IDEAL

Gurdjieffgives an account of how, when needing money, he went

and sat by an antipathetic man: ‘I sit like poor simple manand look at
him’. The man takes out all the money he has, puts it on the table and
goes away. Gurdjieffsays that the man will remember nothing; ‘such
power I have but not often wish to use' (Taylor 1998: 140-1).
Mesmer (1734— 1815) is one of the fewpeople held in respect in
Tales. IndeedGurdjieffcanbe seenasbelonging (asdo Freud andJung)
to that set ofpsychological thinkers who were influenced by theories
of double consciousness arising out of Mesmer’s work on animal
magnetism and magnetic sleep. Puysegur (1751-1825), who devel­
oped Mesmer’s work, concluded that there are two independent
existences in man, each of which has its own memory and one of
which can only be reached through hypnotism(Crabtree 1993).
See also: occult/occult revival; New Work
Further reading
For Mesmerismin relation to .Spiritualismand to Christian Science, see Webb
1971b; for Gurdjieff as hypnotist, see Webb 1980; 75—
93.
‘I AM ’ see exercises; ‘I ’/identity
IDEAL
This termwas used in the group meetings held during World War II.
If aperson does not have anideal, if they do not believe in God, then
their father, mother or teacher can serve themas an ideal. The ideal
(person) serves asanintermediary' between the pupil and God, and can
be called upon to help bear the burden of suffering caused by
remorse of conscience. Gurdjieff also refers to an ‘external ideal',
such as religious faith, and suggests that the pupil must destroy this in
order to have real contact with feeling (Voices: 173, 198, 200).
See also: exercises; groups; group meetings during World War II
(1940-4); prayer/praying

T’/ID EN TITY
Man has no permanent T, only a multiplicity of small changing Ts,
each ofwhich takes charge for a period and then is replaced by an ‘I’
with quite other tastes, qualities andabilities. The Whole exists onlyas
a physical thing or abstract concept and so is never expressed.
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 IDENTIFICATION

Changing conditions (e.g. the weather, education, religion) call up

different sets ofTs that fight one another. AnEastern teachingallegory
(see allegory/analogy), similar to those given in the Gospels,
suggests that man’s situation is like a house in which there are many
servants but no master. The house is threatened because there is no
order: the only chance for salvationisfor agroup ofservants to elect a
temporary or deputy steward (see steward/deputy steward) who
maydirect the servants to their proper places andwork, thus preparing
for the arrival of a real steward who will prepare for the arrival of the
master. Understanding his situation is not enough; in order to realise
hispossibilities, amanmust be willingto sacrifice andriskeverything
for the sake of liberation (Search:59-61; see also exercises; life is real
only then, when *i am*).
Gurdjieff led his pupils in the 1940s to experience extreme
remorse for their past relations with parents; this aroused feelings of
self-hatred and self-repugnance.
In 1978 Tracol wrote that the question ‘Who am I?’ is not
everyone’s question. However, he also said that a man finds bis true
identity as a seeker, and that Gurdjieff himself exemplified the seeker
that each man ‘is destined to re-discovcr in himself' (Tracol 1994; 94,
91, 95).
Gurdjieff’s birthplace suffered many political, social and economic
changes brought about by the successive overthrowof different ruling
powers (see Bennett 1976: 17-18). Due to these circumstances
Gurdjieffexperiencedamultiplicityoflanguages, religions andpolitical
ideologies, and perhaps the absence of any sense of a permanent
unchanging identity, both in himselfandin his surroundings.
Impermanence ofthe ‘I’was alsoreflectedinpsychological theories
- first, of double consciousness and, later, of multiple personalities —
that arose out of the work of Mesmer (1734-1815) and Puysegur
(1751— 1825) (see hypnosis/hypnotism; Crabtree 1993).
IDENTIFICATION
Manis constantlyidentifiedwithwhatever has attractedhis attention,
andparticularlyidentifiedwithwhat he ismost interestedin, including
work on himself. The struggle against identificationisdifficult because
man wrongly defines it as, for example, ‘enthusiasm’, ‘passion’ or
‘zeal’. An identified man is a thing, unable to self-remember or do
anything sensible. A specific form of identification is considering
(Search: 150-1). Unconscious fears cause identification: aman is afraid

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