Of all of the minds who have attempted the great question of consciousness in human experience, perhaps no one is more intriguing to read than is the Russian philosopher Georgi Ivanovitch Gurdjieff. His writings are not widely known, but his discussions of consciousness invariably hold a ring of truth for lucid dreamers. Indeed, anyone who has worked diligently with the experiential development of the ability for consciousness within himself or herself will find an immediate friend in Gurdjieff.
Gurdjieff is perhaps most distinguished from other philosophers in that we was confident that he had identified and understood precisely the meaning of consciousness, which he described as self-remembering. As we saw in chapter eight, this concept of self-remembering coincides precisely with the understanding of consciousness we arrived at through our examination of lucid dreaming.
Gurdjieff believed that the development of consciousness was the foundation for all true psychological growth. Gurdjieff measured psychological development not only by a person’s intellectual abilities but also by his or her experiential abilities—that is, a person’s abilities “to be” and “to do”. Both abilities, said Gurdjieff, require fluency and mastery, experientially, with the ability for consciousness.
The goal of development consciousness, according to Gurdjieff, was to create a new “center” within oneself, from which one could self-observe honestly and objectively. It was through continual work at self-observation, for the “perch” of consciousness created within oneself, that one eventually could learn how one’s “machine” works. Consciousness afforded its happy possessor self-unification, ever-increasing effectiveness in all pursuits, and freedom from illusion. Without consciousness, Gurdjieff said, humans were doomed to “mechanical,” “accidental,” and “automatic” living. Life will happen to us instead of our being able to control and create the events of our life.
I am including in this chapter a lengthy excerpt of Gurdjieff’s writing to introduce lucid dreamers to his work and because his discussion touches upon some relevant themes. In the second half of the excerpt, Gurdjieff admonishes his audience to be wary of “charlatans and hucksters” in the field of self-development—those who promise simple paths to enlightenment. Even though the excerpt is a transcription of a talk given in 1914, Gurdjieff’s words of admonition seem as applicable today as they were some eighty years ago. Today our popular culture swarms with “vendors of enlightenment,” individuals who confidently assure us that “the enlightenment you seek is just a phone call away” on the Psychic Network Hotline or that by eating special candy bars and “brain” foods and by adding doses of potassium to our diets, we will veritably transform ourselves into enlightened beings by tomorrow morning. No warranty is offered for these techniques, of course. The psychic hotline, we read in small print at the bottom of the television screen, is “for entertainment purposes only,” and all miracle foods are ingested entirely at the consumer’s own risk.
Sensitives and psychics surely exist, and there is no question but that informed diets are a foundation of good health. Gurdjieff’s admonition, however, really is directed against the miraculous nature of these “solutions” to everyday problems. Consciousness and empowerment, says Gurdjieff, are known processes, but they require work—long work, hard work and consistent work. Work on developing one’s ability for consciousness, development one’s ability for discrimination and uncovering and gaining control over areas of automaticity within one’s being. Woe indeed to the individual who thinks he or she will eat a candy bar and tomorrow “be” anything—except, perhaps, a bit more deluded. This, said Gurdjieff, is not the way.
©1995 Charles McPhee. Excerpted from Stop Sleeping Through Your Dreams: A Guide to Awakening Consciousness During Dream Sleep published by Henry Holt and Company, Inc.
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