The Formation of the Second Body: Inner Freedom Beyond Outer Circumstances

The one who has reached a stage in which they have something independent of outer conditions, something which is independent of failure or success, cold or heat, discomfort or comfort, starvation or plenty, such a one has Second Body.

It is possible for us to form another body within ourselves. This Second Body does not depend on the first body but in fact can control it. The outer psychology must be eventually controlled by the inner psychology. This is reversal. This is the formation of a second organized body—an organized psychological body—composed of finer matters than the physical body. In the practice of non-identifying we begin to make this Second Body.

To be always thinking that things are not as you wish them can only make you continually unhappy and negative. It is you yourself who have to awaken and have to hold in yourself the secret of being happy. And this holding means sealing yourself from the effects that outside events, outside conditions, have hitherto mechanically had on you. It is just here that one can separate oneself by noticing through self-observation how one is reacting to the moment. Yes, it is well worth just noticing this—and often during each day.

Maurice Nicoll, “Note on Second Body” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 3, p. 927-928). Condensed quote.