"Living Word"
Elena Sikirich's session with the leaders. February 17, 1996. From the New Acropolis archive.
A leader cannot be an organizer, cannot be a former, i.e., lead people, if at the same time he is not able to convey to a person the essence, the key point in any explanation, starting with a lecture and ending with explaining the work in the direction. A person cannot be a leader without being an inner instructor, and therefore we will work on these two points in parallel.
At instructor sessions of this kind, like today, only some theoretical points will be given, which you will later develop in practice as instructors.
How a lecture is prepared.
The lecture must be digested and suffered.
... and when I was a mineral — what is that? Where did it come from? These things, when a person embodies the topic within himself, as he can and as he knows, on a small level. When this topic is alive for him in terms of those changes, those turning points, those re-evaluations that it causes in him. And if, when you prepare a lecture, the topic within you did not trigger a rethinking, then you did not prepare it. Naturally, there is another element of this “suffering” of the topic, which concerns small groups or any announcement at a lecture. How can I simply announce: “In a week, for school members there will be an environmental action from this hour to that hour,” — if I know that this environmental action means this and that to me. I will try through this announcement to convey to members why it is important and why it inspires me. Without this aspect of being “suffered,” there is no any word. I must live this environmental action, must see for what, must rejoice in it in advance in order to be able to speak and announce it. This is called “suffering the lecture.”
During such preparation for a lecture, when we stop with mentalization, scholasticism, etc., when we study a new topic, it begins to work inside us like an athanor. We experience torment about the lecture, there are moments when, because of the topic, we cannot sleep, because it touched us so much that certain moments spin around at night, it arouses. There are moments: you sit on the subway and say, “How wonderful!” And when you reach the state of “how wonderful!”, it means you are ready, you can pass the topic on to others. And there is no topic in which you could not reach the state of “how wonderful!”, “how clear, how obvious!”, and which could not trouble you internally for days, and which could not generate a bunch of thoughts useful personally to you. This is called suffering the lecture. This is called preparing yourself for the lecture. And it means that whatever topic I read, I transform and become the character, the situation, about which I speak in the topic. If I speak about cosmogenesis — this is the principle of imagination — I must feel that transition from one to two, from one geometric figure to another, not only understand the dry information, but experience it, imagine how it happens. And when I speak about it, it is alive before my eyes. If I speak about how the Templars went to war, I see those Templars, I am among them, I see one fall, another bleed, I am inside. This is the highest art — to transform into the situation you speak about, to enter it, to speak not from outside, as an observer, but as a participant in it. This is what it means to suffer the lecture — not from outside as an observer, but as a participant in what you talk about.
And HAL taught us that in this context it is not frightening to invent something — some piece of information that no one will check, even if they say it did not happen. But what will remain is not information, but the essence of what they wanted to convey. You will give people the living forms that you created in this way. And in this context, suffering the lecture is a creative work: to create and to transmit. And do you think you would have branded HAL for the fact that when he read the lecture “Giordano Bruno,” he clearly made things up in front of the public so that some members of the Living Forces who were serving the lecture would hear that Giordano Bruno was in Zagreb and founded a school, the core of which was called “Phoenix” (then the Living Forces was called “Phoenix” in Zagreb), and that this was how the first spiritual impulse in Eastern Europe began. But he said it so that those who understood his words did not see Giordano Bruno, they saw him, and even believed — maybe it was so, although we know it was not. Everything is relative in time and space, and facts that did not take place in reality may have taken place on other planes. Therefore there are things that logic cannot accept, but something inside us (these are called moments of sacred inspiration in a lecture) makes us tell them. Here is an example of HAL, the great HAL, who never lied, and did not lie even when telling the fact of Giordano Bruno’s arrival in Zagreb, although that never happened. Delia later laughed: “I really wanted him to have stopped by, but he didn’t.” Delia later asked: “Why did you invent that?” — there were journalists, television, and everything — “We needed somehow to thank the poor Living Forces of Croatia, Yugoslavia at the time,” he smiled. There are moments that do not yield to logic, and they must be caught in a lecture, and here the boundaries between information, knowledge and inspiration shift, and the boundaries between truth and untruth disappear. And truth then is what you transmit in a lecture; truth is the principle that passes through. That should be clear to you.
And from the point of view of the instructor’s own preparation, we will talk about this in more detail when there is a theme “Inspiration,” and when inspiration itself occurs. And now the famous theory of Hiero logos, which answers the question who and what speaks within us during a lecture. I say this as preparation for the lecture, because the instructor must be aware of all these points in advance, otherwise he will be a teacher, not an instructor.
The theory of Hiero logos or the “Sacred Word”.
When the word is pronounced not only to inform about one or another fact, but when the word is used as a means of creation. Remember HAL’s story: the potter dreams of his vessel. From the moment dreams of the vessel begin, the archetype of this vessel already begins to embody into form — from that moment. And this explains the fact that the word in this context, whenever it is spoken, not only in lectures but in general, in moments of inspiration, has a form through which the action of the will manifests. This is the most successful and so far, at the current stage of the development of the 5th race, the only form through which the pure principle of will manifests outwardly. “In the beginning was the word” — if you remember — and then images and forms are created. In what context? To make this clear to you, I recall one point from the lecture about the 6th race. When Blavatsky explains that times will come when there will be no sexual difference, when people will incarnate as a kind of “androgynes,” and when any form of reproduction, starting from the physical, will be carried out through the interaction of thought and word. And I explain this in lectures, although people look at me with round eyes — I explain it in a more accessible way — they laugh: “thought — said — done,” literally. And when Blavatsky explains that in this way children will be born, i.e., there will be no need for physical or other labor — I want to create — I thought, I said in the appropriate form, and the form already is born under the influence of my word. And this is called the principle of the “Sacred Word” in oratory. And you must understand that reading a lecture — any lecture — thank God we are too small for this principle to act fully, but sometimes, occasionally, when we ourselves do not realize it, our word has the power to act: said — the process already begins. Both for good and for bad. With the word you begin or set in motion the process of transformation into form. The moment of the archetype’s descent, the idea. And of course from this comes responsibility for your words. Because if you speak incorrectly, then you call forth and embody the wrong thing, and accordingly you enter into interaction with the law of Karma, which has its own plans for creations; either we agree with them, or if we miss the mark, sanctions occur. That is the point you must understand within lectures. And a person who has the art of working through the word is a magician. And regardless of the fact that we are very small, a lecture, a poem, an evening, a small group should be a form of magical or mystical action. It is important that you understand this. The principles spoken of, the key moments that are caught, what is spoken in you, automatically triggers a process of action in you. You said the word and left, and in those people who were affected a process begins inside them and continues. This is the greatest responsibility and the greatest challenge to reach.
How does this magical action of your word reflect on a small level? Unfortunately, you will not be able to verify it, but the main thing is that people have it. It manifests so that at certain moments in life this word is remembered as a statement of fact that it is indeed so. And accordingly, it turns out that your task in the lecture is to prepare yourself so that by “suffering yourself” within the lecture you arouse through your word the corresponding events of Karma, the fate of your listeners. Your word must be so strong. That is the mystery of teaching. So that they are confirmed in practice, so that through this the person later lives and goes through it. If your word was dead, it will remain unconfirmed in the person’s experience. And this is what makes us different from other teachers.
The instructor is an actor of initiatory theater.
When a person prepares himself for a lecture, he simply continues and repeats this state during the lecture. He must become an actor of the initiatory theater. Once again, we recall the ten-thousand-times-chewed words that the actor of the initiatory theater plays in a drama that is created not for spectators, but for himself. And, playing different roles, he therefore reincarnates into them, becomes them, and goes through a certain inner experience. In this context, when you give a lecture, if you want people to be transformed by that lecture, you must transform yourself both during preparation and during the lecture. We come to a long-known point, which has been said ten thousand times, that during the lecture (and it would be good if this already happens during preparation for the lecture) you are no longer Petr Petrovich, Tatyana Krasilnikova, etc., etc. You become a different being, you are inwardly unfamiliar to yourself, you must not recognize yourself during the lecture. You must bring yourself, through preparation, to such a state that later, when you read the recording of your lecture, you will be surprised: “Is this what I said?” — and that your own words, your own lecture, when you read it in a normal state, will seem completely unfamiliar. This is the greatest mastery of transforming a person before others. And perhaps others will not understand this and will think that it is self-evident, that this is always so — morning, afternoon, and evening. But you understand and know and see that thanks to this transformation everything goes clearly, normally, not as planned, but as needed. That is where the instructor must arrive.
The need for inner catharsis or purification.
In this vein we move to the last point in preparing a lecture. For a lecture to be suffered before and during, one must provoke catharsis not only on stage, but first inside oneself. Without inner catharsis or purification there cannot be external catharsis and there cannot be impact on the audience. What does that mean? That the same states of tenderness, regret, “goosebumps,” dreaminess must be experienced by you during preparation. For the audience to cry, first, during preparation, you must cry. For the audience to have “goosebumps,” first, during preparation for the lecture, you must have them. That is important. When you prepare a lecture along with new revelations, along with questions, re-evaluations, there is a cleansing of dirt, a redemption; this is another context or the other side of the coin of what was discussed yesterday. Not to be confused with “eco”? And when we answer the question: “How to cause this catharsis in the audience?” — the audience must experience it during certain moments of the lecture, otherwise the lecture will not be delivered; naturally, first we will talk about how to be inspired and how to evoke this within oneself.
The need for concentration.
Next we move on to the lecture itself. A few more points concerning the lecture itself so that you are more or less oriented. When preparing for a performance, or before going onstage, or before a small group, there is another very important moment: concentration before the performance. I spoke about this a long time ago when I explained to you that a person who is all out of breath, ragged, late for a lecture must not immediately go on stage, or after being pulled in the break or in the lobby on various organizational issues, go, take the microphone and begin to read. You must find an opportunity for privacy. The ideal option: before a lecture or a small group, withdraw not only internally but also externally, run away to some corner where there is no one, where no one sees you, no one looks at you. The ideal is for music to be playing — it helps a lot, which is why I always insist on music during the break and before the lecture. It helps the lecturer, not just the listeners, because this music, when you listen to it, calms thoughts, helps to sketch the model of the lecture and evoke memories... If I have a lecture about Giordano Bruno and if “Bésame Mucho” is playing five minutes before the lecture, it is hard for me to tune in, but if something else plays — anything quiet, calm music — I imagine Giordano Bruno in his sufferings and struggle, but calmly, silently, pensively moved; if Wagner plays, then the grandeur of sacrifice comes forward. Music creates images for an impressionable person that are very helpful. And the most important thing during concentration, I reveal a secret, but you apply it as you wish, is to invoke some patron, a sacred image, something that you hold most dear, and ask to be inspired, to speak through you. Not even to ask, but to have such a small silent inner conversation. A person who is small himself comes out before a huge audience to whom he must not just give something, but must advance them in terms of their destiny, and the person in this moment of solitude understands that he himself knows nothing, cannot see anything — he is blind, like a small kitten, however well prepared his topic may be. This is the moment of the Mysteries before the lecture, when you imaginatively, inwardly invoke the sacred images that inspire you. And as one last time before the battle — and every lecture is a new battle — ask for blessing, once again “at the feet of the Teacher,” explaining to him that this and that is the matter — if you do not help, all our work will be said in vain, I myself cannot. Heard? — Yes. — Let’s go! And you go together. Careful, this is not pathos, and must not be pathos, must not be profanation, must not be enthusiasm, astral showing. This is a very subtle, very intimate moment, which in the soul of every instructor must be self-evident, a necessity of the soul. And from my own practice, I assure you that if this moment is not there, the lecture goes much harder. I am leading to the point that you should not read the lecture alone, but together with someone who, of course, you will not know or realize, must be nearby. If you feel this during the lecture, then it does not matter what you talk about. Let the lecture be about the Stoics, and you speak about Giordano Bruno — it does not matter, people will not notice.
Group perception cycles.
A few more points. When you begin a lecture, the first thing you must feel, and during the lecture feel quite concretely, are the group perception cycles. This is something you must know in advance, although I myself often neglect this. Mistakenly. This is something that must work almost instinctively, and after the 2nd, 3rd, 4th lecture you must learn to instinctively master it. First, the level of the group’s perception changes during the lecture. Modern psychologists claim that the most favorable interval when perception more or less works is from 30 to 40 minutes without a break, maximum an hour. But ideal perception is 30–40 minutes. And even if you take an hourly cycle, or say 30–40 minutes, we must keep in mind that perception is weaker at the beginning and at the end. In the first 15–20 minutes, by intuition, you need to introduce people to the topic, focus them, direct, as philosophers say, their mental efforts toward you, interest them, so that all these efforts of the mind are directed at you; and if there were a true clairvoyant, he would see as if rays focusing on you. Then perception begins to work and grows to a climax — this is the middle stage — then again weakens after about 30 minutes, when oversaturation and fatigue set in. And at this third stage, after the climax, the main thing you must catch is that there is a moment (if the person is an experienced instructor, he feels it perfectly at each lecture) when satiety comes. People no longer perceive logically, i.e., with the mind, they no longer understand things in compartments — they reach the edge. And then logical perception, the perception of the mind, passes into the so-called “supersensitive” perception. You must lead them to this fatigue, this logical oversaturation, so that they no longer understand anything logically, cannot follow the thread, and then they begin to perceive by other mechanisms, within which there are at least high emotions, and sometimes small intervals of intuition as the maximum.
In this context, how do you build a lecture knowing there are these three stages — with a peak and moments of decline? We will work on this in detail later. Your task is to introduce the problem in the first stage. When perception is not yet focused on you, make the introduction. But be careful, the introduction should be neither too long nor too short. It must, you must feel it, and I will then try to teach you in practice, last as long as the audience will be focusing on you. As soon as you feel that the audience has focused on you, that you feel a unified attention as one organism, then you must move to the essence of the lecture, i.e. to the model you imagined.
So, in this intermediate moment — these 30 minutes, no more — during 30 minutes when you see that attention is maximal, you must strike at consciousness, that is, regardless of what is in your plan — whether there is a long historical account, a biography, or something else, some boring structural moments, etc. — before you reach the essence, you stop automatically and use these 30 minutes to reach perception, to conscious understanding, to strike at consciousness, to break through consciousness. The audience’s reaction should be, figuratively speaking, with open mouths. And when you succeed in this break in consciousness during the climax of perception, then you will see that people stop writing and look at you, and as soon as you notice these moments, you intensify your explanation. As soon as you see that they begin to write again — stop and calm down. These are subtle moments, but very important.
Thus, the climax of perception comes, we strike at consciousness, we need to open their eyes, strike at manas, at revelation, understanding: “You can look at this from another side, did I not think about it, etc.,” — and lead to oversaturation. Intentionally introduce some difficult moments already closer to the break, especially toward the end of the lecture. And when you feel that oversaturation, fatigue, the edge has arrived and people no longer perceive, then you must use the last stage, when logical perception wanes and another begins, in order to strike at emotions and at the heart. At emotions and the heart. This is obligatory before the break, and obligatory before the end of the lecture. That is, in that part when they by now no longer understand anything, you must evoke in them, through one conclusion or another, through one story or another, mystical “feelings,” a discharge, a catharsis. And you must lead the lecture to this consciously, using precisely that moment when logic and the mind cease to work, are oversaturated and other mechanisms are switched on. And when people ask us why you leave the most interesting thing to the end of the lecture, now you understand why. The most interesting thing is not explained, but transmitted through this kind of catharsis.
And in this context you can construct a lecture so that the whole lecture is simple: one part — introduction, another part — the climax, strike at consciousness, and the third part — emotions. And the higher art is when you construct a lecture on some large themes, and within each large theme you want to reveal, you make these small cycles: introduction — strike at consciousness — emotions, then relax, then again another theme: introduction — strike at consciousness — emotions — relax. Then a third moment: introduction — strike at consciousness — emotions — relax. And in the context of the overall lecture there is a clear introduction, a clear “strike at consciousness,” and still at the end emotions — high feelings, high moods; it should be the same as after a concert by a great master. When we reach this, then I can say that you are my instructor. And between cycles it is very good, very good to use silences or pauses, which are exactly the zero point, the transition from one cycle to another.