How does a full on PCE change the identity when it is reinstated?
How did it change your relationship with people?
What was most notible for you? (other than with people)

You become more fun and naive and interested.
People either feel more comfortable around you because you're fun and naive and interested and they like it,
or people feel way more uncomfortable around you because you're fun and naive and interested and they're not and it makes them feel self-conscious.
For me, the biggest change is that I am becoming much more fun,
I learn faster,
I get to know people faster,
food tastes better,
everything is clearer,
every day is a wonderful joyous adventure full of marvel and delight,
I rarely get bored,
I have far more control of my desires which previously seemed to run my life,
I am more tolerant of things that used to cause me mental, physical, or emotional pain,
I am healthier,
I have dumped issues I thought I was going to carry my whole life,
and I am regaining a dormant naivete that I thought was lost to the sands of time, as people had repeatedly told me it would be since I was a child.

I had a ten minute PCE several months ago. It was great but my old mental habits soon took me out of that EE-type state which led to the PCE and i haven't gotten back there since. So, beware that regression is possible. But if you do regress after a PCE, it's must be because you weren't convinced of the wisdom of this mode of living and need more convincing. I.E. it hasn't become crystal clear yet that all your knowledge is less than conclusive and much of it is outright false and that everything you thought was important isn't because nothing is important. melt into freedom!

Jon - How are you doing right now, at this minute? It's not so much that nothing is important, it's more that everything is a mystery. Good luck!

"You" realize that who "you" are is a circulating system of beliefs. Then when you drop those beliefs masquerading as a curtain in front of your senses, bare sensate awareness is seen as continuously pleasurable and interesting as you are physically present in the universe of things as they are with all their shapes, textures, smells, colors etc to look at and enjoy.



Well in a PCE all relationships are perfect and great as they are because everything is perfect as it is. One isn't really having a relationship because their is no affective strings to tie two people together. The 'relationship' is more two people totally enjoying this moment of being alive, which includes the pleasures of being around another living person and the intimacy that entails. Outside a pce and as you move toward a more bare awareness, your increasingly at ease, friendly, and happy.



Probably how interesting and pleasurable mundane experience is.

A PCE isn't that big of a deal in the sense of having accomplished something. When you apply the actualist method, one slips into short moments of pce where life is amazing and that amazingness can continue 24/7 if one wants.

Some people on this forum talk about a "full on PCE" as compared to a "regular PCE". What this means, in my experience, is one sometimes has a mega PCE of sorts that beats out all their other previous PCE's and shows them a new depth to what is possible to experience. I try to stay in a PCE/EE as often and long as possible. Most aren't at the depth of life-changing realizations as my 2-3 mega PCE experiences but still, experience is perfection. This is where I try to stay as much as possible. A PCE is a direct experiencing of the actual and as peter says, unmediated sense experience. So whenever "I" am sure of unmediated sense experience without the interference of instinctual programming, I consider it a PCE and with this acknowledgement comes an increased relaxation and often added felicity that makes me sure "I" am actually having a PCE.

At this minute, mood is very high with no pride and no fear. I hear what you're saying. Before that PCE, I was gawking at street signs and just thinking how so amazing. But after the PCE, i became uncomfortable with that naivite even though it worked and started trying to be more aware of no-self which is more sophisticated but not as effective. That method generated a lot of tension that until now i wasn't aware of. I still use it but it's not forced, just a natural byproduct of previous insights and practice. Now, though, I'm approaching practice as releasing tension as it gets noticed. This is mostly instantaneous. as i become aware of the tension, i release it. sometimes it is more cognitive but that part of practice has been mostly taken care and when it is cognitive, it's natural -byproduct of previous insights and practice. sometimes, i keep the tension because it is 'fun' (self-validating thought process) but that fun is never better than releasing it and being free from it. Wonder is growing but i am not purposefully trying to generate it. I want it to develop as the result of being stress-free and not having anything holding me from it. however, when i notice it, i do want to have an awareness that that is what's all about it. and that awareness is hopefully growing. What do you think?

I am not sure if I've had a full blown PCE, but at least I did get pretty close 2 or 3 times.

The PCE is an anchor experience in the sense that it leaves a precedent of perfection, a taste of the final destination. It works like fuel for the pure intent to reach AF (almost like an obsession, a huge commitment to keep practicing).

It is that reminder, but also a tool to perceive that the identity comes in distinct shapes, forms and degrees. It serves the purpose of measuring the experience of "me" by contrast. When you see the variations and the different levels of "me", along with its results in actions and intentions, comes the realization that that identity is unnecessary, it just contaminates the whole perception.

In practical terms, it helps to recognize the feelings that form layers over the clear perception of a PCE, to not give so much credit to those feelings, and therefore quickly dissolve them and get back quicker and quicker to the anchor of actuality.

Edit: So how that changes the identity specifically? "I" become challenged, and therefore less concrete and objective, therefore less and less present, so I can sense actuality in its immediacy in more occasions than before. And that means qualities like not taking sides, having equanimity, not putting artificial "musts" in life, enjoying situations that typically bored me or bore people, not projecting my own desires and insecurities on external objects and persons, etc.

As long as you're happy, then it's working. As far as I can tell, treating it less like a practice and more like a smart approach to life helps. When Richard says it's 180 degrees opposite to spiritual practices, it means a lot; the more commonsensical you are in your approach, the more sincere you will become, and the easier it will be to uncover naiveté.

A hint that is helping me quite a lot is from Trent's article, "Between Chaos and Order Lies Wonder". An excellent read, should be required reading for anyone "looking for" freedom.




This is a really brilliant piece IMO. Would be worth contemplating.