Top 52 Archive Talks

This talk describes the completion and activation of the Body Kesdjan or Astral Body using the first two Tantric levels, the development of Will through the intentional exposure of weaknesses, and the first two fundamental rules of a School.

This talk explores the mechanics for the extraction of first, second and third Being food and presents a wide range of invaluable work data relating to formation of the Body Kesdjan.

Side 1: A talk on the symbolism of the Tarot as it relates to the science of types and the assimilation of impressions.

Side 2: Reversing the flow of substances so they pass through man from the outer world to the inner world is the subject of this informal talk to an intimate group.

What is the objective purpose of human life? Becoming subject to higher laws and the sacrifice of Eternal Peace. This talk also explores the question, "Does God really suffer?" This talk has just been recently re-mastered to save this aging recording and also to restore and improve in a high fidelity professional recording studio the sound quality available for the serious student.

This talk examines the possibility of living a three-centered life, economizing the use of centers, accelerating the flow of impressions and intensifying our attention.

Ordinary man, by trying to escape his own minimum obligation of personal suffering, increases his pain and suffering. Expansion beyond one's personal suffering is examined in this talk.

Psychometry, teachings intentionally recorded in artifacts, the nature of The Work, and the Unspeakable Sacrifice are explored.

A discussion of the banishing of Chief Feature, our periodic "moments of freedom" from its influence, and the technique of initiating action during these moments of freedom.

This workshop presentation explores the concepts of resurrection and reincarnation, as well as the invocation of Work forces and the recording of work-data in certain ancient artifacts.

This public talk describes how we are subject to the conditioning of the organic machine and how we can be either free or spontaneous.

Similar in presentation to the Grapefruit Talk, this talk includes a discussion of man and Being, the occurrences necessary for the formation of a soul, and the solar plexus as a "black box" (an unknowable and internally inaccessible source of catharsis).

This talk explores the body which operates during the transit experience (the Body of Habits), how it guides itself through transit to rebirth by habits mechanically accumulated through biological and psychological conditioning, and how special techniques can be used to consciously alter its conditioning for higher rebirth.

A discussion of the Five being-obligonian strivings preserved in Gurdjieff's book Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson. Also the inhibiting effect of the mental apparatus, momentary satori, sensing, Prayer Absolute, angelic conductivity and shattering the mental apparatus are explored.

Voluntary descent into self-imposed conditions of purgatory are a powerful means for the growth of conscience within the individual. Also, headbrain and tailbrain functions, lineage transplants and invocation of an Angelic host are discussed.

As any serious seeker can attest, Man on the Cross material is hard to come by. The difficult and esoteric work idea of "Die before you die" is explored within the context of voluntary reascension of the cross. Very esoteric ideas are presented here with full candor. This talk is pan-religious and erases all barriers between oneself and one's cosmic position.

This talk begins with readings from The Human Biological Machine as a Transformational Apparatus, and centers on the work question, "How can I create a place for myself in the Work?" Also, the mechanism of the chronic in the machine is conceptually presented.

What is the Chronic? E.J. Gold talks on the biological machine's sleeping state and its transforming response to the directed attention and adoration of the essential self. The nature of negative emotions, the "wind-and-water" method of awakening the machine, sensing the waking state and the power of discrimination are discussed during the second day of this remarkable New York workshop.

In this first easaphone conversation between the New York Study Circle and Core Group in California, the nature and behavior of the machine, the chronic and the essential self are explored.

This fascinating talk covers the machine as a four-dimensional tunnel through creation, the soul as raw material, turning on the alchemical factory, the illusion of time, and the creation in higher dimensions.

Sensing the machine in sleep, the sixty-day exercise to gather "Exhibit A," beginning steps to awaken the machine, transference from the machine to a nonphenomenal self then to the Being, and eating consciously are discussed. Parker Dickson offers three new work folksongs.

This talk covers the subjects of Alchemy, Repairing the Heart, Head Brain/ Tail Brain. How to awaken the machine, letting the dead bury the dead, and the vision of higher dimensions are revealed in this informative presentation.

This talk emphasizes the differences between the machine's problems and those relevant to transformation. Relaxing within the tension, life-repair and the resolution of organic problems as an inhibitor of the transformation effect are revealed. The usefulness of this talk for practical work on self quickly becomes apparent upon listening.

E.J. Gold presents the qualities of the waking state and differences from the sleeping state. Consequences and conditions of movement from the sleeping to the waking state and back are explored. Ritual, theatre, transit, hypnotism, psychosomatic diseases, The Work, Teacher as the guest and other domains are discussed as well, in relation to these states.

Inner transformation sooner or later comes to address the issue of negative emotions. This Montreal talk with partial French translations explores the nature and arising of negative emotions. Moving centrum sensations, higher emotions without mental significance, presence of the essential self and banishing negative emotions are presented.

This tape explores the efficiency and consequences of using different methods to achieve the waking state. Adoration of the machine is stressed and students reconstruct instructions given, but not recorded, concerning the Popcorn exercise and the reversal of headbrain/tailbrain functions.

In this revealing presentation of work data and perspectives, E.J. Gold speaks on the Angel of Death, being the center of one's own mandala, the Man on the Cross, stillness and silence at the speed of light, light in infinite extension, eternity, the void and the deathbed experience.

Samuel Avital is present for this vital discourse with E.J. wherein one student is put on "Lookout" for the Messiah and another is taken on a journey up "Shit Creek" to try and retrieve her life mantram.

What is the relationship of the Voyager to the Absolute? The necessity for discipline and the Creation as a dead lover are explored in this revealing talk.

The machine and the electric bubble, expansion of one's own morphology, repetition in beginning work, expansion, contraction, focusing and withdrawal of attention are all explored.

Required listening for all newcomers, this tape is an eye-opener on the subject of apprenticeship and its use in the studios of such masters as Rembrandt. E. J. Gold discusses how apprentices can earn a place for themselves in the studio of a master craftsman. This tape discusses apprenticeship, practical work, and the difference between coming to the Work to learn and coming to the Work to work. A fundamental talk that lays the ground rules for working with a teacher of any kind. Highly recommended.

Problem solving in the labyrinth may utilize skills that are not readily acquired. The Zelda game requires a method, although limited, of learning how to think in other categories and how to look at things in a new way, as you might do in voyaging situations. Join us on this fascinating discovery where many learning surprises await you.

Recorded at the Transit Chapel in Crestline, Sunday, February 22, 1976. This talk focuses on the American Book of the Dead. Topics include instructions for Choosing Rebirth; the Six Worlds; how the Bardos go on all the time; disintegration and reintegration of the Primal Elements of Consciousness; the experience of the Void as the Ultimate Stress Point; the balance game of Existence and Nonexistence; Liberation seen as something to be reached and then transcended; the function of the Guide; the Mantram for closing the Womb Door.

Side A: Origami I: This talk from 1971 centers on the Japanese paper-folding artform, Origami. The Zen Roshis, who use this art as a teaching tool, say "It's all in the folding and the unfolding." The result of the folding and unfolding is called the material world, or Maya, which is the electromagnetic field upon which the Lord works. Origami is a way of teaching one how to work. Side B: Guidelines for the Practitioner/Labyrinth Reader: This talk given in the early '70s explains for Transit Practitioners how to act appropriately in a variety of situations; potential trouble a Practitioner can get into and how to handle it; and how to communicate with the family of the deceased. The talk stresses the point that a Practitioner never backs down from his or her ministry.

From Meadow Vista, May 1, 1982. The meaning behind the phrase "Straight is the Gate and Narrow the Way" from the King James Bible is examined along with the true meaning of the word "saint." Saintly functions are explored, as well as the difference between objective and subjective help.

"I will tell you the Big Secret...but in order to understand, you must be in an elevated state..." Many have read books on the Work, acquired work materials, performed the exercises, and still find there is an ingredient missing in their work. This convention talk discloses what that ingredient is and how to get it.

E.J. Gold discusses how to use the video game Zelda for labyrinth training.

This is the only recorded material from the Cosmo Street era. Tape recorders were not allowed in these early meetings. This recording is available because someone smuggled a tape recorder in. Warning -- inferior sound quality, but very rare and collectible.

Using the analogy of training for the Bardo through the rigors of playing online video games, E.J. Gold reveals how to learn, in theory, bardo habits required for working as a group in the work. This training provides a foundation. However one needs a mechanism to remind one to engage attention, wake up and apply bardo habits in a practical setting. Gold shows how an alarm clock within one's ordinary life can be devised toward this aim. "I've always liked the idea of an alarm clock for awakening, but until I heard this talk, I never knew exactly how they worked," Pedro Gonzales, Ibiza Spain

This talk explores through the analogy of gaming the patience required to work on self. Transformation is a process that takes attention and effort over a period of time. Changes are quickly apparent for the novice. For the senior student improved skill level manifests as a gradient over a much longer time.

This workshop explores basic issues of Being and Nothingness in a powerfully practical and extremely experiential fashion. It accomplishes this by framing it under the subject of invisibility and immediately gives the secret of invisibility as, "The living won't see the dead. Not can't see, but won't." This little nugget of wisdom is from Beetlejuice - a must see classic bardo video. Mr. Gold opens a door to bardo spaces by presenting the conclusion that - you must be dead to be invisible. The key is given as, "In order to be dead you have to be, at least, 'as if' not here at all. It has to be a world without you, a world in which you do not exist. As long as there's a crumb of ego, you can't be invisible. But as soon as you can see a world that you do not exist in, a world in which you are not, that's your crossover point - the world in which you don't exist, that's the first place you'll be existing. Until then, you 'as if' exist." Enigmatic as this may sound, it becomes even more enigmatic upon listening to the entire workshop. However, clues and exercises are given for a lifetime of follow-up work.

"You will forget all the vestiges of who you were, who you have been for this number of years. . .But you can preserve the best elements of it, and use the life in a particular way, by making your identity conform to what does survive. . .Little by little, a single organism. . .capable of accepting, tolerating, the invoked presence of a very, very powerful, very large being - an entity much greater than any single individual. . . ."

On his 63rd birthday, E.J. announced that he would give a talk on "The Way of Perfect Service." The dining room overflowed and the standing guests spilled into the hallway trying to get a glimpse of E.J. opening gifts. After previewing E.J.'s first recordings playing his new gemeinhardt flute, a gift he wished to honor, E.J. asked for Jewel, who was in the kitchen preparing to serve the cake, to come and ask her birthday question. She explained that her everyday life was very busy and she wished for something more . . . to put her efforts towards being of meaningful service. Michele's birthday question was essentially the same. Both questions quite naturally made a segue into the talk. E.J. repeatedly emphasized that perfect service is about endless, selfless dedication to doing what needs to be done without regard for the relative importance of the task. . . When asked about what is meaningful he talked about right action, giving stories to elucidate examples of being in the right place at the right time with the right attitude.

It is said, "the secret keeps itself," in which case, it will need to work overtime to stay a secret after one listens to this talk. E.J. Gold, along with Claude Needham, reveal the secret of how to "stay with the pack of green." The simple and direct method given in this talk has immediate practical application in the ongoing Bardo Safaris. Many practical examples are discussed as well as the general theory. With these simple instructions your Bardo Safaris are sure to go up a notch. Bam! And let us not neglect the obvious implications for one's daily bardo work. Whether you run with the pack in Bardo Safaris, or not, this is a must listen if you want to do more than run around in circles for the rest of your life. Many real life applications of these principles. . .

Legitimate strategies that you can employ to make yourself a winner every time. Team-friendly ploys, gimmicks and gaffs that will make you the best team or solo player that you can be. Many trade secrets given here.

The Mercenary is the second most important weapon. Here's how to generate enough money to keep your Merc alive and leveling and which Merc is best for you.

Here at last is what every Druid young or old ought to know. Secrets of Druid builds revealed by Gorebag (E.J. Gold) & Xxaxx (Claude Needham). The elemental Druid is E.J.'s specialty and if you are ever rushed by him it will probably be by his elemental Druid. The elemental Druid is second only to the Hammerdin when properly built.

Everything you've ever wanted to know about character classes but were afraid to ask . . . and with good reason.

Nobody likes to be called a noob. Here are the basic things you need to know to look like a pro player even at level one.

Working with the formulation "Security is not the cure for insecurity," Mr. Gold examines issues of fundamental insecurities and presents an amazingly simple method for handling them enmasse. Lee Lozowick and some of his senior students contribute to this poignant discussion along with several members of the Core Group. Insecurity is dispassionately viewed here as a disease or an addiction. Consequently there is valuable information given on overcoming any addiction.

This talk clearly delivers the "bottom line" on the attitude required for working in the Work - one's situation in a Work life. Gold also presents a Bardo Training tool which gives us the opportunity to transmute the "life" habits into "work" habits, habits that before now were completely invisible. In the Bardo Training we see how we live our lives, how we handle the sudden ambushes of the Labyrinth, and how we are able to work in a group. Bardo Training also provides, in a fun and safe way, the opportunity to bring ourselves in line with the Work self we wish to build.