The sleeping machine does not -and cannot- produce transformation. A change in Being is obtained only through intense efforts and struggle against our tendency to fall into a state of identification with the machine’s sleep.

In any case, no one would be able to see the reality of the situation from a mere intellectual argument coming from outside.

We must, in short, deliver an intentional shock; a tangible personal experience in which we see for ourselves that all this is not just some sort of interesting philosophy concocted for our amusement.

We must somehow see, feel and sense for ourselves that the machine is really asleep; we may even see it as actually dead in the grimmest sense of the word.

Until we have definitely seen for ourselves that the machine is asleep, and therefore not conscious in any sense of the word, and furthermore that we cannot make ourselves conscious just by deciding to awaken the machine, we will not really feel the necessity for work.

Once we have felt and sensed the sleep of the machine, even if only momentarily, we know instinctively that we must choose either to sleep away the remainder of our lives or begin to make efforts to awaken the machine.

Four definite forms of consciousness are possible to us:

Horizontal Sleep

Walking Sleep

The Awakened State

Transformation of the Being

Horizontal Sleep and Walking Sleep we can already produce in ourselves without help from a school.

It is the third form of consciousness which we attribute to ourselves but which we ordinarily cannot possess, because it requires the awakening of the biological machine.

We must understand right from the very beginning that this third form of consciousness is not really part of our repertoire, and yet the Awakened State is a form of consciousness which is so basic to life that we ought to be taught as children from our earliest infancy how to awaken the machine so that we can live our whole lives in this state, yet nothing of the kind exists in modern Western educational systems.

The awakening of the machine is to our preparation for a Work life something like kindergarten in relation to university.

If civilisation lived up to its name, we would not now be forced to begin our work at such a pathetically low level, but we must find the courage to realise where we actually stand, and then begin from there, if we are not to fall into imaginary work.

Our ordinary consciousness resembles a high-steel worker who has fallen asleep while working, yet -just because our work continues and the machine manages somehow to automatically keep its balance- we do not realise that we have fallen into the machine’s ambulatory hypnosis.

The machine is conditioned to continue its mental, emotional and physical activities entirely mechanically. Ordinary activities of the machine do not require our attention or presence even to the smallest degree.

When we first come to the Work, we are more animal than spiritual, because we have sacrificed real consciousness for a state in which we are carried along by the routine mechanical activities of the machine as it marches its habitual treadmill to oblivion.

And because the nonphenomenal part of ourselves, through the hypnotic influence of sensation and mental distractions and seductions, falls into identification with the machine’s sleep, we will also someday die along with the sleeping machine, never having experienced what it really means to be alive in the machine.

We ordinarily think of ourselves as awake, but if the machine is asleep, we have no real sense of this, and actually it is a lie. The fact is that we fall into identification with the sensory seductions and mental distractions of the machine from the very moment of the birth of the machine to the last moment of its death.

The first intimation of real consciousness is when the machine has been awakened by one means or another and begins to function as a transformational apparatus upon the essential self . . . what we call the Being. In the course of routine mechanical life, this state seldom happens just accidentally by itself.

We will leave the purpose of awakening the machine until later. It should be enough in the beginning to actually experience the sleep of the machine and to see that this situation can be changed by specific methods which anyone can do with a little practice.

Here is the most surprising little experiment you will ever encounter, by which you can see for yourself the immediate necessity for the awakening of the machine.

Using your ordinary visual apparatus, which is to say, the eyes, follow as intensely as possible the motion of the second hand of a clock or watch, or an Attentiacizer if you happen to have one, at the same time trying to sense your presence within the machine, including the sounds, smells, temperature, humidity and general ambient atmosphere of the environment; at the same time becoming acutely aware of the constantly changing sensations of the biological machine’s skin, the sensations of the internal organs, the sensations resulting from the thoughts passing though the mental apparatus, and the emotions which happen to be proceeding presently within the machine.

All of this while the attention is intensely rooted on the rapid, inexorable motion of the second hand as it moves around the clock-face.

When we first begin our efforts to awaken the machine, the only immediate result is that we soon see that the machine’s will to sleep is far more powerful and continuous than our will to awaken the machine. At first the nonphenomenal self can do nothing about this except to exert the only will it really has -the will of attention.

Because we have no will of our own until our will has been intentionally developed, our attention is captivated by the activities and interests which originate within the machine, which is also the source of all negative emotion, all associative mental processes and all negative manifestations.

But we do have the will of attention, and we can actively use this will of attention to observe the human biological machine and its activities both internal and external, without actually trying to interfere directly in the life of the machine.

This subtle activity seems like nothing, but just the fact that we are observing the machine awakens it a little, and our active observation has the effect, although only over a long period of time, of actually altering what is being observed.

At the same time, we can use this exercise to gather the strength necessary to exert a more powerful form of will -the will to awaken the machine . . . but, as in gymnastics, this type of will takes time to develop.

Because a sleeping machine cannot function as a transformational apparatus, the soul -which is solely and entirely a product of transformation- cannot form, and even if it could, without the foundation and "food" for evolution, it could not evolve. If we had the will to awaken the machine, only then could life have any meaning.

Life, as we will come to understand it, is not a progression from the past to the future; it is an Eternal Return, an endless series of passages through, and at right angles to, the life of the machine, in an effort to perfect it as a transformational apparatus by repeating this passage, eventually repairing it as a whole, higher-dimensional transformational apparatus by awakening the machine from conception to death.

In the course of our Eternal Return through the life of the machine, we must be able to awaken the machine not only in the past, before we ever heard these ideas, but also during its deepest periods of sleep.  Only with a fully awakened machine, which is functional as a transformational apparatus from its very first moment of conception, can we perform our Real Work in the higher dimensions.

If we lack the will to keep our source of attention from being seduced into outer world attractions, we will be far to busy with these seductions to be bothered with the task of using our attention to awaken the machine.

This powerful form of seduction which breaks our will of attention is called world-hypnosis, or Maya. Maya is often understood to mean that the world is an illusion.  We must understand that it is not the world which is an illusion,  but our identification with the phenomenal world,  maintained by The Three Great Enemies -wandering attention, distractions, and seductions.

Nature does not fear ordinary efforts.  We must learn to make special efforts, to outsmart Nature, to force Nature to make a take, as we would in any game, such as table tennis or chess.  Sooner or later Nature will make a take -if we do not make one first- and we will be allowed to pass from the influences of the lower dimensions to the influences of the higher dimensions.

We are conditioned to allow ourselves to fall into the sleeping machine and to allow it to continue mechanically in sleep.  We quickly learn to become whatever the machine becomes in its mechanical routine.

Identification is not just a simple emotional attachment, a desire to be with someone or something.  It is actually the state of falling into the same state as whatever it is that we identify ourselves with, such as the human biological machine.  Until now, we have been so completely and continually identified with the mechanical life of the biological machine that we are no longer able to separate ourselves from the machine.

The yogi has learned to transcend the machine, but he is really no better off than any other human being because he has not learned to awaken the machine, allowing it to perform its function as a transformational apparatus upon the Being.  He rightly rejects as illusions all the phenomena he sees around him, but cannot see that it is not the phenomena but the seduction of the source of attention into phenomena that is the root-cause of his failure to evolve beyond physical evolution.

Even a sleeping machine can be used to overcome its own sleep because it has sensations;  we can use these sensations to sense the sleep of the machine.  This disarmingly simple idea can be performed as an experiment, in which we try to use the sensations of the machine to sense the sleep of the machine, and from this experiment, we can see for ourselves, in our own experience, several important factors:

That the machine is really asleep . . . not just human biological machines in general,  but that our machine in particular is asleep, and could even be called “the walking dead”.

That it is possible to see—and even to taste a little—what life can be when the machine is not asleep.

That only by exact and unusual methods is it possible to awaken the machine for any length of time.

The urgent necessity to begin our work by awakening the machine.

Why only we are able to awaken our own machines and why no one else can do this work for us.

That some new unknown source of force for work will be necessary, and that if we hope to continue this work, we will require energies and will on a much larger scale than we are presently accustomed to arousing in the machine and ourselves.

That “the Work” is very real indeed and not just an amusing mental philosophy.

That our time in the machine which we could be using for our possible evolution slips away very quickly and, once lost, cannot be regained.

That there is a definite deadline for our work, and if we s this opportunity now, we may not be able to make these efforts later. 

These and other realizations will result from the simplest experimental attempt to sense the sleep of the machine.

Once we have tried even for a few moments to awaken the machine by the sheer force of our will, if we can be honest with ourselves, we will never again—until we are able to awaken the machine by the exertion of our will alone—say without squirming at least inwardly, “I am awake”.

Trying to awaken the machine for five full minutes by the clock can demonstrate to us the tangible fact of the sleeping machine, the rumor of which comes to us ordinarily only in mythical tales such as Sleeping Beauty and Snow White,  and also at the same time indicates the real possibility of awakening and transformation.

If we believe our machines to be already awake, or that we already possess the will to awaken the machine any time we wish to do so, we cannot prepare for the Work, because we are hypnotized, an utter slave to that imaginary self which speaks of itself in “first person”, calls itself “I” without truth, and has a name which gives the illusion of continuity and unity.

Maybe nothing noticeable will happen for a very long time, but eventually, with perseverance, we will obtain definite results.

Not even the Absolute can give us the means to awaken the machine, nor can anyone else activate the awakened machine as a transformational apparatus, thus forming a Bridge between our world and the higher dimensions in which the Being can continue its existence and its work on behalf of the Absolute.

We cannot really call the life of the machine our life; since our will and attention are completely subjugated to the will of the sleeping machine, it is the machine’s story which we are helplessly compelled to live.  When the machine is asleep, we look like monkeys, falling into every external attraction, fascinated by all the glitter and flash.  When the machine is awake, we cannot possible act like monkeys, because the presence which is the real source of attention only acts unconsciously when it is under the influence of the machine in sleep.  We are involuntary victims of the sleeping machine, prisoners to its palpitating self-oblivion, until we are able to exert the will to awaken the machine over the machine’s own will to remain asleep.

One method for the awakening of the machine is to intentionally concentrate the fullest possible attention of the source of attention upon the machine’s activities.  Self study can now be more closely defined as the study of the motor centrum manifestations of the machine.  This is the beginning of all our beginning work.

The mutual-reciprocal transference of the function of the headbrain with the tailbrain, and the resulting awakening of the higher emotional centrum, will be the first active step in our voluntary evolution.

We must understand that before we accomplish this transference of upper brain and lower brain functions  we can do exactly nothing—even something as elementary as the invocation of presence into the present—because the headbrain is incapable of functions beyond the ordinary linear thought processes which we call “associative–thinking”.

The headbrain is incapable of real psychology and does not junction for mentation.  Its processes are strictly search-and-follow-a-line, in more or less spasmodic periodic cycles of active, and more often passive, reflex-reaction to various stimuli.

If we hope to develop a brain which is capable of real mentation, attention and will for awakening the machine and which has all-parts-blended unity, and a clear uninterrupted vision of the non-phenomenal world, the machine must be turned rightside-up.

As it is now, the centrums are upside-down. The thinking centrum is in the headbrain and the moving centrum is in the tailbrain;  the exact reverse of the true three-brained being called Man.

Human beings of planet Earth are actually two-brained lower animals into which a primitive third brain -the tailbrain- was deliberately introduced, but which functions as a moving centrum, leaving the headbrain -the real moving centrum- to perform intellectual functions for the machine.

Originally, cross-rhythm exercises were given to try to force the headbrain to quit operating as a false mental centrum, but as it turned out, the headbrain is quite capable of producing cross-rhythms without too much trouble.

Then, during the Achaemenid period of the Babylonian Empire, mental-psychological exercises were introduced in large, complicated doses.  The idea was to keep the headbrain so occupied that the ordinary processes of linear associative thought were impossible. But they continued as usual in spite of this artificial mental overload.

Not until the sixth century of the Medieval Period of Western Europe was the idea introduced by schools in the Kurdistan district of what was once called the Saramoung Province, that the headbrain could function as a moving centrum, beginning with simple observation, gradually increasing this function by deeper and deeper involvement with intricate movement, following each minute movement of the machine, allowing no detail to escape the headbrain-attention.

After a while, it can be noticed that, if the whole attention of the headbrain is engulfed in the various subtleties of movement of the machine as a whole, parts of the machine, and parts of parts of the machine, the whole process can become a monstrous circus of complexity in which so much attention is demanded that the headbrain is finally forced to automatise its attention on movement, taking responsibility for the movements of the machine, and assuming its role as the true moving centrum of the human organism.

Meanwhile, the poor little tailbrain has nothing to do.  Thoughts and ideas begin to pass through it in the same way that fluids pass through a valve, but nothing seems to stick, as it did in the headbrain.  Whole vistas of knowledge open, but there is, as yet, no one home to take advantage of all this interesting mental information.

This so-called “unconscious” mind gives us easy access to the whole data storage system of the machine completely, for the very first time.

When the tailbrain functions as a thinking centrum, the transformational effects of the machine as a whole assist its development into a higher, mental body.  Each of the centrums then begins to function as it ought to function.

When the brains are upside-down, the emotional centrum functions as a like-dislike governor, directing the machine and forming habits and moods according to artificial feelings of attraction and repulsion.

These like and dislike habitualities are reinforced in the machines lower centrums by the inevitable process of psycho-emotional conditioning through repetition over a long period of phenomenal experiences, producing a form of “maze brightness”, such as that which occurs when a rat has learned to automatically traverse a labyrinth.

Then when the centrums are returned to their normal three-brained being functions -that is, the headbrain functioning as a moving centrum while the tailbrain functions as a valve for the flow of thought, the instinctive functions return to normal, and the emotional centrum begins to function for the arousal of exact, voluntary moods and in addition does not interfere in the impartial observation of the machine and its activities.

The newly liberated tailbrain becomes the observing platform for the source of attention which, now that it is free to observe without interference, also provides the all-important force necessary for the invocation of presence.

Transference of the moving centrum from the tailbrain to the headbrain occurs seemingly spontaneously.  One night we go to bed unable to mentate or invoke presence, and then, voila!  The next morning we wake -in the ordinary sense of the word- able to do both very easily.

Of course this change, like all such changes, only seems spontaneous.  It happens only after a long period of repeated attempts to force the headbrain to assume the functions of a moving centrum.

To make popcorn, heat and oil are also necessary in addition to the corn itself, to all of which we must add the most important ingredient, time . . . Then when the corn pops, it only seems spontaneous, but if we know the exact causes of this process, we can intentionally repeat this -to the uninitiated-apparently miraculous effect.

There are some for whom this transference has occurred accidentally. . . If we looked back to what they were doing just before, we would know and understand the cause of their transformation.  But they in general  have no idea what happened or why it happened.  Unfortunately for their associates who follow them around in hopes that something will somehow rub off, one piece of popped corn will not cause other kernels of corn to pop just by association.

There are also in various establishments dotted strategically at several not particularly interesting spots here and there around the planet, inhabitants of padded cells for whom transference has accidentally occurred.

They have accidentally penetrated the veil which stands as a barrier between the phenomenal world and the nonphenomenal world, but without the necessary preparatory work, unfortunately for them and to the complete consternation of their phenomenally fixated medical advisors.

Immediately following the headbrain and tailbrain transference, one actually may feel even more enmeshed in the machine than before, in the mechanicality of it . . . a maelstrom of automatic conditioning and reflexive motion. Although this sensation  seems uncomfortable and one seems worse off than before, this condition is only temporary.

The very first exercise in a work community is the observation of the moving activities of the machine with the ordinary attention of the headbrain. This observation should be refined to even the smallest detail, being certain not to alter the manifestations of the machine as a result of these observations.

The catalyst-key to this exercise is to remember while observing that the emotional centrum is not functional only because the brains are upside-down. When the headbrain acting as a mental centrum dampens the functioning of the midbrain, the apparatus within which the emotional centrum would ordinarily arise, no genuine emotions are possible. The headbrain operating as the thinking centrum veils the emotional centrum. In electrical terms, the ordinary human biological machine is completely wired.

The wrong connections are made, and the circuit is intermittently-spasmodically dead.  When the headbrain operated as the moving centrum then the correct connections to the midbrain are made, and the feeling centrum naturally works by itself,  functioning as a higher, voluntary emotional centrum.

Ordinarily, the feeling centrum is impossible to voluntarize in the sense that it can originate its own moods, because as it is, it is forced to accommodate its function to the dominant spasmodic reflexes of the tailbrain.

As the headbrain has very little force, or will, the centrum which has the greatest force is the moving centrum.  When the mental centrum transfers to the tailbrain, then the mental centrum has the most force and can function in the voluntary.

When the tailbrain becomes the mental centrum, it partakes of the force and authority of the tailbrain, and for the first time has the means to direct the machine as a whole.

Think of the sing keystone cap of the pyramid on the American dollar. This exemplifies the ordinary state of the human biological apparatus. The truncated top of the triangle is the headbrain, acting as the thinking centrum in ordinary man. Adding an upside-down triangle forms the Seal of Solomon.  When we accomplish the headbrain-tailbrain transference, as indicated in this diagram of the psychic operation discovered by Solomon -which gave him total authority over those localized fragmentary identities which Solomon decided to call the djinn, or lesser demons- all three lower centrums begin to function properly, and more or less in harmony and balance.

But to begin with, we must harness the moving centrum, and force it to become the thinking centrum by removing all its motor centrum activity by using our will of attention to intensely follow the machine’s every motion.

The mental centrum residing in the tailbrain will now have the force and the organic will necessary for real authority over the whole machine.  This is the primitive first groanings of real will.

Only then can we be the same tomorrow as we are today, and throw away our cigarettes and really mean it.

The foundation for this work is discipline.  If the mental centrum in the tailbrain says, “Wake up, machine,” it finally has the will and authority to exert its influence over the machine, and the whole machine is constrained to obey.

Lift the attention from its ordinary fixation on the associative flow of passing thoughts and internal dialogue, and place it strictly upon the moving activities of the machine

This is an especially good inner exercise when performing physical labor. . . digging ditches, painting, sanding, building, washing dishes, doing childcare. . .

For example, say your machine happens at this moment to be using the right arm to lift the cup to drink coffee;  observe at the same time how the machine stands on the left leg, right leg slightly lifted;  now the machine is smiling, and shifting its weight to the right leg slightly lifted; now the machine is smiling, and shifting its weight to the right leg.

In short, use the usual form of attention, but in this case the subject of attention is now exclusively the posture and movements of the machine observed exclusive of any psycho-emotional significance.

Ordinarily our movements occur long before we notice them, if we ever do become aware of them, because we are not trained to fixate our attention on the movements of the machine.

Most of the machine's activities, the machine performs in secret from us. The machine drinks without our attention; eats without our attention; even makes love without our attention. This is the penalty we pay for allowing the headbrain to operate as the thinking centrum.

After we have maintained our attention on the activities of the machine for a while, its routine becomes apparent, and its activities seem much less overwhelming. After more time has elapsed the once seemingly busy and complex random activity becomes tediously predictable, because in fact, the machine does very little. When we are first beginning to seriously observe, the machine appears to be a maelstrom of chaotic activity.

Watch your hand as if it were a foreign object, but at the same time realise that it is an automatic part of the machine; it fiddles and fidgets by itself without your voluntary direction. Watch in astonishment as, all by itself, it picks up a fork; note that now the machine is smiling; the hand straightens the knife and smoothes the napkin on the table. And this is only the gross movements of a few parts of the machine, and only on the obvious exterior. When does it perform a wrist-rotation? Which muscles are used?

Different muscular combinations produce varying movements. Not just the hand but everything in the machine is somewhat affected by reverberations. Eventually we should be able to place our attention firmly on all that our machine does. Where is the tension resting when the machine is at rest? Sense the centrum of gravity in the body as it changes.

From time to time notice the centrum of gravity and where the points of weight come to rest. Where is your biggest point of weight? Are you using any force to balance yourself? Suppose you completely relax all your musculature, what happens?

Try to estimate how much force is exerted to keep your body in this posture; do this by sensing.

Tension is measurable only by comparison with relaxation. If we lack the will to relax the machine, we cannot use sensation to determine the exact tension required to maintain a posture. Relaxation and tension must become voluntary for any serious observation of the machine.

Beginning with the observation of the machine's posture as a whole, as if studying a statue-focusing first on the hands, mask, torso, arms and legs, try to see the activities of the machine as a whole unit. For instance, observe your postures sitting at a table, writing in a notebook, walking through a café; begin with the most obvious and observable postures and movements. For the moment, until you are very skilled, leave alone those delicate and subtle fluctuations . . .