- Joined
- Apr 9, 2022
- Messages
- 877
- Reaction score
- 2,321
- Awards
- 11
In the usual round about way, I came across this book which has been reprinted often, and I found a free download on the 'net. I figured a magician needs to know how the mind works, and one can never have too many different perspectives to learn from. Whether it will prove its usefulness in actual practice remains to be seen. The original publication date is 1983, and the version I'm starting to read was revised in 1997 (I know, it seems like yesterday....). Already I'm having a good laugh at Robert's expense. In his "Preface to the Second Edition," he goes on about what he got right and what he got wrong in the first edition. Let's let Robert speak,
Based on that, would I be justified by the rules and suppositions that Robert put forth in his writing (thus far that I have read) in making the sweeping claim that both the 'Silents' and 'Boomers' are staying in positions of power for far too long because they're greedy, manipulative and far too comfortable in their decades of corruption to simply "let go" and enjoy a few years of pleasant company with family before leaving this plane of manifestation? It could also be possible that Boomers were, and still are, the selfish "Me" generation for whom having kids was just the unfortunate outcome of sex (and marriage followed by divorce). I was one of those fortunate kids whose parents are still together after all these decades, but divorce among Boomers was common enough to affect more kids in my generation than any prior to them. Of course, nothing compares to the destruction of marriage among Blacks in America, the blame for which I place squarely on the government precisely because policy was designed to create dependence on the government while disguising such as assistance. Who has been running the government for a few decades? Robert, it's looking like things are a bit more complicated than you thought.
But, no. this isn't the 'fault' of human beings. It is, however, the fault of the programs which are being run robotically in the minds and bodies of most humans. This is the point which Robert is trying to make, though I believe he himself still runs some of the programs when his mind lapses, as do we all. Getting annoyed at an arbitrarily assembled group of people is, after all, a program we were taught and run without thinking. This is what it means to be 'asleep' in the sense which Gurdjieff used the word.
I feel more chagrined about my lyrical evocation of Intelligence Intensification. In the 1970s, I simply did not recognize the extent to which the 1960s "youth revolution" had terrified our ruling Elite, or that they would try to prevent future upsurges of radical Utopianism by deliberately "dumbing down" the educational system. What they have produced, the so-called Generation X, must rank as not only the most ignorant but also the most paranoid and depressive kids ever to infest our Republic. I agree with outlaw radio star Travis Hipp that the paranoia and depression result inevitably from the ignorance. These kids not only don't know anything; they don't even want to know. They only realize, vaguely, that somebody has screwed them out of something, but they don't have enough zest or bile to try to find out who screwed them and what they were screwed out of.
Fortunately, this Age of Stupidity cannot last very long. Already, most people know that if you want a good TV or VCR, you buy Japanese; for a good car, Japanese or German, etc. Eventually, in order to compete, the Elite will have to allow a bit more education for American youth, before we sink fully to the level of a Third World nation. 
Oh dear. Robert, if there's anything I've learned (as a Gen X'er) is that you don't start generational arguments about who is "at fault" or "dumb." Besides, this bit of observation would seem to negate your excellent advice in the Introduction to Chris Hyatt's Undoing Yourself With Energized Meditation with respect to "what is?" What "is" Gen X anyway? Gen X = people born in the U.S.A between 1965 and 1980. Gen X = "ignorant, paranoid, depressive." Therefore People born in the U.S.A between 1965 and 1980 = "ignorant, paranoid, depressive"! But wait, there's more! We have been using examples of difference between elements of the "same" group, but no element remains unchanged in time. Consider yourself as an element, X, in the group "humanity." It should be obvious that
X1987 is not X1976
You have changed quite a bit in the last ten years, have you not? If people weren't in the habit of calling you by the same name, you might not even "believe" that the You of today "really is" in some sense the You of 1976. In fact, if you can forget your name for a few moments, the entity or more precisely the space-time event called You obviously was changing, sometimes faster and sometimes more slowly all through the decade. If you are more than 20 years old, just think of how absurd it would be to claim that the You of 1986 "really is" the You of 1966 ...
Think about this seriously. It would be a damned good idea, right now, to make a list of ten important changes that have occurred in "You" since 1966 and ten changes since 1976. Is it too much trouble to get a paper and pen? Well, at least make a list in your head... - Introduction to Undoing Yourself with Energized Meditation
Based on that, would I be justified by the rules and suppositions that Robert put forth in his writing (thus far that I have read) in making the sweeping claim that both the 'Silents' and 'Boomers' are staying in positions of power for far too long because they're greedy, manipulative and far too comfortable in their decades of corruption to simply "let go" and enjoy a few years of pleasant company with family before leaving this plane of manifestation? It could also be possible that Boomers were, and still are, the selfish "Me" generation for whom having kids was just the unfortunate outcome of sex (and marriage followed by divorce). I was one of those fortunate kids whose parents are still together after all these decades, but divorce among Boomers was common enough to affect more kids in my generation than any prior to them. Of course, nothing compares to the destruction of marriage among Blacks in America, the blame for which I place squarely on the government precisely because policy was designed to create dependence on the government while disguising such as assistance. Who has been running the government for a few decades? Robert, it's looking like things are a bit more complicated than you thought.
But, no. this isn't the 'fault' of human beings. It is, however, the fault of the programs which are being run robotically in the minds and bodies of most humans. This is the point which Robert is trying to make, though I believe he himself still runs some of the programs when his mind lapses, as do we all. Getting annoyed at an arbitrarily assembled group of people is, after all, a program we were taught and run without thinking. This is what it means to be 'asleep' in the sense which Gurdjieff used the word.
To quote Mr. G[urdjieff]. again, "What does this signify? It signifies that most people are walking in their sleep and dreaming they are awake." That is, certain historically infamous types of racial or sexual stereotypes have become unfashionable and virtually Taboo in "educated" circles, but the mechanical conditioned reactions underlying such stereotypes still exist, the machine is still asleep, in Gurdjieff's terms, so people who would not stereotype Jews see nothing inconsistent in stereotyping the Irish or the Poles or some other group. In a mechanical or primitive stage of evolution, this cannot be considered surprising.
What does still surprise me (occasionally) is that people who can see this mechanical level of functioning in others can remain blissfully oblivious of the same mechanisms in themselves. - Introduction to Undoing Yourself with Energized Meditation