Gurdjieff: Essays and Reflections on the Man and His Teachings

by Jacob Needleman

"This 449-page collection of essays on the life of the famous (or infamous) George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff could serve as the definitive tome on the eccentric and enigmatic teacher"

464 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1995

About the author

Jacob Needleman is Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University, former Visiting Professor at Duxx Graduate School of Business Leadership in Monterrey, Mexico, and former Director of the Center for the study of New Religions at The Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He was educated in philosophy at Harvard, Yale and the University of Freiburg, Germany. He has also served as Research Associate at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, as a Research Fellow at Union Theological Seminary, as Adjunct Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of California Medical School and as guest Professor of Religious Studies at the Sorbonne, Paris (1992).

Reviews

[Vicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a very complex text with different approaches to Gurdjieff mysterious writing. Each author talked about various aspects of his teaching. Some of them were very difficult to comprehend. This book made me want to read more about Gurdjieef and his Work.

[Dean Paradiso · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of essays and second hand writings related to Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and the usual set of original characters of The Fourth Way, set up last century. Many are also students of De Salzmann, and offer that perspective when speaking about The Fourth Way, movements, philosophy etc. A few met Gurdjieff and speak about their experiences staying with him in France. Overall, the volume made interesting reading for me, though quite supplementary rather than necessary in understanding/practicing Fourth Way work. There's some amount of repeated information from other works like ISOTM, VFTRW etc. There are a few pages out of the several hundred or so that actually speak practically about self-observation or self-remembering, rather than just perpetuating the legend of Gurdjieff and the applications of some of the "Laws" and theoretical FW cosmology that takes up so much mental energy in these sorts of works.