The Fourth Way system is based on verification, not belief

From our friend, David Tuttle

“All occult and spiritualistic societies and circles assert that they possess a new knowledge. And there are people who believe it. In properly organized groups no faith is required; what is required is simply a little trust and even that only for a little while, for the sooner a man begins to verify all he hears the better it is for him.”, remarks G. in In Search of the Miraculous.

The Fourth Way system is based on verification, not belief. If we verify something, we truly know it. If we merely believe something, it won’t hold weight in the tests that life brings us.

“It is possible to get a durable change of being only if we use the perfected methods of school work, otherwise our attempts will be too scattered. The first condition of such work is not to believe anything, to verify everything one learns.”, remarks Ouspensky. Note that he says ‘durable’ change of being. This is what interests me and probably you too.

Both disbelief and belief are missing the mark. When we hear an idea in the system, we make a mental note of it and start collecting observations. The attitude is, ‘let me confirm this is true’. If we start with a doubting attitude, we won’t be able to verify the ideas. If we have blind faith in them, we will also not be able to verify correctly. It is a peculiar method to use, but in my experience it works. It’s a little like when a scientist or mathematician has a hypothesis and sets out to prove it. The difference is that the system ideas come from higher mind.

“Q. But how does one attain any certainty that your method is right?

“Ouspensky. Just by comparing one observation with another. And then we talk when we meet. People speak about their observations; they compare them; I try to explain what they cannot understand; there are other people who help me; and in that way one becomes sure of ordinary things, just as one knows that grass is green. There is no question of faith or belief in all this. Quite the opposite, this system teaches people to believe in absolutely nothing. You must verify everything that you see, hear and feel. Only in that way can you come to something. “

He brings up another aspect of verification. It is not only my ‘I’s and me for myself, but I can discuss my observations with others in the work. Such discussion is a way that members can use this group.

Finally, if there is an idea we cannot verify, such as the cosmological side of the system, we simply record it and let it go.

If we follow the path of verification, in right order, we come to something that we can trust in ourselves, something solid, the foundation for real ‘I’.

What are some of the Fourth Way ideas that you have verified? What others have you not been able to verify?

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Image: Portrait of Johannes Wtenbogaert (detail), Rembrandt