Mouravieff uses the terms A and B Influences as useful labels or containers for various external and internal influences (respectively). Tuning into A influences keeps one plugged into and ruled by external influences, ruled by Chance. B influences are those which introduce and inspire free will and conscious decision making based on introspection. Tuning into B influences encourages the development of a ‘real I’ as opposed to the fickle, ephemeral mixture of myriad ‘little I’s which external man is ruled by.

As Mouravieff says in his Gnosis series,

In esoteric teaching this figure could be said to be the most important. It incorporates a multitude of ideas; far more than the comments we are about to give. That is why we must return to it often and meditate upon it.

The large circle is life (the World). The little black arrows are A influences. The white arrows are B influences. As humans we are bombarded with many external (A) influences. With covert oppression, the A influences can come from anywhere, but the arrows that are closest to us will have the largest effects.

The black arrows represent influences created within life by life itself.

If you look closely, you’ll see there for every black arrow there is another pointing in the opposite direction, canceling each other out. Being controlled by A influences doesn’t get a person anywhere, and so A influences are illusory. Mouravieff referred to the force that generates these influences as the General Law. The white arrows however are all pointing in one direction. These are B influences –the internal influences as developed through introspection. The force that generates B influences is referred to as the Law of Exception.

Each of the three circles is an example of the progress of one of the main centers (intellectual, emotional, motor) comprising a person. The whiteness is what Mouravieff called the ‘magnetic center’ -it is the concentration of greater Consciousness. This develops as a person grows, and is triggered by great shocks (can you say gang stalking,alien abduction, etc).

It may first appear as chunks of greater order within each of the centers, but if a person develops the ability to discern B influences and tune into them, it grows into a lasting real I. Mouravieff talks about the shocks as being the fire that melts the various little I’s into a magnetic center. As with everything else, this development happens in degrees. One cross section of this process is the move from Personality (the self image that is projected onto us and made up of several smaller ‘I’s), toward greater liberation and consciousness -the shaded areas represent all the little I’s –the external influences that have effected our Personality.

Gurdjieff talks about the same ideas and says that the Personality is a protective shell that grows around the Essence or true Self. As we develop, we eventually outgrow the system, and so the system responds by trying to regulate us through any means possible. If we really start to understand how connected we are to the environment in which we live, this is not so difficult to see as being just like the physical body regulating cells with hormones and various chemical injections -Mouravieff’s model.

Moving from the General Law to the Law of Exception seems to involve a lot of sorting // introspection, and is the main goal of Fourth Way and other esoteric studies. -There are many angles to explore that seem helpful in understanding what can feel like a whirlwind of new input and daunting obstacles, and I think this post is a great tie-in…so back to the post at hand…

The Magnetic Center

Before the formation of a magnetic center, a person and their personality is like a container filled with many disparate elements // iron filings. The Way, which is many things and a unique process for each person, involves things like sorting through the lower centers and competing input from external sources in order to become truly introspective and able to consider each mode of the lower centers from a detached vantage point. This stage draws to one the shocks that begin to make order out of all the isolated aspects of being. The shocks that nudge a person to keep developing are represented by the flames in the figure below. The last figure is not usually featured with the first two. I include it here to show an example of the beginning of a magnetic center forming, but still largely influenced by portions of the three centers, such as a magnetic center begins to form in the intellectual center, and the emotional center, but not to the point that they are able to connect with each other in such a way that the real I is ruler of the lower centers. Progress is progress…

We do not register the messages from the higher centres, which are ceaselessly working in us at full capacity. this is not only because out lower centres are under-developed, but also because they are not equilibrated. We must therefore apply ourselves to stimulate the growth of the Personality within us, and to equilibrate and regulate the work of our three centres. By the intensive practice of self-observation, we must try hard to distinguish the work of each centre within us, then the work of their two parts, and lastly of their sectors. So we enter within ourselves.

So these shocks such as gang stalking and etheric interference occur. The state and process of Introspection painstakingly takes us through the process of sorting through the various inputs (purely intellectual, intellectual-emotional, intellectual-motor, and so on, with negative versions of each set, making up the 6 sectors of each lower center). It (the circle of Life) tends to provide us with a lot of General Law Pressure, which intensifies the shocks and the impetus to sort through the Personality.

There are always A and B influences in this life, but particularly during periods of shock, we are able to see a larger perspective of the A influences, which removes some of their ability to affect us, and also begin to see and tune into more B influences.

The risk is that during this critical window of opportunity, the seemingly contradictory information coming from external and internal sources, and the seemingly conflicting natures of our personality and true Self, can be so daunting that we crumble under the pressure and return to being influenced primarily by A influences.

The Process

This phase in the development of individuals involves great shocks, streams of previously unknown information coming in, the need to distinguish more decidedly between external and internal influences as these things are all sorted through. We each have our own unique ways of tackling this process. For some it’s very conscious and intellectual and diagramming things can help, for some it’s very subconscious and dream work and journaling help a lot. There are endless possibilities of how these challenges and opportunities may arise and be utilized for each person.

Typically, the process involves multiple Dark Nights of the Soul. After all, it’s difficult to sort through all the functions and aspects of self, though largely it’s a matter of patience and persistence. Naturally, these lower points in the process can be extremely daunting. I try to remember that eventually new information settles and finds a place of meaning, and try not to give into extreme first impressions of such new perspective. For example, if you’re wavering back and forth between thinking one thing about a situation and some completely different impression of the same situation one some other hand, this is a sign that some new, larger perspective is being born, but because we do not yet have the experiential pieces to interpret it, our mind does the best it can with black and white symbolism / dualism. The subject of the second guessing is often symbolic, in this case perhaps implying that the person one is considering to be a possible agent though we are very unsure because the rest of the time they seem normal… is probably not involved consciously, but is an example of A influences coming from those closest to us in our lives // vectors of the General Law. Again, there are infinite possible psychological effects and phenomena that can occur during this stage. Many great works of art are expressions of this great work of sorting. In scanning the bookshelf just now a Rimbaud book sort of leaped out, and so here is a fine sample of [what he calls] A Season in Hell:

Once, If I remember well, my life was a feast where all hearts opened and all wines flowed.

One evening I seated Beauty on my knees. And I found her bitter. I cursed her.

I armed myself against justice.

I fled. O Witches, Misery, Hate, to you has my treasure been entrusted!

I contrived to purge my mind of all human hope. On all joy, to strangle it, I pounced with the stealth of a wild beast.

I called to the executioners while dying to let me gnaw on the buttends of their guns. I called to he plagues to smother me in blood, in sand. misfortune was my God. I laid myself down in mud. I dried myself in the air of crime. I played sly tricks on madness.

And spring brought me the idiot’s frightful laughter.

Now, only recenly, being on the point of giving my last croak, I thought of looking for the key to the ancient feast where I might find my appetite again.

Charity is that key. –This inspiration proves that i have dreamed!

To me this describes several aspects of this sorting … a strong impression of B influences (the ancient feast). The crisis of seeing that Beauty was not all it was cracked up to be, the realization that much of what has comprised a sense of Identity has been built on B influences, on lies meant to hold us pacified, in our place. Reconsidering all the truths and standards we’d previously accepted. The madness is a comment on sorting through all the A influences, trying to make them fit into a world where the B influences are also true. It’s enough to drive one crazy until we realize that, practically speaking, the only progressive purpose of A influences is to define and better distinguish the B influences (…now, only recently, being on the point of giving my last croak, I thought of looking for the key to the ancient feast…).

Incorrectly Discerning A and B Influences

One possible outcome of incorrectly distinguishing A from B influences is the formation of what Mouravieff called black magnetic centers:

…represents the situation where man deludes himself and, believing he is absorbing B influences and making the necessary selection all the while, he in fact absorbs A influences, those of the black arrows that are in some way parallel to the white arrows of the B influences. This will put him into contact with people who possess magnetic centres of the same nature: who are themselves duped or who dupe others, and who have no direct or indirect link with the esoteric Centre.

I think anyone who has experienced covert harassment can find several examples of this in the activity of the stalker-critters. Some of them truly do believe they are righteously following some right and true narrow path, when in reality they are influenced only by A influences. Signs of this situation are people who take part in gang stalking activities because they believe that they are somehow helping to punish or keep an eye on some dangerous or undesirable individual.

Another possible outcome is that, though one receives many shocks and starts the work of looking more deeply at themselves, eventually A influences overtake the B influences. If the person feels it’s easier to go back to sleep and ignores the B influences, the magnetic center can be reabsorbed by the lower centers. Not to be confused with the very normal lulls and troughs in normal development through this stage.

If a person is able to ride out all the crazy effects of General Law pressure and the various lenses of perspective that we navigate as we make order of the various types of input and introspection, reactionism and free will, one will successfully generate a magnetic center. The magnetic center is a lasting I that will help the person to gather deeper insight from B influences. This is the first step to attaining true Consciousness.

During this stage, the trials and dark nights tend to cause a great amount and experience of isolation. As our views of the world change we find that our acquaintances are no longer relevant, or perhaps even act as vectors of attack. As TIs we have trouble explaining our experiences to others who have not had similar experiences. We are often disbelieved, or doubted, and labeled delusional. Besides all these kinds of challenges, the very act of turning inward and engaging Introspection in order to sort through all the surreal events, can add to a feeling of isolation.

This is the straight and narrow path, the gauntlet between the Law of Accident and true Will, it is a very personal journey that we must each make on our own and man are there some interesting effects and lessons along the way, though once we have developed a relatively solid understanding of your own Process, we can start to connect in meaningful ways with others who have also found larger perspectives and greater freedom along with the intense challenges and obstacles that manifest in one’s life.

Since A influences neutralize each other, B influences actually constitute the only reality.

the small circle with the shaded lines represents man, who in this figure is taken in isolation. The oblique shaded lines signify that the nature of exterior man is not homogeneous: it is mixed.

If man spends his life without distinguishing between A and B influences, he will end it as he started one could say mechanically, driven by the Law of Accident. However, according to the nature and the intensity of the resultant forces to which he is subjected, it can happen to him to make a brilliant career, in the meaning the world gives to this expression.

Yet he will come to the end of this days without having either learned or understood anything of Reality. And earth returns to Earth.

In life, every being is subjected to a sort of competitive test. If he discerns the existence of the B influences; if he acquires a taste for gathering and absorbing them; if he continually aspires to assimilate them better; his mixed inner nature will slowly undergo a certain kind of evolution. And if the efforts which he makes to absorb the B influences are constant and sufficient in force, a magnetic center can be formed within him. This magnetic center is represented in the diagram by the small white space.

If this centre once born in him is carefully developed, it takes form, and in its turn will exercise an influence over the results of the A arrows which are always active, deflecting them. Such a deflection may be violent. In general it transgresses the laws of exterior life and provokes many conflicts in and around man. If he loses the battle, he emerges with the conviction that the B influences are nothing but illusion: that the only reality is represented by the A influences. Slowly the magnetic center which had been formed within him is reabsorbed and vanishes. Then, from the esoteric point of view, his situation is worse than the one he had started with, when he was just beginning to discern the B influences.

But if he emerges a winner in this first struggle, his magnetic centre, consolidated and reinforced, will draw him to a man having a C influence stronger than his own, and possessing a stronger magnetic center. And so on in succession, the last man being in connection with another having an influence D, who will be his link with the Esoteric Centre E.

Henceforth in life, that man will no longer be isolated. He will certainly continue to live as before under the action of the A influence, which for a long time will continue to exercise their power over him; yet little by little, thanks to the effect of the influence of the chain B – C - D - E, his magnetic centre will develop. To the measure of its growth, the man will escape the dominion of the Law of Chance and enter the domain of Consciousness.