Yes indeed! Modern work in psychology with the addition of new terminology gives Gurdjieff's work (and Castaneda's) a great deal of validity. It also helps us to study these issues in a more comprehensive and exacting way. When you have these tools to work with, which is what we teach in QFS, your "self observation" and "recapitulation" can be quite effective.
There are a couple other threads that touch on these matters so I want to include that information here as well.
In this thread:
http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=5743
I wrote:
It seems quite obvious that any individual who wishes to pursue esoteric studies ought to have a clean and fully functional and most of all HEALTHY psyche before he goes wandering off into unknown realms. After all, if your psychological state is such that you cannot deal effectively with your everyday life, how can you possibly trust such a psychological state not to mislead you in studies where you have fewer solid landmarks or feedback mechanisms to guide you?
And so, the very FIRST order of business in any esoteric work is to get psychologically healthy. That's basically what the Gurdjieff "self-remembering" and Mouravieff "introspection" and Castaneda "recapitulation" is all about.
Sure, it can be referred to in nebulous ways such as "the work of sorcerers" and "recapturing energy" and so on, but it can also be talked about in very practical, scientific, modern terminology with definite examples and techniques for accomplishing this important work of knowing your machine, cleaning and adjusting it so that it works properly, and preparing oneself for more "interesting" esoteric work.
I think that, after reading the above quotes from "Trapped In The Mirror," you can get a better idea of exactly what I mean.
We must also keep in mind that there is a great deal more going on in our minds in addition to the "negative introject" that Goulomb describes. As we continue to grow and develop, there are additional programs added based on our need to please our peers, teachers, society at large. All of these are like internal voices that tell us what to think and believe.
"Recapitulation" as formulated by Castaneda was, I think, a take-off on Gurdjieff's "self-remembering." Boris Mouravieff states the matter in a rather practical way:
Mouravieff said:
Homo Sapiens lives immersed in his everyday life to a point where he forgets himself and forgets where he is going; yet, without feeling it, he knows that death cuts off everything.
How can we explain that the intellectual who has made marvelous discoveries and the technocrat who has exploited them have left outside the field of their investigations the ending of our lives? How can we explain that a science which attempts everything and claims everything nevertheless remains indifferent to the enigma revealed by the question of death? How can we explain why Science, instead of uniting its efforts with its older sister Religion to resolve the problem of Being -which is also the problem of death - has in fact opposed her?
Whether a man dies in bed or aboard an interplanetary ship, the human condition has not changed in the slightest.
Happiness? But we are taught that happiness lasts only as long as the Illusion lasts... and what is this Illusion? Nobody knows. But it submerges us.
If we only knew what Illusion is, we would then know the opposite: what Truth is. This Truth would liberate us from slavery.
As a psychological phenomenon, has Illusion ever been subjected to critical analysis based on the most recent discoveries of science? It does not seem to be so, and yet one cannot say that man is lazy and does not search. He is a passionate searcher ... but he misses the essential; he bypasses it in his search.
What strikes us from the very beginning is that man confuses moral progress with technical progress, so that the development of science continues in dangerous isolation.
The brilliant progress that has come from technology has changed nothing essential in the human condition, and will change nothing, because it operates only in the field of everyday events. For this reason it touches the inner life of man only superficially. Yet from very ancient times it has been known that the essential is found within man, not outside him. [...]
Esoteric philosophy concerns man as he is: the investigator is the object of his own studies. Starting from the constatation that man is unknown, his target is to make himself known to himself - as he is, and as he might become under certain conditions. [...]
Gurdjieff had his methods. Mouravieff wrote about these methods in a slightly different way. Castaneda either "borrowed" many of these ideas and re-framed them in a "Southwestern shamanic context" with his own "spin", or actually found traces of the same ideas there. I tend toward the former supposition based on the timing and discussion with someone who knew him.
Our own approach is more strictly along the lines of Gurdjieff and Mouravieff and a bit of Castaneda with a kick. Gurdjieff and Mouravieff and Castaneda all talk about a man needing to know himself, to know his "machine," to observe it, to engage in "introspection" or "recapitulation" or "self-observation" and so on and so forth. We have taken this to the next logical step and utilize the terminology of modern psychology.
In our searching for validation of these ideas, we have found that there are actually studies and books written about various aspects of human psychology that service these very ancient traditions remarkably.
Gurdjieff talked about "buffers" and how they are created. It's clear that Castaneda's "recapitulation" was supposed to be a means of dealing with buffers though Castaneda's presentation of many things was sorely lacking in clarity. He tended to "mystify" the whole thing. That is unfortunate. A lot of people follow after the Castaneda "way" because of this very "mystification." It sounds so - well - "esoteric" and they don't want to accept the simple fact that
the first order of business is to deal with your own psychology in a very basic and practical way.
Have a look at what Gurdjieff had to say about "buffers" and keep in mind that he is talking about the many "programs" or thought loops that become inculcated into us from childhood due to our experiences and familial and social "conditioning." These programs, or thought loops, are the same thing that Castaneda refers to as the "Predator's Mind." I wrote about this sort of thing extensively in The Wave in more modern psychological parlance.
And, with the above quote from "Trapped In The Mirror," you can have another "take" on the matter that shows you exactly what you have to deal with. Now, here's what Gurdjieff said about it:
Gurdjieff said:
"You often think in a very naive way," he said. "You already think you can do. To get rid of this conviction is more difficult than anything else for a man. You do not understand all the complexity of your organization and you do not realize that every effort, in addition to the results desired, even if it gives these, gives thousands of unexpected and often undesirable results, and the chief thing that you forget is that you are not beginning from the beginning with a nice clean, new machine.
There stand behind you many years of a wrong and stupid life, of indulgence in every kind of weakness, of shutting your eyes to your own errors, of striving to avoid all unpleasant truths, of constant lying to yourselves, of self-justification, of blaming others, and so on, and so on.
All this cannot help affecting the machine. The machine is dirty, in places it is rusty, and in some places artificial appliances have been formed, the necessity for which has been created by its own wrong way of working.
"These artificial appliances will now interfere very much with all your good intentions.
"They are called 'buffers.'
" 'Buffer' is a term which requires special explanation. We know what buffers on railway carriages are. They are the contrivances which lessen the shock when carriages or trucks strike one another. If there were no buffers the shock of one carriage against another would be very unpleasant and dangerous. Buffers soften the results of these shocks and render them unnoticeable and imperceptible.
"Exactly the same appliances are to be found within man. They are created, not by nature but by man himself, although involuntarily.
The cause of their appearance is the existence in man of many contradictions; contradictions of opinions, feelings, sympathies, words, and actions. If a man throughout the whole of his life were to feel all the contradictions that are within him he could not live and act as calmly as he lives and acts now. He would have constant friction, constant unrest.
We fail to see how contradictory and hostile the different I's of our personality are to one another. If a man were to feel all these contradictions he would feel what he really is. He would feel that he is mad. It is not pleasant to anyone to feel that he is mad. Moreover, a thought such as this deprives a man of self-confidence, weakens his energy, deprives him of 'self-respect.' Somehow or other he must master this thought or banish it. He must either destroy contradictions or cease to see and to feel them. A man cannot destroy contradictions. But if 'buffers' are created in him he can cease to feel them and he will not feel the impact from the clash of contradictory views, contradictory emotions, contradictory words.
"'Buffers' are created slowly and gradually. Very many 'buffers' are created artificially through 'education.' Others are created under the hypnotic influence of all surrounding life. A man is surrounded by people who live, speak, think, and feel by means of 'buffers.' Imitating them in their opinions, actions, and words, a man involuntarily creates similar 'buffers' in himself.
'Buffers' make a man's life more easy. It is very hard to live without 'buffers.' But they keep man from the possibility of inner development because 'buffers' are made to lessen shocks and it is only shocks that can lead a man out of the state in which he lives, that is, waken him. 'Buffers' lull a man to sleep, give him the agreeable and peaceful sensation that all will be well, that no contradictions exist and that he can sleep in peace. 'Buffers' are appliances by means of which a man can always be in the right. 'Buffers' help a man not to feel his conscience.
We have found that dealing with the issues of Narcissism and psychopatholgy in our world is the clearest and most direct path to dealing with programs, buffers or the "predator's mind" in man. Most human beings in the world are narcissistic and most of us are raised by narcissists. The world itself - society, culture, science, religion, etc - is heavily influenced by psychopathic influences and these influences are one of the reasons that most potentially healthy people become narcissistic - it is a defense - a system of buffers.
And so, as we are raised in a psychopathic/narcissistic world, we also grow these buffers that separate us from our true self, and that force our machine to use up vast quantities of soul energy just to keep running at all.
And so, we approach the problem in a very pragmatic and practical way. A person can do nothing until they are psychologically healthy and this means removing buffers, mentally going over the machine in a careful and thorough way, cleaning it, re-wiring it and most of all, having new experiences that help with this re-wiring process in an environment where this is possible.
We begin by assigning reading tasks. You have to have the information, data, the understanding of your machine before you can even observe yourself and have a clue what you are observing. There are a number of contemporary works that serve this purpose beautifully - much better than reading dusty, archaic tomes with uncertain terminology, or "mystified" popularizations that are designed to attract followers more than they are designed to really help the individual in a practical way. The "Big Four" books that must be read in this order are:
1) Trapped in The Mirror by Elan Goulomb
2) Unholy Hungers by Barbara Hort
3) The Myth of Sanity by Martha Stout
4) The Narcissistic Family by Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman and Robert M. Pressman
This will give a person a good working knowledge of their buffers and what to be looking for when "self-remembering", "introspecting" or "recapitulating". Without the information in these books, you are basically just wandering around in the dark trying to figure out what this or that "esoteric term" might mean.
Then, of course, you need to really understand how the world got to be the way it is so that you have all these issues, and that involves the study of psychopathy. Studying psychopathy is useful for another very good reason: when you finally clearly see the traits of the psychopath "writ large," it helps you to identify traces of such influences in your own make-up. Psychopaths are like caricatures that help you recognize something by its most pronounced features, just like the drawing known as a caricature.
So, in short, if you wish to "recapitulate," you need to begin with the books listed above. That way you will have a much better idea of what you are doing, what you are looking for, and WHY it is important, not to mention why doing so actually "frees up energy."
Now, going back to one particular thing that Gurdjieff said above that is powerfully related to the issue:
"'Buffers' are created slowly and gradually. Very many 'buffers' are created artificially through 'education.' Others are created under the hypnotic influence of all surrounding life. A man is surrounded by people who live, speak, think, and feel by means of 'buffers.' Imitating them in their opinions, actions, and words, a man involuntarily creates similar 'buffers' in himself.
What often happens in an individual who has a strong negative introject as described by Goulomb above, is that he/she cannot bear this constant "self-criticism" because it is too painful. So, he creates his own buffers/programs against it which generally are very narcissistic and "self-important." Because the person is not aware that what is going on inside is, actually, a "negative introject," because these thoughts and ideas are in the person's head, they think that they "belong" to them, that they are a part of their own thinking process. So, they don't get a healthy view of them; instead, they counter them and seek to bury them in self-aggrandizing beliefs about the self.
The way this happens is described in Martha Stout's book, "The Myth of Sanity." It is called "dissociation." When the negative introject comes in, the individual dissociates into fantasy about the self being strong and powerful, capable, able to outsmart everyone else, getting even, being a misunderstood messiah, and so on.
When the negative introject is particularly strong, there can also be more than usual dissociation, and the more you dissociate, the more habitual and automatic it becomes. You don't even realize you are doing it.
What then happens is that, when you are grown up, you have all these automatic ways of thinking about yourself that are absolutely contradictory, and you spend most of your time shifting from the negative introject to any one of many dissociated states that deny the introject and provide a "saving fantasy" all of which precludes your being able to deal with what is here, now.
If your partner or boss or a clerk in a store, says or does something that sounds a bit like something your mother or father or an old schoolteacher, or your priest said that became part of your negative introject, you will immediately shift into the dissociated narcissistic self as a defense mechanism. It won't matter that who you are dealing with now is not saying or doing anything that has anything to do with the past event. Just a series of words that remind you of the "old days" is enough to trigger the automatic running of the program.
Quite often, the narcissistic programs include a lot of negative thoughts about other people which are designed to put them down, to diminish them, to cast them in a bad light because that is how the narcissistic program works: anything that starts the negative introject MUST be destroyed! The instant the negative half of the emotional center starts to vibrate, that energy can be usurped by the intellectual center, and all kinds of thoughts that have no basis in reality begin to run through the mind. Mouravieff describes it this way:
Mouravieff said:
Among the lower centres, the emotional centre is worst off. In our civilization- as we have already observed- it generally receives neither rational education nor systematic training. Its formation and development are now left to chance, since religious education today has been largely intellectualized and rationalized. All sorts of considerations dictated by worldly wisdom and mundane vanity; the habitual practice of lying - especially to ourselves -and hypocrisy, from which no one is totally exempt, imprint dangerous distortions on the emotional centre. Frequently struck by a feeling of inferiority and by the need for compensation, its usual motivation; accustomed as it is to judge and to criticize everybody and everything; surrendering itself to a strangely voluptuous enjoyment of negative emotions; this centre becomes unrecognizable. It degenerates to the point where it becomes the instrument of destruction of our being, which it accelerates on its way towards ageing and death. [...]
In order to be better aware of the true state of the Personality of the contemporary cultured man, we shall recapitulate what we know about all this. Let us observe that generally even if the positive part of the emotional centre is in an almost uninterrupted state of lethargy, if not actually paralysed, its negative part acts frequently. It reacts particularly to disagreeable shocks either from the outside or from within. These are the negative emotions we have already mentioned, remarking on their destructive effects . In that respect, man largely follows the habits of animals: at the least unpleasantness the machinery of negative emotions begins to act. In general, the effect of this negative reaction greatly exceeds the importance of its cause. [...]
ecause the positive part of the emotional centre is practically paralysed, the negative part cannot exercise its positive role. The only thing left to it is to make the centre vibrate with negative activity in the form of negative emotions. But negative emotions of this composite nature take coarse forms, ruled by sensations and passions that belong to the motor centre. [...]
When the emotional centre is deprived of its normal functions, the number of links between centres is reduced ... The chords which correspond to the finest and most subtle components of human morale are eliminated. This is due to the changes that occur in the structure of both the intellectual and motor centres; changes that lead to the impoverishment of both as the emotional sectors of these two centres practically disappear, due to the disappearance of their source since the emotional centre is in a state of lethargy. [...]
When man of this psychological type feels the need for relaxation-which is legitimate in itself -he falls under sway of his bodily instincts. His 'I of the body then takes the place of the 'I' of the unbalanced Personality. However, the 'I' of the body only has the use of the motor centre, which is equally mutilated. Since this ... too is deprived of a compass. Man then turns towards 'small pleasures' or 'grand passions' in which he satisfies all his senses, driven by an inventive intellectual imagination while the two centres, motor and intellectual, are fed by energy stolen from the sexual centre. ...
[T]he phenomenon [this discussion] reveals is much more frequent than one would believe. ....
To put a final point to this, we have only to answer the question that confronts those who wish to pass from words to acts: how can we awaken the emotional centre and then develop it? The answer is simple: by mastering negative emotions and transmuting them into positive emotions.
But this does not consist of simply "willing" the mastery of negative emotions, suppressing or repressing them. The machine must be cleaned, re-wired, circuits changed, etc. Mastering negative emotions consists, mostly, in awakening them and then, while the emotion is in full play, to illuminate the emotional program that is running with knowledge and awareness.
This is not as easy as it sounds, as many members of QFS can attest. Mouravieff comments:
Mouravieff said:
We often think that it is sufficient for us to gather theoretical esoteric knowledge, and that this will then produce its effect on us - like a healing medicine: that no other effort will be necessary on our part. This is a common error of conception. In reality, esoteric work requires continuous efforts of analysis and synthesis in order to create and consolidate each 'grain' of success that we gather in our march towards and on the Way. The influences to which life - that great way-constantly exposes us, are mixed, and contain corruption.
To choose between them, we possess certain resources, a certain liberty of action, and a force which makes it possible for us to accomplish this work of selection. This force is attention. Attention is the sole capital we possess. But we can use it in either a good or a bad way. Often, we cannot even say that we use it at all: we leave it to disperse. Yet attention is indispensable to us, especially for the control of negative emotions, which impoverish us and provoke in us losses, sometimes considerable, of forces we have accumulated at the price of sustained effort. In certain cases this can go so far as to provoke true collapse within us. A watchful attention allows us to stop these negative emotions the moment they are born. Afterwards, on ground which has been purified in this way, we will be able to let positive emotions flow freely, so as to enrich us and permit us to accumulate the force necessary to continue our esoteric work.
Now, perhaps, Gurdjieff's words in the following excerpts will make more sense:
Gurdjieff said:
"When a man comes to realize the necessity not only for self-study and self¬observation but also for work on himself with the object of changing himself, the character of his self-observation must change. He has so far studied the details of the work of the centers, trying only to register this or that phenomenon, to be an impartial witness. He has studied the work of the machine. Now he must begin to see himself, that is to say, to see, not separate details, not the work of small wheels and levers, but to see everything taken together as a whole—the whole of himself such as others see him.
"For this purpose a man must learn to take, so to speak, 'mental photographs' of himself at different moments of his life and in different emotional states: and not photographs of details, but photographs of the whole as he saw it. In other words these photographs must contain simultaneously everything that a man can see in himself at a given moment. Emotions, moods, thoughts, sensations, postures, movements, tones of voice, facial expressions, and so on.
If a man succeeds in seizing interesting moments for these photographs he will very soon collect a whole album of pictures of himself which, taken together, will show him quite clearly what he is. But it is not so easy to learn how to take these photographs at the most interesting and characteristic moments, how to catch characteristic postures, characteristic facial expressions, characteristic emotions, and characteristic thoughts. If the photographs are taken successfully and if there is a sufficient number of them, a man will see that his usual conception of himself, with which he has lived from year to year, is very far from reality.
"Instead of the man he had supposed himself to be he will see quite another man. This 'other' man is himself and at the same time not himself. It is he as other people know him, as he imagines himself and as he appears in his actions, words, and so on; but not altogether such as he actually is. For a man himself knows that there is a great deal that is unreal, invented, and artificial in this other man whom other people know and whom he knows himself.
You must learn to divide the real from the invented. And to begin self-observation and self-study it is necessary to divide oneself. A man must realize that he indeed consists of two men.
"One is the man he calls 'I' and whom others call 'Ouspensky,' 'Zakharov' or 'Petrov.' The other is the real he, the real I, which appears in his life only for very short moments and which can become firm and permanent only after a very lengthy period of work.
"But when a man understands his helplessness in the face of 'Ouspensky' his attitude towards himself and towards 'Ouspensky' in him ceases to be either indifferent or unconcerned.
"Self-observation becomes observation of 'Ouspensky' A man understands that he is not 'Ouspensky,' that 'Ouspensky' is nothing but the mask he wears, the part that he unconsciously plays and which unfortunately he cannot stop playing, a part which rules him and makes him do and say thousands of stupid things, thousands of things which he would never do or say himself.
"If he is sincere with himself he feels that he is in the power of 'Ouspensky' and at the same time he feels that he is not 'Ouspensky.'
"He begins to be afraid of 'Ouspensky,' begins to feel that he is his 'enemy.' No matter what he would like to do, everything is intercepted and altered by 'Ouspensky.' 'Ouspensky' is his 'enemy.' 'Ouspensky's' desires, tastes, sympathies, antipathies, thoughts, opinions, are either opposed to his own views, feelings, and moods, or they have nothing in common with them. And, at the same time, 'Ouspensky' is his master. He is the slave. He has no will of his own. He has no means of expressing his desires because whatever he would like to do or say would be done for him by 'Ouspensky.'
"On this level of self-observation a man must understand that his whole aim is to free himself from 'Ouspensky.' And since he cannot in fact free himself from 'Ouspensky,' because he is himself, he must therefore master 'Ouspensky' and make him do, not what the 'Ouspensky' of the given moment wants, but what he himself wants to do. From being the master, 'Ouspensky' must become the servant.
"The first stage of work on oneself consists in separating oneself from 'Ouspensky' mentally, in being separated from him in actual fact, in keeping apart from him. But the fact must be borne in mind that the whole attention must be concentrated upon 'Ouspensky' for a man is unable to explain what he himself really is. But he can explain 'Ouspensky' to himself and with this he must begin, remembering at the same time that he is not 'Ouspensky.'
"The most dangerous thing in this case is to rely on one's own judgment. If a man is lucky he may at this time have someone near him who can tell him where he is and where 'Ouspensky' is. But he must moreover trust this person, because he will undoubtedly think that he understands everything himself and that he knows where he is and where 'Ouspensky' is. And not only in relation to himself but in relation also to other people will he think that he knows and sees their 'Ouspenskys.' All this is of course self-deception.
At this stage a man can see nothing either in relation to himself or to others. The more convinced he is that he can, the more he is mistaken.
But if he can be even to a slight extent sincere with himself and really wants to know the truth, then he can find an exact and infallible basis for judging rightly first about himself and then about other people.
But the whole point lies in being sincere with oneself. And this is by no means easy.
People do not understand that sincerity must be learned. They imagine that to be sincere or not to be sincere depends upon their desire or decision. But how can a man be sincere with himself when in actual fact he sincerely does not see what he ought to see in himself?
Someone has to show it to him. And his attitude towards the person who shows him must be a right one, that is, such as will help him to see what is shown him and not, as often happens, hinder him if he begins to think that he already knows better.
"This is a very serious moment in the work. A man who loses his direction at this moment will never find it again afterwards.
It must be remembered that man such as he is does not possess the means of distinguishing 'I' and 'Ouspensky' in himself. Even if he tries to, he will lie to himself and invent things, and he will never see himself as he really is. It must be understood that without outside help a man can never see himself.
[...]
This transmutation of the emotions will then help the transmutation of si 12 in the human organism. No serious growth, that is, no growth of higher bodies within the organism, is possible without this transmutation.
The idea of this transmutation was known to many ancient teachings as well as to some comparatively recent ones, such as the alchemy of the Middle Ages. But the alchemists spoke of this transmutation in the allegorical forms of the transformation of base metals into precious ones. In reality, however, they meant the transformation of coarse 'hydrogens' into finer ones in the human organism, chiefly of the transformation of mi 12.
If this transformation is attained, a man can be said to have 'achieved what he was striving for, and it can also be said that, until this transformation is attained, all results attained by a man can be lost because they are not fixed in him in any way; moreover, they are attained only in the spheres of thought and emotion. Real, objective results can be obtained only after the transmutation of mi 12 has begun.
"Alchemists who spoke of this transmutation began directly with it. They knew nothing, or at least they said nothing, about the nature of the first volitional 'shock.' It is upon this, however, that the whole thing depends. The second volitional 'shock' and transmutation become physically possible only after long practice on the first volitional 'shock,' which consists in self-remembering, and in observing the impressions received. [...]
"The transition of matter si 12 into emanations and the gradual saturation of the whole organism by it is what alchemy calls 'transmutation' or transformation. It is first this transformation of the physical body into the astral that alchemy called the transformation of the 'coarse' into the 'fine' or the transformation of base metals into gold.
"Completed transmutation, that is to say, the formation of the 'astral body,' is possible only in a healthy, normally functioning organism. In a sick, or a perverted, or a crippled organism, no transmutation is possible."
There is, of course, that tricky issue of actually being able to see the self. We do not realize how attached we are to this seeing of ourself a certain way that has been created in reaction to the negative introject. Quite often we find support for this self-perception in our choice of social contacts, in literature and movies and so on. We tend to exclude those people and things that might upset our narcissistic self-perception. That, of course, helps us to deny the truth when we come to that point where we must be sincere at the deepest level. We can always find some social or literary source, or a circle of friends, who will tell us that "oh, no... you really ARE perfect and wonderful and whoever said you have an issue with (________) is just not understanding YOU!" Or whatever. As Gurdjieff noted, this is a crucial point in the work.
Gurdjieff said:
Someone has to show it to him. And his attitude towards the person who shows him must be a right one, that is, such as will help him to see what is shown him and not, as often happens, hinder him if he begins to think that he already knows better.
"This is a very serious moment in the work. A man who loses his direction at this moment will never find it again afterwards.
If someone who is trying to show you something about yourself is perceived as part of the "negative introject," this will be very difficult because you will automatically begin to cast that person in all kinds of negative lights.
Mouravieff said:
"When it comes to the other centres, the misuse of the negative parts takes much more insidious forms, which entail more serious consequences for our minds as well as our bodies. That is how the negative part of the intellectual centre nourishes jealousy, afterthoughts, hypocrisy, suspicion, treachery, etc.
The negative part of the emotional centre receives all the disagreeable impressions and serves as a vehicle for negative emotions, for which the keyboard is very large, ranging from melancholy to hate. We shall have occasion to go deeper into the problem of negative emotions. [Such emotion] represents one of the major obstacles to esoteric evolution."
But do not think that it is not important to have "negative emotions." That is NOT the point here. The point is that they must accurately represent the reality HERE and NOW, and not be a PROGRAM or a BUFFER.
Mouravieff said:
Human nature itself is mixed; it faithfully reflects the content of the Mixtus Orbis of which it is a product and a part, Thus the complex structure of the personality - with the centres of the psyche subdivided into positive and negative parts - reflects the mixed nature of the outer and inner worlds of terrestrial man and enables him to perceive them in all their parts, a possibility which would be denied him without this. ....
If, as we have seen, the atrophy of the negative part of the intellectual centre prevents man from having any doubts, it also partially blinds his intelligence and takes away his capacity for appreciation, criticism and comparison, etc.
The same may be said for the emotional centre. Its negative semicircle is necessary to ensure its complete functioning: while the positive part responds to agreeable impressions coming from the outside or the inside, the negative part responds in the same way to disagreeable impressions. This is the normal role of the negative semicircle, which might be called its positive role. If the awakened and pure emotional centre were deprived of its negative part, the affective life would be impoverished and disoriented. This situation could be compared to one in which we would be able to feel heat without being able to feel cold, or see light without being able to distinguish shadows. When it is awake and functioning normally, the negative part of the emotional centre is an organ in the psychological structure of the Personality which is just as indispensable as the positive part.
The problems arise when the individual's emotional center runs on automatic programs. In this next excerpt, Mouravieff describes dissociation. To understand this more thoroughly, it is necessary to read Martha Stout's "The Myth of Sanity."
Mouravieff said:
When the emotional centre is plunged into deep sleep... it dreams. It dreams in the daytime, in the midst of activity, as well as at night. The emotional centre conceives dreams by using its innate capacity for creating images. By elaborating these while inspired by ideas from the intellectual centre, it can create images of grandeur to compensate for the failures or half-failures of life.
If inspired by impulses from the motor centre, it imagines itself moving on the ground, on the seas or in the air.
Under the influence of innate elements rising from [past lives] it can relive these [lives] in fragments.
With the aid of impulses proceeding from the sexual centre via the motor centre, the emotional centre has erotic dreams which can seem entirely true. [...]
These few indications give a brief glimpse of the work of the lower emotional centre while it is still under-developed -but which the unbalanced contemporary life of man can no longer anaesthetize or degrade, particularly when, as a faithful, he climbs the steps of the Staircase.
And that is quite enough to consider at any one time.
