In Search of the Miraculous: The Definitive Exploration of G. I. Gurdjieff's Mystical Thought and Universal View (Harvest Book)

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Ultimately, Ann Hood discovered the courage to accept what had come her way, and an appreciation for the faith in miracles. Tina Flintoff said: “Simon is a unique talent and has a genuine passion for this subject – I’m really looking forward to seeing how he engages with some of the world’s most extraordinary people. Interspersed with this are some interesting personal observations of how Gurdjieff conducted his practice and any special effects of the teachings that the student Ouspensky experienced (which is very little). This is in sharp contrast to the writings of Gurdjieff himself, such as Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, where the ideas and precepts of Gurdjieff's teachings are found very deeply veiled in allegory.

This teaching still exists today in various forms; Ouspensky himself taught it to various groups from 1921–1947. Gurdjieff's talks about attaining true consciousness reminds me of David Foster Wallace's famous speech 'This is Water'.Several chapters in the book detail at length the promise potential, and reality of 'bio-prospecting'- or the exploration of diverse environments for novel molecules with beneficial biological and medicinal activity. Ken Kessler covers the Paris Audio Video Show, while Harris Fogel and I report on Capital Audiofest. I listen to the Analogue Productions 45 RPM vinyl edition of the landmark Genesis album, Selling England by the Pound, as well as some excellent vinyl reissues from Rhino High Fidelity.

This is the idea of the “three foods” of man, and much of the Gurdjieff teaching is understandable only on the basis of this idea—for example, the reason he places complete emphasis on consciousness as seeing, rather than on efforts of man to make changes in himself. The resulting picture of Gurdjieff is of a man obviously possessing immense wisdom and personal power, capable at once of painfully stripping away the pupil’s “mask” while carefully guiding him through the emotional and bodily experiences necessary for the process of deep learning. Unbeknown to Ouspensky, a Russian émigré by the name of Nicholas Bessarabof took a copy of Tertium Organum to America and placed it in the hands of the architect Claude Bragdon, who could read Russian and was interested in the fourth dimension.All in all, it seems likely to me that Gurdjieff was a charismatic charlatan, but this is an interesting look into an alternative worldview set with a backdrop of war and revolution. The worst parts involve ridiculous theories about the universe's origins, strange interpretations for chemical interactions and how they fit in with made-up conceptual models like the 'Octaves', 'Law of three', 'energy transformation', and other not-very-useful conceptual theories. Like the idea of the centers, once the ideas of the law of three forces and the law of the octave are introduced they become a permanent part of all future discussion. The purpose of this paper is to discuss various aspects of the development of the places of apparitions and miraculous images, motives and behavioral characteristics of pilgrims coming to the miraculous places of the Virgin Mary in Lithuania.

When you take "everything" as your objective, and then flavor your route to that objective with a complex system of changes in focus, apparent dead-ends in thinking, and a multitude of different approaches in descriptive terminology, you wind up disappointing people who have just come from reading one of the most "miraculous" accounts ever written in Tertium Organum. although it was crammed with interesting facts, it was written more like a text book manual and did not contain enough personal aspects of his journey - it was like one barrage of facts after another. For instance, the idea that war is caused by the uncomfortable proximity of certain planets at certain times seems to be more an illustration of the way mass movements are the result of mechanical forces. Maybe someday I will have the extra time, stubbornness, and lack of other things to do, to actually finish this book. Some, including his close pupil Rodney Collin, say that he finally gave up the system in 1947, just before his death, but his own recorded words on the subject ("A Record of Meetings", published posthumously) do not clearly endorse this judgement, nor does Ouspensky's emphasis on "you must make a new beginning" after confessing "I've left the system".

It is thus easier and faster, but also, in another sense, far more difficult than the traditionally recognized methods of self-development. A blurb about her book: “ NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In her stunning debut, the creator of Black Liturgies weaves stories from three generations of her family alongside contemplative reflections to discover the “necessary rituals” that connect us with our belonging, dignity, and liberatio n.