Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Facing Our Shadow

George Gurdjieff was skilled in unmasking his followers. In one session he made everyone completely drunk and let them dance to some cosmic energies. From time to time he would call out to someone and encourage them to act out that particular role. I remember him screaming rooster to one particular guy, who responded with a loud “cock-a-doodle-doo”, and everyone rolled on the floor laughing.


When we step back a little we always can see the persona we carry around. I have a PhD and always made good use of my sharp intellect but as the years progressed I tried to specialize myself as best as a I could in the application than the theory. Deep down inside I felt that I am that intellectual ‘Herr Doktor’ persona and wanted to get as far away as possible from it. Yesterday, someone coined the phrase ‘intellectual boner’ and I almost fell of my chair laughing.


We travel our spiritual path; we interact with life—and are sometimes forced to interact against our wishes—to become aware of the mask and the amor that we carry around. A spiritual path encourages us to let go, and life is willing to provide the pull and push if we cannot do it on our own. Maybe this idea can put shadow work into a new light. We should not fear life’s temptation and should not be afraid to inspect the dark corners of our Soul. Gurdjieff’s students learned that night under the influence what they were all about; I learned something yesterday too. Maybe I should from now on introduce my heavier notes with an ‘intellectual boner alert’.

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