Over one hundred years ago in Russia, G. I. Gurdjieff introduced a spiritual teaching of conscious evolution—a way of gnosis or “knowledge of being” passed on from remote antiquity. Gurdjieff’s early talks in Europe were published in the form of chronological fragments preserved by his close followers P. D. Ouspensky and Jeanne de Salzmann. Now these teachings are presented as a comprehensive whole, covering a variety of subjects including states of consciousness, methods of self-study, spiritual work in groups, laws of the cosmos, and the universal symbol known as the Enneagram. Gurdjieff respected traditional religious practices, which he regarded as falling into three general categories or “ways”: the Way of the Fakir, related to mastery of the physical body; the Way of the Monk, based on faith and feeling; and the Way of the Yogi, which focuses on development of the mind. He presented his teaching as a “Fourth Way” that integrates these three aspects into a single path of self-knowledge. The principles are laid out as a way of knowing and experiencing an awakened level of being that must be verified for oneself.

An important book on liberating ourselves from the state of “waking sleep” in which we live our lives, as taught by one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the 20th century As the closest pupil of the charismatic spiritual master G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949), Jeanne de Salzmann was charged with carrying on his teachings of spiritual transformation. Known as the Fourth Way or “The Work,” Gurdjieff’s system was based on teachings of the East that he adapted for modern life in the West. Now, some twenty years after de Salzmann's death, the notebooks that she filled with her insights over a forty-year period (and intended to publish) have been translated and edited by a small group of her family and followers. The result is this long-awaited guide to Gurdjieff's teaching, describing the routes to be traveled and the landmarks encountered along the way. Organized according to themes, the chapters touch on all the important concepts and practices of the Work, including: • Awakening from the sleep of identification with the ordinary level of being • Self-observation and self-remembering • Conscious effort and voluntary suffering • Understanding symbolic concepts like the Enneagram • The Gurdjieff Movements, bodily exercises that provide training in Presence and the awareness of subtle energies • The necessity of a "school," meaning the collective practice of the teaching in a group Madame de Salzmann brings to the Work her own strong, direct language and personal journey in learning to live that knowledge of a higher level of being, which, she insists, “you have to see for yourself” on a level beyond theory and concept. De Salzmann consistently refused to discuss the teaching in terms of ideas, for this Fourth Way is to be experienced, not simply thought or believed.

When Maurice Nicholl was studying in Zurich, he met Jung, and Ouspensky. He went on to study with Gurdjieff, and from 1931 to his death in 1953, he began at Ouspensky's request, a programme of work devoted to passing on the ideas he had received. Reissued in hard cover, these five unedited commentaries are taken from the weekly lectures and talks Nicoll gave to his students in England and which were recorded verbatim; the sixth volume is an index produced by the Gurdjieff society Washington DC. These differ from Nicholl's more polished works - they are more concerned with directly applying certain deep ideas to daily life.

This book recounts P. D. Ouspensky's first meeting and subsequent association with George Gurdjieff. It is widely regarded as perhaps the most comprehensive account of Gurdjieff's system of thought available. Many followers regard it as a "fundamental textbook" of Gurdjieff's teachings and it is often used as a means of introducing new students to Gurdjieff's system of self-development.

Detailed, practical application of the Fourth Way system of psychological self-awareness and the process of living from higher levels of consciousness. The Teaching is a specific methodology for the perennial wisdom from Christianity and other religions on the "purification of the heart". Based in part on actual teaching transcripts, this book offers a rare opportunity for readers to apply.

The central illusion is that we "know self." People think that they possess capacities which in reality they do not. Primary illusions concern the faculties of consciousness, the unity of I, the possession of will (the capacity to do) and the existence of the soul. The fourth way psychology begins with a study of humans as they are under the conditions of mechanical life and describes the psychology of man's possible evolution. Humans can awaken, experience higher states of consciousness, achieve a unity of "I" and will, and attain the soul. If we understand our illusions, then there is a chance of escape, of awakening and evolution. According to Beelzebub, the central character in G.'s Tales, the three-brained beings on planet Earth are microcosmoses or "similitudes of the Whole." As such, they have the possibility of not only serving local cosmic purposes, feeding the earth and moon as part of organic life on earth, but of experiencing sacred being-impulses, attaining levels of objective reason and individuality and even of "blending again with the infinite." (1950) A human being can potentially coat higher being-bodies for the life of the soul, instinctually sense cosmic truths and phenomena, and maintain existence within the subtle realms of being after death-achieving different levels of immortality. Unfortunately, humankind came to exist only in waking sleep states of automated consciousness, perceiving reality topsy-turvy, conditioned by pleasure and self love, and wasteful of their sacred sexual substances. Human beings no longer realize their deeper cosmic purposes and possibilities, or attain real "I." Psychological Illusions explores the psychology, metaphysics and cosmology of the fourth way teaching. This includes material on the Ray of Creation, the fundamental cosmic laws, the alchemical crystallization of higher being-bodies and the miraculous possibilities existing for the evolution of the individual human being.