Psychological Illusions: Explorations of the G. I. Gurdjieff Fourth Way Teaching - Spiral

by Zeljka Zupanic (Author), Anita J. Mitra (Illustrator), Christopher P. Holmes (Author)

The central illusion is that we "know self." People think that they possess capacities which in reality they do not. Primary illusions concern the faculties of consciousness, the unity of I, the possession of will (the capacity to do) and the existence of the soul. The fourth way psychology begins with a study of humans as they are under the conditions of mechanical life and describes the psychology of man's possible evolution. Humans can awaken, experience higher states of consciousness, achieve a unity of "I" and will, and attain the soul. If we understand our illusions, then there is a chance of escape, of awakening and evolution. According to Beelzebub, the central character in G.'s Tales, the three-brained beings on planet Earth are microcosmoses or "similitudes of the Whole." As such, they have the possibility of not only serving local cosmic purposes, feeding the earth and moon as part of organic life on earth, but of experiencing sacred being-impulses, attaining levels of objective reason and individuality and even of "blending again with the infinite." (1950) A human being can potentially coat higher being-bodies for the life of the soul, instinctually sense cosmic truths and phenomena, and maintain existence within the subtle realms of being after death-achieving different levels of immortality. Unfortunately, humankind came to exist only in waking sleep states of automated consciousness, perceiving reality topsy-turvy, conditioned by pleasure and self love, and wasteful of their sacred sexual substances. Human beings no longer realize their deeper cosmic purposes and possibilities, or attain real "I." Psychological Illusions explores the psychology, metaphysics and cosmology of the fourth way teaching. This includes material on the Ray of Creation, the fundamental cosmic laws, the alchemical crystallization of higher being-bodies and the miraculous possibilities existing for the evolution of the individual human being.

Author Biography

Christopher P. Holmes was born in England, on October 7 1949, and raised in Ontario, Canada. He graduated with a B.A. from Carleton University, Ottawa in 1971 and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Waterloo in 1978. He taught at York University, Downsview, Ontario over an eleven year period, amidst controversy over his investigations of mystical and spiritual psychology, science and psychic phenomena. He co-founded with Anita Mitra, three centers-the Institute for Mystical and Spiritual Science, Maple, Ontario, the Rainbow Centre in Toronto, and Zero Point in the Ottawa valley. Christopher has also worked for twelve years as a forensic psychologist with young offenders and adults within the Ontario Ministry of Corrections. He currently dedicates himself to furthering the aims of Zero Point-Institute for Mystical and Spiritual Science-currently in Kemptville, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Holmes has studied widely in modern psychology and science, as well as in the mystical and spiritual traditions. In his view, the mainstream of modern thought is seriously misguided in dismissing the spiritual and soul nature of human beings, and in failing to explore the deep roots of human consciousness and the heart. Dr. Holmes explains that a science of soul and spirit must consider the physics, metaphysics and cosmology of consciousness. Most importantly, it involves self study and awakening through the alchemy of psycho-spiritual transformation. Christopher was introduced to the Gurdjieff teaching while a graduate student in clinical psychology interested in the development of consciousness within psychotherapy and in the broader nature of human psychopathology. His early years of study were focused more on the Ouspensky version of the fourth way teaching, and it was only over the following twenty years that he began to fathom the depths of Gurdjieff's masterpiece Beelzebub's Tales and to apply the study of the sacred laws to the findings, theories and philosophy of modern science.