ISOTM Organic Moon Experiment?

[OCKHAM]

Here is a student experiment I would like some feedback on.

In the book, ISOTM by Ouspensky, he talks much about the moon and its power over us organically. He also states that we can measure the moon as everything in the universe. I got to thinking again about what he originally said [Saturday night ISOTM reading], and reading Ark's new thread about beliefs and influences in the mind.

Has anyone ever heard of grass growing and/or dying under a piece of wood or any flat surface that is laid down on the ground? I've noticed this over the years where at certain times grass would literally go crazy if you covered it up, in an attempt to grow long, and other times when it would seem to want to die. Having lived in the country helps to discover these weird anomalies, I guess. I've always felt this is a strange force that has something to do with the moon's influence in our monthly cycle. People often say we do crazy things according to the moon but no one provides any data that is worthwhile.

Would there be any value in knowing when the moon has the most affect, since the moon is the measurable factor in the sun cycle, and you could possibly pin point a high and/or low affect?

I had thought of an idea to make up a experiment of which I now only have one week to prepare, that would last 60 days starting on the new moon August 12 and a period of consistency in rain and normal growing grass, and applying a grid pattern on the ground of 30 wood pieces [18 inches X 12 inches approximately] placed in a square grid 6 inches apart and each numbered, and sequenced for rotation in a moon cycle of approximately 30 days. This might allow one to pin point the two points of extreme growth and non-growth, would it not? Adding one per day for 30 days and the last one inserted would end at 30 days by being removed, taking notes on each one per day. In this experiment, August 31 would be removed from the system and no board placed on that day.

Grid example layout: 1 represents the first board inserted, one each day. The first date records it and the second date the board is removed.

This method would allow me to mow the areas of grass that had not been covered yet, as to keep the test more consistent. Also, the rain events would need to be recorded in an attempt to understand how big a role it might play in the results. Everything would be recorded, and photos taken to document color effect, peaking under boards, etc.

In the final analysis, one might be able to say, at one point in time, when the moon is new per se, life wants to live even without light? - and at another extreme, maybe a full moon, life gives up easily? This should be discussed.

Has anyone every heard of a test like this, or think this would have value? I can find no one who has done this, please provide references to this type of experiment if you know of any.

 

[Peam]

Have you thought about how you're going to include the length of the grass in the results of your experiment? Your first board will cover a shorter length of grass than the last, in a possibly uneven growth rate during the month. Could this grass length have a bearing on how determined it is to thrive, and so insert another variable into the mix.

 

[OCKHAM]

There are quite a few small variables in this experiment that could possibly affect the results. In order to keep the grass length consistent, I must mow it in rows, and let each group of 6 boards be placed on the grass with some variation in grass length, about 5-6 days. The length of grass will vary depending on the amount of rain coming in at that time, so with this method, could be 3-5 inches difference approximately. I don't think this will have much affect on the overall test, but will watch it close during and when it rains more, I'll run the mower over the row by removing the boards for a few minutes and immediately replacing them.

 

[vinny]

I think Gurdgieff was maybe being deliberately obscure when he talked about the moon, and 'food for the moon' etc. It seems likely that this was his way of alluding to hyperdimensional realities (4th density etc) without explicitly 'going there'. In which case I think that any purely literal interpretation is susceptible to 'cross-fertilisation' of ideas, and so confusion. Having said that, it certainly doesn't rule out the possibility of 'direct' lunar effects - eg the tidal cycle, and so maybe others that are more subtle.

 

[Mikey]

Found this:

Gurdjieff used the metaphor of "The Moon" (which is the metaphor of the ancient esoteric tradition) to explain the problem:

See also subsequent quote.

From the same topic:

Gurdjieff taught that most human beings are mere "slugs" with no souls and that following death their remaining psychic energy is "food for the Moon." This teaching can understood as a reference to the doctrine in Gnosticism that the material world keeps human beings (but not all, just the few who possess "sparks of light") trapped in bodies so as to prevent escape. The realm of Darkness is depicted as not wanting to let of its captured light to escape back to the realm of Light. Such a follower of Gnosticism seeks to develop an astral body that can escape the "power of the Moon" and become freed from the "sub-lunar" material world. (12) This explains another very strange teaching of Gurdjieff: "The way of the development of hidden possibilities is a way against nature, against God." (13) It means that the seeker following the way of Gnosticism must gain secret knowledge and methods in order to escape the control of the "Demiurge." What Gurdjieff called "the Work" is the goal of spiritual Alchemy, the "Great Work" (Magnum Opus): the separation of light from darkness--or in Manichean terms, the liberation of "sparks of light" from being trapped in the dense world of matter.

[...]

(12) Gurdjieff was also quoted by his student Ouspensky as saying (in "In Search of the Miraculous," 1949): "Man, like every other living being, cannot, in the ordinary conditions of life, tear himself free from the moon. All his movements and consequently all his actions are controlled by the moon. If he kills another man, the moon does it; if he sacrifices himself for others, the moon does that also. All evil deeds, all crimes, all self-sacrificing actions, all heroic exploits, as well as all the actions of ordinary everyday life, are controlled by the moon. The liberation which comes with the growth of mental powers and faculties is liberation from the moon. The mechanical part of our life depends upon the moon, is subject to the moon. If we develop in ourselves consciousness and will, and subject our mechanical life and all our mechanical manifestations to them, we shall escape from the power of the moon."

We have also been directed to look at a certain time period which would correspond to the activities of such sources, and so we might wish to look at the vast array of literature for internal clues. In reviewing all of this literature, in casting our net far and wide, there is only one source that "fits" the description: Gurdjieff's metaphor of "Food for the Moon." There is, in fact, a singular remark made by Gurdjieff in conversation with P.D. Ouspensky, recorded by the latter in his book, In Search of the Miraculous that confirms that the information revealed by Gurdjieff was, in fact, related to the cyclic catastrophes and their relations to hyperdimensional realities. It also confirms that he was the one who really "knew" something:

"The intelligence of the sun is divine," said Gurdjieff. "But the earth can become the same; only, of course, it is not guaranteed and the earth may die having attained nothing."
"Gurdjieff's answer was very vague.
"There is a definite period, " he said, "for a certain thing to be done. If, by a certain time, what ought to be done has not been done, the earth may perish without having attained what it could have attained."
"Is this period known?" I asked?
"It is known," said Gurdjieff. [Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York.]

 

[OCKHAM]

Thanks for the comments sleepyvinny and data, at this point, it is still a go. I agree with your comments sleepvinny about literalism, there is much more to this then meets the eye, nevertheless, there may be something to learn that we didn't expect, and in that case, it may be worth the time and effort.

When it happens, I will report back here in this thread with the results and journal.