Tips on Reading Beelzebub’s Tales, Part 2: Outlining

In his Third Series, Gurdjieff instructs his students to familiarize themselves enough with Beelzebub’s Tales to where he could mention the chapter number and the student would know overall the contents of that chapter for further detailed discussion:

“…[E]ach of you should cease entirely, at least for three months, the reading of your newspapers and magazines, and during this time should become as well acquainted as possible with the contents of all three books of the first series of my writings entitled An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man…

An all-round acquaintance with the contents of these three books is necessary also in order that when I personally, or the mentioned instructors, speak during our general meetings about some question which in the given moment is the center-of-gravity question, and speak about its details, we may, for the purpose of economizing time, simply refer to the corresponding chapter in this first series, and you, already having preliminary information about this, may easily assimilate what we shall subsequently develop in detail.

For example, intending in today’s meeting to speak about a question which is based on data I have already more or less elucidated in the last chapter of the third book, namely in the chapter entitled “From the Author,” the deliberations on the proposed question today should be as a continuation of this chapter.

Well, if you were all well-informed of its contents, then I could for the purpose of economizing time refer to the requisite passages, but now I shall be compelled to waste time on reading to you certain extracts.”

Previously, I gave some tips on reading Beelzebub’s Tales. While reading, one helpful method for remembering Beelzebub’s Tales at the level mentioned above is to outline each chapter.

Below is a sample outline that takes each chapter and notes, very broadly, when important characters are introduced, or major events take place, or major topics are touched upon.

Purpose of Three Series

Friendly Advice

  1. The Arousing of Thought
      1. Opening prayer
      2. Mentation on writing
      3. Bon-ton literary language
      4. Beginning with a warning
      5. Mullah Nassr Eddin
      6. Every stick has two ends
      7. Transcaucasian Kurd and red pepper pods
      8. Grandmother’s injunction story
      9. Wisdom tooth story
      10. “If you go on a spree” story
      11. Scope of tales and its protagonist, Beelzebub
      12. Karapet of Tiflis and the train whistle
      13. Concluding signature of the author

    2. Introduction: Why Beelzebub Was in Our Solar System
      1. Beelzebub
      2. His Endlessness
      3. Hassein
      4. Ahoon
      5. The ship Karnak
      6. Exile
    3. The Cause of the Delay in the Falling of the Ship Karnak
      1. Delay becomes opportunity for Beelzebub to educate his grandson Hassein
    4. The Law of Falling
      1. Saint Venoma
      2. Law of Falling and Law of Catching Up
      3. First kind of spaceships
    5. The System of the Archangel Hariton
      1. Archangel Hariton
      2. Improved spaceships
    6. Perpetual Motion
      1. More on improved spaceships
      2. Hint at psychopathy of three-brained beings of planet Earth
    7. Becoming Aware of Genuine Being Duty
      1. Hassein
      2. Remorse of Conscience
      3. Responsible age
      4. Genuine Being-Duty
      5. Sunrise Exercise
    8. The Impudent Brat Hassein, Beelzebub’s Grandson, Dares to Call Men “Slugs”
      1. Superficial differences between Karatians and three-brained beings of planet Earth
    9. The Cause of the Genesis of the Moon
      1. Beelzebub on Mars
      2. Earth hit by comet Kondoor
      3. Two fragments break off—moon and Anulios
      4. To maintain fragments, life process is started on Earth
    10. Why “Men” Are Not Men
      1. Archangel Sakaki
      2. Organ Kundabuffer
      3. Perceive reality topsy-turvy
      4. Seek pleasure and enjoyment
      5. Residual effects after its removal
      6. Reciprocal destruction
    11. A Piquant Trait of the Peculiar Psyche of Contemporary Man
      1. Three-brained beings and response to insults
      2. Anathematizing
    12. The First “Growl”
      1. Writers
      2. Power-possessors
      3. Unintended consequences of banning books
    13. Why in Man’s Reason Fantasy May Be Perceived As Reality
      1. Smith and Brown
      2. Being-Partkdolg-duty: conscious labor and intentional suffering
      3. Abnormal conditions and self-calming
    14. The Beginnings of Perspectives Promising Nothing Very Cheerful
      1. Nature increased our numbers but decreased our lifespan
      2. Specific crystallized consequences
    15. The First Descent of Beelzebub upon the Planet Earth
      1. King Appolis
      2. Atlantis
      3. City of Samlios
      4. Revolution
    16. The Relative Understanding of Time
      1. Heropass
      2. Time is the unique subjective
      3. Scale
    17. The Arch-Absurd: According to the Assertion of Beelzebub, Our Sun Neither Lights nor Heats
      1. Trogoautoegocratic process
      2. Triamazikamno
      3. Heptaparaparshinokh
      4. Etherokrilno
      5. Okidanokh
      6. Aieioiuoa (Remorse)
      7. Correspondence of three-brained beings and universe
    18. The Arch-Preposterous
      1. Gornahoor Harharkh
      2. Experiments
    19. Beelzebub’s Tales About His Second Descent onto the Planet Earth
      1. Beelzebub’s Mission
      2. Sacrificial offerings
      3. Priest Abdil
    20. The Third Flight of Beelzebub to the Planet Earth
      1. King Konuzion
      2. Opium
      3. Religion
    21. The First Visit of Beelzebub to India
      1. Saint Buddha
      2. Wiseacring
      3. Kundalini / Kundabuffer
    22. Beelzebub for the First Time in Tibet
      1. Monks who isolate themselves completely
    23. The Fourth Personal Sojourn of Beelzebub on the Planet Earth
      1. The Ape Question
      2. Belcultassi
      3. Emblem of Akhaldan Society
    24. Beelzebub’s Flight to the Planet Earth for the Fifth Time
      1. Babylon
      2. Abduction of learned beings for alchemy by Persian King
      3. Tower of Babel
      4. Hamolinadir and the Instability of Human Reason
    25. The Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash, Sent From Above to the Earth
      1. Messenger from Above
      2. Brotherhood Olbogmek
    26. The Legominism Concerning the Deliberations of the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash Under the Title of “The Terror-of-the-Situation”
      1. Self-Preparation
      2. Degeneration of impulses of faith, hope, and love
      3. Disease of tomorrow
      4. Objective-Conscience
    27. The Organization for Man’s Existence Created by the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash
      1. Brotherhood Heechtvori
      2. All-the-rights-possessing brothers
      3. Great Initiates
      4. Desires and non-desires
      5. Education
      6. Five Strivings
    28. The Chief Culprit in the Destruction of All the Very Saintly Labors of Ashiata Shiemash
      1. Lentrohamsanin
      2. Hasnamus
    29. The Fruits of Former Civilizations and the Blossoms of the Contemporary
      1. Greeks and Romans made a ‘clean sweep’ of the labors of Ashiata Shiemash. How? …
      2. Atrophy of organic shame, the main level of objective morality from …
      3. Invention of the Romans (“Sex for pleasure”)
      4. And loss of sane logical mentation from …
      5. Invention of the Greeks (“Science”)
      6. German chemical inventions
      7. English invention of sport
      8. Itoklanozic principle
      9. Bobbin-kandelnosts and death in parts
    30. Art
      1. Legominisms
      2. Adherents-of-Legominism clubs
      3. Law of Sevenfoldness
      4. Inexactitudes
      5. Arts
        1. Religious and civil ceremonies
        2. Architecture
        3. Painting
        4. Religious and popular dances
        5. Sculpture
        6. Mysteries
        7. Music and song
      6. Degeneration of art and artists
      7. Philology
    31. The Sixth and Last Sojourn of Beelzebub on the Planet Earth
      1. Beelzebub returns to study latest developments in reciprocal destruction and the peculiar psyche of man
      2. Subconscious, self-criticism, sincerity, self-calming
      3. Egoism, castes and classes, superiority and inferiority
      4. Zirlikners and physicians
      5. Pharmaceuticals, Dover’s Powder story
    32. Hypnotism
      1. Beelzebub becomes professional physician-hypnotist to have access to the inner world of three-brained beings of planet earth
      2. Humans are unique in the universe in regards to the hypnotic state
      3. This is due to their disharmonized functioning of their common presence
      4. This led to the division of their psyche into two: ‘consciousness’ and ‘subconsciousness’
      5. Lack of ‘wide horizon’ and ‘quickly-to-forget’ what is perceived
      6. Mesmer and getting ‘pecked-to-death’
      7. Scientific establishment and ‘pecking-to-death’ stops ‘Antkooano’ or shared knowledge of cosmic truths known
      8. Tempo of blood circulation and hypnotic state
      9. Hanbledzoin and blood of Kesdjan and second being-food
      10. Influenza
      11. Pedrini and Bambini and Ephrosinia
    33. Beelzebub as Professional Hypnotist
      1. Beelzebub changes method of hypnotism from using Hanbledzoin to altering blood tempo due to harmful effects of expenditure of Hanbledzoin for others.
      2. Hypnotism for curing vices (alcohol, drugs, etc.)
      3. Beelzebub needs rest, so he goes to Egypt.
      4. Mummies and castor oil
      5. Pyramids and Sphinx
    34. Russia
      1. Crows, peacocks, and turkeys
      2. Solioonensius
      3. Revolution
      4. Egoism, superiority and inferiority, access
      5. Power-possessors
      6. Pharaoh John Geoffrey
      7. Good being-habits
    35. A Change in the Appointed Course of the Falling of the Transspace Ship Karnak
      1. Beelzebub agrees with captain to stop at Holy Planet Purgatory to visit family of his son Tooilan.
      2. Salzmanino system a hindrance.
    36. Just a Wee Bit More About the Germans
      1. Understanding the peculiar psyche of the Germans.
      2. German grammatical rule of ‘nicht’ (NOT!) at the end of a sentence.
    37. France
      1. Opinions that are formed that do not conform to reality—example: the opinion that the French are depraved and immodest
      2. But opinion is formed from seeing people in Paris, and Paris is not peopled by the French but by foreign tourists and foreigners who cater to tourists—they are the depraved and immodest ones!
      3. Types
      4. Teaching the American foxtrot in Paris to Americans in Paris
      5. Patriarchality and Religiousness
      6. Feminism and its results
      7. French fairs were a good invention!
    38. Religion
      1. True religion vs. invented religions that cause loss of sane mentation
      2. Distortion of religious teachings in three or less generations
      3. After death of Sacred Individual, teachings are collected into a whole and understanding becomes literal and without context; also not understanding allegories
      4. Then religion falls into the hands of the ruling class and gets further distorted
      5. Then religion breaks up into sects
      6. Five religions: Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Lamaism
      7. Kesdjan body and handbledzoin involved in sacred rituals
    39. The Holy Planet “Purgatory”
      1. Hassein asks Beelzebub why His Endlessness visits the Holy Planet Purgatory so often
      2. To do this, Beelzebub must explain how the universe was created
      3. Law of Triamazikamno
      4. Law of Heptaparaparshinokh
      5. Trogoautoegocratic process
      6. Hierarchy and Scale
      7. Kesdjan and Higher Being-Bodies
      8. Digestion
      9. Choot-God-Litanical Period
      10. Loss of knowledge of proper use of being-Exioehary and problems with this loss
    40. Beelzebub Tells How People Learned and Again Forgot About the Fundamental Cosmic Law of Heptaparaparshinokh
      1. Automatic reason vs. objective reason
      2. Choon-Kill-Tez and Choon-Tro-Pel, twin learned beings who rediscovered Heptaparaparshinokh
      3. Active elements in opium, white ray, sound
      4. Alla-attapan apparatus
      5. Discoveries became distorted through wiseacring by learned beings of new formation
    41. The Bokharian Dervish Hadji-Asvatz-Troov
      1. Three years before leaving Earth, Beelzebub met a dervish/scientist who knew about the Law of Heptaparaparshinokh
      2. Cave lit by gas and electricity
      3. Specialized in vibrations of sound
      4. Played a melody on a piano that should have produced a boil on Beelzebub’s leg but did not because he is not human!
      5. Experiments with vibrations and different life forms
      6. Experiments with color and architecture
      7. Possible to cure diseases including cancer with vibration
    42. Beelzebub in America
      1. Americans occupied by “dollar businesses”
      2. Americans and prohibition
      3. American restaurants
      4. Americans and conversational English
      5. Americans and parties
      6. Americans and slaughterhouses
      7. Americans and marketing
      8. Americans and preserved food, bread, tin cans
      9. Americans and toilets, Tikliamishian toilet-couches
      10. Author self-insert
      11. Americans and sex
      12. Good customs
      13. Catholics and Fish
      14. Vegetarianism
      15. Sex education and American ‘decency’
    43. Beelzebub’s Survey of the Process of the Periodic Reciprocal Destruction of Men, or Beelzebub’s Opinion of War
      1. Hassein asks Beelzebub for an explanation of war
      2. Power-possessors
      3. Abnormal education
      4. Self-calming
      5. Crystallized consequences of Kundabuffer
      6. Stomach and sex
      7. Profits
      8. Organizations to end war always fail
      9. Abolition of war for future generations rather than contemporary
      10. Bureaucrats, Plutocrats, Theocrats, Democrats, Zevrocrats, and Aristocrats
      11. Great Nature, Abrustdonis, Helkdonis, Askokin
      12. Atlantean customs
    44. In the Opinion of Beelzebub, Man’s Understanding of Justice Is for Him in the Objective Sense and Accursed Mirage
      1. Idea of Good and Evil as external to man is why man doesn’t understand justice
      2. Commission of 50 candidates for MHSA and Archcherub Helgematios investigate
      3. Before they have all the facts, they decide to petition His Endlessness to send a Messenger to uproot the idea, and to punish the originator by sending him to the Planet Retribution
      4. Originated with Makary Kronbernkzion, who used the terms to refer to involutionary and evolutionary forces or active and passive forces, as well as the resultant or neutralizing force.
      5. This idea was misunderstood or corrupted by future generations to mean Good and Evil were external to themselves, and formed the basis of their worldview.
      6. Story of Angels and Devils helping or tempting man.
    45. In the Opinion of Beelzebub, Man’s Extraction of Electricity from Nature and Its Destruction During Its Use, Is One of the Chief Causes of the Shortening of the Life of Man
      1. Dynamos that produce electricity cause difficulties for the self-perfecting for three-brained beings even of other planets in the solar system.
      2. Beelzebub and the King of Mars
      3. Proportional diminishing of potency of active mentation and self-perfection—will-lessness
      4. Beelzebub goes to Saturn to discuss with Goornahoor Rakhoorkh, godson of Goornahooor Harharkh, also a scientist.
      5. Blending and mutual destruction of two parts in generation of electricity upsets equilibrium of solar system.
      6. Used for naïve egoistic aims.
    46. Beelzebub Explains to His Grandson the Significance of the Form and Sequence Which He Chose for Expounding the Information Concerning Man
      1. Beelzebub finds Hassein weeping.
      2. Hassein is weeping because he was thinking how the three-brained beings of planet earth are deprived of the bliss of taking in the second being-food.
      3. “Only-He-May-Enter-Here-Who-Puts-Himself-In-The-Position-Of-The-Other-Results-Of-My-Labor”.
      4. Form and sequence of Beelzebub’s Tales for Hassein’s education
      5. Active mentation and the production of sacred substances for higher being-parts.
      6. ‘Reason-of-Knowing’ and ‘Reason-of-Understanding’.
      7. Rest from active mentation is necessary, as is rest for all the brains, so as to not become lopsided.
      8. Active mentation requires equal degree functioning of all three centers.
    47. The Inevitable Result of Impartial Mentation
      1. Beelzebub receives forks in horns in relation to his degree of Reason attained.
      2. Only constant remembrance of death can destroy man’s egoism and hatred.
    48. From the Author
      1. Author reflects on his writings and his accident
      2. Dissolution of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man
      3. Real Man and Man in Quotation Marks
      4. Analogy of Carriage
      5. Man Cannot Do; Man Has No Will; Man Has No Being
      6. Man is a Slave to His Own Mechanicality
      7. Liberation: Eradication of Consequences and Predisposition Towards Properties of Kundabuffer
      8. Man Cannot Experience His Own Death
      9. Analogy of Two Rivers
      10. Masters and Slaves
      11. A Rest Before Beginning the Second Series and Future Plans for His Writings

     

NOTE: I repeat that this is an example outline. It is necessary to read and create this outline on one’s own; it will not be as useful to merely crib what has been written here.