Balanced Centers

Compilations from the transcripts of the original Michael group.

• The transcripts of the original Michael Teachings group have been determined to be in the public domain.  Any content or commentary added by the author/compiler is copyright: CC by NC-ND and please attribute adeptpath.net.
  

Balanced Centers [or Balanced Self]

TOMG was all about “spiritual” development. One of the milestones in the process of spiritual development is where one has become “balanced.” Michael mentioned it dozens of times during the years when the original Michael group [TOMG] met. The concept has largely been lost to later students.

“Balanced Man” is often contrasted with “Mechanical Man” in TOMG. Basically, Mechanical Man is someone who operates more or less automatically and habitually out of his nature and his nurture – the personality he was born with, and the personality he developed afterwards. Mechanical Man is not aware of any transcendent influences. Note that in both types, “Man” is used in the sense of Human, of course, not males specifically. There are also a couple of stages of spiritual development beyond Balanced Man, named Adept and Master.

The core members of TOMG were serious students on the Spiritual Path. They had a particular resonance with the teaching of Georges Gurdjieff and his student Peter Ouspensky and many of their questions came out of this base of knowledge. There are numerous other concepts that are related to Balanced Man – which stands as a central feature of the whole system of spiritual development Michael presented — and it came with specific terminology. For instance, there are Levels of Being, Centers and Parts of Centers, Center of Gravity, Magnetic Center, Soul and Essence, False Personality, True Personality, Traps, Energy Leaks, Psychic Energy, Friction, and Chakras.

The Overview

Question: [Does] the Essence have a personality? Does this relate to the Positive Poles [of the Overleaves]?

• In order for the True Personality to emerge, the student must be in a firm state of Balance, and if the Centers are Balanced, all work will be from the Positive Poles of all Overleaves. In fact, at that moment, the whole concept of Overleaves becomes obsolete. Balanced Man is not a victim of his Overleaves any longer. This is, of course, why the work is to strive for Balance and why we attempt to effect those exercises that will allow you to choose the work you need tailor made. [01/25/1975]

A question was asked about the personality of Essence. What is it? Could Michael describe it? Traits?

• The True Personality perceives the oneness and does not feel apartness. Thus, it is expansive in its expression. The True Personality does not need the pain, for it has access to the joy and again, can express this in the world. The True Personality knows truth and therefore has no further use for lies. Above all, the True Personality is appropriate in its response to each and every situation. Of course, this is manifested in the world as joyousness, as warmth, as a very special radiance, as a high energy course of a positive nature. However, False Personality is uncomfortable around this True Personality, and the farther removed from a teaching one is, the more uncomfortable one will be when faced with an encounter with Balanced Man. Balanced Man has the confidence that only knowledge of truth can possibly bring. Balanced Man brings this confidence to bear in all of his endeavors. Balance implies obsolescence of the Overleaves. Balanced Man is no longer stuck. He is free to move into real space where there are no limitations. For the “[women’s] libbers” present, substitute Balanced Woman for Balanced Man. The limitations within the artificial space of the Physical Plane bring comfort to those trapped there. The concept of eternity-infinity, for instance, is very uncomfortable for personalities, even those trapped in the Intellectual Part of Intellectual Center, even though from our perspective it is truth that is incontrovertible. The continuity [oneness] is as immutable as the polarity [twoness or duality]. [02/08/1975]

I would like comments on energies used by various energy Centers.

• All of this energy is psychic energy. Imagine a superconductor with many terminals, each representing a different power drain. If one of these users or consumers is utilizing massive amounts of power, there will be a corresponding loss in the other areas, occasionally even short circuits and blown fuses. The power that energizes the psyche is all the same type, or rather, the same grade of electromagnetic radiation. There is no refinement from one center to the other until the powers of transmutation become yours to utilize; then this energy becomes centralized — channeled, so to speak. When we speak of harmonious balance, we refer to that state in which this concentration is reached. And this also goes for the release of specific amounts of energy. Emotionally centered mediums have an easy time with manifestations, and also become excellent transport mediums. This medium (SC) is not Emotionally Centered, and is not in touch with the release mechanism that would enable, or at least enhance, the manifestation. Astral entities can manifest without any assistance, we cannot. We must borrow the energy from one of you, and we cannot do this against your will. We wish to remind you that there are two very specific types of reactions: implosion and explosion; also, two specific charges in polarization: negative and positive. A great deal of the energy utilized by the lower centers in life situations are implosion reactions with negative charges. Controlled reactions of this type do not ever become as spectacular as their antitheses [the Higher Centers]. [12/27/1973]

Is our energy self-generated? Are we born with a certain amount of energy and it regenerates?

• The body can be thought of as the vehicle, or the conductor. The Essence becomes the source of attraction, and as [spiritual] growth occurs, can draw upon an infinite power source. However, the average soul uses a very small, a very finite, amount of the energy available during a given physical interval. Most of you are somewhat sluggish due to cultural inducements, and rarely draw upon much energy. [12/27/1973]

The Use of the Centers in Coordination.

Michael Comment [snipped from an answer on a larger question]:

• [Snip]…. Balanced Man thinks with the Intellectual Center, perceives with Emotional Center and acts with the Moving Center. The divisions [“parts”] no longer hold [when you are in] in Balance. [04/15/1975]

A question was asked about Centers. The questioner is disturbed that his concept of Centers is so hazy. What part of the brain would correspond to the Centers? Is it a set, a gestalt, or what?

• More than anything, this [Balanced Centering] can be seen as an appropriate reaction to the situation. In the case of the lower Centers, it means that there is no leaking of energy and fatigue buildup as a result. You see, if you respond to an intellectual situation with an emotional reaction, it is usually totally inappropriate, and it comes not from Emotional Center, but usually from the Emotional Part of the Center in which you spend your life. If you respond to an emotional situation in a Moving Centered way, there is a tremendous downward relegation of energy, and fatigue follows. You can readily determine wrong use of Centers in yourself by the way that you feel after the situation has passed. If you are tired, angry or any of those negative things, you can be sure that wrong use of Centers is to blame. If you feel high, elated, joyous, etcetera, then perhaps good use of Centers has occurred. Any situation that produces a negative reaction is wrong use of Centers, and therefore wrong work for students on this path. This is why we ask that you look at your negative reactions, even in retrospect, and determine what happened to your energy when you expressed. Centering, or Balance, is, above all, appropriate. That is what it means — the loss of all of these unreasonable lapses in the volition. When you react negatively, you are certainly not in control — your False Personality is in control. The True Personality of the Essence merely looks at the script and makes the appropriate response at the moment it is called for — from the Center equipped to handle that situation with dispassion. [01/25/1975]

Michael Comment [snipped from an answer on a larger question]:

• A word about balance for the new students: this means simultaneously utilizing the Moving part of Moving Center, the Emotional part of Emotional Center, and the Intellectual part of Intellectual Center, and in a split second differentiating which applies in a given situation, with no consequent energy leak. [07/10/1974]

I am in my head at the hospital, in Moving Center playing golf, Sexual Center in sex, but my Emotional Center is always “playing background music.” The Emotional Center seems to pull in the opposite direction.

• This is the sensation that accompanies the beginning of the moving toward harmony and Balance. This sensation, however unpleasant it may seem, heralds being able to bring all Centers into play during all activity, so that the situation can be [intellectually] assessed, [emotionally] felt, and [moving] acted upon. Not in everyone it does, but in you, the Emotional Center has come in for the strongest barrage of work. You must be able to see intellectually, feel emotionally and act with Moving Center almost instantly in order to be working out of Essence through intuition. [12/16/1973]

The Tools for Achieving Balance: Concentration/Meditation/Study

What is meant by “intellectual teaching”? [The group answers: To translate what you have learned intellectually as knowledge into what you do — (being) [a Gurdjieff term]. It’s turning water into wine.]

• This is, of course, our teaching also. The discipline, of course, includes going toward balance through concentration, meditation and other conscious[ness]-raising techniques. Also, the understanding and ultimate complete acceptance of all others, leading to the spiritual agape, which is the doorway to true consciousness. [02/03/1974]

Question: Is self-remembering the way to produce psychic energy?

• Not the way, simply the by-product. The self-remembering must be produced first through those methods we have outlined to you [meditation, concentration, fasting, study]. Then as you go progressively toward balance, you automatically will have more and more flashes of consciousness, opening the door to higher expression. [02/09/1974]

How can I bring my Intellectual and Emotional Centers into phase?

• We did, at one time, give you an exercise that has proved valid for many, and that is of concentration outdoors: the exercise of visualizing the countryside, feeling the sun on your back, of feeling the sun acting upon the countryside, of filling the moment with as much of the environment as possible. Each time you perform this exercise, you should be able to embrace a broader perspective. [02/17/1974]

A question was asked about Centering, and what force makes one achieve Balance.

• The achievement of Balance is an act of will. The force behind it is the combined energies of the true “center of gravity” [a Gurdjieff term] within you. You always have this energy, but normally you allow it to dissipate unused. When you work toward Balance, you learn to conserve this energy and divert it into the Work. This energy does not run out, by the way. It is part of the neutral universal flow and is infinite. You must learn to tap it, however. Your Centers of gravity are now top heavy, or off true center. When you go to Balance it is centered — ergo, Balanced; not very mystical, but far more practical. There is no leakage of energy in Balanced Man, and all of this energy can be diverted into the [spiritual] work — whether this be meditation, concentration or study. The trap into which most fall is simply a continuation of habit patterns picked up early in life. This happens in part because of the models that an adolescent observes. There is beneath that a chosen direction of flow, but unfortunately, this can be overridden easily by the influences; for instance: a hysterical parent, a parent with serious dissemblance, a parent who is unduly stern. The direction then takes a reactive turn and the trap is exchanged for another. With students then, there is another pitfall. They begin to go toward Balance, find new experiences, and make a subliminal choice to stay there because it is a richer experience. [11/26/1974]

Michael Comment [snipped from an answer on a larger question]:

• Loving is [from the] Higher Emotion[al Center] and that requires Balance [of all Centers]. The person who is “conscious” is not a doer anyway. Most who have reached that exalted state of physical being prefer not to do. They are content merely to be with the present. That feeling you have glimpsed when you were in those states briefly ([this sentence] paraphrased [by original group editor]). This is something we have asked you to consider before: what is it you wish to do, learn to be more fruitful and happier in life, or go on to spiritual enlightenment? The goals are very different, and the methods of approach, therefore, would have to be quite different. Living in life requires what you are calling self-image and ego strength. Spiritual acceleration does not require this. It requires negation of the cultural facade. Those who defined the ego and ego states thereof were not, after all, conscious beings and were observing only the personalities of others with their own personalities. The Essence, separate from this, has an innate strength of its own, and can survive if the body is prepared for the surge when it comes. Disintegration only comes when the personality is lost and the Essence is freed prematurely, such as in some psychotic states. Otherwise, those on the path find the surge exhilarating and liberating and are prepared for it when it comes, but this only comes after the groundwork has been laid. Those tools we have given you are at your disposal. [09/14/1974]

Is there any technique I can use to detach myself from maya?

• We have given those to you. They are again: meditation, concentration and fasting, and study. [03/03/1974]

A____ felt very highly charged bolts of energy coming in. He didn’t need much sleep, and couldn’t find a way to outlay the energy.

• You can utilize these periods of positive energy flow to work toward Balance through work in the Centers. Moving Center is a good one for this channel, and is, of course, the easiest to reach. Other good work can involve the breathing exercises that you experienced, turning the energy upward and out into the liberated meditation. You see, even meditation is subject to real and artificial space, and the personality imposes limitations on the space that the meditation may occupy. The liberated meditation of the Essence utilizes the energy efficiently, and does not cause leakage, resulting in fatigue. The moments of Power [Mode] that those in the Caution Mode experience from time to time may be utilized in the same fashion. [02/08/1975]

Balance and the Goal of Agape

Michael Comment [snipped from an answer on a larger question]:

• In the climb toward Balance, E____, this is one of the very real lessons that must be learned. Balanced Man is above all constant in his relationships. This constancy stems primarily from a lack of fear, for Balanced Man knows that he cannot be “trapped” by another less-Balanced personality. In true agape there is, of course, an intensive, constant flow of love and caring from one to another. The personality rejects this out of hand, of course. It cannot even admit the possibility. That is why it is so difficult for you to photograph yourself intermittently dispensing affection in your interpersonal relationships. This is not limited certainly to C_____; most astute brothers and sisters feel this cool wind blowing, and they are sometimes more able to separate from it, only because their expectations are less, or at least different. At least one other student has revised his expectations to coincide with the observed fluctuations. [01/15/1972]

Michael Comment [snipped from an answer on a larger question]:

• Do you now have the feeling for the fact that in most souls not acquainted with a teaching that the Mode stands forever as a barrier between the Positive and Negative Poles of the Goal? No matter how exalted that Goal may be, this principle stands between all Modes and Goals. We would say so, yes. [01/16/1975]

All teachings?

• A comparable teaching that has as its goal agape through Balance. It may be Gurdjieffian in origin, or may have true religious grounding, as long as that (agape) remains as the goal. [01/16/1975]

The Effect of Balanced Centers

What part of the Overleaves are in Essence and what part are in personality?

• All of the Overleaves are geared to the Physical Plane and thus primarily of the False Personality. Of course, you cannot alter your Body Type or Role except by subtle extinguishment, and this is achieved only after all else is Balanced. Thus, the Role can still manifest in one acting primarily out of Essence, but not to any measurable extent in the occult master. [06/25/1974]

The man I saw 2 years ago on Telegraph Avenue who is allegedly a member of the Occult Brotherhood, what [are his overleaeves]? I’d say he was in balance so he is not in any Center, an Artisan, Fifth Level Old transcendent [karma-free] soul in the Passion Mode, no Chief Feature, Spiritualist. Is he part of my Entity?

• The only part we would disagree with is sixth level Old Soul, transcendent. In one who has achieved balance, the goal has been reached, that is correct. [06/23/1974]

I would like to ask how to bring the perceptions of the Emotional Center and those of the Intellectual Center together to be Balanced. Perceptions seems so limited: there is so much input and only one thing seems to get through.

• Of course, the perceptions of one trapped in the Intellectual Center are going to be based upon what is thought, and will be largely analysis of the perception rather than a perception at all. The perception itself will be lost in the analysis. The perceptions of one lost in the Emotional Center will be swamped by the feelings surrounding the moment, and again the perception itself will be lost to sight. This is what is meant, of course, by not experiencing one’s experiences. Those trapped in the Moving Center will be already planning or carrying out some action surrounding the perception before it has time to register. No Mechanical Man is able to appreciate any experience fully because of this. All perceptions are, of course, stored, and can be recalled by the Balanced Man if need be. In order to perceive and experience a moment in time, all Centers must be working (correctly). [09/17/1974]

Should the proper role for the Intellectual Center for a Balanced person be shut down until there is an actual problem to be solved?

• The Intellectual Center should be functioning as a decision-making partner in the process. The Emotional Center cannot make decisions properly, as it cannot think out the ramifications of any given situation with the speed necessary to make a valid, split-second decision. The Intellectual Center works at a far greater speed than does the Emotional Center when the soul is in Balance. In Mechanical Man, the Moving Center takes over the rapid functions. This is, of course, necessary for survival of the body, as when a hand is removed from a hot stove by the Moving Center in cooperation with the Instinctive Center. In Balanced Man, the Intellectual Center claims its rightful functioning and become the decision maker. In other words, Balanced Man chooses to remove the hand.

It seems to me that the Emotional Center knows the truth better than the Intellectual Center.

• Essence knows truth, and Essence most often manifests through Emotional Center in good students. This is primarily because “truth” is not often readily believed by Intellectual Center. It is just not rational. [09/17/1974]

I feel the only route to Positive Pole of Sexual Center is love.

• We have no quarrel with that, either. The only ecstasy that we know of occurring during the sexual act has occurred in adepts who are Balanced and who do express agape.

Is there a correlation between energy Centers and chakras?

• When one becomes Balanced, there is tremendous correlation, yes, for you feel the use of the energy in these spots described as, or called, chakras, with the higher Intellectual Center being, of course, analogous to the highest chakra or the chakra of liberation that places it above the physical body. All the chakras would be felt as energy Centers, yes. Now that the Emotional Center was responding to an appropriate situation, this would be felt in the “gut” chakra. [01/25/1975]

A discussion was held about helping.

• To help someone else, you must, of course, know the truth about yourself and you must know that which is false in them. This is why Mechanical Man fails so in his efforts to help. He does not know truth in himself, let alone in others. Balanced Man can certainly accelerate the growth around him, and those on their way to Balance can impart that which is truth in them to others. Yes, adepts are followed up the rungs of the cosmic ladder through no efforting on their part, because telling the truth is not an effort. Telling lies is. [01/30/1975]