George Yvanovich Gurdjieff 1866-1949

Gurdjieff is widely regarded as the leading figure who introduced the fundamental knowledge of the system of The Fourth Way to the West. The specifics of Gurdjieff’s early life are unknown, although he is believed to have spent his early adulthood, traveling throughout Egypt, The Middle East, India, and Central Asia. On his travels, he supposedly studied many spiritual traditions, from which he derived much of his knowledge.

In 1913, Gurdjieff relocated to Moscow and began teaching the knowledge he acquired on his travels, before returning to the Caucasus with the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917. Although no one questions the importance of the knowledge that Gurdjieff brought to the philosophical table, many people question whether Gurdjieff was just a sleek charlatan, or indeed, a genius esoteric guru. This remains a question that cannot be answered with unequivocal certainty, so it is fair to say that Gurdjieff is not a completely uncontroversial person.

Then again, history shows that this controversy often affects spiritual leaders of some importance, a reaction that the system of the fourth way attributes to the mechanical nature of mankind and as a mechanical expression of negative emotions. A wide variety of extraordinary stories circulate, not in the least prompted by the actions of Gurdjieff himself, that show the somewhat eccentric whereabouts of Gurdjieff .

It is certain that Gurdjieff had a reputation as someone who could appropriately transmit new knowledge and skills with a certain ease, a talent he was able to turn to his advantage in various ways, as he himself, for example, reports in “Meetings with Remarkable Men”. Gurdjieff never revealed the exact source of the system, apart from that, he had received this special knowledge from “schools” or “monasteries” on his travels through the Middle East. The reason Gurdjieff did not want to reveal his sources, remains a mystery, although it is increasingly clear that the Fourth Way system stands in the tradition of both Western Esotericism and Indian Advaita Vedanta.