Gurdjieff

George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff was born in the year 1866 in Alexandropol and died in Paris in 1949. He is described as a practical mystic who devoted the second part of his life to teaching his ideas which are set out in two books entitled, "All and Everything: Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson ", published in 1950, and "Meetings with Remarkable Men ", published in 1963.

In his youth he studied Science, Medicine and Theology but found that these disciplines could not answer his questions about the essential nature of humanity and our possibilities. He embarked on a search for ancient wisdom that took him to remote regions of the Middle East, Africa, India and Central Asia. He reappeared in Russia in 1912 with a distinctive and contemporary teaching, rooted in both Eastern and Western spiritual traditions.

During the Bolshevik Revolution, he found his way to Western Europe with a group of his students. He eventually settled near Paris and established the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. He continued to teach in Paris and New York until his death in 1949. Following his death, a core group of pupils, under the direction of Madame Jeanne de Salzmann, undertook responsibility for the transmission of the teaching. This group established centeres throughout the western world.