Esotericism is the accessing of facts and actions that are accessible to the field of consciousness of the Soul. When we consider our state in the "real world," we find that this is a very difficult path.
Knowledge is everywhere, but most of it is external to us. When we pour something into a cup, it can only contain an amount equal to its capacity. We are only able to understand according to the capacity of our Being. To be able to evolve esoterically, we must constantly seek to enlarge and enhance our Being, to develop the "vessel."
Esotericism seeks to develop consciousness of the Divine. The problem is that our consciousness is, for the most part, simply a program that runs in our machine. The higher consciousness that is sought in terms of ascension is the real "I" or the soul; it is the theorized permanent point that exists within us throughout many incarnations. This real "I" is something like an impartial referee whose small voice is mostly obscured in the roar of external events and personality programs. Nevertheless, it is this tiny spark of the real self that is the seed of the possibility of esoteric development.
Most human beings rarely - if ever - experience contact with the real "I." Yet, the personality pretends that it has achieved this level of consciousness. We should note that an individual who has actually reached such a level of firm contact and expansion of the real "I" will also possess attributes such as the ability to accurately judge the consequences of his or her actions, the constant exercise of his own will, an ability to do - to initiate acausal events - as well as a bearing or attitude that is consistent with itself in all situations and conditions. Most of all, such a person does not lie to himself.
An objective examination of many of those who claim such qualities is sufficient to demolish such pretensions. There is so vast a chasm between the qualities that people ascribe to themselves, and what they can really DO, that careful consideration of this point ought to be undertaken before one attaches belief to any such claims or any such teacher.
Nevertheless, to establish contact with the higher self, for lack of a better term, this very small seed of the soul connection that exists within us is the object of esoteric science. It seems that the only people who have a real hope of accomplishing this process are those who are "bankrupted." In other words, all the beliefs, all the programs, all the lies that have been part of the self from childhood, must collapse or be stripped away.
We are all corrupted by the exterior world of matter - the domain of Non-being and its gravitational lures. Even when experience contradicts what a person believes about him or herself, they are seldom able to make the cause and effect connection because of the serious deficiencies that are programmed into us from birth.
We generally explain our failures as "lack of will." What people do not realize is that failure is not generally due to a lack of will or desire, but to a lack of BEING. It is only with the development of BEING that we begin to understand the knowledge we have acquired. Only then, with understanding combined with BEING, do we have the ability to Do.
Our personality is the interface between our body and spirit. Because of the nature of our reality, the personality is mostly "programs" of the flesh, or genetic body so to say. The Machine runs on the "do it again principle." Most contemporary human beings are far more concerned about "appearances" or "experiences" that give them a buzz than they are about their Being.
The intimate relationship of the personality to the physical body and its interactive programs is little understood, yet it is crucial to development of the "I" that is more than a "ghost in the machine." We can note that when the average person experiences serious pain, all of their noble instincts fly out the window. Some people, of course, have the ability to master pain and to work on no matter what. They are considered to be heroic, and it is certainly a similar nature that succeeds in esoteric work. It is not a path for the weak.
The interdependence of the personality and the body - the machine which we have to operate with in this reality - leads us to the logical conclusion that it is this very machine and its programs that are most important for us to study in order to learn perspicacity, to learn to distinguish between the real and the false.
It is at this point that we begin to learn about the "tolerances" of our machine. We begin to discover that we spend most of our time swinging between action and reaction with no real input of the true "I." We discover that we have an ideal image of ourselves that has very little foundation in actual fact or "results." However, we cover all of this up by "faith" in our ideal image and our lies that we ARE that illusory self.
We come back to the fact that we attribute to ourselves qualities that we do not possess because if we possessed them, our lives would exactly mirror our image of ourselves. Our lies about what is really happening in our lives are what we use to "patch up" our egos with rationalizations and justifications, all of which conceal from us the fact that we cannot really DO anything because we have no Being.
Generally, to avoid facing the pain of this realization, people will take drugs of both the chemical and spiritual variety. It is only a matter of type and degree.
An individual who has undertaken the process of developing perspicacity in terms of the self, once he has learned to discern between his lies to himself and what is true about himself, can then begin to extend this ability to external knowledge. At that point, the information and observations he or she has been collecting without prejudice will make a "knowledge unit-ligand." When that happens, when a "piece of the puzzle" finally jumps into the right slot of understanding, THEN a whole cascade of things begins to happen just as it happens in the body when a ligand binds receptors.
And at that point, the state changes. And this leads us to the most exciting information about this "separating the milk from the cream" process.
As it happens, sometimes the information communicated to the interior of the cell by the ligands involves instructions to turn specific genes in the cell on or off! The same gene in different environments can produce many variations on a given trait and influence the expression of other genes. What is more, it is a scientific fact that changes in thoughts and behavior are reflected in the changes in the synapses.
It has been shown that Electric potentials release serotonin onto the synaptic terminals, and there is sufficient anecdotal evidence about electrical shocks producing changes in an individual that result in manifestation of "super-normal abilities" as we have already described, that we must stop and consider this question. As we have also noted, having had such abilities "turned on" by either the accident of genetics, an electrical shock, or a blow to the head, does not necessarily relate to the individual being spiritually advanced. What we can surmise from this item of information is that the serotonin released as a result of electric shock must somehow "skip a step" in a potentially natural process of DNA activation that is potential in all of us to one extent or another.
In other words, is there a natural process whereby serotonin is released in large quantities in concert with other ligands which can literally turn on DNA that activates a full range of "paranormal" abilities and that also are directly related to one's spiritual maturity?
There are far more exciting considerations about DNA potentials, but, for the moment, we will leave the subject with the warning that failing to properly "separate" the cream from the milk means that the Seeker will not even get to the point where he can skim the cream off and utilize it. What is even worse, "binding" oneself to that which is false may produce temporary "feel good" results, but in the long run, it not only blocks the possibility of binding Truth, it perpetuates itself by reducing the ability to perceive/bind with truth at ALL. Every single choice to accept something as Truth, to make a "leap of assumption," is a psychic ligand binding to a spiritual receptor. If what is believed is a lie, it is equivalent, in the brain, to a "false" ligand, like heroin. After awhile, there is no longer anywhere for Truth to bind or seat, and the condition of the Seeker is worse than before he began his quest in the same way an individual who has become a skid-row bum by his use of alcohol and/or drugs was far better off before he began his descent into addiction. The fact is: lies ARE addicting. They are made that way on purpose.
However, in terms of the Quest for the Holy Grail, as in the Alchemical pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone, just as it is in the case of the body potentials, when certain natural (spiritual) ligands are produced by sending signals into the cell to activate "sleeping DNA," abilities can be unlocked, including even psychic abilities and powers. And these psychic abilities then put the Seeker on an entirely different level. He has made, effectively, a Quantum Jump in terms of his State of Awareness.
We learn from one Initiate the following:
"The organs which carry and radiate the creative force can only manifest it in a perfect union - a perfect marriage - between the divine and material frequencies. This conductor of force charged with the divine frequency is the 'Ark of the Covenant.'"
There is certainly more to it than that, but for the moment, it is sufficient to know that the principle "As above, so below" is manifested on all planes, and scientific knowledge can most definitely contribute to spiritual understanding. As the Cassiopaeans have said: "Science is most spiritual indeed!" Regarding the gathering of knowledge, the Cassiopaeans have said:
Subtle answers that require effort to dissect promote intensified learning. Learning is an exploration followed by the affirmation of knowing through discovery. Learning is necessary for progress of soul... this is how you are building your power center. Patience serves the questor of hidden knowledge. Search your "files."
Georges Gurdjieff discussed this matter of "ligands of the soul" in terms of "impressions." He noted that Impressions are a kind of "food."
With every external impression, whether it takes the form of sound, or vision, or smell, we receive from the outside a certain amount of energy, a certain number of vibrations. For its normal existence the organism must receive all three kinds of food, that is, physical food, air, and impressions... But the relation of these foods to one another and their significance for the organism is not the same. [...] The flow of impressions coming to us from the outside is like a driving belt communicating motion to us. [...] Nature transmits to us through our impressions the energy by which we live and move and have our being.
Gurdjieff then goes on to talk about "self-observation" as the means by which greater energy is extracted from "impressions." This is where Mouravieff's work is most helpful in explicating exactly what needs to be done. He discusses Impressions in terms of "A" and "B" influences and the Three Forces of Creation, writing as follows:
The three fundamental conditions of Creation manifest in the Universe in the form of three basic principles of life: the static, dynamic and neutralizing principles.
Anything in creation can be analysed and studied in the light of these three principles, which appear in a way analogous to that described while talking about the conditions of creation of the World. They apply uniformly to all levels of the Cosmos. The classical example which the esoteric schools give to represent the play of the three forces is bread. To make bread we must have flour, fire and water. In this example, flour is the conductor of the passive force, fire of the active force, and water of the neutralizing force.
Here we must make it clear immediately that the substance which serves in one case as conductor for the passive force, may in other cases be the conductor.[...]
If the junction of the forces remains sterile, this means that in the esoteric sense their co-operation was not complete. The fault could arise from one of the three forces, from two of them, or even from all three. Analysis in the light of the law in question can greatly assist in determining the one or many causes of failure. For example, with the same good flour, the bread can be bad or inedible if we have added too much water - or not enough - or if the flame was weak or too high.[...]
This [analogy] allows us to grasp the sense and effect of a subsidiary law of the Law of Three. We see that with the same flour - the passive force in our example - we can experience failure due to a defective sharing of the active force (Fire), of the neutralizing force (Water), or of the two together. [...] The passive force contains all the possibilities for creating the phenomenon, while the active force intervenes as the realizer, and the neutralizing force as the regulator, of the relations between the two other forces, determining the dosage for both in an optimal way. This explains and justifies the fact that pre-eminence in the phenomenal world is attributed to the passive force.
Let us note here that this pre-eminence is a direct result of conditions at the first Creation. To pass or cross from the non-manifested state - a mono polar one, concentrated on the unique consciousness of Self within which the Divinity remains before the Creation of the World - the first Idea which makes the Divinity come out of the state of non-manifestation to become manifest, is necessarily that of the You. This idea, conceived by the divine sacrifice of Self-limitation, has Love, a neutralizing force, for third force.[...]
Thus, from the beginning of Creation, the divine existence becomes bipolar, Love being the neutralizing force which sustains relations between the universal 'I' and the universal 'You' [...]
When a substance serves as a conductor for the passive force, we call it Oxygen (0 ); when it serves as a conductor for the active force we call it Carbon ( C) ; when it serves as a conductor for the neutralizing force we call it Nitrogen (Azot) (N). When considered independently from the forces of which it is the conductor, the substance is called Hydrogen (H). [...]
We know that the structure of the lower intellectual centre is bipolar. This structure is perfectly adapted to that of what in the orthodox Tradition is called the 'World'. This 'World' consists in ensemble of the 'A' influences [...]. It is the world in which we live, which appears to the human Personality as the only reality, but is in fact relative or even illusory. [...]as we have already stated, all the 'A' [influences] have counterparts which neutralize them - ['B' influences]. This symbolizes the creation of the world, starting from Zero, by division into two groups of forces, equal in power and diametrically opposed in direction.
The bipolar structure of the intelligence, an exact counterpart of the structure of the 'World', allows man to study and recognize all the 'A' influences, to orient himself in their immediate and furthest field of action, to apply his abilities to it in order to search, calculate, combine, intervene, act and even to create within the limits of the field of action of these influences.
We know, however, that this 'World' is, in fact, illusory; that the 'B' influences represent the only imperishable reality in life. Has not Jesus said: 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where rust and worms consume, and where thieves break through walls and steal. But lay up for your selves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume and where thieves do not break through walls nor steal.'
It is well understood that it is a question here of two worlds which interpenetrate each other: the world constituted by the ensemble of 'A' influences- 'earth'; and the esoteric world -'heaven', formed by the 'B' influences.
By studying the play of the three forces attentively, the searcher will train himself to recognize the action of the 'A' and 'B' influences, and distinguish between them. This is one of the essential elements of that re-education of which we spoke earlier. [...]
It is by absorbing 'B' influences - divine influences from a higher level, which are consequently more powerful - and by putting full trust in them, as well as by giving proofs of capacity and devotion, that we shall be liberated from the dominion of these 'A' influences -which are ruled by the General Law, assisted by the Law of Accident.
He whose efforts are crowned with success -who attains higher levels of being-is immediately utilized to share in the management and growth of a given level of the lower forces of the Cosmos.
In general he will have to accomplish - as a mission - a task in the domain of the 'A' influences. Above all, this work will require study of the bipolar world. Intelligence is the only tool we possess with which to achieve this end. This is its real reason for being, as well as the reason why its structure exactly reflects the world of the 'A' influences. This instrument thus allows man, in accordance with Plato's principle, to grasp and know the similar by the similar.
Knowing this, the student of esoteric science must guard against falling into the extremes expressed in some teachings; he must neither despise nor neglect his intellectual faculties. The intelligence must be developed and sharpened up to the limit of what is possible, and thought must be- come sharp as the point of a needle. But it must not be forgotten that the Personality, in spite of its complex structure and its many abilities, is nothing but an instrument, whose functioning remains purely mechanical. It is for this reason that in esoteric matters it does not know, and will never know anything with certainty. By its nature agnostic, and concerned with phenomena, it is limited by form and function to three dimensions. It is incapable of exceeding these boundaries, but sincerely takes the world of influences as the only reality.
I would like to try to shed some light on the subject of the Three Forces and Impressions and 'A' and 'B' influences that so exercised Gurdjieff and Mouravieff, but this will require a little bit of background first.
We begin with the question: who were the Celts? We are taught almost nothing about them in school, though they seem to be considered as the ancestors of most Europeans, thus also Americans. Why is it that the religion and culture of the Mesopotamian region dominates our lives and our culture when it is, in effect, "foreign"?
Celtic vernacular literature, including myths, stories and poems, in its written form, dates mainly from the Middle Ages. It is based on oral transmission that goes far beyond the Christian Era. It is very difficult to get a clear picture of the pre-Christian Celts from the transmitted texts, not only because of the typical mixture of myth and reality, and the lapse of time, but also because the Roman empire sought to stamp it out starting with Caesar and continuing with the Roman church.
However, studying what is available closely, one gets the impression of a dynamic, somewhat undisciplined people. The Celts were proud, imaginative, artistic, lovers of freedom and adventure, eloquence, poetry, and arts. You can always discern the Celtic influence by the great artistic talents of these peoples.
The Celts were VERY suspicious of any kind of centralized "authority," and this is, in the end, what brought about their downfall. They could not stand against the hierarchical war machine of the Roman empire. In a sense, you could almost say that this is how Hitler nearly conquered Europe, most especially France. Gauls take the principles of liberty and equality VERY seriously - right down to the common man on the street who in no way considers himself inferior to the Prime Minister.
One of the principal historians of the Roman era, Julius Caesar, tells us that the Celts were ruled by the Druids. The druids "held all knowledge." The Druids were charged with ALL intellectual activities, and were not restricted to religion, per se, which suggests to us that "religion" and "knowledge" in a more or less scientific approach, were considered essential to one another - symbiotic.
It is later writers who began to vilify the Celts by accusing them of the usual things that people get accused of when someone wants to demonize them: human sacrifice, homosexuality, and so on. Most of that nonsense goes back to Posidonius, who has been quoted as an "authority" by every other "authority" on the Celts since. Unfortunately, when one checks Posidonius, one finds that he really didn't have a clue and was probably making stuff up to fulfill an agenda.
The lack of written texts by the Celts has been the greatest problem for historians and students of the Celts. A lot of ideas are "supposed" or ancient sources with agendas have been relied on, and some of them even propose that there was a "taboo" by the Celts on putting things into writing.
Well, I suppose that, if our civilization came to an end and all our records on magnetic media were destroyed, people might say that we didn't put anything in writing either.
There has been a lot of nonsense written about WHY the Celts didn't write things down, and the most nonsensical, considering what we do know about their culture, is that this was how the Druids "kept their power" or that they believed something silly like: "if the sacred myths were revealed, they would become profaned and thus lose their mystic virtues."
What Caesar said was that the reason for the ban on writing was that the Druids were concerned that their pupils should not neglect the training of their memories, i.e. the Frontal Cortex, by relying on written texts. We have discussed the production of ligands and their potential for unlocking DNA . It seems to be very interesting that the very things that we have learned from the Cassiopaeans, from alchemical texts, from our own experiences, and from research - that "thinking with a hammer" is the key to transformation - was noted as an integral part of the Druidic initiation.
It is worth noting that, in the nineteenth century, it was observed that the illiterate Yugoslav bards, who were able to recite interminable poems, actually lost their ability to memorize once they had learned to rely on reading and writing.
Although the Druids prohibited certain things from being written down, it's clear that they DID write. Celtic writings in Ogamic script have been found on many ancient stones. Caesar tells us that the Celts were using the Greek alphabet when the Romans arrived in Gaul in the first century BC.
However, the knowledge of the initiates was transmitted entirely orally, and with the information about ligands and receptors, we are beginning to understand WHY.
The destruction of Celtic culture was so complete that we know very little about their religion. We do know that they celebrated their "rites" in forests and by lakes without erecting any covered temples or statues of divinities. Tacitus tells us:
They do not think it in keeping with the divine majesty to confine gods within walls, or to portray them in the likeness of any human countenance. Their holy places are woods and groves and they apply the names of deities to that hidden presence which is seen only by the eyes of reverence.
Plato had doubts about the Greek origins of Homer's work because not only do the physical descriptions in his poems not correspond to the Greek world, but also the Homeric philosophy is very different from the mainstream Greek philosophy we know about today. The latter is based on the dualism of two opposing elements, thesis/ antithesis, good/ evil, life/death, body/soul, etc. omitting the idea of the Third Force.
Since Plato's times, many have sought to derive "synthesis" from these opposing elements, with little success. The "third force" of Gurdjieff has been brought up many times with little satisfaction in the attempts to understand it, and perhaps it is in what we can derive from the Celtic teachings will help us here.
According to Homer, the philosophy of the ancient world was that there was a third element that linked the opposing elements. Between the body and the soul, there is the spirit. Between life and death there is the transformation that is possible to the individual, between father and mother there is the child who takes the characteristics of both father and mother, and between good and evil there is the SPECIFIC SITUATION that determines which is which and what ought to be done.
In other words, there are three simultaneous determinants in any situation that make it impossible to say that any list of things is "good" or "evil" intrinsically, and that the true determinant is the situation.
In any event, the symbol of this philosophy is the triskele, representing three waves joined together.
The simultaneous existence of the third element does not mean that the notion of "good" and "evil" did not exist or was not reflected in the Celtic law. What was clear was that it was understood that nothing could be "cut and dried" in terms of law, that each situation was unique and the circumstances had to be carefully weighed.
Aristotle considered Gaul to be the "teacher" of Greece and the Druids to be the "inventors of philosophy." The Greeks also considered the Druids to be the world's greatest scholars, and whose mathematical knowledge was the source of Pythagoras' information.
And so, we see that there is another way to consider the "three forces." This brings us back again to "perspicacity" which is a function of knowledge. The ability to "assimilate B influences" as Mouravieff describes it, depends upon the evaluation of the Impression in the specific context in which it is experienced. A very simple way of putting it is: is it Truth or is it a Lie and if either, which has more affinity to the world of the spirit, or Love?
There are those who think that truth or lies are always static, that a lie is a lie is a lie and that to be "good," one must ALWAYS tell the "truth." However, it is not always that easy. For example, consider France during the Nazi occupation. Undoubtedly, many of those involved in the resistance lied daily and regularly about their plans and activities. What was different about their lies was the INTENT and the SPECIFIC SITUATION. In such a situation, speaking the truth to a Nazi soldier who would use that truth to destroy one's fellow resistance fighters would be "evil," so to say, and lying would be "good." This simple example ought to give the reader much to think about in terms of the socialized belief in a "black and white" exposition of "good and evil."
Going back to the example of baking bread: in some cases, the flour could be "truth" and the fire could be "lies" and the water could be the specific situation in which the two meet and interact. If Impressions are "food," then this principle ought to be carefully considered when "taking in Impressions" or "assimilating "B influences" which we now know to be the process of applying the Law of Three to any given situation or dynamic in our lives and "Thinking with a Hammer." We also begin to understand that Love has many faces in Creation as does God. We realize also why such knowledge is reserved for initiates: how easy to twist and distort and misuse such an understanding.
