ZERO POINT

"The SLUGS"

On G. I. Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

Section IV

1. An Impartial Perspective on
“All the Rubbish Accumulated during the Ages in Human Mentation”

It is most important for us to understand the nature of three-brained human beings on planet Earth, as this includes ourselves–you, the reader, and I, the author. Where do we come from as human beings, and what experiences–in life and after-death–are possible for us? Gurdjieff provides an unbelievably profound alternative model of reality–including explanations concerning the creation of the Universe and the primordial cosmic laws, a perspective on complementary processes of ‘involution’ and ‘evolution,’ and a profound model of human psychology–including descriptions of the subtle make-up or composition of a human being, his various brains and being-bodies. Beelzebub’s elaborations upon these questions of the ‘science of the soul’ are totally different from anything otherwise available in contemporary psychology, philosophy and science, or within the educational system. Beelzebub labels his teachings as “objective Science,” and this includes an esoteric “science of the soul.”
Gurdjieff describes influences during his youth which formed in him:

"... an “irrepressible striving” to understand clearly the precise significance, in general, of the life process on earth of all the outward forms of breathing creatures and, in particular, of the aim of human life in the light of this interpretation." (1933, p.13) Beelzebub thus articulates Gurdjieff’s profound insights and realizations as to the true origins of breathing creatures, and the aim of human life. It all has to do with this ancient science of the soul, which Beelzebub articulates through his ultrafantastic Tales.
Gurdjieff expressed the aim of “All and Everything”–the First Series, the full title of which is Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson: An objectively impartial criticism of the life of man:

“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.” To understand the profound nature of the reality expounded by Beelzebub, it is very useful to contrast his views with those of contemporary psychology and science. This is a litmus test–to discern what is real and what is ephemeral and imaginary: what is wisdom and what is ‘rubbish.’

   Unfortunately, among your contemporary favorites, the “scientists of new format” –as Beelzebub would derisively label contemporary science practitioners and dispensers of invented theories–dismissed the idea of the existence of the human soul towards the close of the 1800's. Science adopted the views of Darwin and other Neo-Darwinian evolutionists, that human beings are simply higher primates, evolved from lower life forms through purely material processes. In this view, human beings have no soul, nor spiritual and divine nature, and are strictly material, biological beings originating from non-sentient matter.
    In reference to the most puzzling issue in contemporary science, concerning the nature of the inner “consciousness” of human beings, scientists generally accept the view that the material brain processes in the head somehow produce consciousness–and our inner awareness of being. (See Roth, The Quest to find Consciousness. Scientific American, MIND, 2004) Unfortunately, the scientists and psychologists do not understand how or where this happens, nor what this consciousness is. Instead, it is simply assumed that ‘the brain’ and ‘the mind’ are in the head, and must somehow manufacture the human consciousness of being.
    Nobel laureate, Francis Crick, a prominent ‘consciousness’ theorist or ‘wiseacre’–according to Beelzebub, articulates “the head doctrine” of modern times. #1   In his book, The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul (1995), Crick doesn’t search for a soul at all, and in fact dismisses it without even investigating such possibilities. He then explains his “astonishing hypothesis” –which is anything but “astonishing:”

The Astonishing Hypothesis is that “You,” your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assemble of nerve cells and their associated molecules. ... “You're nothing but a pack of neurons.” This hypothesis is so alien to the ideas of most people alive today that it can truly be called astonishing. (p. 3) Crick is merely restating the common belief and most basic assumption that has been the cornerstone of modern psychology and science for the past century: A human being is regarded as a material, biological and neurological being–a pack of neurons–but not as having a soul, or a spiritual and divine nature. The modern view of human consciousness is that it is simply the end product of brain processes within the head. Crick’s point is that this hypothesis is astonishing when contrasted with the popular belief in spirit and the existence of the soul.
In the ‘sciences of new format,’ life must end at death, because consciousness dies with the cessation of neurological activity within the brain. Popular science writer, Isaac Asimov, explains the modern so-called ‘scientific’ conception of human life:

“The molecules of my body, after my conception, added other molecules and arranged the whole into more and more complex forms, and in a unique fashion, not quite like the arrangement in any other living thing that ever lived. In the process, I developed, little by little, into a conscious something I call “I” that exists only as the arrangement. When the arrangement is lost forever, as it will be when I die, the ‘I’ will be lost forever, too.” (Asimov, 1981, p. 158) This is the gist of modern psychology. Human beings are purely material beings who live and die with their functioning brains. When the molecules or neurons are destroyed, consciousness is no more, and so life ends at death and the “I” is lost forever.
In the same vein, Carl Sagan elaborates such a theist viewpoint in a 1995 Psychology Today interview. Sagan states:

"... the mind is merely what the brain does. There’s nothing else, there’s no soul or psyche that’s not made out of matter, that isn’t a function of 10 to the 14th synapses in the brain." (p. 65) In this view, human beings are nothing more than the fortunate arrangements of molecules within the brain which generate the experience of consciousness and “I” for a limited period of time until they degenerate and come to an end.

    The original meaning of the word “psychology” suggested a science (or logos) of the psyche (or soul). However, the term “psyche,” which meant soul in Greek, was reinterpreted by ‘the sorry scientists’ to mean ‘mind,’ and then it was assumed that the only ‘mind’ was that in the head. Psychology in modern times is defined as “the science of behaviour and the mind,” and an understanding of the true nature of human life has been completely lost. The “head doctrine” remains the main theory of human nature and human consciousness offered by those “sorry-scientists.” Unfortunately, for “your favorites,” such “twaddle” and “rubbish” still dominates modern thought and the educational system.
    From the times of ancient Babylon, the twaddle and rubbish of intellectuals and popular thinkers, ‘wiseacres,’ has led to the dismissal of the soul, and the imaginary idea that the substances of the brain produce their famous ‘mind’ and ‘consciousness.’ The “sorry scientists” even imagine that they have, as their own cherished possession, “a conscious mind.” Beelzebub’s psychology is far deeper than the superficial assumptions and perspectives offered within the ‘sciences of new format’–as to the nature and purpose of human life.
    Furthermore , ‘scientist of new format’ consider all changes in cosmic or biological processes as constituting “evolution;” and have no understanding of how there are complementary process of “involution” and “evolution” occurring within all cosmoses. Live not only comes from below, through evolution from non-sentient matter; but it was also ‘actualized from Above’ through ‘involution.’ “Involutionary processes” in the beginning set the stage for ‘evolutionary processes’ to follow. Creation was actualized in such a manner as to allow for the possible involution and evolution of cosmic substances–including consciousness and higher being-bodies for the life of the soul.
    Modern scientists generally would agree with the statement of one such contemporary favorite science philosopher, Carl Sagan, when he declares: “As we learn more and more about the universe, there seems less and less for God to do.” (1979, p.286) However, in reality, this viewpoint is simply rubbish, and can be turned on its head–‘topsy-turvy’ perhaps. Really, the more science has advanced, the more awesome the universe appears, and always new mysteries and enigmas emerge within every department of human knowledge. Furthermore, there are profound enigmas posed by the huge masses of evidences–scientific and anecdotal–documenting all kinds of paranormal phenomena and occurrences which cannot be explained within the paradigm of modern science. There are evidences for out-of-body experiences, esp, psychokinesis, telepathy, remote viewing, near death experiences, ghosts and hauntings, reincarnation, and much more. None of this can be explained within the existing paradigm of ‘so-called’ scientific psychology and the natural sciences. The three brained-beings have not seriously begun to understand the deep origins and nature of human beings, nor the underlying processes generating and sustaining the phenomena of life. Life is far more interconnected and multi-dimensional than all the ‘sorry scientists’ of new format could ever imagine.

    In comparison with modern viewpoints, Beelzebub offers ultra-fantastic ideas concerning how creation entails the embodiment of certain primordial Sacred Cosmic Laws, and their modifications, all manifesting out of a Divine Realm of Being. These processes produce generations of causes and effects upon different planes of being, through the formation or crystallization of diverse elements. These process also turn partly inwards to produced ‘similarities-of-the-whole,’ which are then capable of further ‘evolution.’ Most importantly, the primordial Sacred Laws are actualized within the inner dimensions of human beings–in the same patterns of design as dictated by the Laws of Triamazikamno and Heptaparaparshinokh. Beelzebub actually describes how all these things happen, and how your favorites involve and evolve upon planet Earth.
    Beelzebub does not consider all human beings to “have a soul” and to be insured of everlasting life in heaven, with Mr. God. Instead, he describes most human beings as living and dying according to the same principle of Itoklanoz, which governs the life of one and two brained beings. Thus, they serve the purposes of Nature, and then the ‘I’ will disappear forever.
    However, Beelzebub explains that there is a whole other science of psychology–of the soul–and that indeed a human being might ultimately merge again with the Most, Most Holy Sun Absolute. Beelzebub offers a way of comprehending, in an objective and impartial manner, what all such things might entail. The esoteric teachings offered provide a profoundly alternative view of “All and Everything,” and help to destroy all the rubbish accumulated within human mentation through the centuries.

Footnote: 1. Elsewhere I have written extensively on this subject, and developed this critique of modern psychology and science. See Holmes, C. Within-Without from Zero Points series–Book I, entitled The Heart Doctrine: Mystical Views of the Origin and Nature of Human Consciousness. (2004)

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