Prerequisite: check those false beliefs
When students come to THEDOG, to awaken… one of the first things that Mr. Smith does, after picking them up at the airport, is to stop the car on the road – before turning down the driveway – and ask them to, symbolically, get out of the car and leave all of their belief structures, i.e., all of what they think they know, out there on the road. He does this because he wants them to be a clean sheet of paper on which objective truths can be written. He then tells them,jokingly, not to worry… that, when they leave, he will stop the car again so they can recover anything that they still believe has value.
In furtherance of this aim, one of the first video tapes that Mr. Smith asks a student to watch just in case they are still holding on to any such false beliefs, is called Critical Eye. It is a television series from 2002 that scientifically explores the origins, methods, and truths behind Acupuncture, Homeopathy, Reiki, Crystal Therapy, Gemology, Magnetic Therapy, Alien Visitations, etc.
It does the same thing to mans’ false beliefs that Gurdjieff intended to do with mans’ general beliefs, as indicated at the beginning of his book, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, which is, as he put it, “To destroy, mercilessly, without any compromises whatsoever, in the mentation and feelings of the reader, the beliefs and views, by centuries rooted in him, about everything existing in the world.”
Why do that? Well, it is almost impossible to awaken a man who is filled with false beliefs, i.e., to give truth to a man who still believes in ghosts, psychic abilities, mind reading, telepathy, horoscopes, crop circles, planetary influences, etc. So, Mr. Smith tries, from the very beginning, to help every student “kill his sacred cows.” So that he will emerge, unencumbered, without any false beliefs.
In fact, it would be a very good thing for you to watch the 2002 television series, Critical Eye, and watch it again and again, until you too are a blank sheet of paper on which Mr. Smith can write the same objective truths that will allow you to awaken.