I recently started reading about the PCE and AF, and it brought to mind an experience I had a year ago. I’d like to hear the opinion of folks more experienced than me on this subject, and whether this was a PCE, an EE, or none of the above.

This was shortly after I started meditating. One afternoon I watched a TED talk on vulnerability and gratitude. I had recently been very worried my appearance and growing older. After watching this talk, I went for a walk around the building at work. I started feeling grateful for what I had: my hair, my eyesight, my ability to walk and run, to breathe easily. I imagined my future, frail self thinking back to when I was 33, thinking, "Wow, those were the days." I imagined myself unable to move, thinking back to a time when my legs were strong, when my eyes and ears were clear, when I had youth and vigor and power. So I really started feeling these capabilities, feeling my strong legs on the ground, feeling my body, feeling everything around me, feeling vigorous, awake, alive, and very, very grateful for all I had.

This experience continued to build up, until there was a tipping point. My existence felt full, not just from the perspective of some point in the future, but from any perspective. I realized that I had everything and anything I could ever want in that moment. My existence was complete and perfect. It hadn't come that way. It was always that way, anywhere, everywhere, under every circumstance. I was perfect, the world was perfect, and nothing could affect that. Unblemished and unblemishable.

At that moment I came in to the lobby of the building where I work, and the light from the setting sun was shining through the window, illuminating the lobby. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. I saw a coworker. Rather than avoid her like I normally do, I went up and started talking to her, just chatting with her, asking how she was, what was going on. There was nothing cloying or contrived about it. It's like all the self-consciousness and crabbiness had just drastically gotten out of the way, and what was left was this spontaneous, innocent enjoyment of existence. There was nothing to add to it, and nothing could harm it. It was perfect.

Of course it faded, and I was left wondering what the hell it was. I learned about the path shortly thereafter, and I thought, "It must have been a ñana." But I've been over that territory so many times now. I was sitting in jhana this morning, and I actually had the explicit thought, "This is dry toast compared to that thing I had last year."

Looking back on it, it was definitely some kind of non-dual experience. It wasn’t an altered state of consciousness. There was no distortion added to the perception or the sense of existence. It was more like something had fallen away to reveal something pure and simple and good. There was happiness, but it was not happiness dependent upon any circumstance. It was happiness brought about by the perception of the fullness of all things, a fullness which was beyond cause and which was present along with existence itself.

Interpretations?

Fortunate!

No. Would just like to suggest that whatever interpretations you end up taking on board: hold them lightly, and never let them become as important as the actual qualities of the experience.

Hola amigo, I'm sure your experience could be considered at least an EE. Either way the actualism method makes these experiences much more regular as in daily. You start to loose icky psychic vibes and the clarity rises as the mind is less filled with weighing down beliefs. I think the thing that you should realize is that the experience you had can become a 24/7 experience. The Actualism method is an incremental process but rewards happen all the time as you continue to see new levels of peace, happiness, and sensuousness. Let me know if you'd like to talk via ichat or something about anything but if you continue to research Actualism, the website is incredibly all that is needed.

I just don't know how to answer your question Adam. I guess because Actualism is non-spiritual or Richard completely rejects all notions of spirituality and all it comes down to is being happy and harmless and that the human condition is actually easy to explain and that fear, aggression, nurture, desire, are the instinctual basis to the being, the self, and all our behaviors and so if you mechanically eliminate these chemicals, then all malice and sorrow disappears and you live in a magical world that this planet, which is here to support life, actually is.

Sorry I deleted my question right before you posted I guess- it was something along the lines of "whoa that sounds good! Why don't more people practice it" trying to humorously refer to your somewhat overly-optimistic idea of actualism

btw- i deleted that post because i regretted posting it, i dont really want to start an argument.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my experience.

The Actualism website is a bit of a barrier, though the possibility of living with such a great degree of ease is difficult to ignore.

What degree of success have you had with the Actualism method? Would you say that the PCE is a 24/7 experience for you at this point? And about how long have you been using the Actualism method? (I assume you're doing HAIETMOBA?)

In my own case, the reason I never practiced it before is because I didn't know what the PCE was. Once I realized they were using the phrase "PCE" to describe experience X (related in the OP), it was self-evident to me why someone would want to practice something that is supposed to bring it about.

Thing is, I'm starting to think there are a variety of experiences that fit into the timeless/non-dual category, and that one that I had was not necessarily a PCE. I'm very interested in this class of experiences in general, as they're a lot better and a lot cleaner than any experience I've been able to generate by means of vipassana/samatha. So I've been trying a variety of techniques to bring them about. Problem is, it's not possible to make one of them happen. You can only do things to make them more likely to happen.

I'm tempted to practice HAIETMOBA in earnest, just so I can see what comes up, and whether it's the same or similar to what happened to me last year.

I bet you will have success at first at least, I've practiced HAIETMOBA myself, lots of others have and alot of people recommend it, at the moment other practices seem to work better for me. Not a bad experiment to run in any case.

I've been doing actualism for around two years everyday never giving up and exactly what Richard describes is happening. Sometimes, I misinterpret where I am in regards to the map or if an experience was a PCE or not but it is a fact that both my social identity and psychic vibes have vastly reduced as well as sadness. Sensuousness continues to provide an increasing clarity and sensuous pleasure. It's amazing. They have been spot on with the AF trust website. Overly-optimistic is a good label for how optimistic I am about actualism lol and someday, an actual freedom.

Is there an actualism map?

I always thought the Actualism website was very clear and any kind of strange "feelings" I had about Richard were like he said, just my perception. Actualism works like a scientific method. You practice being happy and harmless and you get incrementally happier and more harmless. You also slowly tear down the social identity and work on your emotions/instincts to neither express or repress them to be harmless. The more harmless you are, the more happy you can become, vice versa. As you figure out what sensuousness, the aesthetic pleasure of the actual comes more and more into play revealing that the universe is perfect as is and can be totally satisfying.



Right now, I'm just a normal person who experiences less instincts than other people and basically has very little social identity. My experience is normal but always pleasurable (when sorrow is not around to bother me) and exciting when I notice the gravity of the universe. I'm not even sure I've had more than one PCE. I have had many many EE's but only one PCE about 2 months ago that proved living like that for 24/7 would be perfect experiences with moment to moment exciting and pleasure as well as a clarity and stillness that leaves one awestruck looking around at the magnitude of the stillness. All the while, the experience is not mystical but mundane. It is mundane not in a boring but a clear normal way that is just exhilarating. For example, the difference in clarity when your tipsy drunk or when your sober is just a matter of clean perception. Perception is so clean in the PCE that it is imminently and continuously fascinating and perfect not to mention the direct contact with objective sensation that gives the body such sensuous pleasure.

I have been doing the Actualism method for almost two years. At the time, many of the dho participants were getting really into Actualism and so I was swept with the tide after achieving MCTB 1st path. It was pretty obvious after a week or two that the actualism method was better than sitting around meditating and also led to quick realizations. For you and me now, I wouldn't expect to get the PCE until it happens. Its science its not spirituality. Who knows when and why the body stops releasing the instinctual chemicals but what is obvious is that these chemicals are slowly decreasing in output leading to cleaner and happier perception. I would should use the method to be happy and harmless and watch how your life gets easier and no longer emotions or beliefs have an annoying clamoring. My experience is not a 24/7 PCE that would be an actual freedom. When I am walking around and thinking about the actualism method, I can sometimes be in an EE or otherwise just be ridiculously happy and harmless observing the functions of the universe and obsessively contemplating. If a PCE happens, I'm not even sure it happens and it is often quick but my pesky identity is always trying jump in and ruin the fun. I know the AFT site says the aim is be in PCE 24/7 but this is an a longterm aim. Life can be great without having a PCE. The PCE for me was a factual undeniable event the the actualism method does provide what it promotes and all the glory with it. Before the PCE, I just saw how sadness was decreasing, perceptions was getting clearing, happiness and harmlessness was increasing etc. This is how i knew it was working but the PCE was a total shot to the face like damn, I can have this 24/7? Your like an automatic genius in the PCE. Your like John Milton without even trying.

Spirituality, buddhism, etc. makes no sense to me now. I don't get why people are still trying it. It has done very little for the last however man thousand years. The size honestly and clarity of Richards words should show him as someone knowing what he's talking about. He labels simply what everything is and then one can find out for themselves. Watching people argue about spirituality now is like watching them argue within a plastic bubble to not do one thing in the plastic bubble but do another. In a PCE, the plastic bubble that is psychic reality completely disappears. I don't walk around like do this or do that. I'm just trying to be as happy as possible and experience the actual. I know any weird events or faults that occur are just inherent to the flawed nature of the human condition.

I don't know I sound here. I am only 22. I just know the actualism method is working exactly exactly exactly as its saying. Its only the time table or need to accomplish certain experiential states that seem to betray progress. I'm going stick to it till the end, I want to actualize the PCE I had.

I don't do HAIETMOBA. I did it for like two or three months and then just got lazy. Whenever I say a reminder phrase like "there is no I am" or "the actual has not vibes," I am implementing a method to attain a sensuousness and happiness I have been working on for the last two years. When I say these reminder phrases, I quickly become happy and harmless again.

Good luck, I'm willing to speak via ichat. I don't think I'm going to continue with the forums as I find them to be pointless. Again, the actualism website has all one needs to know about getting peace, freedom, and happiness. I will not be editing my above statements lol as i'm going to drink a bottle of water instead, text my mother happy birthday, and whisper to people while then immediately looking away lol jk.

Just when I thought I was out you pull me back in (pacino reference). There is a map but its tricked me many times. In general, the linear progression is correct but its your own perceptions that cause you to think your here or there and it gets annoying. You think your in vf but your really exploring the social identity. I don't know where I am. I still have low levels of sadness everyday. Life becomes incrementally easier, more joyous, the universe clearly shows you its mysteries. The map is cool because it can outline what your going to go through in a matter of months or years. Think of the Actualism method as that %1 metaphor where as you work on being happy and harmless, each day or week or so your 1% closer to your goal. Then its like three months later and you look back and your a new different and much happier person. Thats the actualism method but the rewards get better and better and consistently increases where life, minus a few things per day or so, is filled with joy and interest. Still the aim is to be happy and harmless 24/7, PCE 24/7, eradicate all malice and sorrow, all that jazz and in this way, is a 24/7 dedicated effort although very rewarding.

Hi, Fitter,

There is a map made by Peter here.

Regards,

Felipe

Helpful. Thank you.