Customer Reviews

Dialogues of Gurdjieff: An Allegorical Adventure

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Jan Cox wrote a great book. Many of the Gurdjieff crowd evidently thought that this book was non fiction. However, it is a stupendous work of fiction that reveals the essence of Gurdjieff (you know, an allegorical adventure - get it?). I think that too many of the "Gurdjieffians" take themselves way too seriously. Cox has a great sense of humor. But he is also a very deep thinker, and he stimulated my thinking for a long time. This book is a metaphysical and spiritual hoot! Find yourself a copy.

If you're interested in Sufism, Buddhism, Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, etc., do yourself a favor and read the real thing instead of this stuff. In this book and his other early works, he has repackaged the above systems and attempts to pass them off as his original ideas. That being said, his early books are a cut above his later material, which apparently is a bit more 'original'.

Jan Cox does not run a cult, if he does, then go try and join... However if you have the capacity and the interest to pursue an internal journey to figure out how your mind works; for your own enjoyment, then yes he can take you for a mental jet ride. If you're simply a reader of mystical stuff I would say he's particularly fun to read. Enjoy the book.

If you've voyaged through the by-now-thoroughly-charted seas of Sufism, Buddhism, Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, etc., and still have that persistent urge to make landfall (and maybe to eat something not soaked in brine) then check out this book, and Cox's other writings. But be forewarned, if "packaging" is your concern, perhaps a nice salty pickle will instead suffice. (Say, isn't that Captain Beige-Beard in the sloop next door?)