used the method of “extreme influence” on a person. I practice the method of minimal changes; I don’t at all want to put pressure on my own or someone else’s psyche, or somehow adjust the world around me. I believe that in my case, a greater force of influence can play a negative role, and the weakest influence will be more beneficial for the process of my awareness.
Life-changing dance: how Gurdjieff’s sacred technique reveals human reserves (link in Russian)
https://dzen.ru/a/YeayNciXq3UZCN2a
“In his Eastern travels, Gurdjieff encountered many examples of the revelation of the extraordinary capabilities of the human body. The master found the shortest way to achieve such a state. It turned out to be a ritual dance of the Sufis.
A special way of spinning to hypnotic music acts on the human body as a catalyst. The body begins to react immediately, the adept gains, if not superpowers, then something very close to them.
These meditative dances, called ‘special ballet’ by Georgiy Ivanovich’s novices, began to play a major role among Gurdjieff’s methods aimed at achieving a state of ‘insight’.
For a beginner, Gurdjieff's dance is extremely difficult. The adept is required to perform very strange, unnatural movements for a person. They create such a load on the muscles, tendons and even the human psyche, which is simply impossible in everyday life.
But, in the end, ‘ballet’ turns out to be an extremely effective method of self-knowledge. Quite quickly, practicing it leads to the awakening of the higher mental centers of the human body, which leads to a state of ‘insight’.
‘My ballet is not a mystery,’ said Gurdjieff. ‘The task I set was to create an interesting and beautiful performance. Of course, there is a certain meaning hidden behind the external form; but I did not pursue the goal of showing and emphasizing precisely this.’
These dances were called unnatural, too controversial and sometimes even considered a manifestation of ‘Satanism’, since the detached faces of the students, immersed in deep dynamic meditation, gave the impression of being hypnotized or weak-minded.”
Gleb Davydov “Gurdjieff: the dancing provocateur” (link in Russian)
https://www.peremeny.ru/column/view/924/
“At the same time, Gurdjieff told Ouspensky something about the project of the ballet ‘Battle of the Magicians’:
‘Imagine that, while studying the movement of celestial bodies, say, the planets of the solar system, you built a special mechanism to convey a visual image of the laws of these movements and remind us of them. In such a mechanism, each planet, represented by a sphere of appropriate dimensions, is placed at a certain distance from the central sphere representing the Sun. The mechanism is set in motion, all spheres begin to rotate and move along given paths, reproducing in visual form the laws governing the movement of the planets. This mechanism reminds us of everything you know about the solar system. Something similar is contained in the rhythm of some dances. In strictly defined movements and combinations of dancers, certain laws are reproduced in visible form, understandable to those who know them. Such dances are called “sacred dances”. During my travels in the East, I witnessed many times how these dances were performed during sacred services in ancient temples.’
In particular, this can be interpreted as follows: by accurately reflecting the celestial dances at the microcosmic level, it will be possible to use these celestial dances for one’s own purposes, make changes to their macrocosmic scenario, and therefore influence the events taking place on Earth.
The fact that dance is one of the most effective forms of magical ritual, awakening and activating subtle energies, has been known since ancient times: a person who dances correctly acquires supernormal powers and can change the world around him. In ancient India, for example, dance was equated with the highest forms of yoga and was considered an act of creation, with the help of which a new space and a new situation can be formed. Lucian, in his treatise ‘The Dance’, reports that dance arose ‘with the origin of the first principles of the universe’.”
Music and mathematics
November 6, 2020, I bought a large Yamaha synthesizer for learning to play the piano. It was quite expensive, but in my opinion, this is exactly what I should do besides ballet.
November 8, 2020, Sunday, at 11:13 am, I was walking to my ballet class and noticed a car with a trailer parked outside our office, with a boat on the trailer with a Yamaha outboard motor. I took a photo for memory. This is a rare case, I do not remember the boats in the parking lot next to our office. When after 5 min. I got on the bus, this car had already left.
The synthesizer has been lying around unused for two years now, but I think I'll still find a use for it.
The question arises, why did I buy it? A few days before this event, I read an interview with a 12-year-old student at a choreographic school. It was written there that in addition to dancing, she plays the piano and likes it. I felt a sense of community and bought myself this toy.
I also learned that she enjoys studying mathematics. Therefore, I suppose higher mathematics is one of my future hobbies.
Computer games
This is a great way to socialize and kill time at the same time. Computer games are played en masse by stupid and narrow-minded lonely people who could not (or did not want) to realize themselves in the social world around them. That's just the way I am, what can I do.
Since the beginning of January 2020, I have been working several hours a day in the game “World of Warships” (WoWs), that is “a computer, client-side massively multiplayer online game in real time in the genre of an arcade simulator of naval battles of the First and Second World Wars.”
Several events in my life, paradoxically, are connected with this game. More on this later, in the corresponding chapter of the book.
The main purpose of computer games for me is to communicate with people. Massively multiplayer games, in my opinion, are ideal for this. And this “virtual communication”, as it turned out, is quite enough for me and there is absolutely no interest or need the real physical communication.
Real communication with people brings too much information, and it takes me a lot of time to fully understand this communication, or “grok”, as one fantasy character used to say:
“Stranger in a Strange Land (working title (in manuscript) ‘The Heretic’) – a fantastic philosophical novel by Robert Heinlein, received the Hugo Award in 1962. One of the few works of science fiction included by the Library of Congress in its list of books that shaped America.
The plot contains a lot of historical and philosophical allusions, being a biography of Valentine Michael Smith, a man raised by Martians, who returned to Earth and became the new messiah here. The publication of the novel caused a scandal associated with a too free, by the standards of censorship of that time, depiction of sexual life and religion.
Literary agent Lurton Blassingame immediately offered the novel to the publishing house Putnam's Sons, since, according to the terms of the contract, this publishing house was supposed to be the first to read Heinlein's next novel. Putnam agreed to publish the novel, but without the themes of sex and religion, which, according to Heinlein, was impossible. As a result, the publishing house still accepted the novel, but previously edited by Heinlein to 160 thousand words. It was published in 1961 with the final title ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’.” (Wiki)
Some people don't like sex and religion, so I try to distance myself from those things as much as possible. But, since I still have to quote the Bible sometimes, I once again apologize to the readers.
Insurance
“Now admit it—why do you serve with us?
“Because I’m a bad artist… Not by your standards