A Producer of Finer Energies
Image credit: A. Salamone
When new groups meet, there sometimes comes a question about higher states. Many people feel they have touched a higher state in the past, and often approach the Work seeking a means to reconnect.
What do we mean when we talk about higher states? There is no one answer. Often the experience is brief, with an impact that can last a lifetime. A sense of liberation, universality, completeness of being, indescribable beauty, and connection to something fathomless are just a few words pointing to these deeply meaningful experiences. As intriguing as they sound however, to ponder higher states without acknowledging the necessary preparation would, in the language of Mr. Gurdjieff, be “tramp” thinking. In the Work, it’s not possible to experience something of real value without paying for it, and payment in this case means making serious inner efforts toward the right use of energy.
The Work describes the overall purpose of human beings in terms of energy: as a receiver of complex vibrations called influences, and as a means for transforming lower energies including the food we eat, into higher energies. As individuals, we each have our own set of possibilities for inner development, but from the objective perspective brought by Mr. Gurdjieff, humanity as a whole exists to fulfill these two tasks: to receive and transform energy.
The world is permeated with vibrations. Light, sound, heat, electricity and so on are all manifestations of energy across a spectrum that ventures into the most exotic wavelengths known to science. As human beings, we meet a portion of these vibrations through our senses. We see light, we hear sound, we touch stone, and we interpret these configurations of energy in different ways. Collectively we can refer to them as the impressions of life. Our days are composed of thousands of impressions that, in an objective sense, are an intermixture of vibrations experienced over time, interpreted by a receiving apparatus I call “me.” Of course, we’re also saturated by countless vibrations lying outside the scope of our senses. We’ll stick to what’s possible to perceive.
The Work suggests that, encoded within the ordinary impressions of life, there are certain vibrations of a finer quality than what we are normally accustomed to. They may also be referred to as impressions, but impressions of a different order, perceptible if we are sufficiently sensitive to receive and interpret them. In order to do so, we have at our disposal a combination of the ordinary senses of the body, as well as the quality of our inner state (am I centered, or am I scattered?), our mind and emotions, and our capacity for awareness, among many other factors. This all impacts our receptivity. As we are, our receiver is tuned to a set of limited frequencies that serve mostly to get us through our lives: responding to inner and outer situations that arise mechanically. According to Mr. Gurdjieff, however, our available range far exceeds this category of impressions.
Back to the original question about experiencing higher states. Why are they so rare? Simply put, it’s because most of us live in a very negative world. If things aren’t going our way, our inner world is full of upset, anxiety, anger, self-loathing, and a host of other negative emotions. Mr. Gurdjieff labeled negative emotions as not only useless, providing no new information or anything of real value in terms of inner growth, but also as our single biggest waste of energy. A person experiencing negative emotions throughout the day has their energy stolen away and is complicit in the process. Worry, stress, self-pity, annoyance and the rest all sap the energy reserves that our inner factory works so hard to produce. Bigger negative emotions, like snapping at your child or arguing with your partner, are like explosions in the system, sometimes igniting all the finer energies your body has created. These episodes leave us feeling exhausted and miserable. They also make it nearly impossible to reach higher states, largely because the required type of energy for doing so has been spent elsewhere.
With sustained practice, Work on negative emotions can begin to help us conserve the finer energies we produce naturally. In time, Work on ourselves can even increase their output. These finer energies can serve as a medium of sorts, through which higher, quicker levels of attention may be experienced. It’s this repeated saturation of attention in the body, through the practices of self-observation and self-remembering, that can lead to deeper, more meaningful -- even shocking -- glimpses of myself. Glimpses like these can be thought of as impressions of a different order, which in turn can form the foundation of future Work. It’s the energy of these impressions that has the potential to bring real change to the energy transforming and receiving apparatus I call “me.”
Whether mechanical or conscious, we are made to transform energies on both an individual and a global scale. Operating mechanically, our output is minimal, and we are “used up” by reacting to the circumstances of life. In this mode, our potential for touching higher states is purely accidental and infrequent at best.
To become receptive to higher energies is to be engaged in an active inner Work with conscious attention. Observing myself and my negative compulsion is the fundamental preparation, or payment in part, for producing the energy required for approaching higher states. This experience is the right of every human being because, according to the Work, it’s what we are made for. Our potential to do so depends on the quality of our efforts, and the strength of our desire to be.