The Wave Vol.5 - Chapter 33
According to don Juan, recapitulation is an exercise to recall, review, release, and recharge energy lost in this drama of souls. It rids a person of assumptions and preconceptions. It frees locked energy and restores balance. The chief thing about recapitulation that seems to not be clearly stated by the so-called Toltec teachings is that what it really does is increase awareness by increasing knowledge, and with increased knowledge and awareness, the individual is able to employ will to choose to act differently; to cut the connections between the self and those who drain us.
Life is lessons. It’s that simple. We “pass” these lessons by learning to see the hidden dynamics of our interpersonal relationships. Once we understand these dynamics we can learn to put an end to the destructive and emotionally draining ones. If what the Cs have said about the Wave is true, then it is by learning these simple karmic understandings that one can learn the lessons of third grade. Therefore, the process of recapitulation is one of great importance. By having an understanding of our past mistakes we can apply our understanding in the present, thus protecting ourselves for the future. We can truly self-remember, as Gurdjieff says, and utilize the present for whatever aim we have set for ourselves.
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The hidden key in the teachings of the Cs, don Juan, and Gurdjieff, is that human beings may, indeed, be what they are because of genetics, but they can change this – to some extent – by what they learn. Perhaps we ought to pause for a moment to consider how this is possible.
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Deep in the base of the brain is a structure called the hippocampus (Greek for sea horse!) and a part of the hippocampus is called Ammon’s horn, or the Ram. In the Ammon’s horn, there are a large number of pyramidal neurons which gather the input of other sensory neurons. A pyramidal neuron is difficult to fire, but if two separate inputs arrive at once, their combined effect will fire it. Once fired, it is much easier to fire, but only by one of the two inputs that originally fired it, and not by another input. Thus, for example, the sight of a pyramid and the word Egypt combined, could fire the pyramidal cell, creating an associative memory. This means that things that occur together in time can “potentiate” associative learning.
What resides in and near the hippocampus is the mechanism for creating long-term memory. The cells there transmit the newly formed long-term memory to where it will reside in the neo-cortex. People with small hippocampuses can form procedural memories – that is, they can learn to do things that require skill, like reading and writing, and diagramming sentences, teaching English and literature, performing rituals and collecting data of all kinds, and even aping scholars to a sufficient extent that the non-discriminating observer is easily fooled.
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Getting back to recapitulation. It seems that, when utilized correctly, it is a process of “thinking with a hammer,” and making associations. Recapitulation can be a tool by which awareness is enhanced. According to don Juan, it consists in hashing over and reliving one’s experiences. One must attempt to remember every possible, minute detail. When this is done within a group, it becomes the essence of what Paul wrote when he said “confess your sins one to the other,” keeping in mind that Gurdjieff referred to the Fourth Way as “Esoteric Christianity.” The Cs say “network” and “air it out.” The result seems to be that recapitulation increases awareness, which then enables us to apply what we are now aware of in practical ways, and thus, we are enabled to begin the process of reclaiming our energy, and making better choices about who or what we connect to, or associate with, in terms of our interactions with people and situations that we encounter in our daily lives.
The way this may work is that, by recapitulation, we are discovering principles. We are looking at an event in the real world, considering the psychological, “real” reason, and associating it to the theological reason. This means that we are firing the pyramidal cells in the hippocampus because we are coming at the issue with numerous inputs at once. This then ships the information off to the neo-cortex where more synapses are formed, and more thinking capacity results, establishing a positive feedback loop.
According to don Juan, recapitulating an event starts with one’s mind arranging everything pertinent to what is being recapitulated. Arranging means reconstructing the event, piece by piece, starting with recollecting the physical details of the surroundings, then remembering the person with whom one shared the interaction, and then proceeding to the examination of the self and one’s own feelings. This is extremely important, and the reader will recognize echoes of Gurdjieff’s self-remembering and will also see the associative properties of creating the multiple inputs for the hippocampus.
