THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE THIRD SERIES

It will be most fitting and also may even perhaps yet
become a contributory factor for the possible saving from
total ruination of many thousand persons of both sexes of
various countries of Europe and Asia, if as the initial theme
of this third series of my writings - namely the series pre-
determined by me to be for all "my-neighbours" so to say
"edifyingly-instructive" - I take the events connected with
my last stay in North-America and cite in concise form five
"lecture-talks" delivered by me there to a certain group,
which had already been organised several years, of the fol-
lowers of my ideas.

In order that the reader of this first chapter of what
I have just called the "edifyingly-instructive" series of my
writings may from the very beginning preliminary represent to
himself and approximately understand why I attribute to the
events connected with my last stay in America such serious
significance that I wish to make the description of them the
so to say "issuing-basis" of this, as it must be understood
to all, for me most serious series of books of the total of
all the expositions of my thoughts, namely the series which
should be as it were the "cupola-crowning-the-edifice-of-all-
my-numerous-writings," and which, furthermore, while yet
drawing up the general plan for consciously paying Great
Nature for my arising and existence in this form of active
occupation, that is, writing, I had predetermined to justify

-2-

worthily the aim and sense of all my past intentional labours
and conscious renunciations of all kinds of good things,
which have always been very easily obtainable for me, it is
necessary to indicate first of all two facts which occurred
in the process of my ordinary life during the period of my
writing-activities.

The first fact is that when after the great misfortune
which occurred to me six years ago, I liquidated everything
previously connected with my previous form of conscious acti-
vity and began to write, then from that time on, in order not
to take in impressions disturbing to the tempo, which had be-
come established for this work, of my mentation, I intention-
ally avoided new people and particularly avoided meeting and
shunned conversing with all those people who had somehow or
other become followers of my ideas.

To characterize this intentional inner isolation of
mine from external impressions disturbing to this work, it
will suffice to say that during this time, namely, for seven
years, I did not once read a newspaper or even hold one in my
hands.

And it was almost the same with letters and telegrams.

I said "almost" because during this time I did write
some six or seven, and read about fifteen, in spite of having
received, particularly in the first year, hundreds daily.

As I have happened to mention the masses of letters and
telegrams I received during this time, it will in my opinion

-3-

be appropriate here for future edification to make a frank
confession about this "sorry-correspondence" of mine.

I can now speak of this frankly, without ceremony, in
the hearing of all, because I have already succeeded in ful-
filling the greater part of the task set myself, in spite of
all kinds of obstructive factors, those which arose according
to law as well as those engendered by such, as they are called
"people" around me, as are usually formed in our life on the
Earth and exist vegetating exclusively only as automatic ap-
paratuses serving the transformation of cosmic substances for
the purpose of assisting the actualization of "objective-
good" in other words the requirements of Hell - and are de-
stroyed without any consequence either for themselves person-
ally or for anything around them.

The point is, that when after the misfortune which oc-
curred to me, I closed the doors of my house to all people
without exception, and when in the second year of my writing
activities daily deliveries of big piles of letters and tele-
grams began to annoy me extremely, I commissioned one of the
people who for many years had been "hanging-around" me, to
open all letters and telegrams, and if there were no what
are called "enclosures" nor any indication of their immediate
despatch, to destroy them in such a way that not even their
"smell" should remain in my house, but if there were "enclos-
ures," then according to their quality, that is to the
quantity of "English" or at worst "American" what are called
"zeroes" adorning them, to act in the following way:

-4-

If one zero adorned the "enclosure," then the letter was to be destroyed without residue and the "enclosure" given to the children living in my house for buying toys. But the "enclosure" ending in two zeroes were to be given to my private secretary; and only those letters to be handed to me personally, the "enclosures" of which were adorned with more of the aforesaid zeroes.

This arrangement of mine, by the way, still continues today, but in the near future, that is to say, the moment I finish this first chapter of the third series of my writings, I propose to change this arrangement in this respect, that only "enclosures" with not less than four zeroes will be handed to me; those with three--to my secretary; those with two--to the children living in my house, and all enclosures with one zero will be sent to the poor children of the towns of Fontainebleau and Avon.

Well then, the practice which had gradually become firmly established in my external automatic life in respect of meeting and conversing with various people, I tried with my consciousness not to change until several months prior to my last journey to America, namely when I had finished the exposition, in its first version, of all the material for all the three series of books which I had planned to write, and had already concluded the first series in its final form, namely that form which, be it said, had gradually, during my writing-activities, finally become fixed in my subjectivity as a "psycho-organic-need" for me to be more or less satisfied with my writings only when reworking what I have written the third time, and since then, I have infringed the strict

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fulfilment of this practice of mine, which had become for me
during this time a matter of principle, and in chance meetings
with certain of those people, I no longer avoided conversing
with them.

The second of the facts I mentioned was - and still con-
tinues to be but in truth only by half - that in spite of the
alertness of my memory and attention in connection with
questions of writing which had become sharpened in me, during
my writing-activities to an extraordinary degree, so that for
example, I could always and can also now remember where, in
which notebook out of many thousands I have filled up, which
thought is expressed in which connection, and could even and
still can remember on which of the many already tens of
thousands of pages of the notebooks I have filled up, in
which phrase and in which word there were letters I automati-
cally wrote incorrectly; yet at the same time, during this
period, when I unavoidably had to meet with new people, there
was not a single meeting nor even a single conversation, which
formerly would have unfailingly made an impression on me,
which made scarcely any impression at all on my memory and
sometimes even when it was necessary, I could not with all my
desire and tenseness remember anything at all the following
day about the meetings and conversations of only the day be-
fore.

And, as I have already said, when at the mentioned time,
I finished the first version of the exposition of all the
material for all the three series of books I had planned to

-6-

write, and the tenseness of my inner preoccupation with
questions of writing had diminished, thanks to which there
was acquired in my nature which happened to be formed in a
particular way, the possibility of being able, without ex-
periencing the feeling of remorse of conscience, to interest
myself in other life questions besides those relating to the
task set myself under essence-vow, and when in this "psyche-
state" I continued to write further - of course as always in
those former conditions established during recent times in
the process of my ordinary life, namely always travelling
and being occupied with writing exclusively only in various
public places such as restaurants, cafes, "dancing-halls"
and other kindred "temples" of contemporary morality - and
continued as formerly to visit various European countries,
and when, from this time on, I met people who had somehow or
other become followers of my ideas, and observed them with
my half-freed attention, I began to notice, and upon re-
peated meetings, became more and more convinced, that with
the psyche of all of them, particularly the psyche of those
who had already begun to attempt to do something practical
on themselves, which was supposed to correspond to my ideas,
there proceeded something so definitely all wrong, that it
was noticeable even to the average person upon attentive
observation.

These repeated constatations more and more aroused in me
a curiosity to understand the causes of this fact, and there-
fore at subsequent meetings with such persons, I, for the

-7-

purpose of elucidation, began by means of indirect questions
to probe for more material which might enable me to elucidate
to myself from every aspect the origin of this for me as yet
inexplicable fact.

Although these questionings brought me nearer and nearer
to the solution of this question which had become for me at
this time like a sort of "idee-fixe," yet in view of my
having at times to concentrate the whole of my attention on
the completion of the first series of my writings and also
on questions connected with their publication, for which I
had to be economical in the expenditure of the energies elapa-
borated in me, I therefore each time postponed the final
solution of this question, and always tried, as is said, "to-
stifle-for-a-time" the "psychic-reactions" which occasionally
arose in me from these sorrowful constations.

When on the first day of my arrival in New-York I
happened to come amongst a large number of American followers
of my ideas, towards whom, owing to their good attitude to me
during the years following the misfortune which occurred to
me, I considered myself under an obligation, and when I
constated the same phenomenon also among them, then, imme-
diately when the thought came to me and I reflected that for
actualization of the intention for which I had this time made
the journey to America, it would be possible for me to manage
without making use of the people of this group, and that con-
sequently it would not be necessary for me as I said "to-
play-a-comedy-of-greasing" with any of them for the purpose
of carrying out this intention of mine, I decided to devote

-8-

all my free time, while I should be there, to the all-round
elucidation of the causes of this sorrowful misunderstanding,
and to take, if possibly it were not too late, corresponding
measures to outroot it.

Well then, as the description of these events may on the
one hand elucidate to every reader from those who have already
become followers of my ideas, the causes of the arising of
this fact, in the objective sense maleficent, and for me
personally painfully distressing, and some of them, in whom
data for sensible reflection are not yet completely atrophied,
may perhaps as I have already said, cease their, so to say
"self-ruination" and save themselves, and as on the other
hand, an acquaintance with the contents of the several special
"lecture-talks" delivered by me during my stay there this
time - which among other things were included among the
measures I took for correcting this evil arisen among these
followers of mine through a misunderstanding - may in general
be for each person so to say a "first-flash-of-truth," I find
it most fitting to begin this "edifying-series" of my writings
with the description of these events.

Well then, the first evening of my arrival in New-York,
the 13th November 1930, there was arranged on the initiative
of certain members of this group - "pure-blooded" Americans,
it must be presumed - for the sake of economising time, a
general meeting in one of the studios of the famous theatre
"Carnegie-Hall," in order to meet me and personally to greet
me "welcome," to which meeting I was invited by Mr. S. the

-9-

day of the steamer's arrival.

Mr. S. was at that time the official substitute of the
first and chief representative of my ideas in America, Mr.
Orage, who had temporarily gone to England.

Most of those who had gathered turned out to be person-
ally known to me, that is to say, I had already met them
either during my previous journeys to America or during their
journeys to France when they visited the "Chateau du Prieure"
which in recent years has been my permanent residence.

I went to this specially convened general meeting ac-
companied by several of my "translator-secretaries" who had
arrived with me; and when during the famous manipulation
called "shaking-hands," I noticed by the faces and glances
the same that I had noticed among the people from Germany,
England, Turkey and other European countries, who had also
become somehow or other followers of my ideas, then this
time it seemed as if something "snapped" within me, and I
then and there categorically decided whatever it might cost,
to elucidate to myself from every aspect the causes of the
arising of this grievous fact and as I have already said to
take, if it were not yet too late, certain corresponding
measures.

At the termination of the "hand-shaking" and of the
interchange of all the usual vacuous words called "amiabili-
ties," I, chiefly for the purpose of creating necessary con-
ditions for the unhindered observation of those present, re-
quested my personal secretary to read through aloud the final

-10-

chapter of the first series of my writings, which I had re-
cently finished and which he had with him, owing to the esta-
blished usage of always having in his portfolio all my current
work, and I, sitting aside in the corner, began to observe
attentively each of those present and at the same time, drew
up in my thoughts a plan for further subsequent action.

At that first evening, as it was late, I interrupted the
reader in the middle of the chapter he was reading, and ad-
dressing all present, first of all promised to arrange a gen-
eral reading within the next few days, in order to finish
that chapter, and further proposed that they should choose
three or four persons from among those present that evening,
so that together with Mr. S. they should come to me the day
after the next to decide collectively all the questions con-
nected with my stay in New York.

This invitation was made with a premeditated purpose,
because I wished, in intimate talk with these four or five
persons, to sound them, of course indirectly, about various
details which were not yet clear to me of the suspicion
which had arisen in me that evening during the reading, re-
lating in this case only to these American "sorry-followers"
of mine.

As I have called this series of my expositions "edify-
ingly-instructive," and had indeed planned and calculated
with full certitude, that it would be the means for forming
in the mentation of creatures similar to me of Our COMMON
FATHER data which ought to be according to my understanding

-11-

in "man," and not in the quite will-less simple animals who manifest themselves in every respect exclusively only through the reflexes of the functioning of their organism and who are created by the same COMMON FATHER for the purpose of being contributory factors for facilitating the self-perfecting of people; and as, according to the information of a special branch of science named the "laws-of-psycho-association," which has reached us from remote antiquity and which happen to be well known to me, it is definitely proved that the, so to say "non-resisting-perceptions" of all counsels, even sensible ones, can proceed between people during conversations, only on condition of the absence between them of the manifestation of what are called "masks," therefore I "chiefly" wish at the very beginning of this series to speak also about such external facts thanks to the totality of the elucidation of which every sane-thinking reader may, on condition he actively mentates, reflect and understand the genuine inner implied significance of their outer expression - seeming at first glance to a naive person as of no importance - which issues from a person relatively normally formed, and not from a man, who is in himself only so to say, a "stencilled-mask" artificially created by abnormal contemporary education.

For the actualization of what I have just said, I will begin in this series of writings - without regard for the requirements firmly established at the present day, of what is called "literary-bon-ton" - by not concealing, but openly stating that when I had finished my general address to the

-12-

Americans gathered that evening to greet me "welcome," I,
on leaving the studio, added in that half-joking half-serious
tongue at times proper to me, the following:

"Gentlemen and Ladies, inhabitants of the dollar-harvest-
continent!

"I am very glad to see you, and although while sitting
so long amongst you this evening in the blissful sphere of
your 'canned' radiations, the desire increased in me un-
failingly to actualize through you that aim of mine for
which I have this time come here to you, yet at the same
time, to my sincere regret, there was imperceptibly again
awakened in me the impulse I have always had but which during
my writing-activities never acted, namely the impulse of
pity for the poor miserable 'physician-martyrs' in this case
the 'physician-martyrs' of New-York lunatic asylums. To
speak frankly, I myself am not yet certain of the exact
cause of the awakening in me of this undesirable impulse;
as yet I only know, that it gradually began to manifest it-
self owing to the fact that during the reading, while sit-
ting in the corner and observing out of boredom the expressions
on your faces, it seemed to me that there stood out on the
forehead now of one, now of another of you, the inscription,
'candidate-for-the-madhouse.'

"I said 'out-of-boredom' because the contents of that
chapter, over each sentence of which I had to think and again
to think for three months almost day and night, bored me more
than your fish you call 'mackerel', which during my first
stay here, I was compelled to eat for six months morning and

-13-

evening, it being the only fresh food you have; and I also
said 'I-am-not-yet-certain' because it might only seem to me
to be so, owing to the fact that thanks to five days of in-
cessant pitching and rolling on the waves of the boundless
ocean and to the frequent introduction into myself of the
noble French Armagnac and to the constant regulating of its
vibrations by the introduction into myself of the no less
noble German 'hors d'oeuvres' something in me is to-day, as
it is said 'fishy'."

When on the third day of my arrival, the five afore-
mentioned Americans came to me and when I in conversation
with them had elucidated from every aspect all the details
I required concerning the suspicion that had arisen in me
during the reading on the first evening, I began to tell
them the following:

"Several months before my arrival here in your America,
when I began to have more free time, owing to the completion
of the chief part of the task set myself after the misfortune
which occurred to me, the purpose of which task I had planned
to be the justification of the sense of my further existence,
and when I now began less to avoid meeting with various persons
who had become somehow or other followers of my ideas, then
very soon, it seems upon meeting with the third such person,
I noticed and observing specially in subsequent meetings be-
came definitely convinced, that in the psyche of all of them,
and particularly of those who had supposedly cognised the truth
of my ideas and had already begun to do something upon them-
selves in accordance, again supposedly, with these ideas of

-14-

mine, there was formed and was manifest a very definite specific particularity, which could be noticeable to any normal observer.

"Having become interested in this strange and for me then still incomprehensible phenomenon, I from that time on in repeated meetings with such persons or in recalling them, gave a great deal of thought in order to understand just why and how this could have come about.

"For a long time, try as I might to analyse this by ordinary means, and in spite of the fact that more than once I even resorted to all kinds of complicated 'logical-comparisons' I could not even approximately elucidate to myself anything at all.

"At first, during these reflections of mine, every hypothesis I made was destroyed by various other contradictory deductions, and it was only towards the end, namely just before my departure to America, that an accidental constatation I made during a conversation with one of the German followers of my ideas made everything clear to me, and I then understood beyond all possible doubt, the causes of the arising of this misunderstanding and even the probably sequence of the progress of its development.

"In order that this may meanwhile be for you also, at least, as might be said 'theoretically' understandable, I must explain to you firstly about this accidental constatation of mine, and secondly, about a certain life-circumstance which ensued as always from the same misfortune which occurred to me and which was tied up with the fate of the former

-15-

pupils of the Institute-for-the-Harmonious-Development-of-Man
founded by me in Europe several years before that misfortune.

"The said constatation was that I first noticed and
afterwards, remembering by association my previous conversa-
tions with such persons from various European countries, be-
came fully convinced that among all the followers of my
ideas from each separate definite locality, there is, so to
say one 'gravity-centre-interest,' that is to say, the entire
group of people becomes greatly interested in some one question
from among the numerous definite questions forming the general
totality of all my ideas.

"And the 'life-circumstance' which I mentioned came about,
as I now understand, in the following way:

"When after my misfortune I liquidated the main Institute
founded by me as well as all its branches, then the people
who had been living in them, of all categories of so to say
'Being-cognition,' most of whom came from the various inde-
pendent peoples which had composed the population of the
former Russian Empire, where that mass psychosis which is
called 'revolution' still proceeded, being unable to return
to their native land, were by force of the external circum-
stances which had come about compelled to leave - depending
upon where each had relatives or friends - for various
European countries.

"These former pupils of the Institute, dispersed in
this way in various countries of Europe and falling into
difficult material situations - as it now continues with al-

-16-

most all the 'refugees' from the former great United Russia -
and not having the data required by the local conditions for
normally earning money, suddenly remembered the crumbs they
swallowed of the general mass of information heard at the
Institute, and profiting by the consequences, according to
law, of the 'World-War,' namely the general 'unbalancedness-
of-minds,' they became, at least many of them, 'preachers' of
my ideas.

"And each of them, being a pupil of the Institute founded
by me and belonging as yet only to what is called the 'Exoteric-
group' - the meaning of which I will explain in the next gen-
eral meeting - that is to say, having the Being still of an
ordinary average man, and consequently possessing to the full
all the inherencies proper to the contemporary man, among
which unfailingly and inevitably is the inherency of only
being able to become interested in and to perceive as new
what corresponds to one's already established subjectivity,
and to make only this the centre of one's mentation, finding
naive persons around him, began with this subjective gravity-
centre idea of his as a basis to hand on to them all kinds of
information heard by him during his stay in the Institute as
is said from 'a-bit-here-and-a-bit-there'."

Further, having explained to them the contents of a cer-
tain paragraph of the fundamental program of the said Institute,
I continued to tell them as follows:

"In consequence of the freeing of my attention from being
fully occupied with expounding in an accesible form all I had
written in the first version, so that a man of any degree of

-17-

intellectuality could easily perceive and understand all the
so to say 'quintessence' of my ideas, I wish now to unite si-
multaneously in all the large centres, those many persons
living there, who long ago became followers of my ideas, in-
to what are called 'groups' on new principles, that is, ac-
cording to a definite program worked out in detail in exact
agreement with my ideas, for collective work on their self-
perfecting, and with new conditions for acquiring the rights
to be a member of such a group.

"The first of these groups I have decided and wish to
organise just here in America, in the city of New York.

"I have decided to begin just in America because when
there occurred to me the, as I always call it, 'misfortune'
which was so to say the 'culmination' of all the malicious
manifestations of people towards me, towards just that man
who devoted almost the whole of his life to the aims of
seeking means for their welfare, and when, after this mis-
fortune, the ability to reflect, of which I have been totally
deprived for almost half a year, was re-established in me,
then, having liquidated, for the reasons I have already given
in the last chapter of the first series of my writings, every-
thing which up to then I had created by non-human labours,
I ordered the doors of my house to be closed to all persons
without exception, to whichever 'important' or 'unimportant'
grouping they had belonged and whatever the position they
had occupied in these groupings; but owing to the fact that
at the time of my very greatest material crisis, brought
about by my aforesaid misfortune itself, and also by the

-18-

falling ill with mortal diseases of the only two persons
close to me, my mother and my wife, some of your compatriots,
through a former pupil of the Institute liquidated by me, who
had stayed in New York after my first trip to America, did
not allow this crisis to develop into a complete catastrophe,
and in gratitude for their having, unlike the Europeans, "re-
membered-the-good," I found it necessary, at the end of the
next six months, to make an exception for them and to open the
doors of my house not only for those who had manifested good
towards me, but also for all their fellow-countrymen, and
even, without grudging my time, but on condition that it
would not be too detrimental to my main work at the time,
to converse with certain of them.

"That is why, now that I have finished the chief and
most difficult part of my work, which demanded the concentra-
tion of the whole of my attention and force, and which owing
to unforseen circumstances became during these years the
fundamental aim of my life, I have decided, simultaneously
with the accomplishment now of the easier part of this work,
to renew the actualization interrupted owing to the mentioned
events, of the fundamental program drawn up during the existence
of the Institute, consisting in the spreading and the intro-
ducing into life for the welfare of people, of the results of
my half-century's intentional seeking by means of organizing
in the large centres of every grouping of people, special
groups of the followers of my ideas; and in spite of the fact
that in the other countries there are more of my followers
than here among you in America and that in these other coun-

-19-

tries they began to become interested in and to value my
ideas earlier than you, yet owing to the aforementioned causes
and to the fact that during these years of my writing acti-
vities I maintained relations exclusively only with you Ameri-
cans, I wish to begin the organization of such a group in the
city of New-York, at the present time the central place of
the concentrating and outgoing of all the results of the
conscious attainments of the people of this new grouping of
yours, now called everywhere on Earth, 'North-America.'

"I now consider it my duty to warn you five, as so to say
the 'representatives' of those followers here of my ideas,
who were united in the group called the 'Orage-group,' that
to my regret I shall be compelled to reject many of your com-
rades for this new group which I propose to organize here in
New-York, and according to the plan I had already thought out
at the first meeting, to take such measures for the good of
those rejected, so that on the one hand there should obtain
in them a complete disappointment in my ideas and on the
other hand there should disappear what is called the 'authori-
ty,' formed during this time in their individualities, of
Mr. Orage himself."

After all this, I further said to them: "Since I intend
during my present stay here in America to carry out two serious
tasks I have set myself, which have no connection with the
people here who already long ago became followers of my ideas,
and which concern my personal interests and of course my chief
aim, and owing to which I shall not be able to allot much of
my time to you, I therefore request you, who have been chosen

-20-

by all your other comrades, to form yourselves into a kind of
committee and to take upon yourselves into a kind of committee
and to take upon yourselves the work of organizing twice a
week general meetings of the members of your group at which
I will always try to be present, and also to see to it that
on other days nobody should disturb me either by personal
visits, letters, or even by telephone."

Having finished this address of mine to those chosen, I
begged them for the present not to tell any of their comrades
anything I had said that day, and we then and there together
decided, in order to economize my time and also for many other
considerations, to hold the proposed general meeting in my
apartment; and in view of the limited size of the largest
room there, a kind of hall, not to admit to these meetings
more than fifty people, and to organize meetings for the re-
maining members of the group in other private rooms, where
without my necessarily being present, there would be read
aloud by one of my 'translator-secretaries,' everything that
had been said and taken down in shorthand at the meetings in
my apartment.

-21-

THE FIRST LECTURE-TALK,

DELIVERED BY ME ON THE 21st OF NOVEMBER 1930 IN MY
APARTMENT IN NEW-YORK.

"My pre-arranged plan for the introduction into life of the intentions, fixed in me as a result of half a century's conscious work, of bringing welfare to 'my-neighbour' by means of the Institute founded by me for the Harmonious Development of Man, included among other things, that all who entered the Institute and who lived in each of its sections were to be subdivided according to the results obtained in their subjective inner work on themselves, into three separate independent groups, named the 'Exoteric,' 'Mesoteric,' and 'Esoteric' groups.

"To the first, the 'Exoteric' group, were to belong all those who had newly-entered as well as those who had not yet acquired by their subjective merits the right to belong to the second, the 'Mesoteric' group, the members of which it was intended so to say to 'Initiate-theoretically' into all the questions not accessible to the average man which had been discovered owing to my forty-years' personal and direct searchings as well as to the searchings of a specially organized group of serious persons of the highest contemporary education in various branches of exact science, of which group I had been a sworn member from the very beginning of its formation.

"The members of the third group, the 'Esoteric,' were intended to be initiated into all those questions not only

-22-

theoretically but also practically, and to be introduced to all the means experimentally tried and verified over a long time in quite exceptionally arranged circumstances, for a real possibility of perfecting oneself.

"From the very beginning of the Institute which I founded in Europe eight years ago in France in the place called the "Chateau-du-Prieure," when the construction of a special building later called the 'Study-House' had been finished, which was intended for all pupils, or those who had newly entered the Institute in Europe as well as for those who had joined during the two or three years previous - that is during my wanderings from the Caucasus to Europe, when owing to all kinds of political complications it had been impossible to settle anywhere permanently to actualize what was called my 'program-of-preliminary-theoretical-instruction' - I began in the main branch of the Institute to elucidate so to say 'step-by-step' in a series of lectures the first and fundamental principle indispensibly necessary for the productive work upon oneself, which was that the pupil, having already cognized so to say the 'real-nullity-of-his-individuality' and having resolved, consciously struggling with the weaknesses which had become fixed in his individuality owing to abnormal surrounding conditions during his preparatory age and chiefly to incorrect education in childhood, to attain the transmutation of himself from this nullity into that 'something' which he ought to be according even to his own 'common-sense' - which does manifest itself in him, although rarely, at those moments when the surrounding conditions do not hinder - that is to

-23-

say, into that which man ought to be, namely as is said, the
'Acme-of-Creation,' and not such as even he in moments of self-
sincerity knows himself to be and such as in reality contempo-
rary man has become, namely in all respects simply an automati-
cally vegetating animal, he should then learn often so to say
to 'remember himself' and as much as possible not to 'identify-
himself' with the conditions surrounding him, and observing
his inner and outer manifestations with the suppression of all
the feelings of partiality which again thanks to his abnormal
education have become fixed in his nature, he should constate
as many as possible of the various facts abnormal even ac-
cording to his own consciousness present in great numbers in
his psyche and also simply in his physical body, in order
that on the one hand he should convince himself with the
whole of his nature of his real nullity, and on the other
hand should owing to the constatation of several particularly
undesirable inherencies in himself, perhaps acquire a genuine
desire to work upon himself - that is to say, a desire with
the whole of his being, and not only with his utterly insignifi-
cant what he calls 'consciousness' - and also acquire the neces-
sary intensity of 'ableness' to attain the aforementioned trans-
mutation of himself.

"In order that what I am going to speak about in elucida-
tion of the question I am touching upon may be clearer to you,
I consider it necessary to cite here in concise form something
of what I have already written in the second chapter of the
second series of my writings.

"In view of my not having yet recovered, in the first

-24-

year of the life of the Institute in France, from having not
long before, through the stupidity of the power-possessing
beings in Russia, 'flown-up-the-chimney-with-a-bang' and be-
ing still as is said a 'newly-born-cathedral-church-mouse, '
I was compelled to concentrate the greater part of my at-
tention firstly on getting on my feet again, and secondly, on
preparing as quickly and as thoroughly as possible, for de-
monstrations, material which according to my plan was to be
so to say the 'visible-results' of the Institute work and
which in this way would serve for spreading my ideas and
interesting the European public in them.

"Therefore I had no possibility of following from every
aspect and correspondingly directing the work upon themselves
of the persons who were then in the Institute, but could do
only so insofar as other matters, then more important to me,
permitted.

"In spite of such a general set of conditions created
around me in this period of my life, I was nevertheless able,
of course by not sparing my strength, that is to say, to the
detriment of my health later on, to accomplish among other
things, that by the end of the first year, several of the
persons living in the Institute had already become such that
they could be called 'Candidates-for-the-mesoteric-group'
and I had already intended soon to arrange for them special
particular 'lecture-talks' and to organize special practical
pursuits.

"Just at that time, owing to events which arose on quite

-25-

other parts of the terra-firma surface of our charming planet
and which were related to me personally exclusively only be-
cause certain unfortunate biped creatures were living there
towards whom, by the Will of Fate or rather thanks to the
luckless combination of astrological influence at the moment
of my appearance in God's world, there had been formed in me
what are called 'always-acting data' for the need and the
striving to help them with what is called 'money,' with the
result that my poor 'Minister-of-Finance' could not restrain
himself and again often cried out 'Help! Help!,' I was com-
pelled to make the decision, without waiting for the complete
preparation of the material I had planned upon, to travel
immediately to you Americans - people covered with what is
called a 'dollar deposit' - only with that material which
had been already more or less prepared. And then, in order
that here among you, types still quite foreign to me, I should
not be compelled, with such a large number of persons ac-
companying me, and who had, as is said, 'in-one-pocket-a-louse-
on-a-leash-and-in-the-other-a-flea-on-a-chain,' to live on
'beans-mixed-with-thumbtacks,' and in order that at least
something might be prepared, I decided to send there, as a
preliminary, on a boat sailing just before our own, some one
of my trusted and experienced people.

"In consequence of the fact that just a short time before
this, most of my, as they were then called 'pupils-of-the-
first-rank,' consequently the first candidates for the mesoteric
group, had been sent by me to various European and Asiatic
countries on special missions, for purposes of the common

-26-

interest, my choice of the most suitable person for this pre-
liminary departure fell upon the chief physician of the Insti-
tute, Doctor Stjernvall, but as he was not fully acquainted
with the English language, I sent together with him one who
had entered the Institute not long before and who, owing to
his conscientious work upon himself, had succeeded in becoming
a candidate for the mesoteric group, namely the former English
journalist Mr. Orage, the man who by force of all the sub-
sequent events which ensued as always from the same great
misfortune which occurred to me, became the chief representa-
tive of my ideas among you Americans and who, strange as it
may seem at first glance, was, thanks to his devotion to my
work and to his personal love of me, the chief one to blame
for the arising in the psyche of many of you Americans also
of the aforementioned specific particularity.

"When I came here the first time and had rather successfully actualized what I had planned, and had among other things prepared everything required for the founding here in America of a permanent branch of the Institute, and had opened in New-York temporary classes in rhythmic movements and in music, with the intention of opening the main branch on my next arrival six months later, and as, for this second arrival here, certain preparations were required here on the spot, Mr. Orage, having offered his services for making these preparations, remained here for this purpose.

"Everything subsequent began to develop in the following sequence:

"Almost immediately after my return to Europe, that mis-

-27-

fortune occurred to me which prevented among other things,
my intended journey here, and which was, so to say, the 'germ'
of all the subsequent misunderstandings connected with me
personally; and owing chiefly to the fact that for several
months after this misfortune I lost my memory entirely and
then for several months more lay in a semi-conscious state,
a complete crisis ensued in all my affairs.

"And it was just then that from among all the pupils
of the Institute founded by me in Europe, belonging to various
European groupings and including the Russians sent by me to
various countries for purposes of the common interest, only
one, Mr. Orage, who was here among you, having learned of all
that had occurred to me and of the arrival of a complete ma-
terial crisis in my affairs, set aside on his own initiative
the fulfilment of all my other commissions, and began by all
the ways and means available to him, to obtain money and put
it at the disposal of the director of my financial affairs.

"Duty to conscience and impartiality compel me to em-
phasize here that the manifestation of such an attitude to-
wards me personally and also towards the actualization of
my ideas for the welfare of all people on the part of this
Englishmen, Mr. Orage, who then happened to be living among
you Americans by the Will of Chance, made so much the more of
an impression on me inasmuch as the other candidates for the
Mesoteric Group, being at that time in various countries and
under a greater obligation to me than he was, and for whose
well-being I had done, before the aforementioned misfortune,
more perhaps than their own brothers would have done, almost

-28-

all turned out to be during the natural consequences of the
misunderstandings crowned by that misfortune which occurred
to me, unworthy of the name of 'man,' because, fearing to
lose their welfare and their so to say 'self-calming-with-a-
presence-of-boundless-greed,' which welfare had been created
by me, as I have already mentioned in the last chapter of the
first series, they manifested themselves towards me, as is
said like 'Judas-Iscariots,' and having concluded that they
were for ever free from me, as from the only man who could
reveal the information about objective truths which had be-
come known to them owing to half a century's non-human labours
and which for every contemporary man should be sacred, and was
able to prevent their being made use of for the purpose of
satisfying one's low personal human weaknesses, they hastened
to open their, as I have already called them, 'shacker-macher-
workshop-booths,' and making use on the one hand of the various
scraps of information they had heard from me from 'a-bit-here-
and-a-bit-there,' and on the other hand of the unbalancedness
of the minds of those around them, which had reached the ut-
most limits owing to the 'World-War' which had just ended,
they began to make of them, as I have already expressed it,
"candidates-for-the-lunatic-asylums."

"And if these first-rank candidates for hell were not
forever freed from me, nevertheless, to their temporary good
fortune, the subsequent events ensuing from that same mis-
fortune compelled me for several years, consciously, as is
said to 'close-my-eyes-and-ears' and not to interfere in any
of the affairs connected with me.

-29-

"And the events after this misfortune began to unfold
themselves approximately in the following sequence:

"When I had fully recovered consciousness and when for
several serious reasons, among which was also the reason that
by this time I had entirely lost all hope of counting on those
persons whom I had specially prepared as future spreaders of
my ideas by word of mouth and also by means of literature, and
when it had become quite certain that the state of my health
would for a long time enable me, from among the other forms
of activity productive for my aims, to occupy myself only
with the written exposition of my ideas, I myself then began
to write, and from then on everything else which had been
established for my external life began to proceed automatically,
and among other things there also began to proceed automatically
the stay here in America of Mr. Orage.

"And the cause which evoked in the psyche, in this case
of the American followers of my ideas, the aforementioned
specific particularity, which is manifested by the way in
some one single idea out of the general totality of my ideas
becoming in their mentation the centre of gravity, was created,
as I now represent it to myself, in the following way:

"Mr. Orage, feeling the necessity of continuing to send
money for my support, for the purpose of enabling me at least
to continue my writing more or less freely, the value and sig-
nificance of which he began to recognize from the very begin-
ning, continued at his own risk and peril the work I had
started in America, and at first, simultaneously with the
direction of the 'class-in-movements' which I had organized

-30-

here in New York, he began to arrange, as was customary in
the Institute life, talks on themes which he had obtained
during his stay in the Institute; and later, when all this
material was already used up by him, then he, feeling the
necessity of continuing his activities in order on the one
hand to support me materially and on the other hand to meet
the excessive expenditure of his family life, brought about
by his recent marriage to an American pampered out of all
proportion to her position, and not receiving either any new
material or any definite indications as to what to do or how
to proceed further, he had willy-nilly to get along during
this time merely with what he had assimilated during his
stay in the Institute still in the capacity of an ordinary
pupil.

"As I recently elucidated to, myself from the questions
of some of your comrades who have been members of the group
which Mr. Orage directed from its commencement, he like a
good 'juggler,' so to say 'manipulated' all the time merely
with that same primary information, out of the whole totality
of the information of all my ideas, concerning the question
of what is called 'self-observation,' namely with the summa-
rized elucidations of this information; and although at the
beginning it is indeed very necessary for everyone striving
to learn the truth, to know the significance of this infor-
mation, yet in general if elucidations of one aspect of the
whole totality of any abstract question, as in this case the
many-sided question of 'self-observation,' become for the
for the mentation of a man so to say the centre of gravity,

-31-

then they unfailingly lead, as has already many times been
constated by impartial genuine scientists of past epochs, and
also of contemporary times, just to that which, to my regret,
is also to be observed here among you, namely, that instead
of you - as persons who have accidentally come in contact with
my ideas and have consequently already partly cognized the
possibility of making use, for your own welfare, of the re-
sults of my half-century's conscious labours - having ac-
quired chances for becoming real men, you have now on the
contrary fewer of these chances than any average man, and
what is more, there is now assured for almost every one of
you, so to say a 'ninety-five-per-cent' possibility, without
expending dollars earned 'by-the-sweat-of-your-brows,' of
getting into one of your establishments, organized on an
'American-scale,' which are called 'mad-houses.'

"As regards my personal impartial inner relation to this
whole truly sad affair, arisen partly and indirectly through
my fault, I, having finished the chief part of the work which
has been during recent years the fundamental aim of my life,
and in consequence being able to give with a clear conscience
a part of my inner attention to other questions which interest
me, and happening when first in this essence-state, to be here
among you, just among those people towards whom, by force of
the circumstances which have come about, there has gradually
been crystallized in me during these years of my writing-
activities, data to feel and consider myself in a certain
sense under greater obligation than to the other people who
had also become followers of my ideas, I intend and very much

-32-

wish to do everything within my power to redeem the mistakes
of the past and at the same time to establish for some of
you the correct way to that, the desire to attain which is in
general the cause of your relationship with me.

"I said 'for-some-of-you' because the measures which I intend to adopt for correcting the sorrowful results arisen from misunderstandings in the past, and for the possibility of establishing for you the correct way in the future, are connected with the transforming of the old group on entirely new principles, on the basis of which there will be placed, for the members, among other things, several very definite conditions allowing of no compromise whatsoever, and to which in all probability not all of you will be able to agree; and in this way some of the members of the former group will naturally fall away.

"During the first month of the existence of this new group, thirteen of these indispensably necessary obligatory conditions for the right to be a member, will be laid down by me, and seven of them will be of 'objective-character,' that is to say, will concern every one and must be fulfilled by all without exception of the members of this new group which I propose to organize on new principles; and six will be of 'subjective-character,' that is to say, will concern only those of the former members of the old group for whom personally these conditions will be made.

"Concerning the subjective conditions it must be said that their character will ensue from the elucidation I have already made or still intend to make, either myself or through

-33-

those whom I shall commission, concerning the specific subjectivity of each of you, formed owing to all kinds of psychic data arisen thanks to type and heredity and also acquired during your period as equal-rights members of the former group.

"All explanations of the various details of my ideas and also all elucidations of the details and the significance of all the thirteen conditions, will be given by me exclusively only to those members of the former group who agree and bind themselves under a special oath, the form of which I shall indicate, to fulfil exactly the first of the aforementioned seven objective conditions."

Having said this, I called my secretary and dictated to him the following:

"I, the undersigned, after mature and profound reflection, without being influenced by any one else at all, but of my own free will, promise under oath not to have, without instructions from Mr. Gurdjieff, any relations whatsoever, spoken or written, with any of the members of the former group of the followers of Mr. Gurdjieff's ideas which group has existed until now under the name of the 'Orage-Group,' and also not to have any relations, without the especial permission of Mr. Gurdjieff, with Mr. Orage himself.

"I am to have relations exclusively only with those members of this former group, a list of whose names will be given to me during the general meetings of the newly formed exoteric group."

Having read aloud the text of this obligation, I said:

-34-

"With this I finish for to-day and will merely add the following:

"Those of you who as it is said in the text of the paper I have just read, agree 'after-mature-and-profound-reflection' to sign this paper, must do so before twelve o'clock noon the day after to-morrow, in the presence of my secretary-translator Fraulein Louise Goepfert.

"When and where the first meeting will be held, all those who have signed the paper by the time set, will be in-formed in due course."

Having said this, I hurried away from that meeting, since I had to be present that same evening at another meeting of Americans who had not long before also become followers of my ideas, and who were people occupying there entirely different social positions from the members of this group.

## SECOND "LECTURE-TALK"

### DELIVERED THE 23rd OF NOVEMBER 1930.

"In order that all elucidations, reports and exchange of opinions during the subsequent general meetings of the members of the newly-formed "exoteric-group" should be sensible and give productive results, and in order that these meetings should not be such as your meetings have been up till now, that is, such as I recently called them 'meetings-for-collective-titillation,' I find it necessary from the very beginning to advise and even to emphasize its necessity, that each of you should entirely cease temporarily, at least

-35-

for three months, reading your news-papers and periodicals
and during this time should become acquainted as well as possi-
ble with the contents of all the three books of the first se-
ries of my writings, entitled, 'An-Impartial-Criticism-of-
the-Life-of-Man.'

"An acquaintance with these books is necessary chiefly
in order to obtain information concerning all those definite
notions, touched upon and elucidated in them, upon which will
be based and from which will logically ensue all the practical
attainments to be pursued by us, for the purpose of which this
new group has been organized consisting of people who have
already more or less cognized the absurdity of ordinary human
life and who are seriously striving to cognize objective truth
and to transform it in themselves for the definition and mani-
festation of their own individuality.

"It must be said that what I have expounded in all the
three books of the first series embraces in its general
totality almost all the questions which in my opinion formed
on the basis of long years of investigations, may arise in
the ordinary mentation of a man under conditions of contempo-
rary life, and the elucidation of all these questions has
been made by me in such a logical sequence and in such a con-
frontative form, so that gradually automatically accustoming
the reader to active mentation and assisting simultaneously
with this, the easy theoretical assimilation of the very es-
sence of the questions dealt with, one should obtain the possi-
bility of cognizing the illusoriness of former representations
and understandings.

-36-

"An all-round acquaintance with the contents of these three books is necessary, further, in order that when I speak about some questions which during our general meetings will be the centre-of-gravity and shall touch upon its details, I may for the purpose of economizing time, simply refer to the corresponding chapter in this first series, and you, already having preliminary information about this, may more easily assimilate what I shall subsequently develop in the details.

"For example, in to-day's meeting I intend to speak about a question which is based on data which I have already more or less elucidated in the last chapter of the third book, namely in the chapter entitled 'FROM THE AUTHOR' and the considerations of this proposed question to-day, should be as the continuation of this chapter.

"Well then, if you were all informed of its contents, then I could for the purpose of economizing time simply refer to the requisite passages. But now, I shall be compelled to waste time on reading you certain extracts from this chapter.

"In the present case, one requires chiefly an acquaintance with the part of this chapter called 'The Addition,' which I wrote after I had very definitely shown in this chapter the complete automatism of the contemporary average man and his complete nullity in respect of the independent manifestations of his 'individuality.'"

Having said this, I asked my secretary to read the extracts to which I referred.

The word-for-word contents of these extracts are as follows:

-37-

"Such is the ordinary average man - an unconscious slave
of the whole entire service to all-universal purposes, which
are alien to his own personal individuality.

"He may live through all his years as he is, and as such
be destroyed for ever.

"But at the same time Great Nature has given him the
possibility of being not merely a blind tool of the whole
entire service to these all-universal objective purposes, but,
while serving Her and actualizing what is fore-ordained for
him - which is the lot of every breathing- creature - of work-
ing at the same time also for himself, for his own egoistic
individuality.

"This possibility also was given for service to the
common purpose, owing to the fact that for the equilibrium
of these objective laws, such relatively liberated people
are necessary.

"Although the said liberation is possible, nevertheless,
whether any particular man has the chance to attain it, this
is difficult to say.

"There are a mass of reasons which do not permit it;
and moreover which in most cases depend neither upon us per-
sonally nor upon great laws, but only upon the various ac-
cidental conditions of our arising and formation, of which
the chief are heredity and the conditions under which the
process of our 'preparatory-age' flows. It is just these
uncontrollable conditions which may not permit this liberation."-

Stopping the reader at this point, I explained that of
the contents of the subsequent few pages, omitted for the
purpose of saving time, it was only necessary, for the theme

-38-

of this evening, to know about the comparison which I had made
there between human life as a whole and the flow of a big
river, forking at a certain place corresponding, according
to my definition, to the time of a man's reaching responsible
age, that is, that age when it becomes definite in a man
whether he has succeeded by that time in acquiring data for
possessing his own "I" - into two streams, one of which flows
into the limitless ocean for subsequent movement evolutionary
for itself, and the other, into the nether regions for sub-
sequent but involutionary movement, this time for the needs
of nature; then I pointed out the place from which the reading
should for the present case be continued.

"For us contemporary people, the chief evil is that we -
thanks to the various conditions of our ordinary existence
established by us ourselves, chiefly in consequence of the
abnormal what is called 'education' - attaining responsible
age and acquiring presences which correspond only to that
stream of the river of life which ultimately empties itself
into the 'nether-regions,' enter it and are carried along
where and whither it wills, and without pondering about the
consequences, we remain passive, and submitting to the flow,
drift on and on.

"As long as we remain passive, not only shall we have
inevitably to serve solely as a means for Nature's 'involution-
ary-and-evolutionary-constructions,' but also for the rest
of our lives we shall have to submit slavishly to every
caprice of all sorts of blind events."

"As most of the hearers present have already, as is said,

-39-

'crossed-over' into responsible age and frankly cognize that until now they have not acquired their own 'I', and at the same time, according to the substance of all that I have said here, have not pictured for themselves any particularly agreeable perspectives, then, in order that you, just you who cognize this, should not be greatly, as is said, 'disheartened' and should not fall into the usual what is called 'pessimism' everywhere prevalent in the contemporary abnormal life of people, I say quite frankly, without any arriere-pensee, that according to my convictions which have been formed thanks to long years of investigations strengthened by numerous quite exceptionally conducted experiments on the results of which are based the 'Institute-for-the-Harmonious-Development-of-Man' founded by me - even for you, it is not yet too late.

"The point is, that the said investigations and experiments showed me very clearly and very definitely, that in everything under the care of Mother Nature the possibility is foreseen for beings to acquire the kernel of their essence, that is to say, their own 'I,' even after the beginning of their responsible age also.

"The foresight of Just Mother Nature consists in the given case in this, that the possibility is given to us, under certain inner and outer conditions, to cross over from one stream to the other.

"The expression which has reached us from ancient times, 'the-first-liberation-of-man' refers to just this possibility of crossing from the stream which is predestined to disappear

-40-

into the 'nether-regions' into the stream which empties itself
into the vast spaces of the boundless ocean.

"To cross into the other stream is not so easy - merely
to wish and you cross. For this, it is, first of all, neces-
sary consciously to crystallize in yourselves data for en-
gendering in your common presences a constant unquenchable
impulse of desire for such a crossing, and then afterwards,
a long corresponding preparation."

At this point, again interrupting the reader, I continued
thus:

"From the contents of the fragment which has just been
read, each of you should already understand, at least, that
the indispensable condition which is first of all required of
a man for his still possible arrival on a new path, namely
the path of 'evolutionary-movement,' is to have if only as
yet, at least some data for the acquisition of his own 'I.'

"If a man in whom, because of the conditions of his pre-
paratory age, the time pre-ordained by Nature for the natural
crystallization in his common presence of data for possessing
in responsible age his own 'I,' has not been made use of, then
if this man, already of responsible age - when in man in
general sane-reasoning can sometimes be law-conformably mani-
fested - accidentally grasps this fact and resolves to attain
the possibility of being such as he ought in reality to be,
namely to have his own individuality conditioned by the un-
questionable possession of his own 'I,' he must first of all,
unfailingly and consciously begin to form in himself seven
data specially inherent only in man, each manifesting in

-41-

three aspects which are in reciprocal action corresponding to
the fundamental world law named 'Triamazikamno.'

"To-day I shall speak only about the first of these
seven data proper exclusively to man alone.

"In the general psychic functioning of a man, this first
datum, depending upon mental associations and feeling-experi-
encings under certain conditions automatically created and
intentionally being created, can engender in the common pre-
sence of a man three definite impulses.

"Before continuing to explain just what is necessary,
and how one must consciously, both inwardly and outwardly,
manifest oneself in order to obtain the arising in oneself
of this first datum, I shall be compelled, because of the
absence in the English language of any exact verbal designa-
tion of these three impulses inherent only in man, to waste
my time in giving some if only approximate understanding of
them and to choose for them some more or less corresponding
conventional names, which we shall use in our subsequent
talks.

"For an approximate definition of the first of these
three human impulses, one might employ the English word, 'can, '
but not in the sense in which this word is used in the con-
temporary English language, but in the sense in which English-
men used it before what is called the 'Shakespearean-epoch.'

"Although for the exact definition of the second of
these human impulses there is a word in the English language,
namely 'wish,' it is nevertheless employed, by you Americans
as well as by the English themselves, only in order to vary,

-42-

of course unconsciously, the degree of the expression of that
so to say 'slavish-impulse' for which there are particularly
in this language a multitude of words, as for example 'like, '
'want,' 'need,' 'desire,' and so on.

"And as regards a word for the expression and under-
standing of the third definite aforementioned human impulse,
in the whole lexicon of words used in the English language,
there cannot be found one even approximately corresponding.

"This impulse proper only to man can be defined in the
English language only descriptively, that is, with many words.
I should define it in the following words: 'The-entire-
sensing-of-the-whole-of-oneself.'

"This third impulse which should be in the common pre-
sence of every normal man, together with the first two -
namely, with those which as I said can be approximately ex-
pressed in English by the words 'can' and 'wish,' represent,
strictly speaking, the genuine 'I' of a man who has reached
responsible age.

"It is only in a man with just such an 'I' that both of
the first impulses - an approximate representation of which,
as I said are defined by the English words 'can' and 'wish' -
acquire in their turn that significance which I understand
by them and which should be in one who by his intentional
efforts achieves the arising in himself of data for engendering
these impulses sacred for man.

"And it is only then, when a man consciously says 'I am, '
that he really is; 'I can, ' that he really can; 'I wish, '
that he really wishes.

-43-

"When 'I wish,' I feel with my whole being that I can wish - this does not mean that I want, that I need, that I like, or finally that I desire. No. 'I wish.' I never like, never want, I do not desire anything and I do not need anything - all this is slavery; if 'I wish' something, than I must like it; even if I do not like it, I can wish to like it, because 'I can.'

" 'I wish' - I feel with my whole body that 'I wish.'

"'I wish' - because I can wish.

"The difficulty of acquiring in one's common presence these three enumerated genuine human impulses, is that they can exist almost exclusively only when one has one's own genuine 'I,' which in its turn can be in a man also almost exclusively only when he has also just these three impulses.

"For the purpose of preparing in oneself, so to say 'soil' for the conscious developing of data for these impulses inherent only in man, I can now recommend to you the same seven simple exercises which, during the existence of the Institute-for-the-Harmonious-Development-of-Man, were included in what is called the 'General-experimental-program' for the pupils of the mesoteric group.

"I said 'simple,' because in various serious schools existing even at the present time for the self-perfecting of man, there are for this same purpose very complicated exercises.

"The first of these simple exercises is to learn to concentrate one's attention on three fingers of the right hand, namely the forefinger, the third and the fourth; constating

-44-

in one finger the result proceeding in it of the process
called 'sensing,' in another the result of the process of
'feeling' and with the third, making any rhythmical movement,
and also, simultaneously with the flowing of mental associ-
ations, counting in a sequential or varied manner.

"Here there again arises a question concerning the
poverty of the English language, that the contemporary
people belonging to the English race, and you also Americans
who have borrowed their language and who employ it in your
ordinary life, totally lack any understanding of the differ-
ence between two entirely distinct impulses of the average
man, namely between the impulse of 'feeling' and the impulse
of 'sensing.'

"Since an understanding of this fact is very important
for my subsequent indications concerning the real nature of
the psyche of man, I shall be compelled once more to inter-
rupt the logical sequence of the elucidation of the theme I
have begun and again waste my time on explaining, if only
approximately for the present this unexpectedly arisen philo-
logical question also.

"A man 'feels' when what is called the 'initiating-
factor' issues from the dispersed localizations in his com-
mon presence which in contemporary science are called the
'nervous-sympathetic-nodes,' the chief agglomeration of
which is known by the name of 'solar-plexus,' and the whole
totality of which functioning, by the terminology long ago
established by me, is called the 'feeling-centre'; and he
'senses,' when the place of this 'initiating-factor' is the

-45-

totality of what are called the 'nervous-moving-nodes' 'of-the-
spinal-and-partly-of-the-head-brain,' which is called, ac-
cording to this terminology of mine, the 'moving-centre.'

"And it is the difference in the nature of these two
independent sources unknown to you which conditions the
difference in functions which you do not distinguish.

"In order that you may be consciously impressed with the
importance of the significance of this aforementioned first
of the seven exercises and may productively make use of its
results for yourselves, it is necessary approximately to
know also that what is called the 'attention' in man is sub-
divided in several independent kinds, and the difference bet-
ween them depends on the intensity of the functioning at the
given moment of one or another 'initiating-factor,' or on
the combination of them, or, in other words, what is called
the 'attention' is the result of the degree of the intensity
of the functioning now of the 'thinking-centre,' now of the
'feeling-centre,' now of the 'sensing-centre' or the result
of the combination of two or of all the varied-degreed afore-
mentioned centres taken together.

"A man has the possibility of intentionally dividing the
attention of his whatever its quality, and of concentrating
it on one, two or even three distinct independent processes
or objects, proceeding and located either inside or outside
of himself.

"For this first exercise which I propose for to-day, it
is first of all necessary to learn how to observe - with so
to say the 'fulfilling-of-the-obligation' which you now have

-46-

of the 'self-willed-attention' which sould be in a real man
and which in you is simply 'self-tenseness' - simultaneously
three heterogeneous results proceeding in you, obtained from
different sources of the general functioning of your whole
presence; namely, one part of this attention of yours should
be occupied with the constatation of the process of sensing
proceeding in one finger and evoked by your partial attention;
another part, with the constatation of the process of 'feeling'
proceeding in another finger; and the third part should follow
the counting of the automatic movement of the third finger.

"This exercise is the most difficult of all the seven
and at the same time the most important, and in order to cog-
nize its importance and difficulty it is necessary to do it
very and very many times.

"Beginning with this, it is all the time necessary to
try only to understand the sense and significance of this
exercise without expecting to obtain any concrete result.

"As only an all-round understanding of the sense and
significance of this exercise, and the ability forcibly to
carry it out, will make it easier for you to do all the sub-
sequent exercises requisite for the acquisition of one's own
individuality and to cognize their sense and significance,
therefore I advise you so to say to 'mobilize' all your
forces and possibilities in order that you should 'BE ABLE'
for a definite time not to be lazy and simultaneously be in
relation to yourself, that is to your weaknesses, quite
merciless, because upon this first exercise depends your
whole subsequent normal life and all your future possibili-
ties according to law inherent only in man.

-47-

"And so, if you really wish to have in yourself that which alone can distinguish a man from an ordinary animal, that is to say, if you wish to be really such, to whom Great Nature has given the possibility with the desire - that is with a desire issuing from all his spiritualized parts - and with the conscious striving to transform himself into, so to say a 'cultivated-soil' for the germination and growth of that upon which abide the hopes and expectations of the CREATOR OF EVERYTHING EXISTING, then you must always and in everything, struggling with the weaknesses that are in you according to law, attain at any cost, first of all, the arising in your common presence of this first of the seven data which has been elucidated by me to-day, in order by this to have the chance of acquiring the other six data also which must be in the presence of a man who has the right to call himself the 'Image-of-GOD.'"

-48-

THIRD "LECTURE-SPEECH"

DELIVERED BY ME ON THE 5th OF DECEMBER 1930, TO THOSE OF
THE FOLLOWERS OF MY IDEAS IN AMERICA, WHO FOR SEVERAL
YEARS HAD BEEN MEMBERS OF THE GROUP CALLED THE "ORAGE-
GROUP" AND WHO HAD SIGNED THE ABOVE-CITED OBLIGATION.

"Before questioning you, according to the usage in gen-
eral established in me, in order the better to orient myself
for giving subsequent indications, as in the present case, for
example, questioning you as to who and how, as a result of
his so to say 'spare-time' reflections during the past week,
has elucidated to himself and understood my indications con-
cerning the first exercise which I recommended to you last
week for the purpose of preparing in your common presence a
corresponding, as is said 'fertile-soil' for the possibility
of intentionally composing data for the impulses sacred for
man, I find it necessary to indicate to you two other inde-
pendent exercises which were in the general program of the
Institute founded by me, but which belonged to quite a differ-
ent series of exercises, which were then also for a definite
category of pupils one of what are called the 'assisting-
means' for acquiring one's own real 'I.'

"Besides these exercises of which I now speak, and also
the information explaining these 'assisting-exercises' and
into which I now wish to initiate you, being for you a really
good means for this aim, they will help you firstly to appre-
hend and understand many details of the significance and sense
of the first of the seven, what are called 'cardinal-exercises'

-49-

I mentioned, and secondly, you will thanks to this information
learn by the way, of two definite notions such as from the
dawn of centuries among all categories of initiated persons
on the Earth, have been considered and are at the present
time considered 'secret,' and an acquaintance with which, for
the average man, can according to the conviction of these
initiates, prove even ruinous.

"You must here know, that on the Earth in almost all
epochs the persons who deserved to become genuine initiates,
were divided into three categories.

"The initiated belonging to the first category, were
those who thanks to their intentional sufferings and conscious
labours attained a high gradation of what is called 'Being, '
and for this they acquired the title 'Saints.'

"To the second category belonged those who thanks to
the same factors acquired a great deal of all kinds of infor-
mations, and to their names was added the title 'Learned';
and to the third category, those who by means of again the
same factors attained Being and also enlightened themselves
concerning a great number of objective truths, and to their
names was added the title 'Sages.'

"The first of the aforementioned secrets is that as a
means for self-perfecting a man can use a certain property
which is in his psyche and which is even of a very negative
character.

"This property can serve as an aid to self-perfecting
and is in general in people, particularly in contemporary
people, and especially in you, and is none other than that

-50-

which I have many times condemned and which people themselves
consider unworthy of manifestation for a man who has reached
responsible age - of course, in this respect also, themselves
excluded, - and is called 'imagination.'

"Such an, at first glance, illogicality and deduction
not corresponding to any human sane-reasoning, namely that
such a property, unbecoming to the psyche of a man of adult
age, can consciously be made use of for such an immeasurably
high aim, is obtained owing to the fact, that the cognizance
of truth concerning the possibilities of real self-perfecting
and the real forming in oneself of what is requisite for
this, must proceed not in the ordinary consciousness of a
man, which for the given case has almost no significance,
but in what is called the 'subconsciousness.' And since,
thanks to all kinds of accidentalness ensuing from the va-
rious abnormalities of our ordinary life, it has become im-
possible for a man, particularly a contemporary man, to take
in anything at all and so to say to 'digest' it directly with
his subconscious, therefore there remains for him, as has in
the course of many centuries experimentally been proved by
persons of Pure Reason, merely a means for inculcating in his
subconscious some reasonable indication accidentally grasped
by his ordinary consciousness and not contradictory to his
instinct, and this can be done only by means of this imagina-
tiveness inherent in him.

"If you have understood without any doubt what and how
you must do, and fully hope at some time of attaining this
in reality, you must at the beginning often imagine, but ima-

-51-

gine only that this is already in you.

"This is necessary chiefly in order that the conscious forming in oneself during an active state should continue also during a passive state.

"For the correct understanding of the significance of this first assisting exercise, it is first of all necessary to know, that when a normal man, that is, a man who already has his real 'I,' his will and all the other properties of a real man, pronounces aloud or to himself the words 'I am,' then there always proceeds in him, in his, as it is called 'solar-plexus,' a so to say 'reverberation,' that is, something like a vibration, a feeling, or something of the sort.

"This kind of 'reverberation' can proceed also in other parts of his body in general, but only on the condition that when pronouncing these words, his attention is intentionally concentrated on them.

"If the ordinary man, not having as yet in himself data for this natural 'reverberation,' but knowing of the existence of this fact, will with conscious striving for the formation in himself of the genuine data which should be in the common presence of a real man, correctly and frequently pronounce these same and for him as yet empty words, and will imagine that this same 'reverberation' proceeds in him, he may thereby ultimately through frequent repetition, gradually acquire in himself, so to say a 'theoretical-beginning' for the possibility of a real practical forming in himself of these data.

"He who is exercising himself with this, must at the beginning when pronouncing the words 'I am,' imagine that

-52-

this same 'reverberation' is already proceeding in his 'solar-plexus.'

"Here, by the way, it is curious to notice, that owing to the intentional concentration of this 'reverberation' on any part of his body, a man can stop any disharmony which has arisen in this said part of the body, that is to say, he can, for example cure his headache, by concentrating the said reverberation on that part of the head where he has this sensation of pain.

"At the beginning it is necessary to pronounce the words 'I am,' very often and to try always not to forget to have the said 'reverberation' in one's 'solar-plexus.'

"Without this, if only imagined, experiencing of the 'reverberation,' the pronouncing aloud or to oneself of the words 'I am' will have no significance at all.

"The result of the pronunciation of them without this 'reverberation' will be the same as that which is obtained from the automatic associative mentation of man, namely an increase of that in the atmosphere of our planet, from our perception of which and from the accumulation of which together with our second food, there arises in us an 'irresistable-urge' to destroy the various tempos of our ordinary life somehow established during centuries.

"This second exercise, as I have already said, is only preparatory; when you have acquired the knack of as it were experiencing this process imagined in yourself, only then will I give you further definite real indications for the actualization in yourself of real results.

-53-

"First of all, concentrate the greater part of your attention on the words themselves 'I am' and the lesser part - concentrate on the 'solar-plexus,' and the 'reverberation' should gradually proceed of itself.

"At first it is necessary to acquire only, so to say the 'taste' of these impulses which you have not as yet in you, and which for the present you may designate merely by the words 'I-am,' 'I-can' 'I-wish.'

'I-am,' 'I-can' 'I-am-can.'

'I-am,' 'I-wish' 'I-am-wish.'

"In concluding my elucidations of this assisting exercise, I will once more repeat, but in another formulation, what I have already said.

"If 'I-am,' only then 'I-can'; if 'I-can,' only then do I deserve and have the objective right to wish.

"Without the ability to 'can,' there is no possibility of having anything, no, nor the right to it.

"First we must assimilate these expressions, as external designations of these impulses, then obtain the said 'taste' of these impulses, in order ultimately to have the impulses themselves.

"If you several times experience the sensation if only of this same, what I have called 'taste' of these impulses sacred for man, you will then already be indeed 'fortunate,' because you will then feel the reality of the possibility of at some time acquiring in your presence data for these real Divine impulses proper only to man.

"And on these Divine impulses there is based for humanity,

-54-

the entire sense of everything existing in the Universe, be-
ginning from the atom and ending with everything existing as
a whole and among other things even of your dollars.

"For an all-round assimilation of both these 'assisting'
or, as they might otherwise be called 'helping' exercises for
the mastering of the chief exercise, I now at the very begin-
ning of the formation of this new group composed of various
persons pursuing one and the same aim, find it necessary to
warn you of an indispensable condition for the successful
attainment of this common aim, and that is, in your mutual
relations to be sincere.

"The unconditional requirement of such sincerity among all kinds of other conditions, existed - as it happened to become known to me from various authentic sources - among people of all past times and of every degree of intelligence, whenever they gathered together for the collective attaining of some common aim.

"In my opinion it is only by fulfilling this condition for the given proposed collective work, that it is possible to attain a real result in this aim which one has set oneself and which has already become for contemporary people almost impossible.

"Each of you, having become an equal-rights participant in this group newly formed for the attainment of one and the same so to say 'ideal,' must always strive to surmount such impulses inevitably arising in you and unworthy of man, as 'self-love,' 'pride,' 'conceit' and so on, and not be ashamed to be sincere in your answers concerning your observations and

-56-

obtained by you from doing this kind of exercise.

"In order that you may well understand and for your own welfare productively employ the information of the procedures of this second assisting exercise, I consider it necessary before explaining these details, again to say a little about that specific totality of the results from the general functioning in the human psyche in general of what is called 'attention.'

"Although in the normal man this attention, in the passive state, is also a 'something' of proportionately blended results of the corresponding action of all the three independently automatized parts in his whole individuality, and is always one whole, yet in an active state such a man can consciously concentrate this whole attention of his, firstly in such a so to say 'collectiveness' on anything, either on some part of his own common presence, or on something outside of him, so that all the associations automatically proceeding in him - which, being law-conformable results of the general functioning of his organism, must always, as long as he breathes, inevitably proceed - will totally cease to hinder him.

"Here it might as well be remarked, that according to authentic information which has reached us from very ancient times, it is clearly stated, that it was very definitely proved by learned persons then, that these automatically flowing associations never cease while a man lives, and in certain people still continue even after their death to proceed for several days by momentum.

-57-

"In speaking of these associations which automatically flow in man, I might as well, by the way so to say 'illuminatingly-clarify-' yet another, at the first glance, insignificant aspect of the 'phenomenal-stupidity' of people, in respect of their believing and ascribing significance to all their foolish 'dreams.'

"When a man really normally sleeps, his attention - by the quality of which so to say the 'gradation' of the difference between waking state and sleep is conditioned - also sleeps, that is to say his attention is, according to the law-conformableness inherent in him, stored up with corresponding force for subsequent necessary intensive manifestation.

"But when, owing to some disharmony in the general functioning of a man's organism - most often owing to a non-normal expenditure in his waking state of law-conformably accumulated energy - this part of the general psyche of his waking-state is not capable of normally actualizing itself during sleep, then from the associations automatically flowing in him, constated by this attention from so to say 'a-bit-here-and-a-bit-there,' these famous 'dreams' are obtained, that is to say human foolishness.

"Secondly a normal man intentionally divide this whole attention of his, of which I have already spoken, into two or even three separate equal parts, and concentrate each of these on various independent objects inside or outside himself.

"It will now be very useful, in my opinion, for the productivity of the further work in this newly formed group of

-58-

followers of my ideas, also to employ this method I therefore
consider it expedient and opportune for the elucidations of
the procedure of this second assisting exercise, to keep
partly to this in my opinion only true and useful method for
such cases.

"Well then, I am now sitting among you as you see and
although I am looking at Mr. Loomis, yet I am intentionally
directing all my attention, which you are not able to see,
on my own foot, and consequently, any manifestation Mr.
Loomis produces within my organ of vision, I see only auto-
matically, my attention, which at the present moment is one
whole, being in another place.

"This whole attention of mine, I now intentionally di-
vide into two equal parts.

"The first half I consciously direct to the uninterrupted
constatation and continuous sensing of the process proceeding
in me of my breathing.

"By means of this part of my attention I definitely feel
that something takes place in me with the air I breathe.

"I first clearly feel that when I breathe in the air,
the greater part passing through my lungs, goes out again,
and the lesser part remains and, as it were, settles there,
and then I feel that this settled part is gradually penetra-
ting inward and is, as it were, spreading throughout my whole
organism.

"In consequence of the fact that only a part of my at-
tention is occupied with the observation of the process of
breathing proceeding in me, all the 'mental,' 'feeling,' and

-59-

'reflex' associations automatically flowing in my common presence, still continue to be noticed by the free part of my attention and hinder that first part of my attention intentionally directed upon a definite object, but already to a much lesser extent.

"Now I direct the second half of my attention to my head brain, for the purpose of observing and possibly stating any process proceeding in it."

"And already I am beginning to feel in it, from the totality of automatically flowing associations, the arising of something very fine, almost imperceptible to me."

"I do not know just what this is, nor do I wish to know, but I definitely constate, feel, and sense, that this is some definite something arising from the process automatically proceeding in my head-brain of associations of previously consciously perceived impressions."

"While this second half of my attention is occupied with the aforesaid, the first half continues all the time uninterruptedly to watch, with so to say 'concentrated-interest,' the result proceeding from the process of my breathing."

"I now consciously direct this second half of my attention, and uninterruptedly 'remembering-the-whole-of-myself,' I aid this something arising in my head-brain to flow directly into my 'solar-plexus.'"

"I feel how it flows."

"I no longer notice any automatic associations proceeding in me."

Having finished this so to say 'monologue' of mine, I

-61-

result from your intentional repetitions of this same exercise.

"Do not, for the time being do this exercise in order to be strong; this also is for you only preparation for at some time having your own 'I,' and at the same time for constating with indubitable certitude those two real sources from which this 'I' can arise.

"Now, without philosophising and without your, for you, maleficent 'discussions,' try first of all to understand the totality of all that I have said to-day, and then do this exercise for yourself, but without any hope or expectation of any definite results." -

## THE FOURTH "LECTURE-TALK"

DELIVERED BY ME ON THE 12-th OF DECEMBER 1930 TO THE SAME FOLLOWERS OF MY IDEAS - THE FORMER MEMBERS OF THE "ORAGE-GROUP."

Before citing the summarized contents of this fourth "Lecture-Talk" I wish to describe briefly certain almost tragi-comical events which took place there during this time among this group of Americans - those sorry-followers of my ideas - owing to my extemporaneously devised aforementioned signed obligation.

On that evening when I had announced this obligation to them and had set the time by which it was to be signed, they almost all as I afterwards learned, dividing into separate groups, first walked about the streets, and then, taking themselves off to various as they call them there, nocturnal 'Childs' or to the apartments of those, whose what is called

-63-

'domestic-tyrant,' usual in every contemporary household, was on that day absent, excitedly discussed and argued almost till morning as to what they should do.

On the next day, meeting or talking by telephone with one another and also with those of their comrades who had not been present at these general meetings, they continued their exchange of thoughts and opinions, and as a result of all these discussions and deliberations of theirs, there was formed by that same evening three different distinct groups with varied attitudes to everything that had occurred.

The first group consisted of those who decided to sign the obligation required by me and unconditionally to fulfill subsequently the indications issued exclusively only to me personally.

The second consisted of those, in the peculiar psyche of whom, by causes inexplicable by any sane human reason, there was formed and was still continuing, so to say to 'storm,' that strange factor bidding their whole freakish individuality not to recognize anything whatsoever issuing from me, but to remain true to the one who for several years had been for them not only teacher and mentor, but also, as it were, their own 'loving-father.'

The third consisted of those who decided to await the reply to the telegram they had sent to Mr. Orage asking what they should do.

All of those who joined the first group, had to the last man, signed the obligation before the appointed time was up.

-63-

The aforesaid 'storming' in the peculiar psyche of those
sorry-followers of my ideas who formed the second group - pro-
gressively increasing, as it subsequently became clear, up to
the moment when the time appointed for the signing of the
obligation had elapsed - reached such a point that every one
of them, in his so to say 'belligerent-animation' and fury
in the fight with me, would have gone 'a-dozen-better' than
the famous ancient Balshakarians protecting their idol
'Tantsatrata' from the devils specially sent to them from Hell.

And as regards those of my charming delicate American
followers who then made up the third group, they, strictly
speaking, merely manifested themselves, in my opinion de-
lightfully worthily, as befits those who have attained to
responsible age and who have moreover acquired the knack of
logical mentation among the people composing, and at present
considered by all on the Earth, the most cultured grouping.

All the finesse of this 'logical-mentation' of theirs
then manifested itself and became really evident to all the
others around them, and particularly to me, from the fact
that having received the news that Mr. Orage himself, being
already on his way, would soon arrive on the field of action,
they began to invent all kinds of 'crafty' circumstances
supposedly independent of them, and began to bring these
'ideally' well invented circumstances of theirs to the at-
tention of my poor secretary, and moreover not they them-
selves, but through others by telephone.

All this they did and invented for the purpose of having
a respectable justification for not signing the obligation at

-84-

the proper time and of putting off their final decision until
the arrival of Mr. Orage.

Two days before the third meeting of this group organized
by me on new principles, Mr. Orage himself, already informed
about everything that had taken place, finally arrived in
New-York, and on the very day of his arrival requested through
my secretary a personal interview with me.

In view of the fact that my original decision in respect
of not making use of the people of this group for the actuali-
zation of the purpose of this trip of mine, had by this time
already been changed in consequence of the manifestations
of some of them, unworthy for people who had already been
for several years in contact with my ideas and who had been
thinking about them, and also in order that during my sub-
sequent daily sacred rituals - fixed in my life during recent
years, of 'glorifying' by means of the noble French Armagnac
the idiots of all degrees and categories inhabiting our great
Universe - I might have extra material for the periodic what
is called 'digestive-laughter' very necessary for the con-
temporary man, I replied to this request through the same
secretary as follows:

"Most calm, most hopeful and most particularly esteemed
Mr. Orage!

"After everything that has happened here, I shall have
the right to meet you and even as formerly to occupy myself
together with you with the process of 'pouring-from-the-
empty-into-the-void,' exclusively only on condition that you
also sign the obligation I proposed to all the members of

-65-

the group you had directed."

Whereupon, Mr. Orage, to the great astonishment of the
persons near to me who had journeyed with me, came at once,
greatly excited, to my secretary, and before beginning to
speak, signed the aforesaid obligation and only then, sitting
down, calmly spoke as follows:

Before citing what Mr. Orage said to the persons who had
accompanied me - his former comrades at the Institute - I with
all my desire cannot but confess, with an impulse of remorse,
of a certain weakness of my nature, which also evidently
came down to me by heredity from my deceased grandmother......

May she attain the Kingdom of Heaven!

and which manifested itself this time because of the
precipitate arrival of Mr. Orage and his explanations of the
causes which had evoked his signing of the aforementioned
obligation I demanded.

When they told me of his having come and of his phil-
osophizing concerning the proposal I had made to him and of
his decision also to sign this obligation, I happened just
then to be in the kitchen and was preparing so to say the
'gravity-centre-dish' decided upon for that day, which I did
every day during my stay in New York for the purpose chiefly
of having physical movement, devoting each day, moreover,
to the preparation of the national dish of some one of the
peoples inhabiting all continents.

That day I was preparing the favourite dish of the
people inhabiting that part of the terra-firma surface of
our dear planet situated between India and Thibet.

-06-

This time the weakness inherent in my nature manifested
itself in the following sequence:

At the moment when they were reporting to me the arrival
in person of Mr. Orage and his finely philosophical delibera-
tions concerning his decision also to sign, I was beating
the yolks of eggs with cinnamon and pompadory, and when I
managed somehow to represent all this to myself, then gradu-
ally in all the organizations which in their totality compose
the functioning of my feelings, a process began similar to
the experience of the feeling of 'being-affected'; and I
thereupon, first of all, with an absent-mindedness not at
all proper to me during such a for me sacred ritual, namely
the preparation and composition of the symphonic taste of
some dish which has existed on the Earth from olden times,
dumped into the casserole, instead of a pinch of 'ginger'
the whole supply in the kitchen of powdered Cayenne pepper,
and swinging my arm for no reason at all, with all my force,
as is said 'landed-a-wallop' on the left shoulder of my
secretary of music, who was there in the kitchen washing
dishes, then flung myself into my room, fell on the divan,
and burying my head in the cushions, began to sob with bitter
tears, and continued to sob until my friend, the doctor, who
had accompanied me to America, having by chance noticed the
beginning of a psychic state as yet unknown to him and un-
accustomed for me, came into the room with two bottles of
'Scotch-whisky' specially made for Americans; and although
after I had swallowed this medical remedy of his, I psychic-
ally calmed down a little, yet the twitching which had begun

-67-

in the left half of my body continued until suppertime, until
the moment when I and all the people who were with me were
compelled, for lack of any other food, to eat the dish I had
so immoderately peppered.

What experiences began in me, and what results settled
in my consciousness from the associations proceeding in my
mentation thanks to this immoderately peppered dish, I shall
not describe in this place in my writings, because the idea
has just arisen in me of making this information the issuing-
basis for a certain highly-edifyingly-instructive question of
the psyche of contemporary man, which I propose to elucidate
from every aspect in one of the brochures of the third series
of my writings; but meanwhile I will say that after this
famous day, and after all these instructive, comical, and in
the objective sense just events ensuing from this conscious
or unconscious - in the present case it does not matter -
action of the chief representative of my ideas in America,
Mr. Orage, that unexpectedly beneficent change of mind began
in all the members of this group, which I did not fail to
make use of, firstly, for the speedy fulfilment of the
purpose of this trip to America, and, secondly, in order
more or less well to secure materially certain needy members
of this exoteric group newly organized by me; and this chiefly
gave me the possibility of hastening my departure for Europe,
for those places where my presence was more necessary for the
interest of the common work.

The aforementioned change of mind took the form of an
impetuous desire on the part of all without exception, un-

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failingly to sign the obligation, that is to say, to join this
newly organized group.

Before describing just how I made us of this for the
said, in the objective sense, just aims, I will cite what
Mr. Orage said to his former comrades at the Institute.

"Knowing very well" he said, "of course thanks to Mr. Gurdjieff, the difference between the manifestations of a man which are engendered by his real nature and his, as he calls it 'automatic-mentation' and having been informed about everything that has taken place here without me - by letters mostly sent to me by members of the group here - I understood without any doubt whatsoever, that behind the proposal made to me by Mr. Gurdjieff, at first glance seemingly absurd, namely, to sign also, like the others, there was concealed an obligation, such an obligation, that when I had signed it, I should be deprived of the right to have any relationship at all not only with the members of the former group which I had so long directed, but even, however strange it may sound, with myself.

"Everything that Mr. Gurdjieff has said here at the general meetings and to individual members of our group, exactly corresponds to my inner understanding, and indicates the contradictoriness to his ideas of my external understanding and consequently of my non-corresponding verbal influence on the persons directed by me supposedly in accordance with his ideas.

"More than once, I recently inwardly reflected a great

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deal, and the unpleasant feeling from the constatation of the
lack of correspondence between my inner conviction and my
outer playing a role, each time increased more and more.

"Many times did I intend to put a stop to this inner
struggle of mine, but various life-circumstances prevented
me from setting out to do this with the requisite decisiveness.

"But now that this inner unbalancedness of mine has been
disclosed by the man towards whom my gratitude, for all the
good he has done me, is unbounded, I wish with all my being
to put an end to it all.

"And I am beginning this by signing the obligation re-
quired by Mr. Gurdjieff. Namely, I also give myself my es-
sence-word not to have any further communication, from this
moment on, with any of the members of the former group or
even with the former Orage himself on the basis of the
former conditions and mutual relations.

"I have decided, and wish very much, of course if Mr.
Gurdjieff permits, to become from this day an ordinary member
of this new exoteric group already organized here." -

The following day from morning on, I received pleading
requests to be enrolled as members of this new group, and I
decided to reply to all alike as follows:

"Any former member of the Orage group can be admitted
to the next general meetings of the newly organized group on
the two following conditions:

"The first condition is to pay a fine for not having
signed the obligation in time, of a sum of dollars corres-
ponding to the material possibilities of the given person

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which will be established by a committee specially chosen for
this purpose, of several members of the former group.

"The second condition is that all those who have fulfilled the first condition, that is, the immediate payment of the fine imposed on them which will not in any circumstances be returned, will be enrolled for the time being only as candidates for the new group, and after a certain time, which I will later fully establish, all these candidates will be approved again by a special committee, and only then, depending on the fulfilment or non-fulfilment by them of subsequent conditions, will it be decided who is unconditionally to leave the group and who is worthy to become a real member."

On the same day a committee was formed, by my choice, of four members, who together with me established seven grades of fines.

The first and highest fine was fixed at the sum of
3648 dollars, the second at 1824 dollars, the third at 912,
the fourth - 456, the fifth - 228, the sixth -114, and the
last and lowest at 57 dollars.

The sum total of these fines plus the charge which I
fixed for shorthand copies of the 'lecture-talks' I delivered
in the absence of those for whom, in order to understand the
subsequent 'lecture-talks,' these copies were quite necessary -
those who belonged to the first group, that is those who had
unconditionally signed the obligation, paying ten dollars a
copy; those who belonged to the second group, that is those
who did not recognize anything whatsoever issuing from me -
forty dollars; and those who had belonged to the third, that

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is, those who had decided to wait the arrival of Mr. Orage,
twenty dollars; - made a total of 113.00 dollars, which sum
I divided into two equal parts, one of which I kept myself
and the other was for the beginning of the formation of a
fund for mutual aid for the material needy members of this
first exoteric group I organized for collective self-perfecting
with a program drawn up on the exact basis of my ideas.

My delivery of the said fourth of my 'lecture-talks, '
the summarised contents of which I now wish to cite, took
place this time in the presence of Orage himself, and also
of several of his former so to say 'first-rank-vehement-
defenders' now sitting, of course, 'with-tails-between-their-
legs' and facial expressions unchangingly 'plesto-oleaginous.'

"According to all kinds of historical data and to sane
logical human mentation, man, as compared with the other ex-
ternal forms of life arising and existing on the Earth, both
by bodily organization and the degree of complexity of the
form of functioning of his psyche for perceiving and manifest-
ing, ought to be among these other external forms of life,
really supreme and so to say "directive," in respect of the
regulating of the correctness of ordinary life as well as in
respect of giving indications for the worthy justification
of the sense and aim of his existence in the process of the
actualization of what is foreordained by our COMMON FATHER.

"Thus it was at the beginning, as these same historical
data show us, in the general process of the variform life on
the Earth; and it was only afterwards, when in the psyche of
people, owing to their vice called laziness, that something

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ternal forms of life, is the chief actualizing factor and
which is called the 'second-being-food,' that is, the 'air'
we breathe.

"In this totality of substances, formed owing to all
kinds of common-cosmic fundamental laws and to various ensuing
second-order laws depending upon the position of and the re-
ciprocal action between our planet and other large cosmic
concentrations, there is acquired and there exists a multi-
tude of definite specific particularities.

"From among this multitude of particularities, we, for
the present case, must know about that one which since long
ago was always in the process of human life one of the chief
secrets of all ranks of initiates of all epochs.

"This particularity is that.........

(To be continued)