Centers (Fourth Way)


In G.I. Gurdjieff's Fourth Way teaching, also known as The Work, centers or brains refer to separate apparatuses within a being that dictate its specific functions. According to this teaching, there are three main centers: intellectual, emotional, and moving. These centers in the human body are analogous to a three-storey factory, the intellectual center being the top storey, the emotional center being the middle one, and the moving center being the bottom storey. The moving center, or the bottom storey is further divided into three separate functions: sex, instinctive, and motor.
Gurdjieff classified plants as having one brain, animals two and humans three brains. In Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, Gurdjieff greatly expanded his idea of humans as "three brained beings".
In the book The Fourth Way, Ouspensky refers to the "center of gravity" as being a center which different people primarily operate from.

Centers

According to the teaching:

Lower centers

1. Moving or physical center. This brain is located in the spinal column. This brain makes beings capable of physical actions. Some, but not all, Fourth Way schools have further divided this Center into three distinct parts:
2. Emotional or feeling center. This faculty makes beings capable of feeling emotions. This brain is dispersed throughout the human body as nerves which have been labeled as the "nerve nodes". The biggest concentration of these nerves is in the solar plexus.
3. Intellectual or thinking center. This center is the faculty which makes a being capable of logic and reasoning. It is located in the head.

Higher centers

While the lower centers are considered separate faculties of one's material body, one can think of these higher centers as being faculties for "higher bodies".
4. Higher Emotional Center: faculty of the astral body. It enables one to have sustained states of self-consciousness, self-awareness, and other deep feelings. It does not replace, nor is it an "upgraded" version of the emotional center, as it is a completely separate center.
5. Higher Intellectual Center: faculty of the mental body. It enables one to have sustained states of objective consciousness and superior intellect. As above, it does not replace, nor is it an "upgraded" version of the intellectual center.

Subtle bodies

The Fourth Way says that there are four possible bodies of man, composed of increasingly rarefied matter, interpenetrating one another; all people have the first body., while the other three are obtained through the correct type of effort. The bodies are as follows:
One important aspect of the study of centers is the types of attention. The Work teaches that there are three types of attention possible for each of the centers:
The Work teaches that the higher bodies discussed above are only a possibility for man. In order to form higher bodies, the correct type of effort is required. Directing dispassionate attention to each of the centers, is one such effort. Wandering attention, or attention held by an object, are insufficient for true self-observation. They are also insufficient for obtaining free will, which is one component of the higher bodies. Wandering attention and attention held by the object are sufficient for the first body, the Material Body. In other words, the Material Body does not need directed attention in order to function and fulfill its role in the Ray of Creation.

Importance in the Fourth Way

In the Fourth Way, study of the centers is an important part of self-development. Students of that path must observe themselves. Study of the centers gives a framework and context for two things: