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Abstract
Over the twenty-seven years that have passed since I began my neurology residency in New York, I have read numerous articles and texts, listened to lectures by a multitude of professors and other experts, reviewed countless MRI and CT studies of the brain and nervous system and, in the past few years, instructed young residents in my specialty. In my field, we are tasked with the evaluation, diagnosis and occasional treatment of disorders of the nervous system, inclusive of the brain, the spinal cord, nerves and muscles. Not once, however, in all these years, throughout interaction with professors, colleagues, residents and students has anyone ever posited the question as to the inherent nature of the human nervous system and for what purpose is it designed to serve.
I suggest that the answer to this unasked question, at least unasked by the aforementioned “learned beings of new formation,” is buried within the text of Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson and that the answer is not theoretical but real, tangible and verifiable.
Short biographical note
TJ Clark has been a student of the Gurdjieff Teaching since 1974. His involvement in the Work inspired his pursuit of a career in medicine and neurology, beginning in college in his late twenties and completing his residency at the age of 39. He currently is in practice in southern California where he teaches residents in neurology.