As was described in the first part, Gurdjieff said that the aim of the Fourth Way is the birth and growth of a new individuality and real ‘I’. But what is this new birth actually?

The system also uses other terms for this birth, such as one’s “soul”, or one’s “astral body”. Gurdjieff said that a man is not born with a soul, that we have no soul to begin with. The soul has to be created. There are very rare exceptions to this, such as the great teachers of the past, but for all the rest of us, we have to work hard to create it.

The human being is designed by Nature in such a way that it can survive very well on this planet, even in difficult conditions, both physical (such as extreme climates), and psychological (such as tyrannical regimes). There is no need for a human being to awaken or to become conscious. Nature does not require this. Only survival is required by Nature.

But a human being has another possibility. This is sometimes called: “the hidden meaning of life on planet Earth”, and is built into the human machine as a principle. But it is a principle only and nothing more. It is the “seed” of which the New Testament speaks, or the “Pearl of Great Price”. But, like a seed, it has to be “planted in good soil”, nurtured, watered, and so on.

What is that “good soil”? It is precisely what is produced in oneself when one works on oneself by not identifying, not inner considering, not expressing negative emotions, not lying (in the system sense), and separating from imagination. These five things are then all necessary before we can begin to create a soul, and to succeed in these is what is meant by ‘dying’ (see First Part ).

But these efforts are not worth anything if they are not accompanied by self-remembering. In fact the whole point of these efforts is to create moments of self-remembering: for example, you notice you are identified, you remember yourself, and you stop identification. This is what is meant by ‘awakening’ (see First Part). However, this requires a certain amount of practice in remembering oneself.

The attempts at self-remembering will seem futile at first. But one must keep trying. At first, it will seem that either one cannot remember oneself, or that it is very easy and one is remembering oneself “all the time”. Both of these are false impressions, and show how Nature has a great resistance to self-remembering.

Nature requires that we survive as human beings, to maintain the human species. And it is precisely this component of our make-up that subverts self-remembering into a psychological state that avoids actual self-remembering. Either we think it is impossible and stop trying, or we think we are doing it already and stop making efforts. To see this fact of Nature within yourself is to “know you are asleep” (see First Part).

After a long period of working with these efforts, you will experience single moments of spontaneous self-remembering, separated by long periods of sleep. Like Ouspensky said, these are created by all your previous efforts. At first you will not even recognise them. But we can say that they indicate that the “seed” has started to “sprout” and that it is capable – very feebly at first and for a long time – to produce its own conscious efforts.

This is the beginning of the “soul” or the “astral body”. It is the rebirth of which Gurdjieff spoke. Over a long period, the spontaneous moments of self-remembering come more frequently.

It is not possible to say how long all these periods are for everybody because each person has a different fate and a different essence. But it is not important to know. What is important is that it happens and that progress occurs.

John Stubbs is the author of “Inner Connections”, available on Amazon.