Of all relationships, that between teacher and student is the most mysterious, most rewarding. That between Gurdjieff and Uspenskii (P. D. Ouspensky), two of the seminal spiritual figures of the twentieth century, was titanic, archetypal. By closely observing their interaction, we come to understand the pattern of discoveries, resistances, and rebellions – the deep inner and outer struggle that marks every teacher-student relationship, whatever the path. 
How and why a student of Uspenskii’s caliber broke with his teacher, his slow descent, but ultimate breakthrough, offers a deep and profound study that reveals the defining moments and trigger events intrinsic to the process of transformation. The material in this book, much of it new and drawn from original sources, published and unpublished, along with the author’s insights and original reading of documents, provides a new and revolutionary dimension to the understanding of Gurdjieff, Uspenskii, and the Fourth Way work. 
Gurdjieff came to the West because, as he said, "Unless the ‘wisdom’ of the East and the ‘energy’ of the West meet and are used harmoniously, the world will destroy itself". He came to establish an ancient teaching, newly formulated for our time, one specifically calibrated to the stress and uncertainties of the technological world, Unlike the traditional three ways which focus on the body, emotions, or the mind, the Fourth Way uses the ordinary world to work. A rational and scientific approach – shorn of all "religiosity" and presented in an objective language – the Fourth Way uses the shocks, negativity and suffering of ordinary life to come to real Life.

Struggle of the Magicians: Exploring the Teacher Student Relationship

Self-Help

Patterson, William Patrick

Personal Transformation

Arete Pubns

A lucid and compelling account of conflict and charlatanism surrounding the Gurdjieff Work, one of the most important alternative spiritual movements of our day. The first book to explore one of the taboo subjects of our time—spiritual theft, distortion and appropriation—Patterson details and documents how a principal symbol of the teaching has been stolen and commercialized by the so-called enneagram community; how Robert Burton, founder of the Fellowship of Friends, distorted the teaching; and how Mouravieff, a Russian esotericist, plagiarized and appropriated it.

Taking With the Left Hand: Enneagram Craze, People of the Bookmark, & The Mouravieff "Phenomenon"

Literature & Fiction

Essays & Correspondence

Arete Communications

This is the first book to examine the Rope, the special ladies-only group of spiritual seekers that G. I. Gurdjieff formed on Paris' Left Bank. All lesbians, except one, the group included such people as Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap, co-editors of the Little Review, the archetype of all avant garde literary magazines; Kathryn Hulme, author of The Nuns's Story and Undiscovered Country; Solita Solano, author, editor and companion of Janet Flanner who wrote for The New Yorker as Genet; and Georgette Leblanc, diva, actress and mistress of Maurice Maeterlinck, the Belgian playwright best known for The Blue Bird. 
During his thirty-seven years of work in the West, Gurdjieff's creation of the Rope remains his most enigmatic. Recognizing, at the turn of the century, that the world would destroy itself unless there was an awakening in the West, he understood that a fundamental shock had to be applied. Although the Fourth Way was rooted in Tradition, nevertheless, he intentionally introduced this ancient esoteric teaching to the uninitiated. 
Breaking vows of secrecy, in the hope that the originality, scale and practicality of the teaching would arouse enough people to undergo the rigors of self-awakening, he understood that he would be castigated by initiates and the uninitiated alike. That he took an even further risk and introduced the teaching to the ladies of the Rope is a subject which until now has never been examined. The conclusions reached by the author about why Gurdjieff created the Rope are as original as they are surprising and will be of serious interest to those involved with feminine spirituality in all its many forms.

Ladies of the Rope: Gurdjieff's Special Left Bank Women's Group

Politics & Social Sciences

Allen, Barbara C.

Women's Studies

2007 Expanded edition. Includes a gallery of 17 paintings depicting different stages in the journey. The search for one s real self is a sacred quest, an archetypal journey, whereby the seeker eats through the web of illusory "I's" that mask his or her real self-identity. In our times, this search has rarely been reported in such a candid and compelling manner as it is in William Patrick Patterson s book Eating the "I". Dispirited and disappointed in life, the author s life dramatically changes when he is introduced to the esoteric teachings of the Fourth Way - the way of transformation in ordinary life. Unique to this rich and practical teaching is its insistence that the student's negativity and confusion are the sources of his awakening. Life's shocks and uncertainty - that which he is most trying to avoid - are in fact that which can help him to awaken. Writing on many levels, and in the strong vibrant voice of a natural storyteller, Patterson describes his twelve-year search that takes him from secret meetings in a Manhattan townhouse, to the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico, to Dublin and the Aran Islands, to England s Lake District and a medieval Scottish chapel, to his boarding of Allan Watt's S.S Vallejo and discovery of the "Holy Fool". Into his life come many memorable and powerful people: Trungpa, a Tibetan Master of Crazy Wisdom; Vali, a beautiful and enticing witch; Casey, a Jungian painter; and Stanley, an arch-adversary. Yet by far the most remarkable and unforgettable of all remains the man chosen by Gurdjieff to lead the Fourth Way in America, Lord John Pentland. Eating the "I" shows how the pressures, conflicts and uncertainties of the technological world actively serve our awakening. Life is used to come to Life.

Eating the I: An Account of the Fourth Way-The Way of Transformation in Ordinary Life (In Search of the Self)

Philosophy

Struggle of the Magicians: Why Uspenskii Left Gurdjieff : Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship

Religion & Spirituality

Religious Studies

What is it like to suddenly be occupied by a foreign nation, to live in the uncertainty of never having enough food and fuel, not knowing if friends are informers, being defenseless, and in a constant state of danger? 
What would you do? How would you cope? Would you collaborate with the Gestapo? Become a spy? Join the Resistance? These questions weren’t philosophical but immediate questions that the people of Occupied France had to deal with after their defeat by the Germans. 
From many sides, Voices in the Dark explores what it is like to live under such oppression. It lets the voices of those who experienced this period of radical upheaval be heard – ordinary citizens, soldiers, statesmen, both French and German, seekers of truth. Using this panoramic approach, the author brings crucial questions to life that still resonate with meaning. 
Explored is the little recognized but powerful influence of the pseudo-occult in the ideology of the New European Order. Included are actual transcripts of the wartime meetings of G. I. Gurdjieff in Paris.

Voices in the Dark: Esoteric, Occult & Secular Voices in Nazi-Occupied Paris, 1940-44

History

World

The Life & Teachings of Carlos Castaneda demystifies what Castaneda sought to hide and delivers a detailed portrait of an enigmatic, driven seeker that passes beyond mere description to the very assemblage point of Carlos Castaneda. It is the first book published since Castaneda's death in 1998 to assess the meaning of his life both as a person and a Nagual, and, more importantly, to examine his ideas and their unrecognized primary source. Drawing on an original reading of texts and research, as well as his thirty years study and practice of esotericism, William Patrick Patterson uncovers the underlying threads that weave themselves like snakes through the fledgling Peruvian anthropologist's life, ones which led him to forsake his European intellectual membership for that of the dark world of sorcery and "break the human mold" to become a Nagual. Explored, too, are the questions of who don Juan really was and what actually happened with the jump into the abyss. The main ideas salted throughout Castaneda's ten major books are succinctly summarized and then compared idea-for-idea with those of an ancient, esoteric teaching to show how Castaneda disguised his source by giving the ideas a sorceric twist. Carlos Castaneda's books, particularly his early ones, showed a great narrative gift, often poetic, verging on the archetypal. His descriptions of his sorceric relationship with don Juan touched the hearts and minds of millions of readers. Patterson does justice to this and Castaneda's seriousness, intent and courage, but he also depicts Castaneda's descent in which he, the arch trickster, tricked himself into believing that the inner silence and attention of the Nagual had emptied him of his person. Self-blinded to his ambivalence toward women, fear of men and need for total power, Castaneda sought to control all aspects of his students lives, creating a rigid hierarchy, cultivating jealousies and secrecy and playing sexual power games, all in the name of breaking the human mold which would free them to travel to inorganic worlds. When Castaneda's death, the so-called trigger event, occurred, three of the four witches disappeared, the remains of one only recently found in Death Valley. The other two are assumed to have also committed suicide. There is much to be learned from the many aspects and phases of Castaneda's life that every sincere seeker could long ponder. Hardcover, chronology, notes, index, appendices.

The Life & Teachings of Carlos Castaneda

Book by PATTERSON, WILLIAM PATRICK

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Books by Patterson, William Patrick

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Patterson, William Patrick. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Struggle of the Magicians: Exploring the Teacher Student Relationship

Taking With the Left Hand: Enneagram Craze, People of the Bookmark, & The Mouravieff "Phenomenon"

Ladies of the Rope: Gurdjieff's Special Left Bank Women's Group

Eating the I: An Account of the Fourth Way-The Way of Transformation in Ordinary Life (In Search of the Self)

Struggle of the Magicians: Why Uspenskii Left Gurdjieff : Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship

Voices in the Dark: Esoteric, Occult & Secular Voices in Nazi-Occupied Paris, 1940-44

The Life & Teachings of Carlos Castaneda

Voices in the Dark: Esoteric, Occult & Secular Voices in Nazi-Occupied Paris, 1940-44