Conscious Shocks, Djartklom, and the Misuse of "Shocks"

In the cosmological and psychological system of G.I. Gurdjieff, the evolution of human consciousness is not automatic. It requires intentional effort and conscious participation ("Being Parktdolg Duty"). Central to this process are what he called the first and second conscious shocks, interventions necessary to prevent the natural mechanical trajectory of life from dissipating the energy required for transformation.

To understand these shocks, one must situate them within the broader metaphysical framework of Gurdjieff’s Law of Seven—the law which describes how any process develops unevenly unless aided by outside or intentional forces. Without these “shocks,” any process—spiritual, emotional, cosmic—deviates, declines, or dissolves. Yet, these shocks are not just energetic interruptions. They are moments of awakening, of self-remembering, of intensified presence.

The First and Second Conscious Shocks

The first conscious shock occurs at the interval between mi and fa (the "lower-mechano-coinciding-Mdnel-In") in the inner octave of man—this corresponds boradly to the effort of self-remembering. It is the act of becoming aware of oneself in the moment, an inner division of attention whereby the observer appears within the observed. This moment—subtle, silent, and invisible to the world—is the foundation of all further transformation. It demands no external drama, no violent intervention, but a quiet and voluntary inner act.

The second conscious shock occurs later in the octave, between si and do (the "higher-intentionally-actualizing-Mdnel-In"). Broadly, it involves transforming negative emotions into higher energy—turning resentment into understanding, despair into deeper attention, and mechanical reactions into conscious responses. This is not a passive act; it is the fruit of long, disciplined observation and digestion of inner experience. Gurdjieff termed this process “intentional suffering”—a conscious choice to endure the friction of one’s contradictions without falling into identification.

Djartklom

Here, Gurdjieff introduces a key concept: Djartklom—the state of the unfolding of “separated functioning” in the cosmic order (**see the reading at the end of this blog). In human beings, this manifests as the absence of unity: thoughts, feelings, and actions pulling in opposite directions; the will divided.

Without the shocks, both conscious and structural, the human machine remains in a state of Djartklom. One’s intellectual center may believe one thing, the emotional another, and the body enacts yet another—an inner "Babel". It is the lack of a harmonizing force—what Gurdjieff called Real I—that allows this disunity to persist.

Thus, the two conscious shocks are antidotes to Djartklom. They create the inner alignment necessary for what he referred to as the crystallization of the higher being-body, or the development of the higher part of the soul in the esoteric Christian sense.

The Misuse of “Shocks”

In many modern iterations of the Fourth Way or other spiritual paths influenced by Gurdjieff, there has been a tendency to weaponize the idea of “shocks.” Students and teachers alike often adopt a stance of provocation, believing that confrontational behavior or harsh truth-telling constitutes a “shock” that will awaken others. This is, at best, a partial truth, and at worst, a destructive parody of genuine conscious work - what J.G. Bennett described as "Artificial Djartklom" and in which Gurdjieff condemned himself.

Gurdjieff himself was known to administer shocks, often theatrical and paradoxical. However, these were always carefully timed, deeply personal, and aimed at dismantling specific ego structures—not creating dependency or confusion. When individuals adopt the role of the “shocker” without the requisite wisdom, compassion, and inner development, the shock becomes artificial and mechanically administered. This introduces a spiritual co-dependence, where students await external shocks from a teacher or group, rather than cultivating the sensitivity to receive life’s natural shocks.

True shocks arise organically—in loss, in contradiction, in beauty, in death, in love. The challenge is not to manufacture shocks for others, but to remain awake enough to digest the ones life is already giving you.

Sensitivity, Not Stimulation

The spiritual path is not one of continual stimulation or contrived crisis. It is a path of refined perception and inner digestion. The conscious shocks Gurdjieff speaks of are not violent intrusions but acts of grace that occur when the soul becomes still enough to see clearly.

As the inner being becomes more refined, life itself—if approached consciously—becomes the teacher, the shock, the shock-absorber, and ultimately the harmonizing principle that transforms Djartklom and makes inner unity possible.

To give someone a shock is not to awaken them; it is to present them with the opportunity to awaken. Whether they do or not depends not on the strength of the shock but on the presence of a prepared receiver.

“The highest that a man can attain is to be able to do. And to be able to do, he must first be.”—G.I. Gurdjieff

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**From "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson" (Penguin, Arkana), pages 145 and 147:

“Three-brained beings have the possibility personally to perfect themselves, because in them there are localized three centers of their common presence or three brains, upon which afterwards, when the process of Djartklom proceeds in the Omnipresent-Okidanokh, the three holy forces of the sacred Triamazikamno are deposited and acquire the possibility for their further, this time, independent actualizings.

“Just in this is the point, that the beings having this three-brained system can, by the conscious and intentional fulfilling of being-Partkdolg-duty, utilize from this process of Djartklom in the Omnipresent-Okidanokh, its three holy forces for their own presences and bring their presences to what is called the ‘Sekronoolanzaknian-state’; that is to say, they can become such individuals as have their own sacred law of Triamazikamno and thereby the possibility of consciously taking in and coating in their common presence all that ‘Holy’ which, incidentally, also aids the actualizing of the functioning in these cosmic units of Objective or Divine Reason....

...“And so, my boy, the process of Djartklom in the Omnipresent-Okidanokh proceeds in the presence of each of these favorites of yours, and in them also, all its three holy forces are blended independently with other cosmic crystallizations, and go for the corresponding actualizations, but as, chiefly owing to the already mentioned abnormal conditions of being-existence gradually established by them themselves, they have entirely ceased to fulfill being-Partkdolg-duty, then, in consequence of this, none of those holy sources of everything existing, with the exception of the denying source alone, is transubstantiated for their own presences.

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