Your comparison between ‘Richard and George’ Gurdjieff is a very good example to make this difference more apparent –

Gurdjieff’s ‘self remembering’ method (bad name): ‘be aware, as often as possible, with each breath, of your thoughts, emotional reactions, actions and perceptions in the most objective impartial manner possible.’

Only at a superficial glance does Gurdjieff’s method read as being similar to the actualism method, but at closer examination you will discover that the aim of his ‘work’ is to increase ‘self’-presence in order to achieve spiritual superiority to the ordinary man – man No 1, 2 3 in contrast to developed man No 4, 5, 6 – and to more fully develop one’s soul, whereas actualism aims at ‘self’-immolation, eliminating the ‘self’, both ego and soul completely – two diametrically opposite methods aimed at producing two diametrically opposite results. To quote George –

The Work is a spiritual discipline. It carries a core of great ideas and practices, which are at the heart of all religions and all ways. This way of inner development, to be pursued by ordinary people in everyday life, has been passed down by word-of-mouth from ancient times to our own through many generations of teachers and students. It requires great self-discipline. Gurdjieff, http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/1236/index.html#thework5

Gurdjieff believed that his teachings needed to be transmitted in person so that the special energy emanating from the teacher is utilized. Vis:

The Way of Gurdjieff is an oral tradition. The understanding of his work can only be received by direct contact between teacher and pupil, and by the work of pupils together in organised groups. Under conditions of a special atmosphere of trust that can exist in such a group, people working together learn to face their own inner poverty and confusion. Working in this way, conscience is awakened along with consciousness. Consciousness, Conscience, and Sensation form the tripod upon which an integrated development of human potential must be based. Gurdjieff prepared a nucleus of people to be able to transmit his teaching after his death. Gurdjieff, http://www.bmrc.berkeley.edu/people/misc/G.html

Actualism is perfectly transmittable through words alone, no direct contact between teacher and pupil, no work of pupils together in organized groups, etc, and practicing actualists all over the world can testify to that. Actualism consists of a scientific do-it-yourself method and the website is simply an aid to any do-it-yourself-er in that it sets out the facts about the human condition, documents the experiences from practicing actualists and provides answers to the stereotypical objections from numerous spiritualists.

Once you have made up your mind that you want to make becoming happy and harmless the most important thing in your life, you no longer need to prostrate yourself to any authority, suck up on any master’s energy or wait for anybody’s blessing to get on with the ‘work’, or, as we like to call it, the only game to play in town. All the information that you need is freely available on the website and this mailing list provides the opportunity to then share your experiences in applying the method with other like-minded people, swap stories or pick their brains for useful information.

So far, not many have woken up to the immense freedom that such a non-spiritual method of disseminating information offers in marked contrast to the traditional spiritual enslavement via the master-disciple or priest-congregation relationship.

Yes, the words are obviously quite different (Vineeto!) but the action and the result are the same. Richard’s formulation is just a lot snappier.

Once you start practicing the actualism method you will find that ‘the action’ is not the same at all, because by examining every single one of your beliefs, emotions and feelings your ‘self’ will become less present, not more present as is the intention of George’s ancient method.

As for the results being the same – the Fourth Way can only produce spiritual believers because that is what it is designed for.

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