MAY 23, 1927 TRANSCRIPTION OF ORAGES TALK BY L. S.

MORRIS

Drama presupposes knowledge and control of the body. Drama soul; I have a body. This proposes that the soul shall use the body. A three centered being is divided into parts: Planetary body three brains - three centers. A divine mystery is associated with this conception. The soul aspires to be the actor. There is a technique by which the soul can manipulate the body to express knowledge of and control over the instrument for living. This also presupposes a knowledge of types of people. The number of types of planetary bodies is limited. It is there for not hopeless to expect to arrive at final conclusions, personal idiosyncrasy maybe subsumed under about 27 types. The actor never acts alone. It is necessary to recognize types. Also it presupposes that he has a conception of the role he is to play in order to function as a soul; that is he must be aware of his mission, he must know his reason for acting as he proposes to act, in cooperation with the whole cosmic plan. Said that the ancient occult schools used the drama as exercises for behaviour in life. Putting plays onto the stage of life; today we just put plays on the stage. The teachers had to know: The nature of man; that he was three centered but that these centers almost never acted simultaneously from all three centers, varying in age of centers according to degree of experience. Each new stimulus evokes for each center a parallel response according to distribution of experiences already received. So we say, over intellectualized, over emotionalized. Now "over" is impossible. We mean "under" in other centers, "over intellectualized", means "under emotionalized". This makes impossible the perception of real drama; always melodramatic. Odd triangles, an "non-whole view" Teachers on guard against irregular responses and would train to bring about a harmonious response he can evoke discord and responses (see music, above) Types, the knowledge they were after is not occult and can be expressed mathematically relative to the three centers: or colloquially. Suppose you were asked to draw up an appropriate setting, speech, etc., for a miser. This would be inappropriate to Don Juan. Miser, Falstaff, Don Juan, Hamlet, Micawber etc. Some novels specialize on us few types e.g. Dickens. Each of us falls into two in greater or less degree according to idiosyncrasies, a type. It is true that few of us manifest this clearly. In the occident especially the type is concealed. The divination of types beneath the idiosyncrasies is sociology. The method is practical. We often say. You have to do it, to get the feel of it. Pupils are expected to try things out to feel what it is like, become aware of manifestations. A being is one who experiences. Experiences are physiological processes taking place when we are not aware. Changes of direction or division of streams in our blood vessels. These have psychic counterparts which we call our consciousness, while in process of experiencing. Simultaneously the behaviour of the mechanism of tine manifestations. Manifestations are the means of communication.

Stage set: a being undergoing experiencing; manifestations the only form of communication. My subjective never becomes the spectator's objective. We can see only my manifestations. He will understand just in the proportion in which I manifest sincerely. Teachers wished to give control so the pupil would not just convey his experiencing but whatever he wanted to convey. A technique of insincerity? Yes. This is a charge against a conscious actor. It is an assumption by the critic that spontaneity, a lack of ability to control a manifestation means greater sincerity. But being unaware of and unable to control manifestations 9/10 of his experiencings are beyond his perceptions and hence 9/10 of his manifestations. A fractional sincerity. A conscious actor aspires to be aware of all and to choose and arrange in reaction to the type with which he is dealing. In order to do so he must sometimes but very rarely act from one center at a time, i.e., presented as a purely intellectual problem. The tendency is for other centers to join and distort the action of the center engaged. Actors had to learn to act in one center or they would be otherwise excluded from efficient participation in many situations. They must also learn to act simultaneously in all centers. St.Paul said, to be all things to all men. Technique of playing roles Mimicry is part of the play of children. Adults single out merely a few impulses likely to be sociologically valuable and leave others without development except in pathological channels). Guessing is the green blade of a power which if trained would develop into intuition with certainty. Children are discouraged from guessing or imagining or telling lies. Modern thought is suffering from a lack of scientific imagination Mimicry is a second neglected faculty. It is preservative of the elasticity of the planetary body. If trained it would give control and make dramatic school and mysteries unnecessary. Method: Pupil appeared on the stage and a play was improvised. G. says that certain of the earliest plays of the Greeks were thus and some - testimony in Plato; for he reports on improvises plays. There must be critical audience. Pupil on stage, not thinking of plot but self interrogating as to inner state. What impulse do I feel? To shout? To go home? To write? To speak to a policeman? "I'd like to tell the cop what I think of him" Catch one of these odd little thoughts as they pass through the mind. In the wings, pupils are nervously waiting wondering what role he will be called on to play. "Hey, policeman, don't you see those two bums fighting?" Other pupil enters he must play the role of the cop How will he behave? In order to qualify every pupil went about observing types and technique. Relation between this school and life. Older pupils had to play rarer roles. Origin of introduction in earlier plays of gods. Not intended to represent gods but men in states of ecstasy (exstasis) Echoes of blank verse, poetry, spoken in ecstasy. The Iliad was perhaps dictated and repeated verbally long before it was written down. In these roles the actor had to produce actual manifestations. In this sense, a dramatic school is a training for a universal life. Pythagoras committee introduced variations. What has just been describes is natural and could develop anywhere. The troubadours would improvise on demand. Pythagorean variations. Enneagram, a nine sided figure with seven main points and three sides of a triangle. The body under the law of seven; the psyche under the law of three. The "I" experiences in three; the body manifests in seven. But in the octave of seven, there are two semi-tones, necessity of an external shock. To make the mechanical law of seven correspondent to the conscious law of three requires a psychological jolt at the proper moment. Counterpoint between experiencing and manifestation. The dotted triangle in the enneagram.

Miser not conscious of his experiencings or manifestations. The intention of the schools to control experiencings in order to control manifestations. If we could control experience and act through the semitone to give manifestations a different turn could indicate conscious action. First: actors had to pass a test of playing roles. Then he was allowed to take part in the second form: i.e. mysteries. Difference between these mysteries and play in general. Introduction in the mystery of the semitone in the octave. Pythagorean were scientific mystery creators. E.g., policeman on some critical occasion when manifestation was expected would act differently indicating that only policeman by role but not bound to be a policeman. Could introduce an original act, not determined by the role nor natural. In mystery is the extraordinary. Begin by inducing in the spectators an anticipation; but then the actor became himself and illustrated what the conscious soul would do under these circumstances. The spectator might be challenged at any moment. Concentration and self - interrogation. It could not be said that the actor broke down; he had proved he could play the role perfectly. The spectator was provoked to say Why? The question led to the anticipation of something concealed of value to the spectator. Third Form: Life. Here the pupil was expected to take any situation and play with unconscious actors but so that he could be understood. The Christian Mystery was rehearsed first in occult schools. Then rehearsed by the Essenes. Then it was played historically, to affect thought, feeling and conduct through many generations. It is possible the Christian mystery was the final outcome of these Babylonian schools. It is logical whether there is historical continuity or not. See "Fragments of Faith Forgotten" and see how Jesus trained his pupils to dance, play roles etc. Judas may be said to have had to play a most difficult role, certain to be misunderstood; and like the villain on the stage to be hissed by a naive audience. Playing roles assumes a knowledge of our manifestations, not critic ally but instructionally (sociological improvement is a negligible object for the soul) If you try to play up merely to improve for social praise, it is little; but if this is regarded divinely, you learn what you are and how to use it. First class of dramatic school. Second class, types. Review pictorially people I have met. I will find they fall into two groups; then study these types in action. Third stage; begins in pantomime. Fourth: Intervene in role, either for personal development or to convey something important to the spectator. A significant act. The Life of Christ not the life of Jesus. Before and after Jesus. Divine mission consciously Christ. Orage has seen G. play roles which few would condescend to, deceiving even his intimates. What is left of the Pythagorean concept of the drama? Contrast ancient drama with the modern theater. The modern has two purposes a) - amusement b) - propaganda or education (Ibsen, Shaw , Galsworthy) Not as mystery, which is impossible because it requires conscious actors. Our actors imitate not from within but from without. They merely produce an illusion in the spectator, whereas the ancient actor had illusion and also elasticity.

c) - the spectator is never challenged; he is merely stimulated to recall previously recorded experience. Pictorial associations are provoked "sympathizing with himself". The drama today is not an experience but a re-experience titillation. It is not an influx of new material but a stimulus which sets old material in motion. It is evocative and not representative. Procreate but not create. Its effect is the intensification of the mechanicality of both actor and spectator.