In Search of P.D. Ouspensky – The Genius in the Shadow of Gurdjieff

By Gary Lachman.

341 Pages | Second Quest Edition 2006 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 9780835608480.

'The Struggle with a Master of Mystery and Power'.

P.D. Ouspensky's brilliant work, In Search of the Miraculous, was the first to interpret the psychology of G.I.Gurdjieff, the early twentieth-century esoteric master, who still commands a global following today. Yet, Gurdjieff once dismissively described Ouspensky as 'nice to drink vodka with, but a weak man', and some consider their meeting the overwhelming catastrophe of Ouspensky's life.

This book highlights Ouspensky's own passionate mysticism, in stark contrast to Gurdjieff's idea of 'man as machine'. Ouspensky was an accomplished philosopher in his own right. What attracted him to Gurdjieff in the first place and why did he later reject him? Had Gurdjieff turned toward black magic? And why did Ouspensky continue teaching the ideas of a man he had repudiated?

The answers follow in a mystical adventure story, that will enthrall everyone interested in the farthest reaches of being human. This new edition includes an afterword on the author's own work in Gurdjieff's system.

From the Introduction (p. 1):

" The Seeker and the Sly Man

In 1915 a man of uncertain origin appeared in Moscow and gathered a core of devoted followers, students of his strange and unsettling system of esoteric doctrine and psychological development. In his mid-forties, with his shaved head, Mongol-like mustache, piercing eyes, and unnerving composure, he exuded an atmosphere of mystery, power, and knowledge, and those who had accepted him as their teacher followed his instructions without question. Eager to expand his operations, he placed an advertisement in in a Moscow newspaper announcing an unusual ballet entitled 'The Struggle of the Magicians'. The advertisement attracted the attention of a brilliant writer, who was himself a student of the occult, as well as a theoretician of the higher dimensions of consciousness. Recently the writer had returned from an extended journey to the East, where he had unsuccessfully sought out traces of forgotten knowledge and lost wisdom and his lectures on his travels attracted thousands, eager for a taste of worlds beyond. 

Approached by a student of the mysterious teacher, after much solicitation, the writer agreed to meet with the master. Yet the earnest seeker of Wisdom was dismayed to find that the place of his encounter was not one he might have expected. For it was not in an incense-filled Ashram of a holy guru, but in a cheap back-street cafe, frequented by prostitutes and petty thieves, that the writer P.D. Ouspensky first met the remarkable man G.I. Gurdjieff. Thus was set in motion the long, complex and fascinating history of the esoteric teaching known as 'The Fourth Way'. "