Interview with Richard Grant from Australia

[Justin]

Members of the forum, this is my first interview and hope to do many more. In this interview, it's myself interviewing (the stoic) Richard Grant from Australia. He's the author of the soon to be available book called, 'Nothing Matters' and is in the process of writing another called, 'Give it No Thought'.

Richard was seeking out like minds and somehow landed on our doorstep and stayed as a guest in our home for 2+ months. During this time Richard and I talked quite a bit and also pushed each others buttons. 2+ months can be a very long time...

Needless to say, Richard was a wonderful house guest, (for an Australian - LOL) and he's become a part of our family. He had the opportunity to purchase a mac computer and started doing videos and learning how to use the computer. Nearly 80 years of age, Richard is a dear friend and one of the very few people I've encountered in my lifetime that are actual living proof of their own, unique philosophy.

While I didn't agree with everything, much of what Richard expressed while he was here rang true... Even if I didn't admit it at the time. So without further ado, meet Richard.

Inteview with Richard Grant from Australia

If you want to keep up with this lively and interesting fella, you can see his blog here. The video is also hosted on this forum located here. Richard is a student of Walter and Lao Russell and repeatedly stated that Dr. Russell and his writings were infallable.

We hope that this will be the first of many member interviews.

[Khethil]

Very nice interview. A few comments if I may:

• Nice fellow with a positively-contagious laugh! Some folks talk the talk.. and most walk something completely different from what comes out of their mouth. My feeling is this guy has completely embraced these philosophies. Most excellent.
• Nearly all concepts summarized rang a chord of truth with me; although I'll readily admit that I'm not clear on all foundations.
• I especially like the Empowerment through Awareness through our own, self-constructed perceptions - implications for living an enlightened life are... well, HUGE.
• From inside the mind, Nothing matters; except insomuch as we assign it meaning. Again, huge utility for living a life that's conscious how the mind is responsible for perceived angst, anger, love, hate, worry, etc.
• I've always felt a peaceful identification with the stoic mindset; acceptance and personal responsibility for this acceptance, is one of the most-difficult turnkeys to access.
• I like your cat; arrogant and demanding as all cats should be.

Thanks for sharing; I'd like to know more on the specifics and have some questions which, I think, would most-likely be answered if I were to read the books. They're on my list.

Thanks again

[Rose]

That actually made a lot of sense to me.

I have been living by a philosophy that states that thought is creative. All thought, good and bad, is creative and tends to become a material thing.

Richard is correct when he talks about what we do to ourselves through negative internal dialogue. We do make ourselves ill. We do age prematurely.

If we want to improve the quality of our life we must improve the quality of our thoughts.

Well done, Justin. I look forward to seeing more videos.

[Justin]

Thank you both for your responses.

Kethil - Richard is active on this forum and I'm sure would be willing to answer questions that you may have. Leave him a visitor message if you'd like.

Rose - Thank you for the compliment. When we first had the camera rolling and sat down in front of it we both burst out in laughter and had to cut. I'm not exactly one that likes to be on camera. I do hope however to do more interviews in the very near future. They may not be able to all be video interviews but we'll get some written ones up on the forums once we've settled on a format.

Richard's philosophy also makes a lot of sense to myself as well.

We'd love for both of you to participate if you would be willing.

[Khethil]

Well, I rather felt unqualified to question or flesh-out these ideas as I hadn't read either of the books referenced. But what the heck, given the size of my reading list, it could be a while.

I've gone to your website and looked for specific aspects to reference with my questions (GiveitnoThought.com)

From "My Awakening"

"So I applied this principal to my ailments, I had a belief that heavy lifting caused my back problems, when in actual fact it was my belief that this was so, by not giving any thought and particularly not verbalizing the thought, I no longer have a problem with my back, the same as when I stopped giving thought and verbalizing the thought that I needed glasses to read with, now at the age of eighty I no longer need glasses to read with

To understand this, my first question is basic: At the risk of oversimplification, would you say that 1) Your back never really had any quantifiable damage at all; that it was only your "attention" to it that made the pain. 2) That there was probably some physical issue, but that your conscious "preoccupation" in some way empowered the pain at all. 3) That your attention somehow increased or egagerated the pain. Or, something completely else?

... realizing that what I was seeing was a clear reflection of my own consciousness.

I'd agree that we interpret all we perceive; and in so doing, put a "twist" or otherwise assign some meaning or significance. But in this quote, I get the impression that either 1) Nothing else but my reflection is truly there -or- 2) Although there is really something there, it is my reflection only that gives it any meaning. Could you clarify?

Knowing that every thing that is, is of every thing that is... where everything starts with self, and finishes with ones own self. there being no two things in the universe.

This feels cryptic, but I want to understand it. Is this along the same lines as the "all I see is my reflection therefore nothing else..."-concept or something completely different? The last phrase, "... there being no two things in the universe", also has me thrown. I'm trying to fit it into the context of the adjacent messages and somehow it's not working for me. Are we talking, "All I see is Me therefore?"


I've always believed there are untapped potentials in the mind; doors just ready to be opened. And in many of what you've said I get the sense this might be one of them; a personal, real empowerment past the silliness of mysticism and religion that one can really grab onto without compromising oneself. But in order to turn that subtle, hard-to-describe doorknob, I have to understand just "what it is".

Thanks very much in advance. We appreciate your sharing.

[xris]

Thanks for letting me see your chat with each other ,i very much enjoyed watching your obvious joy in each others company..you made my day...

[TickTockMan]

Outstanding. It's a pleasure to see someone who is so obviously at peace with everything. I wish there was a way I could download this file to play on my iPod. Thanks for sharing it here.

[socrato]

You are taking your metaphysics into too much detail and speculation. Yeah I know... I can't do much to counter the 'experience' you have had. But seriously, let God find you and just live your life instead of reading Russel and trying to see the transcendent.

[Richardgrant]

I find now that as I give no thought to person,place or thing, allows God to control my life, and it is amazing the results. Because thoughts are mind (Richards mind) in motion, this creates separation,

I use my thoughts to manifest the material world, what is being reflected back to me is my thoughts in motion. As I give no thought to what I see out there, it ceases to have motion, if it has no motion I will not notice it.

By giving thought to any thing is to create a problem that was not there previously, so I stop the thought which stops the motion. Richard

Originally Posted by socrato

You are taking your metaphysics into too much detail and speculation. Yeah I know... I can't do much to counter the 'experience' you have had. But seriously, let God find you and just live your life instead of reading Russel and trying to see the transcendent.

[xris]

I hope you don't take this badly Richard but i see a good singer not the song.I could be wrong, your song is not very clear to me but your person is a shining example.