Welcome to a series of talks about objective consciousness, an objective universe, and an objective way to awaken, expanding upon the works of George I. Gurdjieff and Russell A. Smith.

In today’s podcast, I will narrate a dialogue between Russell and two of his students, who asked him to explain how he found a way of awakening people, while other teachers had not.

Let’s begin,

Student:  Thank you so much for allowing us to visit. We had to come to Dallas on business, and while we were here, we just had to drive out to the school and meet you in person.

I know, since COVID, you have not been receiving visitors, which is why we are even more grateful that you allowed us to come.

That being said, I have to ask, how did you do it Russ? How did you figure out how it works, and discover an objective way of awakening others? 

We have been in the Work for 40 years, and during that time, we have had many teachers, have been a part of many schools, and have met hundreds of folks who were also serious students, and yet not one of them, nor us, has ever found a teacher or a school that has done what you have done.

As you know, I am in the California group, who found you in 2016. When they first showed me Gurdjieff: Cosmic Secrets, back in 2015, I said, “No thanks,” as I was kind of burnt out on Fourth Way stuff.

But fortunately, they were not. 

And, after a Gurdjieff movement’s teacher told them that he had met you at the All and Everything conference in England in 1997, wherein you told the attendees that you had found an objective way of awakening others, they wanted to pursue you. So they did.

After which, they all came to Texas, one at a time; and, when they returned to California, they were different. I knew they were different, since I have known them for 40 years.

Needless to say, after a year of observing my newly awakened friends, I too, wanted to awaken. Fortunately, your new book, The Blueprint of Consciousness was available as a PDF download, so I purchased it. And then, after reading it and going through The Objective Exercise … Oh my God, Russ, I awoke. It was a miracle. After 40 years of pursuing Fourth Way work, someone had finally figured it out, whereas everyone before that had failed, and it was so simple, and so easy to do. I can see how you were able to awaken hundreds and hundreds of students. But I have to know, how the heck did you do it? How the heck did you figure it out when everyone else had failed? What is your secret? What made it possible for you to cut through the illusions and discover the truth?

Russell:  Wow, that is a big ask, and a very profound question. 

Surprisingly, no one else has ever asked me that question, probably because they were too busy rejoicing that they had found an objective way.

But now, today, someone has.

Fortunately, since I do know exactly how and why I was able to discover an objective way of awakening others, I will share with you all the factors that made it possible.

Are you ready?

Firstly, I will explain to you how the PDF, The Blueprint of Consciousness came into being.

In 2014, I stopped taking students on the journey, because as you probably know, I had a brain tumor, which fortunately was not cancerous, but did require a 14-hour operation, wherein they had to sever my right facial nerve, as well as remove my inner-ear, which kind of messed up my balance. Then, after a year in recovery, I stopped allowing people to come to Texas, and retired.

Almost two years later, in 2016, I got an email from one of your cohorts in California, who, like you, had also been pursuing the Work for 40 years.

He seemed so sincere, and so hungry for my teachings.

His email said something like, I happened to read a response that you sent to another seeker, wherein you offered him the Three-Fold Attention exercise, which by the way is incredible. It also mentioned that you were no longer taking new students … but, I really want to come, I really want to come and awaken. Please, please, please … allow me to come, so that you can show me how to awaken; you will not be disappointed. 

How could I say no to that? So, I agreed. And, after taking him through Gurdjieff: Cosmic Secrets and sharing with him The Objective Exercise, he went to the moon; he was giddy.

Then, when he got back to California and his buddies saw the calmness in his being, and the smile upon his face, they too, wanted to come. 

They had also been searching for the truth for 40 years, and when they contacted me and asked me if they could come as well, I could not say no to them either, so the California group had begun.  

And, as a result, I started teaching again, but only to the California group.

There was one other exception. An exception that  sparked the beginning of my work being made available to the world. It was with Gary Eggleton from England, who narrates the podcasts. 

Gary was studying with a fellow, who had come to Texas many times. The fellow would travel back-and-forth, staying 2 months at the school and two months in England. Then, when he got too elderly to travel, he stopped coming to Texas, and instead, stayed in England and began holding classes with other students.

Then, when we started voice server classes in England, he conducted them as well. But, after turning 80, he stopped doing that too, and more or less, retired. Up until then, he had taken the role of heading up our school in England. After all, he had watched me take dozens of students on the journey through Gurdjieff: Cosmic Secrets. So, I assumed that when he returned to England, he would do as I did, and teach as I taught.

But unbeknownst to me, he decided that he knew how to do things better than I did, and as such, he started taking students through my book in a most unusual way, and as a result, nobody ever awoke. 

Then, when Gary Eggleton, who had been studying with him for 10 years, contacted me, inquiring if he could ask me a question about one of the charts in Cosmic Secrets, I said, “Sure.” So he did. After which, I told him, “Just to the right of that chart is a drawing which explains exactly how it works.” When I did, he said, “I don’t have that drawing,” and I said, “Really, you don’t have that drawing? I put that drawing in everyone’s book. As such, the guy who took you through Cosmic Secrets should have put it in yours as well, but, no problem; here is how to draw it.”

Then, Gary asked about something else, and I said, “It’s right there in that other clarifying drawing.” Whereafter, he said, “I don’t have that drawing either.” So, I asked him to tell me what the fellow who took him through the book actually did. “Well,” he said, “He would have me read a Chapter and then ask me if I had any questions.” 

OUCH!

So I said, “No worries, if you would like, I would be happy to take you through the book, so that you will have all the drawings, as well as, be able to experience how I teach it.” After which, he excitedly exclaimed, “Terrific.” 

So, we met on the voice server every Sunday, for about 4 hours, and I took him through the book. 

The first Sunday, I took him through Chapter 1, the second Sunday, through Chapter 2, etc. Eight weeks later, after completing the book, I shared with him The Objective Exercise, and he too, went to the moon! 

He couldn’t speak, so we ended our session. 

When we got together the following Sunday, he told me how he had spent the entire week just walking around with an observer watching him … and how his random thoughts had stopped.  

A few weeks later, the fellow who had taken him through the book, invited a few students over to his house, so that they could play my Conscious Board Game. While playing, Gary told them about how he had spent the last several months going through the book with me; and, of its results. After which, the fellow in England took him aside, and said, “You need to choose who is going to be your teacher, either Russell, or me, because you can’t have us both.” 

After being told to choose, Gary went upstairs, got on his cell phone, and called me at 1:00 in the morning, asking, “Russell, will you be my teacher.” I of course said, “Yes.” So, he packed his bags, went downstairs, said goodbye, and never went back.

Then, several days later, Gary called me saying, “Since I received your teachings wrongly, we need to make sure that something like that never happens to anyone ever again. Furthermore, since I recorded the voice server sessions of you taking me through the book, would it be okay if I transcribed them, so that we can make them available to everyone who wants to go through the book in the same way that you taught it to me?” I said, “Of course.” 

In addition, as I had just recorded a few of the Californians’ journeys, as they had requested a copy; and, as those digital files were still on my computer, I sent Gary a copy of them as well. After which, he transcribed them, 30 hours each, of me taking them on the journey. 

So, blame Gary. He was the initiator, he wanted to immortalize the correct way that my book should be taught. 

Of course, I was tasked with editing his transcriptions. And as such, I took the best from each and organized them in a way that would be understandable to all. I kept editing them, and editing them, until I got it just right. 

Then, when I was done, Gary said, “Let’s make a website, and produce a PDF, so that we can share your incredible discoveries with the world. 

And, since your school is called THEDOG, which stands for Theological Harmonistic Exercitations into the Discoveries Of Gurdjieff, we should call it THEDOG Teachings.” 

I agreed, so we did. That is, Gary did. He created the website and published my organized edited journey as a PDF. Then he added to the website my diagrams, podcasts, transcripts, animations, DOGTALES, and Gurdjieff’s Aphorisms, not to mention the links to various videos which I had students watch. Gary included everything that anyone would ever need in order to awaken. 

And I must say, he did an incredible job of doing just that. 

So, that is how the PDF got created, and why you were able to read it, and awaken.

Okay, I shall now continue answering your question. 

Several other factors were also involved. One of which is the fact that my work is mathematical, which gave me an advantage.

Truth is tough to find, but false truth is not. We grow up hearing many false truths, like only the people who go to our church will go to Heaven. Yikes! We are inundated by other false truths, like in high school, when they told us about dinosaurs, and explained to us that dinosaurs lived 600-million years ago; but, according to our church, the earth was only 10,000 years old. How could that be?” 

When I heard that, I confronted the minister, saying, “How is it possible that according to science, dinosaurs lived 600-million years ago; but, according to the Bible, the earth is only 10,000 years old. Could it be that a day for God took hundreds of billions of years? If so, then God’s 7-day Creation would provide ample time for the dinosaurs to exist.” The minister looked at me and said, “No, God’s Day is the same day as our day. The earth goes around the sun and rotates on its axis and we have days; a day is a day is a day.” I looked at him and said, “Well, wait a minute, God didn’t make the earth until the third day, and the sun until the fourth day, so what did He use to measure the first two?” The minister sighed, looked at me, and said, “You just have to believe” … and I said, “Right, then I’m done.” After which, I stopped going to church.

Thus, if you are like me, after receiving a plethora of false information, you got tired of being lied to, tired of being duped, and as such, became very skeptical, and as a result, ceased believing in spiritual ways as well; like trusting the guys who charge an exorbitant amount of money, so that you can buy your way to enlightenment, which doesn’t sound very enlightening to me. Is that what God wants? What did Jesus charge to attend the Sermon on the Mount?

Then we hear about Yogic Flyers, who can levitate. They sit in a lotus position, push their knees on the ground, and hop across the room, which means they are levitating! 

During our life, we hear a multitude of such false things … and unfortunately, we try many of them.

However, before explaining how those things became a relevant factor in me showing others how to awaken, or how a mathematical structure gave me an advantage, we should first go back to when I was a kid, so that you will comprehend how and why I got so good at memorizing things, especially rules. Then, when I bring those things back in, all the pieces will fit.

OKAY, here goes.

I was the third child, which was a disadvantage.

The disadvantage was … the first child was raised by my parents, whereas I was raised by the first child. 

That is, my parents would read books to the first child, as well as label the drawers, cupboards, and other things, so that they would quickly learn how to spell them. They would take them shopping, and buy them new clothes, whereas I got hand-me-downs. And, when they played games with them, they always let them win, and as such, my older brother and sister had very good self-esteem; they were winners! Isn’t that great and wonderful?

But as the third child, who do you think played games with me?

My older brother and sister. 

My parents would tell them, “Play with your brother,” and when they did, I never won! I was a loser. After all, my siblings were smarter than me, bigger than me, older than me, and had played those games many times before, and as such, they were good at playing them. Not to mention the fact that when they had played them with mom and dad, they always won. Thus, they had a model of always winning, and therefore, they always did.

If we played rock-paper-scissors, and I won, they would say, no, it’s the best out of 3. That is, they would change the rules. 

And, if I got the best out of 3, they would change the rules again, saying, no, it’s actually, the best out of 5, which would continue until they won. 

Such manipulations also happened in board games; where again, they would make up the rules in order to win. 

Then finally, something in me said, this has to stop. 

So, from that day forward, whenever we got a board game, the rules to which were often written inside the lid of the box, I would memorize them, so that they could not make them up when we played. 

And, as a result, I learned from a very young age … that if I memorized the rules, it was nigh impossible for anyone to make them up in order to win. 

So, thanks to my older brother and sister, I not only learned the importance of knowing the rules, but also how to memorize things, which indirectly, brought me to the Work. 

How? 

Well, I became an umpire, that’s how.

Let me explain. 

Three factors were involved in that truth.

Firstly, when I came to Texas and learned that the local bar had a slow-pitch softball team, I joined the team in order to make friends. 

Secondly, when I was growing up, my parents had a cabin at the lake, where we lived every summer. The cabin had a horseshoe court in the backyard, and as such, I played a lot of horseshoes. 

I learned to throw horseshoes backhanded, like my mother; and I got very good at it. After all, I had to play against my older brother, and it was hard for him to cheat at horseshoes, because ringers were ringers. Thus, I subsequently got very good at throwing ringers. Boy, could I throw ringers! 

Now, back to playing slow-pitch softball. When I joined the team, the team needed a pitcher, and although I had never pitched, I tried out for that position. And, to everyone’s amazement, pitching a slow-pitch softball was just like throwing a horseshoe. I could throw a slow-pitch softball, with a 12 to 15-foot-high arc, that would land right at the tip of the back of the plate, just like throwing a horseshoe on the post for a ringer. Sti-rike three, you’re out! 

Next, because I was an exceptional pitcher, I got to play a lot of softball, which initiated the third factor: Standing on the pitcher’s mound, I was able to witness heated disputes between players and umpires, myself included, who believed that an umpire had botched a call, but were unable to back-up their beliefs. So, to solve that problem, and thanks to my older brother and sister, I memorized the USSSA Official Softball Rule Booklet, so that I could inform everyone of the official rules, when such disputes occurred. 

After which, I was petitioned by the league to become an umpire, so I took the test, scored 100%, and became an official USSSA umpire. 

The players loved the fact that I was an umpire … because they knew the games I umpired would be accurate, fair, and just. 

And, as a result of being an umpire, I found Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.

This is how that happened. 

One day, while I was umpiring behind home plate, I overheard the catcher talking to the batter, about a book that the batter had loaned the catcher, which contained higher ideas. And, as I was going through a very difficult time in my life, I thought, boy, I could certainly use some higher ideas. So, when I saw the catcher in the parking lot after the game, I chased him down and asked him about the book he was reading. When I did, he said, “It is called the Fourth Way by P. D. Ouspensky; but, as I have not seen it in the bookstores, it might be difficult to find.” Noticing the disappointment on my face, and as he had come to like me … as I was always fair and just, he offered to lend me another book, one, which he had just finished reading, called The Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution by the same author. Although I had never heard of P. D. Ouspensky, nor knew much about psychology, I graciously accepted his offer. 

I read it … as soon as I got home. And, after I did, oh my God, I could not eat or sleep for 3 days. It made so much sense to me … because the ideas that we are machines, that we are asleep, that we internally consider, that we lie, and profess that we are going to get up early tomorrow, and then, when tomorrow comes, we end up staying in bed, were all things that I had observed in myself. 

So, I read it again, and again, and again. 

Then, when I got a copy of the Fourth Way, I started reading it on Monday and finished reading it on Friday. And the next week, I read it again, and the next week, and the next week, and the next week. Oh, my God, that was all I wanted to do. So, that was all I did.

And, as to the rules and laws, which were also in the book, I initially shied away from them, because they seemed like speculation, conjecture, and guess. That is, the Table of Hydrogens; carbon, oxygen, nitrogen; and the food diagram, etc., were all kind of iffy…. So, I read through the pages which contained those ideas, as quickly as I could, so that I could get to the pages that discussed the ‘being side’ of the Work, that is, on how not to identify, on how to self-remember, on how to externally consider, and so on. 

Then, after six months of intense study and practice, I suddenly found myself, standing five feet beside myself, watching myself. Oh, my God, what a moment. Me, watching me, watch myself, from five feet away. 

Two of me. 

I had a double arrow of attention: one attention, on me doing what I was doing, and another attention, on me watching myself do it. 

After which, my world changed. If you think I read and studied hard before, well, after that, there was no stopping me; I turned all the knobs and opened all the valves.

And that is when it happened. 

I thought to myself, maybe there is something of value on the ‘knowledge side’ of the Work as well, that is, on the side that contains the rules and laws.

After all, on the ‘being side,’ I awoke, my random thoughts stopped, and I had a double arrow of attention … an observer, and a Steward. Thus, what treasures might be found on the ‘knowledge side’?

Fortunately, thanks to my older brother and sister, I had become a proficient self-learner of the rules, not to mention the fact that since I never had a teacher, I had no one giving me wrong data, like the fellow in England. So, equipped with only my Steward, I started the quest of discovering the rules and laws of the Universe.

From that day forward, I put all of my attention towards figuring out the rules and laws; and, as they were not written on the lid of the box, I had to discover them on my own, which I did. 

I began calculating octaves of every size. I calculated octaves from one to two, from two to four, three to six, four to eight, and so on; and when I calculated the octave from 24 to 48, and saw that all the answers were nice whole numbers, I said eureka, no more decimals, and with no more decimals, I could easily see the proportionality of octaves. Oh, my God, it was amazing. I could visualize them, I could study them, I could compare them, and I could watch them interact.

Then, it was, well alright, I got that, but Gurdjieff also talked about four fundamental points, and three octaves of radiations, so I said, well, okay, where are they, and what would their whole numbered octaves be? 

In order to make those discoveries, I had to calculate inner octaves, and the inner octaves of those inner octaves, and, when I did, I began to see our centers, their parts, and their parts-of-parts; all working perfectly. 

But most importantly, I saw where our higher centers came from. Before that, I did not know what our higher centers were. But after that, I did. And as such, I understood why no one else was able to tell others how to attain them, because they themselves did not know from whence they came.

It was so simple, our lower centers became our higher centers, just like cells becoming tissues, or tissues becoming organs. In fact, everything existing was simply the unification of lower things. We just needed to find a way of unifying them. And the final killing blow occurred, when my higher center gave me an objective exercise, which showed me … how to show others … how to do just that.

Thereafter, when it was all said and done, I not only had an objective exercise that allowed me to show others how to awaken, but I also had the simple mathematical structure that supported it. And as such, I had an advantage. 

Now, I will explain why. 

Suppose I was a higher guy who indeed had awakened. Firstly, you could not awaken the same way that I did, because my awakening would have been subjective to me; so even if you read the Fourth Way every week like I did, you most likely would not have awakened. 

However, it’s worse than that. If I claimed to have higher knowledge that could change your being, you would most likely not believe me. Why? Well, remember how I said that we got tired of being lied to, got tired of being duped, got tired of receiving wrong information, and as such, became skeptical? Because of that, you would probably not believe my claim.

But perhaps, if you came and lived with me for 20 years … and watched me every day, and witnessed that I never lied to you, and saw that what I said always made sense and was easily verifiable. That I did not get angry or mad, and never cursed at the neighbors. Not to mention the fact that I never tried to seduce any of the women, maybe then, after 20 years, you might say, I am finally convinced that you are indeed a conscious person, and as such, you probably know the truth. So, I am now ready to submit my will to yours. Please tell me what I must do in order to change my being. But you do not have 20 years to do that! 

But fortunately, as I said, a mathematical structure gave me an advantage. Because of it, you do not need to spend 20 years in order to establish trust. Why? Well, because the mathematical structure contains simple math, and simple math is very easy to trust. That is, it does not take 20 years for you to trust it; you trust it instantly.

So, all that being said, The Blueprint of Consciousness contains a simple mathematical structure that everyone will trust. With it, you will be able to understand the underlying structure of the Universe, and subsequently produce all of the charts and diagrams that support it. Charts and diagrams that reveal the same truths to everyone, not because someone tells you that they do, but because you yourself can verify that they do. And, equipped with those truths, and with The Objective Exercise, you will be able to awaken.

So, driven by the connivings of my older brother and sister, I ultimately formulated the rules and laws of the Universe, discovered an objective exercise, and placed them both in The Blueprint of Consciousness, so that everyone who can add, subtract, multiply, and divide, can awaken.

I hope that answers your very important, and most profound question. 

Student:  Yes, it does. It most certainly does. In fact, your explanation made so much sense, it almost put me in tears. I now understand why I was able to awaken, and also understand the truth behind a statement that was made to me by one of my friends, who said, that what you had discovered, not only changed him … but might possibly change the world; and, after hearing the explanations of today, he just may be right.

So again, thank you for allowing us to come, and for so graciously answering my question.

Russell:  You are most welcome.

That ends today’s podcast.

Thank you for listening.

If you have any questions that you would like answered, please send them to [email protected], and we will endeavor to answer them and include them in future podcasts.  

And if you would like to know more about the subjects and exercises, we have been exploring, including the book and guide that underpins it all, which is also available for PDF download, you can do so, by going to thedogteachings.com.

That’s T H E D O G teachings DOT COM.

There, you will be able to obtain Mr. Smith’s diagrams, models, videos, and listen to other talks, as well as learn all the mathematics that supports them, and much, much more.

But most importantly, you will have real time access to the materials we are discussing.

That’s thedogteachings.com

Goodbye until next time.