Gurdjieff’s system, in brief, holds that human beings are evolving from mammalhood to immortality. Almost all of us, he says repeatedly (and with evident joy in annoying our self-esteem), are still on the mammalian level — robots controlled by conditioning. We think we are conscious, but we aren’t. We are asleep, hypnotized, sleep-walking — the metaphors vary, but they all mean that we can’t see outside our conditioned reality-tunnel. When we begin to awaken, we perceive that the world is nothing at all like the myths and superstitions our society has imposed on us. And, if Gurdjieff’s
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