The Nature of Man – MBM, 1942 – MBM Wisdom Teachings

SUGGESTED OPENING FOR “THE NATURE OF MAN”

MBM 1942

The subject for these seven classes is, as you know from the title, a study of the nature of man.

Everyone thinks he knows something of this subject.

Daily experience with one’s self, watching others, – seeing plays and movies, – reading book reviews, – not to speak of the abundance of literature at the present time on the subject of psychology. All of these things do contribute to the general knowledge of human nature.

But the question still remains open on the fundamental veracity (or truthfulness) of that knowledge. For any knowledge, however correct it may appear in itself, – within the sphere of its own field, – may be misleading when seen in the perspective of the many subdivisions which relate to any important subject.

To put this proposition simply, – and to apply it to the subject of our classes, – the fields of anatomy, biology, and biochemistry are important in all the light they throw on the nature of man but seen alone they give no adequate picture of man.

The field of psychology, behaviorism, the enormous role of the subconscious in daily conduct, – these are of tremendous importance in understanding human nature, – but these also, – even in addition to the previously listed fields, are not enough. In fact, they mislead. As the work of the director has demonstrated over years, – there are profounder areas in the subconscious than psychologists have touched. To ignore them is to disregard the deeper or higher values of life, – which even more subtly than the subconscious, gradually shape the development of the individual soul.

But there are still other fields which study the nature of man, – and ignore the perspective of the whole.

Religion, for example, – all over the world, – speaks of man as a soul, – and you know how the preacher until recently completely ignored the psychological factors of man’snature, – and also his biological nature. ….. brought out in that tragic drama of RAIN.. .and ever since then the stage at least, – if not the churches and temples, – have had to reckon with this aspect of the nature of man, – in the theatre and in the unending procession of modern novels.

Then there is the field of spiritualism, – stressing the momentous facts of the continuity of the individual life, – usually all to enamored of the drama of intercommunication, – it, like the other departments tends to stress it own field,- as a guide to the nature of man …..

Now it is noteworthy that only as persons gradually find these various fields to be only partial that they set their feet on the trail for what Mrs. Mayer calls “whole-seeing* – or again the long-range view. It is part of the purpose of this school to supplement these partial studies of the nature of man, – and set the student’s feet on the road to whole seeing and this in turn leads, – as you doubtless know, – to much greater things …..

Let us approach our subject by listing some of the numerous ways in which the nature of man can be approached.

Man is related to the animal kingdom, possesses a physical body, – the highest species of the mamma1 type.

His abilities appear to be limited by the type and quality of his body. His nervous system, particularly his brain, are of enormous importance, etc.

Man is a human being. What is a man? (Manas, Sanskrit for mind and of the earth: humus) He has a lower nature and a higher nature.

Man is a conglomerate of psychological impressions and accumulations, a product of racial conditions, modified by environmental influence and education, etc.

Man is a soul….that is, his higher nature is from above….he is a creature of God, fallen into earth and forced to live under earthly conditions, to expiate his sins. (Parsifal)

Man is a spirit ….. which most persons drop at that point because they do not know what spirit is…and confuse it with soul…

NOW MAN IS NOT ONE OR THE OTHER OF THESE CLAIMS ….. HE IS VIRTUALLY THE SUM OF ALL OF THESE AND A NUMBER OF STILL OTHER FACTORS……

And to REALLY KNOW SOMETHING OF THE NATURE OF MAN, IT IS NECESSARY TO KEEP THE PERSPECTIVE WIDE OPEN ….. lest a local field be seen as the key to man’s nature.

In this first class we are going to try to get a better general understanding of this long range view, so that whatever we later study, the perspective will be in your minds…

For this we find confirmation in the sacred or secret Teachings of all races ….through history. …Some of this I shall now give you in an abbreviated way …..

Very briefly…. the Light Seed, spirit (compare to sun) soul, human ….. (Stressing soul and human, – because they are closer to us and therefore of more practical value.) Invite class members to get the 14 ANALOGIES between moon and soul leaflet (10 cents) …..

THE NATURE OF MAN AND HIS PSYCHOLOGY

Lecture I

Worked out by MBM

Long range and short range views of Man

The plumb line in relation to building stones

The relationship between these two for right functioning.

A vertebra in relation to spinal column

The many approaches there are to an understanding of man

Man’s two basic instincts

Three-fold man: – one view

The three primary faculties

Their relationship to the three energies of man

Relative place of the three, ordinarily, in maturity

Interpenetration – right and wrong kinds

illustrations

Which of the three have been most developed. Why?

Which should lead. Analogy of the automobile.

The uneven growth of the faculties

First work on Types

Feeling and thinking

right and wrong combinations

Ranges among the three

In ordinary use

Metaphysical range

Which type of energy predominates in the following

sympathy aestheticism boastfulness

pride observation duty

ambition fear discrimination

sensuality anger rationalization

reasoning impatience affection

skepticism

Many persons think of mind-training as an intellectual process, consisting chiefly of making the mind acuter, and of strengthening the memory. This is a grave error, for intellectuality and memory are only a small portion of the mental capacities.

Suppose we begin to list some of the sub-faculties of the Mind instead of “lumping them together” as is customary. This will also increase your regard for the versatility of the mind. Here are a few, – accompanied by a phrase to indicate their character. You should be able to double my list quite readily:

observation an attentive power

reason a progressively clarifying power

insight a penetrative power

concentration an intensive focusing power

discrimination power to evaluate differences

analysis a separating dissecting power

judgment power to reach and maintain just conclusions

theorizing power of sound orderly speculation

conception synthetic grasp of ideas

intelligence general illuminating power

intuition direct cognition of noetic realities

These are a few of the sub-faculties of the mind, and in training all of them must be taken into account, each according to its place in the whole.

From article on faculties of the mind

by MBM in LIVING. March, 1938.

For articles on the philosophical elements Water and Air

by MBM, see June and October, 1937, issues of LIVING

Lecture II

The four elements in man – another type of classification

Philosophic elements

The four rivers out of the Garden of Eden

Relation of these four to the four main fields of man’s

activities

Energy – the energic concept of life

the flow of life toward some expression

ideal vs frustrated expression

the struggle of humanity in between these two

Evolution of the soul through vast rhythms

Healthy.flow

Stopping the flow of energy

Energy ever present – in either one of two conditions

the three laws of energy

Types –

The four main elements and their corresponding types

The Tree of Life – its growth – the two basic instincts

The two attitude types – extravert and introvert

Faculty types – sensation, emotional, mental.

Jung’s intuition type added to these three

Why call it perceptive

Conscious and unconscious

The repressed faculties; how caused

First values of work with the so-called unconscious

Strengthening the weaker faculties

Lecture III

Nature of Man

Some further work on type

What is the key to type

Extroversion and introversion

Strengths of each

Weaknesses

The feeling type

the repressed faculties

strengths and weaknesses of the type

the need for rounding out

work with the transliminal

Making the behavior patterns of the self

conscious and available to conscious correction

The mental type, treated similarly

Classification of type according to Jung

Sensation ) Sensation )

Feeling )Extrovert Fueling ) Introvert

Thinking ) Thinking )

Intuition ) Intuition )

How the energy expresses itself in these types

Examples

The need for balance

The values born of the double movement

Intensification of life and dynamic change in rhythm

Among great men of history

Crisis vs Lysis

Examples

THE NATURE OF MAN AND HIS PSYCHOLOGY

Lecture IV MBM outline

General characteristics of the unconscious

Psychological definition of the unconscious

The unconscious – psychologically, philosophically

Dynamic character of memories and experiences

Indestructibility of life

Need for its transformation

Layers in the unconscious

Personal, or first “book of Records”

Collective or racial unconscious

Heritage

The threshold

Some dilemmas in the unconscious

Trauma and its results – danger in the advice, “forget it”.

Frustration and the compensatory movement in the unconscious

under natural law

Fixation

Complex

Neurosis

Phobia

Unconscious behaviors – mechanisms of the unconscious –

distorted expression of energy

Repression – fallacy of “don’t repress” – what to do?

Regression

Conversion

Compensation

Resistance

The “censor”

Inhibition

Will and will-power – vast difference between them

One of them of the mind – the other of the feelings

Conflict between wish and will

Transformation of will-power into will – a long process

Absence of will in the beginning

Control through conscious mind

The “I” principle

What aspect of the self must it increasingly serve?

Transformation of the energies – through what means?

Transforming power of the mind

THE NATURE OF MAN AND HIS PSYCHOLOGY

Lecture V MBM outline

Compensatory types of behavior

Need for finding middle path

Difficulty while attacked by dilemmas from the subconscious

Fears – the need to win release from them

Pleasure – pain vs Reality

The role of pleasure and pain in the beginning; in consciousness.

The acceptance of both

What constitutes reality?

Flights from reality

The crowd and the individual

Slow movement of the crowd – dominated by what?

The process of individuation

Faculty of imagination – the nature of this secondary faculty

Grades, qualities – in the beginning; in later stages

Positive and negative uses

True vs false imagination

The process of “truing” the imagination

The use of trued imagination in aiding the evolution of the self.

The mind

Its relation to brain

Sub-faculties of the mind

Thinking – how much is done ordinarily

Associative thinking

Conditioned thinking

Will – reference back to contrast with will-power.

THE NATURE OF MAN AND HIS PSYCHOLOGY

Lecture VI MBM outline

Review

Man’s two basic instincts

Three-fold man

Four-fold man

Man’s primary faculties

Attitudes – in relation to type

The “I” principle

Man’s genetic equipment

Long-range view of man as body, soul, spirit (nous)

Soul and its relation to spirit; to body

Analogies between spirit and sun

between soul and moon

Soul as

immediate source

linking past and present

storehouse of energy

soul consciousness

Conscious accrual of soul values

Man, know thyself

How to be done in a new way

Progressive changes in orientation

The measure of one’s understanding

The need for larger security

from the material viewpoint

from the philosophical viewpoint

the temporary quality of any lesser security

Implication of the continuity of life

THE NATURE OF MAN AND HIS PSYCHOLOGY

First Evening

Our course views the nature of man, especially the life behind the body as seen in Wisdom teaching.

The three primary faculties

nature of sensation

feeling

thinking

often confused, especially feeling and thinking

which have been most developed; why

which should lead; example of engine

Ranges among the three

in ordinary use

metaphysical ranges – overtones

Interpenetration of the faculties

harmonious

conflicting

Which type of energy predominates in the following

sympathy aestheticism boastfulness

pride observation duty

ambition fear discrimination

sensuality anger affection

desire reasoning rationalization

dislike

THE NATURE OF MAN

and his psychology

Second evening

The uneven growth of the faculties

first work on types

the subordinate faculties

Feeling and thinking

right combinations, as in tact; true kindliness

wrong combinations: prejudice, rationalization

The Four Elements

the four rivers out of the Garden of Eden

further description of each

Presence of all in the subjective as in the objective world

The Soul Node

why we are not ordinarily conscious of it

The Backdrop Curtain

Light spark; spirit; soul.

THE NATURE OF MAN

and his psychology

third evening. April 21, 1938

Man’s genetic equipment: body, soul, spirit

Man’s human equipment

meaning of human

body, heart, mind

Soul as

immediate source

linking past and present

storehouse of memory

higher soul; lower soul

soul consciousness

The four elements and their corresponding faculty types

Jung’s intuition type (add to first three)

why we call it perceptive

The tree of life, growth, and the two basic instincts

The many classifications of instincts; reducible to the two.

The two attitude types: extravert and introvert

Examples

Eight types (on basis of conscious behavior)

Conscious and unconscious

the repressed faculties; how affected

first values of work with unconscious; strengthening the

weaker faculties

Illustrations of types; discuss

politician mother of large family

jazz dancer critic

THE NATURE OF MAN AND HIS PSYCHOLOGY

Fourth Evening April 28, 1938

Extraversion and introversion

strengths of each; weaknesses

The feeling type

the repressed faculties;

strengths and weaknesses of the type;

the need for rounding out;

work with the transliminal – making the behavior patterns of the

self – conscious and available to conscious correction

some practical suggestions for helping the balance from the

conscious

The mental type, treated similarly

General characteristic* of the unconscious

psychological definition of conscious

storehouse of memories

contains the experience of all the faculties

dynamic — but shifting, unstable

the inhibited life and repressed trends

most likely to cause trouble

life cannot be destroyed; should be transformed

Layers in the unconscious

personal, or “first book of records”

collective, or racial

the primitive unconscious

heritage

Why is the “unconscious” not a desirable term?

The threshold: high, low.

illustrated by two types of speaker

THE NATURE OP MAN AND HIS PSYCHOLOGY

Fifth Evening May 5, l938

Some psychological aspects of the subconscious, and some definitions

repression: the exclusion of painful and unpleasant material

from consciousness and from expression.

seen in terms of energy. Illustration: jack-in-the-box.

Discussion of will and will-power

one of the mind; the other of the feelings.

Repression vs. compression.

The question of control, through conscious mind

the “I” principle increasingly in the service of intelligence

Transformation

Some dilemmas in the unconscious

trauma and its results

Danger in the advice to “forget it”.

frustration and the compensatory movement in the

unconscious under the natural law

complexes

fixations

neuroses

Some mechanisms of the unconscious

resistance

the “censor”

True poise, a by-product

how attained

THE NATURE OF MAM AND HIS PSYCHOLOGY

Sixth Evening May 12, 1938

Chart of some “compensatory” types of behavior

over-concern vs. sympathy

self-abasement and aggressiveness

moodiness

inferiority-superiority

Difficulty of finding the middle path while

we are attacked by dilemmas from the subconscious.

Fears

release from: e.g. St. FranciS (drastic way)

more gradual, as in assumption of responsibility

Pleasure-pain: the moulding of the personality

both in the picture

acceptance of both: reality.

The crowd and the individual

slow movement of the crowd

dominated by feeling, not intelligence

the process of individuation.

THE NATURE OP MAN AND HIS PSYCHOLOGY

Seventh Evening May 19, 1938

The Faculty of Imagination

in fantasy; associative thinking;

conditioned thinking; meeting the new with old memories

in the subconscious, perhaps unpleasant.

on the positive side, equipment of knowledge and experience

the process of “truing” the imagination; first on the physical

plane

the value of “truing” in correcting behavior patterns, and in

rounding out the weaker faculties

image making a psychic faculty; aids all the faculties.

its use in aid of the processes of evolution.

“Man, know thyself”

can now do so in a new way

the progressive changes in orientation that should result

as knowledge proceeds

the measure of your understanding is our voluntary following

of what is right and true.

The Question of Security

from the material viewpoint

from the philosophical

implication of the continuity of life.

School is for training to obtain that security

over-concern sympathy coldness

self-abasement self-respect aggressiveness

Rigid control poise disorganization

(repression) (lack of control)

Exhilaration cheerfulness depression

Extraversion flexibility introversion

GUIDING QUESTIONS to THE NATURE OF MAN AND HIS PSYCHOLOGY

What are the three basic faculties? Describe each briefly.

What is the ideal relationship among them?

What is interpenetration? Give examples of right and wrong kinds.

Give examples of human behavior indicating the domination of each of the faculties respectively.

What is type psychologically? To what is it due?

What are the four elements? To what aspects of man’s nature do they correspond?

What is the relationship of soul to spirit; of spirit to Light Spark, or Light Seed? What is the soul, and why is it not ordinarily contacted?

List some of the powers and capacities inherent in the soul.

What are the four faculty types, and how do they correspond with the four elements?

What are the two basic instincts; in what areas of the three-fold man do they operate? Illustrate.

What are the two attitude types? Characterize each. Name some of the outstanding advantages and disadvantages of the thinking and feeling types respectively.

List some of the characteristics of the unconscious.

Indicate something of its geological strata.

What are the repressed faculties? How should they be treated?

Describe in terms of the energy patterns involved, the following subconscious behaviors; repression, fixation, complex.

Name three other well known dilemmas which may occur in the subconscious.

How may this life find constructive outlet?

Compare repression and compression; will and will-power.

Define the terms resistance, censor, transformation.

Name three “compensatory” types of behavior. What is the ideal picture in each case?

Name two general ways of resolving fears.

Describe the influence of pleasure and pain in moulding the personality.

What should be the attitude toward these opposites? What is the reality principle?

What is individuation? Why is it desirable?

What is imagination, and what are its different grades?

What is meant by “truing” the imagination?

How does the work of this course help in meeting the old challenge, “Man, know thyself”?

What are the different types of security? How has this course helped you to glimpse the attainment of a lasting security?

Introductory Perspectives Course

Third Evening November 13, 1957

TOPOGRAPHY OF MAN

Outline of subject as presented by GB

Brief review of 3-fold and 4-fold man, the self. Names of Journey of evolution and goal. Adding as purpose of journey “to become wise as a god”. Allegory of the “eating of the apple.” Progress on the journey to be made, not in terms of material possessions, or position in the world, but in terms of powers and qualities.

Refer again to egg symbol indicating the 4 philosophical elements. Egg symbol old; for potentials. One design of egg symbol does not contradict another, but supplements it.

Divisions into conscious and subconscious, or unconscious, again using egg symbol. Beginning of topographical aspect. Drawing on board showing the three primary faculties in the subconscious, in the three colors, rather mixed up. I used brown, green and darkish blue, so as not to confuse with the red in the upper psychic areas of the four-fold design.

Conscious — The light of awareness that bathes the object, situation, condition of the physical; a small area at any given time. Colored dots in this area, to show awareness, now of a wish, a sensation, etc. Analogy of the iceberg.

Subconscious (or unconscious.) Reservoir of the imprints of all past experience, plus trends which remain potential, or latent. The greater part of our being.

Personality: The combination of behaviors, expressions, attitudes, as they appear on the surface — to others, and sometimes to the self. Most people know that they are more than expresses in the personality. Origin of the word, from the mask worn by the actors in the old Greek dramas. Top layer; facade. Illustration: Mary — gentle, sweet, kindly, but mental side may be less exercised. Trends less developed may be as good or better than those emphasized in the personality.

Contents of the subconscious. Class to contribute suggestions. Memories, skills, images, fantasies, likes and dislikes, our general conditioning as a result of the experiences of this life. We are now dealing with the personal subconscious, or first book of records, or first layer below the threshold of consciousness, in our topographical survey. (I omitted area of the foreconscious, but perhaps it should be mentioned.)

Iceberg analogy too static; these areas not inert, but full of energies. We never see the energy side, even with the energies of physical substance, like wind, heat of water, etc., much less here, where we are dealing with a subtler type of energy, a step away from the material world or plane. By the token that life in the subconscious is energic, dynamic, it can be transformed, to higher states, or grades; as we are doing with mechanical energies, chemical, biochemical, etc.

Collective unconscious. Treated briefly. Trends inherited from the history of the human race: instincts such as self-preservation, pugnacity, “herd” instinct; also biological drives of hunger and sex. These layers, of course, not in neat boxes. Some expressions of life that have been ascribed to the collective unconscious belong to the history of the individual soul, not the race. M.B. Mayer has said that the last word on the collective unconscious has not yet been spoken.

Deeper areas: Come nearer to the life of the soul. Drawing contains symbol of crescent moon, long used to represent soul. Soul is not complete, matured. Is to grow to fullness, to full reflection of sun — a far-off state, but movement toward can be accelerated. Is buried, for the most part, under the weight of the imprints of this life, yet sends up intimations of its own momentum. Class is asked to suggest what these might be. One answer: the religious impulse. Took the opportunity to point out difference between such expression and formal religion. Other indications: emergence of sensitivities, strength and courage, insight, innate knowledge beyond the ordinary. (Innate knowledge needed to learn skills even of earth, native powers; cf. Socrates in Meno Dialogue.)

So, the subconscious as storehouse and seed-bed; cellar with discards and buried treasure. Name subconscious. – inadequate and misleading; so also prefix un, as negative. What is forgotten is forgotten only to the conscious. Better name transliminal, for the whole area, meaning across threshold (of consciousness.)

Ways of tapping the subconscious. Class to mention a few. Hypnosis, psychoanalysis, word association. Dreams. Why dreams are best method. Less colored by the conscious; can be brought back to waking consciousness. Speak in symbolic language, but when interpreted by guide or tutor who knows this language, speak most truly and clearly of the state of the household of the self, its next steps, etc.

Grooming and cultivating the native equipment. Beneficent work of psychology if it makes for the ordering, grooming, drawing out of life in the personal subconscious; brings up the “weaker sisters” in the household, releases life tied up in fears and blockings; may promote physical health; question of interpenetration of the faculties. We want psychological health just as we want physical health, through removal of obstructions, congestions, etc. Psychological improvement is part of improving native equipment in the present life — the horizontal growth also contributes to the upward growth of the tree. (Might mention rings of annual growth in the transverse section of a tree.)

Influences from the deeper self. As the ordering of life in the upper layers proceeds, influences emerge from the deeper self. Often quite early. Draw on board a few lines moving up from moon symbol to upper layers. These are bits of gold. Perhaps some new realizations, sensitivities, perceptions, mystical experience. Not to be confused with “cosmic consciousness”, but valued as extensions from the ordinary ranges of the faculties.

Grooming of the native equipment can also be done to some extent without the aid of the subconscious. That is the aim of our subjective exercise classes. Will make an announcement about the new subjective exercise class later.^[1]

Explain why moon symbol appears in upper part of 4-fold design and in lower part of topographical division. Man more than a 2, 3 or even 4-dimensional being; so 2-dimensional directions may be a little puzzling, but not if we understand the limitation.

Question from class: Does inspiration come from these deeper areas? Ans: It may, or it may come from an outside source. There are other planes, conditions, regions of life not of the physical world, but there we touch on the subject of metaphysics, which does not come into this course.

The question of reincarnation comes up when we speak of influences from the soul’s history before the body. Memories of past lives may come up, but usually only in fragmentary form, and mixed up with images of the present life. Dangers here. The movement of life is forward, not back — what counts is what we have gained in power and quality in the previous journeyings of the soul. How do those show up in the present? More about that next week, when the subject will be heritage, inheritance and environment. Probably you have all been on this earth before, or you would not be interested in hidden knowledge. Fragments from past lives useful mainly as providing direct experience of the continuity of individual life.

The past is shut off with the birth of the body, and this is good; or we could not give the needed attention to the work of the present.

What we develop of our potentials we add to our stature — a permanent growth; the good that is not lost; the very trunk of our tree. But man’s cycle is far longer than that of the tree.

^[1] Had been asked by the School office to call attention to subjective exercise class.

THE NATURE OF MAN AND HIS PSYCHOLOGY

Three-fold man; the three primary faculties; illustrations of the differences between the physical, psychic and mental energies. Relative places of the three. Mind, or intelligence, at the wheel. Interpenetration; right kind and wrong kind

The backdrop curtain. Light spark, spirit and soul. Dismemberment. Something of types, according to dominant faculty.

Conscious and unconscious; characteristics of the unconscious.

The four elements; differences between the four-fold and the three-fold man.

The persona and its formation. Dissolving its limitations.

Extroversion and introversion.

Balancing the faculties; values of rounding out

Imagination; in service to the primary faculties; the different kinds of imagination. Psychic plane, subjective and objective.

Behaviors due to trends in the unconscious. Repressions; compensatory behaviors; complexes; compulsions; symptoms. Poise, real and spurious. How is real attained. Compression vs. repression.

The two basic instincts. Some of their derivatives

Illustrations of different types, to bring out dominance of extraversion or introversion and of the various faculties.

The question of security. Of orientation.

Pleasure + pain = reality

instability

Racial subconscious conversions

In? crowd psychology

? brain + mind

? inhibitions?

individuation

fantasy

things people do without being marked. Identification. With the idea of bringing it into the normal, average picture. re sympathy (over-concern) if it stays at sympathy it is all right

conversion

A few preliminary words about crowd psychology; or perhaps build up a little.

cut out from extra copy of Living those lists of mental faculties, so as to drive home the realization that the mind has many sub-faculties. Relation of the brain to the mind

Something about consciousness. hold to the psychology definition: “please remember we are taking it now from the psychological. Other aspects in later work.”

Re complexes: condensation, or overdeterminism.

Associative thinking; give them a moment to observe themselves at it. Not really thinking at all; it is like water running over the rocks.

Will and will-power. Familiar example of the Jack-in-the-box. Holding down takes much juice. That energy wants to come out, and it is only the look that holds it back.

Why they don’t know the soul. Illustrate with the different colored bags over the light bulb. Use either with soul or with consciousness and make cross references.

Psychological mechanisms: Inhibitions; instability keeps shifting its base. Nothing there that is solid.

Lists of some of the dilemmas of the self.

charts of behaviors to point the narrow middle path, as with identification difficult to find as long as you are attacked by dilemmas from the sub-conscious.

Making the behavior patterns of the self conscious and available to conscious correction

Idea of self-abasement. a propos of the pairs of opposites conscious and sub-conscious in chart of one side and other. The one who abases himself is sure somewhere to be aggressive or assertive, and it is a problem that concerns a good many.

racial unconscious. Also the primitive unconscious. Why is it that people who seem to be cultured are capable of becoming violently upset and go to war and kill each other.

with phantasy the flight from reality. Pleasure-pain, with the personality. Acceptance of that equals acceptance of reality.

With imagination bring in not only associative thinking, which is water running downhill, but conditioned thinking. When something is called to your mind and you have an unpleasant reaction it is because unpleasant memories of that come from the unconscious. Bring in conditioning of our emotional and mental responses. The good thing is that the more you bring to a work of art, for instance, the more you get from it. If you bring unfavorable, prejudiced reactions, then you are blocking yourself.

Prejudice.

Mannerisms: through them you can have indications of some of the things stored in the sub-conscious. Attack mannerisms as a handicap. Separate them – not all bad, not all good.

trauma — a forgotten injury to the psyche: disappointment or hurt, buried in the sub-conscious

resistances – instinctive opposition displayed toward any attempt to lay bare the unconscious. A manifestation of the repressing forces. It is the opposition that is offered to new ways of doing things. CENSOR belongs with resistances. Resistance sub-conscious mechanisms, and the censor, belong together.

End up with, Man, know thyself. That is the big thing. Now it is possible for man to know himself in an entirely new way. His whole being can now come under the health-making processes, as against man merely knowing himself consciously; and that that thing makes for security. That to really know yourself also makes for orientation. If you get to know that you are literally a soul, that helps your orientation. You are no longer just oriented to this world. If you know yourself physically you will take care of your body. If you know you have a psyche; and if you know you have soul then your orientation certainly will be different. Means continuity of individual life, etc.

If you know the role that the mind plays in the scheme of evolution, if you have any grasp of the great wonders that belong to the mind, you will have still a grander orientation. Point out the fiction of local security – there is no such thing. Idea of Schools in Ouspensky. You go to schools for this and for that. Only schools that make the doors open on these higher questions – where they will be answered. At this school things taught that are not in the ordinary school. Training usually means for things of the body or material world, oriented to time-space. This school serves you in areas where other schools cannot serve you. Where are you going to learn the facts.

re the four elements, articles in Living. have them get copies

Secondary faculties

psychic plane objective and subective. drive home that there must be a region corresponding to every state; challenge their logic on that; just as in the physical world about us.

Signs by which we may know a Shattered Persona

Elimination of mannerisms

Impersonal attitude in relationships and reactions

Subordination of self-feeling

Overcoming of type—making for true flexibility

Separation of the functions

Adaptation

Sweetness as a result of purgation and understanding

(including such qualities as tolerance, patience, humility,

cheerfulness, etc)

Orientation to the Larger

9. Demonstration of new powers — the dawn of Individuality

Maybe chart on Modifying effects of Environment