I've been mulling over the whole AF thing which has led to this lengthy post......
True, I did base what I said on a brief skimming ("half listening", hands up to that one...

) of the site and it was incorrect for me to have drawn any conclusions from that. I didn't actually 'think' anything at all about it and certainly didn't dismiss the system offhand although his approach and apparent attitude towards enlightenment
appeared so contrary to this particular paradigm I've chosen to explore that I figured it would interesting to explore how it sits with the DhO regulars. I know the whole thing's been discussed repeatedly but I hadn't really explored the boards and read what's been said till Beoman provided that excellent link.
As for Richards claims of originality, being a pioneer or whatever, I don't care. Someone on Daniel's posting about PCE/Cycles made a good point about how there's always controversy and denial of any new spiritual technology and every new thing that humanity can discover will be decried by the majority who are subject to their pre-programmed refusal of any new paradigm. I read somewhere, Robert Anton Wilson I think, about there being a saying regarding the idea that it takes a whole generation to pass by before a scientific theory is accepted so the same will likely apply to spiritual technology. I'll leave it for fools to debate the authenticity and effectiveness rather than actually do it for themselves. From where I am, it looks like another interesting avenue of exploration and experience regardless of it's origins so I hold no opinion until I've had more experience with it and verified it for myself. Or whoever this guy typing is.

That the people who've attained Arahatship on the site confirm that PCE is qualitatively (or however you want to express it) different to the states attained through vipasanna, having either explored it or begun to do so in detail from their level of understanding, is enough to cause me to drop the blind skepticism that's so common in my reaction to claims of newly discovered levels of consciousness.
Which brings me to the following display of my being intoxicated by my own verbosity. And yes, I hope you did get the joke there.....
I'm entertained by the synchronicities in coming across AF via DhO via BH (Gotta love abbreviatin') and that reading more about this has brought me back to the place I was before finding any of them. To explain that statement a bit more, pre-DhO/MCTB period I'd gone through a Dark Night phase which lasted about three years. I'd explored it while it happened (I had no knowledge of noting in the Mahasi style or any Theravadan practice) but came to see it for what it was in terms which I can now understand and express clearer (stages of insight etc.) through reading MCTB and studying the Dharma. I appear to have hit High Equanimity in February of this year and attained Path, and/or at least an experience and subsequent shift in perception which seem to fit the terms presented on this site, and/or I'm full of shit and/or whatever, in mid-April.
If it seems I've gone off on an apparently ego-based digression then please bear with me, I'm getting to the point....
Prior to attaining whichever Path I've attained, and by this I mean that I no longer have any desire to figure out
where I am on the Theravada model (if you're really that interested then you're free to message me) and am content to just practice and explore it, my studies and practice involved selecting one system of attainment and pursuing it's goal relentlessly for a pre-determined period of time. The Chaos magick paradigm refers to it as 'paradigm shifting' and Bob Wilson would call it 'changing reality tunnels', either way it brought me insights into the nature of reality, the illusion of self, apparently similar states to those described in MCTB and too many other things to list without making you more bored than you already are by this point.
To cut to the chase (too late), after having a number of 'peak' experiences within different traditions ranging from Crowley's yoga practices to Gurdjieff's awareness exercises and a reasonable amount of experience in most known Western magickal systems, I have come to consider the idea that AF is not simply a stage 'beyond' enlightenment but exists alongside it, if you know what I mean. Being able to choose to experience that through the techniques of that system, even after attaining Arahatship, suggests to me, in whichever stage I'm 'at', that there is no final enlightenment in the ultimate sense but that there are infinite possible 'enlightenments', with the understanding that I use this word purely to label the apex of a systems map of attainment and not specific to Buddhism, on infinite planes of experience to be had by this consciousness we called self. The idea that not all paths lead to enlightenment in the Buddhist sense, and I mean no offence by reducing thousands of years to a 'reality paradigm' here, is absolutely true if we choose to believe that. Perhaps each path, while sharing similar insights, nuances and subtleties at some levels which can be experienced by this consciousness, leads to another meta-experience of this thing we call reality?
Richard and the AF community claim that the permanent state of AF is the ultimate aim of their techniques, could Tarin or any of the AF'ers on here tell me more about how they view their attainment of AF and if you would choose to sacrifice it's permanence to explore other states?
I understand the state described as being free from any emotional affect and the absence of the thinker due to there being no thought to be thunk since there's nothing there other than consciousness. Would this be correct? If so, does this state contain within it, once attained on a permanent basis, an exit or some sort of route to other possible experiences of reality? I doubt that you'd be concerned about since it sounds like the perfect state but someone's going to push this state further or explore it in more detail in the years to come just like Daniel and Ken exploring 'No Dog' and subdivisions of jhanas etc. I'm just asking out of curiosity and to understand it more until I start working with this system so don't think (Ha!) that I'm trying to question or criticise what you're doing or anything.
I'm approaching this with openness and have no pre-conceived expectation since I know it would be false so your advice is appreciated. Excuse the length of my posting back on this but writing this has helped me order my thoughts on the subject and get some things in perspective with my own understanding of things. I know I could be full of crap so you're free to disect and criticise what I've said as I'd like to hear others take on it.
All the best!