Beginning Here and Now: Introductory

Lectures
Human Machine
Category: Beginning Here and Now
Written by Gnostic Instructor

If we open the eyes of our imagination and reflect upon the

incredible sophistication of this human organism, and vividly
imagine all of the intricate systems within it that are interrelated
and interdependent, that constitute the organism we inhabit, we
see a very complex, very beautiful machine that functions without
our direct intervention or without our direct will. We see the
marvelous processes of our digestion, of our circulatory system,
of the endocrine system, and all the other processes that make
possible this very moment that we are experiencing. The
organism that we are all seated within is constantly active, with
many processes and transformations - about which we remain
unaware - but whose marvelous power is evident and undeniable.
In some corners of our science and wisdom, we've heard it
stated that the human organism is comparable to an iceberg,
which as you know, rests in the waters of the ocean, and only a
very small percent of that structure is visible from the surface.
The majority of it is submerged and hidden from the eyes of the
flesh. Our human organism is no different. What we perceive
with our physical eyes is only a small percentage of the structure that constitutes our physiology,
and importantly, our psychology. In order for us to truly understand our place in the universe, it
is essential for us to understand this organism that we inhabit, and its purpose.
If we again call upon the spectacular powers of our imagination, and we look with our mind's eye
at the entirety of this planet, we can see a huge globe that has a very thin film, or skin, wrapped
around its surface. And within and upon that thin layer of life interact a multitude of organisms of
varying degrees of sophistication and power. With our imagination we can see that all of those
organisms, each in its own way, contributes to the economy and health of the organism upon
which we all live. All of the minerals, plants, and animals constitute the organs of this Earth, or in
other words, devices or machines that perform particular tasks.
By means of analogy we can see a comparable situation within our own body, when we see the
systems that manage our own health and life. The organs perform specific tasks in harmony

with other organs and other systems. So, within this analogy, we can refer back again to the
Earth, and see how all the plants and trees perform a particular function, which must remain in
harmony with the functions performed by the animals, or by the minerals. We know in modern
science that within any given ecosystem there is a very delicate balance that nature manages.
When an ecosystem is left on its own, without the interference of external forces, such as man,
that ecosystem - with a delicate, careful orchestration of all its parts: minerals, plants and
animals - achieves a process of development, a certain kind of balance within which each of
those component parts contributes to the health of the whole. In that way, we can see that each
of the different creatures upon this planet contribute to the reciprocal nourishment of the system
within which they live.
Naturally, in these times we find a striking exception to this cohesive, pervasive system. The
exception is us.
We, as organisms that populate the face of this planet, do not contribute in a beneficial way to
the ecosystems we inhabit. Instead, we unbalance them. We create disequilibrium in each
ecosystem that we inhabit. The consequences of this are becoming more and more evident with
each day that passes. This situation, as dire as it may be, is only a reflection of its source,
which is the disequilibrium of our own psyche.
There is a great deal of attention being paid to the consequences of our actions in the
environment in which we live. In these times, there are groups raising the alarm about pollution,
about global warming, about nuclear waste, and many of the other problems that afflict this
Earth. Yet, none of these problems can be solved as long as the source of the problem remains
as it is: that source is our own mind. Therefore, this is the point of the Gnostic teaching: to go to
the source and deal with the cause, so that the effect will in turn be nullified.
So, returning to the analysis of our own inner cosmos, the physical body, we can see that this
structure is really formidable. It is truly incomprehensible to our current mind, because of its
great beauty and its great sophistication. And really, we don't need to do much to maintain its
existence. We have certain procedures that we have to follow in order to sustain our life to some
measure of health. These include eating, drinking, and breathing. But there is more to health
than that.
Really, this organism has a purpose, and has functions that we barely suspect. When we look at
the systems of this body, we see that it has a collection of glands, and a collection that we call
the nervous system, which can be divided in various ways. These systems are intermediaries,
meaning that they are transformers. They receive, transform, and transmit energies.

The human organism is a machine. Like any machine, it has a function. That function is to work
with matter and energy in order to achieve a particular goal. But unfortunately, we are not aware
of the function of our machine or its purpose.
When we look at plants and animals and minerals, we can surmise to some degree a percentage
of their functions, and how they ingest, transform, and transmit energy. The human organism is
no exception. We take in a great number of energetic influences: food, air, water and
impressions. All of these types of food are constantly entering into our organism. Then our
organism transforms those energies, and transmits the altered result back out. So, why is that?
When we observe how plants, for example, receive solar light, water, and minerals, we can see
on a physical level how they transform those elements and release the changed elements. Those
changed elements in turn will benefit the system that the plant inhabits. So, a plant, for example,
will ingest certain gaseous elements and then release others. This in turn benefits its
environment. The human organism in its base function is the same: the human organism is a

machine that transforms energy in order to nourish the Earth.

But unfortunately, this machine has become corrupt. The machine has developed a very severe
problem. Now, instead of contributing to the nourishment of the planet and the nourishment of
our ecosystem, we are destroying it.
The way that the human machine lives is as a machine: a mechanical vehicle that behaves
according to a pre-programmed behavior. A machine takes in certain elements and releases
others without any cognizance whatsoever of what it is doing or why. A machine has no
consciousness of what it is doing. Unfortunately, we can see this lack of consciousness in the
behavior of humanity: all we need do is look at how we are polluting our waters, our air, our food,
our homes, our bodies and our minds. The catastrophes that are happening to us were made by
us, and yet we continue creating them: this is a serious lack of consciousness of our own
actions.
We can see this lack of consciousness in the way we move in groups, motivated by impulses
that we scarcely perceive. Unfortunately, in these times, this mechanical behavior has entered
into a very disturbing phase.

The Birth of the "I"

In any normal situation, the human organism would contribute in a beneficial way to its
environment in the way that it receives, transforms, and transmits energy. It would benefit all of
the creatures that exist around it. In ancient times, this was the case. The beneficial status of
the human organism in nature is symbolized in the Bible by the great peacefulness and
reciprocal health found in the Garden of Eden.
But unfortunately, there was a certain error that occurred when the human machines of that age
[Lemuria] began to realize that they were simply machines, without a grand purpose. When that
realization began to occur to that ancient humanity, they became despaired and questioned the
purpose of life; they were near to committing a kind of mass suicide. And so, in order to
advance the process of the evolution of the species and prevent that despair from becoming
prohibitive, the guides of humanity placed within the organism a new organ, an organ which, in
the evolution of any human race, is always placed within the body in order to develop the
relationship between the organism and its environment. This organ is called the Kundabuffer.
At that time, the Kundabuffer, being introduced into the human organism, intensified the
organisms perception of physical matter by means of stronger physical sensations. This helped
that ancient race forget their worries about being mere machines. This new organ gave them the
appreciation for the environment in which they lived. But unfortunately, due to certain karmic
influences, when the guides of humanity finally removed this organ so the evolution of this
species would continue, a certain shadow remained, a shadow of that intensified sensation: an
attraction towards energy and matter. It is from this shadow that desire emerged: the "I"
emerged, the ego, the desire for sensation.

Since that time, such a long time ago, the "I" has developed. This ego, this shadow, has become
grotesque, and has in fact, infected the entire psyche of humanity. It has become a multiplicity
of illnesses: sicknesses and diseases that we call pride, lust, envy, laziness, jealousy, gluttony,
greed, and hate. This "I," this shadow, has infected our entire psyche. And now, with this
persistent desire or craving for sensation, the human machine has become enslaved by the lust
for sensations. Thus, the "I" has made the human machine worse than any animal. The human
machine now only seeks its own satisfaction at any expense. And this is why we see human
organisms who, in their craving for sensation, will poison themselves, will destroy their own
psychology and physiology with drugs, alcohol, fornication, and more, simply because of the
craving for sensation. Desire. Therefore, in this state, the human organism is no longer
contributing to the reciprocal nourishment of its environment. The human machine is instead
destroying itself and everything around it.

The Five Centers

There is a clue that will help us to transform this situation. Firstly, we recognize that the biological
machine is directed by that energy or force that we call consciousness. The state of
consciousness determines the state of the organism. This is so because it is the state of
consciousness that determines how the human machine transforms energy. An angry person
wastes enormous energy trying to satisfy anger. A lustful person wastes enormous energy trying
to satisfy lust. A happy person uses energy in a different way, depending upon the cause of the
happiness. A loving person uses their energy to benefit others. Thus, if we take this
understanding practically, we can see that if we learn how to manage the consciousness, we can
manage energy better. But for that, we need to know how energy processes through our psyche.

When we look closely at our own psychology, we

can see that all of the different psychological
manifestations that we experience can be
understood as having certain qualities. Or, in
other words, they occur according to a certain
organization in the psyche. In the occult
tradition, or hidden traditions of humanity, we look
at the human psyche as having five fundamental
psychological centers. These are aspects of
psychological manifestations - how our own
psyche works. These five centers are:
the intellectual
the emotional
the motor
the instinctual
the sexual

Each of these five centers completely pervades

the organism. And yet, if we observe ourselves
we can see that they each have a particular
center of gravity - a root location or relationship
with a specific part of the body.
The intellectual center has its center of gravity in the brain.
The emotional center has its center of gravity in the chest, the solar plexus and the heart.
The motor center has its center of gravity at the top of the spine.
The instinctual center has its center of gravity at the base of the spine.
The sexual center has its center of gravity in the sexual organs.

Each one of these centers has specific functions and capacities.

It is clear when we observe ourselves that the intellectual center is the part of our psyche related
to thought, to the process of reasoning and the process of thinking. Nowadays science
presumes that our entire intelligence is simply in the brain. But, we state in this tradition that the
brain is simply the seat of the intellectual center, while it also contributes to other centers in the
body. But the brain is not the mind. Neither is it the intellect itself, it is simply the vehicle of the
mind.
The emotional center is the part of our psyche where our feelings process: feelings of like and
dislike, feelings of any sort of emotional quality - joy or despair.
The motor center, or the center of movement - related to the top of the spine - is where we
develop and acquire the abilities we have with our physical body. When we learn how to type, or

we learn how to ride a bicycle, that is the process of training the motor center, and giving it that
skill, which it then just repeats when needed.
The instinctual center, which has its center of gravity at the base of the spine, is the root
psychological component within which we find many of our animal or automatic behaviors. This
includes the instinct of self-preservation, the instinct to fight or to run. Many base instincts are
rooted in this part of the psyche.
Finally, we have the sexual center, related to the sexual organs. In this center, we have all of the
sexual impulses that motivate the entire psyche.
When we begin this process of learning about our psyche, learning about ourselves, and trying
to comprehend how our mind functions, it becomes evident that each of these five centers has
its own particular functions, and a great variety of speed. It is assumed in this modern world that
the intellect is the most superior of these centers. It is assumed that the intellect is the fastest,
that it has the most power, and is the best or most important part of us. But, actually, this is not
so, and can be easily observed. The intellectual is the slowest of all the centers. When you
begin to seriously self-observe and become mindful of your psyche from moment to moment,
you will quickly encounter this fact. The emotional center is faster than intellect. The motorinstinctive center is faster than intellect. The sexual center is faster than intellect. All of these
components of our psyche move at much greater speeds than our intellect.
This can be shown in many examples. When you are driving your car, and someone leaps in
front of you, who in your psyche acts first? Instinct, motor, emotion. All of these components
arise well before you can even think about what has happened. Before any thought comes, you
will have reacted [and moved the car] and felt that surge of emotion: fear or concern. Then, only
afterward, will the thoughts come.
In actual fact, we can see that the intellect is the slowest center. A little bit faster, about 30,000
times faster, are the motor and instinctive centers. And these two function at comparable
speeds. But nonetheless, they are 30,000 times faster than the intellect. And faster still is the
emotional center, which is another 30,000 times than the motor and instinctive.
And yet, clearly, the most rapid, the most potent center of all, is the sexual. It is with good cause
that Freud stated that sex is the center of gravity of the human mind. It is the central axis upon
which our psyche functions. This is an undeniable fact. It is for this reason that true religion,
true spirituality, is always rooted in sexuality. The sexual brain, or sexual center, has the singular
power of being able to transform any other center, to completely revolutionize the organism. The
center with the most potency, power, the most force, the greatest capacity to create an impulse,
or a movement in a person, is the sexual center. It is the fastest and the deepest. And, it is the
most difficult to control.
When we learn about these centers in our observations, we realize that they all rely on a kind of
duality. "For and against," or "yes and no." The intellect develops ideas: thesis and antithesis.

Ideas or and ideas against. The emotional center feels emotional qualities that are either
pleasant or unpleasant. We find the same dualism in the sexual center, with attraction and
repulsion. So we can see that all of these centers register both positive and negative energies.
But they are in themselves simply machines. Each center is simple a transformer. Each one
simply takes given energies, transforms them, and transmits the result.
Then, as a student of any religion, it becomes vital for us to know: where do those energies
come from, how do we transform them, and how do we transmit them? We have to know and
see and understand how impulses arise in our mind. Where do our thoughts come from? Why
do we think the things that we do? Are these thoughts our own thoughts, or are they someone
else's? The same is true of our emotions: what emotions arise in us from moment to moment,
day to day? Why? What stimulates them? What are the energies, the influences that are
affecting our emotional center? And how are we transforming those influences? And how in
turn, are we transmitting emotional energy out of ourselves? By observing and analyzing
constantly, consciously, from moment to moment, these five centers, we can start to grasp
something of our true state, and our true purpose.
The most important of these centers is the sexual. It becomes somewhat easy to observe and
analyze the process of thinking. And with a certain amount of effort, it becomes somewhat easy
to control the process of thought, to even arrest thought. But it becomes more difficult when we
try to do the same with our motor-instinctive center. And yet, even here, we can achieve a
certain degree of control when we learn, or unlearn, certain habits. But when we try to approach
the emotional center, the difficulties become immense because the emotional center is so fast
and so strong. If you have ever tried to control your anger, you know what I am talking about.
Emotions are very powerful. And yet, they are less powerful than the sexual impulses. The most
difficult center to control is the sexual center. It is the single most potent, powerful source of
energy within our organism. And it is the most difficult to be consciously in charge of. The
sexual center works so fast and with so much energy, that generally we are just slaves to it. The
sexual center can identify a sexual complement almost instantly. Faster than we can think about
it, faster than we can feel any emotion, faster than we can act through our motor or instinctive
centers, the sexual center will be able to identify a person that we find attractive before we can
exercise any of our own will. And you can observe this in yourself at any moment. After this
lecture, you may find yourself outside and discover how fast sexual attraction or sexual repulsion
can arise, before thought, before emotion, before any motor action - even before instinct. And
this of course, is the great difficulty. As the most potent center in the human organism, it is the
greatest source of power that we have.
This is why all the great religions and mystical traditions rely upon the sexual center as their
source of power, the source of transformation, of rebirth. But to do that requires that we gain
control over this center. The sexual instinct is the greatest urge that we will ever feel. The sexual
instinct completely dominates the rest of the mind. It completely dominates the entire organism.
Of all of our thousands of desires, of all of our millions of cravings, none can overcome the
sexual one. It is the central desire. The desire for money, the desire for fame, for children, for

properties, for recognition, for respect, all of these are secondary behind the sexual desire. No
desire is greater than the sexual one.
When we look closely at the world, we can see two fundamental factors that produce impulses
and motivations in the psyche of mankind: sex and ego. This is why the world is in the state that
it is - because these two impulses are not being consciously managed. Instead, sexual desire
and egotistical desire have completely gained control over the entire human machine. Now the
human organisms run around from here to there, doing all of their activities firstly driven by
sexual desire, and secondly by egotistical desire: by pride, by anger, by envy, by jealously, by
fear.
Swami Sivananda wrote a very interesting paragraph about this. He said:

Man has degraded himself to a great degree by becoming a puppet of passion.

Alas, he has become an imitative machine. He has lost his power of discrimination.
He has sunk into the most abject form of slavery. What a sad state. What a
lamentable plight indeed. If he wishes to regain his lost divine state and Brahmic
glory, his whole being must be transformed. His sex desire must be completely
transmuted by sublime, divine thoughts, and regular meditation. Transmutation of
the sex desire is a very potent, effacious [sic] and satisfactory way to realize eternal
bliss.
When we return again to utilizing the power of our imagination as we did in the beginning of this
lecture, and visualize and imagine this vast planet, covered with all the existing organisms, and
we see humanity as one organism, one functioning organ in that body of the Earth, we can see
that organ is diseased, cancerous, very sick. And this is very sad. That sickness, that illness, is
egotistical desire, which has many faces - faces of lust, faces of pride, faces of fear, faces of
hate. That diseased organ is receiving and transforming energies and producing filth: filth that is
polluting the environment, polluting the earth, and polluting itself - polluting its own organism. And
yet, the possibility exists to transform it.

Sexual Power
From the sexual power comes our destiny. As we use our sexual energy, so do we determine
our future.
If we look at humanity now as that organ on the face of the Earth, and we analyze its use of
sexual energy, we can see that that sexual functionalism has been entirely rooted in desire, in
egotistical desire and lust, we can see what the human organism has become: worse than an
animal, fighting to survive, having no knowledge of the future, no knowledge of its own actions,
no knowledge of its own true nature, living in fear, living in terror, consumed by stress, raging
lusts, and by doubt. The human organism is afflicted with all manner of illnesses, both
psychological and physical. The human organism is largely unable to produce great art, great

joy, great insight, but instead just imitates; for the human machines of these times, creating is
hard, but destroying is easy. There have been some exceptions, thankfully, but in general, the
human organism is degenerating. Our society is becoming worse. As much as we invent, as
much as we theorize, suffering is increasing. The complications of life are becoming more
complex. Our environment is struggling to stay afloat. Our human population is consuming itself
with hatred, with fear, and with the fires of passion.
Within the sexual center resides the power to change that.
That power is called kundalini. In the Bible, it is called the Holy
Spirit. This is a sexual fire. The transmuted energy of that
center made pure and harnessed by will can purify the mind,
clean the mind of the ego, and resolve the equation of life.
This is the divine fire that forms the halo over any angel, that
rests over the heads of the Apostles, the fire in the face of the
prophet, the creative fire that inspires the master artists and
composers, the fire that fuels the music of Beethoven.
But unfortunately, our five centers are infected with a disease:
the disease of the "I" - the ego. That "I," that ego, must be
removed, must be cleansed from the psyche in order for that
divine fire to have its full expression. And fortunately, it is that divine fire itself which provides the
means to do it. When the sexual energy is controlled and transformed by conscious will, that
energy can be directed, focused, controlled. It is that capacity that gives us the power to
conquer desire, to conquer the ego.
At the moment, our consciousness is trapped inside the ego. We are constantly buffeted with
desires: in the intellect, in the emotional center, in the sexual center. And we willingly remain
enslaved to those things.
Some spiritually-minded people enter into the process of trying to control the mind, to calm the
mind, to work on the ego. They learn meditation, they learn mindfulness. But, after some time,
even though they may have experienced some moments of peace, they find that their
fundamental tendencies or problems remain just as strong. This is because meditation or
mindfulness alone cannot destroy the ego. The only way to completely eradicate the ego is by
harnessing the sexual fire, by harnessing that divine power. This is the fire of Shakti, of Tuumo,
the Divine Mother, the great wisdom-force, which is the power of Athena, of Minerva, the
goddess.
To successfully accomplish this kind of radical psychological change, we first need to learn
about how our own psyche functions, because no element can be removed from our mind until
we have understood it.

If you wish to untie a knot, you must first know how it was tied. - Buddha

We cannot become free of a mistake until we have understood the mistake, until we have
comprehended why it is a mistake.

Psychic Influences
Each of these five centers is always receiving and transforming influences. There are two great
sources for these influences that we need to be immediately concerned with.
The first are all the radiations that are entering into us from outside, all the influences that are
affecting us from outside the organism. These radiations or energetic influences arrive from a
variety of sources. The most widespread and difficult to perceive are cosmic. These are
radiations that arrive to our planet from other stellar bodies, which exercise an influence over our
psyches.
We know that the Moon in its movement influences all manner of processes on the Earth: the
tides, gestation, conception, and menstruation. When we consider that the physical body is
comprised mostly of water, then we can see that the same way the Moon affects the oceans, it
also affects the body. Unfortunately, we are so asleep that we are not aware of that influence.
But it is not simply the Moon that affects us. The movement of other stellar bodies radiates
energies that influence our psyche. This is why we have one of the most ancient sciences of our
entire humanity, which is astrology, which unfortunately, in these times, has lost its true use or
function, which is to help us be aware of stellar influences so that we can establish control of
ourselves. Nowadays, it is usually used for fortunetelling, or to give us an excuse for our bad
habits.
According to the Gnostic teachings, we can see that humanity in its collective mind is moved
about by some of these cosmic influences. The great world wars were partly due to karma, but
also influenced by these stellar forces, which moved the human beings to become crazy, to
become maddened, and to enter into war - to kill each other, and to have all kinds of elaborate
justifications for their brutality.
On the other hand, the powerful interest in spirituality and sexuality that began in the sixties and
continues to deepen is due to the influence of Aquarius. This is a powerful force that, if received
consciously and carefully, can revolutionize our entire being. But if it is received mechanically
and by our desires, it will destroy us.

The second influence is the ego, the "I." Once again, we remain asleep, unconscious, unaware
of how our ego stimulates our movements, our thoughts, our feelings. Really, the purpose of
these studies is to become conscious of what we are unconscious of. In other words, we seek
to make the unconsciousness conscious.
As we are now, we don't really, truthfully know why we do most of what we do. Much of the time,
the type of job that we do, the type of education we receive, the type of friends that we have, are
all motivated by certain unconscious causes about which we ignore. Life just happens to us, and
we find keep finding ourselves in places we did not intend to go.
We do all kinds of things in life that in our hearts we don't really want to do. But we do them
because of all these influences from the ego. Maybe we want to be accepted, maybe we want
others to admire us. Maybe we want respect. Maybe we want power. But of course, the most
powerful motivation is sexual. Much of what we do in fact, perhaps all, is motivated by the desire
for sex, or sexual fulfillment. We have these mistaken notions that if we dress a certain way,
have a certain level of education and a certain amount of money in the bank, we will sexually
attractive. If we have a certain type of body, or wear a certain hairstyle, then we will be sexually
attractive. Or if we have a certain level of education, or a certain accent.
We mistakenly believe many things like this, so we live our lives trying to acquire them. This is
why people have plastic surgery, and this is why we live like rats in a cage, trying to acquire
certain positions in society, or in business, completely enslaved by desires that we don't even
see in our own minds. All of these influences make us very foolish, because they constantly
change.
The problem with the ego is that, not only does it produce suffering and karma, but it has no
individuality, no consistent will. This is why on one day, when affected by particular influences both environmental and psychological - and a particular ego is brought to the front, we believe
we are in love with a person. We feel so much love in our heart, and we feel it in our thoughts,
and in our body, and we feel it sexually. But later, a different "I" comes to the front, and
suddenly we hate that person, we abhor them - they disgust us. And later, maybe a different "I"

comes and we feel indifferent, we don't care about them at all. It is this form of inconsistency
that gives us the clue, or the doorway through which we can see that the "I" is not one I, but
many "I's."
In the Bible, its name is "Legion." In the Gospels, Jesus
encounters a possessed man who says "My name is Legion." This
story symbolizes how we are possessed by a legion of "I's," a
legion of desires: all the egos that surge in our psyche, buffeted
and summoned by influences, both internal and external.
We can see this as well when we come around certain types of
people. When alone, we may not feel the urge to drink. However,
if we have friends who drink, and we are around them, that urge
arises very strongly, and we find that we want to drink. This shows
how the influence of the psyche of those friends calls up from our
own submerged depths that desire for intoxication, or the desire to
be included and respected. And then, later, when we are away
from those friends, that desire goes away, and we no longer see it. It is still there, in the depths
of the mind, but it is submerged.
We find that being in certain environments, in one neighborhood or a given city, or in the
country, entirely different elements emerge from within the mind. If you go to a bar, certain
elements in your mind are brought up by that influence. If you to a church, totally different
elements arise. If you go to a shopping mall, an entire new range of "I's" will emerge from the
subconscious, called out by that influence. If you watch certain television shows, or certain
movies, or read certain books, each one will stimulate and bring up different "I's."
In every case, these "I's" trap energy, they trap consciousness, and they push the human
machine to feed the "I," to make the "I" stronger.
When alone, we may not feel any desire for money, but if we come in close contact with a rich
person, that desire will be stimulated. That urge to work hard, to make money, will come up very
strong. It is not necessarily our will, but the will of that "I," that ego. So long as we remain
exposed to that environmental influence, and so long as we continue to feed that "I," it will get
stronger, it will feed itself through the human machine so that particular "I" can dominate the
machine more and more. The end result is that we give up our own will. We give up our right to
live responsibly.
Therefore, the purpose of this type of teaching is to learn how to eliminate this legion. We want
to free ourselves from the psychological slavery that we live within. We want to liberate our will
from desire so that we can act freely, responsibly - consciously - for the benefit of all. We want
to renounce selfish desire so we can comprehend and become conscious of how to benefit
others.

Therefore, it is important for us to deeply study the "I", to become cognizant of ourselves, our
decisions, to learn how to consciously control the five centers of our machine, and to
consciously direct the forces of sex in order to dominate the rest of the centers. So in turn, we
need to learn about these centers and how they function. We need to learn about ourselves,
become conscious of ourselves. We need to be self-observant.

Self-observation
When we are faced with any given situation, it is important to separate ourselves, to become
conscious of ourselves. We need to analyze the situation and ask ourselves: how is this
situation affecting me? Why is my neighbor reacting so differently?
Some people will only relate to a given situation through their intellect, and will rationalize and
reason.
Some will react through their emotional center and react in a way determined by their feelings.
Some will react automatically, habitually, instinctually.
So we can see then that we have certain habits of tendencies in our psyche.
Many of us are very intellectual in the way we relate to everything. We have to have good
reasons, wee need certain ideas in place before we can do something.
Many of us are very emotional in the way we deal with life, we rely on how we feel about
something, and are driven by the impulse of our emotion.
Many of us are simply reactive - acting habitually, mechanically, without any thought. And this is
why we see some people perform an action before they've really thought about it, or understood
how they felt. Only later do they realize, "I shouldn't have done that," or "That was a mistake."
So, it is important for us to take pause and observe ourselves, to study our mind. But most
importantly, we must comprehend our use of sexual energy. We must become deeply cognizant
of how we use this energy, not only through sexual behaviors but the way that the sexual energy
processes through the intellect and through the heart.
The energies of each center must be kept in their place, and must be managed consciously. It
is important for us to comprehend that. Our entire machine depends upon the proper use of
energies of each center.
The intellectual center, which functions at a given velocity, will be destroyed if we saturate it with
very high octane energy, such as the sexual energy. Unfortunately, we do this. And this is why
people who become sexual addicts lose their mental capacity. They can become crazy. This is
why we can see people who become emotional addicts destroy their intellectual center, their
emotional center, destroy their sexual center. People who become overly intellectual, who
rationalize and reason, and who are always exploring things through the intellect, imbalance the

intellect and eventually go mad.

These centers have to be maintained in a good equilibrium, and we have to use them
responsibly. As a machine, we have to provide each center with the proper energy and carefully
manage its use.
It is a good practice for us to become aware of how we use these centers during the day. We
may discover that we have never even felt what the emotional center is. This is becoming very
prevalent in these times. Many people do not feel emotion. They only feel themselves in the
intellect. And some are the opposite - some refuse to use the intellect. Instead, they want to go
through life on an entirely emotional basis. And some only want to go through life according to
instinct, just fulfilling desires, never thinking about it, never concerned with their emotions. And
these people become totally morally bankrupt. They live their lives like animals, driven by one
instinct, then the next.
The importance here is to become aware of our own level of consciousness. We need to see
how our level of consciousness is completely enveloped in the desire for sensation, be it the
sensations of:
the intellect - through theorizing, through reading, through developing philosophies
the emotional center - of romance, of pleasure, of love, of joy, of ecstacy, even the sensations that people
love to indulge in through horror movies, through violent displays, through any form of over-expressive or
over-indulgent emotionality.
habitual behaviors, or instinctive or sexual behaviors.

All of these are desires for sensation, and they constitute a given level of consciousness. If we
persist in existing at that level of consciousness, behaving according to that level, the result will
be only what can be produced there: more enslavement to desire, more enslavement to
sensation, and more karma. More suffering.
If our intention is to seriously come to know something beyond the physical world, to perceive
directly that which exists beyond physical sensation, beyond ideas, those realities that exist
beyond beliefs, then we have to move our consciousness to those levels. We have to move
beyond the limited sphere of our current psyche. This is done by awakening consciousness, by
freeing ourselves of desire, and by conquering the mind. This is not easy, it is not mechanical,
and it cannot arise on its own.
Like anything in life, a given effect has a cause. The psyche that we have now is a cause that
can only produce the effects that we see in our society now: chaos, suffering, blindness,
spiritual blindness, spiritual darkness, great doubt, great skepticism, tremendous ignorance. The
spiritualists of our time love to say that we are moving into a new age, that humanity is evolving to
new heights, but there is no evidence of this anywhere in the world. What we see in facts is the
deepening of suffering, the intensification of pain, the spread of poverty, slavery, starvation,
depravity.

The capacity to move beyond your own current state of existence is within yourself, within your
own human machine. By developing consciousness - cognizant control over the five centers you start to awaken the consciousness. You start to be conscious of your activities from
moment to moment. You start to displace the ability of the "I" to control the human machine, to
control your organism. You start to acquire a conscious control over that organism. And in that
way, you acquire conscious control over how the energies that enter into us are in turn
transformed, transmuted, and transmitted.
This is how any angel comes to be, any Buddha, any prophet, any god. All the great masters of
the past, present, and future arrived at that state by developing completely pervasive cognizance
over themselves, so that every moment is a conscious act. A cognizant act. An act of
conscious will. So long as we have an unconsciousness - influences that are affecting us
without our awareness - then we are producing karmic consequences, suffering.
All suffering, all of that chaos, confusion, and ignorance, are rooted in desire: the "I." So, it is
important for us to gain control of the human machine, to activate the consciousness, and to
become deeply, deeply aware of ourselves.

Questions and Answers

Q: Obviously television plays a big role in sex and lust. We mechanically watch it, and it
hypnotizes us by through the sound waves and the visual waves. Now, say we stop it, and just
don't watch it. Obviously, the memory of it doesn't go away in terms of the ego - the impressions
are stored. So, mechanically, I guess we can't offset that. In terms of comprehension, and
visual waves, mechanical waves, how do we destroy the impressions cultivated from a history of
being exposed to sex and lust through television?
A: Like anything else, any given ego needs food. An ego is sustained in its existence in the
same way that our organism is, because it needs energy. When we watch television or movies,
all the impressions are a kind of food that feeds our psyche. So, we have to be very selective.
And the reason is, "we become what we eat." If you eat fast food, or fake food - food that is just
chemicals, or heavily processed - you will become sick and weak. The same is true of the
psyche. If you feed your psyche "fast food," it becomes that, it becomes a reflection of that,
and becomes nourished by that. So, if we watch lustful things, lustful shows, or very sentimental
shows - or read sentimental books - then we are feeding the ego with those energies. It in turn
sustains itself on those things. It becomes perverse. So, a student of this type of mysticism is
advised not to watch those things, and to instead deny that food to the ego - particularly, any
type of lustful imagery.
When you do this, the egos of lust become angry, they will become desperate. They try anything
they can to try to get food. If they can't get it through television, they will get it through some
other means. If they can't get it through external impressions, like television or magazines or
images, they will do it through fantasies. Or, they will do it through dreams. But they will try
everything they can to feed themselves. That is why students have "wet dreams," and similar

problems that cause suffering. And yet, this renunciation is the only way. That ego must be
starved. Any ego, in order to kill it, has to be killed. You cannot kill an ego and sustain it at the
same time.
So, we have to learn how to be very judicious in our behaviors - in the types of foods we ingest.
And this refers not just to physical food, air, or water, but also impressions - that which we
receive through the eyes, through the ears, through our sense of touch. Little by little, if we are
selective about the impressions we take in, those egos will be starved. And what becomes most
important at this point is meditation. Just because you are not feeding an ego right now does not
mean that its existence had ended. There is a huge and diverse collection of aggregates in the
mind that sustain themselves in submerged levels of the mind, that sustain themselves on the filth
that is within our mind, and we don't even see it. So, just because physically we stop the
behavior of watching certain things, or ingesting certain kinds of imagery, doesn't mean that
we've stopped feeding those egos. The only way to do that definitively is to kill those egos. And
that is only possible through transmuting the sexual energy and meditation. And that is a great
work.
Q: How do you transmute sexual energy, and how does meditation help you to kill the "I"?
A: The transmutation of sexual energy begins by not having the orgasm,
by retaining those forces in the body, by containing and keeping all the
potency of the sexual energy. So, in the same way that when you boil
water it becomes steam, when the sexual energy is retained in the body
it is transmuted, purified, and sublimated. It becomes a more elevated
substance. This substance rises up through the nadis [energy channels]
of the spinal column to the brain, and then into the heart, and those
forces and energies feed the consciousness. They feed our ability to
become aware of ourselves. They give power to the soul.
That energy, that power, is called the Shakti, the Divine Mother, the
Kundalini, the Holy Spirit, Binah, Shekhinah, Tummo. That force is then utilized in meditation.
When we learn how to direct the consciousness, free of ego, to examine any given phenomena
in life, the consciousness extracts information, with understanding and comprehension of that
element. And when that comprehension is complete, that element can be evaporated, can be
disintegrated. In turn, we can say that every ego, every psychological element, is a little cage, a
little knot in the flow of existence, within which is trapped consciousness. When the harnessed
sexual force strikes that bottle, that cage, it is shattered, and that consciousness is freed. That
trap, that karma, is dissolved. And this is liberation.
This is a process that goes on in great depth. If you have ever seen Tantric imagery, you will
see that many of the divinities in Tantrism wear a garland of skulls. Those skulls symbolize the
egos, those little cages.
Q: Are those the "I's"?

A: - Those are the "I's." It is in that way that little by little we free ourselves from karma, from
suffering, from pain, from discursive emotions, and from doubt.
Q: [Undecipherable] ...it is necessary to avoid certain people or places because they are
harmful or [undecipherable]. Can you explain a little more about the [importance] of a
psychological gymnasium [that] provides for us the means for discovering our defects?
A: The question is about avoiding situations, and also the need for a psychological gymnasium.
So long as the ego is alive, we will be in a psychological gymnasium no matter what we do. In
the past age, the impulse of the spiritual traditions was to isolate the spiritual aspirant from the
world, to take the spiritual aspirant out of the cities, out of the towns and villages, and to put them
into remove locations so that they could work on themselves - to go into a monastery, or into a
hermitage, or an ashram, in order to meditate and understand themselves. Part of the driving
idea behind that teaching was to put the aspirant in a given environment within which they could
work at a certain pace, without being so overwhelmed by the many distractions of life. But in this
current age, there is no time for this kind of behavior. The ego is so deep and strong, we need
to work directly on the causes of our suffering. Those causes are revealed in everyday life. The
best place for us to learn about ourselves is exactly where our karma has put us. And yet, we
have to make smart choices. Each of us is very weak. We are weak in accordance with the
vulnerabilities that our ego provides us with. We are all in suffering because we are vulnerable.
We give into certain kinds of temptation, certain kinds of desire. So, we have to be judicious,
intelligent, and in balance. We have to learn this.
Isolating ourselves from our fellow men can be useful at times, and at other times it can be
harmful. It is up to each of us to determine how much we can take, how much we can manage.
But know this: if you enter into this science, if you seriously take upon yourself the work to
liberate your mind, to liberate your soul, you will be given ordeals. You will be tested, you will be
tempted, you will be challenged, and you need that.
The only way to advance in these studies is to overcome temptation. The only way to
comprehend your karma is to face it. We gain nothing by running away. That only perpetuates
our suffering. It only delays the inevitable. So, you see there are some extremes here. We
need to be in the middle - neither seeking suffering, nor avoiding it. We need to accept what
comes, and to transform that as best we can. And we need to keep going. There is no need for
us to seek out problems, nor is there the need to avoid them. You have to be in balance, in the
middle. Little by little, we learn how to do that.
Q: Can you elaborate on the Tower of Babel, and the three lower types of people?

A: The question is about the Tower of Babel and the three lower
types of persons. Really, that is a topic for another lecture [see here
]. But, briefly: in the Bible, there is a story about the Tower of Babel,
which represents humanity trying to reach God through their own
means by constructing a great tower. That tower has many levels of
significance.
In the context of this lecture, the Tower of Babel is construed of:
intellectual types of people
emotional types of people
motor-instinctive or sexual types of people.

These three groups are people that have certain psychological idiosyncrasies. The intellectual
types of people see everything through the intellect, the emotion types see everything through
the emotions, the motor-instinctive sexual types see everything through instinct, through habit,
and through sex. Naturally, none of these types understand the others. A marriage or friendship
between an intellectual person and an emotional person will be challenged with constant
arguments, misunderstandings, fighting, because they speak a different language and
understand things a different way. Of course, love can balance them and bring understanding.
But the ego cannot love.
The proper entrance into real self-knowledge is found by the fourth type of person - someone
who has equilibrated their five centers. This type of person has become conscious of these
centers, and has ceased perceiving life through one center. They have acquired a degree of
psychological equilibrium within which they are conscious of themselves, no longer going
through life as an intellectual person, or an emotional person, or a motor-instinctual / sexual
person. They have begun to awaken consciousness.
Beyond this fourth type are three other types: five, six, and seven. And these types are related
to the solar bodies. But again, this is a another lecture we will come to on another day.
Q: By changing the [undecipherable] of society [undecipherable] saying that we could reverse
the catastrophes of [the worst] extremes, [for example] global warming - there was a Gnostic
[documentary] film showing how nuns [prayed] at a polluted river for months and months, and
how the river eventually ran clean [again]. So, is it possible that we [as a] society still have a
chance of reversing catastrophes, or [undecipherable]?
A: Yes. The question is, can we reverse the catastrophes of humanity? And the answer is
simple: if you change the causes, the results will change.
Q: Even if it is physical?
A: No matter what level of nature, effects manifest from causes. If you suffer an illness, and you
change the cause of that illness, the illness will go away. This is true of anything, whether it is

physical, or in the astral plane, or in the mental. Whatever level. But that change has to be
accomplished in accordance with karma. Karma is the deciding factor.
For example, if you have a certain type of illness in your physical body, and you discover that
that illness has been caused by a particular food that you have been eating - that disagrees with
you - you can pray all you want, but if you keep eating that food, your body will stay sick.
Right? Simple. But, if you stop eating that food, that illness will go away when the karma is
satisfied. You see? So, even if you take away the food, that illness cannot leave until the karma
of those actions is resolved.
This is why we have to meditate and awaken consciousness, so that we can understand the
karma.
So, in relation to humanity as a whole, yes, we can make a direct impact - a sustained impact through our prayer, through our actions, through learning how to behave better, through learning
how to help each other, but most especially, by eradicating our own ego, which contributes to
the suffering of humanity. This has a direct impact; there is no question about it. Yet, there is
karma as well.
Q: [Undecipherable] to change the inevitable of [kalihua? Undecipherable], which is the end,
death, [not] to die in [undecipherable], but [to die] a pleasant death.
A: Exactly. This is a very good analogy. The analogy given is that we will all die - this is
unavoidable - but it is kind of up to us whether we die pleasantly and peacefully, or in great
pain. And the same is true of humanity. Humanity now is dying a very agonizing death. But the
more people who seriously work on themselves, who work to transform their mind, that work
impacts the agony of humanity and begins to reduce that pain. The end will come. Death is
unavoidable. But the intensity of the approaching catastrophes can be changed.
Q: You mentioned the [technique] of no orgasm and meditation. So, no orgasm - that is the
[state], so what is the technique for that. And when you say "meditation", what is meant by that?
Meditation has so many kinds. [There exists] one approach for self-realization, the German
tantric system that [uses] the orgasm, [and] other techniques or tantric methods [for raising] the
consciousness [whose tenets] contradict what you are saying.
A: To fully answer the question you have asked would require a lot of study. There are many
aspects to this subject. But, in brief, in this tradition we study Tantrism. The beliefs of Tantra
are organized according to certain approaches to the science. There are three primary
approaches. This school is what we would call a "White" Tantric school.
Q: [Undecipherable] your school?
A: [Yes], this school here, Gnosis, the tradition of Samael Aun Weor. This is called a White
Tantric school. This is a school that teaches the same methodology that you will find in
Vajrayana Buddhism, original Ch'an Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, and much of Hindu Tantra is

originally a form of White Tantra. It is called "White" because it is a school that emphasizes
psychological and spiritual purity, and aims to reach a state without ego. This is the goal: to
become White in terms of purity and transparency.
The basic differentiating factor for a school that teaches White Tantrism is, precisely, the
elimination of the orgasm - to completely restrain the sexual impulse and to completely sublimate
the sexual energy. No orgasm.
Q: So, to take that energy for transformation?
A: All of that energy has to be sublimated to completely eradicate the animal impulse, exactly.
The second type of school is called "Grey" because it is a mixture of the White and the Black.
Black schools teach how to awaken the consciousness through the orgasm - by having the
orgasm, indulging in sensation, and utilizing the animal impulses in order to awaken the
consciousness. A Grey school teaches its followers to occasionally orgasm. There are a lot of
Taoist schools that are what we would call Grey, because they teach to orgasm "sometimes."
The difference is this: someone who harnesses the power of sexuality, but keeps the ego alive,
and indulges in desire, creates of themselves a demon, and becomes a devil. Within them the
ego is made fat, and made strong. On the other side, someone who practices White Tantra
totally eliminates the "I," and utilizes all of their sexual energy to completely destroy the animal
mind, and instead create a solar mind, or a Christ mind, free of individuality, free of the "I," free
of desire, so that all that is there is divinity.
A Grey school mixes these ideas and concepts, but generally precipitates its disciples into Black
tantra, because they do not fully understand how to eliminate the ego. So, those are the
differences between them.
In terms of meditation, as you pointed out, there are many ways to meditate, many techniques.
In this tradition, we study many different approaches to the practice of meditation. The core
practice is a form of Pratimokcha, a form of Dzogchen meditation, or Mahamudra, which is a
technique within which the consciousness is extracted from the ego, so that it is free of any
discursive influence. From that position - the union of calm abiding and special insight, also
known as Samadhi or Satori - the consciousness can then directly analyze the ego in order to
destroy it. This is acquired through the state of Samadhi or Satori.
Other schools teach how to acquire Samadhi, or Satori, or ecstasies. But again, the
differentiating factor here is that the White one teaches mystical death - the death of desire, or
the annihilation of the "I."
So, the two factors so far are:
birth through the transmutation of the sexual energy - the second birth, where we create the soul
death, in which we use those energies to destroy the "I"

The third factor is sacrifice, which is how we dedicate ourselves to assisting others
Q: Some of the stuff you talk about sounds like [P.D.] Ouspensky and John G. Bennett.
A: It is related. Those teachers, Ouspensky and Bennett, were students of this tradition.
Q: But their technique would be slightly different. They talk about self-remembering and selfobservation, more than [they talk about] the will to sacrifice. That has a slightly tone [than what
you are saying].
A: It is slightly different because Ouspensky and Bennett, and other students of that tradition,
only received a small percentage of the teaching. They didn't receive the whole teaching. [G.I.]
Gurdjieff, who was their teacher, acquired his doctrine from Tibet. But, he didn't teach them
everything, because he himself didn't have everything.
Q: Gurdjieff didn't have everything? But most of the stuff you talk about isn't from Gurdjieff,
right?
A: It is related. But no, it is not from Gurdjieff. The original roots of this teaching are far older
than Gurdjieff, even far older than Tibet. They are ancient. You can study those other schools
and find useful elements, but you won't find the whole teaching there.
Q: So, this whole teaching is based on, I guess - based on [the] Gnostic doctrine, which is
similar to what [undecipherable] because they don't talk about what Gurdjieff is saying,
[emphasizing] the tools of self-observation and the movements. Those are useful tools, but they
are not the main tools [this teaching works with]?
A: Exactly.
Q: So, how do you control the orgasm? By not engaging in it, by avoiding it?
A: No, proper sexuality is natural to the human organism. We are sexual creatures. But we
have to learn to use our sexual powers with responsibility. That responsibility lies directly
between fornication and what people call "abstinence." So, neither totally rejecting sex, nor
totally indulging in it, but rather, being in the middle.
Q: Catholic priests and [undecipherable], they are in [those] categories?
A: Yes, so you see two sides of that pendulum, right? You see those who abstain from sex
completely, and those who indulge completely. Both are mistaken. We have to use sexuality,
but with responsibility.
Q: And that is the key thing? But, what do you mean by "responsibility", and how do you [find]
the middle line, the balance? Where is that point, and how do you measure it?
A: The balance there is taking all that sexual power and re-circulating it through the organism, in
order to heal the organism and remove desire, remove the ego. That is the ancient science of

alchemy, to transform lead into gold.

Q: That's what they say, but the techniques of meditation, and the movements and exercise, and
things like that, is that the key to this [teaching]?
A: Well, mediation and different movements, whether they are Yantric movements, "Gurdjieffian"
movements, Runic postures, or Egyptian postures - all those movements are designed to help us
develop cognizant, or conscious control over our energies. But first, the energy has to be
there. When we fornicate, we throw away the energy, we release it.
Q: So we have the energy, and [undecipherable]. These different schools use different methods
for transforming the energy?
A: Exactly, different ways to harness and utilize it. In the next lecture, we will come to those
topics in more detail.
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