“And yet a person accustomed to SELF-OBSERVATION knows for certain that at different periods of his life he has understood one and the same idea, one and the same thought, in totally different ways. It often seems strange to him that he could have understood so wrongly that which, in his opinion, he now understands rightly. And he realizes, at the same time, that his knowledge has not changed, and that he knew as much about the given subject before as he knows now. What, then, has changed? His being has changed. And once being has changed understanding must change also. Fragments: Four

“The chief method of self-study is SELF-OBSERVATION. Without properly applied SELF-OBSERVATION a man will never understand the connection and the correlation between the various functions of his machine, will never understand how and why on each separate occasion everything in him ‘happens.’ Fragments: Six

“The chief method of self-study is SELF-OBSERVATION. Without properly applied self­observation a man will never understand the connection and the correlation between the various functions of his machine, will never understand how and why on each separate occasion everything in him ‘happens.’ Fragments: Six

“But to learn the methods of SELF-OBSERVATION and of right self-study requires a certain understanding of the functions and the characteristics of the human machine. Thus in observing the functions of the human machine it is necessary to understand the correct divisions of the functions observed and to be able to define them exactly and at once; and the definition must not be a verbal but an inner definition; by taste, by sensation, in the same way as we define all inner experiences. Fragments: Six

“There are two methods of SELF-OBSERVATION: analysis, or attempts at analysis, that is, attempts to find the answers to the questions: upon what does a certain thing depend, and why does it happen; and the second method is registering, simply ‘recording’ in one’s mind what is observed at the moment. Fragments: Six

“In trying to analyze some phenomenon that he comes across within him, a man generally asks: ‘What is this? Why does it happen in this way and not in some other way?’ And he begins to seek an answer to these questions, forgetting all about further observations. Becoming more and more engrossed in these questions he completely loses the thread of SELF-OBSERVATION and even forgets about it. Observation stops. It is clear from this that only one thing can go on; either observation or attempts at analysis. Fragments: Six

“From the very beginning, observation, or ‘recording,’ must be based upon the understanding of the fundamental principles of the activity of the human machine. Self-observation cannot be properly applied without knowing these principles, without constantly bearing them in mind. Therefore ordinary SELF-OBSERVATION, in which all people are engaged all their lives, is entirely useless and leads nowhere. Fragments: Six

“Observation must begin from the beginning. All previous experience, the results of all previous SELF-OBSERVATION, must be laid aside. They may contain much valuable material. But all this material is based upon wrong divisions of the functions observed and is itself wrongly divided. It cannot therefore be utilized, at any rate it cannot be utilized at the beginning of the work of self-study. What is of value in it will, at the proper time, be taken up and made use of. But it is necessary to begin from the begin­ning. A man must begin observing himself as though he did not know himself at all, as though he had never observed himself. Fragments: Six

“The next object of SELF-OBSERVATION must be habits in general. Every grown-up man consists wholly of habits, although he is often unaware of it and even denies having any habits at all. This can never be the case. All three centers are filled with habits and a man can never know himself until he has studied all his habits. The observation and the study of habits is particularly difficult because, in order to see and ‘record’ them, one must escape from them, free oneself from them, if only for a moment. So long as a man is governed by a particular habit, he does not observe it, but at the very first attempt, however feeble, to struggle against it, he feels it and notices it. Therefore in order to observe and study habits one must try to struggle against them. This opens up a practical method of SELF-OBSERVATION. It has been said before that a man cannot change anything in himself, that he can only observe and ‘record.’ This is true. But it is also true that a man cannot observe and ‘record’ anything if he does not try to struggle with himself, that is, with his habits. This struggle cannot yield direct results, that is to say, it cannot lead to any change, especially to any permanent and lasting change. But it shows what is there. Without a struggle a man cannot see what he consists of. The struggle with small habits is very difficult and boring, but without it SELF-OBSERVATION is impossible. Fragments: Six

“Besides being a very good method for SELF-OBSERVATION, the struggle against expressing unpleasant emotions has at the same time another significance. It is one of the few directions in which a man can change himself or his habits without creating other undesirable habits. Therefore SELF-OBSERVATION and self-study must, from the first, be accompanied by the struggle against the expression of unpleasant emotions. Fragments: Six

On one occasion at the beginning of a meeting G. put a question to which all those present had to answer in turn. The question was; “What is the most important thing that we notice during SELF-OBSERVATION?” Fragments: Seven

Some of those present said that during attempts at SELF-OBSERVATION, what they had felt particularly strongly was an incessant flow of thoughts which they had found impossible to stop. Others spoke of the difficulty of distinguishing the work of one center from the work of another. I had evidently not altogether understood the question, or I answered my own thoughts, because I said that what struck me most was the connectedness of one thing with another in the system, the wholeness of the system, as if it were an “organism,” and the entirely new significance of the word to know which included not only the idea of knowing this thing or that, but the connection between this thing and everything else. Fragments: Seven

“It has been said before that self-study and SELF-OBSERVATION, if rightly conducted, bring man to the realization of the fact that something is wrong with his machine and with his functions in their ordinary state. A man realizes that it is precisely because he is asleep that he lives and works in a small part of himself. It is precisely for this reason that the vast majority of his possibilities remain unrealized, the vast majority of his powers are left unused. A man feels that he does not get out of life all that it can give him, that he fails to do so owing to definite functional defects in his machine, in his receiving apparatus. The idea of self-study acquires in his eyes a new meaning. He feels that possibly it may not even be worth while studying himself as he is now. He sees every function as it is now and as it could be or ought to be. Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity for self-change. And in observing him-self a man notices that SELF-OBSERVATION itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that SELF-OBSERVATION is an instrument of self-change, a means of awakening. By observing himself he throws, as it were, a ray of light onto his inner processes which have hitherto worked in complete darkness. And under the influence of this light the processes themselves begin to change. There are a great many chemical processes that can take place only in the absence of light. Exactly in the same way many psychic processes can take place only in the dark. Even a feeble light of consciousness is enough to change completely the character of a process, while it makes many of them altogether impossible. Our inner psychic processes (our inner alchemy) have much in common with those chemical processes in which light changes the character of the process and they are subject to analogous laws. Fragments: Eight

“It has been said before that self-study and SELF-OBSERVATION, if rightly conducted, bring man to the realization of the fact that something is wrong with his machine and with his functions in their ordinary state. A man realizes that it is precisely because he is asleep that he lives and works in a small part of himself. It is precisely for this reason that the vast majority of his possibilities remain unrealized, the vast majority of his powers are left unused. A man feels that he does not get out of life all that it can give him, that he fails to do so owing to definite functional defects in his machine, in his receiving apparatus. The idea of self-study acquires in his eyes a new meaning. He feels that possibly it may not even be worth while studying himself as he is now. He sees every function as it is now and as it could be or ought to be. Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity for self-change. And in observing him-self a man notices that SELF-OBSERVATION itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that SELF-OBSERVATION is an instrument of self­change, a means of awakening. By observing himself he throws, as it were, a ray of light onto his inner processes which have hitherto worked in complete darkness. And under the influence of this light the processes themselves begin to change. There are a great many chemical processes that can take place only in the absence of light. Exactly in the same way many psychic processes can take place only in the dark. Even a feeble light of consciousness is enough to change completely the character of a process, while it makes many of them altogether impossible. Our inner psychic processes (our inner alchemy) have much in common with those chemical processes in which light changes the character of the process and they are subject to analogous laws. Fragments: Eight

“When a man comes to realize the necessity not only for self-study and SELF-OBSERVATION but also for work on himself with the object of changing himself, the character of his SELF-OBSERVATION must change. He has so far studied the details of the work of the centers, trying only to register this or that phenomenon, to be an impartial witness. He has studied the work of the machine. Now he must begin to see himself, that is to say, to see, not separate details, not the work of small wheels and levers, but to see everything taken together as a whole — the whole of himself such as others see him. Fragments: Eight

“When a man comes to realize the necessity not only for self-study and self­observation but also for work on himself with the object of changing himself, the character of his SELF-OBSERVATION must change. He has so far studied the details of the work of the centers, trying only to register this or that phenomenon, to be an impartial witness. He has studied the work of the machine. Now he must begin to see himself, that is to say, to see, not separate details, not the work of small wheels and levers, but to see everything taken together as a whole — the whole of himself such as others see him. Fragments: Eight

“Instead of the man he had supposed himself to be he will see quite another man. This ‘other’ man is himself and at the same time not himself. It is he as other people know him, as he imagines himself and as he appears in his actions, words, and so on; but not altogether such as he actually is. For a man himself knows that there is a great deal that is unreal, invented, and artificial in this other man whom other people know and whom he knows himself. You must learn to divide the real from the invented. And to begin SELF-OBSERVATION and self-study it is necessary to divide oneself. A man must realize that he indeed consists of two men. Fragments: Eight

“From this point of view there is a very definite danger arising from the very first moment of SELF-OBSERVATION. It is ‘I’ who begins SELF-OBSERVATION, but it is immediately taken up and continued by ‘Ouspensky,’ ‘Zakharov,’ or ‘Petrov.’ But ‘Ouspensky’ ‘Zakharov,’ or ‘Petrov’ from the very first steps introduces a slight alteration into this SELF-OBSERVATION, an alteration which seems to be quite unimportant but which in reality fundamentally alters the whole thing. Fragments: Eight

“Let us suppose, for example, that a man called Ivanov hears the description of this method of SELF-OBSERVATION. He is told that a man must divide himself, ‘he’ or ‘I’ on one side and ‘Ouspensky,’ ‘Tetrov,’ or ‘Zakharov’ on the other side. And he divides himself literally as he hears it. ‘This is I,’ he says, ‘and that is “Ouspensky,” “Petrov,” or “Zakharov.”‘ He will never say ‘Ivanov.’ He finds that unpleasant, so he will inevitably use somebody else’s surname or Christian name. Moreover he calls ‘I’ what he likes in himself or at any rate what he considers to be strong, while he calls ‘Ouspensky,’ ‘Petrov,’ or ‘Zakharov’ what he does not like or what he considers to be weak. On this basis he begins to reason in many ways about himself, quite wrongly of course from the very beginning, since he has already deceived himself in the most important point and has taken not his real self, that is, he has taken, not Ivanov, but the imaginary ‘Ouspensky,’ ‘Petrov’ or ‘Zakharov.’ Fragments: Eight

“It is difficult even to imagine how often a man dislikes to use his own name in speaking of himself in the third person. He tries to avoid it in every possible way. He calls himself by another name, as in the instance just mentioned; he devises an artificial name for himself, a name by which nobody ever has or ever will call him, or he calls himself simply ‘he,’ and so on. In this connection people who are accustomed in their mental conversations to call themselves by their Christian name, or surname or by pet names are no exception. When it comes to SELF-OBSERVATION they prefer to call themselves ‘Ouspensky’ or to say ‘Ouspensky in me,’ as though there could be an ‘Ouspensky’ in them. There is quite enough of ‘Ouspensky’ for Ouspensky himself. Fragments: Eight

“On this level of SELF-OBSERVATION a man must understand that his whole aim is to free himself from ‘Ouspensky.’ And since he cannot in fact free himself from ‘Ouspensky,’ because he is himself, he must therefore master ‘Ouspensky’ and make him do, not what the ‘Ouspensky’ of the given moment wants, but what he himself wants to do. From being the master, ‘Ouspensky’ must become the servant. Fragments: Eight

“In order to know why this is so you must remember a great deal of what has been said earlier. As was said earlier, SELF-OBSERVATION brings a man to the realization of the fact that he does not remember himself. Man’s inability to remember himself is one of the chief and most characteristic features of his being and the cause of everything else in him. The inability to remember oneself finds expression in many ways. A man does ‘not remember his decisions, he does not remember the promises lie has made to himself, does not remember what he said or felt a month, a week, a day, or even an hour ago. He begins work of some kind and after a certain lapse of time he does not remember why he began it. It is especially in connection with work on oneself that this happens particularly often. A man can remember a promise given to another person only with the help of artificial associations, associations which have been educated into him, and they, in their turn, are connected with conceptions which are also artificially created of ‘honor,’ ‘honesty,’ ‘duty,’ and so on. But speaking in general one can say truthfully that if a man remembers one thing he forgets ten other things which are much more important for him to remember. And a man particularly easily forgets what relates to himself, those ‘mental photographs’ of himself which perhaps he has previously taken. Fragments: Eight

“Furthermore, in the work of self-study one man begins to accumulate material resulting from SELF-OBSERVATION. Twenty people will have twenty times as much material. And every one of them will be able to use the whole of this material because the exchange of observations is one of the purposes of the group’s existence. Fragments: Eleven

“Self-observation, especially in the beginning, must on no account become analysis or attempts at analysis. Analysis will only become possible much later when a man knows all the functions of his machine and all the laws which govern it. Fragments: Six

“Having fixed in his own mind the difference between the intellectual, the emotional, and the moving functions, a man must, as he observes himself, immediately refer his impressions to this or that category. And at first he must take mental note of only such observations as regards which he has no doubt whatever, that is, those where he sees at once to what category they belong. He must reject all vague or doubtful cases and remember only those which are unquestionable. If the work is carried on properly, the number of unquestionable observations will rapidly increase. And that which seemed doubtful before will be clearly seen to belong to the first, the second, the third center. Each center has its own memory, its own associations, its own thinking. As a matter of fact each center consists of three parts: the thinking, the emotional, and the moving. But we know very little about this side of our nature. In each center we know only one part. Self-observation, however, will very quickly show us that our mental life is much richer than we think, or in any case that it contains more possibilities than we think. Fragments: Six

“Self-observation becomes observation of ‘Ouspensky’ A man understands that he is not ‘Ouspensky,’ that ‘Ouspensky’ is nothing but the mask he wears, the part that he unconsciously plays and which unfortunately he cannot stop playing, a part which rules him and makes him do and say thousands of stupid things, thousands of things which he would never do or say himself. Fragments: Eight