The idea (expressed in Gurdjieff’s concept of objective art) appears dogmatic and is often

perceived as such, with the result that one person accepts it hook, line and sinker and another
pushes it aside as complete nonsense. Representatives of these two conflicting views on the
subject can dispute this forever without coming a step closer. I have experienced the same in
my efforts to comprehend what is meant by objective art. I want to get somewhere, as if in a
dream that many people have, but I am held back by invisible hands. From where I am now, I
have resigned myself to the fact that there are works of art that exist which may only be
“contacted” in exceptional circumstances, that is, if we find ourselves in a state that
corresponds with the con- sciousness in which the work was created. This could come across
as a flight into vagueness, and consequently I must add that this degree of understanding has
not taken place without a considerable struggle for me.

For many years and regularly, for days, sometimes weeks, this topic has consumed me with
the intensity of someone in the grip of an ob- session. The stage of my “wrestling with an
angel” was music, a field that is familiar to me and was also important to Gurdjieff. This was
my first point of reference. The second contextual influence is that I have collected vast
materials that mainly originated with others. With these as my platform, I have given this
topic of objective art thorough consid- eration. I am not trying to think up “something new”
so to speak—I gave up the belief in that long ago—but to clearly categorize, in an orderly
manner, the many experiences I have had in music that relate to and open up this question.
Just a few of these categories include:

long ago, has resulted in a mixture of partly over-activated and partly atrophied muscles, to
which associations of emotions and thoughts adhere like moss to the cobbles on an old path.
As with a phoenix, a new, freer pattern of movements must arise. This demands dedicated
study, just as for every other complex skill, whether this concerns the carpentry for a helical
staircase, the design of an electrical circuit, the translation of a poem from Chinese
pictograms or the study of Cambodian temple dancing, which has around 2000 body
positions.

What comprises the inner form in practice? Every participant in a Movements class must
have a basic understanding of Gurdjieff’s teach- ing and must have made the effort to apply
this teaching to themselves. In the way in which lightening discharges only in the place where
a small electrical discharge from the Earth has taken place first, so is the work that a person
performs on himself ignited through the revelation of a Movement. The observations evoked
by the Movement act as a signpost that shows us the path we must take. The observations can
be the start of the formation of well-determined substances that are then stored in the body, a
stable reality in contrast to our volatile emotions and thoughts. Movements are the esoteric
part, in Gurdjieff’s words “the practical part,” of his teachings and as such inextricably
linked.

NO EASY WAY

The summary of requirements as described above will certainly evoke resistance in those
who believe in quick (instant!?) results, and do not realize the necessity of learning a process
over many years. Such learning requires a struggle, without any mercy with one’s acquired
habits and limitations—conditions needed for these efforts to yield a realistic image of
oneself.