George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff

“From my point of view, he can be called a remarkable man who stands out from those around him by the resourcefulness of his mind, and who knows how to be restrained in the manifestations which proceed from his nature, at the same time conducting himself justly and tolerantly towards the weaknesses of others.”

G. I. Gurdjieff
Meetings, p. 31

George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff

G. I. Gurdjieff was born sometime between 1866 and 1877 in Alexandropol, near the Russian-Turkish border. As a young man he trained in Kars as both a priest and a physician and devoted all his energies to searching for fundamental truths: Who am I? What is the purpose of our life? For some twenty years, Gurdjieff traveled in the most remote regions of Central Asia and the Middle East, sometimes gaining entrance to esoteric schools to which few, if any, Westerners had ever been admitted. Afterwards, he set about putting what he had learned into a form that would be understandable and meaningful to the Western World.

Before the First World War, Gurdjieff began to gather pupils in Russia. He continued his work with a small party of followers during the years of the Russian revolution, moving to Essentuki in the Caucasus, and then through Tiflis, Constantinople, Berlin, and London. He finally settled in France and established his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at the Château Le Prieuré at Fontainebleau-Avon in October of 1922.

People who met Gurdjieff felt that he was an extraordinary man. He maintained that through the efforts to Work on oneself, a person could develop new faculties which would enable one to know oneself truthfully and to function harmoniously, with fully developed Consciousness, Conscience, and Will.

Gurdjieff died in Paris in 1949. His teachings survive most reliably in the form of his writings (All and Everything: Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, Meetings with Remarkable Men, and Life is Real Only Then, When “I Am”), in his music, in his movements and sacred dances, and in an oral tradition passed down through his older pupils.

Note: Before Gurdjieff’s death, a few of his pupils founded groups with his consent. Since that time, many other groups have been set up using Gurdjieff’s name by people with little or no direct connection to his teachings. Gurdjieff himself, in All and Everything, warned about the distortions that can occur when persons without proper training attempt to convey esoteric knowledge.

Gurdjieff specifically asked Mr. Nyland to help safeguard his teachings and that is why there is a strong emphasis on the integrity of the method of Work in our groups. At the same time, Mr. Nyland encouraged people to read widely and learn about other groups, but always with an understanding that even slight distortions can cause significant problems in the end. Mr. Nyland’s groups are dedicated to maintaining the exactness and genuineness of Gurdjieff’s ideas and we freely offer the way of Work to those who wish to pursue it. For information about the general topic of Gurdjieff and other groups, a reliable source is the Gurdjieff International Review.