SOTT > SOTT Podcasts
Gurdjieff's Mediums
dantem:
The message is curious just because, whatever "medium" G's may point to, it could very well be that G. had a connection with an higher form of knowledge. Perhaps is not so important focusing on which kind of "tool" G. was using, but the fact that he's trying to convey a cryptic message here.
Maybe the time was not right, it was even dangerous at the time to start talking about it. It's like he just left it there, in his book "Life is real only then, when 'I am'", for those with eyes to see, isn't it?
Stargazer:
--- Quote from: ibell ---Laura was attributing great significance to Gurdjieff's reference to "medium" in this context
--- End quote ---
She was? Maybe she was just drawing an interesting parallel? Personally, I thought greater significance was attributed to Gurdjieff's description of his experience of "self-remembering". But I guess significance can be a subjective thing... or not.
Art:
--- Quote from: ibell ---how do you know he's talking about trance jockeys rather than a physical "medium" such as water or crystal? (...)
Laura was attributing great significance to Gurdjieff's reference to "medium" in this context but are there any references by Gurdjieff to "mediums" in the human-channeller sense elsewhere that would suport it. "Medium" could mean anything in so "esoteric" a context. Glass. Music. Dance.
--- End quote ---
I dont get your point. What is it you are trying to say? Is there something bothering you?
And a question for you: Laura uses a Ouija Board. Who would you say is the medium, Laura or the board?
Com'on, say it: L-A-U-R-A
Laura:
Interesting reaction, I think. As Ryan points out, I was drawing a parallel that struck me as quite interesting considering the CONTEXT.
What was the context?
That Gurdjief had certain abilities which he described quite clearly as "the power of telepathy and hypnotism."
These are the abilities he voluntarily gave up using except, as he clearly states, for scientific purposes.
So, he says that he will continue to use TELEPATHY and HYPNOTISM for "scientific purposes" and adds "For instance, I was very much interested then, and even now my interest has not entirely vanished, in increasing the visibility of distant cosmic centers many thousand times through the use of a medium, and in the cure of cancer by the power of suggestion."
Now, please suggest to me some other way that the abilities of TELEPATHY and HYPNOTISM can be used in "increasing the visibility of distant cosmic centers many thousands of time throught the use of a medium"?
On another note, I have a correspondent who has written to me off and on for the past 5 years or so, a gentleman who grew up around Gurdjieff and his students. I can always depend on him to critique my interpretations of Gurdjieff. After the recent podcast he wrote one of his infrequent messages as follows:
--- Quote ---Dear Laura,
thanks for your recent Ouspensky podcast , which I found very heartening .
I just finished Paul Beekman Taylors' book , Gurdjieff in America , (he was a
child around Gurdjieff , and now some distinguished North American scholar .) The book seemed to be
some sort of historical chronology of Yankee people around Gurdjieff , and I found myself rather
bored with it until I got to the final chapter , where Taylor commented on the SPARK that Gurdjieff
had somehow implanted into Beelzebubs Tales.
It has been my experience , since I first read All and Everything , forty years ago , an
ignorant youth , and the way it altered my life permanently , that there is an actual force
contained somehow , within it . Quite apart from the information , (who else knew of , in the 1920s
about cigar shaped mother ships , surgical cattle mutilations , the dangers of planting a Jewish
state in Palestine , and the eventual effects of the internal combustion engine on Nature ?) And the
historical information of course .
Its obvious to me , from reason alone , that Gurdjieff worked on simultaneous levels .
I used to inwardly criticize Mrs. Salzmann for the sanitization she seems to have performed after Gurdjieff
"died " , but I now see that she must have been selected so that groups of the particularly arid character which you describe , and which I have had some experience of , should have been formed in precisely the way
they have been .
Because of this work on different levels , to me , the implication is that we are called upon to learn WHEN to take Gurdjieff literally , and when not to .
For instance , when he told Ouspensky that a man could attain immortality within the Solar System , it has been my experience that with Gurdjieff , this is very much the case . On the other hand , his analagous use
of our attitudes concerning money , cash , are a minefield for the unsuspecting literalist .
With Beelzebubs Tales , I now see an extremely elegant dolmen , the printed words of which ,
are but the introduction to something quite unexpected . Gurdjieffs' continuous reference , all
through his recorded career ,to the difference between Personality and Essence is absolutely
critical to understanding his work , it seems to me . The Salzmann groups seem to rely upon "
sitting " in the mornings for their dose of essence , while spending the rest of the day obliging
the comfort of their entrenched personalities .
In one of the talks Gurdjieff gave in the 20s , which has been sanitized now , he stated , quite
explicitly , that any emotion that you have , that contains any sympathy whatever , for you ,
yourself , is going to be complex , confusing , foggy , and above all , dirty . Only sympathy ,
emotion , feeling for the OTHER is direct , simple and clean . There's a tall order for
impeccability Eh?
[Name withheld for privacy]
--- End quote ---
anart:
What a fascinating letter - and this part is so true -
--- Quote from: Laura ---In one of the talks Gurdjieff gave in the 20s , which has been sanitized now , he stated , quite
explicitly , that any emotion that you have , that contains any sympathy whatever , for you ,
yourself , is going to be complex , confusing , foggy , and above all , dirty . Only sympathy ,
emotion , feeling for the OTHER is direct , simple and clean . There's a tall order for
impeccability Eh?
--- End quote ---
Especially in the case of sympathy or empathy for others, the difference is palpable, at least in my own experience.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version