It’s been a long time, more than three years, since I wrote this post about finding freedom and inner joy. Life has been a bliss ever since, but with lots of water having passed under the bridge, times are changing once again.

Some will be shocked, at least one person will feel victorious and many, many will be surprised.

Yes, it seems like I’ve rejoined Facebook.

Note, by “leaving” facebook, I don’t mean the standard “deactivation” that only locks your account until you log back in again. That still keeps all your data, personal info, posts, photos online for everybody to see. Yes, it is possible to delete you account, but that must be requested via e-mail, and only after you delete everything connected to your user. That means all applications, every single post you made on people’s user pages, basically a LOT of data that needs to be deleted…one…by…one. Barely impossible.

But there is a trick! Facebook stores your e-mail address as an unique identifier for your account. This is where we start.

Quick and simple guide for permanently deleting your Facebook account

UPDATE: September 2009: Many readers have reported that this hack doesn’t work anymore. I cannot verify if this works or not (for obvious reasons ), read the comments below for more information.

As found at Wikihow

Make sure that you know what you are doing. I take no responsibility of these actions. This is permanent!

1. If you are the only admin of any group, hand it over to someone you trust or the group will be gone as well (which will make any group members confused)
2. Say a last goodbye.
3. Remove all your e-mail addresses except the one you use as your contact e-mail.
4. Disable your account. This can be found where you edit your profile. If you feel like it, check “Other” as the reason to why you leave, and type in a crafty note to the Facebook owners. Something like “I leave you for ever. You lose!” or any message of your liking
5. Sign up a new account. Use a DIFFERENT e-mail than the one on your old accont. I recommend SlopsBox, a free one-time mail service for these kinds of registrations. SlopsBox will make sure this account won’t be traced back to you.
6. When you sign up, you can provide any information you want as long as you use your SlopsBox e-mail account. Fake your name and info, or people will think this account is you.
7. When you have signed up, edit your profile.
8. Take a last deep breath. It happens now. Add the e-mail address of your original account to be your contact info.
9. When this has been verified, your old account is overwritten by your new one. Like magic.
10. Deactivate this new account and select “Opt-out”
11. Done!

Now you are free to do whatever you want. Take a picture. Feel the bubbling sensation of you actually owning the photo yourself. Nobody else!
Take a walk. Try to remember the last time you were walking and not feeling watched. This is your new life without Facebook.

So to all of you who had me on his/her contact list and wonder where I have gone: I am no longer on Facebook. You will no longer find me in your contact list. You will not find me in your fancy group you created. You will not find my cute messages that I wrote on your wall.
You will find me somewhere else, in a better place. Perhaps you should join me? It is actually simple and painless.

Questions? Comments? Outrageous anger? Write below!