New Spiritual Musing: "The Two Ends of the Stick: Shania Twain and P. D. Ouspensky"

The Two Ends of the Stick

Shania Twain and P. D. Ouspensky

I woke up at 2:30 yesterday morning with Gary Lachman’s book In Search of P. D. Ouspensky on my mind and with a strong compulsion to read it, so I got up and read the book until 4 A. M., and then I put on coffee and continued reading until Penny got up at 7 and joined me for coffee in my writing room, coughing and wheezing.

I had read In Search of P. D. Ouspensky once already, finding it an engaging rehash of material I was familiar with from my extensive library on Gurdjieff, but for some reason I took a greater interest this time in the author who introduced me to Gurdjieff’s teaching with his book In Search of the Miraculous, as though I had missed something about Ouspensky’s life the first time, little realizing that my Muse had called me to read In Search of P. D. Ouspensky for today’s spiritual musing which had not yet conceptualized as an idea in my mind and would not do so until later in the day after I had read the National Post (Wednesday, October 11. 2017) that I picked up at the Superstore in Midland when I drove in to get some Benylin extra strength cough syrup and lozenges for Penny who had come back from her niece’s wedding in Ottawa with a bad cold, and the article in the Post that set the idea free for today’s musing was on the singer Shania Twain, headlined in bold caps, IT’S HER TURN NOW, which brought forth the third connecting factor that set my idea for today’s musing free, something that the mystical Jeshua said in Glenda Green’s incredible book Love without End, Jesus Speaks: “There is no other time or place to find yourself. Now is your only context,” because these words spoke directly to Shania Twain’s and P. D. Ouspensky’s life-journey; but I would not be free to write my spiritual musing until I had finished reading In Search of P. D. Ouspensky, which I did throughout the day

But before I get pulled into today’s spiritual musing, I feel compelled to say something about how my musings come to be, which speaks to the mystical nature of the creative process (and, as coincidence would have it, to the very theme of today’s musing which centers upon our journey to wholeness and completeness, in this case the disillusioned teacher of Gurdjieff’s System, P. D. Ouspensky, and the iconic contemporary singer Shania Twain), because this is the first time that I’ve actually caught a glimpse of my creative unconscious at work as it coalesces the requisite factors into an idea for a spiritual musing, and, believe me, I know that the idea for today’s musing is going to demand the best of me because it impels me to give gnostic clarity to the meaning and purpose of our existence and which is definitely going to fall into the category of what I have come to call a dangerous spiritual musing.

Why dangerous, though? What is it about this spiritual musing that makes me fearful? Let me pause for thought, if I may…

Misoneism. That’s the word that popped into my mind. According to my sidebar Merriam-Webster dictionary, misoneism means: “a hatred, fear, or intolerance of innovation or change,” and I became acquainted with this word in C. G. Jung’s book Modern Man in Search of a Soul; that’s why today’s spiritual musing can be dangerous, because I have to step far outside the paradigm of conventional thought to give clarity to the meaning and purpose of our existence. This is why Padre Pio, the Roman Catholic Saint who makes his presence in my novel Healing with Padre Pio through a gifted psychic medium, said that my writing will provide “a new way of thinking, a new way of perceiving, a new way of understanding,” just as all creative thinkers do who blaze a new trail for man to follow, as C. G. Jung did with his break-away psychology of individuation that addresses man’s longing for wholeness and completeness and which is the subject of today’s spiritual musing.

This, then, is what I caught a glimpse of with the idea for today’s spiritual musing: the creative unconscious is not bound by time. I know this, because of how the three factors that my creative unconscious brought together throughout the day to coalesce into an idea for today’s spiritual musing: 1., waking up at 2:30 A. M. yesterday with a strong compulsion to read Gary Lachman’s book In Search of P. D. Ouspensky, the man who introduced me to Gurdjieff’s teaching that awakened me to the secret way of life; 2., reading the article on Shania Twain’s successful comeback in the National Post later in the day; and 3., a quotation from Glenda Green’s book Love without End, Jesus Speaks that popped into my mind later in the day that connected the other two dots to manifest into the idea for today’s spiritual musing on the gnostic way of life, which can be expressed in the realization that NOW is the only time and place to satisfy the longing in our soul for wholeness and completeness.

But what was the relationship between the philosopher/mathematician P. D. Ouspensky and Shania Twain’s comeback after a fifteen-year hiatus that my creative unconscious wanted me to explore in today’s spiritual musing? I knew that an idea for a new spiritual musing was forming in my mind, but I couldn’t connect the dots until I finished reading Gary Lachman’s book on P. D. Ouspensky, which I did after I read the article on Shania Twain’s comeback with her new album Now.

As I was reading the last chapter of Lachman’s book called “The End of the System,” in which Ouspensky, the man whose book In Search of the Miraculous is still considered to be the best book on Gurdjieff’s System, abandon’s Gurdjieff’s System after a lifetime of teaching it because it failed to satisfy the longing in his soul for wholeness and completeness, Shania Twain’s new album Now popped into my mind, which automatically called forth Christ’s words in Glenda Green’s book Love Without End, Jesus Speaks, “There is no other time or place to find yourself. Now is your only context,” thereby connecting the dots for today’s spiritual musing on the gnostic way of life, and by gnostic way of life I mean the natural way through life experience to one’s wholeness and completeness.

Ouspensky went to his grave a broken and disillusioned man. He spent his life teaching Gurdjieff’s System of “work on oneself” that failed to satisfy the longing in his soul for wholeness and completeness, but I knew from personal experience that Gurdjieff’s System worked because I had realized my true self with his teaching, which is why I wrote Gurdjieff Was Wrong, But His Teaching Works; and I knew, from my own apprehension of the secret way of life, that Shania Twain was living the gnostic way in her own journey of self-discovery which she courageously shared with the world in her music, as she did in her comeback album Now that speaks to her “heartbreak, loss, and survival,” the continued narrative of her journey of self-discovery.

Aside from her remarkable singing voice, what makes Shania Twain so popular is her uncompromising honesty about her life’s journey which touches the heart of everyone that hears her singing, her courage to not give in to the soul-crushing forces of life, as she poignantly illustrates with the first single of her new album Now: “I wasn’t just broken, I was shattered,” which leads to the triumphant chorus, “Life’s about joy, life’s about pain /It’s all about forgiveness and the will to walk away /I’m ready to be loved, and love the way I should /Life’s about, life’s about to get good.”

Since her last album, 2002’s Up, Shania Twain (whose parents died in a car crash when she was young, taking odd jobs to support her siblings and all the while writing songs to nurture her dream of becoming a singer), has been through a divorce (her husband cheated on her with her best friend), battled Lyme disease, and overcame dysphonia (which she says forced her how to sing again); and she chronicles this trying phase of her journey through life in her new album Now, and so personal and courageous is her unbreakable spirit that her songs speak to the mystical individuation process of the human condition. That’s why she’s so popular; her songs are about her life, her story true through and through, which is the secret of the gnostic way of life that satisfies the longing in one’s soul for wholeness and completeness.

Gary Lachman’s book In Search of P. D. Ouspensky brought me to tears, because if such a great thinker and dedicated truth seeker and foremost exponent of Gurdjieff’s System of self-transformation could become so disillusioned by life, what hope was there for the rest of the world? Which is why my Muse wanted me to connect P. D. Ouspensky’s disillusioned life with the young singer (she’s 52) Shania Twain whose spirit cannot be broken, because I was called to explore in today’s spiritual musing what Gurdjieff referred to as “the two ends of the stick.” Specifically, Shania Twain’s optimism and hope and P. D. Ouspensky’s disillusionment and despair.

As gloomy and pessimistic as Gurdjieff’s teaching can be (because it’s founded upon the false premise that we are not born with an immortal soul, but with “conscious effort” and “intentional suffering” we can create one), Shania Twain’s incorruptible  innocence offers hope for all the those caught in the wretched currents of life; and it doesn’t matter if one believes in the theory of eternal recurrence (as Ouspensky did), reincarnation (as I do), or in one lifetime only as the Christian world does, NOW is the only context to satisfy the longing in one’s soul for wholeness and completeness, as long as one is true to oneself and true to life; that’s the message of Shania Twain’s new album Now, the redemptive principle of life that P. D. Ouspensky failed to discern because he could not break the gnostic secret of life with Gurdjieff’s System.

“Life’s about joy, life’s about pain /It’s about forgiveness and the will to walk away,” sings Shania Twain from her sacred place in the gnostic way. “I’m ready to be loved, and love the way I should /Life’s about, life’s about to get good,” she adds, glorifying the gnostic process of self-individuation through daily life experience that Gurdjieff’s System failed to do; that’s why Gurdjieff broke the heart of so many seekers, as he did P. D. Ouspensky’s. But not mine. I broke the code of the gnostic way and love him dearly, as I love the indomitable spirit of the pop singer Shania Twain.

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