Usually the phrase 'act like a machine' carries a negative meaning to it, acting with no heart, feeling, or soul), but in the real world of creation it is a positive statement, as everything in the world should operate In a controlled and harmonious way- according to a functional purpose. This perception is in opposition to the accepted perceptions of today, according to which - everything is done in order to satisfy - either society's needs, (moving on, on the capitalistic ladder), or one’s own needs licking the drops of honey from the bush), and not in order to come to fulfillment and functional purpose - universe wise.

It is hard for us to accept the idea that we are machines. We may indeed accept the idea that the lower part of our body (the physical function) works as a machine, but we find it difficult to accept that our emotional life (the higher part) are machine like too.
A good example for a machine that works in harmony towards a purpose and gives produce is a rose. But we would like to look at the rose through the romantic angle. I in fact everything is created for a certain function, and only when it will work as a correct machine it will come to fulfill it's existential purpose. If we won't come to the understanding that the human is an out of order machine we won't understand ourselves.

All our imaginary freedom is geared at garbing and getting a hold on "The Drops of Honey" and fulfill our egocentric wishes and whims. This is only an apparent freedom of course, and it exists at all only in a situation where the machine doesn't work (as a result of deviation from historical standard of being). If we were like "a rose is a rose", we wouldn't have a freedom of choice, because a machine that operates correctly lacks freedom of choice. So, we should in fact strive to arrive at a state or a stage where we have less freedom of choice and not otherwise.
When the machine will be rehabilitated - consciousness (as we know it) will end. For Consciousness is only a substitute for the natural function. In the meanwhile, when nature is absent from our lives, we are our own temporary leader. This temporary leadership is consciousness. Once the machine is repaired, it will work by itself and the force which will activate it will be nature's forces.

Our soul is our battery which gives us the power and charge,(the soul is the higher battery, the blood, nerves and so on also pump us with energy, but this is just to be active, not creative, to function, not to grow).
Usually this battery does not work, leaving us empty in our inside we don't lack examples of empty man). So, in the absence of being connected to this inner essence's power - we invent activities which suit our current level of power, but this is already a cover-up-job, because this extra- invented activities (such as:jobs, politics, love affairs, and so on), are a substitute for asking the basic questions: "How do things need to be according to nature and creation"?

Once we will function as we should, according to nature and creation, we won't have a personal self, but a real self. With it, we should not look at the loss of the personal self (ego)as tragic. It is to be understood that the Ego isn't an unchangeable fact or something eternal. If we will have insight, we will realize, (as Gurdieff said) that the ego is made of thousands of small 'selves' different from each other that each one of them pull to a different direction and confuses us, we don't have one solid 'self' as commonly thought of. On the contrary. The ego is simply a substitute which provides us with temporary personal identity (shattered as it will be), until we grow up in our being (and not only in our body). Once we will function right (become a machine again) our sense of identity will follow the realization that the most important thing is not 'to do', but rather 'to be'.

When we were born we were just beings, existing fully, (without needing TO DO any thing), and thus 'To Be' means to return to the source, to go back, to become original again. In nature we see blossom after the rain, this isn't originality but mechanical, if not for that mechanical there would not be blossom. If we want to be spontaneous we ought to be regulated from within,(which means being mechanical.If we won't be regulated from within(be mechanical,) we won't be spontaneous, because we would lack the inner weight which gives the weight from the inside, that allows us to be light on our outside.

The inner self is not allowed to be a central weight from within, because it is being suppressed from the out side. This is first of all taking shape in the suppression of the emotional life. The control on the emotions amount to oppression and tyranny. And the soldiers of that dictatorship - are words.
THe soldiers do not allow the emotions freedom of movement, turning it to a moldy pond. If we won't let the dominant mind oppress them - our machine will operate from within, for the emotions are the body of our inner being.

The internal-spiritual side of our body has not been researched and is a mystery, but unless we will relate to the less tangible and less measurable aspects in ourselves,(which are always on the inside) we won't come to understand our machine as it is and will also not understand the reality we live in, as it really is. It is exactly like driving a car with out knowing for example that it needs petrol in order to move.