Fourth Way Public Exchange: The Multiplicity of Self

We say ‘I’ all day long. When we are alone, when we speak with others, we say, ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I.’ We believe in our individuality, and this illusion supports our sense of existence. We are constantly striving to be something we are not, because we are afraid of being nothing.”
—Jeanne de Salzmann

Gurdjieff observed that we are not one unified self but a collection of different "I's"—each with its own desires, fears, and habits—that take turns running our lives without our conscious consent.

Oftentimes these different selves will have contradictory agendas: one “I” sets an alarm clock to start the day early, while another “I” silences the alarm and decides to sleep in. A potent tool for recognizing these different “I”s is self-observation. This evening we will examine the ideas and practice of self-observation with the aim of catching glimpses of our many selves.