Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2010, Page 130
one has established his exact birth date. By all accounts his style as a guru ranged from
ambiguous to cruel with enough flashes of brilliance to continually impress his most
sophisticated devotees if not his critics. Variously referred to as Mister Gurdjieff and G,
Gurdjieff taught through a ―crazy wisdom‖ style (Feuerstein, 1992, pp. 54-9).
Gurdjieff taught that men and women live in a numb psychological bondage as ―machines‖
that need to be jolted into self-awareness by any means to create a soul in this lifetime. To
this end Gurdjieff developed a few techniques that tapped music, movement, myth and
theater.iii None of the ardent Fourth Way students that I interviewed over the past decades
seemed to grasp the teaching any better than I did, if indeed there were anything to grasp.
Even J. G. Bennett, Gurdjieff‘s prime American disciple and founder of an important Fourth
Way school struggled. ―Bennett comments on something they all observed: that, however
much attention they paid, no two pupils could ever agree on exactly what Gurdjieff had said
(Washington, 1993, p. 349). That ambiguity coupled with a high demand for self-
transformation caused some devotees to suffer in their creative careers. As James Webb
reports in the last chapter of The Harmonious Circle, ―Imagine the extent of Ouspensky‘s
chagrin when he realized that the man for whom he had sacrificed a promising career
[journalist] and allowed himself to be trapped in Bolshevik Russia was to all intents and
purposes a fraud.‖ However, some Fourth Way devotees thrived in their creativity. The
great architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife followed Gurdjieff for a time. Wright‘s
daughter Iovanna was one of Gurdjieff‘s obedient young girl servants at the end of the
master‘s life. Gurdjieff endearingly called them his ―calves‖ (Webb, 1987). Wright
established the Taliesan Fellowship to teach an ―essential architecture‖ deeply influenced by
Gurdjieff‘s ideas. Gurdjieff visited Taliesan several times in the 1930s.
Gurdjieff designed dances and plays to radically transform his students. He claimed to
derive his so-called Movements from a mysterious sect possibly in Syria (Washington,
p.344). This sect, the Sarmoung Brotherhood or ―Sarmoun‖ (Webb, 1987, p. 38), had
suspiciously similar roots as Blavatsky‘s mythic White Brotherhood that was essentially a
product of her fertile imagination (Johnson, 1994). Gurdjieff‘s dancers (students performing
the sacred Movements) performed for audiences in New York in 1924 he directed them
unlike any director the audience had seen. In a particular movement dancers would rush to
the edge of the stage and stop dead still. During one remarkable performance the capricious
Gurdjieff ―calmly turned his back, and was lighting a cigarette. In the next split second an
aerial human avalanche was flying through the air, across the orchestra, down among the
empty chairs, on the floor, bodies pell-mell, piled on top of each other, arms and legs
sticking out in silence‖ (Webb, 1987, pp. 268-9). Amazingly no one was badly hurt.
Gurdjieff moved his devotees around often but his most famous period as with his group
south of Paris at the Prieuré in the 1920s. Most of Gurdjieff‘s closest followers were people
of talent and means—sensitive seekers with money and time to spare. By all reports he
treated them with loving disdain. Gurdjieff was known for his real and mock tantrums and
an erratic behavior that his students interpreted as a clever teaching style. One would think
that the man had no heart but curiously he did when it came to the common folk outside his
student circle. When the group left Paris, a large if motley collection of art work was found
in the master‘s flat. Gurdjieff had a habit of buying bad art from struggling artists to
encourage them. On the other hand when he visited America late in his career he criticized
the students doing his Movements, comparing them to ―worms in shit‖ (Washington, 1993,
p. 350). In Gurdjieff‘s circle, art served the master‘s whims to craft his devotees in his
image.
Conclusion
I began by mentioning Duchamp‘s ―ready mades‖ as art. He was intimately involved with an
art movement that tried many strategies to tap the inner self or transpersonal worlds for
one has established his exact birth date. By all accounts his style as a guru ranged from
ambiguous to cruel with enough flashes of brilliance to continually impress his most
sophisticated devotees if not his critics. Variously referred to as Mister Gurdjieff and G,
Gurdjieff taught through a ―crazy wisdom‖ style (Feuerstein, 1992, pp. 54-9).
Gurdjieff taught that men and women live in a numb psychological bondage as ―machines‖
that need to be jolted into self-awareness by any means to create a soul in this lifetime. To
this end Gurdjieff developed a few techniques that tapped music, movement, myth and
theater.iii None of the ardent Fourth Way students that I interviewed over the past decades
seemed to grasp the teaching any better than I did, if indeed there were anything to grasp.
Even J. G. Bennett, Gurdjieff‘s prime American disciple and founder of an important Fourth
Way school struggled. ―Bennett comments on something they all observed: that, however
much attention they paid, no two pupils could ever agree on exactly what Gurdjieff had said
(Washington, 1993, p. 349). That ambiguity coupled with a high demand for self-
transformation caused some devotees to suffer in their creative careers. As James Webb
reports in the last chapter of The Harmonious Circle, ―Imagine the extent of Ouspensky‘s
chagrin when he realized that the man for whom he had sacrificed a promising career
[journalist] and allowed himself to be trapped in Bolshevik Russia was to all intents and
purposes a fraud.‖ However, some Fourth Way devotees thrived in their creativity. The
great architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife followed Gurdjieff for a time. Wright‘s
daughter Iovanna was one of Gurdjieff‘s obedient young girl servants at the end of the
master‘s life. Gurdjieff endearingly called them his ―calves‖ (Webb, 1987). Wright
established the Taliesan Fellowship to teach an ―essential architecture‖ deeply influenced by
Gurdjieff‘s ideas. Gurdjieff visited Taliesan several times in the 1930s.
Gurdjieff designed dances and plays to radically transform his students. He claimed to
derive his so-called Movements from a mysterious sect possibly in Syria (Washington,
p.344). This sect, the Sarmoung Brotherhood or ―Sarmoun‖ (Webb, 1987, p. 38), had
suspiciously similar roots as Blavatsky‘s mythic White Brotherhood that was essentially a
product of her fertile imagination (Johnson, 1994). Gurdjieff‘s dancers (students performing
the sacred Movements) performed for audiences in New York in 1924 he directed them
unlike any director the audience had seen. In a particular movement dancers would rush to
the edge of the stage and stop dead still. During one remarkable performance the capricious
Gurdjieff ―calmly turned his back, and was lighting a cigarette. In the next split second an
aerial human avalanche was flying through the air, across the orchestra, down among the
empty chairs, on the floor, bodies pell-mell, piled on top of each other, arms and legs
sticking out in silence‖ (Webb, 1987, pp. 268-9). Amazingly no one was badly hurt.
Gurdjieff moved his devotees around often but his most famous period as with his group
south of Paris at the Prieuré in the 1920s. Most of Gurdjieff‘s closest followers were people
of talent and means—sensitive seekers with money and time to spare. By all reports he
treated them with loving disdain. Gurdjieff was known for his real and mock tantrums and
an erratic behavior that his students interpreted as a clever teaching style. One would think
that the man had no heart but curiously he did when it came to the common folk outside his
student circle. When the group left Paris, a large if motley collection of art work was found
in the master‘s flat. Gurdjieff had a habit of buying bad art from struggling artists to
encourage them. On the other hand when he visited America late in his career he criticized
the students doing his Movements, comparing them to ―worms in shit‖ (Washington, 1993,
p. 350). In Gurdjieff‘s circle, art served the master‘s whims to craft his devotees in his
image.
Conclusion
I began by mentioning Duchamp‘s ―ready mades‖ as art. He was intimately involved with an
art movement that tried many strategies to tap the inner self or transpersonal worlds for
