Links

In English:

The Gurdjieff Society of Maine has formed to study and practice the principles of the Fourth Way: exploration and engagement of all three “centers” of human experiential existence (physical, emotional and intellectual) practiced in a context of everyday life with the core assumption that only the development of “real conscience” can alter the tenuous course of Humanity.

The present website has a subheading “A Guide to Reading Gurdjieff” and contains a large number of interesting testimonials and essays of some of the people who had met Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky during various periods of their work in France and England, and who subsequently wrote down their impressions from these meetings. In addition, the transcripts of eight of Gurdjieff’s talks with his pupils in Paris, several works by A.R. Orage and J.G. Bennett, as well as works by later researchers of Gurdjieff’s ideas in connection with some of the issues in his teaching.

This is an extensive information website in English, Russian, Portuguese and Turkish, which announces the regularly published “International Gurdjieff Magazine” and presents a shortened version of this publication. Biographical information of most of Gurdjieff’s well-known pupils, useful links to texts connected with the Work, and a large amount of other kinds of qualified information could also be found on this website.

This present website is dedicated entirely to John Godolphin Bennett, having been created by his sons. In addition to presenting the basic biography of John Bennett, the website also contains information about his spiritual teachers, as well as about the people on whom he, in his turn, had exerted a considerable amount of influence. The website’s small photo gallery contains a number of rare photographs of Bennett, made during various periods of his life.

This is a small website, created by the pupils of Willem Nyland. In the mid-1940s, upon the request of Gurdjieff, Nyland started to lead his own groups in the USA, after Gurdjieff’s death he played an active role in founding and organizing the work of the “Gurdjieff Foundation.”

This is essentially a reference website, which gives a perspective of the geographical locations across the whole world of the groups which have announced themselves on this website as followers of the “Fourth Way”. It contains contact information of these groups and invites visitors to place their own contact information.

This is an extensive information website in Russian and English of Ian McFarlane, the pupil of Paul Beidler, who had studied for many years with Gurdjieff. A remarkable feature of this website is in the systematization of Gurdjieff’s practical methods and theoretical positions, undertaken by its creator. The website also contains descriptions of various kinds of purely practical exercises, as well as certain parallels between some essential features of Gurjieff’s teaching with similar features of other spiritual tradition.

This is an information website, which presents the “Gurdjieff Magazine,” a publication devoted to the “Fourth Way” and G.I. Gurdjieff. The website contains a large quantity of essays, articles and interviews, dealing with the Work.

These pages and websites, maintained by various individuals and groups, refer us of the hypothetical Akhaldan Society, to which Gurdjieff had dedicated numerous pages of his “Beelzebub’s Tales of his Grandson”; the Gurdjieff group from Albuquerque (New Mexico), to which the second link refers, also attempts to define the line of elaboration of the social model, presented by Gurdjieff in the guise of this mythical society of people of knowledge.

The website of the oldest Gurdjieff foundation groups in North America presents memoirs about Gurdjieff written by Pamela Travers and an article by David A.Young “Essence Friend – Louise Welch”.

These are websites of societies connected with the names of John Bennett and his follower, Anthony Blake, a scientist and philosopher who develops the principle of “integration without repulsion” as well as numerous others ideas and positions of Bennett.

The founding of the Claymont Society in the USA was initiated by John Bennett after several decades of successful work in Sherbourne, Great Britain. Bennett set the task of creating such a community which could be capable of supporting itself in difficult economical and social conditions. For this end it had to provide for all the usual living conditions, as well as to present a basis for all types of activities, to support and develop spiritual quest in human beings. The principles of spiritual work were determined by Bennett in the following manner: the society had to be open for adherents of any religions with the freedom of practicing their religious forms, however following the given religious institutions was not mandatory. The basis for such a broad spiritual direction is the human capability of self-perfection. The society’s creed was formulated by means of the doctrine of Mutual Support, according to which everything that exists, including human beings, serves a cosmic purpose, i.e. the integral whole. If Nature serves human beings, then the latter must also serve Nature; however, since we are incapable of looking very far ahead into the future to comprehend what is required of us, we must seek the guidance of the Highest Spiritual Powers. Service to the Divine and acts of worship present means by which man can obtain this guidance and access to higher sources of energy. Bennett supposed that the Society would make use of its own liturgical forms of worship called on to support but not to replace the corresponding forms of the great world religions. And he hoped that the experience gathered during the course of many years would contribute to the reanimation of the religions.

The Society was established in Claymont, near Dallas, Texas.

The website is dedicated to the “Systematics” which John Bennett had developed for one and a half decades, starting from the 1960s. Among the people who helped Bennett in this work was Anthony Blake, who has actively worked together with his colleagues on the “Systematics” up to the present day. The website outlines briefly the main principles of “Systematics” and provides links to works by Bennett and Gurdjieff which are fundamental to the given trend of thinking and practical work.

The website presents compactly yet quite coherently the Bradford Gurdjieff Society which brings together groups of people from northern England, who regularly gather together and practice Gurdjieff’s teaching and the “Work.” The community was founded by John Godolphin Bennett in Bradford in 1949, and has been directed for over forty years by Rina Hands. In Yorkshire the community has a regular meeting place, which allows it to develop the broad range of possibilities inherent in the Work – as is mentioned in their website.

The website emphasizes the fact that everything has its price to pay, regardless of what attitudes are dictated by modern times in connection with it. The price of the “Work” is measured by regular efforts which are made during the course of a relatively lengthy period of time. If we possess our own attention, we have the ability to build within ourselves an additional storey of our unfinished building, – that is, if we wish it. Gurdjieff’s “Work” presents human beings with the chance to obtain his true place, as the result of which he becomes capable of obtaining guidance from a teacher who is capable of giving him.

This website presents an “Internet Guide to Gurdjieff”. It contains a large number of brief and extensive data on personalia, a large library of articles and essays by contemporary followers of Gurdjief, and a large quantity of other useful information.

This is the website of theGurdjieff Foundation,” which provides contact addresses and brief information on the different sections of this organization in Paris, New York, London and Caracas.

This is the website of Dushka and Jasmine Howarth, which describes the activities of The Gurdjieff Heritage Society, Inc.

The Study Society was registered in 1951 by Dr. Rolls and his friends, who were, similarly to him, close pupils and friends of P.D. Ouspensky. Dr. Rolls brought into the practice and theory of Ouspensky his own experience and the theory of Advaita Vedanta learned by him during his studies with the Shankaracharya of Northern India, Santananda Saraswati: this experience has been actively used by the Society, along with the principles and the practice of the “Fourth Way”. The main accent in instructing the “Fourth Way” is placed on verbal transmission: the program of the basic instruction lasts two years. Participation in any lines of activity of the Society does not require membership in it, whereas the decision of becoming a member is made independently by those who are willing to help the work of the Society from inner necessity.

This is the information website of the “Ouspensky Foundation,” which briefly presents the “Foundation” in the domain of the Internet. A particular feature of the website is its broad bibliography of books published in Western languages, connected with the names of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.

This website is dedicated to the “Program for Research of Gurdjieff’s Teaching” – a new exposition of G.I. Gurdjieff’s teaching of the “Fourth Way.” The program has been founded and is directed by Patrick Patterson. This website contains short articles about the Fourth Way, schedules of classes and seminars led by Mr. Patterson, information about films and books which have come out recently and guidelines of how to subscribe to the “Gurdjieff Journal” published by Mr. Patterson, which comes out three times a year.

This extensive resource in English contains a large number of articles, exercises in the Fourth Way and other original text materials.

This is a collection of essays on cosmology, psychology and other disciplines, from the point of view of the Fourth Way.

This website is devoted to the comparison of various aspects of Gurdjieff’s teaching with Sufi doctrines.

The Forum is dedicated to discussions of the ideas of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and other pupils of Gurdjieff. Archives for previous years are presented in this website, after the visitor’s membership is verified.

These links refer to the sections in English of the Italian websites created by Giovanni Quinti and his colleagues presenting the association “La Teca”, which has a second name: “The Institute for Harmonic Development”. The association is active in Spain, Italy and Switzerland. Giovanni Quinti is the writer of most of the notes and essays published on the old website, which is still accessible up till now. Undoubtedly, these commentaries are interesting in the way the author writes about Gurdjieff and the principles of his teaching with the aim of elucidating them, impelling human beings towards self-knowledge, the path towards which starts with self observation. At the same time this accentuation, along with constant reminders of the necessity of guidance from “those who may make The Great Work a little lighter”, creates the impression of a certain disproportion, which probably has to do with style. The new website of “La Teca” is more concise and vivid and much more professional from the point of technique. Among the things that Giovanni Quinti and his colleagues stress the most is their approach in studying the Enneagram, derived from Rodney Collin (in courses of study lasting two years), as well as active development of various abilities connected with the theatre (Mr. Quinti is a theatre director according to his professional education).

This website is devoted to the centre for education founded by Shirra Meiklejohn-Wilson, where only Gurdjieff’s methods are used for education and training. Ms. Shirra Meiklejohn-Wilson wrote about herself on one of the pages of her “old” website: “Although I am no expert on how other teachers teach This Work, I can say that I am one of the most difficult and the toughest teachers that I have ever encountered. After a quarter of a century of teaching this Work, I have realized the value of the ‘conditions’ of one’s life… The Work demands a great deal of time and focus to generate enough ‘heat’ to activate one’s own inner heretofore untapped spiritual resources. Individuals who are juggling a career as well as raising children generally have neither the time nor the financial resources to study with me. In might seem ‘un-Christian’ to bring to the attention of those who want to study with me the need for achieving financial security, however, 25 years in the trenches have taught me the value of time and freedom from the worry over someone’s daily bills”.

The website presents the basic statements and approaches which Ms. Meiklejohn-Wilson turns to when teaching in her centre the candidates she selects. References to Christian Esoterism give reason for presuming a distinguished role played by the Christian teaching in the work of Ms. Meiklejohn-Wilson. The directions for using images and for developing one’s imagination to open and transmit principles of The Fourth Way are of considerable interest in the way Ms. Meiklejohn-Wilson applies them in accordance with her vision of it. Along with Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, the names of Plato, Orage, Nickoll, Bennet, whose influence is felt in a number of reasonings, are mentioned frequently and quoted extensively.

The dynamic mobility of Ms. Meiklejohn-Wilson’s approaches and ideas could be observed upon analyzing the old and new sections of her website (we strayed onto the “old” section simply by chance, while searching references to the scope of the work in “Sojourner Pass Community”). As Ms. Meiklejohn-Wilson writes in her “old” website, the message from the Work itself, received by her in 1992, gave her a new goal – “to wake up the Work teachers, world wide, and persuade the Work teachers to band together in consciousness, while still retaining their own individual autonomy” (http://www.sojourner-institute.com/smwplussojourner_syn/plus.htm)

This website presents the School of Psychoanthropology. As was indicated on the website itself, its primary function is to inform as many people as possible about the teaching of the realized spiritual master Selim Aissel. The website acquaints the readers with the primary principles of this teaching, much of which was adopted from Gurdjieff, albeit frequently mitigating Gurdjieff’s acute precision in several manifestations (for instance, stating the “five obligolnian strivings” as they are presented on the website). With Gurdjieff’s teaching being its point of departure, the spiritual movement created by Selim Aissel is identified by the website as “The Fifth Way”, presuming it to be essentially the Fourth Way adapted for the present time. One of Selim Aissel’s most crucial ideas is connected with the existence of the Force of the Origin, by means of which all things exist. The Source is, in essence, the unknowable Unknown. When a spiritual seeker succeeds in harmonizing himself in settings of immobility and silence, then the possibility arises for the Force of the Origin to penetrate into him.

The website supports the work of Amie Devienne who has devoted many years to promotion and instruction of Gurdjieff Movements. Initially Amie started this work in Rajneesh community; presently she is a member of the School of Psycho-Anthropology. The website contains a number of articles which greatly elucidate Amie Devienne’s approach to the Movements.

The website presents the group of Jose Reyes, functioning in the Dominican Republic. This community positions itself as a “Fourth Way” group which bases its activities on the ideas of G.I. Gurdjieff and John Bennett. Jose Reyes himself considers the source of his inspiration to be Pierre Elliot, who in his turn studied directly with Gurdjieff and Bennett. Prior to meeting Pierre Elliott during the courses in Claymont, Jose Reyes received instruction in karate and received a black belt, as a result of which he obtained great skills in working with the body. Most likely, this is one of the factors determining the considerable attention to the “Movements” exerted by Jose Reyes, although Jose clearly states that this does not present the main part of his teaching.

The website clearly shows Jose’s affinity towards Christianity and Sufism, since, as he supposes, in Gurdjieff’s and Bennett’s teaching love is almost never mentioned. In addition to Pierre Elliott, Jose Reyes communicated and worked with Rishad (Richard?) Field, Sheikh Muzaffar Ozak from the Khalvatiyah Order, Sheikhs Suleiman Dede and Jelalludin Loras from the Mevlevi Order, Natalie de Salzmann, Jim Nott and Dushka Howarth.

The website contains information about Jose’s groups in the Dominican Republic, as well as the various international Seminars conducted in Santo Domingo, Europe, Puerto Rico and the United States. The “Articles” section features interesting texts by Bennett, Pierre Elliot, Jose Reyes himself and other materials dealing with the “Fourth Way” and many references to information and works by Gurdjieff, Bennett, Ouspensky, Orage and Nicoll.

This website was organized by a spiritual group of A.L. Stavely, who had been a pupil of Jane Heap for some twenty years. Along with concise and lucid accounts of Gurdjieff’s ideas concerning sleep in which a person frequently passes his whole life and the necessity of a group to struggle against sleep, this website presents the publishing project called “Two Rivers Press”. This publishing house has printed a number of works by G.I. Gurdjieff and his pupils including commentaries on “All and Everything” by A.R. Orage, edited by Charles S. Nott. In 1974 the members of a study group in Portland purchased a small farm and organized a community, which exists up to the present time. Concise sketches of life in this community are also included on this website.

Though various aspects of The Fourth Way are discussed in this web-forum, its main content is comprised of reference about different spiritual and pseudo-spiritual groups or movements which have ever mentioned the names of G.I. Gurdjieff or P.D. Ouspensky as their primary sources of their activities.

This reference guide also includes the names of and information about people involved in the activities of these groups. All these illustrations and elucidations are remarkable for their substantial proportions, notwithstanding the parameters of activities of all these spiritual trends, which do not require lengthy explanations for the experienced as well as the merely attentive observer. Perhaps its goal was to bring in a final degree of elucidation to phenomena that are obvious enough in themselves.

The section The Work which could be reached on the same forum, is dedicated to discussions of Gurdjieff’s system of The Fourth Way topics and upon a first glance may not stand out in any way among various similar forums of the same type.

Generally, this website carries out the role of focusing the attention and interest of its readers onto the projects of the “Quantum Fufure Institute.”

The website of James (Harry Manson) Moore, a pupil of Dr. Kenneth Walker and then of Henriette H. Lannes, acclaimed by James Moore as the person given him the most significant impulse to his own spiritual work. Later James Moore interacted with Mme Jeanne de Salzmann until her death. In 1981 M. Tracol delegated to Moore the right to constitute a group and transmit the teaching. In 1994 Moore abandoned the “Gurdjieffian mainstream” and started to teach and work individually and independently from The Gurdjieff Society in London. At that same period, Moore also engaged himself in active polemics with the authors who attempted to “utilize” or merely devalue Gurdjieff’s heritage. At present, James Moore continues to work with Gurdjieff groups in London and participates in independent researches of The Fourth Way. Moore has published a number of books on Gurdjieff teaching, as well as numerous essays.

This website, dedicated to the life and fragments of teaching of Sri Prahlad Chandra Brahmachari, contains in its additional sections a concise information about Sri Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi, Jiddu Krishnamurti and other famous spiritual teachers of the 19th and 20th centuries, mainly of Indian origin, as well as those with spiritual roots in Hinduism. The section dedicated to G.I. Gurdjieff resembles a set of reviews, albeit presenting the impression of accuracy and organization. This section includes essays, varying in their style and quality, dealing with subject matter of the “Fourth Way” and its initiator; these texts are also cited as external internet resources.

«Portraits from Beelzebub». The website contains drawings of characters from “Beelzebub’s Tales” from the booklet published by “Institute for Comparative Study” in 1985, the organization created by John Bennet in the middle of the twentieth century. All drawings made by Bob Jefferson. Besides the distinctive graphic “portrait”, each significant character of “Beelzebub’s Tales” is supplied by the description given by Gurdjieff, and the small text, which authorship is collective as it is specified in the booklet. The majority of texts are free retelling of “Beelzebub’s Tales”, or extrapolation based on plots of this book.

This webpage contains the chapter “Among the Mensheviks” excerpted from the book by James Moore “Gurdjieff – A Biography”.

As the title shows, this chapter recounts about the Russian period, or, more precisely – about the Tbilisi period (1919 – 1920) of Gurdjieff and his closest pupils at that time: Thomas and Olga de Hartmann, Alexandre and Jeanne de Salzmann.

This webpage essentially presents a section from one of the Internet encyclopedias devoted to G.I. Gurdjieff and his teaching – moreover, a rather extensive section in the context of a customary web format. The website offers the basic information about Gurdjieff’s biography and ideas, about his impact on the people who surrounded him, the criticism of him and his ideas, as well as an extensive bibliography, which includes a few links to other internet resources having to do with the name of Gurdjieff.

The subtitle of this website – “Books, news, reviews” – justifies itself entirely. The website represents a huge depository of various text materials of this kind, connected with G.I.Gurdjieff, his direct disciples and contemporary followers of the “Fourth Way”. Many of the essays published on the website undoubtedly merit attention. The style of most of the text materials on this website is very balanced and reserved. This is connected with the extremely precise, sometimes rather formalized adherence of the theory and practice of G.I.Gurdjieff on the part of the authors of the text, or, to be accurate – with following those “fragments of the unknown teaching” which have been preserved and have reached our time in a “deciphered” way, i.e. have been explained by Gurdjieff himself in a sufficient amount of detail.

The website was created by Colin Brown at the request of his teacher George Cornelius. At various periods of his life Cornelius studied with G.I. Gurdjieff, J. G. Bennet, Jane Heap, P.D. Ouspenky and Rodney  Collin; he was also a friend of John Pentland and John Lester. The “Federation for the Independent Study of the Harmonious Development of Man”, which is presently under the leadership of Colin Brown, created this website as a source for materials for those individuals who for whatever reason are not members of a group devoted to Gurdjieff from where they would be able to obtain the necessary texts. The “Federation” distributes a “Correspondence course”, which could be taken in accordance with the terms stated on the website. The course includes texts in printed form, as well as the possibility to receive oral instructions by telephone, for those who live in USA. Those students who are ready for personal interaction with Colin Brown are eligible for a program of workshops and seminars, the right of access to which is granted personally by the director of the “Federation.” Colin Brown is the author of a number of books, including the work, “How to Start a Gurdjieff Group, and Other Essays and Letters about the Practical Christianity of G.I. Gurdjieff”.

The website is present due to the initiative and support of Lee van Laer, a member of the New York City Gurdjieff Foundation. In addition to Lee van Laer’s own works, concerning the chakras, the Enneagram, the development of the “emotional centre” and various other topics, the website contains also texts by other authors. For a number of years Lee has led a blog called “Zen, Yoga, Gurdjieff” which is dedicated to various aspects of Gurdjieff’s teaching and consists of brief and lengthy commentaries by Lee himself and by his teachers and friends. The subtitle of the blog shows that along with the “Fourth Way”, Lee van Laer maintains an interest in Zen and a few Yoga schools, frequently bringing in comparisons between all of them. Access to the blog archives is free from the website. People who read or download texts from the website are encouraged to make a voluntary donation of a symbolic sum to the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York.

The website contains several pages with a meager presentation of the community which created it and an even more modest amount of information about Gurdjieff’s ideas, provided with short commentaries. The main slogan presented on the website is “Man can become conscious.” The community’s activities include regular meetings, the aim of which is reading literature and discussion of ideas of “The Fourth Way” in Chad Hall. To obtain additional information you can turn to the “contacts” section of the website. The main function of the website is to redirect the reader onto another website, The Fourth Way Homeschool, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, presenting the internet pages of the organization which poses itself as the “Fourth Way Home School.” In correspondence with this, the entire material for instruction, from the articles to souvenirs made in the form of the enneagram, is offered for sale at moderate prices through the website’s internet store, and then, if there is a wish, to participate in the discussions on the forum and by e-mail. Of all of Gurdjieff’s ideas, this “Home School” gives the most attention to the idea of the three centers and the enneagram.

The website of Plavan N. Go, Japanese linguist, writer, and teacher of the Movements. He received the name Plavan Rajneesh Centre in Puna, where Rajneesh’s sannyasins had all been given second names in Sanscrit. Having encountered Gurdjieff’s ideas for the first time at 1984, when he was working on the Japanese translation of “Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson”, Plavan begun to study Movements at that time, subsequently teaching them in Osho’s groups until 2001. Plavan has written articles on numerous complex questions connected with the subject matter of “Beelzebub’s Tales”.

This is a link to the website of Dr. Tan Man-ho, Professor of Psycho-Philosophy, a well-known specialist in ancient methods of therapy, particularly manual therapy, founder of a number of medical and psychology centers in Malaysia and beyond it, and an active participant of other centers of that type. In 1998 the “Fourth Way Man-Ho Center” (FMC) was established as a kind of “virtual”, in 2002 the FMC obtained the status of a “real” organization. Dr. Tan Man-Ho received his spiritual inspiration from Dr. Shamsher Singh, who guided a small group, the participants of which were geared at searching the Truth and working with the principles of transformation implied in Gurdjieff’s idea of “partk-dolg-duty”. Dr. Tan Man-Ho has written over 20 books in the series titled “Real World”, many of which have been published. Selections from his works are presented on this website.

The “Open Directory Project” webpage dedicated to the “Fourth Way,” which contains links to some of the internet resources, connected with this subject matter.

The website presents the appearance of a world map, which shows some of the cities of the world where Gurdjieff groups are located. By means of the web-interface, registered users can try to establish contacts with any of the groups which had shown themselves on this map.

The website was created by Eric Neagle and dedicated to Fritz Peters, the author of books of memoirs, “Boyhood with Gurdjieff,” “Gurdjieff Remembered” and “Balanced Man: A Look at Gurdjieff Fifty Years Later.”

Fritz Peters had spent some time in the company of Gurdjieff as a child, which makes his memoirs especially valuable. The memoirs, which created a more vivid image of Gurdjieff as a result of a child’s perception, not yet blindfolded by numerous conceptions and convictions.

Unfortunately, very little information is provided about Fritz Peters himself. The website contains photos of Fritz Peters, some letters from his correspondence from various private archives, a biography and a bibliography.

The website represents the school created by Russell A. Smith and situated in Texas, USA. The website contains little information in the form of a text with the presentation of Russell himself and of his school. The main function of the website is bestowed on the chat and the forum, which could be accessed after registration.

The original aim of CESNUR was to offer professional association to scholars specializing in religious minorities, new religious movements, contemporary esoteric, spiritual and Gnostic schools, and the new religious consciousness in general.

Some of the articles on the website of this organization written in English and Italian deal with the names of G.I. Gurdjieff and his followers; these articles had been presented by their authors in conferences organized by CESNUR in various years. Although the articles inevitably carry a generalized character surveys, the observations made by their authors about the development of the Gurdjieff tradition during the second half or the last century tend to be rather interesting.

This website presents the “Tayu Meditation Center” – a “Fourth Way” school established in 1976 by Robert Daniel Ennis and situated in Sonoma County in Northern California. With the aim of expanding and also of intensifying the teaching of the basic principles of the “Fourth Way,” Robert Ennis developed and added a number of new methods and approaches, which are presently included in the “Tayu” educational program. The website provides detail to what has been figuratively called “The Tayu Path,” describing its basic principles. The “practice” in the Center begins with the usual self-observation, which is subsequently becomes more intensified and continues with an active increase of the meditation component. According to the materials of the website, the center also maintains that form of self-learning which makes it possible to create the structure for independent work for those who did not have the possibility or the means to come to California. The website publishes journals in electronic format, which include essays by active participants of the present project.

The website of the “Quantum Metaphysics Institute” is headed by Dr. Derek Lamar, a certificated specialist in world religions and transactional analysis. Dr. Lamar developed an affinity towards Gurdjieff’s teaching as the result of an impulse, apprehended by him from Kenneth Walker, and interacted with Walker for about seven years. In 1986 Dr. Lamar founded the “Center for Study of Ontology” in Baskerfield, California, having given this organization a second name – “The School of the Fourth Way.” The website makers it possible to observe that an absolutely rigid adherence to the principles of the “Fourth Way” are absent in this “School,” those who wish to study are offered an eclectic mold of esoteric ideas of various epochs and traditions, which D. Lamar termed as “quantum metaphysics.” The educational structure is organized in the format of introductory lectures, closed classes and individual study and/or consultation. Dr. Lamar is the author of several books, including “Man is Dead” and “Gurdjieff, Fourth Way and Esoteric Teahing.” The ten principles from his other book “The I Am Connection” are presented on the website and give a certain perspective of the special features of Dr. Lamar’s teaching.

The website presents the Gurdjieff group in Liverpool, directed by Ian Philips Lawrence, as well as the British educational organization with the name of “The Institute of Universal Energies”. Instruction at the “Institute,” as could be seen from the materials of the website, is carried out with the aim of both providing an in-depth perspective of Gurdjieff’s basic ideas and preparing professional entrepreneurs and leaders. The programs of instruction of this type are the result of Ian Lawrence’s conviction that a higher level of being, indispensible for acquiring a “higher vision,” could be achieved only when somebody acquires a profession appropriate for this. The “Institute” indicates three types of instruction as the most productive for achieving “the state of objective thinking,” and these three “paths” are the path of the craftsman, the path of the merchant and the path of the leader, but so far there are no special instructive programs for “re-profiling” for one of these “paths.” The activity of the Gurdjieff group in Liverpool is announced by a calendar of open lectures, scheduled a year ahead and published once a month as a question of a participant and an answer of the instructor. The questions and answers are given anonymously.

  

 

 

Musicians

This website represents the Harmonic Presence Foundation, the principal organization coordinating the many activities of musical and cultural visionary David Hykes. As a composer, David Hykes started his musical career at the age of twenty by participating in two films, the second of which was Peter Brook’s famous picture, “Meetings with Remarkable Men.” Hykes was well acquainted with Lord John Pentland, with whom (according to the website) he studied for a certain period of time. Lord Pentland had an attentive approach towards Hykes’ interest in enlightened Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhist teachers and to Sufi and Christian sages, as well as David’s increasing openness towards these various spiritual traditions. At the present time, in addition to directing the “Harmonic Chorus”, the oldest overtone ensemble in the West, and singing in it, David Hykes also conducts seminars and workshops around the world. As the website materials clearly state, David Hykes’ fascination with “The Fourth Way” is long gone, and now he is much more involved in Tibetan Buddhism, with the theory and practice of one of its schools.

In addition to these interests, and independently of them, Hykes relies upon the theory of the Harmonic Universe, permeated by various vibrations, which reminds the well-known model of the “Resonant Universe”, which was also presented in the one of possible forms by G.I. Gurdjieff to his pupils.

Elan Sicroff is an American pianist who specializes in performing the music of Georgy Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann. He studied at the Juilliard School in New York with Jeaneane Dowis, a pupil and protégé of the famous Rosina Lhevinne. Subsequently he studied at Oberlin Conservatory. He participated as a student in the International Academy for Continuous Education of Sherborne, Gloucestershire, England, which was a “Fourth Way” School, directed by John Godolphin Bennett, a follower of Gurdjieff’s ideas. Starting out as a student in the Academy, Elan Sicroff eventually became its Music Director. During the years 1975-1979 he was personally instructed in the interpretation of Gurdjieff’s and de Hartmann’s music by Olga de Hartmann, the composer’s widow, to whom John Bennett had introduced him. In 1982 Sicroff toured throughout the USA with concerts of Gurdjieff’s and de Hartmann’s music, giving recitals in numerous cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Boston. Since then Sicroff has performed this music in numerous recitals in the USA and Europe. In January 2009 he went on a tour to Italy, England and Malta, in 2010 he toured Italy and England, including a performance in London at St. John’s, Smith Square, and in April 2011 he toured Ireland, Prague and Madrid, and recorded de Hartmann’s own music in Amsterdam. He has released three compact discs of Gurdjieff’s and de Hartmann’s music: “Journey to Inaccessible Places” (released in 1985 by Robert Fripp), “Sicroff Plays Gurdjieff” (released in 2002) and “Laudamus…”, which came out in June 2010. the latter CD also includes, in addition to Gurdjieff/de Hartmann music, early compositions by de Hartmann, composed when he was 16 years old.

Alain Kremski is a French composer and percussionist who specializes in performing music by various composers, including Mahler, Grieg, Dvorak, Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as works by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann on percussion instruments, such as bells, gongs, bowls and Tibetan chimes. He has developed an interest in performing Asian music and also creating original compositions in the vein of Eastern music. In his youth he was encouraged by such famous composers as Igor Stravinsky, Nadia Boulanger, Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen. He won the Prix de Rome for his musical compositions and lived for three years on the stipend of the Prix de Rome at the Villa Medicis. He abandoned his adherence to the Western classical musical tradition when he developed a taste for Eastern mysticism and music. His own music is considered by the musician not to be a stylization of Eastern music, but a free rendition of it, inspired by the traditions of various Asian countries, and an attempt to combine the Asian and European musical aesthetics and spiritual traditions.

Alessandra Celletti is an Italian pianist, vocalist, composer and songwriter. She is especially famous for  her performance of compositions by Erik Satie. Celletti was born in 1966 in Rome. She graduated from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, then continued her studies with Valeria Gobi Belcredi, specializing in performing music of the French Impressionist composers. Her first CD album “Les sons et les parfums” (“Sounds and Perfumes”) came out in 1994 and was devoted to the music of Erik Satie. In 1997 she went to Prague to record her second album “Viaggio a Praga” (“Journey to Prague”) with the music of Leos Janacek. Upon her return to Italy she began cooperating with the “Kha” CD label, recording monographic compact discs for them, including recordings of Gurdjieff/de Hartmann, Erik Satie, Scott Joplin and Philip Glass. Her recordings of Satie are especially important – in addition to her aforementioned first CD, especially noteworthy is her album “Esoterik Satie” which came out in 2000. in 2006 she released a CD of her own compositions:  “Chi mi darà le ali” (“Who will give me wings”).

Wim van Dullemen is a Dutch pianist who specializes in playing music by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann in concerts and as accompaniment to classes of Gurdjieff Movements. He was born in 1942 and studied with the Dutch composer Wolfgang Wijdeveld. For 13 years he played Gurdjieff’s music, accompanying Movements classes of Mme Solange Claustres, a pupil of Gurdjieff. Van Dullemen has presented numerous concerts of music by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann, and also presented the Movements on television in Holland. He gives seminars on Gurdjieff Movements throughout the world. He has been in close contact with many instructors and students of the Movements for the last 36 years. He has released three CD collections of his performance of music by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann and a number of DVD’s of his accompanying Movements classes with Gurdjieff/de Hartmann music.

Melanie Monsour is a composer and pianist, who has been playing music for the Gurdjieff Sacred Movements since 1992, having performed this and other music in the USA, Europe, Russia, Australia, Chile and Canada. She studied piano, theory and composition at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She has lived for many years in the San Francisco Bay Area, during which time she worked with many well-known artists. She is an adjunct professor at the Contemporary Music Program of the Santa Fe University (formerly the College of Santa Fe). In August 2007 she performed at the Scriabin Museum in Moscow, Russia. In April 2008 she played in three venues in Russia: at a monastery in Yaroslavl, at the Museum of Musical Instruments in the Sheremetiev Palace in St. Petersburg and the Armory Museum at the Kremlin in Moscow. She released a number of CD’s of her performance at the piano, including one CD titled “Bridge to the Unseen. The Music of Gurdjieff/de Hartmann,” a CD of music inspired by the study of the Enneagram personality types and another one of her own compositions for solo piano, the latter one called “Along the Way.”

Vassilis Tsabropoulos is a Greek concert pianist, conductor and composer. He was born in 1967 in Athens. Since 2000 he has recorded with ECM records a variety of performances, including Arild Andersen’s performances of post-Bill Evans jazz and Anja Lechner’s performances of Gurdjieff’s compositions. His CD “The Promise” presents a number of compositions by Tsabropoulos and one original Greek melody ““Djivaeri.” It presents a continuation of the tradition of his solo piano recital “Akroasis” (which was reviewed by “The Independent” as “hypnotic and mysterious, shimmering like ancient mosaics”). The album was recorded in 2008 in Megaron Concert Hall in Athens, and it was produced by Manfred Eicher. Other CD’s produced by Tsabropoulos include “The Promise (ECM, 2009), “Melos” (with Anja Lechner and U.T. Gandhi, ECM, 2008), “The Triangle” (with Arild Andersen and John Marshall, ECM, 2004),  “Chants, Hymns and Dances” (with Anja Lechner, ECM, 2004), “Akroasis” (ECM, 2003), “Live In Cremona” (2002), “The Face Of Love” (2002), Chopin: “August Symphony” (2001), “Achirana” – with Arild Andersen and John Marshall (ECM, 2000), Mussorgsky: “Pictures at an Exhibition” (1997), “Images” (1992) and “Skyscape” (1990).

Ugo Bonessi is an Italian pianist who has devoted himself to the study and performance of Gurdjieff’s and de Hartmann’s music. He was born in Rome in 1961. He presented concerts of music by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann in various countries, most notably in Italy, Holland and Dominican Republic. In addition, he has performed for classes of Movements and Sacred Dances for Gurdjieff study groups in different European countries. Ugo Bonessi has released a compact disc “The Voyage Within” with his performance of a selection of music by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann, which came out in 2002 published by an edition in the series Edizioni Musicali III Millennio. In addition Bonessi has performed the traditional piano repertoire, Russian music, the voice-piano duo and contemporary music. He has also studied traditional Indian vocal music, harmonic chant and vocal diplophonies. Since 2007 he has been involved in the Tagore Danielou Project funded by the Harsharan Foundation together with singer Francesca Cassio and devoted to recording the complete songs by Rabindranth Tagore with texts translated into English by Alain Danielou. 

http://www.ugobonessi.it .

 http://www.iiimillennio.com/content/fake/index.php?item=artisti&lang=it&secID=1&artID=77

 


Cecil Lytle is a pianist, a native of New York City. He began piano studies with his father Lacey P. Little, an organist at a Baptist Church, and attended the Juillard School Pre-College Division. He began studies at Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia, and then transferred to Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio.  At that time he began his international performing career, having won First Prize at the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition. He made a number of recordings with rare and refined music, including a set of six compact discs of the complete piano music of Georgy Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann with the Celestial Harmonies label, which was selected as Classical Compact Disc of the Month in the West German Stereo Review Magazine in Munich, West Germany in November 1987.  He also recorded compact discs of the Complete Music of Alexander Scriabin, live recordings of jazz and gospel performances with famous artists and a recording of late Beethoven piano sonatas on Klavier Records in 1997.

He was appointed Assistant Professor of Music at Grinnell College in Iowa and, at the same time, as Senior Fulbright-Hays Scholar to the United Kingdom. He has taught at the music faculty of the University of California in San Diego since 1974, having been appointed Chairman of the department in 1988. The same year he was also appointed Provost of Thurgood Marshall College at UCSD. After a two-year appointment in 2001-2003 as Director of the University of California Study Centre in London, England, Professor Lytle returned to the University of California in San Diego. He has received six awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington D.C. during the years 1976-1984.

Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer, who is famous for his performances of jazz, jazz fusion and classical music. He was born in 1945 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he began his career as a jazz musician. After finishing his studies, he moved to New York City, where he played with famous jazz musicians, including Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, the Charles Lloyd Quartet and Miles Davis’ jazz group. Since the 1970s he has earned his fame as a performer, a group leader and a solo pianist. He is also known from his improvisations, which are based not only on jazz, but on numerous other styles, including ethnic folk music, blues, gospel and classical music. He recorded a number of CD’s of his performances of jazz and other types of music. Jarrett received numerous prizes and awards for his performances. In addition to playing the piano, he also plays the harpsichord, clavichord, organ, soprano saxophone and percussion. He played saxophone and drums in the American Quartet and participated in the recordings made by the group, though most of his recordings feature his performances on the piano. Jarrett is a follower of the teachings of Gurdjieff. In 1980 he recorded an album of Gurdjieff’s musical works for the ECM label, called Sacred Hymns.

  • Charles Ketcham

Charles Ketcham is an American conductor who has conducted many of the major orchestras in the United States, including the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, The Denver Symphony and the Portland Symphony. He was a Resident Conductor with the Utah Symphony and the San Diego Symphony as well as Music Director of the San Diego Master Chorale and Principal Conductor of Ballet West. He was also the principal guest conductor of the Utah Opera.

Ketcham studied conducting with Erich Leinsdorf at the Tanglewood Institute and with Wolfgang Sawallisch in Vienna, at which time he worked as music director of the American Opera Workshop in Vienna. From 1970 to 1974 he was associate conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, which went on tours to Portugal, Spain and Africa. He conducted orchestras in France (for instance, the Radio Orchestra of Lille), Italy, Holland and Denmark (Alborg). Recordings for RCA Red Label, Pro Arte and Varase Saraband were made of his performances with the Utah Symphony.

Charles Ketcham has played the complete works by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann and has made arrangements of it. He selected, digitalized and prepared for publication the recordings on reel-to-reel tapes of performances of the 20 compositions by Gurdjieff and de Hartman by Rosemary Nott, a pupil of Gurdjieff and a music student of Thomas de Hartmann at the Prieuré.

  • Regina Amaral and Artur Andres

Regina Amaral and Artur Andres are two Brazilian musicians – Regina Amaral is a pianist and Artur Andres is a flutist. Together they have performed and recorded for the “Sonopress” label numerous CD’s with various compositions of the 17th-20th centuries for the flute and piano duo, including music of Gurdjieff and de Hartmann. Their discography includes the following CD’s: “Hinos Preces e Ritos” (“Ancient Prayers and Rituals”), “Cantos e Ritmos do Oriente” (“Chants and Rhythms of the Orient”) and “Música dos Sayyids e dos Dervishes” (“Music of Sayyids and Dervishes”). They frequently cooperate with Mauro Rodrigues and Michel Moraes.

  • Ensemble Resonance

Ensemble Resonance was formed in June 2000, when its members, American and French musicians, met at an international music conference near San Francisco and decided to start a group. The ensemble has performed in both Europe and America, most notably, in the US, Canada and France, with the musicians from each country making respective trips across the ocean to perform in the concerts. They have performed classical compositions and a variety of ethnic music, including arrangements of various compositions for various combinations of instruments. The Ensemble features a non-standard combination of classical musical instruments, and its musicians include Christian Chanel, guitar; Marie Chanel-Vignon, guitar; Michael Hunter, piano; Herbert Lashner, oboe; Paul Schliffer, flute; and Matthew Shubin, bassoon. Their first CD, “Resonance,” released in 2002 by the “Schadowrider” label, was made of recordings of their concerts in July 2000 at the Rochester Folk Art Guild. The ensemble’s second CD, “II (Sessions 2003-2004),” also released by “Schadowrider” label, presents arrangements for various combinations of classical instruments of music by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann.

  • Gudrun Kainz and Gerald Ilyas Klawatsch

Gurdrun Kainz and Gerald Ilyas Glawatsch are two German guitarists who have transcribed for an ensemble of twp guitars music by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann, which they performed and recorded on a CD. Their performances of arrangements of 21 compositions by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann were recorded by Christoph Heszler and came out as a CD titled “Gurdjieff/de Hartmann for Two Guitars,” released by the Remix Sound Productions in 2009.

  • Christene Bauden & Dorine Tolley

Christine Bauden and Dorine Tolley are two musicians who have made arrangements of music by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann for ensembles of voice and instruments and recorded them on CD’s. Their aim was to capture the original spirit of Gurdjieff’s music and its Asian sacred and folk music origins by transcribing it for an ensemble which came closer to those that perform this kind of music. To the piano compositions, as they were written down by Thomas de Hartmann, they have added voice, harmonium, monochord, drum and flute in various combinations. The vocal part contains verse lyrics written by Christene Bauden. They released a CD titled “Making a New Sound: Musical Arrangements of G.I. Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann” featuring Christene Bauden singing, Dorine Tolley playing the piano and monochord, MacDonald Hamilton playing the flute and John Levings playing the drums; the sound recording and mixing was carried out by MacDonald Hamilton and John Levings. The CD includes one original number, “Walking Prayer,” improvised by Dorine Tolley to accompany a Gurdjieff movement.

Singer Christene Bauden studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. She has sung in recitals, oratorios and operas in the US, Iceland and many countries in Europe. She settled in Sydney, Australia, where she has been active teaching, conducting choruses, composing, writing lyrics for music and giving master classes for singers and choruses. She has recorded her singing, conducting, musical compositions and lyrics set to music on CD’s, including classical, popular and spiritual music.

Pianist Dorine Tolley has accompanied solo singers and instrumentalists and played in various chamber ensembles. She has had performances and radio broadcasts in Amsterdam, Leicester (UK), Pune, Mumbai and Sydney, Australia. She studied piano and harpsichord with harpsichordist Marijke Smit Sibinga in the Netherlands. Dorine Tolley is an instructor of Gurdjieff Movements. Her biographical book of memoirs “The Power Within: Leon MacLaren, a Memoir of his Life and Work,” where she wrote about Leon McLaren, a teacher of the Fourth Way and Advaita Vedanta, when she was his personal assistant, was published in 2009.

The Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble was founded in 2008 in Yerevan, Armenia by musician Levon Eskanian. Its aim was to create ethnographically based arrangements of piano music by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann. The ensemble consists of prominent folk musicians playing Armenian folk instruments, such as the duduk, blul/nay, saz, tar, kiamancha, oud, kanon, santur, dap/daf, tombak and dhol. Its repertoire mainly consists of music of G.I.Gurdjieff, but also includes pieces by the Armenian ashoughs or troubadours, as well as traditional and spiritual Armenian pieces, brought in to present a connection with Gurdjieff’s musical influences. The ensemble was organized by the Naregatsi Art Institute. Its first concerts took place in the Armenian city Gyumri, where Gurdjieff was born.

The founder and artistic director of the ensemble Levon Eskanian was born in Beirut, Lebanon in an Armenian family and has lived in Yerevan, Armenia since 1996. He has rigorously studied the instrumentation and performance practices of the musical traditions of the ethnic groups on which Gurdjieff based his music, and has carefully chosen the instrumentation and musical stylistics appropriate for each composition and the ethnic musical tradition it relates to. The Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble regularly performs in Yerevan and throughout Armenia, and has frequently toured many countries in Western Europe, one of its most notable recent tours was in Moscow in February 2012.

Publishing houses and bookstores

The website presents the activities of a small publishing house which produces books devoted to various approaches towards self-knowledge and the evolution of the human being, at the core of which lie various interpretations of Gurdjieff’s teaching. Most of the books are published in Portuguese. Among the works appearing in English mention must be made of the book of Bert Sharp, the organizer of the project of the “All and Everything” Conference, which has been conceived of by its initiator as an independent forum for all researchers of Gurdjieff’s famous writings, as well as for the “Fourth Way” teaching in general. The text of Bert Sharp’s book is available for downloading or reading directly from the website.

The publishing house was established in 2004. In the list of its editors the first mentioned is John Amaral. During the time of its work the publishing house three volumes of essays by Dr. Keith Buzzell: “Man – a Three-Brained Creature” (2007), “Explorations in Active Mentation” (2006), “Perspectives on Beelzebub’s Tales” (2005). Keith Buzzell dedicated around fifty years of his life to immersion into Gurdjieff’s ideas and practical aspects of Gurdjieff’s teaching, along with his research in the fields of biology, evolution, neurology and cosmology. During the last twenty years Dr. Buzzell’s main interest, as he himself writes on the website, is the application of knowledge received by him as a result of his research of Gurdjieff’s ideas to contemporary biological studies. “Because if we cannot make Gurdjieff’s teaching realistic in today’s world, taking and incorporating everything made available to us, then we are going to fail.”

The website has existed since 1998. The creators of the website set the goal before themselves of presenting (with the possibility of purchase) an exhaustive list of all the books connected with Gurdjieff and the “Fourth Way,” as well as a broad range of rare or sold-out books related to the classics of various spiritual traditions.

The website offers an extensive selection of works by many of Gurdjieff’s pupils and the adherents of the “Fourth Way”. In addition to the bookstore which presents the possibility of purchasing an assortment of materials, a large portion of the website is devoted to the practice connected with the line of John Bennett, the program of seminars, descriptions of the principles of exercises, etc.

“The Society for Study of Myths and Traditions” is a not-for-profit organization the activities of which are devoted to the dissemination and research of materials connected with mythologies, symbols, rituals and the art of the religious and cultural traditions of the world. The “Society” publishes the “Parabola” magazine, the first issues of which came out in 1976. it is not possible to become a member of the “Society,” however, anybody could “join” it by making monetary contributions or by reading the published materials, using the services available and participating in the events covered on the website.

This is a bookstore on a website devoted to Gurdjieff’s heritage. In addition to the literature dealing with the “Fourth Way,” the bookstore offers books on Advaita-Vedanta, Ancient Egyptian teachings, Christianity and many other spiritual traditions of East and West.

The publishing house was established in 1968 by John Pentland. As stated in one of the texts found on its website, “Its original purpose was to discover if a more impartial quality of spiritual thought can emerge when a small group of people work at writing while at the same time trying to see themselves as they are. For this, of course, the mind must be trained to watch attentively, remember impressions and recombine them in an original way”. Notwithstanding the fact that it prepared and published a whole set of books devoted to the spiritual traditions of various epochs, since 1970 the publishing house has concentrated itself mainly on publishing the magazine “Material for Thought.” To this day fifteen issues have appeared, many of which are available on the website.

The “Eureka” bookstore was established in 1980 in Utrecht, Holland. The “Eureka Editions” publishing house began its work in 1988 with publications of children’s books, however, as the result of the acquaintance made by the bookstore owners with members of Maurice Nicoll’s groups, undertook the reprinting of his books: “The New Man: An Interpretation of Some Parables and Mysteries of Christ” “The Mark,” “Living Time and the Integration of the Life,” as well as the works by Nicoll’s secretary Beryl Pogson. This publishing list continued with the publications of conversations with, essays and works by P.D. Ouspensky, Maurice Nicoll, Paul Beekman Taylor, Beryl Pogson and other followers of Gurdjieff’s teaching, while the bookstore, having switched in due time to selling literature almost entirely through the Internet, started to offer mainly books connected with the “Fourth Way.” Neither the bookstore, nor the publishing house is associated with any of the registered organizations relating themselves to Gurdjieff’s teaching.

Conferences

This is a website devoted to the conference on “All and Everything,” which has been held annually for over ten years in various cities of the world. Having started as a common meeting of friends who are enthusiasts and specialists in esoteric doctrines, who dedicated some of their time to gather together to discuss a number of important ideas of Gurdjieff, the conference swiftly evolved into a significant and large-scale event.

Gurdjieff Movements Seminars – Scheduled Events in all World

  

http://www.gurdjieff-movements.net/events/seminars.htm

The First Obligatory

  

http://www.johnkyrk.com/MovementsSm.gif

  

  

Comments on the Practice of Gurdjieff’s Movements

  

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art16901.asp  (eng)

An impression of the recent Seattle Seminar 02th-07th June 2002(eng)

An Experience during Movements by Jan Henry (eng)

Working on Movements with Children in Russia by Plavan N. Go (eng)

Blogs and  forumsnew

The Blog of Jacob Needleman, Professor of Philosophy at the San Francisco University. Professor Needleman is the author of several books, numerous essays, articles and reviews, which could be read on the pages of this website. The teaching of G.I. Gurdjieff was examined in detail by Jacob Needleman in two books: “Gurdjieff: Essays and Reflections on the Man and His Teavhing” and “The Inner Journey: Views from the Gurdjieff Work,” as well as a pamphlet “Introduction to the Gurdjieff Work.” Along with subjects related to Gurdjieff’s teaching, Jacob Needleman researches traditional teachings and religions, consults in the spheres of psychology, education and philanthropy, and lately, as the materials of the website demonstrate, he exetts considerable attention to political science and sociology.

This is the website of Dennis Lewis, who for a lengthy period of time had studied the Gurdjieff Work, as well as Advaita-Vedanta and Taoism. Among his mentors in the aforementioned spiritual directions Dennis Lewis mentions the names of John Pentland, Mantakk Chia, Dr. Wang Shan Long and Jean Klein. Presently Dennis Lewis teaches the transforming power of presents, using the methods of natural breathing, chigun, meditation and self-inquiry. The blog contains a fair share of reflections and indications towards practice in the aforementioned directions, as well as links to interviews and to other websites, including those of Dennis Lewis himself.

Jeff Davis, the owner of this blog, describes his experience of working in a Gurdjieff group, presuming and permitting placement on his website of notes and commentaries by other authors, possessing similar experience or simply wishing to express themselves. The notes resemble diary entries “for various occasions,” albeit polished and possessing good reflections. Jeff Davis’ themes include “Resistance,” “Is the Death of Father an Experience of Essence?”, “Self-Justification” and others.

This is a website, one of the aims of which, in all probability, is a certain systematization of traditionalist directions (according to their geographic locations) and traditionalists. Its moderator is Mark Sedgwick. Naturally, most of the materials and commentaries deal with traditionalism or, as the trend is sometimes called, intellectual esotericism in the form it was presented and developed by Rene Guenon, Frithjof Schuon, Ananda Koomraswami and other well-known authors of this direction. Additional interest for a Russian-speaking auditorium could be presented by texts about traditionalism in Russia and about Rene Guenon’s presumed meeting with Madame de Salzmann, which was supposed to have taken place in Cairo.

This is a blog with an anonymous system operator and founder. Its respective sections: “Ichazo vs. Gurdjieff,” “The Soul Question,” “Dervish Dancing,” “William Patrick Patterson on Gurdjieff Video,” “Students of William Patrick Patterson,” “The Sarmoung and the Yezidis,” “Gurdjieff and the Hidden History o the Sufis” and others. Some of the commentaries are interesting and thoughtful, but some others, as frequently happens in blogs, do not contain any essential position of the author. The overall quantity of the commentaries, unfortunately, is not extensive.

This is the blog of Lee van Laer, a member of the Gurdjieff Foundation in New York. As follows from its title, the website contains a large quantity of various materials devoted to zen, yoga and the teaching of Gurdjieff, as well as the establishment of parallels and contrasts between them.

This is a website the coordinator of which is James Toomarelli, who since 1988 has been published the books and lectures of John Bennett, along with other materials connected with Gurdjieff and the “Fourth Way” tradition. James and Tomarelli and his colleagues studied with John and Elizabeth Bennett in the 1970s. this blog, which is dedicated to the memory of John and Elizabeth Bennett, was conceived by its founders as an experimental venue in the Internet web for open discussion about the possibilities characteristic to the human situation and about the instruments of their actualization.

Though various aspects of The Fourth Way are discussed in this web-forum, its main content is comprised of reference about different spiritual and pseudo-spiritual groups or movements which have ever mentioned the names of G.I. Gurdjieff or P.D. Ouspensky as their primary sources of their activities.

This reference guide also includes the names of and information about people involved in the activities of these groups. All these illustrations and elucidations are remarkable for their substantial proportions, notwithstanding the parameters of activities of all these spiritual trends, which do not require lengthy explanations for the experienced as well as the merely attentive observer. Perhaps its goal was to bring in a final degree of elucidation to phenomena that are obvious enough in themselves.

The section The Work which could be reached on the same forum, is dedicated to discussions of Gurdjieff’s system of The Fourth Way topics and upon a first glance may not stand out in any way among various similar forums of the same type.

Generally, this website carries out the role of focusing the attention and interest of its readers onto the projects of the “Quantum Fufure Institute.”

In Russian:

This website presents a library of translations of works by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky and their pupils: John Bennett, Maurice Nicoll, Rodney, Collin, Charles Nott, Olga and Thomas de Hartmann, Margaret Anderson, as well as memoirs by Fritz Peters, who has the unique opportunity of spending a considerably long time at Prieuré as a child and to preserve his childhood impressions of what he saw, frequently recounting a different version of the events from that which was presented by the adult participants of the work at Prieuré.

This website is maintained by a number of Moscow-based followers of Gurdjieff’s teaching. The website’s library contains translations into Russian of eight talks made by Gurdjieff in Paris in various years, as well as a translation of the well-known lecture about the enneagramm. They carry on a lively forum.

This website, created by a group of enthusiasts is geared on the search and accurate definition of concepts and terms coined by Gurdjieff, dispersed throughout his books and mentioned in his lectures. This project makes an attempt to implement an electronic encyclopedia of Gurdjieff’s terminology.

The website was created by the “Center for Creative Thinking” directed by Anatoly Romanovich Arlashin, who from the 1960s has participated in various different Russian groups in which the “Fourth Way” was practiced by enthusiasts. The website “provides for people’s growing need in the means of self-organization and self-regulation for upholding their health by their own efforts and without any ‘mediators’” (Anatoly Arlashin) and also contains a number of precise comments about the principles of spiritual practice. In the practical side of its work the school, as stated by the materials of the website, relies on the basic methods of the “Fourth Way,” and also follows distant traces of the Hinduist and Christian traditions, in addition to actively experimenting with dreams, hypnosis and clairvoyance.

This website presents to a considerable degree the author’s experience of participating in discussions on various internet forums dedicated to the subjects of Sufism and The Fourth Way.

As the author himself writes, the website was created “… as a counterbalance to some false schools posing themselves as Sufi (or Fourth Way) schools.

The goal was to present the readers with alternative information which would play a role of a “filter”.

This statement essentially exhausts the position of Viktor Olsufiev, who continues on this website to struggle – in direct concurrence with Idries Shah’s position – for the “purity of transmission” of the knowledge and experience of Sufis, whose platforms are for the most part connected with the position of the Naqshbandiya group, and which Viktor Olsufiev claims to be the primary source of Gurdjieff’s teaching.

The author shares “… a few thoughts and recommendations (including literature) in order to present the possibility for a small number of interested people to choose the direction by means of which they would obtain understanding and other attributes, which in their turn could help these people to meet, recognize and to interest in any School which would correspond to them in a harmonious way…”.

Notwithstanding this position which is, essentially, far from being new or extremely profound, this website is greatly enlivened by publications of Viktor Olsufiev’s memoirs about spiritual seekers whom he was directly acquainted in Russia in the 1960s-1970s, and who were capable at this extraordinarily difficult time of standing up for themselves and their convictions in theory and in real life. Consequently, these memoirs demonstrate a much more vivid and genuine Viktor Olsufiev, as well as the crucial elements of the atmosphere of spiritual quest in Russia during that time period.

This website in Russian was created by followers of Rajneesh (Osho) and carries out the function of informing the readers of seminars on Osho’s methods, including the Movements, which were actively practiced from a certain time at Osho’s centre in Pune and later all around the world by his followers. All the information about G.I. Gurdjieff that is published on this website is contained in two remarks by Rajneesh about Gurdjieff, along with a number of statements by Gurdjieff himself about consciousness and the Movements, taken from the “Views from the Real World.” Reading this website leaves an impression of one disturbing tendency with which our time is marked, and which manifests itself, in particular, in reducing any complex ideas or subtle principles of transformation to the level of trivial concepts or remarks. Still, it is always a good idea to begin with something simple… The website gives a good notion of the role and function that the Movements play in the circle of present-day Russian followers of Rajneesh, as well as of what aspects of Gurdjieff’s multilevel teaching have been adopted by this circle, and how they are used.

  • Live Journals 

http://community.livejournal.com/4way/ (rus)

http://gurdjieffclub.livejournal.com/ (rus)

http://cineguruma.livejournal.com/ (eng)

In German:

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