Have I Been Insane?

To become more conscious of yourself is a strange experience. To become conscious of others is just as strange and even more strange. The life you yourself lead with passions and jealousies, meannesses, dislikes and hatreds, becomes utterly ridiculous.

You wonder, in fact, what on earth you have been doing all your life. Have you been insane? you ask yourself. Yes, exactly. In the deep sleep we live in, in the light of the Kingdom of Heaven, we are all utterly insane and do not know what we are doing. The work begins to teach you what to do. To awaken—that is the object of this work.

Maurice Nicoll, “On A, B and C Influences" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 1, p. 36)