Gurdjieff, George Ivanovitch (1872?–1949) Born George S. Georgiades in Russia, mystic George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff gained a large following in Russia and France, where he established branches of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in 1919 and 1922, respectively. This institute promoted Gurdjieff ’s teachings, which he said he had developed based on encounters with Eastern mystics in regard to the occult and to the meaning and nature of life and the universe. Gurdjieff also wrote numerous books related to his mystical teachings, including All and Everything and Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson: An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man.
His writings, however, were extremely difficult to understand; in fact, his critics called them gibberish. Much of what is known of Gurdjieff’s beliefs has come through the efforts of Gurdjieff ’s protégé, Petyr Demianovich Ouspensky, who became a noted mystic himself. Ouspensky translated Gurdjieff’s teachings for Western audiences in such books as In Search of the Miraculous— Fragments of an Unknown Teaching and Answers to Questions Based on the Teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff.
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The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of Paranormal Phenomena – written by Patricia D. Netzley © 2006 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning