The third force

The meeting started by continuing the reading from Chapter 4 of Ouspensky’s book "In Search of the Miraculous", in which Gurdjieff discusses the word "world" and introduces the concept of "the third force".

Man, said Gurdjieff, "was created by the same laws which created the whole of the world. The study of the world and the study of man must therefore run parallel, one helping the other."

T mentioned the case currently in the news of Prahlad Jani, whose metabolism is being studied as he appears not to eat or drink, and says this has been the case for seventy years.

A said that one's mind affects what happens to one's body. L recalled Carolyn Myss's maxim, "Biography becomes biology". A said that she tries to avoid negative conversations with a friend who is sometimes so disposed.

Gurdjieff described a nested view of perceived worlds: "We live not in one world, but in several . . . humanity forms an inseparable part of organic life on earth, therefore it would be right to say that the world nearest to us is organic life on earth . . . But . . . for organic life our planet the earth is 'world.' . . . 'World' for the earth is the planetary world of the solar system", and so on, until "the Absolute".

A said that in politics the Greens exhibit a link between the first and third worlds.

Gurdjieff commented that the Absolute does not influence us directly, but "the influence of the next world and the . . . star world are already perfectly clear in the life of man, although they are certainly unknown to science."

(Read more on this from the book itself. An electronic version of this book is available from the link on the right.)

L pointed out that there are few who have not consulted a horoscope.

In the following lecture reported by Ouspensky, Gurdjieff turned to what he termed "the third force".

In his view, when anything happens, there are three forces in play, but "the third force is not easily accessible to direct observation and understanding", which he compares to the difficulty we would experience in perceiving a fourth spatial dimension.

The two forces we are easily aware of tend to form a balance, and there is no significant change "until the third force makes its appearance".

T gave the example of how a stable period of eighteen years of conservative government changed in 1997.

L asked if people's inability to make up their mind for the forthcoming election was an example of third force?

A said that the older voters will be the third force.

L said the third force is very hard to see, can take different forms, and might be experienced as unpleasant.

A suggested it was analogous to an electric shock. L referred to Gurdjieff's expression of a "conscious shock".