From: bmarkey@world.std.com (Brian D Markey)
Subject: Re: Extremely Twisted Magical Fantasy
Date: 29 Oct 93 21:02:08 GMT

G.I. Gurdjieff wrote three series of books. The first series is known
as "All and Everything" and is titled "Beelzebub's Tales to his
Grandson".  The second series is one book: "Meetings with Remarkable
Men". The third series is titled "Life is Real, Only Then, When I
Am". According to Gurdjieff, the series are to be read in order, each
book three times through, before proceeding to the next. The final
series is only available to students of Gurdjieff/Ouspensky's "Fourth
Way", and is published privately. Both "Beelzebub's Tales" and "Life
is Real" are completely incomprehensible without guidance. 

P.D. Ouspensky also contributed to the literature of the Fourth Way
(most notably in "The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution". Another
notable contributor was Dr. Maurice Nicholl who wrote a series titled
"Commentaries", in which he not only discusses Gurdjieff's books, but
comments on the instruction he received as well (in Paris, I believe,
where Gurdjieff was based later in his life).

The fourth way is a system of instruction, which includes a great deal
of meditation, dance and music. It also is a system of "peer
critique", whereby much of the instruction comes through observation
by others within the context of a defined social structure. I believe
that this aspect was ripped off by Scientology, among other shams. The
Fourth way, on the other hand, is entirely based in "rip off", so to
speak, in that it is acknowleged within the books that much of the
material was based on Gurdjieff's travels around Asia and Indo-Europe
(he was a Russian Kosack sp??).

The term "Fourth Way" is intended to both include and distinguish
between three other "ways", which I believe are the "Way of the
Fakir", the "Way of the Sufi" and the "Way of the Monk". Don't shoot
me if I buggered that list up though.

P.S. "Meetings With Remarkable Men" was made into a not too remarkable
     movie starring Terrance Stamp.

-b
-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Brian D. Markey          Permanent Wave Productions, Inc. |
| P.O. Box 276 M.O.        Shrewsbury, MA USA 01545         |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+