The Witch's Advice: Get Keyed Up And Excited

A witch said to me words along the lines of, "This advice that people give about how you should be yourself and just relax is absolute rubbish. It's the surest route to nowhere. Don't relax - do the absolute opposite, get yourself all keyed up. The keyed up, emotionally turned on individual is the best the world will see. Too many people are so relaxed they never accomplish anything they want to do. They spend their lives wandering around in the equivalent of hair curlers. Ugly!" She was a female witch!

And there's some truth in what she said as we can easily turn ourselves into bundles of habits, performing the usual routine without thinking or questioning.

George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff taught along similar lines: that we are asleep and have to wake up. Most of us, he claimed, fall into an habitual way of life, which means our day-to-day activities become so repetitious that our unconscious mind can almost go off duty.

Gurdjieff went even further saying that most of us hardly have any meaningful existence as we are only a mass of impulses and emotions, which change from hour to hour. We wander about in an almost hypnotised state for most of the time with only flashes of what we could possibly become.

I also wonder about some forms of meditation and how this could turn people into almost zombies - if they don't, that is, wake themselves up properly and fully re-join this world once their session is finished.

Going back to Gurdjieff's thinking, we automatically grow and develop physically and inwardly for about 18 to 21 years. Then we stop and are on our own whereby we need to put effort into our continued development and awakeness.

We need constant stimulation, new experiences are necessary. Look how we can wake up and feel alive when we travel to new, exciting places for instance or maybe meet someone special.

It's so easy though to soon fall back into habit and routine, when time - as we know it - flies past so very quickly. Life once again becomes robotic.

What I suppose I'm saying is that perhaps we should check occasionally to make sure that we aren't simply that bundle of habits and routines acting on impulse without a second thought.

The choice is always ours. Habits can be broken or made. I remember reading how Paul McKenna suggested we should smile at least twenty times a day, even if we didn't feel like it or there is no one else about. The very act of doing so over a period can make us happier.

Life should be exciting, meaningful, a learning adventure. It's up to us to make it so, or whatever else we wish it to be. Alternatively we could simply sleep our way through our allotted years - zzzz zzzz zzzz ...

Further Reading:
Puritans Diary And The Devil Woman
How Rituals Combined With Action Can Cure Illness
The Magic Of Our Ancestors Can Bring Us Success

Switch Off The Robot And Try To Remember Oneself

Gurdjieff was of the opinion that we should try to remember oneself. He believed that during most of our lives it is the machine or the robot who sees and experiences whatever is there.

Colin Wilson told of "... how in all moments of deep happiness, we get the feeling that could be expressed: 'What, me - here?' I am not only aware of what is happening to me, but that it is happening to me."

Gurdjieff though, realised we aren't always in deep happiness mode, and asked, "Why should we experience so much, only to forget it immediately afterwards? Half our experience rolls off us like water off a duck's back. Yet experience is food, whose purpose is to enable is to evolve."

P.D. Ouspensky

Self remembering is no mean feat but, to the likes of Ouspensky, the effort was worthwhile. He wrote:

"Thus, for instance, at that time I used to like to wander through St Petersburg at night, and to sense the houses and the streets. St Petersburg is full of strange sensations. Houses, especially old houses, were quite alive; I all but spoke to them. There was no imagination in it. I did not think of anything, I simply walked along while trying to remember myself and looked about; the sensations came by themselves."

I guess the suggestion is that we should try to wake up - properly - and become more aware.

Lots of what we do is carried out without proper thought, almost with robot like routine. I realised this again the other day when I had been out somewhere in my car and then for a moment wasn't too sure where I was on my journey. I had no awareness of having driven a certain distance. We tend to do so much on automatic while the real us is hidden below the surface.

So, like Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, we should perhaps make an effort to remember oneself. Just thought I'd mention it while I remember ...

Other 67 Not Out Posts:
Gurdjieff Transmitting And Receiving Energy
Get Keyed Up Said The Witch And Gurdjieff Agrees
How The Witch Raised A Dead Woman From Her Grave

Gurdjieff Transmitting And Receiving Energy

I've always been interested in human energy and if it can be controlled or increased. I feel we could all live much, much longer lives if we could properly unravel the secret of prana or chi - as some call this energy.

This came to mind recently when researching more on George Ivanovitch Gurdijieff. I mentioned him in my post Get Keyed Up Said The Witch And Gurdjieff Agrees. He's the bloke who reckoned that we mostly sleep our way through life on automatic.

What I came across was that Gurdjieff appears to have been able to control this energy to revitalise himself and others. The following is a piece from Fritz Peters, who met up with Gurdjieff while he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"When we reached Gurdjieff's apartment, he led me down a long hall to a dark bedroom, indicated the bed, told me to lie down and said, 'This is your room for as long as you need it.'

I laid down on the bed and he left the room but did not close the door. I felt such enormous relief and such excitement at seeing him that I began to cry uncontrollably and then my head began to pound. I could not rest and walked to the kitchen where I found him sitting at the table.

He looked alarmed when he saw me, and asked what was wrong. I said I needed some aspirin or something for my headache, but he shook his head, stood up, and pointed to the other chair by the table.

'No medicine,' he said firmly, 'I give you coffee. Drink as hot as you can.'

I sat at the table while he heated the coffee and then served it to me. He then walked across the small room to stand in front of the refrigerator and watched me. I could not take my eyes off him.

I remember being slumped over the table, sipping at my coffee, when I began to feel a strange uprising of energy within myself - I stared at him, automatically straightened up, and it was as if a violent electric blue light emanated from him and entered into me. As this happened, I could feel the tiredness drain out of me, but at the same moment his body slumped and it was as if he had been drained of life.

I looked at him, amazed, and when he saw me sitting erect, smiling and full of energy, he said quickly: 'You are all right now - watch food on stove - I must go.'

There was something urgent in his voice and I leaped to my feet to help him but he waved me away and limped to his room.

I was convinced that he knew how to transmit energy from himself to others.

It also became obvious within the next few minutes that he knew how to renew his own energy quickly. I was amazed when he returned to the kitchen to see the change in him: he looked like a young man again, alert, smiling and full of good spirits."

Gurdjieff had learned how to transmit and receive energy. If one man can do this so can we all.

Energy takes us into the world perhaps of Chakras and the like within the body. There is a lot of information on this on the Internet so I'm not about to dish up a recipe. But if we can take the time to learn to fully wake up, who knows, we may just find the secret to lasting health and extremely long lives.

Further Reading:
Slow Down Your Heartbeats To Live Longer
Gey Keyed Up Said The Witch And Gurdjieff Agrees

Get Keyed Up Said The Witch And Gurdjieff Agrees

A witch once said to me words along the lines of, "This advice that people give about how you should be yourself and just relax is absolute rubbish. It's the surest route to nowhere. Don't relax - do the absolute opposite, get yourself all keyed up. The keyed up, emotionally turned on individual is the best the world will see. Too many people are so relaxed they never accomplish anything they want to do. They spend their lives wandering around in the equivalent of hair curlers. Ugly!" She was a female witch!

And there's some truth in what she said as we can easily turn ourselves into bundles of habits, performing the usual routine without thinking or questioning.

George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff taught along similar lines: that we are asleep and have to wake up. Most of us, he claimed, fall into an habitual way of life, which means our day-to-day activities become so repetitious that our subconscious can almost go off duty.

Gurdjieff went even further saying that most of us hardly have any meaningful existence as we are only a mass of impulses and emotions, which change from hour to hour. We wander about in an almost hypnotised state for most of the time with only flashes of what we could possibly become.

I also wonder about some forms of meditation and how this could turn people into almost zombies - if they don't, that is, wake themselves up properly and fully re-join this world once their session is finished.

Going back to Gurdjieff's thinking, we automatically grow and develop physically and inwardly for about 18 to 21 years. Then we stop and are on our own whereby we need to put effort into our continued development and awakeness.

We need constant stimulation, new experiences are necessary. Look how we can wake up and feel alive when we travel to new, exciting places for instance or maybe meet someone special.

It's so easy though to soon fall back into habit and routine, when time - as we know it - flies past so very quickly. Life once again becomes robotic.

What I suppose I'm saying is that perhaps we should check occasionally to make sure that we aren't simply a bundle of habits and routines acting on impulse without a second thought.

The choice is always ours. Habits can be broken or made. I remember reading how Paul McKenna suggested we should smile at least twenty times a day, even if we didn't feel like it or there is no one else about. The very act of doing so over a period can make us happier.

Life should be exciting, meaningful, a learning adventure. It's up to us to make it so, or whatever else we wish it to be. Alternatively we could simply sleep our way through our allotted years - zzzz zzzz zzzz ...

Further Reading:
Puritans Diary And The Devil Woman
How Rituals Combined With Action Can Cure Illness
The Magic Of Our Ancestors Can Bring Us Success