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George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) was an esotericist and spiritual teacher whose charisma and authority were recognised and celebrated by his pupils. He attained a measure of fame during his life, and since his death in 1949 his legacy has become increasingly prominent, through the widespread success of his writings (chiefly Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson [1950] and Meetings with Remarkable Men [1963]), recordings of the music he composed with Thomas de Hartmann,  and Peter Brook’s Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979), a film of the book produced with the approval of Jeanne de Salzmann, Gurdjieff’s nominated successor and founder of a network of Gurdjieff foundations (the institutional form of the teaching), initially in Paris, London, New York, and Caracas, now in many additional locations.

The academic study of Gurdjieff’s teachings and legacy has emerged comparatively recently, considering he is acknowledged –  with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), co-founder of the Theosophical Society, and Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), founder of Anthroposophy – as one of the sources of the Western cultural phenomenon initially termed ‘New Age’ but now referred to as ‘alternative spiritualities’, in addition to being a strikingly original teacher of a distinctive esoteric system. This reading group is a joint initiative of the Center for the Study of World Religions and the Gurdjieff Society of Massachusetts, and is part of the “Transcendence & Transformation” research initiative at the CSWR. This collaboration brings scholars and practitioners together to explore the teachings of Gurdjieff through reading primary texts, considering writings by participants in the teaching, and engaging with scholarship focused on new religious movements (NRM) and Western esotericism.

Reading group details:

• Fall 2024: Every other Thursday, 12-2 pm
• First meeting: September 12, CSWR Conference Room
• (Subsequent Meeting Dates: 9/26, 10/10, 10/24, 11/7, 11/21) 
• Led by Professor Carole Cusack

Please register to attend the Legacy and Teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff Reading Group. Registration for the Teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff Reading Group is required (registration is capped at 25). 

Read the complete description and syllabus [PDF].

About the instructors:

Carole M. Cusack, PhD, MEd, is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia. She trained as a medievalist, and her doctorate was published as Conversion Among Germanic Peoples (Cassell, 1998). Her primary research focuses on contemporary religious trends and Western esotericism. Her books include Anime, Religion and Spirituality: Profane and Sacred Worlds in Contemporary Japan (with Katharine Buljan. Equinox, 2015), Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith (Ashgate, 2010), and The Sacred Tree: Ancient and Medieval Manifestations (Cambridge Scholars, 2011).

Charles Langmuir was introduced to Movements as an adolescent and remained intensively involved with Movements working with Mme. de Salzmann, Paul Renard, and other Movements practitioners in Paris who worked directly with Gurdjieff. He began giving classes in the 1980s, and has been responsible for Movements for the Gurdjieff Society of Massachusetts for the last 20 years.

Roger Lipsey, PhD, is the author of Gurdjieff Reconsidered: The Life, The Teachings, The Legacy (2019). A trustee of the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York and a member of the board of the Gurdjieff Society of Massachusetts, he has participated since 1961 in the Gurdjieff teaching. His published work as a scholar and biographer includes Hammarskjöld: A Life (2013), two studies of the monk and author Thomas Merton, including Make Peace Before the Sun Goes Down: The Long Encounter of Thomas Merton and his Abbot, James Fox (2015), and a trilogy of works by and about Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1977). Published autumn 2024: Des Yeux pour voir: une approche du spirituel dans l’art mondial (English-language edition forthcoming). Roger is currently writing a book about the thought and vision of Václav Havel. Author website: rogerlipsey.net.

Details:

• Fall 2024: Every other Wednesday, 5-6:15 pm.
• First meeting: September 18, Multifaith Room, Swartz Hall.
• (Subsequent meetings are: 10/2, 10/16, 10/30, 11/13)
• Led by Charles Langmuir

Please register to attend (registration is capped at 25).

As part of its broader fall programming around the life and teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff, the CSWR has partnered with the Gurdjieff Society of Massachusetts to offer a series of Movements workshops. These intentional dance exercises, a unique offering of the Gurdjieff teaching, have the potential to transform. They ask participants to be whole and to activate increasingly strong and lively attention throughout the body in motion or stillness. The exactitude of positions, changes of rhythm, and the demand for the dancer to move parts of the body independently or simultaneously with other parts all conspire to create inner conditions necessary for a changed experience of oneself. The dancer may discover moments when a finer quality of attention emerges, a more total attention rooted in mind, body, and heart. Through the beauty and rigor of the form and the richness of its music, the Movements call forth a total participation of all that one is.

Gurdjieff described himself on several occasions as "a teacher of temple dancing." His dances, taught in Gurdjieff centers worldwide for a century, point individuals toward a more harmonious inner world. With its eloquent music, this form of dance may instinctively elicit an awakening. The gestural repertory of the Movements may offer a new or different way of feeling human. Beyond habitual ways of moving, thinking, and feeling, there is a new inner zone of lightness and contained vitality—of presence.

“And through a strict succession of attitudes, they lead us to a new possibility of thinking, feeling, and action. If we could truly perceive their meaning and speak their language, the Movements would reveal to us another level of understanding.” – Jeanne de Salzmann, The Reality of Being: The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff (Shambhala, 2011)

About the instructor: 

Charles Langmuir was introduced to Movements as an adolescent and remained intensively involved with Movements working with Mme. de Salzmann, Paul Renard, and other Movements practitioners in Paris who worked directly with Gurdjieff. He began giving classes in the 1980s, and has been responsible for Movements for the Gurdjieff Society of Massachusetts for the last 20 years.