Ideas
Gurdjieff claimed that people cannot perceive reality in their current states because they do not possess consciousness but rather live in a state of a hypnotic "waking sleep."
"Man lives his life in sleep, and in sleep he dies." As a result of this condition, each person perceives things from a completely subjective perspective. He asserted that people in their typical state function as unconscious automatons, but that one can "wake up" and become a different sort of human being altogether.
Read more about this topic: George Gurdjieff
Famous quotes containing the word ideas:
“Harvey, Jr.: I was afraid something like this would happen. Being around all those young students was bound to give Father ideas.
Laura: Young ideas, nuts. They’re the oldest ideas in the world.”
—Tom Waldman (d. 1985)
“Hypocrisy repels me even in love, and our great women aim for too lofty a performance. Napoleon has given them some ideas of morals and constancy.”
—Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.... A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their own free choice—is often the means of their regeneration.”
—John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)