G. often returned afterwards to this example of “prison” and “escape from prison” in his talks. Sometimes he began with it, and then his favorite statement was that, if a man in prison was at any time to have a chance of escape, then he must first of all realize that he is in prison. So long as he fails to realize this, so long as he thinks he is free, he has no chance whatever. No one can help or liberate him by force, against his will, in opposition to his wishes. If liberation is possible, it is possible only as a result of great labor and great efforts, and, above all, of CONSCIOUS efforts, towards a definite aim. Fragments: Two

“‘What do you expect?” said G. “People are machines. Machines have to be blind and unCONSCIOUS, they cannot be otherwise, and all their actions have to correspond to their nature. Everything happens. No one does anything. ‘Progress’ and ‘civilization,’ in the real meaning of these words, can appear only as the result of CONSCIOUS efforts. They cannot appear as the result of unCONSCIOUS mechanical actions. And what con­scious effort can there be in machines? And if one machine is unCONSCIOUS, then a hundred machines are unCONSCIOUS, and so are a thousand machines, or a hundred thousand, or a million. And the unCONSCIOUS activity of a million machines must necessarily result in destruction and extermination. It is precisely in unCONSCIOUS involuntary manifestations that all evil lies. You do not yet understand and cannot imagine all the results of this evil. But the time will come when you will understand.” Fragments: Two

“There are definite ways of knowing that,” answered G. “Under certain conditions the ‘astral body’ can be seen; it can be separated from the physical body and even photographed at the side of the physical body. The existence of the ‘astral body’ can be still more easily and simply established by its functions. The ‘astral body’ has definite functions which the physical body cannot have. The presence of these functions indicates the presence of the ‘astral body.’ The absence of these functions shows the absence of the ‘astral body.’ But it is too early to speak of this now. All our attention must be concentrated on the study of the physical body. It is necessary to understand the structure of the human machine. Our principal error is that we think we have one mind. We call the functions of this mind ‘CONSCIOUS’; everything that does not enter this mind we call ‘unCONSCIOUS’ or ‘subCONSCIOUS.’ This is our chief error. Of the CONSCIOUS and the unCONSCIOUS we will speak later. At this moment I want to explain to you that the activity of the human machine, that is, of the physical body, is controlled, not by one, but by several minds, entirely independent of each other, having separate functions and separate spheres in which they manifest themselves. This must be understood first of all, because unless this is understood nothing else can be understood.” Fragments: Three

“This is the basis of the correct view of human evolution. There is no compulsory, mechanical evolution. Evolution is the result of CONSCIOUS struggle. Nature does not need this evolution; it does not want it and struggles against it. Evolution can be necessary only to man himself when he realizes his position, realizes the possibility of changing this position, realizes that he has powers that he does not use, riches that he does not see. And, in the sense of gaining possession of these powers and riches, evolution is possible. But if all men, or most of them, realized this and desired to obtain what belongs to them by right of birth, evolution would again become impossible. What is possible for individual man is impossible for the masses. Fragments: Three

“The advantage of the separate individual is that he is very small and that, in the economy of nature, it makes no difference whether there is one mechanical man more or less. We can easily understand this correlation of magnitudes if we imagine the correlation between a microscopic cell and our own body. The presence or absence of one cell will change nothing in the life of the body. We cannot be CONSCIOUS of it, and it can have no influence on the life and functions of the organism. In exactly the same way a separate individual is too small to influence the life of the cosmic organism to which he stands in the same relation (with regard to size) as a cell stands to our own organism. And this is precisely what makes his ‘evolution’ possible; on this are based his ‘possibilities.’ Fragments: Three

“The alternation of I’s, their continual obvious struggle for supremacy, is controlled by accidental external influences. Warmth, sunshine, fine weather, immediately call up a whole group of I’s. Cold, fog, rain, call up another group of I’s, other associations, other feelings, other actions. There is nothing in man able to control this change of I’s, chiefly because man does not notice, or know of it; he lives always in the last I. Some I’s, of course, are stronger than others. But it is not their own CONSCIOUS strength; they have been created by the strength of accidents or mechanical external stimuli. Education, imitation, reading, the hypnotism of religion, caste, and traditions, or the glamour of new slogans, create very strong I’s in man’s personality, which dominate whole series of other, weaker, I’s. But their strength is the strength of the ‘rolls’ in the centers. And all I’s making up a man’s personality have the same origin as these ‘rolls’; they are the results of external influences; and both are set in motion and controlled by fresh external influences. Fragments: Three

“The fundamental property of the new language is that all ideas in it are concentrated round one idea, that is, they are taken in their mutual relationship from the point of view of one idea. This idea is the idea of evolution. Of course, not evolution in the sense of mechanical evolution, because such an evolution does not exist, but in the sense of a CONSCIOUS and volitional evolution, which alone is possible. Fragments: Four

“It was said, for instance, that somebody wanted to help people. In order to be able to help people one must first learn to help oneself. A great number of people become absorbed in thoughts and feelings about helping others simply out of laziness. They are too lazy to work on themselves; and at the same time it is very pleasant for them to think that they are able to help others. This is being false and insincere with oneself. If a man looks at himself as he really is, he will not begin to think of helping other people: he will be ashamed to think about it. Love of mankind, altruism, are all very fine words, but they only have meaning when a man is able, of his own choice and of his own decision, to love or not to love, to be an altruist or an egoist. Then his choice has a value. But if there is no choice at all, if he cannot be different, if he is only such as chance has made or is making him, an altruist today, an egoist tomorrow, again an altruist the day after tomorrow, then there is no value in it whatever. In order to help others one must first learn to be an egoist, a CONSCIOUS egoist. Only a CONSCIOUS egoist can help people. Such as we are we can do nothing. A man decides to be an egoist but gives away his last shirt instead. He decides to give away his last shirt, but instead, he strips of his last shirt the man to whom he meant to give his own. Or he decides to give away his own shirt but gives away somebody else’s and is offended if somebody refuses to give him his shirt so that he may give it to another. This is what happens most often. And so it goes on. Fragments: Six

“Freedom, liberation, this must be the aim of man. To become free, to be liberated from slavery: this is what a man ought to strive for when he becomes even a little CONSCIOUS of his position. There is nothing else for him, and nothing else is possible so long as he remains a slave both inwardly and outwardly. But he cannot cease to be a slave outwardly while he remains a slave inwardly. Therefore in order to become free, man must gain inner freedom. Fragments: Six

The third thing, which at once attracted my attention and of which I began to think the very first time I heard of it, was the idea of the moving center. The chief thing that interested me here was the question of the relation in which G. placed moving functions to instinctive functions. Were they the same thing or were they different? And further, in what relation did the divisions made by G. stand to the divisions cus­tomary in ordinary psychology? With certain reservations and additions I had considered it possible to accept the old divisions, that is, to divide man’s actions into “CONSCIOUS” actions, “automatic” actions (which must at first be CONSCIOUS), “instinctive” actions (expedient, but without CONSCIOUSness of purpose), and “reflexes,” simple and complex, which are never CONSCIOUS and which can, in certain cases, be inexpedient. In addition there were actions performed under the influence of hidden emotional dispositions or inner unknown impulses. Fragments: Six

First of all he completely rejected “CONSCIOUS” actions because, as it appeared from what he said, there was nothing that was CONSCIOUS. The term “subCONSCIOUS” which plays such a big part in the theories of some authors became quite useless and even misleading, because phenomena of quite different categories were classified under the category of “subCONSCIOUS.” Fragments: Six

“All this is rubbish,” said G., “the usual scientific sophistry. It is time you got rid of it. Only one thing is true in what you have said: that you can know CONSCIOUSness only in yourself. Observe that I say you can know, for you can know it only when you have it. And when you have not got it, you can know that you have not got it, not at that very moment, but afterwards. I mean that when it comes again you can see that it has been absent a long time, and you can find or remember the moment when it disappeared and when it reappeared. You can also define the moments when you are nearer to CONSCIOUSness and further away from CONSCIOUSness. But by observing in yourself the appearance and the disappearance of CONSCIOUSness you will inevitably see one fact which you neither see nor acknowledge now, and that is that moments of CONSCIOUSness are very short and are separated by long intervals of completely unCONSCIOUS, mechanical working of the machine. You will then see that you can think, feel, act speak, work, without being CONSCIOUS of it. And if you learn to see in yourselves the moments of CONSCIOUSness and the long periods of mechanicalness, you will as infallibly see in other people when they are CONSCIOUS of what they are doing and when they are not. Fragments: Seven

“Not one of you has noticed the most important thing that I have pointed out to you,” he said. “That is to say, not one of you has noticed that you do not remember yourselves.” (He gave particular emphasis to these words.) “You do not feel yourselves; you are not CONSCIOUS of yourselves. With you, ‘it observes’ just as ‘it speaks’ ‘it thinks,’ ‘it laughs.’ You do not feel: I observe, I notice, I see. Everything still ‘is noticed,’ ‘is seen.’ … In order really to observe oneself one must first of all remember oneself” (He again emphasized these words.) “Try to remember yourselves when you observe yourselves and later on tell me the results. Only those results will have any value that are accompanied by self-remembering. Otherwise you yourselves do not exist in your observations. In which case what are all your observations worth?” Fragments: Seven

But before making deductions, I will try to describe my attempts to remember myself. ‘ The first impression was that attempts to remember myself or to be CONSCIOUS of myself, to say to myself, I am walking, I am doing, and continually to feel this I, stopped thought. When I was feeling I, I could neither think nor speak; even sensations became dimmed. Also, one could only remember oneself in this way for a very short time. Fragments: Seven

“In examining the ray of creation or cosmic octave we see that ‘intervals’ should come in the development of this octave: the first between do and si, that is between world 1 and world 3, between the Absolute and ‘all worlds,’ and the second between fa and mi, that is, between world 24 and world 48, between ‘all planets’ and the earth. But the first ‘interval’ is filled by the will of the Absolute. One of the manifestations of the will of the Absolute consists precisely in the filling of this ‘interval’ by means of a CONSCIOUS manifestation of neu­tralizing force which fills up the ‘interval’ between the active and the passive forces. With the second ‘interval’ the situation is more complicated. Something is missing between the planets and the earth. Planetary influences cannot pass to the earth consecutively and fully. An ‘additional shock’ is indispensable; the creation of some new conditions to insure a proper passage of forces is indispensable. Fragments: Seven

“There is nothing new in the idea of sleep. People have been told almost since the creation of the world that they are asleep and that they must awaken. How many times is this said in the Gospels, for instance? ‘Awake,’ ‘watch,’ ‘sleep not.’ Christ’s disciples even slept when he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane for the last time. It is all there. But do men understand it? Men take it simply as a form of speech, as an expression, as a metaphor. They completely fail to understand that it must be taken literally. And again it is easy to understand why. In order to understand this literally it is necessary to awaken a little, or at least to try to awaken. I tell you seriously that I have been asked several times why nothing is said about sleep in the Gospels. Although it is there spoken of almost on every page. This simply shows that people read the Gospels in sleep. So long as a man sleeps profoundly and is wholly immersed in dreams he cannot even think about the fact that he is asleep. If he were to think that he was asleep, he would wake up. So everything goes on. And men have not the slightest idea what they are losing because of this sleep. As I have already said, as he is organized, that is, being such as nature has created him, man can be a self­CONSCIOUS being. Such he is created and such he is born. But he is born among sleeping people, and, of course, he falls asleep among them just at the very time when he should have begun to be CONSCIOUS of himself. Everything has a hand in this: the involuntary imitation of older people on the part of the child, voluntary and involuntary suggestion, and what is called ‘education.’ Every attempt to awaken on the child’s part is instantly stopped. This is inevitable. And a great many efforts and a great deal of help are necessary in order to awaken later when thousands of sleep­compelling habits have been accumulated. And this very seldom happens. In most cases, a man when still a child already loses the possibility of awakening; he lives in sleep all his life and he dies in sleep. Furthermore, many people die long before their physical death. But of such cases we will speak later on. Fragments: Eight

“But man does not know of the third state of CONSCIOUSness or even suspect it. Nor can he suspect it because if you were to explain to him what the third state of CONSCIOUSness is, that is to say, in what it consists, he would say that it was his usual state. He considers himself to be a CONSCIOUS being governing his own life. Facts that contradict that, he considers to be accidental or temporary, which will change by themselves. By considering that he possesses self-CONSCIOUSness, as it were by nature, a man will not of course try to approach or obtain it. And yet without self­CONSCIOUSness, or the third state, the fourth, except in rare flashes, is impossible. Knowledge, however, the real objective knowledge towards which man, as he asserts, is struggling, is possible only in the fourth state of CONSCIOUSness, that is, it is conditional upon the full possession of the fourth state of CONSCIOUSness. Knowledge which is acquired in the ordinary state of CONSCIOUSness is intermixed with dreams. There you have a complete picture of the being of man number one, two, and three.” Fragments: Eight

“They do,” said G., “only this is very far away from us and it is not worth your while even to try to understand this at present. Simply remember one thing. The only possible permanent idea of good and evil for man is connected with the idea of evolution; not with mechanical evolution, of course, but with the idea of man’s development through CONSCIOUS efforts, the change of his being, the creation of unity in him, and the formation of a permanent I. Fragments: Eight

“These lies are created by ‘buffers’ In order to destroy the lies in oneself as well as lies told unCONSCIOUSly to others, ‘buffers’ must be destroyed. But then a man cannot live without ‘buffers.’ ‘Buffers’ automatically control a man’s actions, words, thoughts, and feelings. If ‘buffers’ were to be destroyed all control would disappear. A man cannot exist without control even though it is only automatic control. Only a man who possesses will, that is, CONSCIOUS control, can live without ‘buffers.’ Consequently, if a man begins to destroy ‘buffers’ within himself he must at the same time develop a will. And as will cannot be created to order in a short space of time a man may be left with ‘buffers’ demolished and with a will that is not as yet sufficiently strengthened. The only chance he has during this period is to be controlled by another will which has already been strengthened. Fragments: Eight

“Renunciation of his own decisions, subordination to the will of another, may present insuperable difficulties to a man if he had failed to realize beforehand that actually he neither sacrifices nor changes anything in his life, that all his life he has been subject to some extraneous will and has never had any decisions of his own. But a man is not CONSCIOUS of this. He considers that he has the right of free choice. It is hard for him to renounce the illusion that he directs and organizes his life himself. But no work on himself is possible until a man is free from this illusion. Fragments: Eight

“Mi 48 passes to fa 24; fa 24 passes to sol 12; sol 12 passes to la 6. La 6 is the highest matter produced by the organism from air, that is, from the second kind of food. This however is obtained only by making a CONSCIOUS effort at the moment an impression is received. “It is necessary to understand what this means. We all breathe the same air. Apart from the elements known to our science the air contains a great number of substances unknown to science, indefinable for it and inaccessible to its observation. But exact analysis is possible both of the air inhaled and of the air exhaled. This exact analysis shows that although Fragments: Nine

“We have followed the development of two octaves. The third octave, that is, the octave of impressions, begins through a CONSCIOUS effort. Do 48 passes to re 24; re 24 passes to mi 12. At this point the development of the octave comes to a stop. “Now if we examine the result of the development of these three octaves, we shall see that the first octave has reached si 12, the second la 6, and the third mi 12. Thus the first and third octaves stop at notes which are unable to pass to the following notes. “For the two octaves to develop further, a second CONSCIOUS shock is needed at a certain point in the machine, a new CONSCIOUS effort is necessary which will enable the two octaves to continue their development. The nature of this effort demands special study. From the point of view of the general work of the machine it can be said in general that this effort is connected with the emotional life, that it is a special kind of influence over one’s emotions. But what this kind of influence really is, and how it has to be produced, can be explained only in connection with a general description of the work of the human factory or the human machine. Fragments: Nine

“If we now take the work of the human factory as a whole, we shall be able to see at the moments when the production of fine substances is arrested by what means we can increase the productivity of the factory. We see that, under ordinary conditions and working with one mechanical ‘shock’ the factory produces a very small quantity of the fine substances, in fact only si 12. Working with one mechanical and one CONSCIOUS ‘shock’ the factory now produces a much greater quantity of the fine substances. Working with two CONSCIOUS ‘shocks’ the factory will produce a quantity of the fine substances such as, in the course of time, will completely change the character of the factory itself. Fragments: Nine

“The second stage refers to the work of the human organism when a man creates a CONSCIOUS volitional ‘shock’ at the point do 48. In the first place this volitional ‘shock’ is transmitted to the second octave which develops as far as sol 12, or even further up to la 6 and so on, if the work of the organism is sufficiently intense. The same ‘shock’ also enables the third octave to develop, that is, the octave of impressions which in this event reaches mi 12. Thus in the second stage of the work of the human organism, we see the full development of the second octave and three notes of the third octave. The first octave has stopped at the note si 12, the third at the note mi 12. Neither of these octaves can proceed any further without a fresh ‘shock.’ The nature of this second ‘shock’ cannot be so easily described as the nature of the first volitional ‘shock’ at do 48. In order to understand the nature of this ‘shock’ it is necessary to understand the meaning of si 12 and mi 12. Fragments: Nine

“The third stage in the work of the human organism begins when man creates in himself a CONSCIOUS second volitional ‘shock’ at the point mi 12, when the transformation or transmutation of these ‘hydrogens’ into higher ‘hydrogens’ begins in him. The second stage and the beginning of the third stage refer to the life and functions of man number four. A fairly considerable period of. transmutation and crystallization is needed for the transition of man number four to the level of man number five. Fragments: Nine

“The first kind are influences created in life itself or by life itself. Influences of race, nation, country, climate, family, education, society, profession, manners and customs, wealth, poverty, current ideas, and so on. The second kind are influences created outside this life, influences of the inner circle, or esoteric influences — influences, that is, created under different laws, although also on the earth. These influences differ from the former, first of all in being CONSCIOUS in their origin. This means that they have been created CONSCIOUSly by CONSCIOUS men for a definite purpose. Influences of this kind are usually embodied in the form of religious systems and teachings, philosophical doctrines, works of art, and so on. Fragments: Ten

“They are let out into life for a definite purpose, and become mixed with influences of the first kind. But it must be borne in mind that these influences are CONSCIOUS only in their origin. Coming into the general vortex of life they fall under the general law<law of accident and begin to act mechanically, that is, they may act on a certain definite man or may not act; they may reach him or they may not. In undergoing change and distortion in life through transmission and interpretation, influences of the second kind are transformed into influences of the first kind, that is, they become, as it were, merged into the influences of the first kind. Fragments: Ten

“Here again there are many possibilities. But this will be spoken of later on. For the moment let us imagine that he has met a man who really knows the way and is ready to help him. The influence of this man upon him goes through his magnetic center. And then, at this point, the man frees himself from the law of accident. This is what must be understood. The influence of the man who knows the way upon the first man is a special kind of influence, differing from the former two, first of all in being a direct influence, and secondly in being a CONSCIOUS influence. Influences of the second kind, which create magnetic center, are CONSCIOUS in their origin but afterwards they are thrown into the general vortex of life, are intermixed with influences created in life itself, and are equally subject to the law of accident. Influences of the third kind can never be subject to the law of accident; they are themselves outside the law of accident and their action also is outside the law of accident. Influences of the second kind can proceed through books, through philosophical systems, through rituals. Influences of the third kind can proceed only from one person to another, directly, by means of oral transmission. Fragments: Ten

At one of the following meetings, in the presence of G., when he made me repeat what he had said about the way and about magnetic center, I embodied his idea in the following diagram: V …life; H … an individual man; A … influences created in life, that is, in life itself — the first kind of influences; B … influences created outside life but thrown into the general vortex of life — the second kind of influences Hi … a man, connected by means of succession with the esoteric center or pretending to it E … esoteric center, standing outside the general laws of life M … magnetic center in man C … influence of man h1 on man h; in the event of his actually being connected with the esoteric center, directly or by succession, this is the third kind of influences. This influence is CONSCIOUS, and under its action at the point m, that is, in the magnetic center, a man becomes free from the law of accident H2 … a man, deceiving himself or deceiving others and having no connection, either directly or by succession, with the esoteric center. Fragments: Ten

“The idea of the possibility of broadening man’s CONSCIOUSness and increasing his capacities for knowledge stands in direct relation to the teaching on cosmoses. In his ordinary state a man is CONSCIOUS of himself in one cosmos, and all the other cosmoses he looks at from the point of view of one cosmos. The broadening of his CONSCIOUSness and the intensifying of his psychic functions lead him into the sphere of activity and life of two other cosmoses simultaneously, the one above and the one below, that is, one larger and one smaller. The broadening of CONSCIOUSness does not proceed in one direction only, that is, in the direction of the higher cosmoses; in going above, at the same time it goes below. Fragments: Ten

“The next important feature of group work is that groups may be connected with some aim of which those who are beginning work in them have no idea whatever and which cannot even be explained to them until they understand the essence and the principles of the work and the ideas connected with it. But this aim towards which without knowing it they are going, and which they are serving, is the necessary balancing principle in their own work. Their first task is to understand this aim, that is, the aim of the teacher. When they have understood this aim, although at first not fully, their own work becomes more CONSCIOUS and consequently can give better results. But, as I have already said, it often happens that the aim of the teacher cannot be explained at the beginning. Fragments: Eleven

“This idea of repetition,” said G., “is not the full and absolute truth, but it is the nearest possible approximation of the truth. In this case truth cannot be expressed in words. But what you say is very near to it. And if you understand why I do not speak of this, you will be still nearer to it. What is the use of a man knowing about recurrence if he is not CONSCIOUS of it and if he himself does not change? One can say even that if a man does not change, repetition does not exist for him. If you tell him about repetition, it will only increase his sleep. Why should he make any efforts today when there is so much time and so many possibilities ahead — the whole of eternity? Why should he bother today? This is exactly why the system does not say anything about repetition and takes only this one life which we know. The system has neither meaning nor sense without striving for self-change. And work on self-change must begin today, immediately. All laws can be seen in one life. Knowledge about the repetition of lives will add nothing for a man if he does not see how everything repeats itself in one life, that is, in this life, and if he does not strive to change himself in order to escape this repetition. But if he changes something essential in himself, that is, if he attains something, this cannot be lost” Fragments: Twelve

“You must try to understand what I mean. Mechanicalness is especially dangerous when people try to explain it by something else and not by what it really is. When sex is clearly CONSCIOUS of itself and does not cover itself up by anything else it is not the mechanicalness about which I am speaking. On the contrary sex which exists by itself and is not dependent on anything else is already a great achievement. But the evil lies in this constant self-deception!” Fragments: Twelve

What he said suddenly put a stop to all my thoughts and feelings. It was not fear, at least not a CONSCIOUS fear when one knows that one is afraid, but I was all shivering and something literally paralyzed me completely so that I could not articulate a single word although I made terrible efforts, wishing to give an affirmative reply. Fragments: Thirteen

“But this duality would seem to alternate; what is victor today is the vanquished tomorrow; what guides us today becomes secondary and subordinate tomorrow. And everything is equally mechanical, equally independent of will, and leads equally to no aim of any kind. The understanding of duality in oneself begins with the realization of mechanicalness and the realization of the difference between what is mechanical and what is CONSCIOUS. This understanding must be preceded by the destruction of the self-deceit in which a man lives who considers even his most mechanical actions to be volitional and CONSCIOUS and himself to be single and whole. Fragments: Fourteen

“When self-deceit is destroyed and a man begins to see the difference between the mechanical and the CONSCIOUS in himself, there begins a struggle for the realization of CONSCIOUSness in life and for the subordination of the mechanical to the CONSCIOUS. For this purpose a man begins with endeavors to set a definite decision, coming from CONSCIOUS motives, against mechanical processes proceeding according to the laws of duality. The creation of a permanent third principle is for man the transformation of the duality into the trinity. Fragments: Fourteen

“The process of evolution, of that evolution which is possible for humanity as a whole, is completely analogous, to the process of evolution possible for the individual man. And it begins with the same thing, namely, a certain group of cells gradually becomes CONSCIOUS; then it attracts to itself other cells, subordinates others, and gradually makes the whole organism serve its aims and not merely eat, drink, and sleep. This is evolution and there can be no other kind of evolution. In humanity as in individual man everything begins with the formation of a CONSCIOUS nucleus. All the mechanical forces of life fight against the formation of this CONSCIOUS nucleus in humanity, in just the same way as all mechanical habits, tastes and weaknesses fight against CONSCIOUS self-remembering in man.” Fragments: Fifteen

“Can it be said that there is a CONSCIOUS force which fights against the evolution of humanity?” I asked. Fragments: Fifteen

“It would take a long time to explain,” said G., “and it cannot have a practical significance for us at the present moment. There are two processes which are sometimes called ‘involutionary’ and ‘evolutionary.’ The difference between them is the following: An involutionary process begins CONSCIOUSly in the Absolute but at the next step it already becomes mechanical — and it becomes more and more mechanical as it develops; an evolutionary process begins half-CONSCIOUSly but it becomes more and more CONSCIOUS as its develops. But CONSCIOUSness and CONSCIOUS opposition to the evolutionary process can also appear at certain moments in the, involutionary process. From where does this CONSCIOUSness come? From the evolutionary process of course. The evolutionary process must proceed without interruption. Any stop causes a separation from the fundamental process. Such separate fragments of CONSCIOUSnesses which have been stopped in their development can also unite and at any rate for a certain time can live by struggling against the evolutionary process. After all it merely makes the evolutionary process more interesting. Instead of struggling against mechanical forces there may, at certain moments, be a struggle against the intentional opposition of fairly powerful forces though they are not of course comparable with those which direct the evolutionary process. These opposing forces may sometimes even conquer. The reason for this consists in the fact that the forces guiding evolution have a more limited choice of means; in other words, they can only make use of certain means and certain methods. The opposing forces are not limited in their choice of means and they are able to make use of every means, even those which only give rise to a temporary success, and in the final result they destroy both evolution and involution at the point in question. Fragments: Fifteen

“Are we able to say for instance that life is governed by a group of CONSCIOUS people? Where are they? Who are they? We see exactly the opposite: that life is governed by those who are the least CONSCIOUS, by those who are most asleep. Fragments: Fifteen

“Are we able to say that such a group exists? Perhaps we can on the basis of certain signs, but in any event we have to acknowledge that it is a very small group, quite insufficient, at any rate, to subjugate the rest of humanity. Or, looking at it from another point of view, we can say that humanity is in such a state that it is unable to accept the guidance of a CONSCIOUS group.” Fragments: Fifteen

“How many people could there be in this CONSCIOUS group?” someone asked. Fragments: Fifteen

“How could it be otherwise?” asked G. “Imagine that there are two or three people who are awake in the midst of a multitude of sleeping people. They will certainly know each other. But those who are asleep cannot know them. How many are they? We do not know and we cannot know until we become like them. It has been clearly said before that each man can only see on the level of his own being. But two hundred CONSCIOUS people, if they existed and if they found it necessary and legitimate, could change the whole of life on the earth. But either there are not enough of them, or they do not want to, or perhaps the time has not yet come, or perhaps other people are sleeping too soundly. Fragments: Fifteen

” ‘The outer circle’ is the circle of mechanical humanity to which we belong and which alone we know. The first sign of this circle is that among people who belong to it there is not and there cannot be a common understanding. Everybody understands in his own way and all differently. This circle is sometimes called the circle of the ‘confusion of tongues,’ that is, the circle in which each one speaks in his own particular language, where no one understands another and takes no trouble to be understood. In this circle mutual understanding between people is impossible excepting in rare exceptional moments or in matters having no great significance, and which are confined to the limits of the given being. If people belonging to this circle become CONSCIOUS of this general lack of understanding and acquire a desire to understand and to be understood, then it means they have an unCONSCIOUS tendency towards the inner circle because mutual understanding begins only in the exoteric circle and is possible only there. But the CONSCIOUSness of the lack of understanding usually comes to people in an altogether different form. Fragments: Fifteen

“Mechanical help cannot be required in any work of the fourth way. Only CONSCIOUS work can be useful in all the undertakings of the fourth way. Mechanical man cannot give CONSCIOUS work so that the first task of the people who begin such a work is to create CONSCIOUS assistants. Fragments: Fifteen

“So far,” he said, “we have looked upon the ‘table of hydrogens’ as a table of vibrations and of the densities of matter which are in an inverse proportion to them. We must now realize that the density of vibrations and the density of matter express many other properties of matter. For instance, till now we have said nothing about the intelligence or the CONSCIOUSness of matter. Meanwhile the speed of vibrations of a matter shows the degree of intelligence of the given matter. You must remember that there is nothing dead or inanimate in nature. Everything in its own way is alive, everything in its own way is intelligent and CONSCIOUS. Only this CONSCIOUSness and intelligence is expressed in a different way on different levels of being — that is, on different scales. But you must understand once and for all that nothing is dead or inanimate in nature, there are simply different degrees of animation and different scales. Fragments: Sixteen

“The ‘table of hydrogens,’ while serving to determine the density of matter and the speed of vibrations, serves at the same time to determine the degree of intelligence and CONSCIOUSness because the degree of CONSCIOUSness corresponds to the degree of density or the speed or vibrations. This means that the denser the matter the less CONSCIOUS it is, the less intelligent. And the denser the vibrations, the more CONSCIOUS and the more intelligent the matter. Fragments: Sixteen

“At the same time ‘stop’ demands unconditional obedience, without any hesitations or doubts. And this makes it the invariable method for studying school discipline. School discipline is something quite different from military discipline, for instance. In that discipline everything is mechanical and the more mechanical it is the better. In this everything should be CONSCIOUS because the aim consists in awakening CONSCIOUSness. And for many people school discipline is much more difficult than military discipline. There it is always one and the same, here it is always different. Fragments: Seventeen

“Right exercises,” G. said once, “which lead direct to the aim of mastering the organism and subjecting its CONSCIOUS and unCONSCIOUS functions to the will, begin with breathing exercises. Without mastering breathing nothing can be mastered. At the same time to master breathing is not so easy. Fragments: Eighteen