Consciousness

Initially the Meeting considered a phrase used by Gurdjieff early in Beelzebub's Tales, "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost", and what it symbolises.

The discussion then moved to consciousness.

M described consciousness as a particular kind of awareness independent of the mind's usual activities, and suggested that it is experienced by people as awareness of who they are and of what they are doing and for what purpose - a man can observe his own level of conscious awareness with self-observation and consider whether his mental processes are conforming to his best interests. Generally a man can be described as having the possibility of living in four states of consciousness, but he lives mostly in the two lower states: the sleeping state when he is asleep and the waking state when he a little more awake and is able to participate in his usual daily mechanical patterns of behaviour.