Eight-fold knowledge (Systematics)

Individuality (whether actual or potential) is the source of initiative residing in organized structures and can only be experienced through a minimum of eight independent terms. The selfhood associated with individuality cannot be readily communicated. It is the nature of being a free agent, both as a unique centre of subjective experience and as a source of initiative. This form of knowledge is only reached when all ordinary knowledge is laid aside and consciousness lies open to the light of revelation. The essential feature of such knowledge (which is not confined to religious experience) is that it cannot be ascribed to any functional activity within the whole by which it is received. A barrier of separateness is broken down giving such knowledge the character of totality and unity. This eight-fold knowledge is able to represent organized structures and historical processes ranging in scale from unity to totality. Its value is classificatory, interpretative, heuristic and predictive.

The eighth in a sequence of twelve modes of knowledge, identified by J G Bennett, inspired by G Gurdjieff.