The Fourth Way

P.D. Ouspensky begins his book by describing the essence of the "Fourth Way" system and briefly formulates its main ideas. He then specifies them in response to questions posed by students from various countries.
From the author's perspective, we do not use even a small part of our abilities and strengths. We are born to live in four states of consciousness, but in essence, we are constantly in only two of them: either we are asleep or we are "awake." However, even in the latter case, according to Ouspensky, a person acts merely as a "machine," automatically reacting to external circumstances. But it is in our power to use what we have in different ways. An airplane can become a cart if horses are harnessed to it, or it can soar in the sky.
P.D. Ouspensky talks about how to achieve higher states of consciousness (self-consciousness and objective consciousness) and ultimately lead a truly human life, in which we are not victims of reality that shatters our dreams, but a full-fledged part of it.
This book consists of verbatim excerpts from conversations with Ouspensky between 1921 and 1946.