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.

Continuing our talks on Work questions and answers, in this podcast we will narrate a dialogue between Russell and one of his students, concerning clarity, the definition of the Law of Seven, conformable proportionality, and Major and Minor oscillations.

Let’s begin:

Student:  Some of this stuff takes more than one glancing, one reading; it requires study.

Russell:  Yes, you have to go back and review it, and go over it again and again. It took me a long time to assimilate it, and I am the guy who discovered it. So I know it is going to take some time for everyone else to grasp it. When you were going to school, you didn’t just go over the material once. Learning the alphabet took much repetition. And you, as a doctor, did not just read the medical books once.

Student:  Understood. 

By the way, how is the new Student doing?

Russell:  She is doing incredible. Today, we finished Chapter 5. And at the end, when we got into the three octaves that blend with each other and how the way down is the way up, she said, “I need to rethink everything I ever thought, because I did not see it the way that it actually is, but I do now.” 

It was great to see her open her eyes.

How sir, since your sojourn here last week, is your work going? 

Student:  Just terrific! I have been in a different state ever since I got back. It is like, I remember myself automatically, without actually having to work on it, it is now like a reflex, and that is marvelous.

Russell:  Yes. I understand. That is what happens after you awaken, and of course, the more effort you make, the more that will happen, until it becomes an everyday thing; an automatic thing.

Student:  Well, that is certainly happening. I am beginning to witness that when I interact with patients, with staff, and with other doctors. I have to say that I am standing in a different dimension than they are, however, I am not immune yet. I still notice that on some occasions, not that I get mad or things like that, but I get wrapped up in things.

Russell:  Yes, I understand, and that is okay.

Student:  Especially when things have to go fast, and I have little time to remember myself.

Russell:  No problem. Just keep learning to swim when the waters are calm. If you do that, you will soon be able to swim during the storm.

Student:  I think sometimes the storm is a sign, or a reminder, to step back and say, observe yourself.

Russell:  Wonderful. 

Student:  Also, I wanted to ask you, I can’t find the passage about sitting out under the stars? Where is that?

Russell:  On pages 56 thru 59 in Views from the Real World.

Student:  Okay. Maybe that would be good memory work.

Russell:  That would be wonderful memory work.

Student:  Because I like it?

Russell:  Yes sir. Because you like it. Besides, since you like it, by committing it to memory, you will be able to carry it with you wherever you go.

Student:  Okay, good. I will do that for my 1,001 words of memory work in order to receive the Master Exercises and the Double or Nothing Exercises.

Russell:  Fantastic! By the way, how did your Sunday meeting go?

Student:  Great. We laid out the basic strategies for the future, and considered the best way to involve the rest of the group without putting any pressure on them, as they haven’t, as of yet, gone through the book with you.

Russell:  Super. That is the right attitude. You are trying to do your objective work in a way that is conducive to others, so that they too will learn. I am sure it will be fantastic. Afterall, now that you have awakened, you are a calmer and wiser man, and are starting to see things from many angles. And as such, your interactions with them will be direct, succinct, clear, and weighty.

Student:  Yes, I think so too. 

I noticed, right after I came back from Texas, that things had changed in my attitude towards clarity or clearness or conciseness. I used to love to speak in kind of murky terms or in kind of disguised terms, what my friend would call a ramble; and I noticed that all of a sudden, I now speak more clearly.

Russell:  Yes, sir. You are no longer leaking. You see what is necessary and what is not. In every facet, of everything you do, things have become important, so now, you have a desire to be succinct, clear, and to the point. There is something in you that says, hey, this is important, so let’s do it right, and not let it do us.

Student:  What seemed to me, in case of the past, was that I was always of the opinion that things were not as easy as everybody would like them to be, because everything was on a scale of relativity, and therefore, was quite difficult to explain, so I was beating around the bush quite a lot! But, things have changed. Either I don’t say anything at all, or I express myself in only a few words, and they are perfectly clear.

Russell:  Yes. What you have been explaining tonight is pretty clear. It is easy to understand what you are perceiving. And that is exciting. Which is the way it should be. 

You have started to get a real picture of what we are, why we are what we are, and of our possibilities; and as such, things have become clear; and, you have started to manifest from that clearness. It still takes effort, because nothing is free, but now it is knowable; therefore, you no longer need to meander your way to the answer. 

Your centers are working properly, and you have moved into a higher place; a place with higher perceptions. Pretty simple, isn’t it?

Student:  Indeed it is. In addition, I think the group work that I am doing, the second line work, is quite helpful in that respect. You really don’t notice that you are rambling, unless you receive honest feedback from others who are walking along the same path that you are walking. 

We have these sessions, on occasion, rarely, but on occasion, where we sit opposite each other and encourage each other to give real honest-to-God observations about the other person. I wish we did more things like that.

Russell:  Yes. Honest sessions like that can be very helpful. In fact, you could expand on that idea, and do something that would help everyone to see things more clearly, and learn to give short succinct answers, such as what you are now experiencing. 

Make that your responsibility, since it is your wish. Get some 3 x 5 cards, or something similar to 3 x 5 cards, even paper cut up into little squares, and write down ideas on them: knowledge and being, essence and personality, outer octaves, inner octaves, oscillations, whatever; just little ideas. And then, when you meet on Sunday with the inner circle, have everybody pick a card and say something about what is written on it as succinctly, clearly, and with as much weight as they can. Then, everyone will get to practice, making clear and focused responses.

Student:  So, each person gets a kind of a slogan, a starter, and then gets a few minutes to define what they know about it.

Russell:  Yes, that is right. One gets a card that says ‘oscillations’ and they say, an affirming force that gets denied by the entrance of another affirming force. Or, points of existence that create a major and minor oscillation at the notes So and Mi, respectively. And everybody else says, hey, that was pretty clear, pretty succinct, and it didn’t take you nine hours. 

I think that would be a good thing for you to do, and it would give the group a common theme … a little exercise that you guys can do to help you bring clarity to your knowledge. Organize that for next Sunday. 

Student:  Okay. I will. That sounds great. At the same time, we will keep going through your book, chapter by chapter, which is what we have been doing.

Russell:  Oh yes. Keep doing that. Keep going through my book until it becomes your book.

Student:  Will do. I also wanted to ask you about Gurdjieff’s definition of the Law of Seven and better understand the line of the flow of forces.

Russell:  Ah yes: “The line of the flow of forces constantly deflecting according to law and uniting again at its ends.” You will be able to comprehend that by looking at the diagram called Chapter 6 – Cosmic color 19 — bottom, which shows the octaves in the Cosmic Weave that share vibrations, as well as the diagram called Chapter 6 – Cosmic Weave, both of which can be found on our website thedogteachings.com under Resources/Podcasts, or by clicking the episode link within this podcast’s description.

Find the vibration 360. Do you see the octaves that meet at 360? There is the FA of the 2s, the LA of the 3s, the DO of the 4s, the MI of the 5s, the SO of the 6s, and the TI of the 7s, right? All of those octaves meet up at 360 vibrations; do you see that?

Student:  Yes. I do.

Russell:  Good. Now, if we went down into the octave below that, to 180 vibrations, who do you think would be there?

Student:  Probably the same octaves.

Russell:  Correct. Because 360 vibrations would have halved, and everytime you half, the same octaves are going to be present. That is true for every vibration on the diagram; all the octaves that meet at 540 are going to meet at 270.

Student:  How about higher up, at 1080?

Russell:  Yes sir. They will meet up there as well. Because doubling is the same as halving, only in the opposite direction … and as such, the same octaves will meet up at 1080, 2160, and 4320, etc.

Student:  So they are always there?

Russell:  Yep. Just like in Phoenix, Arizona. The same forces that met up this spring, will meet up again next spring. Which gives the springs in Phoenix a sense of the line of the flow of forces constantly deflecting and uniting again next spring. 

One of those octaves is at its DO; and, when it doubles, it is going to meet up with the same octaves, the same FA-LA-DO-MI-SO-TI-RE sequence, from those octaves, that it met up with the last time it was a DO.

Student:  What does that really imply?

Russell:  Well, it implies that there is a Cosmic Weave, which cycles and repeats, containing forces that are independent of each other. That is, each octave is going its own way – constantly deflecting – sounding its own set of 7 diatonic vibrations, and yet, it reunites with the same forces next spring.  

Student:  Is that the model you are planning on making?

Russell:  Yes, and I just completed it. It is called, “The Sequence” diagram, which I plan on sending to Phoenix with the student who is currently here, so that she can distribute it to the group (it is also on our website). It shows, with curved lines, the octaves that meet with the 8s octave. 

On that diagram, if you look at the octaves that meet with the top DO of the 8s octave, and then look down at the bottom DO of the 8s octave, you will see the same octaves. That is, when you get down to the bottom, you meet with the same octaves that you met with at the top. Wow! The same octaves that meet at the top DO of the 8s octave, meet again at the bottom DO of the 8s octave. “The line of the flow of forces constantly deflecting according to law and uniting again at its ends.”

This will occur at every vibration; the same seven octaves that meet at X vibration will reunite when that vibration doubles or halves. And, if we calculate an infinite number of octaves, every octave will have the FA-LA-DO-MI-SO-TI-RE sequence at every one of its vibrations. So, at every vibration, 7 guys will meet. And which 7 guys? The same 7 guys that met in the octave above.

Student:  There are frequencies which look kind of rich, like 360 for example, do these special frequencies have a name?

Russell:  No they do not, because they are not special frequencies. Why? Well, 360 may look like a special frequency, but it is not. It only looks that way because the Universal Cosmic Weave is limited to having only 19 octaves. If we were looking at an infinite number of octaves, then every vibration in every octave would look just as special as 360 vibrations. Every note in every octave would meet with 7 other octaves.

Student:  What happens if you go down and half the vibrations, the vibrations are getting smaller, smaller octaves, I mean they are still octaves, but like the frequencies are becoming tiny, tighter, and closer to each other.

Russell:  Fortunately, that does not matter. It is like music. Down there, everybody is proportional to everybody who is up here. Their vibrations are the same size, relative to their octave. Low-C is like High-C; it is still the note C. 

If I have a DO that needs to increase by one and one eighth, in order to sound its RE, is that any different than if I have another note DO that also needs to increase by one and one eighth, in order to sound its RE?

Student:  I guess not. I guess it depends on where I stand, if I was in a different realm, I would be just as big in that realm as I would be if I were in a different realm.

Russell: That is right. Let’s say you multiplied your weight by one and one eighth, the same as that guy over there who multiplied his weight by one and one eighth, which, for him, is just as much of an accomplishment as it is for you. Or, let’s say, you doubled your money. That would be wonderful, right? Okay, let’s say, another guy doubled his money, would that not be just as wonderful? It is the exact same ratio. He now has twice as much money as he had, and you now have twice as much money as you had. It doesn’t really matter how much each of you started with, because it is still the same accomplishment for you both. Or, if you had $100.00 and lost half your money, and another guy had $1,000.00 and lost half his money, both of you would sense the same relative loss. Do you see what I am saying?

Student: Yeah, I get the idea. 

Russell:  An increase is an increase. For a little octave to go from its Do to its So, it has to increase by 1 and 1/2 times its size, wow; and for a big octave to go from its Do to its So, it also has to increase by 1 and 1/2 times its size, also wow. 

Student:  Well, maybe that is why people with a very large financial base, let’s say very rich people, who have to spend a million dollars a year on mortgages, etc., have similar concerns as people with a less extended financial base, who have to only spend ten thousand dollars a year on mortgages, etc. For them both, it is likely to be the same proportion of their income.

Russell:  That is correct. And, if they lose half their money, they would feel just as bad as you do if you lose half of yours; it is still, “We lost half of our money … cry,” even though they still have 5-million dollars left.

Student:  Right. Well said, I got it!

Russell:  So when we look at an octave, it increases by the same proportion as every other octave. In other words, it is just as hard to go from 5 miles-an-hour to 10 miles-an-hour, as it is to go from 10 miles-an-hour to 20 miles-an-hour; you still have to double your speed.

Student:  Yeah.

Russell:  It takes the same acceleration to do both.

Student:  In group, we did work on the first chapter. It was relatively easy to understand, the only thing we were stuck on was about the deflections.

Russell:  Okay, do you see them now?

Student:  Yes. I do.

Russell:  And, do you see the picture that if we take any vibration, the octaves that meet at that vibration as they continue, will each follow their own diatonic increases, or decreases, as they double or half; but, when they do double or half, they will meet with the exact same octaves?

Student:  Yeah, I see it now. Wow. I will study the diagram that you will be sending home with the current student, in order to drive that knowledge into my brain.

Russell:  Fantastic.

Student:  You can always predict where they double, right, you can tell the frequencies.

Russell:  You betcha. Because again, look at the 4s octave, the DO of the 4s octave is at 360 vibrations. The DO of that octave is going to double to 720 vibrations, and when it hits 720 vibrations, everything that is with it at 360 vibrations is going to be at 720 vibrations as well, because they too are going to double. If it is at 360, it has to be at 720. 

You can see octaves unfolding if you go to the Chapter 6 – Cosmic Weave diagram and look at 720 vibrations and notice who is there.

Student:  Okay, at 720 vibrations, I see a FA, a LA, and a DO.

Russell:  Super. Now look down at 360 vibrations.

Student:  I see a FA, a LA, a DO, a MI, a SO, and a TI.

Russell:  Perfect. You can see as the weave progressed, other octaves created additional notes at 360 vibrations. Which means, if we calculated those octaves up to 720 vibrations, the MI, the SO, and the TI would also be at 720, just like the FA, the LA, and the DO that are at 360, are likewise at 720.

Student:  Amazing universe, I just wrote that down!

Russell:  So, that is what Gurdjieff meant by, ‘the line of the flow of forces constantly deflecting according to law and uniting again at its ends.’ So, the forces that unite at any point, will deflect, and in the following octave, will meet again.

Student:  So, like in an Enneagram of some process, the same forces that met in all previous processes, will meet in all future processes. Right?

Russell:  Yes, they will all be sounding the same DO, RE, MI, FA, SO, LA, TI and DO that they sounded before. That is why the process of fixing a broken leg today … is very similar to the process of fixing a broken leg yesterday. We depend on there being a cyclical, repeatable, nature to things.

Student:  Okey, dokey. That makes sense.

Russell:  And, that happens at every note. If you sound DO, a set of 7 guys meet up, if you sound TI, a different set of 7 guys meet up, if you sound LA, a different set, SO – a different set, FA – a different set, MI – a different set, RE – a different set, but at the next DO – the same set of 7 guys that met at the first DO will meet up again at the second DO. And at TI – the same set of 7 guys that met at the first TI will meet up again at the second TI, etc. Do you see what I am saying?

Student:  Yes, I do. I really got it now.

Russell:  So, at all similar notes, the same 7 guys will converge. You can go up or down 1,000 octaves, and every time you hit the note TI, you will always encounter the same 7 guys that you encountered at all previous TI’s, etc. 

Once you see that, you will understand Gurdjieff’s statement about the line of the flow of forces constantly deflecting according to law and uniting again at its ends. Because, at every one of your notes, is the DO of someone else’s octave, which for them, is its end.

Student:  All right.

Russell:  So, that is what he meant by the line of the flow of forces constantly deflecting according to law and uniting again at its ends. 

You can only see that if you calculate all the octaves that came before the cosmic weave and all the octaves that come after it. That is, we do not live in a static universe made of just one octave. There are a plethora of octaves, and if we calculate them all, there will always be 7 octaves at every vibration. It is like, wow, what a chaotic structure, and yet, it is so simple, it is just ⅛, ¼, ⅓, ½, ⅔, and ⅞.

Student:  When you are talking about DO, RE, MI, FA, SO, etc., are those oscillations or are they just individual frequencies?

Russell:  Individual frequencies. Oscillations emerge at the notes MI and SO, because the notes MI and SO become the DO’s of inner octaves. And those DO’s, in trying to ascend or descend, will encounter other DO’s, which are also trying to ascend and descend, that will enter at the note FA above those DO’s and the note FA below those DO’s and stop them; and as such, those DO’s will oscillate between those FA’s. Review Chapter 4 for that insight, or watch the animation on Transfer RNA, which is also on our website, that is, if you wish to observe those oscillations.

I have taken the following diagram from Gurdjieff: Cosmic Secrets page 59, and from The Blueprint of Consciousness page 222, to help you better understand major and minor oscillations.

In the diagram the Major oscillation has a length of 64 (32 up and 32 down) and the Minor oscillation has a length of 32 (16 up and 16 down). Mathematically, the major oscillation is always twice as big as the minor oscillation. And as such, let us suppose that the Major oscillation had a length of sixteen. What would be the length of the Minor oscillation?

Student:  8

Russell:  Hey, you are not only a doctor, but you are not bad at math.

That being said … in the diagram, put a large 16 to the right of the words AFFIRMING FORCE in the top oscillation, and a large 8 to the right of the words AFFIRMING FORCE in the bottom oscillation.

Okay, the Major oscillation is now 16, and the minor oscillation is now 8. Together, both oscillations would have a length of how much?

Student:  24. 

Russell:  Correct. Then, to the right of FA-32 draw a line, like at the bottom of a math problem, and put the answer “24” below the numbers 16 and 8.

Now answer this, how many hours are in a day?

Student:  24.  

Russell:  How many hours do you spend awake?  

Student:  16.

Russell:  And how many hours do you spend asleep? 

Student:  8.  

Russell:  It is amazing but law-conformable that we spend our lives traversing back and forth between two oscillations. We have an oscillation of awake, which does not impinge on sleep, and we have an oscillation of sleep, which does not infringe on being awake. It is the cosmic dance of life. We spend two-thirds of our life awake, and one-third of our life asleep. Two-thirds to one-third. 

This same model is in everything. 

Trees keep their leaves for eight months and then lose them for four months; a 2 to 1 ratio. It again is the cosmic dance of life. 

If we defined your life, would we define it by the sixteen hours you are awake, or by the eight hours you are asleep?

Student:  By the 16 hours I was awake.  

Russell:  Are you starting to see the picture? We have personality and essence, we have an awake state and a sleep state, we have protons and neutrons, we have RNA and DNA, we have adenine and thymine, we have cytosine and guanine, we have angiosperms and gymnosperms, we have plants and animals, we have men and women, etc.; and we even have diatomic molecules like oxygen, which are made by combining two atoms of oxygen – O2. Why? Because existence is in dualities. 

All things are in pairs. It is the cosmic dance of life. Amazing stuff!

If you wish, draw a line through FA-64, separating the two oscillations. Then draw the Major oscillation’s sine wave: 96 up to 128, down to 64, and back up to 96; and the Minor oscillation’s sine wave: 48 up to 64, down to 32, and back up to 48 – each in a different color if you can.

Student:  Wow! Oscillations are different than octaves.

Russell:  Right. Oscillations occur when something gets trapped between the two ends of some other affirming force, or between two other affirming forces. Think of it this way – one tiger lives here, and other tigers live there, and the first tiger never goes into the other tiger’s territories. Why not? Potentially he could, but the second tiger marks a tree that says, “If you come over here, we are going to fight; one or both of us could be killed, so stay on that side of the tree … do not come past my mark.” A third tiger marks a rock, identifying the boundary of his territory. The first tiger oscillates between the tree and the rock. That is, he oscillates in his territory, which is between the second and third tigers territories.

Nature sets up structures which keep everything in harmonic stability. 

Student:  That is terrific Russ.

Okay, as you suggest, I will start memorizing page 58 in Views From the Real World. ‘Go out one clear starlit night…’?

Russell:  Fantastic.

Student:  Do you want me to memorize it to the end?

Russell:  As much as you can sir. 

If you do memorize it to the end, I will be most pleased … and I am sure that God will be most pleased. But do not do it for us, do it for your Steward.

Student:  Okay. I will.

Thanks Russ. 

That ends this question-and-answer session.

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 available for PDF download, and now available in hardback, 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.