Ladies who suddenly see “eyes” in their rooms which float in the air and fascinate them and which they follow from street to street and at the end arrive at the house of a certain Oriental to whom the eyes belong. Or people who, in the PRESENCE of the same Oriental, suddenly feel he is looking right through them, seeing all their feelings, thoughts, and desires; and they have a strange sensation in their legs and cannot move, and then fall into his power to such an extent that he can make them do everything he desires, even from a distance. All this and many other stories of the same sort had always seemed to me to be simply bad fiction. People invent miracles for themselves and invent exactly what is expected from them. It is a mixture of superstition, self-suggestion, and defective thinking, and, according to myobservation, these stories never appear without a certain collaboration on the part of the men to whom they refer. Fragments: One

I was at the same café where I had met G. the next day, and the dayfollowing, and every day afterwards. During the week I spent in Moscow I saw G. every day. It very soon became clear to me that he knew very much of what I wanted to know. Among other things he explained to me certain phenomena I had come across in India which no one had been able to explain to me either there, on the spot, or afterwards. In his explanations I felt the assurance of a specialist, a very fine analysis of facts, and a system which I could not grasp, but the PRESENCE of which I already felt because G.’s explanations made me think not only of the facts under discussion, but also of many other things I had observed or conjectured. Fragments: One

“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

“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

On another occasion we were talking of Buddhism in Ceylon. I expressed the opinion that Buddhists must have magic, the existence of which they do not acknowledge, and the possibility of which is denied in official Buddhism. Entirely without connection with this remark, and while, I think, I was showing my photographs to G., I spoke about a small shrine in a private house in Colombo in which there was, as usual, a statue of Buddha, and at the foot of the Buddha a small, bell-shaped ivory dagoba, that is, a small carved replica of a dagoba, hollow inside. They opened this in my PRESENCE and showed me something inside it that was regarded as a relic — a small round ball the size of a large shot, carved, as I thought, out of ivory or mother-of-pearl. Fragments: Three

“According to real, exact knowledge, one force, or two forces, can never produce a phenomenon. The PRESENCE of a third force is necessary, for it is only with the help of a third force that the first two can produce what may be called a phenomenon, no matter in what sphere. Fragments: Four

“Consciousness is considered to be indefinable,” I said, “and indeed, how can it be defined if it is an inner quality? With the ordinary means at our disposal it is impossible to prove the PRESENCE of consciousness in another man. We know it only in ourselves.” Fragments: Seven

“All this and much else besides is merely a form of identification. Such considering is wholly based upon ‘requirements.’ A man inwardly ‘re-quires’ that everyone should see what a remarkable man he is and that they should constantly give expression to their respect, esteem, and admiration for him, for his intellect, his beauty, his cleverness, his wit, his PRESENCE of mind, his originality, and all his other qualities. Requirements in their turn are based on a completely fantastic notion about themselves such as very often occurs with people of very modest appearance. Various writers, actors, musicians, artists, and politicians, for instance, are almost without exception sick people. And what are they suffering from? First of all from an extraordinary’ opinion of themselves, then from requirements, and then from considering, that is, being ready and prepared beforehand to take offense at lack of understanding and lack of appreciation. Fragments: Eight

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

“This also must be clearly and properly understood. People do not realize what a big place in their lives is occupied by lying or even if only by the suppression of the truth. People are unable to be sincere either with themselves or with others. They do not even understand that to learn to be sincere when it is necessary is one of the most difficult things on earth. They imagine that to speak or not to speak the truth, to be or not to be sincere, depends upon them. Therefore they have to learn this and learn it first of all in relation to the teacher of the work. Telling the teacher a deliberate lie, or being insincere with him, or suppressing something, makes their PRESENCE in the group completely useless and is even worse than being rude or uncivil to him or in his PRESENCE. Fragments: Eleven

“In addition to these fundamental demands it is of course presumed that the members of the group must work. If they merely frequent the group and do no work but merely imagine that they are working, or if they regard as work their mere PRESENCE in the group, or, as often happens, if they look upon their PRESENCE in the group as a pastime, if they make pleasant acquaintances, and so on, then their PRESENCE in the group likewise becomes completely useless. And the sooner they are sent away or leave of their own accord the better it will be for them and for the others. Fragments: Eleven

“The isolated existence of a thing or phenomenon under examination is the closed circle of an eternally returning and uninterruptedly flowing process. The circle symbolizes this process. The separate points in the division of the circumference symbolize the steps of the process. The symbol as a whole is do, that is, something with an orderly and complete existence. It is a circle — a completed cycle. It is the zero of our decimal system; in its inscription it represents a closed cycle. It contains within itself everything necessary for its own existence. It is isolated from its surroundings. The succession of stages in the process must be connected with the succession of the remaining numbers from 1 to 9. The PRESENCE of the ninth step filling up the ‘interval’ si-do, completes the cycle, that is, it closes the circle, which begins anew at this point. The apex of the triangle closes the duality of its base, making possible the manifold forms of its manifestation in the most diverse triangles, in the same way as the point of the apex of the triangle multiplies itself infinitely in the line of its base. Therefore every beginning and completion of the cycle is situated in the apex of the triangle, in the point where the beginning and the end merge, where the circle is closed, and which sounds in the endlessly flowing cycle as the two do’s in the octave. But it is the ninth step that closes and again begins a cycle. Therefore in the upper point of the triangle corresponding to do stands the number 9, and among the remaining points are disposed the numbers 1 to 8. Fragments: Fourteen

“The final substance in the process of the food octave is the substance si (‘hydrogen’ 12 in the third scale), which needs an ‘additional shock* in order to pass into a new do. But as three octaves have taken part in the production of this substance their influence is also reflected in the final result by determining its quality. The quality and quantity can be regulated by regulating the three kinds of food received by the organism. Only in the PRESENCE of a full and harmonious conformity between all three kinds of food, by a strengthening or weakening of the different parts of the process, is the required result obtained. Fragments: Fourteen

G. returned to the enneagram many times and in various connections. “Each completed whole, each cosmos, each organism, each plant, is an enneagram,” he said. “But not each of these enneagrams has an inner triangle. The inner triangle stands for the PRESENCE of higher elements, according to the scale of ‘hydrogens,’ in a given organism. This inner triangle is possessed by such plants, for example, as hemp, poppy, hops, tea, coffee, tobacco, and many other plants which play a definite role in the life of man. The study of these plants can reveal much for us in regard to the enneagram. Fragments: Fourteen

But with all this, one was struck by the striving in her to make the best use even of these last days, to find the truth whose PRESENCE she clearly felt but which she was unable to touch. I did not think that I should see her again. But I could not refuse when she asked me for the address of my friends in Paris, for the address of people with whom she would be able to talk about the same things she had talked about with me. And so I had met her again at the Prieuré. We sat in the evening in one of the salons and she spoke in a feeble voice which seemed to come from the void, but it was not unpleasant. Fragments: Eighteen