Deconstructing Gurdjieff: Biography of a Spiritual Magician

This new book authored by Oxford graduate and professional writer Tobias Churton, fulfills the profile depicted by Mr. Gurdjieff in “Beelzebub Tales” under its chapter I (“The arousing of thought”), when Mr. Gurdjieff, about contemporary writers, affirms: “This strange disease is manifested by this, that if the invalid is somewhat literate and his rent is paid for three months in advance, he (she or it) unfailingly begins to write a either some “instructive article” or a whole book.” Mr. Churton's book is a full compendium of the “literary language of the bon-ton”, “the grammatical wiseacrings of professional writers” as well as “the literary language of the intelligentsia”.Mr. Churton depicts an allegedly low-self steem Gurdjieff presumably because he did not get a college degree as Mr. Churton did in Oxford. See what Mr. Churton writes: ”I personally suspect he had a chip on his shoulder about never having graduated from university, so vehement were his repeated digs at “wiseacring,” that occurs with tiresome, arguably obsessive repetitiveness throughout all his writings and talks; followers have picked the word up and scatter it like buckshot from self-elevated heights at critics”. This assertion is proper of a Hasnamuss candidate.Regarding Mr. Gurdjieff's birthdate, Mr. Churton fails to acknowledge that in the book “Views from the real world” in the New York conference dated February 20, 1924, Mr. Gurdjieff himself is quoted as saying: “I reason in this way: I am a small man. I have only lived for fifty years, and religion has existed for thousands of years”. End of the speculation. As per Mr. Gurdjieff's own words, he was born in 1873. Mr. Churton could have saved us from another long and boring chapter.Concerning the surname Gurdjieff, I would like to clarifiy that it is indeed connected to both Gurdjistan (which means Land of Wolves) while the root KRT is also connected with KURT (Wolf) , as well as with the KARTULI tribe, one of the three founding clans of SAKARTVELO (Georgia), along with the SVAN and MEGRELIAN tribes.Mr. Churton makes a mistake when he asserts that the PRIEURÉ belonged to the Dreyfuss family. Not at all true, it never belonged to the Dreyfuss family, it used to belong to the widow of the lawyer that defended the Jewish military Dreyfuss.Mr. Churton under the influence of his organ Kundabuffer, shows us his ridiculous talent as a literary critic. About “Beelzebub's Tales” he says: “In this even more peculiar, often perhaps intentionally ludicrous and unnecesarily elongated work…” Mr. Churton dares to criticize the grammaticality of “Beelzebub Tales”, when he states: “He (Gurdjieff) opens his Beelzebub Tales with an excessively long-winded attack/defense explaining why his book does not read like anyone else's” Another brilliant Churton's quote: “Gurdjieff's habitual discourse is filled with pseudo-objectivity, where the plainest statements are dressed in quasi-scientific terms, reaching, in Tales particularly, fantastic levels of repetition, invented words, and arch pretentiousness.” Mr. Churton emphatically suggests and it could have been written in a more friendly way and by saving 20% of words, he writes: “There are many more perceptions of good sense in Tales, though it needs editing to about one-fifth of its current length and to be recast in clearer sentences, with spiritual understanding of its wise, humorous contents; then Tales would enjoy considerably greater currency”.Evidently, Mr. Churton ignores that this Hasnamussian effort to edit Gurdjieff's masterpiece was already attempted by the so-called “1992 Revision”. It is also obvious that Mr. Churton never read “Beelzebub Tales” three times, so he is unable to grasp the encrypted esoteric legominism of its words.Somehow, Mr. Churton deconstructs Mr. Gurdjieff suggesting he was a Free-Mason or a Gnostic in disguise. Is this a fact, an opinion or information? Mr. Churton is obviously biased, he sees and edits reality a according to his predetermined aim. Anyway, reading through this book has been a test of endurance in terms of Intentional Suffering and Conscious Work. Thank you Mr. Churton! Hopefully after my review, other readers will save some valuable time and hard-earned money

The book is just a collection of theories and factoids compiled and not even woven into an interesting story. I was so very disappointed. Such an interesting character deserved a much more interesting story.

I have been a student of esoterica for about 34 years. For most of this time Gurdjieff has been my favourite moderniser of ancient arts and hermetic knowledge. Through reading and some research into my own faculties I am also aware of his "shortcomings". Tobias Churton has written an excellent book partly focused on gentle and erudite iconoclasm. Gurdjieff's ideas and work are put in a critical and knowledgeable frame within esoteric tradition. Some of the chapters may enrage those who would like to keep their sacred men sacred. Gurdjeff never tried to be sacred. He was, as I usually describe him: "a Creaco-Armenian rugseller, a con-man and a great adept". This is not too far from Churton's view. The book is enjoyable, at times a bit vague in it's speculation about masonry and yesidism. But overall it is tenderly written with flashes of genius insight into Gurdjieff and into overall human condition. Highly recommended. (Even though I do not share Churton's take on Gurdjieff's books, which I would not like to be edited into "understandable" prose.)

Covers the essentials of the life of this fascinating, enigmatic, extraordinarily gifted and difficult spiritual teacher of the last century. Goes into some detail about his teachings (but for that, read Gurdjieff himself or Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous), but mainly good about the details of his life. What's missing is a sophisticated evaluation of this seminal teacher's true worth and place in the history of spiritual teachings - but perhaps that's another book.

I don't come to praise gurdjieff but to bury him. The attempt to bury the enlightenment with gnostic teachings is destructive and a sign of the limits of new age/archaic teachings. This interesting book, of whatever status, adds to the long list of attempted bios but gurdjieff remains as obscure as before. Its title appears to deliberately echo Debriefing Gurdjieffianity by John Landon. It has been a century since ca. 1917/8 and the onset of the public teaching of this faux sufi. Let us recall that it was ouspensky who started the challenge to gurdjieff, calling him a criminal. The issue is a crisis for many because the toxic seeds of an uncomprehended teaching are producing derelicts in their second rebirth after contact with the confusing and mesmerizing figure. I would say, study gurdjieff historically but never enter its 'path'. Give it a wide birth. These people are not nice and issues of invultuation, spiritual slavery, cannibalism, black magic, occult warfare, reactionary antimodernism and the couner-entlightenment (a short list) haunt the whole legacy which has produced no exemplars that anyone can point to. A figure like E. J. Gold is no exception and he is as obscure and rogue as Gurdjieff: he understands that figure as little as a beginner and does something else behind a veneer of fake sufism/gurdjieffianity. The question of 'g's' teaching is almost hopeless and one suspects that he didn't understand the materials he provided: his teaching founders in GIGO material on the bogus enneagram teaching, instant myths of the law of three and law of seven. But to be fair gurdjieff carried a tradition of ancient samkhya that had spread into the occident, becoming a preposterous part of christian theology (all the weird trinity junk) then seems to have passed into sufism whence gurdjieff picked it up with what must have seemed like a great teaching. But it makes little sense. However, J.G.Bennett in his The Dramatic Universe attempts a reconstruction and one done in the context of modern science: finally one has a least some idea of what was intended (his book is however caveat lector with its own confusions). What the status of this is finally is unclear but at least the historical context is clearer and future version as science is indicated, however improbable. So we can see that gurdjieff seems to be trying to make sense of the 'path of will' beside the paths of being/enlightenment we see in india.There is way to make sense of this: one of the 'tall tales' of the g-corpus is that of three traditions and their zones, the indian, with its yogas, the egyptian, a mystery but it is worth noting that crowley's book of the law seems to have an eqyptian source, and the 'hyperborean' (i made the term up) a very hidden source in the 'transcaucasus' region which is where? precisely the regions stalked by the young g in the turkish/caucasian, aremenian/georgian, 'sufisheikistan'/afghanistan, etc... Clearly gurdjieff was an experimental front who attempted to resolve this zone/teaching to a 'path of the will', which isn't acknowledged in the indic legacies..In the end gurdjieff was probably as confused as his students but he did explore the whole game/region and pieced together some fragments of a still unknown teaching, but one which is in another way transparent from the way the will in relation to the larger organism is explored. The result is an inmmensely confused/confusing concoction by gurdjieff, mixed with wrong esoteric guesswork, disinformation about occultism/esotericism, but at least a placeholder for an obscure tradition. I would recommed being wary of this morass and giving it a wide birth after a brief and anonymous short tour. It is undecipherable on its own terms. But if you stand back and use the key above you can catch a glimpse of a remarkable mystery.

Gurdjieff and his ideas seem to be having a renaissance. There have been some great books about him made recently by Joseph Azize and Mohammed H Tamgidi, both of whom are revisiting Gurdjieff's ideas from a fresh perspective. Churton's biography is an objective and impartial effort to delve into the identity of the man and the origin of his ideas. He has some startling revelations. I delayed buying this because I was put off by a negative review: more fool me. I came to Churton again after hearing him on a few podcasts. Don't make the same mistake I did: this book is well written, enjoyable to read and original. I even bought Churton's book about Crowley in India straight after reading this, having read nothing about or by Crowley before, and that's very good too. If you are interested in the western esoteric tradition then something by Churton should be on your shelf.

I felt that the writer didn't really have enough insight into how Gurdjieff presented his ideas and was on a mission to find out what was true and what was not. Nothing is ever this clear cut in the spiritual realm and one has to work on oneself with guidance to really find out about what a teacher, master or guru is sharing with you. He also seemed to miss the point that Gurdjieff often made - to explore and experience directly the ideas that he presented for ones own self.

Very impressed by the content of the book.

Unravels the great enigma that is G. I. Gurdjieff. Fast paced and fascinating it uncovers the triumphs and failures of the remarkable man,his teachings and almost mythical life stories.

The book has been poorly proof read, if at all; The Bekaa Valley is not in Syria, a 10CV Citroen does not have a top speed of 65kph ;August is not 'two months' after July, Chailly is a different town to Chailly -en-Biere;. Compiegne is not 30 miles from Paris & etc and etc.Pulp the book, proof read it properly, and then re-issue it, if you cannot resist temptation.The spurious and specious 'puffs' on the dust jacket from various 'literary luminaries and intelligentsia' are deceitful to potential purchasers.'Inner Traditions' ?Bah HumbugYours TrulyDr Peter Dodd