With this series of Nicoll’s recollections of what Gurdjieff had said to him, bear in mind that I am only providing the minimum to express Gurdjieff’s own thought. The use Nicoll makes of these quotes is significant, and for the full context and development, one should read the Commentaries.

15. Continuing volume 1, on p.347, Nicoll wrote: “… the Work says that one of its aims is to unite ‘the Wisdom of the East with the Science of the West’.” That needs no further comment. See also 665, 7 April 1945, 157th commentary.

16. Then: “In a conversation I once had with G. he remarked that most dreams come from Moving Centre, from hazardous connections taking place in Moving Centre. Strcitly speaking, most dreams come from Instinct(ive)-Moving Centre – that is, they are echoes of things seen during the day, sensations and movements. Such dreams are echoes of the life of the Instinct(ive)-Moving Centre during the day-time. They have no meaning and so are of no importance. But dreams can also come from other centres. Instinct(ive)-Moving dreams are, generally speaking, chaotic. …” I am not sure that what follows came from Gurdjieff, although it is of value. Gurdjieff knew that Nicoll had been with Jung and had written a book on the psychology of dreams. When Nicoll came to write about dreams in his later career, as in this commentary, he takes exactly the same line Ouspensky did in A New Model of the Universe. Nicoll’s comment here makes me wonder if Ouspensky’s final outline did not come from Gurdjieff – although much of what he wrote in New Model is drawn from his own experience. The framework, however, could well have been from Gurdjieff. (353, 20 November 1943, 85^th commentary)

17. In the very next paragraph of the commentary, he again quotes Gurdjieff: “Very often G. used to say that we must listen to ourselves, and that if we would only listen to ourselves before embarking on some enterprise we would realise how useless it was.” (353) Nicoll goes on to distinguish listening to crude and mechanical I’s. That is, Gurdjieff meant to listen to the higher centres Nicoll has been mentioning.

18. On 27 November 1943, he quotes from Herald of Coming Good, p. 66 on vanity. (360, 86^th commentary)

19. Now we come to volume 2 of the Commentaries. On 9 April 1944, Nicoll remembered G saying: “How is it impossible to make impressions fall on new places in centres? That is my task.” Nicoll adds: “He began by making people make new movements. And he also began by making people do things that they were not accustomed to do. “The truth,” he said, “is that everything becomes mechanical after a time. How to make things new? Everything becomes mechanical.” (424, the 102^nd commentary). In this way, there might be a chance that the habitual working of centres would be disrupted, allowing impressions to fall on new places. [see also 471, 15 July 1944, 115^th commentary]

20. We now come to a significant commentary, that of 3 June 1944, on “Non-Identifying.” Nicoll is saying that self-observation gradually brings the light of consciousness to our inner state, and writes: “Sometimes we have heard it said, and it was said to me: “The light can cure you.” (452) He (Nicoll) says: “Esoteric teaching is light, but only when it is understood, valued and applied.” (453) He continues: “The object of this Work is to increase Consciousness. We are the people mentioned in the Gospels who live in darkness. … In speaking about identifying, Mr G said that it was one of the greatest evils, one of the most terrible diseases, and that first of all a man must struggle with identifying with himself. Man, he said, possesses all sorts of illusions, all sorts of pictures about himself and with these illusions and pictures he is identified.” (453) Some of the following comments may also be by Gurdjieff, but Nicoll does not use inverted commas to indicate the quote. (110^th commentary)

21. I will now skip to the commentary of 2 December 1944, wherein Nicoll expands on the first quote of 3 June:

The object of self-observation, as it is said in the Work, is to let a ray of light into oneself. The next thing that is said is that when light is let in in this way many things begin to change of themselves. It is the light of consciousness that begins to change things. For this reason it is said in the Work that the light will cure us. Have you ever thought what it means, this extraordinary phrase: “the light will cure us”? When I first heard it said to me by G. it had such an emotional effect upon me that I was unable to speak to anybody for some time afterwards. I knew it meant something I had never understood and yet seemed to understand for the moment. We all think we can cure ourselves. I think perhaps I understood that we could not cure ourselves but that there was something that could cure us if we could gradually reach it. (560, 135^th commentary)

22.“All life becomes your teacher,” as G. once said. (458, 10 June 1944, 111^th commentary)

23. “G. used to say that things were always much the same in all ages – that is, the general balance of things.” (462, 24 June 1944, 112^th commentary) [There was evidently a week missed]

24. Speaking of the metaphor of carriage, horse, and driver: “I remember how often G. used to speak of the reins – that is, the way of connecting the driver with the horse. … these reins … are interesting things, and the reason why G. used often to talk of them. … I remember G. saying on one occasion in France: “Yes, driver he know, horse he not know. Horse he not understand. He not understand what driver says”.” (465, 1 July 1944, 113^th commentary)

25. At the end of the same commentary, Nicoll gives an exercise which may have come from Gurdjieff: “I would say that visualising another as yourself, visualising his or her individual troubles as if you yourself were that person, is the beginning of making reins between the driver and the horse, and this really means visualising the other person eventually.” (468)