“In pronouncing the word ‘man’ everyone will involuntarily connect with this word the point of view from which he is generally accustomed to regard man, or from which, for some reason or other, he regards him at the moment. One man at the moment may be occupied with the question of the relation between the sexes. Then the word ‘man’ will have no general meaning for him and on hearing this word he will first of all ask himself — Which? man or woman? Another man may be religious and his first question will be — A Christian or not a Christian? The third man may be a doctor and the concept ‘man’ will mean for him a ‘sick man’ or a ‘healthy man,’ and, of course from the point of view of his speciality. A spiritualist will think of ‘man’ from the point of view of his ‘astral body,’ of ‘life on the other side,’ and so on, and he may say, if he is asked, that men are divided into mediums and non-mediums. A naturalist speaking of man will place the CENTER OF GRAVITY of his thoughts in the idea of man as a zoological type, that is to say, in speaking of man he will think of the structure of his teeth, his fingers, his facial angle, the distance between the eyes. A lawyer will see in ‘man’ a statistical unit, or a subject for the application of laws, or a potential criminal, or a possible client. Fragments: Four

“People do not notice all these contradictions, do not notice that they never understand one another, that they always speak about different things. It is quite clear that, for proper study, for an exact exchange of thoughts, an exact language is necessary, which would make it possible to establish what a man actually means, would include an indication of the point of view from which a given concept is taken and determine the CENTER OF GRAVITY of this concept. The idea is perfectly clear and every branch of science endeavors to elaborate and to establish an exact language for itself. But there is no universal language. People continually confuse the languages of different sciences and can never establish their exact correlation. And even in each separate branch of science new terminologies, new nomenclatures, are constantly appearing. And the further it goes the worse it becomes. Misunderstanding grows and increases instead of diminishing and there is every reason to think that it will continue to increase in the same way. And people will understand one another ever less and less. Fragments: Four

“Man number one means man in whom the CENTER OF GRAVITY of his psychic life lies in the moving center. This is the man of the physical body, the man with whom the moving and the instinctive functions constantly outweigh the emotional and the thinking functions. Fragments: Four

“Man number two means man on the same level of development, but man in whom the CENTER OF GRAVITY of his psychic life lies in the emotional center, that is, man with whom the emotional functions outweigh all others; the man of feeling, the emotional man. Fragments: Four

“Man number three means man on the same level of development but man in whom the CENTER OF GRAVITY of his psychic life lies in the intellectual center, that is, man with whom the thinking functions gain the upper hand over the moving, instinctive, and emotional functions; the man of reason, who goes into everything from theories, from mental considerations. Fragments: Four

“Man number four is not born ready-made. He is born one, two, or three, and becomes four only as a result of efforts of a definite character. Man number four is always the product of school work. He can neither be born, nor develop accidentally or as the result of ordinary influences of bringing up, education, and so on. Man number four already stands on a different level to man number one, two, and three; he has a permanent CENTER OF GRAVITY which consists in his ideas, in his valuation of the work, and in his relation to the school. In addition his psychic centers have already begun to be balanced; one center in him cannot have such a preponderance over others as is the case with people of the first three categories. He already begins to know himself and begins to know whither he is going. Fragments: Four

I told them that this was the CENTER OF GRAVITY of the whole system and of all work on oneself; that now work on oneself was not only empty words but a real fact full of significance thanks to which psychology becomes an exact and at the same time a practical science. Fragments: Seven

It is now difficult to convey how at different periods now one and now another idea became the CENTER OF GRAVITY in our work, attracted the greatest attention, gave rise to most talks. The idea of the law of octaves became in its way a permanent CENTER OF GRAVITY. We returned to it on every occasion; we spoke of it and discussed its various aspects at every meeting until we began gradually to think of everything from the point of view of this idea. Fragments: Seven

“As has been explained before, there are many qualities which men attribute to themselves, which in reality can belong only to people of a higher degree of development and of a higher degree of evolution than man number one, number two, and number three. Individuality, a single and permanent I, consciousness, will, the ability to do, a state of inner freedom, all these are qualities which ordinary man does not possess. To the same category belongs the idea of good and evil, the very existence of which is connected with a permanent aim, with a permanent direction and a permanent CENTER OF GRAVITY. Fragments: Eight

“At the same time sex plays a tremendous role in maintaining the mechanicalness of life. Everything that people do is connected with ‘sex’: politics, religion, art, the theater, music, is all ‘sex.’ Do you think people go to the theater or to church to pray or to see some new play? That is only for the sake of appearances. The principal thing, in the theater as well as in church, is that there will be a lot of women or a lot of men. This is the CENTER OF GRAVITY of all gatherings. What do you think brings people to cafés, to restaurants, to various fetes? One thing only. Sex: it is the principal motive force of all mechanicalness. All sleep, all hypnosis, depends upon it. Fragments: Twelve

“I was just waiting for that question,” he said. “But you already ought to understand that it is just as impossible to explain to a man who has not yet begun to work on himself and does not know the structure of the machine what the ‘abuse of sex’ means, as it is to say what must be done to avoid these abuses. Right workwork on oneself begins with the creation of a permanent CENTER OF GRAVITY. When a permanent CENTER OF GRAVITY has been created everything else begins to be disposed and distributed in subordination to it. The question comes to this: From what and how can a permanent CENTER OF GRAVITY be created? And to this may be replied that only a man’s attitude to the work, to school, his valuation of the work, and his realization of the mechanicalness and aimlessness of everything else can create in him a permanent CENTER OF GRAVITY. Fragments: Twelve

“The role of the sex center in creating a general equilibrium and a permanent CENTER OF GRAVITY can be very big. According to its energy, that is to say, if it uses its own energy, the sex center stands on a level with the higher emotional center. And all the other centers are subordinate to it. Therefore it would be a great thing if it worked with its own energy. This alone would indicate a comparatively very high level of being. And in this case, that is, if the sex center worked with its own energy and in its own place, all other centers could work correctly in their places and with their own energies.” Fragments: Twelve

On this visit the CENTER OF GRAVITY of the talks was in the “chief feature” or “chief fault” of each one of us. Fragments: Thirteen

“The application of the ‘table of hydrogens’ for the determination of the different properties of things and of living creatures which consist of many ‘hydrogens’ is based on the principle that in each living creature and in each thing there is one definite ‘hydrogen’ which is the CENTER OF GRAVITY; it is, so to speak, the ‘average hydrogen’ of all the ‘hydrogens’ constituting the given creature or thing. To find this ‘average hydrogen’ we will, to begin with, speak about living creatures. First of all it is neces­sary to know the level of being of the creature in question. The level of being is primarily determined by the number of stories in the given machine. So far we have spoken only about man. And we have taken man as a three-story structure. We cannot speak about animals and man at one and the same time because animals differ in a radical way from man. The highest animals we know consist of two stories and the lowest of only one story.” “A man consists of three stories. “A sheep consists of two stories. “A worm consists of only one story. “At the same time the lower and middle stories of a man are, so to speak, equivalent to the sheep, and the lower story — to the worm. So that it can be said that a man consists of a man, a sheep, and a worm, and that a sheep consists of a sheep and a worm. Man is a complex creature; the level of his being is determined by the level of being of the creatures of which he is composed. The sheep and the worm may play a bigger or a smaller part in man. Thus the worm plays the chief part in man number one; in man number two — the sheep; and in man number three — man. But these definitions are important only in individual cases. In a general sense ‘man’ is determined by the CENTER OF GRAVITY of the middle story. Fragments: Sixteen

“The CENTER OF GRAVITY of the middle story of man is ‘hydrogen’ 96. The intelligence of ‘hydrogen’ 96 determines the average intelligence of ‘man,’ that is, the physical body of man. The CENTER OF GRAVITY of the ‘astral body’ will be ‘hydrogen’ 48. The CENTER OF GRAVITY of the third body will be ‘hydrogen’ 24, and the CENTER OF GRAVITY of the fourth body will be ‘hydrogen’ 12. Fragments: Sixteen

“The CENTER OF GRAVITY of the upper story is only one ‘hydrogen’ higher than the CENTER OF GRAVITY of the middle story. And the CENTER OF GRAVITY of the middle story is one ‘hydrogen’ higher than the CENTER OF GRAVITY of the lower story. Fragments: Sixteen

“But, as I have already said, to determine the level of being by the ‘table of hydrogens’ it is usual to take the middle story. “With this as a point of departure it is possible for example to solve such problems: “Let us suppose Jesus Christ to be man number eight, how many times is Jesus Christ more intelligent than a table? “A table has no stories. It lies wholly between ‘hydrogen’ 1536 and ‘hydrogen’ 3072 according to the third scale of the ‘table of hydrogens.’ Man number eight is ‘hydrogen’ 6. This is the CENTER OF GRAVITY of the middle story of man number eight. If we are able to calculate how many times ‘hydrogen’ 6 is more intelligent than ‘hydrogen’ 1536 we shall know how many times man number eight is more intelligent than a table. But, in this connection, it must be remembered that ‘intelligence’ is determined not by the density of matter but by the density of vibrations. The density of vibrations, however, increases not by doubling as in the octaves of ‘hydrogens’ but in an entirely different progression which many times outnumbers the first. If you know the exact coefficient of this increase you will be in a position to solve this problem. I only want to show that, however strange it looks, the problem can be solved. Fragments: Sixteen

I very soon saw that the struggle with the habit of talking, of speaking, in general, more than is necessary, could become the CENTER OF GRAVITY of work on oneself because this habit touched everything, penetrated everything, and was for many people the least noticed. It was very curious to observe how this habit (I say “habit” simply for lack of another word, it would be more correct to say “this sin” or “this misfortune”) at once took possession of everything no matter what a man might begin to do. Fragments: Seventeen