First of all it must be realized that the sleep in which man exists is not normal but hypnotic sleep. Man is hypnotized and this hypnotic state is continually maintained and strengthened in him. One would think that there are forces for whom it is useful and profitable to keep man in a hypnotic state and prevent him from seeing the truth and understanding his position.
There is an Eastern tale which speaks about a very rich magician who had a great many sheep. But at the same time this magician was very mean. He did not want to hire shepherds, nor did he want to erect a fence about the pasture where his sheep were grazing. The sheep consequently often wandered into the forest, fell into ravines, and so on, and above all they ran away, for they knew that the magician wanted their flesh and skins and this they did not like.
At last the magician found a remedy. He hypnotized his sheep and suggested to them first of all that they were immortal and that no harm was being done to them when they were skinned, that, on the contrary, it would be very good for them and even pleasant; secondly he suggested that the magician was a good master who loved his flock so much that he was ready to do anything in the world for them; and in the third place he suggested that if anything at all were going to happen to them it was not going to happen just then, at any rate not that day, and therefore they had no need to think about it.
Further the magician suggested to his sheep that they were not sheep at all; to some he suggested that they were lions, to others that they were eagles, to others that they were men, and to others that they were magicians.
And after this all his cares and worries about the sheep came to an end. They never ran away but quietly waited the time when the magician would require their flesh and skins.
This tale is a very good illustration of man's position.
Gurdjieff in Ouspenky's, In Search of the Miraculous, pg. 219
Below is Idries Shah's version of the same "tale".
The Magician's Dinner Party
There was once a Magician who built a house near a large and prosperous village.
One day he invited all the people of the village to dinner. "Before we eat", he said, "we have some entertainments."
Everyone was pleased, and the Magician provided a first-class conjuring show, with rabbits coming out of hats, flags appearing from nowhere, and one thing turning into another. The people were delighted.
Then the Magician asked, "Would you like dinner now, or more entertainments?"
Everyone called for more entertainments, for they had never seen anything like it before; at home there was food, but never such excitement as this.
So the Magician changed himself into a pidgeon, then into a hawk, and finally into a dragon. The people went wild with excitement.
He asked them again, and they wanted more. And they got it.
Then he asked them if they wanted to eat, and they said that they did.
So the Magician made them feel that they were eating, diverting their attention with a number of tricks, through his magical powers.
The imaginary eating and entertainments went on all night. When it was dawn, some of the people said, "We must go to work."
So the Magician made those people imagine that they went home, got ready for work, and actually did a day's work.
In short, whenever anyone said that he had to do something, the Magician made him think first that he was going to do it, then, that he had done it, and finally that he had come back to the Magician's house.
Finally the Magician had woven such spells over the people of the village that they worked only for him while they thought that they were carrying on with their ordinary lives. Whenever they felt a little restless, he made them think that they were back at dinner at his house, and this gave them pleasure and made them forget.
And what happened to the Magician and his people, in the end?
Do you know, I cannot tell you, because he is still busily doing it, and the people are still largely under his spell.
From ~ Seeker After Truth, pgs. 54-55 (The Magician's Dinner)
By ~ Idries Shah
