DEPUTY STEWARD

Deputy Steward is an I that emerges out of Magnetic Center; it does not have real authority, but it has been given authority by the Magnetic Center. Somebody has to step forward and start doing something.

Some “I” has to start exerting itself, to try and get the rest of the machine to start working. It might not be the real Steward yet, but at least it has been given authority by the Magnetic Center. Because the Deputy Steward is one I in the Magnetic Center that has at least been empowered by the rest of the Magnetic Center to try and get the house into some kind of an order.

How is it ever going to change if you do not empower something in you that says, “I am going to read or I am going to do an exercise or pick a center when I leave.” Who is going to do that if the Deputy Steward does not say, “Hey, we are supposed to pick a center.” “Okay.”

I mean, if you do not emerge something from yourself to start doing something, then all you are doing is going through Magnetic Center moments, you are never developing the machine. You have to run off to the beach every time to get a Magnetic Center moment from the water, but you do not do anything in between. Most people are like that. So now their whole life is to go bungee jumping or to go to this thrill or to that thrill, because all they have accumulated is a bunch of Magnetic Center moments, but they have not done anything with them. They have not empowered any I in themselves to coerce the rest of the machine to do something, to say, “Let us just read a paragraph or one of those sections in Views, and then we can go and play ball. Just a little bit. Just a something.” And then who knows? If that Deputy Steward gets the machine going, it might read more than that, it might actually get involved and find it interesting and read two pages instead of just a paragraph. But it isn’t going to read anything unless somebody steps forward in the machine and says, “Come on guys, just a little bit, it will just take 5 minutes, 2 minutes, that isn’t much time, we can do that. Okay? Okay.”

Somebody has to begin, that’s Deputy Steward. Somebody has to stand forward. Somebody has to say, “We are in this great work, we have encountered these Magnetic Center moments. We know about higher and what are we going to do toward it? Are we going to do something today toward it? Did you pick an exercise for the day? Do you do these things?” What are you waiting for, the clouds to part and some benevolent thing to come down and make you? It isn’t going to happen that way. You have to empower something in yourself and start exerting it to say as many times during the day as possible, “Hey, have I done an exercise? I have not done an I AM today. Let us do an I AM. I haven’t read anything today, lets read a little bit.” Somebody has to stand forward, that’s Deputy Steward.

1. IMAGINE YOURSELF CONSCIOUS – The Fourth Way, Page 113, Chapter V:
For the second part of the exercises, the first exercise on the list is “imagine yourself conscious.” We have this wonderful property called imagination, but we use it for the wrong things. We imagine all kinds of things that are not real; but yet it is such a powerful part we could use this thing of imagination as an ally and as an asset and the best way to do that would be to imagine yourself conscious. Think of what you would be like, how you would react, how you would stand, how you would feel, how you would respond to people, how you would be in a crowd, how you would treat this person next to you. If you could imagine and hold that image in your mind, imagination is one of the tools for training the horse. The horse does not speak a language. Our emotional center has no language; we can’t say “don’t be angry”. We can’t say that. The horse is going to be angry. The only way to train the horse is through the reins. And the reigns are visualization. So if we can envision ourselves not being angry, if we can get a mental image of seeing ourselves contacting this person and not being angry at whatever it is that bothers us, and see, imagine in our minds, ourselves not being angry at that; now, the horse gets the instructions. So we have to use this property to our advantage. And imagining yourself conscious will do that.

So imagine yourself conscious would be the right use of imagination. And the visualization will communicate to the horse what you wish to do. As Gurdjieff said, the horse does not know the language or maybe it speaks Arabic and we don’t know that, so we can’t communicate with it. But people try, they think that they can, by intellect, say, “Okay I am not going to lose my temper anymore.” The horse doesn’t hear that. There is no communication with it at all; it has no idea that is what it is. It only sees visualization. It needs the imagery. So man has to see himself and imagine things taking place, and imagines, and see himself maintaining his calmness. Now the horse gets some direction because of that visualization and he begins to communicate with the horse.

2. UNCONSCIOUS MUSCLE MOVEMENT – Views from the Real World, Page 90, Chapter “How can we gain attention…”:
Our next exercise is called “unconscious muscle movements.”

Gurdjieff made reference, “that mans’ unconscious muscle movements let the world around him know that he was a booby.”

But we are not going to be talking about the obvious unconscious muscle movements, like fidgeting or tapping your foot.

The ones we are going to discuss and more subtle; and, are probably more devastating… because they are the ones that we do not readily see.

One of them is the touching of one’s nose.

Whenever a person touches their nose, it means they are possibly lying. They are probably not telling the truth. They are not 100% sure of what they are saying; or, they do not believe what you are saying.

When you deal with people in life, watch when they touch their noses. When they do, it is very likely, that what they are saying is askew; or, that they don’t like what you are saying; or, that they don’t agree with you on some particular model.

You can learn so much about the world around you if you notice the nose hits. For instance, when you stop and ask directions, “I need directions to get to such and such”; and the person you asked starts touching their nose as they reply, “Yeah, you go…” Don’t believe them! Because they do not know. They are just guessing. They want to pretend like they know, but they do not.

There is a psychological connection between not being truthful and touching your nose.

I found this study on the internet:
“Spanish researchers monitored changes in people’s skin temperature as they lied, finding that the nose is the center of all truth.
The next time you’re interrogating a murder suspect or maybe questioning a lover about suspected infidelities, set aside the polygraph test and grab hold of the person’s nose.

That the nose is the center of truth is the conclusion of new research published by a team of psychologists at the University of Granada in Spain.

The researchers call it “the Pinocchio effect” for obvious reasons. The Disney character’s nose would grow longer as he exaggerated the truth or straight-up lied about ditching school to hang out with monsters. But while the Spanish team discovered that the condition isn’t specific to Italian wood puppets, they found that rather than grow, our noses get hotter when we fib.

By monitoring people’s skin temperature with a special heat-sensing camera (think Predator vision) and asking them questions about subjective experiences, feelings, and emotions, the psychologists were able to discern the truthfulness of people’s responses. It turns out that when we lie, blood rushes to the center of our faces. If you’re behind the lens of a thermography camera, the lies light up our noses and the inside corners of our eyes. The technique is not quite as effective in measuring objective truth in answers to yes/no questions. Rather, it’s a means of gauging people’s deeper feelings about bigger, murkier issues, like the beauty of art or faith in God.

“Is it possible to differentiate [between] a person who every Sunday [says] the Lord’s prayer but in fact is a nonbeliever?” said Emilio Gomez Milan, one of the lead researchers on the study. The research suggests it may be.

Subjects for the study answered from inside an fMRI machine and, separately, seated in front of thermographic cameras. Gomez and his partner, Elvira Salazar Lopez, then cross-referenced the brain scans with the facial temperature results to draw their conclusions. Not only do our noses brighten when we’re fibbing, but the other areas of our faces–cheeks, chins, foreheads–cool down.

When we lie about our feelings, a component of the brain’s reward system, called the insular cortex, activates. It’s part of the cerebral cortex, which is the control hub of emotions, perceptions of pain, and our blood pressure. When we’re grappling with the issue of, say, how to answer a friend’s question about another friend’s work of art–”Isn’t it beautiful?”–the insular cortex comes alive and sends blood to our noses…”

Perhaps the guy who wrote Pinocchio actually understood this phenomenon. Or maybe not. However, it does not change the fact that blood rushes to our nose when we lie or sense discord.

Our noses probably get increased blood flow, because our ancestors were animals that had a great sense of smell. And, one of the first stimuli, in any danger, is the sense of smell.

If a dog sense something is off, you will see their nose hit the air, first thing. Why? Because their sense of smell is their first line of defense against danger.

So, here we are, eons later, as unregenerate beings, who no longer have much of a sense of smell. Yet, any perceived discord still cause our noses to be stimulated. We feel the increased blood flow, prompting us to want to touch it.

When watching talk shows on TV, it is very obvious. The moderator says to the guest actor or actress, “What was it like to work with so and so on that movie?” The person responds, “Ah, (nose rub) it was great, it was terrific (nose swipe) working with them was great. They are a really good actor/actress (touches nose, again), I really enjoyed working with them, I learned so much (wipes nose with sleeve).”

The fellow in Texas says, back in the day, he witnessed this happening during his sales presentations. He would get half-way through a sales presentation; and, do what is called, “a trial close”, and the person he was talking to would say, “I don’t know, (rubs nose) it looks alright.” The fellow in Texas said he knew right then that the prospect was not going to buy what he was selling. So he continued his presentation, trying to present it in greater detail, in hopes that the prospect would become more enthusiastic.
An opposite of nose hits… would be chin rubs.

When a person starts rubbing their chin, that means, they like what they are hearing or looking at. “I like that. I think that’s a good idea. That makes sense.”

Our Texan would tell us, again and again, how by knowing this, that when he used to make sales presentations, if he was half-way through his presentation, and the prospect started rubbing their chin, how he would turn the contract toward the prospect, hand them a pen, and say, “Signature goes here. Check number goes there. You get the third copy. “And how, not surprisingly, they take the pen and sign the contract. Why? Because they have already (in their mind) bought it, they liked it.

The rubbing of the chin is a definite indication of favor. Nose hits are definite sign of discord.

So watch for those in life.

If you observe yourself touching your nose, try to see if you can discover the cause.

Sometimes, it is a blatant lie, sometimes, it is an innocent lie; for example, if I asked you, “When did you meet your spouse?” and you said, “In the summer of 1980;” and then, you touched your nose. That nose touch might have occurred because you really met them in May, which is really more in the spring than the summer… but you said summer, and something in you knew that it was really in the late spring of 1980, so you touched your nose. Or, perhaps, you actually first met them in January, at some gathering, but other than saying hello, you really didn’t “MEET” them until June, when you ran into each other on the beach and ended up spending the whole summer together.

So, you really did not answer my question, truthfully, because you first met them at that thing in January, but it wasn’t until June…etc. But you are not going to go through all that explanation, you have already committed to saying the summer even though something in you (nose touch) knows that you actually first saw them in January.

That is what happens when we sense discord, the nose will stimulate, the hand will come up, and we will touch our noses.

So, if a person does not believe you, or if they are telling a lie, or if there is some uncertainty passing through them, they will hit/touch/rub their noses.

If they touch or rub their chins, they like it.

If they fold their arms, they are defiant; they are holding their position; they are standing their ground; and, it is very hard to get any idea through to them.

In addition, if you watch people seated in a group, and one person is speaking, you may notice that some folks will be leaning toward the speaker, while others are leaning away.

The ones leaning toward the speaker, are in agreement with them, those leaning away, are not. Everyone will be leaning slightly toward the people they support, and away from those they do not.

Unconscious Muscle Movement provides for a very fascinating and telling study.

So watch for these unconscious movements in life. Watch for the nose hits in others… and in yourself. See how many times you can catch them.

Sometimes, when I catch myself touching my nose, I say, “Well, my nose itched.”

But the question is, why? Why didn’t my ear itch? Why didn’t my forehead itch? Why didn’t my backside itch? Why is it always my nose that itches?

Don’t panic. It is just in our nature.

3. EXTERNAL CONSIDERING – Views from the Real World, Pages 94-96, Chapter “Everyone is in great need of one particular exercise…”:
Next is external considering. The best way to understand external considering is to understand internal considering. In internal considering people want their due. Most everybody does everything they do for their due. Even a guy that stops on the side of the road to help somebody with their tire is hoping that the guy that he helped will thank him. And if he doesn’t get thanked enough, he will be disappointed; for example, after helping the guy with his tire, the stranded guy says, “Hey, thanks for stopping”.

Gee, I now feel a little disappointed. The (stranded) guy should have said more, he should have at least offered me some money, I wouldn’t have taken it of course, but that would have at least given me my due; and I didn’t get that, I feel upset because I wasn’t thanked enough; I wasn’t considered enough. People didn’t give me my due.

Well, when we understand that is how internal considering works, then we can understand external considering because it says, “give them their due”. Make sure if somebody stops to help you with a flat tire, you go, “Oh my God, thank you so much. You are just a life saver. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t stopped. You are such a wonderful human being to think about others and to stop.” Now this guy is just feeling great about himself, he says to himself, thanks so much, I got my due. If someone lets you pull in onto the freeway or get on, or stops at the light and lets you go through first, make sure you wave, make sure you make several movements to let the guy know “thank you, thank you,” so he feels good; that is external considering.

I don’t need my due. I can give it to this guy. I know that the world is caught by this, so I make sure when I am in the grocery store line, I thank the clerk for checking me out. During all these things, I always look for some way to send in that thanks, to give that guy his due, because I know how his world is and what it revolves around. People donate money to the church, or to the hospital, provided of course, the new addition to the building will say “Anderson Wing”, so they can get their due; Anderson built this one, yeah, go Mr. Anderson. People want their recognition for what they are, they always want their due. So to external consider, knowing that, give it to them. Make sure you say thank you, make sure you are courteous, and make sure you acknowledge everybody that opens the door or lets you cut into the traffic flow or signals to take a parking place, or whatever it may be. Make an effort to thank them, make an effort to give them their due; that would be external considering.

4. WALKING WITH MOMENTUM – Views from the Real World, Pages 116 & 161, Chapters Energy―sleep & The three powers―economy:
Gurdjieff says we use all the wrong muscles when we move. We hammer with the whole arm and the shoulder when we only have to hammer with the wrist. If I said make a fist, you might feel there is tension clear up to your shoulder and arm when really all you have to tighten is your fist. But you will end up using all these muscles that are not necessary. So we want to be aware of that. Gurdjieff says the head and face should be alive, the rest of the body should be relaxed.

So if you can relax the rest of the body, then to walk with momentum is simply to give a push, as if I was standing behind you and I shoved you, you would move forward but the force of my shove would wear off and you would start to slow down, but if I walked up and shoved you again you would move forward some more. So imagine you are shoving yourself. You are making an effort to make a momentum in the forward direction and then you are stopping that momentum, and then the momentum just kind of carries on for a step-and-a-half and it starts to die, then you push again, it starts to die, then you push again; and now, you are using momentum. Gurdjieff said if you walk with a constant, regular gate you are just using too much energy.

We would walk around the property, before we built all the houses, and we had a trail around here and I walked with people and they would be walking like this (demonstrates a steady pace) and I would be walking like this (demonstrates a pace that goes forward, then lags behind, forward, then lags behind; a non-steady pace). And I would be pretty much with them, beside them, and then I would move ahead just a tad and fall back just barely; because I was not just keeping a constant walk. I would give a little push, create momentum, then slow down and they would start to pass me, and I would push, etc. You use a lot less energy that way.

There are some other ways that can be used for walking to reduce energy and one of them is gravity walk. This is where you bend forward from the torso just enough so that you are going to fall, but if you shuffle your feet, and take small steps, you do not fall; but, you do not ever catch up to your center of gravity, so your center of gravity is always slightly in front of you, so you are always falling. Mountain climbers will learn to “fall” up the mountain. They actually lean forward enough that they are falling and all they are doing is keeping their feet up underneath them to keep them from falling; and in a sense they are falling up the mountain. They are not pushing themselves up, they are falling up the mountain. A marathon runner at the end of a marathon race will be using gravity running at the end of the race. He is leaning forward just shuffling along, just keeping his feet up underneath him using his forward momentum, using his gravity to keep him going, because he is out of force. If you take too big of a step you come up under your center of gravity and stop yourself; if you take too small of a step you fall on your nose. But if you shuffle just right, you will always be falling into the future. You are just keeping yourself from falling. That is another way of walking with momentum. You can jog with that and you can walk with that. It is amazing how far you can go without any effort, because you are just “catching up”, your feet are just catching up to keep from falling.

5. 19 THINGS I SAW (song) – RAS 1986:
The 19 things I saw – song: these are the 19 things I saw, when I sought reality. I wrote the words to a song that is sung to The Twelve Days of Christmas.

It is done to the same tune, a repeating series of 19 things. In fact, it is done in a way that if you were going to explain the work to somebody, you could start with the song, and just go right through the 19 things and explain the work.

The first thing I saw, when I sought reality, is a machine that’s a multiplicity. That is how the work begins: we are machines, we are a multiplicity, there are many I’s. One I says, “I am going to get up early”; and another “I” is not in on it, the next morning. One “I” reads the page in the book and some other “I’s” are having a conversation, and you get to the bottom of the page and you don’t know what it is about. We are a multiplicity. You could talk for an hour about how man is many, how man has many “I’s.” That is the first thing you have to see if you are going to work on yourself, is that you are a machine that is many; legion…multiplicity.

The second thing I saw is two-naturedness. There is a possibility of higher for man, that he is made of both body and spirit. There is a higher nature for us.

The third thing is three types of men: the physical, the emotional and the intellectual.

The fourth thing is the four seeker ways that are built off this physical, emotional and intellectual; and the fourth way.

Then there are five states of I: Multiplicity, Magnetic Center, Deputy Steward, Steward and Master.

Then there is six leaks a leaking: unconscious muscle movement, unnecessary chatter (talking for talking’s sake), imagination, lying, internal considering, imagination.

There are seven centers serving. Eight Pentads purging. Nine movements moving. Ten lines aligning. Eleven notes a needing (the food diagram without a conscious shock). Twelve matters molding (the table of hydrogen’s). Thirteen octaves acting (3 scales, 13 octaves, 71 vibrations).

Fourteen cards concealing – it takes 14 cards to represent the whole model, they might be used in different suits, but there are still only 14 kinds of cards.

Fifteen oscillating – that is how many steps a process goes through in an oscillation: fa-so-la-ti-do-re-mi-fa-mi-re-do-ti-la-so-fa; fifteen steps.

Sixteen man’s remembering. When a man produces the first conscious shock, he makes five more notes. So he goes from 11 notes – 7 notes of food, 3 notes of air, and 1 note of impression – to 16 notes. Called self-remembering.

Seventeen lines defining. This is the Enneagram showing all the lines, even the lines that go from the past, to the future, all connecting.

Eighteen Fa’s transforming producing the transform emotion shock, creates 2 other notes – Fa 6 and Do 6 – and now we have 18.

And then 19 outer octaves.

We sing it and go around the room and everyone takes a different one and then we add it all at the end: 19 outer octaves, 18 FA’s transforming, 17 lines defining, 16 man’s remembering, 15 oscillating, 14 cards concealing, 13 octaves acting, 12 matters molding, 11 notes a needing, 10 lines aligning, 9 movements moving, 8 pentads purging, 7 centers serving, 6 leaks a leaking, 5 states of I, 4 seeker ways, 3 type men, 2 naturedness, a machine that’s a multiplicity. In the process, we get data and each one of these bits tells us something about the work. It is a whole bunch of data in its own; so we have this little song that contains the whole model of all these various things in numbered form sung to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas song.

6. COUNTING – Psychological Exercises & Essays by A. R. Orage:
Do the simple ones, just to work on intellectual center, to develop some prowess in it, counting. It is also a good way to occupy the place.

It takes some effort, I do simple ones. I will count up by sevens and down by sixes alternatively: 0 – 100 – 7 – 94 – 14 – 88 – 21 – 82 – keep going down by six and up by seven, to see if you can get all the way back to a hundred and zero. And that is tough, because something has to hold what you said. Something has to take what was said before and add to it, then hold the other number what was said and subtract from it, while holding the last number. Then go back to the previous number and add to it, while holding the other number too, then subtract from it, then hold that one and back again to the other one, to add to, while holding this one, to subtract from…etc. Something has to take what you said before and hold it while either subtracting or adding something from it and still hold this other one, etc. Well…you can’t be worried about “Uncle Bob” anymore. You are too engaged in trying to keep the numbers in your head. That is counting.

7. STOPPING THOUGHTS – The Fourth Way, Pages 115-118 & 380, Chapters V & XIV:
Ouspensky’s model is not really stopping thoughts; Ouspensky’s model is holding one thought. You are not really stopping them, you are having one thought: I am sitting here, I am Peter Ouspensky, and you are trying to keep one thought in and hold the rest out; and that is what he calls stopping thoughts.

It is actually possible to stop thoughts. One of the byproducts of April Fools is that there is “silence in heaven for the space of about half an hour”. Thoughts stop; and I can stop thoughts now. I can just go (demonstrates). Nothing is said in my head. It is just empty. Nobody is saying anything. They are just waiting for me to say something because I am running this machine now and everybody is just sitting there waiting. It is such a glorious thing when there is calm and empty and quiet for the first time instead of an incessant flow of thoughts, vying for the place and vying for rule and vying for their pleasures and vying for whatever it is that they want to do. All of a sudden when that authority (Steward) walks into the house, walks into that “classroom” and everybody takes their seat and the commotion that was there a minute ago, the 50 kids in the classroom all saying different things and talking about different things and people being interested, stops; all of a sudden there is dead silence. Everybody is waiting, sitting at their desk, waiting to see what the authority is going to tell them to do. A powerful moment to experience, indeed.

8. UNCOMFORTABLE POSTURE – Views from the Real World, Pages 167 & 239-241 (hb) Pages 167 & 231-233 (sb), Chapters First talk in Berlin & “Now I am sitting here…”:
Gurdjieff said that if you wish to come in contact with your machine, put it through some uncomfortable postures. We have this body that does not know much about our work but if we put an uncomfortable posture on ourselves, the body will scream at us and say, “Move me!” and you say, “No! I need you, you are part of me, too.”

We are doing this, so we can remember ourselves. I need the body. Get an uncomfortable posture so that you get the attention of the rest of the machine. Then get up and move. Use all those changing sensations as reminders. Say, “Hey, every time I feel these kinds of sensations, you are a participant, you remind me my aim is to remember myself.”

9. OM/AUM:
Just an unknown world sound. I don’t know where it came from, but it is a centering sound. It certainly is an exercise that’s good to stop the rest of the machine. I have found though, if you could turn the sound of a sigh into an audible sound, that would be the Om for you; in resonance with your machine.

For instance, you solve some problem and all of a sudden you have that moment of release, and you go…(demonstrates sigh – letting air out of lungs) if you can make that audible, instead of some manufactured om, which might sound big and full and have some resonance, the om, if you could make it into the sound when you sigh, it would be smaller and subtler but would have a greater resonance with your machine then the manufactured one that you thought was better because it sounded deep and full.

10. “I AM”, “I CAN”, “I WISH” – Life is real only then, when “I am”, Pages 110-111 & 135-136, Chapters Third Talk & Fifth Talk:
This is simply: A man is like a carriage, horse, and driver. The CAN is the carriage, the WISH is the horse, and the I AM is the driver. So when a man does this exercise, he is acknowledging the three parts that are necessary for the Whole to function. He says I AM and acknowledges his driver. He says I CAN and acknowledges his carriage. When he says I WISH, that is the power of the horse — the property of recognizing his horse. Then he says I AM CAN, which connects his driver to the carriage by his seat and the brake. Then he says I AM WISH, which connects his driver to his horse through the reins. Then he says I CAN WISH, which connects his carriage to his horse through the shafts. And then he says I AM CAN WISH and recognizes the Whole as a team.

So…
I AM I CAN I WISH
I AM CAN I AM WISH I CAN WISH
I AM CAN WISH

And in so doing he recognizes them individually, recognizes their connections to each other and then recognizes the commonality of the Whole. All functioning in UNITY.

I AM I CAN I WISH
Man is 3 parts ® upper lower middle
driver carriage horse
knowledge ability power
I AM CAN – driver to carriage by seat & brake
I AM WISH – driver to horse thru reins
I CAN WISH – carriage to horse thru shafts
I AM CAN WISH – recognize whole as team

11. OPPOSITE POSTURES – RAS 1989:
Gurdjieff gives us a beautiful scenario of why man can’t awaken.

He explained how a man, who wishes to have a new thoughts, sits in an old posture and immediately finds himself in old thoughts.

Wow!

We are corrupted by the machine, because postures are connected. Every posture has corresponding postures that are connected to it. For example: if you get down on your knees, clasp your hands together, and bow your head, you will probably find yourself in thoughts of prayer. Why? Because those postures are most likely connected.

So, opposite postures allow us to break those connections… and the mechanical chain reactions that follow.

For example: make a fist and grit your teeth, like you are mad at me and want to punch me; then think nice thoughts about me.

You will find it is hard to do. Why? Because the posture of clenching the fist and gritting teeth, is usually accompanied by other corresponding thoughts and emotions.

If you introduce different thoughts or emotions into the mix, that is, something other than what is normally connected with that posture, like “I love you”… it doesn’t want to fit. Why? Because those postures are not normally found together.

So, I am going to create opposites in me, other than what is normally there, because someday, if someone really pisses me off… and my fist starts to clench, and my teeth start to grit, I just might run into the “I love you” stuff, which I intentionally connected to those postures, and thus, I will be able to stop myself from punching his lights out.

By having opposite postures. That is, by, intentionally, putting something in that is contrary to what has always been there, I may be able to stop myself. To stop the automatic, mechanical, chain-reaction, which is created in me by the other centers who got stimulated by the initial posture.

So, do this exercise and create opposite things.

Have opposite thoughts to the way you feel.

Have opposite feelings to your physical posture. For example: throw your chest out and hold your head high, which is a physical posture of accomplishment and success; then, try to feel inferior, try to feel humble.

Or drop your shoulders, and slightly tilt your head forward, which is usually a posture of failure or dejection… then feel like you just won the lottery or can stop the wind!

So create opposite postures: Opposite feelings to opposite thoughts; opposite thoughts to opposite physical postures; opposite physical postures to opposite feelings; and so forth.

How many can you create?

You will find that it is hard to put a smile on your face and have bad thoughts. The bad thoughts will confuse the smile…and you will go, “Wait a minute, I can’t do that.” Well, yeah, they are opposites and find no comfort together.

We are accustomed to having certain postures connected. And, we are comfortable when we do. I know that. But I want you to break that habit.

I want you to put something opposite in there. So, that you are not a machine… where, when you take a posture in one center, the rest of the centers do not just blindly follow, because certain postures are always connected.

I want you to have something opposite in there.

It is kind of like removing one domino from a line of dominos. When the dominos start to fall and they reach the place where the one domino has been removed, they will stop falling.

Likewise, in me, when I clench my fist and grit my teeth, perhaps, I too will run into the place where I intentionally put in the “I love you” instead of the “I want to kill you”… and I will stop.

I will feel pride instead of dejection. For example, If I botched a presentation and lost a big commission, I will try to feel pride if I take the posture dejection.

Then, later on, when I take a similar posture of dejection, I just may run into the pride… and instead of being depressed all day long, I may uplifted…. Proud, that, even though I failed, I made the attempt, which motivates me to make the next presentation better than the last.

Opposite postures is a great way to break our mechanicalness.

The fellow in Texas says, “When my son was first learning how to walk, sometimes he would fall down and hurt himself. The normal accompanying postures would be that of a frown, of a whimper, and of tears, which usually were prompted by the postures of sadness and concern that came from onlooking parents. So, I, instead, smiled, cheered, and clapped my hands in excitement, for his attempt…. Surprisingly, he would start smiling too. Then, later on when he fell down, he would smile, clap his hands, and genuinely act excited. After which, he would, enthusiastically, get back on his feet and try again. House guests, who witnessed this behavior, were amazed that he smiled and got excited whenever he fell down. Why? Because no one ever told them that they were capable of having opposite postures.”

12. VIEWING WITHOUT VERBALIZING – RAS 1981:
This exercise is designed to break the labels of what is called the “formatory apparatus”.

The formatory apparatus is a part of the Intellectual Center that defines the world by attaching labels to everything. It doesn’t know what things are, it only knows their labels. Unfortunately, the formatory apparatus labels everything. And furthermore, once the formatory apparatus labels something, we can’t think about it anymore. All we think about is its label.

In life, there are many models and systems presented, that seek to compartmentalize people into types, numbers, codes or any combination thereof. Be it zodiac signs, racial or cultural stereotypes, and a multitude of personality profiles or other demographic types. Many of these are supported and encouraged by global organizations and groups, using extensive and intensive systematic structures. Indeed, people can even gain qualifications and accreditations in these things. All based upon someone’s pre-defined labels. However, once labelled, people cease to see any deviations that fall outside the given label.

For example, once someone is labelled as a “this” or “that”, even though simple gossip or hearsay, they can make a thousand manifestations that are not of a “this” or “that” nature. But, the one time they make a manifestation that fits someone’s preconceived or attached label of what a “this” or “that” is, they say, “See, I told you! They’re a ‘this’ or ‘that’”. They cannot see anything else. They can only see their label.

For instance, if someone has the label, “All dogs bite”, they will not see that dogs are loyal, they will lick you, wag their tail, and are generally kind; and, most dogs, therefore, don’t bite. They will only see their label, “All dogs bite.”

Well, how are we going to stop the formatory apparatus if all it does is label; knowing, that the moment it labels something it cannot think about it, apart from its assigned label.

In order to stop it, we want to practice an exercise called Viewing Without Verbalizing.

You start by looking around at things and see if you can see them without labelling them. See if you can see them without saying what they are – for instance, that is a phone, a red wall, a TV, an idiot, a bigot, a racist, a light, a tree or anything. See if you can just look at these things and see them but not say anything about them, not give them a label, because the moment that you give them their label you cannot see the thing itself. You only see the label you put on it.

So, if we have a label, “That that particular so-and-so is lazy”, and we put that label on them, then every time we meet them, even if they’re working hard, we will only see them when they take a break, and say, “Yep, they’re lazy”. That is, we only see them when they manifest according to the label, we put on them.

In order to view without verbalizing, we may have to go fast at first. We may have to get our eyes going quick enough, so that there is not enough time to label what we see. But, as we get good at it, we will be able to look at a tree and see the tree, and not the label we put on it.

We will be able to look at something and see it for what it really is. Whereas, before, we would have labeled it, and not have been able to see it objectively. We will only see the label we have affixed. So, practice this whenever you have a moment where you find yourself looking around at the world, to see if you can see the world without any labels.

Just look, don’t label.

Russ