Psychological Illusions: Explorations of the G. I. Gurdjieff Fourth Way Teaching

The central illusion is that we "know self." People think that they possess capacities which in reality they do not. Primary illusions concern the faculties of consciousness, the unity of I, the possession of will (the capacity to do) and the existence of the soul. The fourth way psychology begins with a study of humans as they are under the conditions of mechanical life and describes the psychology of man's possible evolution. Humans can awaken, experience higher states of consciousness, achieve a unity of "I" and will, and attain the soul. If we understand our illusions, then there is a chance of escape, of awakening and evolution.

According to Beelzebub, the central character in G.'s Tales, the three-brained beings on planet Earth are microcosmoses or "similitudes of the Whole." As such, they have the possibility of not only serving local cosmic purposes, feeding the earth and moon as part of organic life on earth, but of experiencing sacred being-impulses, attaining levels of objective reason and individuality and even of "blending again with the infinite." (1950) A human being can potentially coat higher being-bodies for the life of the soul, instinctually sense cosmic truths and phenomena, and maintain existence within the subtle realms of being after death-achieving different levels of immortality. Unfortunately, humankind came to exist only in waking sleep states of automated consciousness, perceiving reality topsy-turvy, conditioned by pleasure and self love, and wasteful of their sacred sexual substances. Human beings no longer realize their deeper cosmic purposes and possibilities, or attain real "I."

Psychological Illusions explores the psychology, metaphysics and cosmology of the fourth way teaching. This includes material on the Ray of Creation, the fundamental cosmic laws, the alchemical crystallization of higher being-bodies and the miraculous possibilities existing for the evolution of the individual human being.