September 17 2025

SONYA: Another cool experience to log in!

With all this kind of happening automatically now I think it opened up a new level for me. Last Thursday, I was walking to dance class from my car. It had just rained so the air was cool and had that fresh wet rain smell. I was just enjoying walking, smelling, seeing, feeling the air etc. but not in a forced way if that makes sense. It was a simple direct experiencing of my surroundings. I was simply just happy to be walking.

VINEETO: Hi Sonya,

This is a great report – with less energy wasted in negative mood changes – because you learnt how to nip them in the bud or simply find them unnecessary – you are now free to enjoy, and appreciate, the whole smorgasbord of sensate experiencing which being alive has to offer. It is certainly another kind of enjoyment – the unconditional enjoyment of simply being alive.

SONYA: I remember I was almost at my destination and walking under some trees and all of a sudden it was like everything came into focus with the most clarity I’ve ever experienced. Colours were so vivid and it was like looking through binoculars that were previously "blurry and unfocused" and the settings had adjusted to a clear and crisp image. It was so intense I was definitely taken aback and almost stumbled a little bit. It was quite exhilarating. It lasted a few seconds then faded back to "normal". After I was definitely feeling a bit shaken but not in a scared way, more like my definition on what was a "direct" way of experiencing the world was turned on its head and amplified really suddenly, really quickly and it has shaken something. There was a raw directness to it that I had never experienced before that I’d like to experience again.

VINEETO: It seems you had your first taste of "a "direct" way of experiencing the world", i.e. direct because the feelings/identity which was blurring your sensate experiencing was temporarily in abeyance. It is wonderful and amazing when that happens and confirms that exactly this is what you want more of.

You might like this one –

RICHARD: In short: this ambrosial paradise I refer to as ‘this actual world’ has been no further away, all the while, than coming to your senses.

JAMES: Just what I needed to hear Richard. ‘In short’ is right. This pretty much says it all.

RICHARD: Aye ... this is my favoured way of saying it all:

• [Richard]: ‘Step Out Of The Real World Into This Actual World And Leave ‘Yourself’ Behind Where ‘You’ Belong.

JAMES: The key part of the first sentence to me is ‘coming to your senses’. That seems like the gateway into the actual world.

RICHARD: It is indeed – just as it is also the gateway out of the real world – and ‘tis only the price of admission/the cost of exit that hinders ingress/ egress.

JAMES: The ‘price of admission/the cost of exit’ must be ‘me’ which hinders exiting the real world and also hinders the direct contact of the senses to the actual world. Seeing exactly how the ‘me’ hinders this ‘ingress/egress’ diminishes the ‘me’. Can I leave ‘me’ at the gate?

RICHARD: This is what I would suggest:

• [Richard]: ‘The other aspect of the actualism method – other than felicity/ innocuity – is sensuosity: feeling felicitous/ innocuous, each moment again, brings one closer to one’s senses and the resultant wonder at the brilliance of the sensate world can enable apperception ... the direct experience of the world as-it-is. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, James, 27 March 2004).

Such a felicitous/ sensuous state of wonder can do wonders (pun intended). (Richard, Actual Freedom List, James, 2 April 2004).

Here is one of my favourite descriptions –

• [Richard]: I remember the first time I experienced being the senses only during a PCE. There was no identity as ‘I’ thinking or ‘me’ feeling ... simply this body ambling across a grassy field in the early-morning light. A million dew-drenched spider-webs danced a sparkling delight over the verdant vista and a question that had been running for some weeks became experientially answered: without the senses I would not know that I exist as this flesh and blood body. And further to this: I was the senses and the senses were me. With this came an awareness of being conscious – apperception – rather than ‘I’ being aware of ‘me’ being conscious. (Richard, General Correspondence, Alan2, 1 Aug 1998a).

Cheers Vineeto