G.I.Gurdjieff

Finally, the moving center working in place of the thinking produces,
for example, mechanical reading or listening, as when we read or listen to words without understanding their meaning. This usually happens when the attention that should be directing the thinking is occupied with something else, and the moving center attempts to replace it. This kind of substitution easily becomes a habit, because the thinking center tends to become distracted not by useful thought or contemplation, but rather by daydreams and the play of the imagination. Observation of these activities is an important part of self-study.

This is particularly difficult because, in order to see and “record” them, we first have to free ourselves from them, if only for a moment. It is impossible to observe a habit while in its grasp, but all it takes to feel and see a habit is to struggle, no matter how ineffectually, against it.

The coarsest and most accessible is the connection between the moving center and the formatory apparatus. This connection is the most “audible,” like a large pipe, the quickest to form and to be filled. The second is the connection with the sex center. The third is the connection with the feeling center, and the fourth the connection with the thinking center.