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LIVING TIME
Discusses consciousness, the perception of reality, the nature of eternity, the recurrence of life, and the psychological systems we use to think about time
- GenresPhilosophySpirituality
252 pages, Paperback
First published August 12, 1984
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About the author
Maurice Nicoll
218 books51 followersMaurice Nicoll (19 July 1884 – 30 August 1953) was a British psychiatrist, author and noted Fourth Way teacher. He is best known for his Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, a multi-volume collection of talks he gave to his study groups.
Nicoll was born at the Manse in Kelso, Scotland, the son of William Robertson Nicoll, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He studied science at Cambridge before going on to St. Bartholomew's Hospital and then to Vienna, Berlin, and Zurich where he became a colleague of Carl Gustav Jung. Jung's psychological revelations and his own work with Jung during this period left a lasting influence on Nicoll as a young man.
After his Army Medical Service in the 1914 War, in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, he returned to England to become a psychiatrist. In 1921 he met Petr Demianovich Ouspensky, a student of G. I. Gurdjieff and he also became a pupil of Gurdjieff in the following year. In 1923 when Gurdjieff closed down his Institute, Nicoll joined P.D. Ouspensky's group. In 1931 he followed Ouspensky's advice and started his own study groups in England. This was done through a program of work devoted to passing on the ideas that Nicoll had gathered and passed them on through his talks given weekly to his own study groups.
Many of these talks were recorded verbatim and documented in a six-volume series of texts compiled in his books Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.
Nicoll also authored books and stories about his experiences in the Middle East using the pseudonym Martin Swayne.
Though Nicoll advocated the theories of the Fourth Way he also maintained interests in essential Christian teachings, in Neoplatonism and in dream interpretation until the end of his life.
Nicoll was born at the Manse in Kelso, Scotland, the son of William Robertson Nicoll, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He studied science at Cambridge before going on to St. Bartholomew's Hospital and then to Vienna, Berlin, and Zurich where he became a colleague of Carl Gustav Jung. Jung's psychological revelations and his own work with Jung during this period left a lasting influence on Nicoll as a young man.
After his Army Medical Service in the 1914 War, in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, he returned to England to become a psychiatrist. In 1921 he met Petr Demianovich Ouspensky, a student of G. I. Gurdjieff and he also became a pupil of Gurdjieff in the following year. In 1923 when Gurdjieff closed down his Institute, Nicoll joined P.D. Ouspensky's group. In 1931 he followed Ouspensky's advice and started his own study groups in England. This was done through a program of work devoted to passing on the ideas that Nicoll had gathered and passed them on through his talks given weekly to his own study groups.
Many of these talks were recorded verbatim and documented in a six-volume series of texts compiled in his books Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.
Nicoll also authored books and stories about his experiences in the Middle East using the pseudonym Martin Swayne.
Though Nicoll advocated the theories of the Fourth Way he also maintained interests in essential Christian teachings, in Neoplatonism and in dream interpretation until the end of his life.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 11, 2015
An unbelievably good book. Very significant and demands an immediate re-print.
An excellent book that combines Jungian psychology with the teachings of The Fourth Way as laid down by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. However this comes at it from an odd angle, in the sense that it ties transcendent psychology very closely to theories of the Fourth Dimensions, and attempts to dismantle materialism based, logically, on its dimensional limitations.
An excellent book that combines Jungian psychology with the teachings of The Fourth Way as laid down by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. However this comes at it from an odd angle, in the sense that it ties transcendent psychology very closely to theories of the Fourth Dimensions, and attempts to dismantle materialism based, logically, on its dimensional limitations.
June 7, 2019
a book that changed my life when I read it with a friend at the age of 18. I felt the power in words to transform my entire viewpoint of dimension.
March 28, 2021
Living Time offers a unique and inspiring perspective on yourselves and our relationship with time.
Nicoll draws a line between the material, outside world registered by our senses and the inner psychological world.
He shows how we are caught in "passing-time" and how we must live in the Now to have something of our own, and not just re-actions.
This is an important book and should be more well-known.
Nicoll draws a line between the material, outside world registered by our senses and the inner psychological world.
He shows how we are caught in "passing-time" and how we must live in the Now to have something of our own, and not just re-actions.
This is an important book and should be more well-known.
December 28, 2022
A hidden gem, in my opinion. Quite the lane-change from Nicoll's typical concise prose. This topic needs more unpacking than his usual unpacking of Gurdjieff's ideas because this book is more of him and his work than anyone else's. Hence, the difference in prose, I assume.
Anyways, if you want to dive even deeper off the deep end into your own work at the risk of more insanity, it's worth the time.
Anyways, if you want to dive even deeper off the deep end into your own work at the risk of more insanity, it's worth the time.
March 11, 2016
Profound in every way - mind-blowing really - a different way to look at our lives
March 17, 2019
Compelling. Confident. Conducive to growth.
October 2, 2024
Really is a sequel to Ouspensky’s New Model of the Universe. In there, Ouspensky discussed the implications of a living in a four dimensional universe and his theory of recurrence, amongst many other topics. In this book, Nicoll expounds on these two areas for most of the book.
Firstly, in we live in the three dimensions of space and time in a linear direction. However the fourth dimension would see all of time as a cohesive whole. There would be no linear direction here. That means death and annihilation are an illusion as we always exist in the singular all-time universe.
Secondly, he discusses Ouspensky’s theory of recurrence which says when we die we go back to relive our life over and over again. Most people do this repetition identically every time. Some nudge higher and higher and better themselves and some trend downwards. It felt a lot like a repackaging of Buddhism, except that you relive the same life over again instead of new lives.
He says meditating on these ideas can bring about a psychological shock to yourself where you can actually see the world and yourself in a new light. Regarding self-development and improvement, he says these are key ingredients. He also describes the false dichotomy between the outer and inner worlds.
As always, I love everything Nicoll writes. I felt unconvinced about his evidence about recurrence but feel it’s a good exercise nonetheless.
Firstly, in we live in the three dimensions of space and time in a linear direction. However the fourth dimension would see all of time as a cohesive whole. There would be no linear direction here. That means death and annihilation are an illusion as we always exist in the singular all-time universe.
Secondly, he discusses Ouspensky’s theory of recurrence which says when we die we go back to relive our life over and over again. Most people do this repetition identically every time. Some nudge higher and higher and better themselves and some trend downwards. It felt a lot like a repackaging of Buddhism, except that you relive the same life over again instead of new lives.
He says meditating on these ideas can bring about a psychological shock to yourself where you can actually see the world and yourself in a new light. Regarding self-development and improvement, he says these are key ingredients. He also describes the false dichotomy between the outer and inner worlds.
As always, I love everything Nicoll writes. I felt unconvinced about his evidence about recurrence but feel it’s a good exercise nonetheless.
July 16, 2021
Very rewarding, provocative rethinking of time.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews