What do we mean by ‘impressions’ and the fluidity of impressions?
Fourth Way authors describe the human machine as a chemical factory subsisting on three types of food: Food and drink, air, and impressions. We can survive about a month without eating, and a few minutes without air. However, should we lack impressions, whether internal or external, we would die at once.
P.D. Ouspensky[1] mentioned that the impressions octave[2] may be quite big. Taking in more refined impressions can enhance our experience of self-remembering, or presence, in the moment. This level of refinement can be seen as a form of alchemy. Alchemy can relate to thought, emotion, movement, or instinct[3].
Work with negative emotions is one form of emotional alchemy and intimacy is quite another. They are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Intimacy implies proximity, an ability to sense and share love. Intimacy can also be with parts of oneself. We can see this in Bathsheba’s mood in the painting below.
Bathsheba at her bath, Rembrandt (1654)
External shocks can catapult us into higher states of consciousness, refining our internal alchemy. Spiritual teachers Gurdjieff[4] and Alex Horn[5] taught with often forceful, violent methods. They would administer shocks to their students. Gurdjieff is said to have loudly reproached his students. This is an example of the way of denial.
“Struggle without destruction.” Peter Ouspensky
The way of love is quite different. It allows for higher forces[6] to administer shocks. In this way the teacher is consistently kind and benevolent. The way of love indicates that all women and men, whether spiritual aspirants or not, need to constantly harness positive attitudes to face the challenges of life. The way of love enhances the fluidity of impressions. This allows alchemy to rise, while violent shocks interrupt this flow.
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” Philo[7]
With external help, through endurance and many trials, a man or a woman can cease to be mechanical. A man can learn to monitor, and eventually change, his responses to inner and outer worlds. Self-remembering, or presence, is synonymous with the ability to divide attention[8]. This division can occur with both external or internal phenomena. The growth of a spiritual aspirant is strongly connected to the ability to receive more refined impressions.
“Separate the refined from the coarse.” Hermes Trismegistus[9]
Inner growth is gradual. Initially, one experiences but a fleeting moment of consciousness in the form of an observing ‘I.’ Next, a deputy steward appears. It is able to sustain a few seconds’ attempt to be present. Later, a steward forms, able to prolong presence, with the aid of a specific prayer[10].
[1] Peter Ouspensky (1878-1947), spiritual teacher.
[2] An octave is a progression of individual steps.
[3] As a modern Fourth Way teacher assures us.
[4] George Gurdjieff (1867-1949), philosopher, mystic, and spiritual teacher.
[5] Alex Horn (1929-2007), playwright, author, and spiritual teacher.
[6] Angels—women and men who became enlightened and survived their physical death.
[7] Philo (20BC-50AD), Hellenistic philosopher.
[8] As a modern Fourth Way teacher assures us.
[9] A legendary Hellenistic-period figure.
[10] A sequence of six short utterings designed to usher in prolonged self-remembering, or presence.
The author has been a student of the Fourth Way for four decades. For other articles in the FourthWayToday magazine by Benjamin B., see: https://fourthwaytoday.org/author/benjamin-b/.