The Strange Life of P. D. Ouspensky Read Online Free PDF Page B

three-dimensionally). Then he goes on to say:

    And yet, looking at the same printed papers, being curious and looking deeper and deeper into them with a microscope, I have seen that in splodgy ink stroke and dull fibrous texture, each part was definite, exact, absolutely so far and no farther, punctiliously correct; and deeper and deeper lying a wealth of form, a rich variety and amplitude of shapes, that in a moment leapt higher than my wildest dreams could conceive.

    What Hinton means is that the paper contains all the mysteries of space itself. But he might have gone farther, and recognized that even the silliest penny dreadful, explored to its depths, would reveal unknown vistas of the human imagination.
    This is the aspect of the fourth dimension that fascinates Ouspensky. And he expands it in some of the most remarkable and profound pages of Tertium Organum . Chapter 14 begins:

    It seems to us that we see something and understand something. But in reality all that proceeds around us we sense only very confusedly, just as a snail senses confusedly the sunlight, the darkness and the rain.

    Here we note immediately the quality that makes Ouspensky such a good writer: his clarity. He has an enviable ability to say exactly and precisely what he means. But this image of the snail does more than that: it conveys in a few words Ouspensky's feeling that we are surrounded by a vast, unknown universe, and that our assumptions and presuppositions cut us off from this world of reality. We may, in fact, reject Kant, and his notion that space and time are merely the clothes that the nightclub doorman forces the customers to wear; we may even assume that that pillar box really is red, and not that our eyes merely interpret its wavelength as redness. But we may nevertheless accept Ouspensky's central point: that our perception is 'prejudiced', and we often see only what we expect to see.
    Ouspensky goes on to tell a story that makes the same point. He describes how he and a friend were crossing the River Neva in St Petersburg:

    We had been talking, but both fell silent as we approached the [Peter and Paul] fortress, gazing up at its walls and making probably the same reflection. 'Right there are also factory chimneys', said A. Behind the walls of the fortress indeed appeared some brick chimneys blackened by smoke.
    On his saying this, I too sensed the difference between the chimneys and the prison walls with unusual clearness and like an electric shock. I realised the difference between the very bricks themselves . . .
    Later in conversation with A, I recalled this episode, and he told me that not only then, but always , he sensed these differences and was deeply convinced of their reality.

    Ouspensky goes on to say that the wood of a gallows, a crucifix and the mast of a ship is, in fact, a quite different material in each case. Chemical analysis could not detect it; but then, chemical analysis cannot detect the difference between twins, who are nevertheless quite different personalities.

    They are only the shadows of real things, the substance of which is contained in their function . The shadow of a sailor, of a hangman and of an ascetic may be quite similar - it is impossible to distinguish them by their shadows, just as it is impossible to find any difference between the wood of a mast, of a gallows and of a cross by chemical analysis.

    This realization is an extension of his insight on the Sea of Marmora. In that case, sheer exaltation had somehow amplified the strength of his senses - just as hunger amplifies a man's appetite so he appreciates his food far more. And this appreciation amounts to a sharper perception of the difference between roast beef and new potatoes and spring cabbage.
    Our problem is to maintain this recognition of 'difference' even when our senses are tired. If we enter a room in total darkness, we do not assume that all the furniture has disappeared merely because we cannot see it. We know it is