{"id":36553,"date":"2025-07-30T17:58:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T17:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damwebserver.com\/dreamdoctor\/articles\/searching-for-consciousness-2\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T17:58:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T17:58:27","slug":"searching-for-consciousness-2","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/damwebserver.com\/dreamdoctor\/articles\/searching-for-consciousness-2\/","title":{"rendered":"searching for consciousness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of all of the minds who have attempted the great question of consciousness in human experience, perhaps no one is more intriguing to read than is the Russian philosopher Georgi Ivanovitch Gurdjieff. His writings are not widely known, but his discussions of consciousness invariably hold a ring of truth for lucid dreamers. Indeed, anyone who has worked diligently with the experiential development of the ability for consciousness within himself or herself will find an immediate friend in Gurdjieff. <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Gurdjieff is perhaps most distinguished from other philosophers in that we was confident that he had identified and understood precisely the meaning of consciousness, which he described as self-remembering. As we saw in chapter eight, this concept of self-remembering coincides precisely with the understanding of consciousness we arrived at through our examination of lucid dreaming. <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>Gurdjieff believed that the development of consciousness was the foundation for all true psychological growth. Gurdjieff measured psychological development not only by a person\u2019s intellectual abilities but also by his or her experiential abilities\u2014that is, a person\u2019s abilities \u201cto be\u201d and \u201cto do\u201d. Both abilities, said Gurdjieff, require fluency and mastery, experientially, with the ability for consciousness. <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>The goal of development consciousness, according to Gurdjieff, was to create a new \u201ccenter\u201d within oneself, from which one could self-observe honestly and objectively. It was through continual work at self-observation, for the \u201cperch\u201d of consciousness created within oneself, that one eventually could learn how one\u2019s \u201cmachine\u201d works. Consciousness afforded its happy possessor self-unification, ever-increasing effectiveness in all pursuits, and freedom from illusion. Without consciousness, Gurdjieff said, humans were doomed to \u201cmechanical,\u201d \u201caccidental,\u201d and \u201cautomatic\u201d living. Life will happen to us instead of our being able to control and create the events of our life. <\/p>\n

<\/span>I am including in this chapter a lengthy excerpt of Gurdjieff\u2019s writing to introduce lucid dreamers to his work and because his discussion touches upon some relevant themes. In the second half of the excerpt, Gurdjieff admonishes his audience to be wary of \u201ccharlatans and hucksters\u201d in the field of self-development\u2014those who promise simple paths to enlightenment. Even though the excerpt is a transcription of a talk given in 1914, Gurdjieff\u2019s words of admonition seem as applicable today as they were some eighty years ago. Today our popular culture swarms with \u201cvendors of enlightenment,\u201d individuals who confidently assure us that \u201cthe enlightenment you seek is just a phone call away\u201d on the Psychic Network Hotline or that by eating special candy bars and \u201cbrain\u201d foods and by adding doses of potassium to our diets, we will veritably transform ourselves into enlightened beings by tomorrow morning. No warranty is offered for these techniques, of course. The psychic hotline, we read in small print at the bottom of the television screen, is \u201cfor entertainment purposes only,\u201d and all miracle foods are ingested entirely at the consumer\u2019s own risk. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sensitives and psychics surely exist, and there is no question but that informed diets are a foundation of good health. Gurdjieff\u2019s admonition, however, really is directed against the miraculous nature of these \u201csolutions\u201d to everyday problems. Consciousness and empowerment, says Gurdjieff, are known processes, but they require work\u2014long work, hard work and consistent work. Work on developing one\u2019s ability for consciousness, development one\u2019s ability for discrimination and uncovering and gaining control over areas of automaticity within one\u2019s being. Woe indeed to the individual who thinks he or she will eat a candy bar and tomorrow \u201cbe\u201d anything\u2014except, perhaps, a bit more deluded. This, said Gurdjieff, is not the way.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
<\/p>\n

\u00a91995 Charles McPhee<\/span><\/strong>. Excerpted from Stop Sleeping Through Your Dreams: A Guide to Awakening Consciousness During Dream Sleep<\/em><\/strong> published by Henry Holt and Company, Inc.<\/span> <\/p>\n

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