BEFORE I BEGIN TO EXPLAIN TO YOU in a general way what this system is about, and to talk about our methods, I want particularly to impress on your minds that the most important ideas and principles of the system do not belong to me. This is chiefly what makes them valuable, because if they belonged to me they would be like all other theories invented by ordinary minds—they would give only a subjective view of things. When I began to write A New Model of the Universe in 1907, 1 formulated to myself, as many other people have done before and since, that behind the surface of the life which we know lies something much bigger and more important. And I said to myself then that until we know more about what lies behind, all our knowledge of life and of ourselves is really negligible. I remember one conversation at that time, when I said, ‘If it were possible to accept as proven that consciousness (or, as I should call it now, intelligence) can manifest itself apart from the physical body, many other things could be proved. Only it cannot be taken as proved.’ I realized that manifestations of supernormal psychology such as thought transference, clairvoyance, the possibility of knowing the future, of looking back into the past, and so on, have not been proved. So I tried to find a method of studying these things, and worked on that line for several years. I found some interesting things in that way, but the results were very elusive; and though several experiments were successful, it was almost impossible to repeat them. I came to two conclusions in the course of these experiments: first, that we do not know enough about ordinary psychology; we cannot study supernormal psychology, because we do not know normal psychology. Secondly I came to the conclusion that certain real knowledge exists; that there may be schools which know exactly what we want to know, but that for some reason they are hidden and this knowledge is hidden. So I began to look for these schools. I travelled in Europe, Egypt, India, Ceylon, Turkey and the Near East; but it was really later, when I had already finished these travels, that I met in Russia during the war a group of people who were studying a certain system which came originally from Eastern schools. This system began with the study of psychology, exactly as I had realized it must begin. The chief idea of this system was that we do not use even a small part of our powers and our forces. We have in us, so to speak, a very big and very fine organization, only we do not know how to use it. In this group they employed certain oriental metaphors, and they told me that we have in us a large house full of beautiful furniture, with a library and many other rooms, but we live in the basement and the kitchen and cannot get out of them. If people tell us about what this house has upstairs we do not believe them, or we laugh at them, or we call it superstition or fairy tales or fables. This system can be divided into study of the world, on certain new principles, and study of man. The study of the world and study of man include in themselves a kind of special language. We try to use ordinary words, the same words as we use in ordinary conversation, but we attach a slightly different and more precise meaning to them. Study of the world, study of the universe, is based on the study of some fundamental laws which are not generally known or recognized in science. The two chief laws are the Law of Three and the Law of Seven, which will be explained later.

Detailed, practical application of the Fourth Way system of psychological self-awareness and the process of living from higher levels of consciousness. The Teaching is a specific methodology for the perennial wisdom from Christianity and other religions on the "purification of the heart". Based in part on actual teaching transcripts, this book offers a rare opportunity for readers to apply.

Insights in to the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff known as the Fourth Way, including their application for personal change and their roots in early Christianity.From the Preface: The discovery of esoteric truth is our birthright as children of the universe. No teacher, no book, no system has the final word. Spirituality is meant to awaken the Higher Self who guides us onto a road of purpose, fulfillment and service. However it is packaged and marketed, the only true value of the product is the extent to which it leads us into the intimate depths of our own being where we can each verify, assimilate, and become the truths underlying all authentic wisdom teachings.A special Appendix features exceptional insight from author Reijo Oksanen and his studies connecting the Gurdjieff Work to the spirituality of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Also included is a rare translation of the observations of Boris Mouravieff and his relationship to Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.

An application of Gurdjieffian principles to fully and properly activate the power of language • Explains the relationship between the Gurdjieff enneagram and sacred geometry and harmonics • Shows that the objective power of language--and art and music--lies in the ability to use symbols that will mean precisely the same thing to anyone • Includes a new English translation of René Daumal’s essay “The Holy War” In The Magic Language of the Fourth Way, Pierre Bonnasse applies the esoteric teachings of Fourth Way mystic G. I. Gurdjieff and the insights of initiate René Daumal to show how to fully and properly activate the power of language. Bonnasse shows how words can regain the strange magical powers they possessed in the first days of humanity, when words created the realities of what they described. This is a far cry from today’s world in which even writers lament the impotent nature of language. Bonnasse uses the relationship between the Gurdjieff enneagram and sacred geometry and harmonics to reveal the power given to words by the notes of the scale. He shows not only how to discover the objective power of words but also how to apply the relationship between language and living to maximum effect. He explains that the objective power of language--and art and music--lies in the ability to use symbols that will mean precisely the same thing to anyone. The Magic Language of the Fourth Way serves as a clear and generous introduction to the complexities of Gurdjieffian thought as well as a descriptive how-to manual for Fourth Way aspirants on the uses of objective language for spiritual advancement.

Over one hundred years ago in Russia, G. I. Gurdjieff introduced a spiritual teaching of conscious evolution—a way of gnosis or “knowledge of being” passed on from remote antiquity. Gurdjieff’s early talks in Europe were published in the form of chronological fragments preserved by his close followers P. D. Ouspensky and Jeanne de Salzmann. Now these teachings are presented as a comprehensive whole, covering a variety of subjects including states of consciousness, methods of self-study, spiritual work in groups, laws of the cosmos, and the universal symbol known as the Enneagram. Gurdjieff respected traditional religious practices, which he regarded as falling into three general categories or “ways”: the Way of the Fakir, related to mastery of the physical body; the Way of the Monk, based on faith and feeling; and the Way of the Yogi, which focuses on development of the mind. He presented his teaching as a “Fourth Way” that integrates these three aspects into a single path of self-knowledge. The principles are laid out as a way of knowing and experiencing an awakened level of being that must be verified for oneself.

A profound new look at Gurdjieff’s life, teaching, and role as a spiritual leader through the lens of esotericism. Gurdjieff warned against taking anything literally or on faith, and he advised accepting only experience that could be lived oneself. He also said that one has to find out “how to know” and that understanding higher knowledge depends on one’s “level of being.” The aim of the Fourth Way is toward a change of being—from the level of man number one, two, and three to that of man number four. Stephen Grant offers a fundamental reassessment of Gurdjieff as a spiritual leader and the Fourth Way as an esoteric teaching. This includes recognizing the Fourth Way as esoteric Buddhism. This book outlines Gurdjieff’s early life and view of ancient history, followed by the itinerant course of his teaching from Russia in 1915 to his death in Paris in 1949. The discussion then focuses on his esoteric mission—to bring the Fourth Way to the West—and its three major stages: (1) introducing the system of ideas to and through P. D. Ouspensky; (2) writing his own theory of the teaching, principally in Beelzebub’s Tales; and (3) passing on the practical teaching to and through Jeanne de Salzmann. The last five chapters deal with Gurdjieff’s relationship with his closest pupils, his system of ideas, his hidden doctrine in Beelzebub’s Tales, and the practical knowledge revealed by Mme. de Salzmann.

A dramatic and literate introduction to one of the twentieth century's most influential and intriguing spiritual teachers. Born in the shifting border between Turkey and Russia in 1866, G. I. Gurdjieff is a man who would continually straddle borders-between East and West, between man and something higher than man, between the ancient teachings of esoteric schools and the modern application of those ideas in contemporary life. In many respects-from the concept of group meetings to the mysterious workings of the enneagram to his critique of humanity as existing in a state of sleep-Gurdjieff pioneered the culture of spiritual search that has taken root in the West today. While many of Gurdjieff's students-including Frank Lloyd Wright, Katharine Mansfield, and P. D. Ouspensky-are well known, few understand this figure possessed of complex writings and sometimes confounding methods. In Gurdjieff: An Introduction to His Life and Ideas, the acclaimed novelist John Shirley-one of the founders of the cyberpunk genre-presents a lively, reliable explanation of how to approach the sage and his ideas. In accessible, dramatic prose Shirley retells that which we know of Gurdjieff's life; he surveys the teacher's methods and the lives of his key students; and he helps readers to enter the unparalleled originality of this remarkable teacher.

The Fourth Way is the book about a system of self-development as introduced by Greek-Armenian philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff. It is a compilation of the lectures of P. D. Ouspensky at London and New York City between the years 1921 through 1946, published posthumously. The term "The Fourth Way" has also come to be used as a general descriptive term for the body of ideas and teachings which Gurdjieff brought to the west from his study of eastern schools. Ouspensky was given the task of bringing these ideas to a wider audience in an unadulterated form by Gurdjieff. The Fourth Way is considered to be the most comprehensive statement of Gurdjieff's ideas as taught by Ouspensky.

Offers information and stories about Gurdjieff, setting him within the cultural and social contexts of America between 1924 and 1935.