Sign up for his newsletter and get one of Rick's ebooks for free!
Rick Saldan is an excellent
inspirational speaker who tailored the seminar to the needs of the
individual students being instructed. This office thanks the Mayors Office
of Information Services for having such a vendor.
Timothy K. Lynch
Office of Fleet Management
City of Philadelphia
Rick has a magical approach that provides a clear and
concise message specifically designed to the needs of his
audience. Rick will provide all the motivational magic you
will ever need, propelling your organization to the next
level of greater success.
Thomas Mulhern
Frontier Communications
Rick Saldan is a compelling and absorbing motivational speaker and
magician.I have been to five of his
Motivational Magic presentations and it is amazing how he keeps our
college audiences on the edge of their seats.
A highly entertaining performer with great comedy flair. Rich content to
increase students' productivity, peak performance and motivation. If you
need an outstanding motivational speaker for colleges, Rick is definitely
one of the world's greatest speakers and magicians!
Dr. Rob Gilbert, Sport Psychologist,
Montclair State University
Rick Saldan has the wit, wisdom and sorcery of a wizard. He
has a dynamic personality, and all will enjoy his
captivating stories, comedy and magic!
Dennis Slaughter
Credit Suisse First Boston
Rick Saldan delivers a first-class show! A pro in every
sense of the word. Funny, unique, entertaining and polished.
Brian Letscher, Actor
Hawaii Five-O, NCIS, Cold Case, Law & Order and The Mentalist.
Rick Saldan is a wonderful combination of master magician, comic
improviser and first class speaker. The audience loved his program, which
was music to our ears. If you love celebrity motivational speakers such as
Tom Hopkins, Dale Carnegie and Zig Ziglar, then you'll love Rick!
Dottie Burman, President
Burtley Productions, Inc.
Rick Saldan
is an incredibly talented performer and motivational speaker with great insight. He shares many powerful
motivational messages that will enhance your life for the better!
Jack Murray, President
Dream Illusions
Rick is one of the best inspirational speakers on
the scene today. Funny, fun loving and highly energetic. If you want to
make your next event into an extraordinary one, then invite professional
speaker Rick Saldan and his amazing Motivational Magic.
Andres Lara, President
Inspiration Times Magazine
poK Author: Kevin Roberts
In Beelzebub's Tales, Gurdjieff refers often to the "crystallizations of the consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer" (poK). This special crystallization is not defined specifically, but by-products of it are listed as "pride, vanity, self-love, egoism, self-conceit, swagger, imagination, bragging, arrogance" and many more similar terms. I have often heard Kundabuffer defined as an organ with special properties that has since been removed, but I have not heard of anyone investigating this ‘crystallization.?Since this crystallization is caused by our surrounding conditions during our preparation for responsible existence, it is in effect put into us mechanically; but it cannot be removed mechanically. I submit that it cannot be removed unless we determine exactly what it is, since for each of us the surrounding conditions were somewhat different.
Recently in teaching a class on esoteric Christianity, I noted that results and understanding from exercises I had given were being lost, even though they had been attained through conscious efforts. This challenged the idea that understanding, in the true sense of the word, is something that becomes a permanent part of oneself. How was this understanding being lost?
One exercise (Labor) had verified that our time, energy, and attention were devoted not to what we wished but to something useless to our development; a second verified that our unconscious aims determined this output of time, energy, and attention. This second exercise was called the Mark—keeping with the idea that for a man with no aim there is no sin. In other words, we were pushing toward our aim; we were just not conscious of what that aim was. Our aim had been input into us without our knowledge or consent. This aim was in fact more powerful than our work aims and quite capable of destroying our work efforts and understanding.
By doing these two exercises, it becomes possible to ‘see?our unconscious aim, or paradigm, so that we can struggle with it. However, we are not objective while under the influence of this aim. Even with help we will not easily admit to these hidden agendas that guide our lives. Seeing how they work indeed reminds one that "vanity and pride are the two giants which go before us and arrange everything." Each person has his own subjective version of this crystallization and may see only one face of it initially.
The only way to correctly approach this is to catalog one’s activities for a period of time—say, one week or longer. At first we will discount many things we do, saying they are necessary for external conditions, but our attitudes will show in all our manifestations. It is the energy we put into things, what our attention stays on, and the amount of time we spend on each activity that will guide us toward this unknown aim. Even our occupation, our relationships, and our hobbies and avocations hold clues to this important data. For most of us, even our interest in the Work is tarnished by this unconscious aim, and in this case it very effectively halts our progress.
Once we see how our results are being erased by this unconscious aim, the "terror of the situation" really begins to come home. Our efforts to see reality are being discarded in favor of our illusions, merely by the constant repetition of these illusions in our minds. These illusions are instilled in us, oftentimes completely by accident, during our childhood and adolescence, and sometimes even later as part of our occupation or schooling. (For example, I had a medical doctor as a massage client; when he was healed of his complaint after seeing me, he said it was coincidence, because massage does not work.)
Conceptually, this seems very simple, but once one experiences emotionally one’s complete slavery to these unknown aims, that one’s entire existence is solely to justify a paradigm that is totally unconscious, then serious desire for change and freedom result. This is what is meant when Jesus says we must hate our mother and father in order to follow him. We must kindle a negative attitude toward this unconscious dogma once we have seen it, constantly striving to recognize the taste of its automatic actions on our psyches. Having an idea of struggling with vanity and pride in a vague way will not help; we must find our specific crystallizations. This is the work of the sacred messengers from above, who "contribute to the destruction" of the poK.
We must work to gain understanding, but what stops it from being discarded? Only our efforts to uncover our hidden paradigms. And certainly becoming free of these inner paradigms will be a favorable change in Being. Otherwise our understanding will be random and incomplete.
