My last “I” before retiring on the eve of my crystallization was: “It is not going to happen tonight”. Then I woke up at 2 A.M. I was facing the mount Apollo, with my back to California. I experienced a conscious birth, like a woman delivering a baby. It came upon me. There was a bolt of lightning, smoke and an earthquake. My higher centers fused. World 6 and world 12 were there. It lasted for about fifteen seconds. The smoke then vanished. My world 6 was looking out unperturbed, like the sphinx, with a timeless gaze. It was as if someone had shot a bullet between my eyes, and I was looking at them unmoved. I realized it was impossible to destroy my higher centers. They are immortal.
- From "30 Years of Apollo"
From the Gurdjieff-Ouspensky Centers (Fellowship of Friends) website:
Is the Teacher conscious?
Yes. Robert Burton crystallized his higher centers in 1976. Because it is a law that the lower cannot see the higher, verifying the level of being of the Teacher may seem challenging. Yet we can approach this question in a practical way. If working with this Teacher in this School makes you more conscious, more awake than when you began, then the question of the Teacher’s consciousness is to some extent irrelevant.
From the same website:
I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify yourself. - George Gurdjieff
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| Fellowship of Friends students celebrate the "unverifiable event" at "Mount Carmel Monastery" |
"a former student" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, August 15, 2007:
#346 Skeptical Optimist [responding to post number and blogger]
#344 Dick (I’m not a) Moron
“I remember the “crystallization party” pretty well. I was living at the “farm”. Burton had gone to Arizona so he could “crystallize” at the Arizona Biltmore (tells you a lot right there).”
I was in Phoenix with Robert at the Arizona Biltmore the evening he was to crystallize. I spent the bulk of the day with him. I met him at the Airport with Mildred Smith and Vincent Bell the center directors. We spent the day at the Biltmore and in Scottsdale. I think he had been attracted by the opportunity to buy a very large set of Meissen [German porcelain dishes] in the Red Dragon pattern at a good price. After a long day I was with him and other students in the evening and I can recall having a drink in the lounge after dinner of Johnny Walker black label scotch something rare for me and accompanying him to his cottage where he proceeded to talk me into letting him have oral sex. He used the “externally consider your teacher” line and negotiated a deal or bribe by offering to transfer me from Phoenix to another center.
I travelled [sic] to Renaissance with Mildred Smith and other Phoenix students for the crystallization party. I had mixed feelings about seeing Robert after my experience at the Biltmore. Even today the evening at the Biltmore is a very blurry memory. It is oddly disjointed as I can recall things like what shoes and socks I had on, Burgundy Gucci’s with Cashmere socks both gifts from Robert, my suit, a Cream Colored Italian silk I got for myself and a floral silk tie I still have. I can remember the decorations on the furniture and carpets of his room , all designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, but only the vaguest dark image of Robert having oral sex. The image in my head is always like a dark angel or demon.
I seriously have questioned whether this was not a moment of choice for Robert, In that instead of crystallizing he chose to indulge himself and continue his lying sexual behavior. This experience stunned me. It was an ultimate betrayal. I did not speak to anyone about it until I disclosed it to my psychiatrist last week. I had buried the memory.
It took several years before I left the Fellowship. This shows the deep conflict between what I hoped was true, imagined was true and had to accept as a reality. A certain fog was lifted and I was able to begin to see that Robert was as mechanical as he appeared. Self indulgent, selfish, dominating and given to micro management which was often grossly incompetent that was justified as being for “our evolution”. This was part of the developing myth of needing to accept the teachers will to free us from the law of accident.
The other evening I was musing after reading a post from Ames and a thought came that Robert was taken over by a demon. In Milton’s Paradise Lost it is the “fallen Angels” who resist the will of God that become the demons. Another idea is that a “demon” refers to the “lower self” or King of Clubs”. So the thought is what if Robert did “awaken” and experience the “truth” that we as creations are “the angels” and what we need remember is that we partake of the divine nature.
What if this is a test on the “way”. One of the conditions that all must meet to become man #5. Perhaps the si-do interval.
The nature of which is to see with out buffering the different contradictory sides of ones being. This is not about higher states but of being honest with oneself. You cannot become one and continue to lie to oneself about contradictions.
This seems to be what Robert did. He lied about his sexuality. He developed a criminal inner circle of those who knew and perpetuated his lies. He as Elena has stated became two.[ed. - In the above, "former student" appears to contradict an earlier post he wrote.]
I have heard some demons referred to as “eater of souls”.
This very clearly describes what Robert has become. His “school” attracts magnetic centers and cultivates them for his food. Instead of nurturing and feeding his spiritual children he is feeding off of their finer energies. He is a spiritual vampire.
This also explains why many who have left seem to have lost their desire to awaken. It also explains the apparent contradiction between the experience of higher states and apparent results and the existence of a criminal center to the “school”. It is necessary for “the school” to cultivate higher energies and essence in order for Robert to feed upon it.
"Walter Tanner" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, June 13, 2007:
Fellow Travelers,
Former Fofer [blogger] asks: “When did Robert claim to have crystallized as a man no. 5? Does anyone know? And did he ever describe that experience?”
I have a story, probably from my entourage-time with Robert. He crystallized his higher emotional center in front of the fire on the deck at Nepenthe, Highway 1 in Big Sur. No date was given, but this was between the founding of the Fellowship and the crystallization of 1976.
[ed. - And now a bit of humor from Jack Handey, as quoted by contributors to the Fellowship of Friends Discussion.]
"KA" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, July 10, 2007:
I keep two volumes of the most enlightened manuals on my desk and would like to quote from them. They are “Deep Thoughts” and “Deeper Thoughts” by Jack Handey.
“To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And, at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between, plus some things I can’t remember, all rolled into one big “thing.” This is truth, to me. ”
"Is there anything more beautiful than a beautiful, beautiful flamingo, flying across in front of a beautiful sunset? And he’s carrying a beautiful rose in his beak, and also he’s carrying a very beautiful painting with his feet. And, also, you’re drunk."
"KA" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, November 6, 2007:
“It’s funny that pirates were always going around searching for treasure, and they never realized that the real treasure was the fond memories they were creating ”
Jack Handey, of course.
"James McLemore" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, January 22, 2008:
From ‘Deep Thoughts’ by Jack Handey
“If you ever reach total enlightenment while you’re drinking a beer,
I bet it makes beer shoot out your nose.”
More Jack Handey "Deep Thoughts" from M.I.T.:
"Sometimes life seems like a dream, especially when I look down and see that I forgot to put on my pants."
"He was the kind of man who was not ashamed to show affection. I guess that's what I hated about him."I think my new thing will be to try to be a real happy guy. I'll just walk around being real happy until some jerk says something stupid to me."
"We tend to scoff at the beliefs of the ancients. But we can't scoff at them personally, to their faces, and this is what annoys me."
"The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face."
"As the light changed from red to green to yellow and back to red again, I sat there thinking about life. Was it nothing more than a bunch of honking and yelling? Sometimes it seemed that way."
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