The First Conscious Shock: Awakening the Cells of Being

The Work says that a moment of Self-Remembering supplies every cell in the body with food of a kind that it does not ordinarily get. The Work says that when you remember yourself you give a shock to the whole of you. Every cell receives force and new energy—i.e. a new food. This is called the First Conscious Shock where all our work lies for many years and this is always what we forget to give ourselves although we have heard it 101 times.

Instead of remembering ourselves we insist on arguing with ourselves or on thinking about everything or even thinking about what Self-Remembering means. You have often heard that if you do not know what Self-Remembering means, you should try to stop your thoughts even for a few seconds, to stop everything for a short while, and to be nothing, no one.

If you can do this, you will notice that you feel quite different, as if you had turned on the light. Or if you think this image too strong, as if you had suddenly noticed where you are, suddenly come to your senses, or, as someone once said to me: "It is as if I suddenly took my head out of the water."

Maurice Nicoll, “Commentary on the Food of Impressions" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 2, p. 656)