Gurdjieff never completed his book "Life is Real..." His last chapter, titled "The Outer and Inner World of Man" began with:
He proceeds to describe a number of incidents, including the one that is the centerpiece for his discussion of Sympathy and Condolences posted here: http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,33300.0.html
Following that story, he proceeds to another story about a series of coincidences that led him to a certain newspaper where: "As I opened it, the first thing on which my eyes fell was this title— "The Problem of Old Age," that is, just that question which for the course of three days and nights had left me no peace." G quotes the article in its entirety. Basically, it lays out a few observations about longevity, the final part saying:
Gurdjieff then reiterates the earlier statement from the ancient manuscript about the Three Totalities of Functioning that develop at different stages of human life as follows:
At this point, he goes on to discuss his ideas of soul potentials.
Then he further says:
Then he says that one of these forces - good or evil - "coincides with that function whose factors proceed from the results of impressions received from outside". The other force - good or evil - "appears as a function whose factors issue chiefly from the results of the specific functioning of the organs, as determined by heredity." He says also that sometimes one or the other - the outside or the inside functions - play the role of good or evil. ..."it is not important to know which of the two forces is affirmative and which is negative; what matters is that when one affirms, the other denies."
As we know from Timothy Wilson's book "Strangers to Ourselves", as well as Kahneman's book "Thinking: Fast and Slow..." and Porges' "Polyvagal Theory" (and others) what G has enunciated in this last series of remarks is confirmed by modern cognitive science.
Then he begins to talk about the Third World of Man: the world of the soul. Remember now what G said above about how, and from what, this soul develops:
That is to say, the "I" in a real man is formed as a result of 1) contemplation; 2) in the contact/struggle between the inner world and outer world as described above. Thus:
Well, we know this last bit pretty well just from cognitive science.
Now G draws a conclusion:
Now, we are approaching the mystery, so to say. G begins the last bit by saying:
What the heck? What do G's enemies with "an unusual inner attitude" have to do with this topic?
Let's look at what he did write from this point on until the abrupt ending:
AND THAT'S THE END! That's it. If anybody knows of a place where what he intended to say is recorded, please bring it forward!
The only thing that occurs to me is that what he wrote in the prologue to the book must tell us what he intended which is the following which should be read slowly and carefully.
So, I suspect that these last few paragraphs - especially the last six lines - distill what G intended to discuss at length in the last unfinished chapter. Most likely he was talking about the "man in parentheses", the man without a soul, mechanical man or, perhaps not?
Although the subject which I intend to elucidate by means of the text of this chapter of the last book of my writings is entirely lacking in the mentation of contemporary people, there nevertheless flows from the ignorance of the meaning of this subject the greatest part, if not all, of the misunderstandings which take place in the process of our common life.
Not only do the causes of almost all the misunderstandings of our common life flow from the lack of understanding of the significance of the given subject, but also exclusively in it are contained all the answers to the possibility of solving the chief problem of our existence.
That is, thanks alone to the recognition and all-round understanding of the sense and significance of this subject is it possible to solve the problem of the prolongation of human life.
Before beginning the further development of this question, I wish to cite the contents of an ancient manuscript with which I accidentally became acquainted in quite exceptional life circumstances.
This very ancient manuscript, the contents of which I intend to make use of, is one of those relics which is handed down from generation to generation by a very limited number of people, that is, by "Initiates"— not such "initiates," however, as have been multiplying recently in Europe, but genuine ones.
In this case, by "Initiates" of an esoteric sect which still exists at the present time in one of the remote corners of Central Asia.
The text of this manuscript is expounded, as was done in antiquity, "podobolizovany," in the form of symbolizing, or, as it is called in esoteric science, "making alike," that is, allegorically—quite different from the form now established for mentation among contemporary people.
As the difference between these forms is very well-known to me, of course also accidentally, I will endeavor to transmit the sense of this text as exactly as possible but in agreement with the form of mentation now established among contemporary people.
This ancient manuscript says the following:
The general psyche of every man on reaching maturity, which begins on an average in the male sex at twenty years and in the female sex at the beginning of the thirteenth year, consists of three totalities of functioning which have almost nothing in common with each other.
The course of action of all three of these independent totalities of functioning in the common presence of a man who has attained maturity takes place simultaneously and incessantly.
All the factors making up and producing these three totalities of functioning begin, and cease, to form in man at different periods of his life.
The factors producing in man the first totality of functioning, unless special measures are employed, are formed, as has been established long ago, only in childhood—in boys on an average until the age of eleven years, and in girls until the age of seven.
The factors producing the second totality of functioning begin to form in boys from the age of nine years, and in girls even from the age of four years, lasting in different cases a different length of time, approximately until the attainment of maturity.
And factors producing the third totality begin to form from the attainment of maturity, continuing in the average man at present only until the age of sixty, and in woman only until the age of forty-five.
But in the case of people who have consciously perfected themselves to the so-called "all-centers-awake state," that is, to the state of being able in their waking state to think and feel on their own initiative, these factors still continue to form in man until the age of three hundred years and in woman until the age of two hundred.
...
He proceeds to describe a number of incidents, including the one that is the centerpiece for his discussion of Sympathy and Condolences posted here: http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,33300.0.html
Following that story, he proceeds to another story about a series of coincidences that led him to a certain newspaper where: "As I opened it, the first thing on which my eyes fell was this title— "The Problem of Old Age," that is, just that question which for the course of three days and nights had left me no peace." G quotes the article in its entirety. Basically, it lays out a few observations about longevity, the final part saying:
What have the observations shown? The study of the long-lived has brought us to the conclusion that, aside from the outer, social causes which, for a long span of life, have an enormous part to play, hereditary factors have also a great significance. Almost all the very aged had had completely good health during their whole life! Many of them had retained their memory and their mental faculties. The majority looked much younger than their years. They were never in the least sick.
This characteristic brought the scholars to the extremely important idea of the presence in many of them of inborn immunity to infectious diseases. This biological quality seems to be one of the hereditary factors which characterize those inner conditions under which man may live to a great age.
There are also other extremely important results of the observations. For instance, the observation of the differences between very old and very young people has a great scientific significance. Is the blood of the aged normal?
This question has received a final answer: the blood of the aged has been found to be in a normal state, and to differ very little from the blood of younger people.
At the same time it has been shown that long-lived people retain their full physical capacity, in particular the sex function, for a very long time.
On comparison of the results of investigations of juveniles and aged, it was possible to establish a fundamental law conformity in the development of man, and to observe functional changes which are determined by the physiological peculiarities of man at different age levels. ...
Since the work of Brown-Sequard and Metchnikov, this scientific idea has made great progress. The doctrine of the glands of inner secretion has been greatly developed. The latest findings in the field of hormones have brought much that is new. {I emphasize what appears to me to be of importance in relation to Gurdjieff's ideas.}
Gurdjieff then reiterates the earlier statement from the ancient manuscript about the Three Totalities of Functioning that develop at different stages of human life as follows:
And thus, every man, if he is just an ordinary man, that is, one who has never consciously "worked on himself," has two worlds; and if he has worked on himself, and has become a so to say "candidate for another life," he has even three worlds.
At this point, he goes on to discuss his ideas of soul potentials.
First of all, it must be said that in the outpourings of various occultists and other will-less parasites, when they discuss spiritual questions, not everything is entirely wrong.
What they call the "soul" does really exist, but not everybody necessarily has one.
A soul is not born with man and can neither unfold nor take form in him so long as his body is not fully developed.
It is a luxury that can only appear and attain completion in the period of "responsible age," that is to say, in a man's maturity.
Then he further says:
The matter from which the soul is formed and from which it later nourishes and perfects itself is, in general, elaborated during the processes that take place between the two essential forces upon which the entire Universe is founded.
The matter in which the soul is coated can be produced exclusively by the action of these two forces, which are called "good" and "evil" by ancient science, or "affirmation" and "negation," while contemporary science calls them "attraction" and "repulsion."
Then he says that one of these forces - good or evil - "coincides with that function whose factors proceed from the results of impressions received from outside". The other force - good or evil - "appears as a function whose factors issue chiefly from the results of the specific functioning of the organs, as determined by heredity." He says also that sometimes one or the other - the outside or the inside functions - play the role of good or evil. ..."it is not important to know which of the two forces is affirmative and which is negative; what matters is that when one affirms, the other denies."
...that totality of functioning whose factors are constituted from impressions coming from outside is called the "outer world" of man.
...the other totality, whose factors have arisen from automatically flowing "experiences" and from reflexes of the organism—notably of those organs whose specific character is transmitted by heredity—is called the "inner world" of man.
In relation to these two worlds, man appears in reality to be merely a slave, because his various perceptions and manifestations cannot be other than conformable to the quality and nature of the factors making up these totalities.
He is obliged, in relation to his outer world as well as his inner world, to manifest himself in accordance with the orders received from any given factor of one or the other totality.
He cannot have his own initiative; he is not free to want or not to want, but is obliged to carry out passively this or that "result" proceeding from other outer or inner results.
Such a man, that is to say, a man who is related to only two worlds, can never do anything; on the contrary, everything is done through him. In everything, he is but the blind instrument of the caprices of his outer and inner worlds.
The highest esoteric science calls such a man "a man in quotation marks"; in other words he is named a man and at the same time he is not a man.
He is not a man such as he should be, because his perceptions and his manifestations do not flow according to his own initiative but take place either under the influence of accidental causes or in accordance with functioning that conforms to the laws of the two worlds.
In the case of "a man in quotation marks," the "I" is missing and what takes its place and "fills its role" is the factor of initiative proceeding from that one of the two above-mentioned totalities in which the center of gravity of his general state is located.
As we know from Timothy Wilson's book "Strangers to Ourselves", as well as Kahneman's book "Thinking: Fast and Slow..." and Porges' "Polyvagal Theory" (and others) what G has enunciated in this last series of remarks is confirmed by modern cognitive science.
Then he begins to talk about the Third World of Man: the world of the soul. Remember now what G said above about how, and from what, this soul develops:
The matter from which the soul is formed and from which it later nourishes and perfects itself is, in general, elaborated during the processes that take place between the two essential forces upon which the entire Universe is founded.
The matter in which the soul is coated can be produced exclusively by the action of these two forces, which are called "good" and "evil" by ancient science, or "affirmation" and "negation," while contemporary science calls them "attraction" and "repulsion."
That is to say, the "I" in a real man is formed as a result of 1) contemplation; 2) in the contact/struggle between the inner world and outer world as described above. Thus:
According to this terminology, the general psyche of man in its definitive form is considered to be the result of conformity to these three independent worlds.
The first is the outer world—in other words, everything existing outside him, both what he can see and feel as well as what is invisible and intangible for him.
The second is the inner world—in other words, all the automatic processes of his nature and the mechanical repercussions of these processes.
The third world is his own world, depending neither upon his "outer world" nor upon his "inner world"; that is to say, it is independent of the caprices of the processes that flow in him as well as of the imperfections in these processes that bring them about.
A man who does not possess his own world can never do anything from his own initiative: all his actions "are done" in him.
Well, we know this last bit pretty well just from cognitive science.
Now G draws a conclusion:
Thus, it is quite obvious that the whole secret of human existence lies in the difference in the formation of the factors that are necessary for these three relatively independent functions of the general psyche of man.
And this difference consists solely in that the factors of the first two totalities are formed by themselves, in conformity to laws, as a result of chance causes not depending on them, while the factors of the third totality are formed exclusively by an intentional blending of the functions of the first two.
Now, we are approaching the mystery, so to say. G begins the last bit by saying:
The necessary factors for the three totalities are formed in man, as is everything in the entire Universe, from corresponding vibrations...
To explain what is meant by the vibrations that I have just been speaking about, I can at once take as an excellent example the causes of the fact that today, enemies with an unusual inner attitude toward me are multiplying in great numbers, and I am now in relationship with them on all sides.
What the heck? What do G's enemies with "an unusual inner attitude" have to do with this topic?
Let's look at what he did write from this point on until the abrupt ending:
Among the diverse characteristic aspects of this unusual inner attitude on the part of the multitude of my enemies, we shall take for our explanation only the following:
There is not, so to speak, a single one of my sworn enemies who, in one or another of his ordinary states, would not be ready to "sell his soul for me."
"What an absurdity!" each of my readers will think. "How could one and the same man possibly have two such diametrically opposed attitudes toward another person?"
Yes, from a superficial point of view, it is absurd—and all the same, in reality, it is so.
Indeed, it is an irrefutable fact, a fact that can be demonstrated at will in all its details, not only on the practical level—I mean to say, by normal means available to everybody—but also scientifically, by making use of all the "diagnostics" of the various branches of the official science of our day, such as jurisprudence, chemistry, physics, medicine, etc. . . . and, it seems, psychoanalysis itself.
Moreover, nothing is easier to demonstrate than this, in the first place because suitable subjects for study can be found free of charge by the thousands, and furthermore—and this is the most important—because such investigations have as their point of departure a principle I have already established and formulated in a manner fully acceptable for every category of learned being.
This principle, which is beyond scientific dispute, I have defined in the following terms:
"The sharpness of the contradiction which appears between two diametrically opposed actions is directly proportional to the duration of their meeting."
And, in truth, it is so. The more someone has direct relations with me, the more strength he shows later in the diametrically opposed actions that he manifests towards me.
And this psycho-physical combination, which arises in the reciprocal relations of people—although unbelievable at first sight—operates in general in the simple manner which I am about to describe.
First of all, you must know that throughout the entire Universe every concentration, to whatever species it belongs, has the property of giving off radiations.
Given that in man the formation of the three totalities of functioning of his general psyche appears as an arising of results issuing from diverse sources, each of these sources must itself also have the property of giving off radiations.
Just as the radiation of every cosmic concentration consists of vibrations emitted by a corresponding source, so too the vibrations issuing from the processes of each of these quite distinct totalities of functioning that make up the general psyche of man have a density and a degree of vivifyingness of their own.
When there is a contact between the radiations of different cosmic concentrations, blending of the vibrations takes place according to their "affinity"; similarly, when the vibrations given off by two people come in contact, blending occurs among those of the vibrations that correspond to each other.
In order to explain by analogy certain features of the radiations of a person, I shall take as an example the radiations given off by our Earth.
The general radiations of the Earth, the totality of which manifests as the atmosphere, consist of three independent
classes of vibrations, issuing from processes that take place in the very heart of the Earth between metals, metalloids and minerals.
The general radiation of a person also consists of three independent kinds of vibrations, each with its own quality of vivifyingness.
And just as the heterogeneous vibrations given off by the Earth encounter certain well-defined limits in the course of their expansion according to their degree of vivifyingness, so too the different elements of the general radiation of a person have their precise limits.
For example, while the vibrations issuing from a process of active reasoning can, under certain known conditions, acquire a force of expansion that can span hundreds or thousands of kilometers, the vibrations given off by the process of sensation, however active it may be, cannot extend beyond some two hundred meters.
In man, the three kinds of vibrations have their origin in the following three processes:
The first kind of vibrations has its origin in the process called "active thought," and sometimes even, thanks to certain known combinations, in the process of "passive thought."
The second kind of vibrations has its origin in the process called "feeling."
The third kind of vibrations corresponds to the totality of the results issuing from the functioning of all the organs of the physical body— they are also referred to as "vibrations of the instinctive functions."
The vibrations given off by the whole presence of a man in a state of complete relaxation constitute in themselves an atmosphere analogous to the spectrum of colors, having a known limit to its expansion.
And as soon as a man begins to think, to feel or to move, this spectrumlike atmosphere changes, both as to the volume of its expansion and as to the quality of its presence.
The greater the intensity of manifestation of one or another of the separate functions of the general psyche of a man, the more the spectrum of his atmosphere is differentiated.
We can very well represent to ourselves the combination of heterogeneous vibrations arising in the general radiation of different persons in the course of their ordinary existence if we compare it to the following picture:
On a dark night, during a violent storm over the ocean, some people on shore observe the oscillations of a floating collection of many colored electric lamps, connected with each other at long intervals and at the ends with two wires.
Although these colored lamps draw their current from one and the same source, yet since their rays pass through changing conditions of various kinds, some shine out to a distance, others affect each other as they interpenetrate, still others are completely swallowed up either mid-way or at the very place of their arising.
If two people are together, the closer they are to each other, the more intimate is the mixing of their atmospheres, and therefore the better is the contact achieved between their specific vibrations.
The blending and fusion of the specific vibrations given off by different people take place mechanically, depending on their situation in relation to each other and on the conditions they are in.
And so, among the people with whom I come in contact, the formation of the psychic factors necessary for the manifestation of attitudes diametrically opposed to me must inevitably occur in the following way:
AND THAT'S THE END! That's it. If anybody knows of a place where what he intended to say is recorded, please bring it forward!
The only thing that occurs to me is that what he wrote in the prologue to the book must tell us what he intended which is the following which should be read slowly and carefully.
Although all the strange will-tasks and original principles which I have applied to life during the last seven years are, as already stated, elucidated in the subsequent text of this book, yet the feelings of admiration and gratitude overflowing in me bid the whole of me here, in the initial chapter, to comment on that principle of mine for outer life which unexpectedly became for me, so to say, the "inexhaustible source."
I refer to that already-mentioned principle which I characterized by the words "to press the most sensitive corn of everyone I met."
Thanks to this principle, which turned out to be miracle-working for me, I, besides having always and everywhere an abundance of material for my chief aim, that is, for my regeneration, also, thanks only to it, so affected everyone who met me, that he himself, without any effort on my part whatsoever, as if with great satisfaction and complete readiness, took off his mask presented to him with great solemnity by his papa and mama; and thanks to this I at once acquired an unprecedentedly easy possibility of unhurriedly and quietly feasting my eyes on what his inner world contained, not only of the accidentally surviving worthy data proper to man, but also of all the nauseating filth accumulated from his absolutely abnormal so-called "education."
This, and only this, for me Divine principle, enabled me to discern and understand at last those deeply hidden nuances of the human soul that had intrigued me all my life.
To it, and to it alone, am I indebted for all that I now possess.
...
However, concerning the significance and the value of the inner wealth acquired by me, I will also explain in detail at the end of this last book.
{And this is what he did not do as we see above.}
Meanwhile, in order to acclaim this principle, I shall say that on account of it I lost all without exception that I possessed of what people call wealth.
Because of it I lost not only the wealth that I possessed but also all so-called "friends," and even the so to say "privilege of being envied"—in a word, all that because of which only I was several years ago considered by a great many people no mere "dog's tail" but one of the first-ranking "aces" of contemporary life.
In spite of all this, I, today, when I write these lines and when the surrounding conditions of my ordinary life—grown law-abidingly worse and worse because of my inflexible carrying out in life of the tasks set myself, and among them this principle of mine—are already so far gone that I cannot even imagine how I shall pull through, bless this principle with all my being.
About the circumstances of ordinary life which have today resulted for me, I shall without fail explain also at the end of this book, if, of course, I succeed in somehow carrying on for one more month.
And I shall then explain, also, why I used the expression "grown law-abidingly worse."
I shall without fail explain it, for in all this there is not only much that is instructive but also such comicality that, if all the wits got together purposely to think it up, they could not think up even the tenth part of it.
Having expressed my gratitude to this principle for the acquisition of inner riches, I must now be quite impartial and put the question squarely. ... Is this so?
Could this principle invented by me be also, in all other surrounding conditions of ordinary life, such a vivifying factor?
Frankly speaking, according to the opinion of my subconscious, I must say. . . . no.
This could have happened only thanks to the general material crisis.
I must therefore express my thanks to such a general human misfortune.
Since it would be rather awkward to do that, I shall therefore retain my former opinion.
Now, while expressing half-mockingly my gratitude to this uncertain factor for the inner riches which I now possess, I remembered many living people near to me, who, because of my mentioned egoistic ideas, must have had many disappointments.
Among such people, who willingly or unwillingly did not have a very "sweet" life, there were many really near to me in blood as well as in spirit.
In concluding this chapter of the third series of my writings, I, almost on the eve of the sequential fulfillment of my egoistical aims, addressing all those near to me, shall speak only about two "substantial factors," formed in my inner world.
The first, formed in my being while yet in childhood, and which is the sovereign of my convictions, may be formulated as follows: "Only then may a man be a good altruist to his nearest, when at times he can be a complete egoist."
And the second was formed within me two years after I began to actualize the three aims of my seven-year task.
While working intensively on the books intended for publication, under conditions of law abidingly arisen misfortunes, I, when I noticed that because of my pursuit of my egoistical ideas those near me were becoming worse and worse, once brought myself into a state of mind by a technique I acquired from my father, and through self-suggestion crystallized in my presence this psychic factor, in terms of the following supposition:
If I should attain my self-imposed aims, and should still survive, then I would live with a definite program, as follows:
one third of all my waking state I shall devote to pleasures of my own body; the second third, exclusively to those by that time remaining near to me, in spirit as well as in blood; and the third part to science, that is, to all humanity.
Thus now, after everything that has been clarified in this introductory chapter, I advise, and at that very sincerely, all my readers, both those who know me and those who do not, and also all my dear friends and not less dear "enemies," to try to understand properly the essence of the text of this, my last book, and especially the essence of the concluding chapter.
The concluding chapter of my final book I intend to name "The Inner and Outer World of Man" and to explain in it a question, unusual in the mentation of people, but nevertheless the most preeminent of all questions, from the totality of which follow almost all the misunderstandings of our common lives.
Very sincerely I advise you to understand it because, if nothing else, the common presence of every one will acquire a perhaps even subconsciously acting "factor-pacifier" for the larger part of the futile worries and moral sufferings occurring in their lives.
Above I used the word "enemies" not casually but because, first, the very best friends for my real self, that is, for my inner world, appear, strange as it may seem, to be some from among a great number of my "staunch enemies," at the present time scattered all over the world; and because, second, it may serve me ideally as a good example for the concluding chapter of the present book, and therefore I shall use it as such.
{Here one might recall Mouravieff's discussion of the necessity for shocks and Castaneda's discussion of the necessity for a good petty tyrant. }
Recollecting now through association some of such "enemies" especially dear to my inner world, I, feeling sincerely touched, wish, already here in this introductory chapter of my last book, for their pleasure or displeasure, to quote a few from among the sayings known to me, sayings of popular wisdom which have reached our days through "legomonisms" from the ancient days.
I said for their pleasure or displeasure because I do not know which current of life's river they follow at present.
Since then much time has elapsed. . . . Whether they have remained in that current of life's river into which I, unmerciful to myself, had directed them—just that current which sooner or later must fall into the fathomless ocean—I do not know; or whether the temptations of life, likewise law-abiding, have pushed them into the current which sooner or later must fall into the abyss, for further involution and evolution.
And so, the first of these sayings of popular wisdom runs as follows:
"A man is not a pig to forget good, nor is he a cat to remember evil."
"The first refusal to a person who is devoid of conscience or consideration will destroy the results of even thousands of good deeds formerly manifested toward him by you."
"Only that person is worthy to be a follower of any religion who, although he remembers the wrong done to him by someone, will not manifest any evil toward him."
"You will be reasonable only then when you will learn to distinguish your future good or evil from that of your present."
"Such is the nature of man, that for your first gift—he prostrates himself;
for your second—kisses your hand;
for the third—fawns;
for the fourth—just nods his head once;
for the fifth— becomes too familiar; for the sixth—insults you;
and for the seventh—sues you because he was not given enough."
So, I suspect that these last few paragraphs - especially the last six lines - distill what G intended to discuss at length in the last unfinished chapter. Most likely he was talking about the "man in parentheses", the man without a soul, mechanical man or, perhaps not?
