GI Gurdjieff (1877?-1949) & Fourth Way

G.I. Gurdjieff

A charismatic spiritual teacher, and an adept businessman of changeable mood, possibly a spy for Russian intelligence, at times described as a mystic and at times as a charlatan. His life and teachings have exerted a major influence on alternative forms of spirituality in the 20th century with many groups continuing to follow his teachings and variations of them.

Gurdjieff taught that man was not fully conscious; that he reacts automatically and mechanically to life with a fragmented will. To emancipate his students from this condition he exposed them to various techniques in order to bring about an inner transformation and awaken them to higher levels of perception and hence self-control. These techniques utilised 'sacred dance', and erratic and rapid changes in activities and environment, as well as self-observation, meditation, forms of hypnotism, obedience to a teacher (or "Man Who Knows"), physical labour and demeaning tasks. Some of the austerities that he and his disciples practised have been decried as dangerous. This 'method' was allegedly superior to the that of fakir, monk, and yogi, and came to be known as the 'Fourth Way'.

Gurdjieff saw a significance in numbers and, possibly influenced by Pythagoras, developed a 'Law of Seven' related to music and his doctrine of the 'Ray of Creation', and a 'Law of Three' to do with the working of the universe; active, passive, and neutral, and also connected with the human body; carnal, emotional, and spiritual. He devised a diagram called the Enneagram, a circle divided by nine points, to illustrate these ideas.

With the exception of numerous small international groups established by Jeanne de Salzmann for continuing Gurdjieff's work and teachings, his ideas remained largely unknown until after the Second World War, especially during the 60's where his alternative spirit came to the fore.

Although the exact date of Gurdjieff's birth is uncertain it is known that he was born in Alexandrapol to a Cappadocian Greek father, an ashokh or poet, and an Armenian mother. He spent his childhood in Kars, Armenia, and was educated for medicine and the priesthood by his tutors from the Greek Orthodox Church. However, he eventually became a member of a group he refers to as "The Seekers After The Truth" and, during the years 1894 to 1912, set out on a journey taking him throughout the Middle East, India, Afghanistan, Tibet, Central Asia, and Siberia in search of forgotten ancient knowledge and the explanations for such phenomena as faith-healing, clairvoyance, and spirit possession. Whilst upon this journey he studied different religions under various teachers including, Essenes, Sufis, and the Lamas of Tibet, and gathered a body of esoteric knowledge on subjects such as hypnotism and yoga. He also worked on a railroad and established numerous businesses including stores, restaurants and cinemas whilst travelling in order to pay his way.

By the age of 32 he is reputed to have developed psychic abilities and a body of teachings and techniques on self-development. He worked as a hypnotist for a couple of years in Tashkent before travelling to Moscow and marrying Countess Ostrowska. Then in 1912 he established the Institution for the Harmonious Development of Man, a centre for teaching his 'system'. His student Piotr D Ouspensky (1878-1947), a journalist, recorded Gurdjieff's teachings between the years 1915-17 and published them in his book In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of An Unknown Teaching. Although the two men appeared to fall out with each other, Ouspensky is credited with systematising Gurdjieff's ideas making them more comprehensible. He then went on to found a school based largely on Gurdjieff's teachings in Surrey, England.

Gurdjieff fled the Russian Revolution in 1917, passing through Istanbul and Germany before making his way to France and re-establishing the Institution in the Chateau du Prieure at Fontainebleau near Paris in 1922. He attracted a number of famous writers and artists such as Orage, Katherine Mansfield, and Jane Heap, the architect frank Lloyd Wright, and painter Georgia O'Keefe. Whilst at Fontainebleau Katherine Mansfield died, at the age of 35, due to Tuberculosis. Some blamed her death on the austere conditions that Gurdjieff imposed on her, however this is denied by the UK based Gurdjieff Society and is an example of one of the sensationalistic press reports which Gurdjieff attracted during the 1920s.

The methods he taught at Fontainbleau included a monastic life and dance to music composed by Thomas de Hartmann and Gurdjieff himself. This musical aspect of his teachings led to performances in both Paris in 1923 and in four US cities in 1924. In the latter year Gurdjieff experienced a serious car crash after which he spent a number of years writing his three series of books; All and Everything. In 1933 the Institution was closed down and Gurdjieff moved to Paris.

Gurdjieff taught that immortality was only possible by working on the self and by wilfully experiencing suffering. He died, before finishing the third series of All and Everything, in Neuilly, Paris on 29 October 1949. His teachings were perpetuated by Madame Jeanne de Salzmann who died in 1990 at the age of 101 after she had established numerous Gurdjieff groups and societies.

His writings form a series; All and Everything. The first of these was Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson which was published in 1950 and gives a critical perception of the world as seen from the point of view of an extra-terrestrial. This lengthy work contains much of Gurdjieff's teachings. Meetings with Remarkable Men was complete by 1933 and is a part autobiographical, part allegorical account of Gurdjieff's time spent travelling in his youth. Life is Real Only Then, When 'I Am' is his third series and, although apparently never finished, was published in 1981. A collection of Gurdjieff's talks was published in a fourth book, Views from the Real World, in 1973 and much of the music that he composed, along with Hartmann, is still available. Another short work, Herald of Coming Good, was also published in 1933 by Gurdjieff in limited numbers and then quickly withdrawn with a warning to his readers not to read the book should they come across it.

Today the movements which follow versions of Gurdjieff's teachings are referred to as Fourth Way Schools or sometimes as 'Way of the Sly Man', although they tend to focus on the mystical aspects and put less emphasis on the physical austerities. His teachings have also provided a basis for various new religious movements with no direct connection to Gurdjieff or his followers.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gurdjieff's All and Everything series:

First Series: Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson (1950)
Second Series: Meetings with Remarkable Men (1963)
Third Series: Life is Real Only Then, When 'I Am' (1981)

See also:

Views from the Real World (1973) - a collection of Gurdjieff's talks, and
In Search of the Miraculous (1950) by PD Ouspensky.



Sources

The MacMillan Encyclopaedia, MacMillan (1981) 1994.
Encyclopaedia Britannica (15th edition), Encyclopedia Britannica Inc (1974) 1999.
The HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion, JZ Smith, HarperCollins 1996.
Who's Who of Religions, JR Hinnells, Penguin Books (1991) 1996.
Guide to The Occult and Mysticism, Geddes & Grosset (1996) 1999.
The New Believers, DV Barrett, Cassell & Co 2001.
Encyclopaedia of Religion, M Eliade, MacMillan Publishing Company 1987.
Modern Esoteric Spirituality, A Faivre & J Needleman, SCM Press 1992.
The Harmonious Circle, J Webb, Thames & Hudson 1980.
Meetings With Remarkable Men, G Gurdjieff, Penguin Arkana (1963) 1985.
Life is Real Only Then, When 'I Am', G Gurdjieff, Penguin Arkana (1975) 1999.

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