Creating a Soul: Insights from a Fourth Way School [Hardcover]

Girard Haven (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 613 pages
• Publisher: Ulysses Books; 1 edition (September 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964578220
• ISBN-13: 978-0964578227
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,825,469 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intentional Attitudes, January 21, 2000

By 

Susan T. Jones (Oxnard, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating a Soul: Insights from a Fourth Way School (Hardcover)

Girard Haven's book opened a whole new dimension of Fourth Way ideas for me. I have been interested in the methods of George Gurdjieff and his followers for a long time, and have tried to use their techniques of being intentional with thoughts and movements in order to increase my awareness and to experience the present moment. What was new to me in this book was the idea that it is possible to be intentional with attitudes and beliefs as well. The author gives many practical examples of how this can be done. Before reading CREATING A SOUL I wasted a lot of energy trying to figure out whether or not a particular belief was true, or a particular attitude correct. Girard Haven's suggestion is that since we cannot know what objective truth is, we can choose our attitudes on the basis of what seems useful for our aim in a given situation--always keeping in mind that the ultimate aim is to become more conscious. I found it liberating to realize that I don't have to know for sure that something is true or correct in order to try it out. The essays in this book are very interesting and make intriguing reading.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Girard Haven understanding of the 4th Way is remarkable, October 14, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating a Soul: Insights from a Fourth Way School (Hardcover)

Girard Haven clearly has a very deep understanding of the 4th Way teachings. He seems objective about his observations and also has an extremely positive attitude. I recommend this book because Girard Haven has apparently gone beyond just talking about Gurdjieff's ideas and has become them. He seems to have really separated his sense of Self from his 'machine'. If you want to know what the results are of one man's practical work on himself over many years then this book gives a very clear account of that. His understanding reminds me of Ouspensky himself.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important New Fourth Way Book, September 3, 2002

By 

Alan W Burnside (Kyoto Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating a Soul: Insights from a Fourth Way School (Hardcover)

This book is an invaluable addition to the existing canon of Fourth Way literature. Whilst remaining true to the origins of the Gurdjieff-Ouspensky System and the basic principles of self-remembering and the non-expression of negative emotions, Mr.Haven talks about how to work with these ideas on a practical, everyday basis - and the Fourth Way is designed to take place in life, not monastic retreats. He talks about how to deal with ever-pressing daily issues and how to transform them into something higher, presumably, as the title would suggest, the creation of a soul. For many this book will represent a bridge between Ouspensky's brilliant, but somewhat intellectual presentation of the Fourth Way, and an understanding of how practical spiritual work on oneself can actually take place.