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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Sunday, 10 February 1924
Sol.
Called at La Prieuve des Basses Loses.[1] Major Pindar [Frank Pinder]—hell of a fine fellow. Gurdjieff [George Gurdjieff], their prophet seems a tip-top man. Heard more sense and insight than I’ve done for years.
Pindar dines at 7.30. Oracle for my visit was “here are few men: there are enough”.
Later. A really wonderful evening with Pindar. Gurdjieff clearly a very advanced adept. My chief quarrels are over sex (I doubt whether Pindar understands G’s true position) and their punishments—e.g. depriving the offender of a meal or making him stand 1/2 an hour with his arms out. Childish and morally valueless. Let me shew my own position clearly. E.g. if one won’t work, condemn him to idleness. Tell off 2 people to wait on him hand and foot. Let his defect stop the whole machine. When he reaches the stage of wanting to murder his torturers, hand him the knife. The point is to get him to realize that the failure of even one small function disturbs the whole machine. Every one must sympathize warmly with him, keep on telling him how right he is; some (in bad cases) should join him—e.g. the cook—so that nobody eats till he is cured. It will not serve merely to deprive him alone of food: that would be a punishment, which he would resent. And put him in the right. “Punishment” must not be arbitrary but Karmic: i.e. a demonstration of what the restriction in question leads to. E.g. an attempt at assassination. Keep the man day and night in fear of being murdered (Use varied means: poison his drink with some harmless but suspicious drug. Wake him by a masked figure with a knife, or a pistol shot within a foot of his nose. Pour Br under his door. Ambush him walking. Half drown him etc. The attempts must sometimes do him enough damage to bring the reality home. All this (by the way) is based on “The word of Sin is restriction”. The only offence is to restrict oneself or another. Also the only true cure is moral education. Retribution as such merely doubles the crime, and excuses the offender.
1—George Gurdjieff's Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man.
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