Inquiry · “You Are Not Your Thoughts”
Psychological Self-Observation
To turn attention inward and watch one’s own psychological states impartially so that the many transient ‘I’s’ (egos) can be seen as separate from awareness rather than identified with as ‘me.’
Self-observation in 4 lines: Direct attention inward, not outward. The moment a reaction arises — anger, craving, pride — catch it as a passing state, not as “me.” Split into observer and observed; just see it clearly, neither condemning nor excusing. Persevere, and the inner-watching sense grows.
What it is
Self-observation is the foundational practice of Samael Aun Weor’s “revolutionary psychology.” Its premise is that what we call “I” is not one permanent self but a crowd of fleeting, contradictory egos — anger, lust, pride, fear, envy — each seizing the psyche for a moment and speaking as if it were the whole person.
To see this, Samael says you must distinguish two acts that sound alike but differ completely: “To observe and to self-observe oneself are two completely different things.” Ordinary observation looks outward; in self-observation “the senses of external perception are worthless, because attention is directed inward.” As you persist, awareness divides: there is the observer and the observed psychological state.
That split is the doorway — once a reaction is watched rather than lived as me, it can later be understood and (in his system) dissolved. The practice cultivates inward attention (The Inner Creates the Outer), the witnessing stance (Life Is a Dream), and disciplined honest self-study (The Inner Creates the Outer).
The Method
From Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology (“The Two Worlds”) and related lectures:
- Turn attention inward. Recognise two worlds: “The external world is the observable. The internal world is in itself and inside oneself the self-observable.” Thoughts, emotions, longings, and disappointments are “invisible to the ordinary, common and current senses” — so direct attention to them, not to outer objects.
- Catch a psychological state the moment it arises. When irritation, craving, self-importance, or anxiety appears, register it as it is happening — a state passing through, not “what I am.”
- Divide into observer and observed. Deliberately stand back so there are two: the part that watches and the state being watched. Samael’s whole leverage is here — identification glues us to the ego; observation peels awareness off it.
- Do not condemn or justify; just see. The aim is clear, impartial perception of the state, its tone, its bodily feel, what triggered it. Self-flattery and self-punishment are themselves further “I’s” — note them too.
- Persevere so the sense develops. “As we persevere in self-observation, the sense of intimate self-observation will progressively develop” — like a faculty that strengthens with use.
- Hand the material forward. Each state clearly observed becomes the raw material for the later steps of his path (meditation to comprehend it, then its disintegration). (Sourcing note: “To observe and to self-observe…,” “the senses of external perception are worthless…,” “The external world is the observable…,” and “the sense of intimate self-observation will progressively develop” are short quotes from the English edition of Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology, attributed.)
Source & Lineage
Samael Aun Weor (1917–1977, born Víctor Manuel Gómez Rodríguez) was a Colombian esotericist who founded the modern/“Universal” Gnostic movement and wrote prolifically in the 1950s–70s.
His revolutionary psychology openly adapts G.I. Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky’s Fourth Way — the “machine,” the multiplicity of “I’s,” and self-observation — and fuses it with his own synthesis of Tantra, Theosophy, Kabbalah, and Christian symbolism.
Self-observation is step one of a three-part method that proceeds to comprehension (meditation) and elimination (death of the ego via the “Divine Mother”). He is a controversial figure: some teachings, especially his sexual doctrine, are contested, and the movement has been described by critics as having cultic features. → (Samael Aun Weor; cf. Gurdjieff, Ouspensky).
Common refinements
Thinking about a state instead of observing it. Analysis (“why am I like this?”) is a later step; first just see it happening.
- Identifying with the observer. A subtle ego can hijack the watching and feel proud of “being aware.” Keep checking: who is observing now?
- Condemnation. Sliding into “I’m awful” is another reaction, not observation — note it impartially.
- Looking outward. The instruction is explicit that external senses are useless here; the field is the inner one.
- Refinement: Pick one recurring state for a day (e.g. impatience when interrupted) and simply catch each instance, observer-and-observed, without fixing it.