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Poster July 6, 1971
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This book is composed of fourteen lectures presented in four series over a period of 24 years from 1949, the last weeks of Gurdjieff’s earthly life. All the lectures have been published previously in different forms, and are assembled here in a single volume for convenience. It is hoped that this book will serve as a useful tool for introducing Gurdjieff, his ideas, teachings and methods to those who may be unfamiliar, such as friends, acquaintances and family members. The style is colloquial throughout, with very little ‘jargon’. 352 pages including 2 maps and 3 diagrams.
The digital version is somewhat simplified, having fewer notes and no index.
This book serves as a companion to the more general volume:Â Â Denison House Talks
Drawn from lectures and discussions taking place during a Summer School at Coombe Springs in August 1962, A Spiritual Psychology presents a model of psychology which synthesizes the work of Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and their schools, with elements of the Gurdjieff method, Subud practice and teachings of the Shivapuri Baba and Sufi teachers, all placed within the context of Bennett’s main work The Dramatic Universe. The book is arranged as a series of exercises leading to the self-knowledge which is a prerequisite for transformation. John Godolphin Bennett (1897-1974) was a soldier, technologist, linguist and spiritual teacher. At the time of his death he was Principle of the International Academy for Continuous Education, Sherborne, Gloucestershire, an experimental school based on the system of Bennett’s teacher G.I. Gurdjieff. The book is compiled as a progressive series of exercises leading to the profound self-knowledge which is the prerequisite of transformation, and understanding of the spiritual nature and work on oneself.
Anthony Blake and JG Bennett
For 40 years, since Deeper Man was first published, it has been widely recognised as one of the most reliable and cogent presentations of the ‘work ideas’ associated with Gurdjieff and the ‘fourth way’. Bennett devoted himself to making the ideas accessible to as wide a range of people as possible. He was always finding new ways of communicating what he saw as critically important: that people should become convinced of the reality of higher worlds but not regard them as far away, only of concern for rare, exceptional people.Based on some of the last lectures Bennett gave before his death in 1974, Deeper Man represents only half of what he hoped to include in a book he envisaged (‘Dig Deeper, Man!’). Even so, it ranges far and wide and includes a radical, new understanding of what Gurdjieff meant by the ‘centres’ in man. The book we have here, hopefully, expresses something of the great generosity of spirit which was a feature of this extraordinary man.
Excerpt: HAZARD
Witness: The Story of a Search
List Price: $19.95
Edition: 4
This is the story of a life of adventure and search, an account of meetings with great teachers, a love story, an inspirational tale of one of the greatest minds of the 20th century.
John Bennett (1897-1974) had not one career but several; starting his life as a soldier and spymaster in the early years of the Middle East conflicts, Bennett moved into - and failed - in the world of finance as an adventurer and entrepreneur. He reinvented himself as a world-leading technologist and director of research. All through his adult life, his outer life was on a parallel and sometimes divergent course to his inner spiritual search under the guidance of P.D. Ouspensky and G.I. Gurdjieff. After his career in the coal industry came to an abrupt end in his sixth decade, he entered the path of a single-minded seeker. For fifteen years, he travelled widely, seeking knowledge and sharing knowledge. Although he began a written account of his ideas in 1940, it was only in the last four years of his life that he declared his willingness to teach and worked intensively with large groups of students at his International Academy for Continuous Education. Subsequent history has revealed over end over that Bennett was ahead of his time, and that he developed and presented a vision of the next stage of evolution of humanity in the Synergic Epoch.
Publication Date: Apr 23 2017
ISBN/EAN13:1545300232 / 9781545300237
Page Count: 428
Kindle edition: Â WITNESS: THE STORY OF A SEARCH
Volume I ; The Foundations of Natural Philosophy
Volume II ; The Foundations of Moral Philosophy
Volume III ; Man and his Nature
Volume IV ; History
The Dramatic Universe builds an account of the significance and purpose of man’s existence on the earth, revealing a great task that necessitates a two-way communication with Higher Intelligences. The four volume work is a complete journey through J.G. Bennett’s search to give expression to the systematisation of the whole Universal drama.
Spanning fifty chapters from ‘Points of Departure’ to ‘The Next Age of Mind’, the Dramatic Universe provides a total unified picture of Man, the World, and God by synthesising the three domains of fact, value and harmony. This is achieved through a framework of determining conditions postulating Being time as Eternity, and Will time as Hyparxis. Complete self-development is needed in order to fulfill our destined role in the spiritulisation of existence and this, in turn, requires fulfilment of our potential in being and our development of will. Man’s ‘eternity blindness’ is the cause of our inability to perceive potential and to experience how to participate fully in the Great Work.
Sherborne House Photos ~ The International Academy for Continuous Education Sherborne, Gloucestershire, England
The website "Sherborne House Photos" is a photo gallery showing the "life"at The International Academy for Continuous Education ('Sherborne House') during the years 1972-1974. Sherborne House was the location of John Bennett’s school, The International Academy for Continuous Education from September 1971 until August 1976. The Academy was organized in ten-month courses attended by up to 100 students each year, between the ages of 18 and 80. These students underwent an intensive training in the techniques that Bennett had learned from G.I. Gurdjieff and his other teachers in the course of his fifty years of spiritual search. All the work of the running of the Academy was performed by students, as well as work on Gurdjieff’s sacred dances, food production, animal husbandry, meditation and study.
The photographs on the website were taken by Annette Green. It is her wish that they be available and shared.
Annette was a student at the International Academy for Continuous Education, Sherborne, Gloucestershire, England.
Annette Green, a graduate of the Royal College of Art, is a photographer who attended John Bennett’s International Academy for Continuous Education from 1972-1973. A former stills photographer in the film industry, she was introduced to Bennett by Diane Cilento, with whom she collaborated on a project to create a photographic Tarot. She is now retired and lives in Ireland.
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London April 4, 1954
