Mr. Gurdjieff & The Magician as Machine.
“To awaken is not to escape the machine – it is to know it, master it, and use it consciously.”
Mr. Gurdjieff’s sobering observation was this: humans are machines. We operate out of habit, conditioning, and impulse. Our thoughts are borrowed, our emotions reactive, our actions unconscious. Without awakening, we have no true will.
Now think of the magician. A card trick performed a hundred times can become automatic. The charm becomes rehearsed. The performer smiles not because he feels joy but because he knows the script says to.
The Fourth Way challenges the magician to disrupt this mechanical cycle. Through self-observation—watching oneself impartially—the magician begins to see where he’s asleep onstage. He notices when his gestures lack life, when his engagement drops, when ego sneaks in.
This is not cause for despair but for Work. Every moment of mechanical behavior is an opportunity for self-remembering—to wake up in the act, not just go through the motions.
REMARKABLE MAGIC 
In the introduction to Magical Ways and Means, Al Baker comments in his time in Vaudeville.
He states that after weeks of several shows in a day the other acts start to seem mechanical and after a while he felt his work was also becoming mechanical. If I remember correctly he comments that it made him feel like he was “slipping” as an entertainer.
I don’t know much about Gurdjief but in the context of your article he sounds like an experienced Vaudevillian.
Thanks for the piece. Always enjoy your writing and insights.
Hope we can Zoom call again.
Best Regards,
Michael Ross
PS- Bob Dylan and Wille Nelson on the same show at the Hollywood Bowl. You are most fortunate. I’m envious.