Balancing Centers, Integrating Structures, Lesson XVI

Cynthia Bourgeault | January 20, 2022

Yet another connecting link between the Gebserian and Gurdjieffian systems lies in the fruitful interplay between Gurdjieff’s three centers and their respective counterparts in the Gebserian structures of consciousness.

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Enstasy: Exploring Jean Gebser, Lesson XIV

Cynthia Bourgeault | May 23, 2021

The term “ecstasy” comes from the Greek ec-stasis, “standing outside of oneself.” Its opposite is “ENSTASY,” a term I first encountered in Valentin Tomberg’s profound discussion of the subject in Meditations on the Tarot (pp. 309-311). It means centering in oneself: becoming fiercely, alertly coiled within one’s own “I Am” presence, such that one becomes a center of gravitation in one’s own right.

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Go Beyond the Mind: Exploring Jean Gebser, Lesson XIII

Cynthia Bourgeault | May 18, 2021

When I say that the ability to access and sustain the Integral structure of consciousness is developmental, I mean just that: it is fundamentally a question of physiology, rather than of moral virtue or mystical yearning. We cannot think, pray, meditate, or conceptualize our way to it. It is fundamentally a matter of preparing the entire body to receive it. To e

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Afterword to Lesson X: Jean Gebser

Cynthia Bourgeault | February 9, 2021

In Beelzebub’s Tales, in the chapter on Beelzebub’s Fourth Sojourn on the Planet Earth, Gurdjieff describes the founding of the original Wisdom School in Atlantis, under...

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