The idea that we are not one is one of the most important ideas of the Work. We do not have a permanent "I". Each thought, feeling, sensation or desire is an "I" who believes to be the only existing person. None of these "I´s" are connected and each one depends on changes of the external circumstances. In addition, between each I, impenetrable defences called buffers exist, which separate these sub-personalities from each other.

   Gurdjieff says that one of our greater mistakes is to live the illusion on being one. He writes: "these "I´s" change as quickly as the thoughts, the feelings and the moods and the mistake is to consider that we are one and always the same; in fact we are always a different person, different from whom we were a little while ago ".

   Our thoughts and desires live totally separate and independent. According to Gurdjieff, we are made up of thousand of separate "I´s", often unknown, exclusive and mutually hostile between themselves.

   The changing of "I´s" is controlled in an accidental way by external circumstances. There is nothing in us able to control the change of these "I´s", mainly because we are not aware of it. Each separate "I" calls itself "I"" and acts in name of the totality of the person. This explains why we often make decisions that we rarely carry out. Self-observation exercise will give us the test that generally we think, feel, move and respond to the stimulus that act in us without being aware what is happening inside. This observation of oneself is the main effort required in the Fourth Way. The student must create a "watcher I", which observes with objectivity its internal activity.

   It is extremely difficult to develop an objective space inside that can observe without judgment, but which is also our main way to break our mechanical conduct and the hypnosis in which we are in.