Theos-Talk Archives (July 1996 Message tl00690)

Keith asks how emotions replicate themselves.  Through all
kinds of subtle, invisible processes as well as obvious ones.
Someone screaming abuse in one's face will set one's adrenaline
rushing in a fight-or-flight response; adrenals communicate
with adrenals.  Seductive behavior produces a sexual response;
gonads communicate with gonads.  Someone in an enlightened,
liberated state causes a sense of being uplifted in others
around them who are sensitive; third eye communicates with
third eye.  Whatever level we are operating on has frequencies
to which other people resonate.  Emotions are communicated
from all these levels.  Having been on the receiving end of a
fair amount of negative emotions in recent years, I have begun
to be able to instantly separate from them rather than identify
as hurt or angry.  But that takes lots of practice and only
works part of the time, so far.

Gurdjieff talks about "centers" as: sexual, moving, emotional,
intellectual, higher emotional, higher intellectual.  He says
the problem with using thought to control feelings is that
emotional center responds more rapidly than intellectual
center; thus one's feelings are off and running before one has
the chance to take stock of a situation from a more analytical
point of view.  But what can happen as a result of trial and
error, and self-observation, is that we can "see things coming"
and short-circuit the destructive processes involved in
contagious negative emotions.  One exercise I like uses the
phrase "This is called..." in order to break attachment to
negative emotion; e.g. "This is called being heartbroken over a
bad review" tends to pull the rug out from under the emotion
in question and enable one to free oneself somewhat.