THE LIFE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF G.I. GURDJIEFF | New Dawn Book Reviews

THE LIFE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF G.I. GURDJIEFF, Parts I, II & III Directed, Written & Narrated by William Patrick Patterson Published by Arete Communications 3 DVDs, 226 minutes

Directed, written and narrated by William Patrick Patterson, this remarkable documentary series covers the life and teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff, one of the greatest and most enigmatic spiritual teachers who ever lived.

Patterson is the founder/director of the Gurdjieff Studies Program, and has written a number of important books on The Fourth Way, including Eating the ‘I’ and Struggle of the Magicians.

A genuine authority on Gurdjieff and his work, Patterson is not only a gifted author but, as he’s proven with this series, an equally gifted film-maker.

The series consists of three DVDs, each around eighty minutes in duration (making a total running time of 226 minutes). Each DVD is a separate chapter of the story, so to speak, covering a different period in Gurdjieff’s life and the lives of his students.

In Part I, Gurdjieff in Egypt: The Origin of Esoteric Knowledge, Patterson begins his journey in Cairo, Egypt. It is here, we are told, that Gurdjieff arrived in 1895, while searching for ancient esoteric knowledge. His search had taken him to many remote and dangerous parts of the world, including Siberia, Tibet, the Hindu Kush, and even as far as the Solomon Islands.

Patterson explains that Gurdjieff, hoping to contact the Sarmoung, a secret brotherhood founded in Babylon, unexpectedly met an Armenian priest from whom he acquired a map of pre-sand Egypt. The map filled Gurdjieff with great excitement, though the reason for this remains unclear. It’s likely, concludes Patterson, that the map featured the Great Sphinx of Giza, thereby proving that the monument existed at a time when Egypt was not yet covered in sand.

During his spiritual mission in Egypt, Gurdjieff sought the answer to a very important question: “What is the sense and significance of organic life on Earth, and human life in particular?”

Patterson takes us on a tour of several ancient Egyptian temples that Gurdjieff himself visited and studied more than a hundred years ago, including the Temple of Man, the Temple of Karnak and the Temple of Edfu.

According to Patterson, it’s likely that Gurdjieff translated some of the hieroglyphic texts found on the walls of the Temple of Edfu, and that this information made its way into Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, the first of his three legominisms, known collectively as All and Everything. (A legominism is a way of preserving esoteric knowledge so that it remains undistorted throughout time. A good example is the Great Pyramid of Giza.)

Patterson reveals that the teaching of the Fourth Way, described by Gurdjieff as “esoteric Christianity,” did not originate in Central Asia, as is mistakenly assumed, but in prehistoric Egypt. In other words, the Egypt that existed before 4000 BCE – what Gurdjieff referred to as the Egypt that “we do not know,” as opposed to the one we’re familiar with.

Although this is clearly not a big budget documentary series, it’s nonetheless of a very high quality. It’s clear to see that a great deal of time, energy, passion and research went into the making of it. Gurdjieff’s story is presented in a clear, well-organised and extremely compelling manner.

In Part II, Gurdjieff’s Mission: Introducing the Teaching to the West, we find Patterson in St. Petersburg, Russia, where Gurdjieff arrived in 1912 with the aim of attracting students and establishing a Fourth Way institute.

Gurdjieff believed that this was the ideal location from which to spread the teaching to the West. It was in St. Petersburg that Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky first met and began working together.

Patterson spreads light on the challenging relationship between Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, one that proved not to last. He mentions how Gurdjieff, in an attempt to break through to Ouspensky’s emotional centre, occasionally treated Ouspensky in what was perceived to be a non-rational manner – what is known as ‘divine acting’ – such as by blaming him for problems he didn’t cause.

Due to the Russian Revolution, which began in 1917, the country was thrown into a state of turmoil, with inflation, suicide, famine, disease and civil war. Fearing for their safety, Gurdjieff and his students were forced to flee the country, ending up in the city of Constantinople (modern day Istanbul, Turkey) and eventually France.

On a property not far from Paris, Gurdjieff finally established his Institute For the Harmonious Development of Man. Patterson takes us on a tour of the property, a large chateau, meanwhile explaining the day to day activities of Gurdjieff and his students. Students were required to rise early and work for most of the day, while constantly being aware of themselves in an effort to combat their mechanical behaviour.

The documentary series features music composed by Gurdjieff in collaboration with the Russian composer Thomas de Hartmann, one of his principal students. The music is beautiful and unique, and adds nicely to the overall mood of the series.

Gurdjieff believed, explains Patterson, that the earth had reached a critical stage in its evolution, and that the eastern world would again soon rise to a position of power. He further believed “that unless the energy of the West and the wisdom of the East can be harnessed and used harmoniously, the earth will destroy itself.”

So as to prevent this disaster from occurring, said Gurdjieff, the teaching of the Fourth Way was greatly needed at this time. He envisioned a process by which his students, having eventually developed themselves into truly conscious beings, would then assist others to develop themselves, and so on, until a larger percentage of humanity was awake, resulting in greater harmony on earth.

The final documentary in the series, Gurdjieff’s Legacy: Establishing the Teaching in the West, is perhaps the most interesting and touching of the three.

We are told of Gurdjieff’s near fatal car crash in 1924, which put him in a coma for days, and which, he insisted, “was not an accident.” Also covered is another saddening event – the closing of Gurdjieff’s Institute, which occurred due to financial reasons.

The viewer cannot help being drawn into, and emotionally affected by, Gurdjieff’s story. It made me realise just how demanding and challenging his spiritual mission was.

I was surprised to learn that Gurdjieff and the occultist Aleister Crowley had in fact met on one occasion. After having stayed at the Institute for a brief period of time, Gurdjieff told Crowley never to return, saying he was “dirty inside” (a fairly accurate description of the man).

Patterson places a lot of emphasis on Gurdjieff’s relationships with his students. None of these relationships were straight forward or without friction. Among his most famous and influential students were A.R. Orage, J.G. Bennett, Margaret Anderson and Maurice Nicoll.

Orage, a British intellectual and editor of the magazine The New Age, assisted in the publications of Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson. Orage eventually split with Gurdjieff – just as Ouspensky and Bennett had – choosing family life over the opportunity to work more closely with his teacher.

The documentary ends, of course, with Gurdjieff’s death in 1949. Proving that he practised what he preached, Gurdjieff is said to have died like a king.

Patterson has produced an outstanding documentary series, a true work of art, worthy of the major award it received at the WorldFest International Film Festival. It’s powerful, profound and absorbing and certainly worthy of multiple viewings.

I expect that many will come away from this series with a strong desire to learn as much as they can about Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way.

– Reviewed by Louis Proud in New Dawn 124

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