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A review by xolotlll
In Search of the Miraculous: The Definitive Exploration of G. I. Gurdjieff's Mystical Thought and Universal View by P.D. Ouspensky
3.0
The first half of this book is very readable, straightforward, engaging and practical. Initially there were very few far-out claims, and I felt they were meant to be taken metaphorically. 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. But the book becomes more and more obtuse and really goes downhill after Ouspensky introduces this strange pretend chemistry that's way too precise and detailed to not be taken literally. It talks about 'hydrogens' and has the airs of an actual science, but is totally void of empirical justification. It's tedious and slightly embarrassing nonsense, and I don't see any value to it.
Repeated characterisations of people as machines are particularly poignant against the background of WWI and the October Revolution in Russia, but sometimes it's taken too far. There's occasionally this slightly distasteful sense that most of humankind are born dull and die dull, incapable of any sort of enlightenment or true consciousness. A quote: "[...] there are people who are definitely diseased, broken machines with whom nothing can be done. And such people are in the majority". Lovely, right? Also, it's somewhat suspicious that Ouspensky and Gurdjieff dedicate so much space to why you can't possibly attain freedom unless you become part of a group and obey a single leader unconditionally and unquestioningly.
This is inevitably Ouspensky's own interpretation of Gurdjieff's teachings, so although most of it is framed as direct quotation, I suspect he's included a lot of his own views just as Plato made Socrates a character in his own dialogues. Although this book was endorsed by Gurdjieff, it seems odd that the system insists on understanding being difficult to attain and then Ouspensky goes and puts large swathes of it in an easily digestible, 350-page novel. It stands in great contrast to Gurdjieff's own Beelzebub's Tales.
Having said all that, some of the ideas in this book are brilliant, like the concept of remembering oneself. Gurdjieff's talks about attaining true consciousness reminds me of David Foster Wallace's famous speech 'This is Water'. Some of the better ideas here also remind me of Steppenwolf. Like Hesse, Gurdjieff sees man as a plurality, and the singular 'I' as an illusion. There's also a deeply insightful discussion of the function of symbolism in art and esoteric systems near the end of the book. Ouspensky writes about how symbols are used as containers for meaning that can't be expressed through ordinary language. He also writes that approaching them with specific pre-conceived notions about their meaning in a real-world context only leads to a kind of confirmation bias and distorts or distracts from the essential meaning of the symbol.
Repeated characterisations of people as machines are particularly poignant against the background of WWI and the October Revolution in Russia, but sometimes it's taken too far. There's occasionally this slightly distasteful sense that most of humankind are born dull and die dull, incapable of any sort of enlightenment or true consciousness. A quote: "[...] there are people who are definitely diseased, broken machines with whom nothing can be done. And such people are in the majority". Lovely, right? Also, it's somewhat suspicious that Ouspensky and Gurdjieff dedicate so much space to why you can't possibly attain freedom unless you become part of a group and obey a single leader unconditionally and unquestioningly.
This is inevitably Ouspensky's own interpretation of Gurdjieff's teachings, so although most of it is framed as direct quotation, I suspect he's included a lot of his own views just as Plato made Socrates a character in his own dialogues. Although this book was endorsed by Gurdjieff, it seems odd that the system insists on understanding being difficult to attain and then Ouspensky goes and puts large swathes of it in an easily digestible, 350-page novel. It stands in great contrast to Gurdjieff's own Beelzebub's Tales.
Having said all that, some of the ideas in this book are brilliant, like the concept of remembering oneself. Gurdjieff's talks about attaining true consciousness reminds me of David Foster Wallace's famous speech 'This is Water'. Some of the better ideas here also remind me of Steppenwolf. Like Hesse, Gurdjieff sees man as a plurality, and the singular 'I' as an illusion. There's also a deeply insightful discussion of the function of symbolism in art and esoteric systems near the end of the book. Ouspensky writes about how symbols are used as containers for meaning that can't be expressed through ordinary language. He also writes that approaching them with specific pre-conceived notions about their meaning in a real-world context only leads to a kind of confirmation bias and distorts or distracts from the essential meaning of the symbol.