment in eternal time – sans identity and its feeling-fed realities – and it is a wordless appreciation of being alive and awake on this verdant and azure planet. Apperception is where one is living in the already always existing peace-on-earth and is where one is blithe and carefree, even if one is doing nothing: doing something – and that includes thinking – is a bonus on top of the never-ending perfection of the infinitude which this material universe is. Apperception is where one is the universe being stunningly aware of its own infinitude. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 19a, 1 September 2001). RICHARD: So much for thought and feeling – there is this third alternative: Apperception. Apperception is something that brings a facticity born out of a direct experience of the actual. Apperception, as I said, is the mind’s perception of itself – it is a bare awareness. Normally the mind perceives through the senses and sorts the data received according to its predilection; but the mind itself remains unperceived ... it is taken to be unknowable. Apperception happens when the ‘who’ inside abdicates its throne and a pure awareness occurs. The PCE is as if one has eyes in the back of one’s head; there is a three hundred and sixty degree awareness and all is self-evidently clear. This is knowing by direct experience, unmediated by any ‘who’ whatsoever. One is able to see that the ‘who’ of one has been standing in the way of the perfection and purity that is the essential nature of this moment of being here becoming apparent. Here a solid and irrefutable native intelligence can operate freely because the ‘thinker’ and the ‘feeler’ is extirpated. One is the universe’s experience of itself as a human being ... after all, the very stuff this body is made of is the very stuff of the universe. There is no ‘outside’ to the perfection of the universe to come from; one only thought and felt that one was a separate identity (ego, id, self, identity, persona, personality, lower ‘I am’, atman, soul, spirit, or whatever) forever seeking Union with ‘That’, by whatever name (Higher Self, True Self, Real Self, The All, Existence Itself, Consciousness, The Void, Suchness, Isness and so on). Then what one is (‘what’ not ‘who’) is these sense organs in operation: this seeing is me, this hearing is me, this tasting is me, this touching is me, this smelling is me, and this thinking is me. Whereas ‘I’, the identity, am inside the body: looking out through ‘my’ eyes as if looking out through a window, listening through ‘my’ ears as if they were microphones, tasting through ‘my’ tongue, touching through ‘my’ skin, smelling through ‘my’ nose, and thinking through ‘my’ brain. Of course ‘I’ must feel isolated, alienated, alone and lonely, for ‘I’ am cut off from the magnificence of the world as-it-is – the actual world – by ‘my’ very presence. Any identity whatsoever is a delusion. Without ‘me’, the immediate is the ultimate. (Richard, List A, No. 15, No. 07). RICHARD: Oh yes ... apperception is an on-going effortless awareness that happens of its own accord, provided the flesh and blood body is alive (not dead), awake (not asleep) and conscious (not unconscious) ... thinking may or may not be operating (depending upon the circumstance). It (apperceptiveness) is/provides the meaning of life. (Richard, List B, No. 47, 7 March 2000a). RICHARD: Many years ago I saw, in an edifying moment, that I was nothing but a marionette dancing on the strings of social conditioning. Once I started digging under the layers of that conditioning, I found that I was pre-programmed by blind nature to instinctually react with fear and aggression. I was not too disdainful to see that I was indeed ‘a robot’ ... and most certainly in need of ‘a mechanism by which to be repaired’. That mechanism is that which sets the human animal apart from all other animals: reflective thought. And reflective thought led to contemplative thought, which led to apperceptive thought, which ensures freedom from the Human Condition. Hubris, however relatively satisfying, is a poor substitute for such a magnificent freedom. Apperceptive thought is the wide and wondrous mechanism that enables one to be here – fully here – at this moment in time and this place in space. (Richard, List B, No. 20, 23 February 1998a). RICHARD: Apperception is another ball-game entirely and has nothing to do with any of the above. I take the Oxford Dictionary definition as an established ‘given’: ‘apperception is the mind’s perception of itself’. This means that there is not an ‘I’ being aware of ‘me’ being conscious, but it is an un-mediated awareness of itself. Thinking may or may not occur ... and apperception happens regardless. Thought does not have to stop for apperception to happen ... it is that the ‘thinker’ disappears. As for feelings in apperception; not only does the ‘feeler’ disappear, but so too do feelings themselves. Apperception is the direct – unmediated – apprehension of actuality ... the world as-it-is. (Richard, List B, No. 20, 28 February 1998). RICHARD: This universe, being infinite and eternal, is much, much more than merely intelligent. Intelligence, which is the ability to think, reflect, compare, evaluate and implement considered action for benevolent reasons, cannot comprehend infinity and eternity (as infinitude has no opposite there is none of the cause and effect relationship which is what intelligence needs in order to operate). Intelligence, therefore, could not ‘run the universe perfectly’ ... let alone know itself apperceptively. Apperception has nothing to do with thinking, reflecting, comparing, evaluating and implementing whatsoever ... apperception is unmediated perception (and perception comes immediately before thought, thoughts and thinking in any human being). (Richard, List B, No. 21b, 5 April 2000). RICHARD: Apperception is the outcome of the exclusive attention paid to being alive right here and now. Apperception is to be the senses as a bare awareness, a pure consciousness experience (PCE) of the world as-it-is, which happens when the mind becomes aware of itself. Apperception is an awareness of consciousness. It is not ‘I’ being aware of ‘me’ being conscious; it is the mind’s awareness of itself. Apperception is a way of seeing that can be arrived at by pure contemplation. Pure contemplation is when ‘I’ cease thinking ... and thinking takes place of its own accord. Such a mind, being free of the thinker – ‘I’ as ego – is capable of clarity. With apperception operating more or less continuously, ‘I’ find it harder and harder to maintain credibility as ‘me’ feeling. ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul is increasingly seen as the usurper, an alien entity inhabiting this body and taking on an identity of its own. Mercilessly exposed in the bright light of awareness – apperception casts no shadows – ‘I’ can no longer find ‘my’ position tenable. ‘I’ can only live in ‘my’ obscuration, where ‘I’ lurk about as ‘me’, creating all sorts of mischief. ‘My’ time is speedily coming to an end; ‘I’ can barely maintain ‘myself’ any longer. (Richard, List B, No. 25c, 14 April 1999). RESPONDENT: It’s funny that I never really questioned the ‘mind being aware of mind’ thing much. RICHARD: You may find the following to be of interest: • [Co-Respondent]: ‘If you are conscious that you are aware you are not aware. • [Richard]: ‘Hmm ... all experiencing is awareness of what is happening whilst it is happening; the mind, which is the human brain in action in the human skull, has this amazing capacity to be, not only aware, but aware of being aware at the same time (a simultaneity which is truly wondrous in itself). And it is where this awareness of being aware is unmediated (apperceptive awareness) that this universe knows itself. • [Co-Respondent]: ‘Consciousness is always a process of the past. • [Richard]: ‘The word ‘consciousness’ refers to the condition of being conscious (the suffix ‘-ness’ forms a noun expressing a state or condition) and to be conscious is to be alive, not dead, awake, not asleep, and sensible, not insensible (comatose) ... and as it is impossible to be alive, awake, and sensible in the past (only this moment is actual) you are way out there on your own with that observation’. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 51, 7 October 2003). There is nothing mystical about a mind perceiving itself – it is simply a matter of a living brain, sans identity in toto, being conscious of being conscious/ being aware of being aware – that there need be any question whatsoever about what the nature is of that which is aware of being aware/ that which is conscious of being conscious ... unless, of course, one is unable/ incapable or unwilling/ disinclined to discern the difference between consciousness (the state or condition of a body being conscious) and identity (the genetically-inherited instinctual passions in action). (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 68d, 2 Nov ember 2005). see also catalogue Awareness-Cum-Attentiveness; Aware-Cum-Attentive: This hyphenated neologism – a term which includes being affectively aware in combination with, and as felt necessary thereby, being cognitively attentive (the Latin cum=with, together with, or along with, as in ‘a garage-cum-workshop’, for instance) – was coined in order to more readily reference an adroit technique which involves a keenly discriminative affective monitoring of the quality of mood plus the cognitive rectification of same, and as instigated responsively‌ therefrom, so as to effect beneficial modification of one’s day-by-day temperament which, in the longer-term, brings about a benefactive transformation of disposition and/or character as well. Any necessity to be (cognitively) attentive only takes place on those occasions when/ where an otherwise ongoing (affective) enjoyment and appreciation diminishes – which attentiveness is initiated by that diminution in the quality of (affectively) enjoying and appreciating being alive/ being here, each moment again, come-what-may – and occurs less and less once one gets the knack of thus (affectively) monitoring one’s moment-to-moment mood and temperament via the increasingly subtle variations in that quality. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Exquisite Awareness-Cum-Attentiveness The word exquisite is being used here in its adjectival “acutely perceptive or discriminating” ~ (American Heritage Dictionary) meaning and/or its “keenly or delicately sensitive or responsive” ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary) definition to indicate how this hyphenated neologism – coined in order to more readily reference an adroit technique which includes being affectively aware in combination with, and as felt necessary thereby, being cognitively attentive (the Latin cum=with, together with, or along with, as in ‘a garage-cum-workshop’, for instance) – involves a keenly discriminative affective monitoring of the quality of mood plus the cognitive rectification of same, and as responsively instigated therefrom, so as to effect beneficial modification of one’s day-by-day temperament which also, in the longer-term, brings about a benefactive transformation of disposition and/or character. Any necessity to be (cognitively) attentive only takes place on those occasions when/ where an otherwise ongoing (affective) enjoyment and appreciation diminishes – which attentiveness is initiated by that diminution in the quality of (affectively) enjoying and appreciating being alive/ being here, each moment again, come-what-may – and occurs less and less once one gets the knack of thus (affectively) monitoring one’s moment-to-moment mood and temperament via the increasingly subtle variations in that quality. Self-awareness: RESPONDENT: In what way is consciousness related to intelligence? RICHARD: If you are indeed referring to self-consciousness, or self-awareness, it is an essential prerequisite for intelligence to arise: intelligence is not only the faculty of the human brain thinking, with all its understanding (intellect) and comprehension (sagacity), but includes its cognisance (awareness or consciousness) of being a body existing in the world of people, other animals, plants, things and events. Moreover, intelligence requires self-reference – which involves the issue of agency (intervening action towards an end; action personified; a source of action towards an end) and agency can be only self-referential – plus intelligence also requires self-interest: a self-referential organism is concerned about its existence, and by extension others’ existence, in that it is biased – it finds water appealing and acid unappealing for example – and being biased is what being self-interested means. However, if you are referring ‘consciousness’ as popularly meaning the (illusory) identity which is being conscious ... it is, of course, not related to intelligence at all. Its presence cripples intelligence, in fact. RETURN TO DEFINITIONS INDEX RICHARD’S HOME PAGE The Third Alternative (Peace On Earth In This Life Time As This Flesh And Blood Body) Here is an actual freedom from the Human Condition, surpassing Spiritual Enlightenment and any other Altered State Of Consciousness, and challenging all philosophy, psychiatry, metaphysics (including quantum physics with its mystic cosmogony), anthropology, sociology ... and any religion along with its paranormal theology. Discarding all of the beliefs that have held humankind in thralldom for aeons, the way has now been discovered that cuts through the ‘Tried and True’ and enables anyone to be, for the first time, a fully free and autonomous individual living in utter peace and tranquillity, beholden to no-one. 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