The Stellar Man & Hermetic philosophy

[IS]

Has anyone read "The Stellar Man By John Baines? I read this book and liked it but totally hated his other books!

 

[treesparrow]

Re: The Stellar Man & Hermitic philosophy

Has anyone read "The Stellar Man By John Baines? I read this book and liked it but totally hated his other books!

I read it recently. All went well until near end, where he recommended a vegetarian diet and not smoking as good for spiritual growth.

So it goes.

 

[Atreides]

Re: The Stellar Man & Hermitic philosophy

I've thought a lot about becoming a hermit, never learned anything about hermitic philosophy though...

 

[Laura]

Re: The Stellar Man & Hermitic philosophy

I've thought a lot about becoming a hermit, never learned anything about hermitic philosophy though...

I fixed the spelling.

 

[obyvatel]

The real name of author John Baines who wrote the "Stellar Man" is Dario Salas Sommer who has an institute called Institute of Hermetic Philosophy in Chile. It is apparently quite big and has branches in several countries.

Browsing through the website _http://www.ihpusa.org and interviews with the founder, I noticed the use of a number of terms and expressions that are found in ISOTM. Some examples are : man is a machine, man is asleep, no evolution of inner world despite technological advancements through the centuries, degrees and levels of consciousness, testing before accepting things, after a day of tiring work walking an extra mile to build willpower, exercises to develop one's "I", need to surrender one's will to a teacher etc.

I did not find any reference to G as I skimmed the website. The name of his institute and its organization brought to mind the "Institute for Harmonious Development of Man". Too many similarities in external features to be a coincidence I think. For those who read his books, does Sommer reference Gurdjieff or Ouspensky's work?

 

[Buddy]

I did not find any reference to G as I skimmed the website. The name of his institute and its organization brought to mind the "Institute for Harmonious Development of Man". Too many similarities in external features to be a coincidence I think. For those who read his books, does Sommer reference Gurdjieff or Ouspensky's work?

Good question and I'm also interested to know.

Before I found this forum, my major esoteric interests were I Ching and Zodiac. Being born a Gemini with Mercury (Hermes) as a ruling planet and considering the associated "traits", naturally I was keen to learn all about "Hermetic" and what it originally meant. So far I've discovered Hermetic is more closely related to Fourth Way Work than any other philosophy. As one example, the phrase "hermetically sealed" is said to have originally come from Hermetic philosophy and referred to a part of oneself being closed off from external influences like how a strategic enclosure functions. I have yet to hear of any associated contemporary authors or teachers outside of our work mention Gurdjieff, though.

 

[l apprenti de forgeron]

Re: The Stellar Man & Hermitic philosophy

Has anyone read "The Stellar Man By John Baines? I read this book and liked it but totally hated his other books!

I read it recently. All went well until near end, where he recommended a vegetarian diet and not smoking as good for spiritual growth.

So it goes.

The devil is in the details, you'll know better than me. It happens in all areas, not just with authors. Sometimes you meet someone and there is a good talk on various topics. You see quite match and have similar interests in music, literature, films and and so on. And when you believe you have found someone to really share more than a conversation (for either a friendship or relationship), this person says that defends the psychopathic state of Israel. These things happen ...

 

[obyvatel]

I did not find any reference to G as I skimmed the website. The name of his institute and its organization brought to mind the "Institute for Harmonious Development of Man". Too many similarities in external features to be a coincidence I think. For those who read his books, does Sommer reference Gurdjieff or Ouspensky's work?

Good question and I'm also interested to know.

Before I found this forum, my major esoteric interests were I Ching and Zodiac. Being born a Gemini with Mercury (Hermes) as a ruling planet and considering the associated "traits", naturally I was keen to learn all about "Hermetic" and what it originally meant. So far I've discovered Hermetic is more closely related to Fourth Way Work than any other philosophy. As one example, the phrase "hermetically sealed" is said to have originally come from Hermetic philosophy and referred to a part of oneself being closed off from external influences like how a strategic enclosure functions. I have yet to hear of any associated contemporary authors or teachers outside of our work mention Gurdjieff, though.

I have not read much of hermetic philosophy except for Kybalion which did not give me a good impression. There is a thread about Kybalion here . I did not see much similarity between 4th Way and Kybalion.

Dario Salas Sommer started his Institute of Hermetic Philosophy in Santiago, Chile in 1970. The Arica school founder Oscar Ichazo was said to have led intensive trainings in Arica, Chile in 1970-1971 and Claudio Naranjo, the Chilean doctor attended the Arica retreats. Both Ichazo and Naranjo taught the enneagram which was first introduced in the Western world by Gurdjieff. Ichazo claimed to have teachers from the same tradition as Gurdjieff. Arica, Ichazo and Naranjo are mentioned a few times in this forum including the thread Imitation 4th Way Groups Started by Gurdjieff Rejects . Don't know if there is a connection but putting it out there.

Dario Salas Sommer comes from a family of educators. His grandfather Dario Salas Diaz held an important position in Chilean education system and is described as a "Chilean Mason" in the translated version of the wikipedia entry in his name.

 

[Buddy]

I have not read much of hermetic philosophy except for Kybalion which did not give me a good impression. There is a thread about Kybalion here .

Thanks for that link. I now have ewwwww! attached to the word Kybalion. I didn't make it through the OP due to red flags stacking up. I couldn't be bothered to wade through this example of atrocious dialectic, so I couldn't really be fair with an assessment.

My first observations were something like: Oh Gads, more binary thought patterns infecting something which appears to hold potential. I stopped after making the below observations:

Too many examples of unnecessary definite article "the", which tell of a one global truth in one global context, classical mindset appearing unaware of itself, its anthropocentric view and a difficult attempt to communicate gnostic-appearing information.
Paradox as a secret of nature rather than a limitation of both perception and cognitive contexts.
Principle of Polarity as a property of reality, rather than a behavior of a mindset dualizing a monism.
Rhythm as analogous with a linear pendulum-swing rather than omni (di)rectional wave movement.
Cause and Effect as direct linear relationship rather than aggregates of aware reality selecting and choosing from a set of preconditions containing some uncertainty from an observer's point of view.

I noticed others on that thread had their own ways of assessing the material and its authors. The above is part of mine. In fact, my observations and my ability to express them could certainly be improved, but there it is. Interestingly, I haven't crossed paths with Kybalion in my prior researches.

Thanks for that additional information.

 

[dricheson]

John Baines, the author (whose real name is Dr. Dario Salas Sommer), talks about Gurdjieff and the 4th Way quite often. In fact, ISOTM is well read in his school, The Institute for Hermetic Philosophy (_www.ihpusa.org).

The teachings of Gurdjieff are very harmonious with the work in the Kybalion at their depths. Remembering Yourself and overcoming negative emotions are key concepts to the practical comprehension of the deeper teachings in each.