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Tables of Contents for In Search of the Miraculous
Chapter/Section Title
Page #
Page Count
Chapter I
3
26
Return from India
The war and the ``search for the miraculous.''
Old thoughts
The question of schools
Plans for further travels
The East and Europe
A notice in a Moscow newspaper
Lectures on India
The meeting with G. A ``disguised man.''
The first talk. G.'s opinion on schools. G.'s group
``Glimpses of Truth.'' Further meetings and talks
The organization of G.'s Moscow group
The question of payment and of means for the work
The question of secrecy and of the obligations accepted by the pupils
A talk about the East
``Philosophy,'' ``theory,'' and ``practice.''
How was the system found? G.'s ideas
``Man is a machine'' governed by external influences
Everything ``happens.''
Nobody ``does'' anything
In order ``to do'' it is necessary ``to be.'' A man is responsible for his actions, a machine is not responsible
Is psychology necessary for the study of machines? The promise of ``facts'' Can wars be stopped? A talk about the planets and the moon as living beings
The ``intelligence'' of the sun and the earth
``Subjective'' and ``objective'' art
Chapter II
29
24
Petersburg in 1915. G. in Petersburg
A talk about groups
Reference to ``esoteric'' work
``Prison'' and ``Escape from prison.''
What is necessary for this escape? Who can help and how? Beginning of meetings in Petersburg
A question on reincarnation and future life
How can immortality be attained? Struggle between ``yes'' and ``no.''
Crystallization on a right, and on a wrong, foundation
Necessity of sacrifice
Talks with G. and observations
A sale of carpets and talks about carpets
What G. said about himself
Question about ancient knowledge and why it is hidden. G's reply
Knowledge is not hidden
The materiality of knowledge and man's refusal of the knowledge given to him
A question on immortality
The ``four bodies of man.''
Example of the retort fitted with metallic powders
The way of the fakir, the way of the monk, and the way of the yogi
The ``fourth way.''
Do civilization and culture exist?
Chapter III
53
11
G.'s fundamental ideas concerning man
Absence of unity
Multiplicity of I's. Construction of the human machine
Psychic centers. G.'s method of exposition of the ideas of the system
Repetition unavoidable
What the evolution of man means
Mechanical progress impossible
European idea of man's evolution
Connectedness of everything in nature
Humanity and the moon
Advantage of individual man over the masses
Necessity of knowing the human machine
Absence of a permanent I in man
Role of small I's
Absence of individuality and will in man
Eastern allegory of the house and its servants
The ``deputy steward.''
Talks about a fakir on nails and Buddhist magic
Chapter IV
64
18
General impressions of G.'s system
Looking backwards
One of the fundamental propositions
The line of knowledge and the line of being
Being on different levels
Divergence of the line of knowledge from the line of being
What a development of knowledge gives without a corresponding change of being-and a change of being without an increase in knowledge
What ``understanding'' means
Understanding as the resultant of knowledge and being
The difference between understanding and knowledge
Understanding as a function of three centers
Why people try to find names for things they do not understand
Our language
Why people do not understand one another The word ``man'' and its different meanings
The language accepted in the system
Seven gradations of the concept ``man.''
The principle of relativity in the system
Gradations parallel to the gradations of man
The word ``world'' Variety of its meanings
Examination of the word ``world'' from the point of view of the principle of relativity
The fundamental law of the universe
The law of three principles or three forces
Necessity of three forces for the appearance of a phenomenon
The third force
Why we do not see the third force
Three forces in ancient teachings
The creation of worlds by the will of the Absolute
A chain of worlds or the ``ray of creation.''
The number of laws in each world
Chapter V
82
17
A lecture on the ``mechanics of the universe.''
The ray of creation and its growth from the Absolute
A contradiction of scientific views
The moon as the end of the ray of creation
The will of the Absolute
The idea of miracle
Our place in the world
The moon feeds on organic life
The influence of the moon and liberation from the moon
Different ``materiality'' of different worlds
The world as a world of ``vibrations.''
Vibrations slow down proportionately to the distance from the Absolute
Seven kinds of matter
The four bodies of man and their relation to different worlds
Where the earth is
The three forces and the cosmic properties of matter
Atoms of complex substances
Definition of matter according to the forces manifested through it
``Carbon,'' ``oxygen,'' ``nitrogen,'' and ``hydrogen.''
The three forces and the four matters
Is man immortal or not? What does immortality mean? A man having the fourth body
The story of the seminarist and the omnipotence of God
Talks about the moon
The moon as the weight of a clock
Talk about a universal language
Explanation of the Lost Supper
Chapter VI
99
17
Talk about aims
Can the teaching pursue a definite aim? The aim of existence
Personal aims
To know the future
To exist after death
To be master of oneself
To be a Christian
To help humanity
To stop wars. G.'s explanations
Fate, accident, and will
``Mad machines.''
Esoteric Christianity
What ought man's aim to be? The causes of inner slavery With what the way to liberation begins
``Know thyself.''
Different understandings of this idea
Self-study
How to study? Self observation
Recording and analysis
A fundamental principle of the working of the human machine: The four centers: Thinking, emotional, moving, instinctive
Distinguishing between the work of the centers
Making changes in the working of the machine
Upsetting the balance
How does the machine restore its balance? Incidental changes
Wrong work of centers
Imagination
Daydreaming
Habits
Opposing habits for purposes of self observation
The struggle against expressing negative emotions
Registering mechanicalness
Changes resulting from right self-observation
The idea of the moving center
The usual classification of man's actions
Classification based upon the division of centers
Automatism
Instinctive actions
The difference between the instinctive and the moving functions
Division of the emotions
Different levels of the centers
Chapter VII
116
25
Is ``cosmic consciousness'' attainable? What is consciousness? G.'s question about what we notice during self-observation
Our replies. G.'s remark that we had missed the most important thing
Why do we not notice that we do not remember ourselves? ``It observes,'' ``it thinks,'' ``it speaks.''
Attempts to remember oneself. G.'s explanations
The significance of the new problem
Science and philosophy
Our experiences
Attempts to divide attention
First sensation of voluntary self-remembering
What we recollect of the past
Further experiences
Sleep in a waking state and awakening
What European psychology has overlooked
Differences in the understanding of the idea of consciousness
The study of man is parallel to the study of the world
Following upon the law of three comes the fundamental law of the universe: The law of seven or the law of octaves
The absence of continuity in vibrations
Octaves
The seven-tone scale
The law of ``intervals.''
Necessity for additional shocks
What occurs in the absence of additional shocks
In order to do it is necessary to be able to control ``additional shocks,'' Subordinate octaves
Inner octaves
Organic life in the place of an ``interval.''
Planetary influences
The lateral octave sot-do
The meaning of the notes la, sol, fa
The meaning of the notes do, si
The meaning of the notes mi, re
The role of organic life in changing the earth's surface
Chapter VIII
141
26
Different states of consciousness
Sleep
Waking state
Self-consciousness
Objective consciousness
Absence of self-consciousness
What is the first condition for acquiring self consciousness? Higher states of consciousness and the higher centers
The ``waking state'' of ordinary man as sleep
The life of men asleep
How can one awaken? What man is when he is born
What ``education'' and the example of those around him do
Man's possibilities
Self-study
``Mental photographs.''
Different men in one man
``I'' and ``Ouspensky.'' Who is active and who is passive? Man and his mask
Division of oneself as the first stage of work on oneself
A fundamental quality of man's being
Why man does not remember himself
``Identification.''
``Considering.'' ``Internal considering'' and ``external considering.''
What ``external'' considering a machine means
``Injustice.'' Sincerity and weakness
``Buffers.'' Conscience
Morality
Does an idea of morality common to all exist? Does Christian morality exist? Do conceptions of good and evil common to all exist? Nobody does anything for the sake of evil
Different conceptions of good and the results of these different conceptions
On what can a permanent idea of good and evil be based? The idea of truth and falsehood
The struggle against ``buffers'' and against lying
Methods of school work
Subordination
Realization of one's nothingness
Personality and essence
Dead people
General laws
The question of money
Chapter IX
167
32
The ``ray of creation'' in the form of the three octaves of radiations
Relation of matters and forces on different planes of the world to our life
Intervals in the cosmic octaves and the shocks which felt them
``Point of the universe.''
Density of vibrations
Three forces and four matters
``Carbon,'' ``Oxygen,'' ``Nitrogen,'' ``Hydrogen.'' Twelve triads
``Table of Hydrogens.''
Matter in the Tight of its chemical, physical, psychic and cosmic properties
Intelligence of matter
``Atom.'' Every human function and state depends on energy
Substances in man
Man has sufficient energy to begin work on himself, if he saves his energy
Wastage of energy
``Learn to separate the fine from the coarse.'' Production of fine hydrogens
Change of being
Growth of inner bodies
The human organism as a three-storied factory
Three kinds of food
Entrance of food, air and impressions into the organism
Transformation of substances is governed by the law of octaves, Food octave and air octave
Extracting ``higher hydrogens.'' The octave of impressions does not develop
Possibility of creating an artificial shock at the moment of receiving an impression
Conscious effort
``Self-remembering.'' Resulting development of impressions and air octaves
A second conscious shock
Effort connected with emotions
Preparation for this effort
Analogy between the human organism and the universe
Three stages in the evolution of the human machine
Transmutation of the emotions
Alchemy
The centers work with different hydrogens
Two higher centers
Wrong work of lower centers
Materiality of all inner processes
Chapter X
199
18
From what does the way start? The law of accident
Kinds of influences
Influences created in life
Influences created outside life, conscious in their origin only
The magnetic center
Looking for the way
Finding a man who knows
Third kind of influence: conscious and direct
Liberation from the law of accident
``Step,'' ``stairway,'' and ``way.'' Special conditions of the fourth way
Wrong magnetic center is possible
How can one recognize wrong ways? Teacher and pupil
Knowledge begins with the teaching of cosmoses
The usual concept of two cosmoses: the ``Macrocosmos'' and ``Microcosmos.'' The full teaching of seven cosmoses
Relation between cosmoses: as zero to infinity
Principle of relativity
``The way up is at the same time the way down.'' What a miracle is
``Period of dimensions.''
Survey of the system of cosmoses from the point of view of the theory of many dimensions. G.'s comment, that ``Time is breath.''
Is the ``Microcosmos'' man or the ``atom''?
Chapter XI
217
21
``Except a corn of wheat die, it bringeth forth no fruit.''
A book of aphorisms
To awake, to die, to be born
What prevents a man from being born again? What prevents a man from ``dying''? What prevents a man from awakening? Absence of the realization of one's own nothingness
What does the realization of one's own nothingness mean? What prevents this realization? Hypnotic influence of life
The sleep in which men live is hypnotic sleep
The magician and the sheep
``Kundalini.'' Imagination
Alarm clocks
Organized work
Groups
Is it possible to work in groups without a teacher? Work of self-study in groups
Mirrors
Exchange of observations
General and individual conditions
Rules
``Chief fault.'' Realization of one's own nothingness
Danger of imitative work
``Barriers.'' Truth and falsehood
Sincerity with oneself
Efforts
Accumulators
The big accumulator
Intellectual and emotional work
Necessity for feeling
Possibility of understanding through feeling what cannot be understood through the mind
The emotional center is a more subtle apparatus than the intellectual center
Explanation of yawning in connection with accumulators
Role and significance of laughter in life
Absence of laughter in higher centers
Chapter XII
238
22
Work in groups becomes more intensive
Each man's limited ``repertoire of roles.'' The choice between work on oneself and a ``quiet life.'' Difficulties of obedience
The place of ``tasks.'' G. gives a definite task
Reaction of friends to the ideas
The system brings out the best or the worst in people
What people can come to the work? Preparation
Disappointment is necessary
Question with which a man aches
Revaluation of friends
A talk about types
G. gives a further task
Attempts to relate the story of one's life
Intonations
``Essence'' and ``personality.'' Sincerity
A bad mood. G. promises to answer any question
``Eternal Recurrence.'' An experiment on separating personality from essence
A talk about sex
The role of sex as the principal motive force of all mechanicalness
Sex as the chief possibility o f liberation
New birth
Transmutation of sex energy
Abuses of sex
Is abstinence useful? Right work of centers
A permanent center of gravity
Chapter XIII
260
18
Intensity of inner work
Preparation for ``facts.'' A visit to Finland
The ``miracle'' begins
Mental ``conversations'' with G. ``You are not asleep.''
Seeing ``sleeping people.'' Impossibility of investigating higher phenomena by ordinary means
A changed outlook on ``methods of action.'' ``Chief feature.'' G. defines people's chief feature
Reorganization of the group
Those who leave the work
Sitting between two stools
Difficulty of coming back. G.'s apartment
Reactions to silence
``Seeing lies.'' A demonstration
How to awake? How to create the emotional state necessary? Three ways
The necessity of sacrifice
``Sacrificing one's suffering.'' Expanded table of hydrogens
A ``moving diagram.'' A new discovery ``We have very little time.''
Chapter XIV
278
21
Difficulty of conveying ``objective truths'' in ordinary language
Objective and subjective knowledge
Unity in diversity
Transmission of objective knowledge
The higher centers
Myths and symbols
Verbal formulas
``As above, so below.'' ``Know thyself.'' Duality
Transformation of duality info trinity
The line of will
Quaternity
Quinternity--the construction of the pentagram
The five centers
The Seal of Solomon
The symbolism of numbers, geometrical figures, letters, and words
Further symbologies
Right and wrong understanding of symbols
Level of development
The union of knowledge and being: Great Doing
``No one can give a man what he did not possess before.''
Attainment only through one's own efforts
Different known ``lines'' using symbology
This system and its place
One of the principal symbols of this teaching
The enneagram
The law of seven in its union with the law of three
Examination of the enneagram
``What a man cannot put info the enneagram, he does not understand'' A symbol in motion
Experiencing the enneagram by movement
Exercises
Universal language
Objective and subjective art
Music
Objective music is based on inner octaves
Mechanical humanity can have subjective art only
Different levels of man's being
Chapter XV
299
17
Religion a relative concept
Religions correspond to the level of a man's being
``Can prayer help?'' Learning to pray
General ignorance regarding Christianity
The Christian Church a school
Egyptian ``schools of repetition.'' Significance of rites
The ``techniques'' of religion
Where does the word ``I'' sound in one? The two parts of real religion and what each teaches
Kant and the idea of scale
Organic life on earth
Growth of the ray of creation
The moon
The evolving part of organic life is humanity
Humanity at a standstill
Change possible only at ``crossroads-'' The process of evolution always begins with the formation of a conscious nucleus
Is there a conscious force fighting against evolution? Is mankind evolving? ``Two hundred conscious people could change the whole of life on earth.'' Three ``inner circles of humanity.'' The ``outer circle.'' The four ``ways'' as four gates to the ``exoteric circle.'' Schools of the fourth way
Pseudoesoteric systems and schools
``Truth in the form of a lie.'' Esoteric schools in the East
Initiation and the Mysteries
Only self-initiation is possible
Chapter XVI
316
30
Historical events of the winter 1916-17
G.'s system as a guide in a labyrinth of contradictions, or as ``Noah's Ark.'' Consciousness of matter
Its degrees of intelligence
Three-, two- and one-storied machines
Man composed of man, sheep and worm
Classification of all creatures by three cosmic traits: what they eat, what they breathe, the medium they live in
Man's possibilities of changing his food
``Diagram of Everything Living.'' G. leaves Petersburg for the last time
An interesting event ``transfiguration'' or ``plastics''? A journalist's impressions of G. The downfall of Nicholas II
``The end of Russian history.'' Plans for leaving Russia
A communication from G. Continuation of work in Moscow
Further study of diagrams and of the idea of cosmoses
Development of the idea ``time is breath'' in relation to man, the earth and the sun; to large and small cells
Construction of a ``Table of Time in Different Cosmoses.'' Three cosmoses taken together include in themselves all the laws of the universe
Application of the idea of cosmoses to the inner processes of the human organism
The life of molecules and electrons
Time dimensions of different cosmoses
Application of the Minkovski formula
Relation of different times to centers of the human body
Relation to higher centers
``Cosmic calculations of time'' in Gnostic and Indian literature
``If you want to rest, come here to me.'' A visit to G. at Alexandropol
G.'s relationship with his family
Talk about the impossibility of doing anything in the midst of mass madness
``Events are not against us at all.'' How to strengthen the feeling of ``I''? Brief return to Petersburg and Moscow
A message to the groups there
Return to Piatygorsk
A group of twelve foregathers at Essentuki
Chapter XVII
346
23
August 1917
The six weeks at Essentuki
G. unfolds the plan of the whole work
``Schools are imperative.'' ``Super-efforts.'' The unison of the centers is the chief difficulty in work on oneself
Man the slave of his body
Wastage of energy from unnecessary muscular tension
G. shows exercises for muscular control and relaxation
The ``stop'' exercise
The demands of ``stop.'' G. relates a case of ``stop'' in Central Asia
The influence of ``stop'' at Essentuki
The habit of talking
An experiment in fasting
What sin is
G. shows exercises in attention
An experiment in breathing
Realization of the difficulties of the Way
Indispensability of great knowledge, efforts, and help
``Is there no way outside the `ways'?'' The ``ways'' as help given to people according to type
The ``subjective'' and ``objective'' ways
The obyvatel
What does ``to be serious'' mean? Only one thing is serious
How to attain real freedom? The hard way of slavery and obedience
What is one prepared to sacrifice
The fairy tale of the wolf and the sheep
Astrology and types
A demonstration. G. announces the dispersal of the group
A final trip to Petersburg
Chapter XVIII
369
22
Petersburg: October 1917
Bolshevik revolution. Return to G. in the Caucasus
G.'s attitude to one of his pupils
A small company with G. at Essentuki
More people arrive
Resumption of work
Exercises are more difficult and varied than before
Mental and physical exercises, dervish dances, study of psychic ``tricks.'' Selling silk
Inner struggle and a decision
The choice of gurus
The decision to separate
G. goes to Sochi
A difficult time: warfare and epidemics
Further study of the enneagram
``Events'' and the necessity of leaving Russia
London the final aim
Practical results of work on oneself: feeling a new I, ``a strange confidence.'' Collecting a group in Rostov and expounding G.'s system
G. opens his Institute in Tiflis
Journey to Constantinople
Collecting people
G. arrives
New group introduced to G. Translating a dervish song. G. the artist and poet
The Institute started in Constantinople. G. authorizes the writing and publishing of a book. G. goes to Germany
Decision to continue Constantinople work in London, 1921. G. organizes his Institute at Fontainebleau
Work at the Chateau de la Prieure
A talk with Katherine Mansfield. G. speaks of different kinds of breathing
``Breathing through movements.'' Demonstrations at the Theatre des Champs Elysees, Paris. G.'s departure for America, 1924
Decision to continue work in London independently
Index
391