Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Self-study involves seeing ourselves as we are, and struggling with the characteristics of our being that prevent us from developing further:

• We Lack Unity
• We Lose Energy
• We Lie

There are four lower functions:

• Instinctive Center
• Moving Center
• Emotional Center
• Intellectual Center

Although we cannot directly see these different brains or centers within us, we can study them by recognizing their traces. Are we sensing? That is the instinctive center operating. Are we moving? That is the moving center operating. Are we feeling? That is the emotional center operating. Are we thinking? That is the intellectual center functioning.

Furthermore, each center has negative and positive halves (yes/no, movement/rest, pleasure/pain), and is also organized by level of attention. Functions that operate with little or no attention are the mechanical parts of centers. A good example is the mechanical part of the intellectual center that remembers names without effort. The emotional parts of centers operate with attention that is held by the subject. For example, when we are engrossed in a book, the emotional part of the intellectual center is working. Another example is when we are thoroughly enjoying the taste of a piece of chocolate, we are experiencing the emotional part of the instinctive center. The intellectual parts of centers operate when we make the effort to focus our attention. Learning to ride a bicycle for the first time, for instance, requires this level of attention in the moving center. Trying to understand a complex idea requires the intellectual part of the intellectual center.

Another lower center is the sex center. This function works with a very fine energy (Hydrogen 12) and is less easily observed because the instinctive center often overrides its functioning, which is an example of our tendency towards wrong work of centers.

We live in a state of identification. We place our energy into objects, places, events, and persons and derive a sense of identity from that. Generally we do not recognize that we are identified. Why? Because we call it something else: passion, devotion, belief. By justifying our identification, we prolong our sleep because identification draws us in without our control: we lose ourselves through identification.

Imagination satisfies all centers. The machine is content with illusion. As Mr. Ouspensky states about imagination, “One does not take it as self-deception: one imagines something, then believes it and forgets that it was imagination.” Creative imagination (where we envision a design for example and then implement it) rarely occurs to us. What occurs most often is allowing these visions and insights to drift into daydreams. Rodney Collin wrote, “Mental excretion is represented by imagination, that is, a continuous production of waste images, the by-product of past perceptions, which flow through and out of the brain in a meaningless and unbroken stream.” This unconscious stream of the many I’s take us out of the present. Imagination is our greatest foe to awakening.

Negative emotions not only waste an enormous amount of energy, but are useless. They are based on wrong attitudes, misinformation and imitation. We are not born with this tendency; we as children learn to “act out” negative expressions that we see from others. Mr. Ouspensky commented, “We think that negative emotions are produced by circumstances, whereas all negative emotions are in us, inside us. This is a very important point.” Negative emotions control us. When we stop justifying their expression, we can learn to transform the energy of negative emotions into divine presence.

Unnecessary talk also consumes our energy. We talk to fill time, to amuse ourselves, to display ourselves: talk keeps us pleasantly asleep. When we talk, it is difficult to observe ourselves. In fact, we are generally unaware of how much we talk, especially for some body types. Why is unnecessary talk an impediment to awakening? Because unnecessary talk displaces self-remembering.

It is not the small lies we tell others that are harmful. It is when we speak as if we know without direct verification that lying leads us away from the truth about ourselves. Our study must begin with what is real and what is imaginary in us: First we must learn to distinguish between traits in our

Essence is what we are born with: our body type, our chief feature, our alchemy, and our center of gravity make up the internal structure of our machines. Personality is what is acquired: ideas, beliefs, opinions, specific skills, etc. Think of essence as a vessel with different shapes, sizes, and colors, and personality as the learned behaviors that fill the vessel. In some cases personality and essence are well suited to each other. But when personality dominates essence, one’s possibilities end. Essence must be alive and well to evolve into something higher, for what we are in truth is our essence aware of itself.