Paris Demonstrations December 1923

 Demonstrations de L´Institut Gurdjieff

Theatre des Champs Elysees

no System is comparable to it in power

No system of gnostic soteriological philosophy that has been published to the modern world is comparable to it in power and intellectual articulation.

Philip Mairet on Gurdjieffs Ideas

John Carswell on Gurdjieff

What he possessed and in abnormal measure were energy, self-confidence and control over his passions.

He had the power of controlled fury which commands instant obedience.

John Carswell - Lives and Letters p.185

words are too weak to describe him

The secret of that personality that so strongly affected us all is hard to define; words to describe him are too weak, or incomplete or too passive.

He was quiet, but the quiet was a smouldering fire that might suddenly flare up with a scorching flame that made us shrink away in startled silence. He was gentle, but when he wished us to learn a lesson that could not be taught by soft and comfortable methods, he was ruthless in his demands and scathing in his condemnation of our failures. He had studied much, and had learned at first hand about such things as the religious basis of the dances of the dervishes.

He was scornful of wordy analysis of philosophical ideas, and his own ideas were always expressed clearly, even crudely, with the earthiness of his peasant stoc ,and seemed to come out of his personal experience and contemplation. Verbosity he always condemned, and in the early days particularly that of Ouspensky, who was an effortless, brilliant but wordy talker.

Anna Butkowsky Hewitt - With Gurdjieff in St.Petersburg and Paris p.142

The Seers School

A school called “The Seers", this school has existed since time immemorial in large artificial caves in Kafirstan, on the heights of Kidjera(Kijera/Kidgera). 

from a introduction to the Gurdjieff Movements in 1923

will be better than an angel

In answer to a remark from someone Gurdjieff began to speak about ‘silly angels’ and said that if a man works on himself and purges himself of undesirable elements he will be better than an angel, a being with more understanding and experience.

C.S. Nott - Teachings of Gurdjieff p.107

Sarmoung Enneagram in the Gurdjieff Movie

Gurdjieffs Stop Exercise 1923

Gurdjieffs uniqueness

The more I saw of Gurdjieff the more convinced I became of his uniqueness. He had qualities which I had never seen in anybody else; profound knowledge, immense vitality and complete immunity from fear.

Gurdjieff once said: 'I have very good leather to sell to those who want to make shoes out of it'.

Dr. Kenneth Walker - Venture with Ideas

necessary to hide one's light

He stated that, contrary to the principles expressed in the "Sermon on the Mount", as it was frequently interpreted, it was necessary to "hide one's light" from the ignorant and the uninitiated as they would only, quite automatically, attempt to destroy any such "light" or 'knowledge"; however, it was equally important not to hide that same knowledge or "light" from oneself and from others who were working seriously and honestly towards the same goals of self-development and proper growth.

Fritz Peters - Gurdjieff Remembered (Chapter X)

What happened to Alexander Petrov after 1918?

...Gurdjieff’s group in Moscow. Among them was Alexander Nikanorovich Petrov, one of the chief pupils there. Physically, he was like a healthy young bull, and, as I came to learn, he had a very intelligent mind and was highly gifted in mathematics and engineering.

He was one of Mr. Gurdjieff’s favourite pupils, with whom he worked much on selfconcentration and self-observation.

...the others went to Maikop, where Petrov became director of a state school. Mr Gurdjieff asked him to come to Tiflis when we went there, but he did not come. And when the Bolsheviks again conquered the whole northern Caucasus, he returned to Moscow. Soon, even correspondence with him became impossible.

all quotes are from Hartmann´s - Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff,

please comment if you have any information on Petrov´s life after returning to Moscow about 1918