GURDJIEFF AND HYPNOSIS by the same author Advancing Utopistics: The Three Component Parts and Errors of Marxism (2007) ———————————————— “Tamdgidi sets a benchmark for Gurdjieff Studies in relation to two recognized but insufficiently explored areas, his writings as a unified field and his exploitation of hypnosis in its broadest sense. His compact interpretation of Gurdjieff emphasizes—for the first time—a search for meaning based on recognizable keys within about 1,800 pages of Gurdjieff’s four texts as a single body of work, with particular focus on subliminal and subconscious dimensions of impact and interpretation, an approach which might be termed the ‘Hermeneutics of Gurdjieff.’ Thus, Tamdgidi’s work is an important original contribution to the constructive, independent, and critical study of Gurdjieff’s four books. Anyone who has seriously attempted to read Beelzebub’s Tales orMeetings with Remarkable Men can vouch for their intentionally beguiling or ‘hypnotic’ effect. These readers will appreciate Tamdgidi’s interpretive virtuosity and focus—he keeps each tree and the entire forest in sight throughout.” —From the Foreword by J. Walter Driscoll, independent scholar and bibliographer; editor and contributing author, Gurdjieff: A Reading Guide, 3rd Ed. (2004); contributing editor, Gurdjieff International Review (1997–2001); co-author, Gurdjieff: An Annotated Bibliography (1985) ———————————— “A wondrous odyssey and extraordinary argumentation! Nothing in the corpus of writings on Gurdjieff's works goes near to matching this masterful reading. Each time one looks back into the text, one finds more gold, no dross.” —Paul Beekman Taylor, Professor Emeritus at the University of Geneva, and author of G. I. Gurdjieff: A New Life;Gurdjieff's Invention of America; The Philosophy of G. I. Gurdjieff;Gurdjieff & Orage: Brothers in Elysium; and Shadows of Heaven: Gurdjieff and Toomer ———————————— “In the ocean of literature on Gurdjieff, the brilliant book of Mohammad Tamdgidi has a very special place. It is the first serious academic attempt at a hermeneutics of Gurdjieff's texts, taking as key the core of Gurdjieff's teaching— the enneagram. Of course, Gurdjieff's teaching cannot be understood apart from its practice. But it is also true that this teaching cannot be understood without a rigorous study of the writings of Gurdjieff himself.” —Basarab Nicolescu, author of Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity GURDJIEFF AND HYPNOSIS ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– A Hermeneutic Study MOHAMMAD H. TAMDGIDI Foreword by J. Walter Driscoll GURDJIEFF AND HYPNOSIS Copyright © Mohammad H. Tamdgidi, 2009 Foreword © J. Walter Driscoll, 2009 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-61507-6 All rights reserved. Excerpts from All and Everything: Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, by G. I. Gurdjieff, 1950 edition, courtesy of Triangle Editions, Inc. • Excerpts from Meetings with Remarkable Men, by G. I. Gurdjieff, 1978 edition, courtesy of Triangle Editions, Inc. • Excerpts from Life Is Real Only Then, When “I Am,” by G. I. Gurdjieff, 1991 edition, courtesy of Triangle Editions, Inc. • Excerpts from Views from the Real World, 1984 edition, Courtesy of Triangle Editions, Inc. • Excerpts from personal communications appearing in footnotes of this book, courtesy of J. Walter Driscoll • Excerpts from “Inventors of Gurdjieff” (2004), courtesies of Paul Beekman Taylor and Gurdjieff International Review • Excerpts from “Hermeneutic Inquiry: Paying Heed to History and Hermes” (2002), courtesy of Nancy J. Moules • Excerpts from “Bridging the Gap Between Understanding and Explanation Approaches to the Study of Religion” (1986), courtesy of Steven D. Kepnes. First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLANTM in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-37871-5 ISBN 978-0-230-10202-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230102026 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: December 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 for my beloved father Mohammed (Ahad) Tamjidi (1930–2007) and mother Tayyebeh Tamjidi It all ended thus, that I decided to take an oath before my own essence, in a state of mind known to me, never again to make use of this property of mine. I must also mention that, when I took the oath not to apply in life this inherency of mine, I made a reservation that my oath should not concern the application of it for scientific purposes. (L:26) —Gurdjieff, Life is Real Only Then, When “I Am” –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– “And in doing this, they criticize exactly that humble and honest learned being of their planet [Mesmer], who, if he had not been pecked to death would have revived that science, which alone is absolutely necessary to them and by means of which alone, perhaps, they might be saved from the consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer.” (B:562) —Gurdjieff, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– At the close of this [film titled “Two Brothers”], what I should call, “general hypnotic- process” in order to fix firmly some formerly suggested ideas, I, “hobbling” and supported by my companions, returned to the Cafe de la Paix, which later became my Paris “office”, and regaining my calm, began to form in my mind the outline of the scenario which I have called “The Three Brothers.” (H:43–4) —Gurdjieff, The Herald of Coming Good –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– This procedure, as was evident when I later understood it, was an extremely original means for development of the mind and for self-perfecting. They called it kastousilia, a term derived, it seems to me, from the ancient Assyrian, and which my father evidently took from some legend. This procedure was as follows: One of them would unexpectedly ask the other a question, apparently quite out of place, and the other, without haste, would calmly and seriously reply with logical plausibility. … These questions and answers were carried on in a serious and quiet tone as though one of them were asking the price of potatoes today and the other replying that the potato crop was very poor this year. Only later did I understand what rich thoughts were concealed beneath such questions and answers. (M:38) —Gurdjieff, Meetings with Remarkable Men CONTENTS viii List of Figures viii List of Abbreviations ix Foreword by J. Walter Driscoll xv Prologue xxiv Acknowledgments 1 IntroductionGURDJIEFF, HYPNOSIS,AND HERMENEUTICS 28 Chapter OnePHILOSOPHY: ONTOLOGYOFTHE HARMONIOUS UNIVERSE 52 Chapter TwoPHILOSOPHY: PSYCHOLOGYOFA “TETARTOCOSMOS” 70 Chapter ThreePHILOSOPHY: EPISTEMOLOGYOF “THREE-BRAINED BEINGS” 88 Chapter FourTHE “ORGAN KUNDABUFFER” THEORYOF HUMAN DISHARMONIZATION 113 Chapter FiveTHE PRACTICEOF “HARMONIOUS DEVELOPMENTOF MAN” 137 Chapter SixLIFE IS REAL ONLY THEN, WHEN “I AM” NOT HYPNOTIZED 177 Chapter SevenMEETINGSWITHTHE REMARKABLE HYPNOTIST 207 Chapter EightBEELZEBUB’S HYPNOTIC TALESTO HIS GRANDSON 224 ConclusionGURDJIEFF’S ROUNDABOUT YEZIDI CIRCLE 237 Appendix TEXTUAL CHRONOLOGYOF GURDJIEFF’S LIFE 253 Bibliography 259 Index FIGURES 37 Figure 1.1 Post-Creation Functioning of the Two Fundamental Laws 39 Figure 1.2 Pre-Creation Functioning of the Two Fundamental Laws 39 Figure 1.3 Pre- and Post-Creation Diagrams of the Two Laws Superimposed 42 Figure 1.4 The Triadic System of Octaves Each Beginning at Successive Shock Points 47 Figure 1.5 The First Outer Cycle of the Law of Seven as Enacted in the Process of Creation 50 Figure 1.6 “Centers of Gravity” Crystallizations in a Tetartocosmos 61 Figure 2.1 The Three Food Circuits in the Human Organism 62 Figure 2.2 The Common Enneagram of Food, Air, and Impression Assimilation Octaves in the Human Organism 74 Figure 3.1 Diagrammatic Representation of Gurdjieff’s Conception of the Three Totalities Comprising the Human Organism 79 Figure 3.2 Gurdjieff’s Conception of the Possibility of Self-Conscious Human Existence as Built into the Fundamental Outer Enneagram of World Creation and Maintenance 102 Figure 4.1 Gurdjieff’s “Organ Kundabuffer” Theory of Human Disharmonization 146–47 Figure 6.1 Chronology of Gurdjieff’s Writing Period 184 Figure 7.1 Gurdjieff’s Definition of Remarkableness and Its Aspects 185 Figure 7.2 The Developmental Enneagram of Gurdjieff’s Life as Influenced through Meetings with Remarkable Men as Presented in the Second Series 235 Figure C.1The Enneagram of Crystallization and Decrystallization of the Hypnotic “Psychic Factor” through the Three Series as a Whole ABBREVIATIONS B (or Beelzebub) Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson: An Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man (All and Everything, First Series) M (or Meetings) Meetings with Remarkable Men (All and Everything, Second Series) L (or Life) Life Is Real Only Then, When “I Am” (All and Everything, Third Series) H (or Herald) The Herald of Coming Good FOREWORD G. I. Gurdjieff (circa 1870 to 1949) remains as enigmatic as the inscriptionless and inscrutable pair of dolmans which have guarded his family plot in Fontainebleau for sixty years. A polyglot and privately tutored autodidactic from obscure Greek-Armenian parentage in the Russian occupied southern slopes of the Caucasus of the late nineteenth century, he emerged as a self-vaunting and unorthodox yet remarkably able choreographer, composer, hypnotherapist, memoirist, mythologist, novelist, philosopher, and psychologist. Gurdjieff tells us that by the mid 1890s his expeditionary band called ‘Seekers of Truth’ was engaged in scientific missions and monastic pilgrimages in remote regions of Central Asia, that his practical knowledge of hypnotism was deepening and that he had begun to give himself out “to be a ‘healer’ of all kinds of vices” (H:20). After more than a decade spent honing his discoveries in Europe, Africa, Russia and Central Asia, he adopted—as he characterized it—the “artificial life” of a hypnotist-magus around 1911–1912 (H:11–13, 63, 68). His avowed purpose in the twenty-one year undertaking that followed was to understand “the aim of human life” (H:1), to attract sufficient followers of every human type as subjects for observation and experiment and