Recommended Readings

Core Readings

G. I. Gurdjieff, Meetings with Remarkable Men, Chapter II, “My Father” (London and New York: Penguin Arkana, 1985 [1963]).

Anna Butkowsky-Hewitt (with Mary Cosh and Alicia Street), With Gurdjieff in St Petersburg and Paris (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978). Selections.

Johanna J. M. Petsche, ‘Gurdjieff and Blavatsky: Western Esoteric Teachers in Parallel’, Literature & Aesthetics, Vol. 21, No. 1 (2011), pp. 98-115. 

Optional Readings

Seven J. Sutcliffe and John P. Willmett, ‘“The Work”: The Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky in Russia and Beyond’, in The Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought, eds Caryl Emerson, George Pattison, and Randall A. Poole (2020). DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198796442.013.14 

Vrasidas Karalis, ‘Gurdjieff beyond the Personality Cult: Reading the Work and Its Re-Workings Notes on René Zuber’s Who are You Monsieur Gurdjieff?’, Religion and the Arts, Vol. 21 (2017), pp. 176-188.

Core Readings

Roger Lipsey, “The Decades of a Teacher,” in Gurdjieff Reconsidered (2019), pp. 33-35.

Roger Lipsey, “The First Exposition: Russia 1912-1917,” in Gurdjieff Reconsidered (2019), pp. 47-60—focused on P. D. Ouspensky’s classic exposition, In Search of the Miraculous (1950).

Katherine Mansfield, “Chez Monsieur Gurdjieff: A reading for three voices from the letters of Katherine Mansfield,” typed text, evoking life and teachings at Gurdjieff’s Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man near Paris, 1922-1923.

Roger Lipsey, “Lux in Tenebris: The 1930s,” in Gurdjieff Reconsidered, pp. 151-175.

William J. Welch, “The Way of a Teacher,” in What Happened in Between (1972), pp. 118-141—a compact evocation of life with Gurdjieff in New York and Paris in the 1940s.

Optional Readings

J. G. Bennett and Elizabeth Bennett, Idiots in Paris (1980)—a vivid chronicle of life and teachings at Gurdjieff’s apartment in Paris in the last two years of his life, 1948-49.

René Zuber, Who are you, Monsieur Gurdjieff? (1980)—a short, brilliantly observed and felt chronicle of work with Gurdjieff in the 1940s.

Core Readings

P. D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous (1950), pp. 59-61 (top), 77-81, 116-121 (top), 122-130, 217-219

Gurdjieff, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson (1992 edition), Chapter 7, “Becoming aware of genuine being-duty,” pp.72-74; concerning the Sphinx called Conscience, pp. 282-284; Chapter 26, the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash, pp. 322-333; further on Ashiata Shiemash, pp. 350-352 (starting at “Well, then, my boy…”); and a memorable passage toward the end of the book, p. 1103 (beginning “In order to emphasize…”) to 1110 middle (“…it is liable to be changed”).

Gurdjieff, Views from the Real World (1973), “Now I am sitting here. . .,” pp. 228-235, and “The Aphorisms,” pp. 273-276.

Optional Readings

Gurdjieff, “Professor Skridlov,” in Meetings with Remarkable Men (1963), pp. 225-246.

Gurdjieff, “The Material Question,” in Meetings with Remarkable Men (1963), pp. 247-303.

René Daumal, “The Holy War” (1941), in Gurdjieff International Review, https://www.gurdjieff.org/daumal1.htm

Core Readings

Keith Jarrett, G. I. Gurdjieff: Sacred Hymns (1980).

Carole M. Cusack, ‘The Contemporary Context of Gurdjieff’s Movements’, Religion and the Arts, Vol. 21, Issue 1-2, 2017, pp. 96-122.

John Godolphin Bennett, ‘Food’, Impressions, Vol. VIII, No. I (1990), pp. 5-9; and Pierre and Vivian Elliot, ‘Wine, Food and Rivauguier’, Impressions, Vol. VIII, No. I (1990), pp. 10-11.

Optional Readings

Joseph Azize, ‘Gurdjieff’s “Help for the Deceased” Exercise’, Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (2020), pp. 111-132.

Edwin Wolfe, Episodes with Mr. Gurdjieff (Far West Press, 1974).

Core Readings

David Seamon, ‘Setting Forth a Canon of the Gurdjieff Work,’ Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts, Vol. 12, No. 2 (2022), pp. 261–287.

Chris Coates, ‘How Many Arks Does It Take?’ In Spiritual and Visionary Communities: Out to Save the World, edited by Timothy Miller (Farnham and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2013), pp. 176–189. 

Optional Readings

John Willmett, ‘Tradition, Esotericism, Secrecy and Hiddenness in the Gospel Studies of P.D. Ouspensky and Maurice Nicoll’, Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, Vol. 20 (2020), pp. 108-136.

Vrasidas Karalis, ‘Mr Gurdjieff’s Legacy: The Poetics and Aesthetics of Reality in the 

Thought of a New Age Guru’, Literature & Aesthetics, Vol. 15, No. 1 (2005), pp. 252-266.

Core Readings

P. D Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous: The Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff. San Diego, New York and London: Harcourt Inc, 2001 [1949]. Chapter X.

Optional Readings

Andrew Rawlinson, The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions. Chicago and La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1997, ‘J. G. Bennett’, pp. 183-186 and  ‘Gurdjieff’, pp. 282-313.