In Search of the Miraculous

further. It happens very often that the essence of a grown-up man, even that of a very

intellectual and, in the accepted meaning of the word, highly 'educated' man, stops on

the level of a child of five or six. This means that everything we see in this man is in

reality 'not his own.' What is his own in man, that is, his essence, is usually only

manifested in his instincts and in his simplest emotions. There are cases, however,

when a man's essence grows in parallel with his personality. Such cases represent very

rare exceptions especially in the circumstances of cultured life. Essence has more

chances of development in men who live nearer to nature in difficult conditions of

constant struggle and danger.

"But as a rule the personality of such people is very little developed. They have

more of what is their own, but very little of what is 'not their own,' that is to say, they lack education and instruction, they lack culture. Culture creates personality and is at

the same time the product and the result of personality. We do not realize that the

whole of our life, all we call civilization, all we call science, philosophy, art, and

politics, is created by people's personality, that is, by what is 'not their own' in them.

"The element that is 'not his own' differs from what is man's 'own' by the fact that it can be lost, altered, or taken away by artificial means.

"There exists a possibility of experimental verification of the relation of personality to essence. In Eastern schools ways and means are known by the help of which it is

possible to separate man's personality from his essence. For this purpose they

sometimes use hypnosis, sometimes special narcotics, sometimes certain kinds of

exercises. If personality and essence are for a time separated in a man by one or

another of these means, two beings, as it were, are formed in him, who speak in

different voices, have completely different tastes, aims, and interests, and one of these two beings often proves to be on the level of a small child. Continuing the experiment

further it is possible to put one of these beings to sleep, or the experiment may begin

by putting to sleep either personality or essence. Certain narcotics have the property of putting personality to sleep without affecting essence. And for a certain time after

taking this narcotic a man's personality disappears, as it were, and only his essence

remains. And it happens that a man full of the most varied and exalted ideas, full of

sympathies and antipathies, love, hatred, attachments, patriotism, habits, tastes, desires, convictions, suddenly proves quite empty, without thoughts, without feelings, without

convictions, without views. Everything that has agitated him before now leaves him

completely indifferent. Sometimes he sees the artificiality and the imaginary character

of his usual moods or his high-sounding words, sometimes he simply forgets them as

though they had never existed. Things for which he was ready to sacrifice his life now

appear to him ridiculous and meaningless and unworthy of his attention. All that he

can find in himself is a small number of instinctive inclinations and tastes. He is fond

of sweets, he likes warmth, he dislikes cold, he dislikes the thought of work, or on the

contrary he likes the idea of physical movement. And that is all.

"Sometimes, though very seldom, and sometimes when it is least expected, essence

proves fully grown and fully developed in a man, even in cases of undeveloped

personality, and in this case essence unites together everything that is serious and real in a man.

"But this happens very seldom. As a rule a man's essence is either primitive, savage, and childish, or else simply stupid. The development of essence depends on work on

oneself.

"A very important moment in the work on oneself is when a man begins to

distinguish between his personality and his essence. A man's real I, his individuality,

can grow only from his essence. It can be said that a man's individuality is his essence, grown up, mature. But in order to enable essence to grow up, it is first of all necessary to weaken the constant pressure of personality upon it, because the obstacles to the

growth of essence are contained in personality.

'If we take an average cultured man, we shall see that in the vast majority of cases

his personality is the active element in him while his essence is the passive element.

The inner growth of a man cannot begin so long as this order of things remains

unchanged. Personality must become passive and essence must become active. This

can happen only if 'buffers' are removed or weakened, because 'buffers' are the chief

weapon by the help of which personality holds essence in subjection.

"As has been said earlier, in the case of less cultured people essence is often more highly developed than it is in cultured man. It would seem that they ought to be nearer