Gurdjieff describes three stages in the freeing of a man from the useless part of himself, his false personality. The first stage in this liberation process was when he saw himself as he actually was, and not as he had always imagined himself to be; the second began when he fully realized his helplessness and his nothingness; the third, when he had the courage and willingness to “die,” in other words, to renounce forever what kept him in a state of servitude.