The People of the Secret
>From The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Mysteries - Colin Wilson & Damon Wilson
Not all 'occult teachings' claim to originate with disembodied entities; others
are accompanied by the claim that they have been preserved down the ages by
secret societies or brotherhoods.
George Gurdjieff, one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century,
spent much of his youth in search of a certain 'Sarmoung Brotherhood', and
claimed to have received his basic teachings from a monastic brotherhood in the
northern Himalayas. The essence of Gurdjieff's teaching consists in the notion
that ordinary consciousness is a form of 'sleep', that nearly all human
activities are entirely 'mechanical', and that if man wishes to cease to be
mechanical he has to make a tremendous effort of will. But books like In Search
of the Miraculous (by Gurdjieff's leading follower P.D. Ouspensky) make it
clear that behind Gurdjieffs 'psychological' teachings lay a highly complex
cosmological system, which has no obvious relevance to the psychological
teachings, and which it seems unlikely that Gurdjieff invented himself.
This cosmology is further elaborated in the four-volume work of another leading
Gurdjieff follower, J.G.Bennett, The Dramatic Universe, which is founded on the
assertion that 'there is a class of cosmic essences called Demiurges that is
responsible for maintaining the universal order', and that these Demiurgic
Intelligences 'work upon time scales far exceeding the span of a human life'.
Bennett calls the universe 'dramatic' to underline his sense of the importance
of free will; because the universe is not dead and predetermined, the final
outcome is uncertain. 'The key to the whole scheme is will-time or Hyparxis.
This is the region in which the will is free to make decisions that introduce
something new and uncaused into the world process.' The demiurges have far
greater power than man to introduce something new and uncaused into the world
process; but they are not infallible. Although their main task is 'to guide the
evolution of the world from its first lifeless beginning', they have 'guided
the process by experiment and trial, sometimes making mistakes and retracing
their steps, sometimes making great leaps forward, as when life came out of the
ocean and land creatures began.' Bennett adds that Gurdjieff calls the
demiurges 'angels', 'but this had so many meanings that it is best avoided'.
The existence of a secret tradition of hidden teachings is hinted at in Idries
Shah's book The Sufis, and it was in a review of this book in the London
Evening News that its literary editor, Edward Campbell, wrote:For many
centuries there has been a strange legend in the East. It suggests that in some
hidden centre, perhaps in the Highlands of Central Asia, there exists a colony
of men possessing exceptional powers. This centre acts, in some respects at
least, as the secret government of the world.Some aspects of this legend came
to the West during the Crusades; the idea was renewed in Rosicrucian guise in
1614; it was restated with variations last century by Mme Blavatsky and the
French diplomat Jacoliot; was suggested again by the English author Talbot
Mundy, and most recently by the Mongolian traveller Ossendowski in 1918.
In the mysterious Shangri-la of this legend, certain men, evolved beyond the
ordinary human situation, act as the regents of powers beyond this planet.
Through lower echelons - who mingle unsuspected in ordinary walks of life, both
East and West - they act at critical stages of history, contriving results
necessary to keep the whole evolution of the earth in step with events in the
solar system.
And in his book The People of the Secret(1983), Campbell (under the punning
pseudonym Ernest Scott) goes on to suggest that 'in the first quarter of the
20th century, Western science had not only reached a critical stage but an
impasse and that, simultaneously, material possibly capable of resolving that
situation appeared unobtrusively from the East'. He goes on to suggest that
'this interpretation derives from a source superior to, and qualitatively
different from, ordinary intellect', and that 'similar "intervention" occurs at
critical points in human history and has done so in all cultures and all ages
in a form appropriate to the moment'. Campbell refers to the sources of this
influence as 'the Tradition', and suggests that between 1920 and 1950 part of
the intention appears to have been to 'reveal publicly the mechanism of the
Tradition's own operation'. And he mentions that two men who were in contact
with 'the Tradition' were J.G.Bennett and Rodney Collin, both followers of
Gurdjieff.
Campbell goes on to suggest a close analogy between the human organism and a
civilized culture.
A sperm cell originates a new individual. Suppose a conscious man originates a
new culture. Suppose that within life there are a few men, unsuspected and
hidden, who are able to process conscious energy and are therefore in touch
with the pattern of conscious energy outside life. (In J.G.Bennett's
terminology this would correspond to the Demiurgic level.) Such conscious men
would be to a human culture as a sperm cell is to tissue cells in the human
body.
Campbell then sketches out the 'cultural systems' outlined by Rodney Collin in
his book The Theory of Celestial Influence (Chapter XVI): Aurignacien man,
Magdalenian man, Middle and Far Eastern Man (Egypt, Sumer, Ancient India),
Graeco-Roman Man, Early Christian Man, Mediaeval Christian Man, Renaissance
Man, Modern Man. In this scheme Egypt gave birth to the world of the Greeks,
and the Greeks transmitted the 'energy of fertilization' to Rome via the
philosophy of the Stoics and Epicureans. 'Again a period of dazzling
achievement seemingly from nowhere.' Early Christianity sprang out of Rome, but
by the eighth century had fossilized into the corrupt church of the mediaeval
papacy. The next culture, according to Campbell, is the medieval church, which
originated in Cluny, whose Gothic cathedral 'encapsulated all the Gothic
cathedrals to come'. 'In each of these there was a suggestion of a whole unseen
cosmology; each an encyclopedia in stone containing, for those who could read
... a summary of the Plan and Purpose of evolution.' Campbell clearly agrees
with the author of The Mystery of the Cathedrals (see Chapter 11) that Gothic
cathedrals were alchemical textbooks. The medieval masons were exponents of
'the Tradition'. Campbell also notes that this was also the period of 'esoteric
building in Islam', and mentions the joint mission from Cluny and Chartres to
Saracen Spain, which returned with knowledge of logarithms, algebra and alchemy.
This was the preparation for the next major stage: the Renaissance. And
Renaissance culture finally gave way to the modern epoch around the
midnineteenth century - Campbell mentions 1859, the year of The Origin of
Species. Our modern age, Campbell suggests, reached the peak of its development
about 1935 with road and air transport and radio and cinema - and indeed, we
can see that these developments transformed the mental outlook of the human
race just as the invention of printing did in the Renaissance. The modern epoch
may well continue for another six or seven hundred years; but the new epoch
that will replace it will struggle into being long before our own period comes
to an end.
Campbell's starting-point, then, is the 'Demiurgic intelligences' of
J.G.Bennett. He assumes that these are a reality, and that their activities can
be seen in human history. From the point of view of this 'Hidden Directorate',
early Christianity took the wrong turning. He sees the mission of Jesus as an
event of universal significance, an attempt to introduce certain energies into
the evolutionary process - the energies of a selfless love. Campbell suggests
that the Early Fathers 'rejected the wisdom component within which lay the
techniques of developing consciousness'. They reasoned that nothing is
necessary for spiritual evolution except the Christ. The 'heretic' Arius felt
instinctively that this was a mistake. His heresy consisted of the assertion
that the Son was not the equal of the Father - a dim recognition that Jesus had
been 'sent' into history at a particular time for a particular purpose. When
the Council of Nicaea rejected this view in AD 325, they turned their back on
the 'Demiurgic Tradition'. 'Yet', says Campbell, Demiurgic responsibility for
evolution remained. The Demiurges were still obligated to achieve evolutionary
gains, in harmony with growth beyond the earth. Their agents, the Hidden
Directorate on earth, were still required to contrive the social environment
which would provide the necessary opportunities. The mandate of both is to
raise the level of consciousness of mankind in general and of suitable
individuals exceptionally. Mankind in the West had subconsciously decided that
this was no longer necessary.
The coming of Mohammed once again allowed the Demiurges a foothold. A 'school'
for the oral transmission of his ideas formed around him. 'This inner group of
90 took an oath of fidelity and are said to have adopted the name Sufi.' (A
moment later, Campbell confuses the issue by stating that this is not to say
that Sufism derives from Mohammedanism, and that the Sufi tradition actually
goes back through Plato, Hippocrates, Pythagoras and Hermes Trismegistos. But
the main thrust of his argument is clear.) In due course the Arabs invaded
Spain, and planted the seeds that would become the Renaissance.
Campbell's chapter on 'Rome, Christianity and Islam' contains a clear example
of what he means by Demiurgic intervention in human history. The monasteries of
western Europe, which preserved learning during the Dark Ages, were too remote
and inaccessible to serve as real cultural centres. But St Patrick's conversion
of Ireland - beginning in AD 432 - caused 'the rebirth of Celtic culture by a
"shock" from Christianity'. Ireland became a centre of learning - so much so
that in 550 a ship had to be chartered to carry scholars from Gaul to Cork.
Celtic Christianity valued pagan literature. St Columba and his pupil
Columbanus directed the missionary flow back to Europe, and Columbanus founded
more than a hundred monasteries. Rome finally brought the Celtic Church to heel
in 664 at the Synod of Whitby, but the impulse could not be destroyed. Two
Celtic monks were established as dispensers of wisdom at the court of
Charlemagne. Campbell makes the fascinating suggestion that the Celtic Church
obtained some of its wisdom through 'psychokinetic techniques'.
Psychokinesis is the term invented by students of parapsychology for 'mind over
matter', and Campbell suggests elsewhere in the book that this is the basic
secret of alchemy; it is not quite clear how he believes the Celtic Church used
these techniques.
In the ninth century, says Campbell, schools of initiates began to flourish in
Cordoba and Toledo, and their efforts were to have far-reaching influences,
which can still be traced in the world today. The doctor Al Razi and the
scholar Avicenna, both Persians, were only two of an immense number of scholars
who 'provided the raw material for the coming injection of intellect into
Europe'. Among these intellectual impulses were the schools of thought that
would later become known as Freemasonry and Illuminism, 'impulses which at
their seventh harmonic were to encompass the French Revolution'.
The next five chapters of The People of the Secret are an interpretation of
European history from the 'interventionist' point of view. They consider the
Kabbalah, the Tarot and alchemy as vehicles of 'the Tradition', and study the
historical significance of Catharism, the rise of the Troubadors, and the
legends of King Arthur. Again and agaln, Campbell traces the original seed of
these movements back to their Sufic origins.
In the chapter on Gurdjieff, Campbell comments:Since the early 1950s, a great
deal of hitherto unknown material has become available, and in the nature of
things this cannot have happened by accident. If it has leaked, it is because
those in charge of it have decided to 'leak' it.
Separately, the various hints amount to little. Taken together, they suggest
for the first time the nature of the organisation, long suspected but never
identified, which is concerned with injecting developmental possibilities into
the historical process at certain critical points.
On the basis of internal evidence, it may be legitimate to suggest that this
organisation is the expression of one of the Centres inferred by J.G.Bennett as
directing the evolution of the whole human race. In The Dramatic Universe, the
Centres of Transformation are the four hypothetical regions where, 35,000 to
40,000 years ago, the human mind was endowed with creativity and man became
Homo sapiens sapiens. Twelve thousand years ago, these Centres withdrew for
some 80 generations to prepare for the debut of modern man. The suggestion is
that one of these, immediately responsible for the West, has decided to come,
partially at least, into the open in the second half of the 20th century. It
may be that the intellectual development of the West is now at such a stage
that the parent can only guide the offspring further by taking it into its
confidence.
Campbell mentions that attempts by Gurdjieff's pupils to make contact with the
monasteries or other teaching centres where Gurdjieff gained his 'occult'
knowledge were all unsuccessful. In the 1930s it is believed that Ouspensky
made contact with the Mevlevi (Order of Dervishes) and asked them to send
someone to England. This they declined to do, but indicated that they were
prepared to receive a representative from him. One of Ouspensky's senior pupils
was ready to leave for the East in 1939 when War broke out and the project was
abandoned.
But in 1961 a journalist seeking material for an article on Sufi practices 'was
unaccountably introduced to every facility for getting material ... This
journalist, Omar Burke, found himself allowed to visit a secret Dervish
community whose location has been identified as Kunji Zagh ("Raven's Corner")
in Baluchistan.' Burke then wrote up his findings in an article in Blackwood's
Magazine in December 1961. It was seen by a member of a London Gurdjieff group
who realized that one trail to Gurdjieffs source was being openly revealed in a
magazine. But when the London group made contact with the 'source' they were
told that it would be pointless to come to Baluchistan because the current
focus of activity was in England.
Campbell argues that Gurdjieff's 'source' was the Sufic tradition. What is
implied, presumably, by the comment about the 'current focus' in London is that
this is to be found in the group run by Idries Shah, author of the book The
Sufis. Bennett had in fact handed over his own teaching centre at Coombe
Springs to Shah. In his autobiography Witness Bennett describes how in 1962 he
was told by an old friend about Idries Shah, who had come to England from
Afghanistan to seek out followers of Gurdjieff and 'complete their 'teaching'.
At a meeting with Shah his first impressions were unfavourable.
He was restless, smoked incessantly, talked too much, and seemed too intent on
making a good impression. Halfway through the evening our attitude completely
changed. We recognised that he was not only an unusually gifted man, but that
he had the indefinable something that marks the man who has seriously worked
upon himself.
Shah, he says, did not claim to be a teacher, but he claimed to have been sent
by his own teacher, and that 'he had the support of the "Guardians of the
Tradition." ' He goes on to quote a document Shah gave him, 'Declaration of the
People of the Tradition', which stated that a 'secret, special, superior form
of knowledge' really exists, and could be transmitted to the people to whom
this material is addressed ... This knowledge is concentrated, administered and
presided over by three forms of individual ... They have been called an
'Invisible Hierarchy' because normally they are not in communication or contact
with ordinary human beings: certainly not in two-way communication with them.
Bennett then goes on to tell how he was persuaded by Shah to hand over Coombe
Springs, with no strings attached, and a note of bitterness creeps in when he
describes how Shah sold the house for £100,000 only a year later. Yet it
remains clear that in spite of a certain personal animosity towards Shah,
Bennett still does not discount the possibility that he is precisely what he
says he is.
In any case, Campbell's thesis does not stand or fall by whether the reader is
willing to accept Idries Shah as a representative of 'the secret people'. It
was Bennett himself who invented the phrase 'the Hidden Directorate' in The
Dramatic Universe. Campbell summarizes the thesis of his book:
The script for the long human story was written by intelligences much greater
than man's own ... Responsibility for this process on Earth lies with an
Intelligence which has been called The Hidden Directorate. This may correspond
to the level symbolised in occult legend as an Individual (eg 'The Regent' or
'The Ancient of Days', etc). It is to be equated either with the Demi-Urgic
level or with the level immediately below.
Side by side with action on humanity-in-the-mass, the Executive and its
subordinates are concerned with local attempts to raise the conscious level of
individual men exceptionally.
Such specially selected ordinary individuals may aspire to qualify for
participation in the work of the Executive. The process by which they may so
qualify is the Magnum Opus - the 'Great Work'. This is equivalent to a vertical
ascent to a higher level as opposed to a gradual rise with the evolutionary
tide.
In 1857 an American schoolmistress and authoress, Delia Bacon, produced her
controversial work Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded (see Chapter
34) in which she suggested that 'Shakespeare' was actually a group of
Elizabethan scholars, probably led by Francis Bacon, whose aim was to express
new ideas that would otherwise have led to torture and imprisonment. The book
was received with derision, and Delia Bacon went insane and died soon after.
Campbell expresses the same theory at two points in The People of the Secret,
and skeptics will undoubtedly feel that his whole thesis deserves the same
reception as Delia Bacon's. The commonsense objection is that men who
represented turning-points in human history - Mohammed, Cosimo de' Medici,
Darwin, Einstein - were obviously not members of some 'Hidden Directorate'. And
if no 'hidden directorate' is needed to explain their existence or their impact
on history, then why bother to entertain such an unnecessary hypothesis?
On the other hand, cultural historians have often observed how certain ideas
seem to be 'in the air' at certain times, and the Germans coined a word to
express this phenomenon, the Zeitgeist. Every major discovery and invention
seems to have been made by at least two people at the same time (evolution,
photography, relativity, sound-recording, television). The biologist Rupert
Sheldrake has even produced a theory ('morphic resonance') arguing that once
any difficult process has been achieved, from crystallization of a new
substance to the creation of a new idea, it 'spreads' like a wave on the
surface of a pond, facilitating the process wherever it occurs. Again, Jung's
idea of synchronicity (see Chapter 36) suggests some connection between the
mind and the world of physical matter which finds no support in the western
philosophy of science. Such ideas indicate a movement away from the 'dead'
universe of nineteenth-century science and towards the 'intelligent universe'
posited by Dr David Foster. It could be argued that a 'hidden directorate',
responsible for evolution, is only a logical extension of this idea.
Campbell mentions Yeats's book A Vision as an example of a work inspired by
'the Tradition'. This work is a 'system' of human types, expressed in terms of
the phases of the moon, and was produced by Yeats's wife Georgie through
automatic writing. Yeats's 'communicators' also sketched out their own vision
of history, which has much in common with that advanced in The People of the
Secret. But when Yeats offered to 'spend what remained of life explaining and
piecing together' this complex system, he received the reply: 'No, we have come
to give you metaphors for poetry.' Even if the 'Hidden Directorate' is accepted
only on this level, it remains a fascinating and fruitful hypothesis.
/\
zendervish
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