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

Accident'. I can see 'cause and effect', but I don't see how things canbe accidental—they must have a cause.MR. O. We don't call things that happen cause and effect, because theyhave a cause—that is too large. We call cause and effect something thathappens to you because of your own actions, and then it is not accident.You can observe accident if you find two lines of events, when you havenothing to do with the cause, and where these two lines cross is accidental.MISS B. Is it possible to develop emotional interest after one comesinto the work? Is this magnetic centre?MR. O. Certainly one can develop it, but it has nothing to do withmagnetic centre. It may correspond to the line of the work, or it maybe contradictory emotion, but there is not sufficient description here.MISS B. Is it impossible to come into the work unless one has magneticcentre?MR. O. Possible to come, but impossible to stay.***This is the last time this group meets till September. If anybody isnot satisfied with answers to old questions, please ask again, but betterif you speak of new things.M R . L . Can we observe the connection you spoke of between fear andcertain kinds of thoughts? Have we, as we are, the machinery toobserve this?MR. O. The theory of how emotions work can be found in ordinaryliterature. James and Lange described it in the nineties, and it wasmodified by Ribot. It means that sensations of fear or depression arereally sensations or feelings of some inner physical change that happenswhen we see or hear something. It is not an emotion, as the feeling isnot produced direct, but as the result of some functional change whichis felt as an unpleasant emotion. If you understand the differentmanifestations, you can observe this, particularly in relation to fear.***Well, there are some strange questions that have been asked aboutthe new house, and also what we have spoken of the Society is notquite clear to you, so you had better try to think of that and askquestions. As it is, you create wrong expectations, and because of thatyou may not see what actually there is.MR. L. It seems to me we have a certain responsibility towards theSociety which demands initiative from us.