Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Hydrogen

[Russell Smith]

Several students were discussing Ouspensky’s terms of Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Hydrogen, in reference to the Food Diagram, as well as some other things. Below is my response.

Ah, the great Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Hydrogen numbers’ debate. I love it.

I did not get the attachment… but, fortunately, I am an expert on pages 209-211 in The Fourth Way and on the diagrams that are found there, so I will reply.

I might have saved you the brain warping manifestations of actually trying to apply the properties of the elements carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen to the food diagram had you asked before your, aforementioned, mind numbing attempts of finding any real meaning behind the labels, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen.

I, too, long ago, had tried to find their significance. And, like you, postulated some very similar results… just like the ones depicted in your emails.

Fortunately, after 100 readings of The Fourth Way, I began to understand the book from the point of view of the author… and, thus, after memorizing most of it, my higher immediately reminded me of the contents of Chapter VIII when my concerns turned to those labels in Chapter IX, and reminded me, after my many honest attempts to make sense of those labels, what carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen actually were.

Excerpt from The Fourth Way page 189:
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"The first thing to remember is what was said about the Law of Three— that everything in the world, all manifestations of energy, all kinds of action, whether in the world or in human activity, whether internal or external, are always manifestations of three forces which exist in nature. These forces are called active, passive and neutralizing, or first, second and third. It must be understood that they do not differ from one another as activity and passivity differ in our ordinary understanding of these terms. Active and passive forces are both active, for a force cannot be passive. But there is a certain difference in their activity, and this difference makes all the variety of phenomena that exist in the world. The three forces work together, but one of them predominates in each combination. At the same time, each force which is now active can become passive or neutralizing the next moment, in another triad. When three forces meet together, things happen. If they do not come together, nothing happens. From this point of view, matter must also have certain definite denominations according to which force works through it—whether it is organic or inorganic, a chemical element or a compound. When active force passes through any kind of matter it is called Carbon. When passive force passes through it, it is called Oxygen. When neutralizing force works through it, it is called Nitrogen. And when matter is taken without relation to the force that works through it, it is called Hydrogen. At first these names should be taken simply as labels. Thus the Law of Three brings relativity into our definition of matter, for instead of one iron we have four irons, instead of one copper four coppers, and so on. Father, mother, son; carbon, oxygen, nitrogen. The family is hydrogen. The beginning of a new family is the son. In ordinary thinking we realize the existence of two forces—action and resistance, positive and negative electricity, and so on. But in this state of consciousness we do not see that three forces are always present in every event, in every phenomenon, and that only a conjunction of three forces can produce an event. Two forces cannot produce anything—they will only turn round one another without any result. It takes a long time to begin to see three forces in things—for some reason we are third force blind, although we can observe it in many chemical reactions and biological phenomena. Even when we fully understand that nothing can happen without the presence of all the three elements, in relation to ourselves we are inclined to forget or disregard it. We do not fully observe even two forces and generally expect things to happen when only one force is present. Later you will see that if you want to produce a certain effect or a certain action and one force is missing you can get no result."

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Ouspensky, just as easily, could have labeled them Red, Yellow, Blue, and Green instead of Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Hydrogen. And, if he did, then Yellow 768 would have met with Red 192 and become Blue 384, which would have then become a Yellow 384 so that it could blend with Red 96 and become Blue 192… and, if he had used those labels, then we would have been trying to apply the properties of Red to things instead of the properties of Carbon.

But, silly me, I spent a lot of time trying to understand his labels of Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Hydrogen just as you have, until I realized that they were just labels and had nothing to do with the actual elements, Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Hydrogen.

However, when I made the Food Diagram, I did keep the labels, Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Hydrogen, but I explain to the students that they are just labels that indicate, "When active force passes through any kind of matter it is called Carbon. When passive force passes through it, it is called Oxygen. When neutralizing force works through it, it is called Nitrogen. And when matter is taken without relation to the force that works through it, it is called Hydrogen."

As to the Hydrogen numbers, 6, 12, 24, etc., I also believe that I understand why those numbers were used. They are based on triads, and are not factual. They can be derived by simply adding successive doublings, 1-2-3, 2-4-6, 4-8-12, etc. Furthermore, the math of creation is 5/6 to the seventh and 2/3 cubed, which has nothing to do with that doubling. In the Food Diagram, I show the actual, proportional math of the three forces, 96-192, 120-240, and 144-288, which does allow for a greater understanding.

However, to get to that understanding, you have to first… learn the Laws of World-creation and World-maintenance in order to cleanse your mind of all the inaccurate labels and descriptions which I too, read about and believed in, prior to acquiring a real understanding of how the Universe actually worked.

Note: In addition, Worlds 3 thru 96 are also not hard to comprehend if we remember this:

Excerpt from The Fourth Way pages 25-26:
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“We must return to the Law of Three. You will remember how it was explained that everything that happens is the result of the action of three forces and that two forces by themselves cannot produce any effect. I will try to connect this idea with the Ray of Creation.”

“The Absolute is World 1, for the three forces in it make one. By his own will and consciousness the Absolute creates worlds. It is all intentional there and each force in it occupies each place. This is incomprehensible to us. In the next world, World 3, there are the same three forces, only they are already divided. These three forces again produce worlds of which we take one, but this World 6 is different from World 3 which is in contact with the Absolute, for it is already mechanical. World 6 has three forces from the preceding world and three of its own. The next world, World 12, has three forces from the world of the second order, six from the world of the third order and three of its own. The next world, World 24, has twenty-four forces, the one after forty-eight forces and the last ninety-six forces.”

World 1 Absolute 1

World 3 All Worlds 3

World 6 All Suns 6 (3 + 3)

World 12 Sun 12 (3 + 6 + 3)

World 24 All Planets 24 (3 + 6 + 12 + 3)

World 48 Earth 48 (3 + 6 + 12 + 24 + 3)

World 96 Moon 96 (3 + 6 + 12 + 24 + 48 + 3)

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Notice that each world has three forces of its own. Therefore, you only need to postulate 18 forces to understand the Universe, i.e., worlds 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 96, which can be found in my diagram of the 19 outer octaves.

OK, what would be the three forces that an earth has that a planet does not? What would be the first 3 forces… the next 3, etc.? I can probably name them all… and, with a little bit of thought, I bet you can, too.

Start with something like science’s Super-force, all forces together in the original Black Hole (world 1). Then split that into 3 forces… electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force (world 3).

Next, we have orbital laws, laws of angular momentum, and thermal dynamic laws. And, at some point, we have laws that govern how things seek their own level (heavy things sink/light things rise), etc.

Further down, we have to answer questions like the one we initially asked, "What makes an Earth an Earth? That is, what makes a planet a planet on which life can exist". Here we start to postulate things like having water in liquid form, or having a Magnetic Field, which would shield the planet from cosmic rays, or having enough mass to hold an atmosphere, or having a large Moon that helps the planet maintain a constant tilt, which keeps the climate steady and allows for the slow process of evolution to take hold.

I won’t give you all the answers, as that would spoil the fun of you, yourself, discovering them.

But, I will point out something that Gurdjieff said. He said that the "three forces of it’s own" occupied half the place… another very good clue.

Well, that should get you started. But if you need more, email me, vent me, or… read the Fourth Way 100 times 🙂

Love,

Russ

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