Beelzebubs-Tales-to-His-Grandson-by-G-I-Gurdjieff

"According to the first meaning it is used, as in the past, to designate thosebeings who become 'initiates' thanks to their personal, conscious labor andintentional suffering, and who thus acquire in themselves, as I have alreadytold you, objective merits that are perceptible to other beings of any brainsystemand that evoke trust and respect."In the other meaning, this word is used as a title conferred upon oneanother by those beings belonging to what are called 'robber gangs,' whichhave greatly multiplied there during this period and whose members have astheir principal aim to 'steal' from those around them only 'essence-values. '"Under the pretence of following 'supernatural' or 'occult' sciences, these'robber gangs' are really occupied, and very successfully, with this kind of'plunder.'"And so, any and every regular member of such a gang calls himself an'initiate.'"Among these terrestrial 'initiates of new formation' there are even 'greatinitiates,' and these 'great initiates' are those who, especially at the presenttime, in the course of their virtuoso enterprises, go through 'fire, water,copper pipes, and even through all the roulette halls of Monte Carlo."Well then, my boy, 'legomonism' is the name given to the successivetransmission of information about long-past events on the planet Earth frominitiate to initiate of the first kind, that is, between really meritorious beings,transmitting what they themselves have received from similar meritoriousbeings."For this means of transmitting information we must give the beings of thecontinent of Atlantis their due, it was a very wise device and did indeed attaintheir aim."It is in fact the sole means by which information about certain events oflong ago has accurately reached beings of later generations."As for the information that passes from generation to