Customer Reviews

Deeper Man

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JG Bennett's definitive and eclectic approach to esoteric knowledge with Gurdjieff's ideas rigorously applied to the fundamental conditions of human transformation.

This book is essentially about freedom and how it can be achieved. It's a roadmap of the knowledge required to understand the different aspects of transformation.

Chapters include: Energies, The Three Centers of Man, Selves, the Laws of the Different Worlds, The Law of Three, Death and Resurrection.

Highly Recommended.

Hopefully my bias will be clearly revealed by the title.

While I am on the fence or do not accept a # of 'Gurdjieff vs. traditional Christianity' issues [the fate of the soul after death, necessity of the Church's mysteries as institued by Christ, Judas Isacariot, etc, I am convinced that out of the hundred or so books I have read on G. and his system, no other book [excepting unpublished Gurdjieffean Meditation texts] comes even close to organizing clearly and experientially the mass of human spiritual experience.

I rather doubt that this would be a good intro or even early book to read in one's 4th way studies [transformation and Spiritual PSychology would stand you in much better stead], but if after a while one feels stuck...

If one has dipped into the Dramtic Universe, {Bennett's all and everything 'translated' through 50's/60's scientific English}, and found it too 'heady', then prepare to be refreshed. These are edited transcripts [the actual lectures can mostly be heard from bennettbooks' study of man series of tapes of JGB ] of his teaching to the last year or so of 10 month residential 4th way students. It is G, brought up to date. Some would argue against this, but I say put this book together w/ Heart w/ out Measure and an authentic source for learning the basic Gurdjieff meditations and all that will be left in your way will be your Chief Feature.

And in my opinion a few serious errors re: the nature of the 'revelation' of Islam and the transmission of real esoteric Christianity.

In short within the limitations [if you see them as such] of G's Work, this book lays the whole map out as 4 dimensionally as a book can.

Even if you come to feel that you believe differently, you will still be greatful that you had such a touchstone to work from.

Make sure you listen close!!!

by the way, I am not a student of the JGB 'line' my 4th way teacher however used his material liberally and built much of his own researches on JGB's 'new and improved' 4th way. But I have come to JGB's primary practical works [Spiritual Psychology, Depper Man, Sevenfold Work and Energies] decades after my original studies and found it is the most valuable attempt at explaining the 4th way psycho-cosmology there is.

More than a primer on the fourth way, it is all inclusive in its treatment of its subject.

To name John Bennett as the author of this book is inaccurate. He did not "write" a single word of it - even the title is ambiguous. At the time of his death Bennett verbally indicated a desire to write a book to be titled "Dig Deeper Man" - possibly a reference to Gurdjieff's oft-quoted maxim: "Bury the dog deeper!" - and since his hearers could only guess at possible punctuation of this sentence, a wide range of possible meanings are excluded by the present title. A.G.E. Blake compiled the book after Bennett's death, as he did with a number of other titles, from selections from transcripts of lectures to Bennett's students at the Academy for Continuous Education, and from his own notes. My personal issue with this book is that it is limited to Blake's own preoccupations. For example, there is scarcely any mention of the notion that Bennett repeatedly described as "of the first importance" - i.e. the principle of Reciprocal Maintenance. This is a notion that Bennett first heard from Gurdjieff in August 1923, and in the last 20 years of his life, he continually drew attention to it. The last eight years of Bennett's life - from 1966 to 1974 seem to have been characterized by a process of learning in his own practical life, ways to transmit the insights of "The Dramatic Universe" to seekers two generations younger than himself. He constantly reiterated the necessity for creating a new world based on willing sacrifice, which he says is Reciprocal Maintenance in action. "Deeper Man" is an enjoyable read and contains a good, concise simplification of Bennett's cosmology, but ultimately it falls short. Personally I think this book should carry Blake's name as author.