A Record of Meetings held by P.D. Ouspensky - HolyBooks.com

MR. H. I understood from the last lecture that external consideringincluded trying to understand what other people expected of you. Thisseems to me to be very like internal considering. Can Mr. O. point outthe difference?MR. O. You must not mix them. You must find differences for yourself.If we just go on talking about it, the conversation can last for ever.MISS N . Is there any virtue in keeping silent? I notice I talk a great dealin my most mechanical moods.MR. O. If one is accustomed to talk and if one struggles with this andmakes oneself silent, it can provide material for observation.MR. H. How does the system explain hypnotic sleep and the peculiarsuggestibility of people in such sleep?MR. O. We have not come to that yet. But this suggestibility is not anaccidental feature of hypnotic sleep. It is its only feature. Hypnoticsleep can be defined as the state of highest suggestibility. Sometimesthe subject is really in deep sleep. This is more accidental than thesuggestibility. Later perhaps we will be able to find which functions,which processes are involved in this case and why even deep sleep canhappen like that. But we have not enough material yet.MR. T . I find that one does not remember for long that a particularactivity is profitless. What can one do to increase one's memory?MR. O. Just observe more and try to remember yourself. There are nospecial ways for one or another thing like that in general. All methodshave already been explained. If you remember yourself more, yourmemory will be better.MISS M . In dealing with people who evoke different 'I's, is it desirableto try to achieve one 'I' and show this 'I' to everybody?MR. O. But that is doing. You cannot do, you can only observe. Youask this question as though you could do what you describe. Suppose Ianswer that it is desirable, then you will ask me how to do it, and I sayyou cannot. You have to observe things as they are. We think we havemuch more control than we actually have. We think we do not dosomething because we do not know whether it is desirable or not orbecause we do not want to do it. We do not try and so we think wecan do it.***I want to say something about people for new groups. I find thatolder people have not explained sufficiently the conditions about not