A, B and C Influences: The Fourth way - P.D.Ouspensky.

Q. Have all races of men the same possibility of development?

A. That is an interesting question. I asked this question myself when I first came to this work and I was told that it had been discussed in very important schools at a very important period, and that after making all possible experiments in this connection they came to the conclusion that between the white, yellow, black, brown and red races. At the present time, the white and yellow races have predominance, whereas in the past it was probably one of the others. For instance, the sphinx reminds one of a negro, not a European.

Q. In connection with what you said about good and evil, could a follower of this system take part in war?

A. It is his business. There are no external prohibitions or conditions.

Q. But could he reconcile the two?

A. Again it is his business. This particular system leaves man very free he wants to create consciousness and will. Neither consciousness nor will can be created by following certain external restrictions. One must be free. You must understand that external things matter least of all. It is the internal things that are important, internal war.

Q. There are many things that seem to me evil which I am capable of committing.

A. You cannot take yourself because you could only take examples of evil which you have committed already. So it is better to take the idea in general. Find all possible examples-I do not mean accidents or mistakes, because many crimes are accidential-but take all that we call definite intentional evil, and you will see that it does not need consciousness; one mechanical action, and everything goes on.

Q. It creates the illusion of choice.

A. That is the greatest illusion-the illusion of 'doing'and the illusion of choice. These these belong to a higher level. Beginning at No. 4 one already begins to have, but men 1, 2 and 3 have very little choice.

Q. Wouldn't you say that the study of black magic was conscious evil?

A.Do you know anybody who studied it, with the exception of people who read books with terrifying pictures and deceive themselves?

Q.If you deliberately set to work to deceive another person is not that deliberate evil?

A. Most probably you could not help yourself; there was such a pressure of circumstances or something, that you could not do otherwise.These are all difficult problems and they take a long time to get used to, because we are accustomed to think in the wrong way. For instance, when we look at historical events , we take as conscious just those things that cannot be conscious and the things that may be conscious we take as mechanical, as a kind of process.

Now if we return to this idea that only a very few can develop and find hidden possibilities in themselves, the question naturally arises. What determines the difference? Why do some people have a chance and some people have no chance/ It is quite true that some people have no chance from the very beginning. They are born in such circumstances that they can learn nothing, or they are themselves defective in some way; so we exclude defective people becaus e there is nothing to be said about them.

We are interested in people who are normal in circumstances, and they themselves must be normal , with ordinary possiblities of learning, understanding and so on. Now, out of these people only a very few will be capable of making even the first step in the way of development. how and why it is so?

All people in the ordinary conditions of life live under two kinds of influences. First there are the influences created in life, desire for riches, fame and so on, which we call influences. A. secondly, there are other influences which come from outside life which work in the same conditions although they are different, and we call these influences.B. they reach man in the form of religion, literature or philosophy.

These influences of the second kind are conscious in their origin. Influences A are mechanical from the beginning. Man can meet these B influences or he can pass them by without noticing them, or he can hear them and think that he understands them, use the words and at the same time have no real understanding at all.

These two influences really determine the further development of man. If man accumulates influences B, results of these influences crystallize in him (I use the word crystallize in the ordinary sense) and form in him a certain kind of centre of attraction which we call magnetic centre.

The compact mass of memory of these influences attracts him in a certain direction, or makes him turn in a certain direction. When magnetic centre is formed in man it will be easier for him to attract himself more influences B, but if this magnetic centre in man grows , then after some time he meets another man, or a group of people, from whom he can learn something different, something that is not included in influences B, and which we call influence C.

This influence is conscious in origin and action and can only be transmitted by direct instruction. Influence B can come through books and works of art and things like that, but influence C can only come by direct contact. If a man in whom magnetic centre has grown meets with a man or a group through whom he comes into contact with influence C, that means thet he has made the first step. Then there is a possibility of development for him.

Q. What does the first step mean?

A. It is connected with the idea of a 'path' or 'way'.What is important to understand is that the way does not begin on the ordinary level of life; it begins on a higher level. The first step is the moment when one meets with influence C. From this moment there begins a staircase with a number of steps which have to be climbed before this way can be reached. The way does not begin at the bottom, but only after the last step has been climbed.

Q. What do you call a normal man?

A. It may seem paradoxical, but we have no other definition-it means a man who can develop.

Q. Is there any relationship between influence B and influences A? When influences B come into man, do they affect influences A and transform them?

A.They may effect them, but at the same time one necessarily excludes another. Man lives on the earth under these two different influences: he may choose only one, or he may have both. When you speak of influences A and B, you begin to speak about facts. If you replace this expression by one or another definite fact, you will see in which relation they stand. It is very easy.

At this point the question naturally arises : Why is it so difficult for a man to start changing himself, to come to a possibility of growing? Because, you see, we must remember that man is created in a very interesting way by nature. He is developed up to a certin point :after this point he must develop himself. Nature does not develop man beyond a certain point.

Later we shall learn in full detail up to what point man is developed and how his further development must begin, and we shall see why from this point of view he could never develop himself and why he cannot be developed by nature. But before that we must understand certain general conditions.

It is difficult for a man to start any kind owork on himself because he lives in a very bad place in the universe. At first that must sound a very strange idea. We do not realize that there are better and worse places in the univers, and we certainly donot realize that we happen to be almost in the worse place. We fail to realize it because, from one point of view, our knowledge of the universe is too complicated. From another point of view it does not take into account real facts.

If we look for the nearst place to us in the unioverse we realize that we live on earth, and that the moon is under the influence of the earth. At the same time we see that the earth is one of the planets of the solar system , that there are bigger planets, probably more powerful than the earth, and that all these planets, taken together, must somehow affect and control the earth. Next in scale comes the sun, and we realize that the sun controls all the planets and the earth at the same time.

If you think from this point of view you will already have a differnt idea of the solar system, although there is nothing new in these things: it is only a question of how to relate one thing to another.

Reference: A, B and C Influences.The Fourth way -P.D.Ouspensky.