Customer Reviews

G.I. Gurdjieff: The War Against Sleep

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Although Colin Wilson does engage in the occasional non sequitur, and is perhaps not always sufficiently critical about the implications of some of Gurdjieff's stories about his own life, this is still a good, workmanlike introduction to Gurdjieff's ideas, life and work. In the last chapter, Wilson critically, yet sympathetically, consider Gurdjieff's ideas. A good place to start, or just to get a feel, for a remarkable figure.

Aside from being a pretty decent introduction to Gurdjieff's life and ideas, Wilson manages to present a novel take on Gurfjieff and the 'Work.' There are so many ways of looking at it all, from Ouspensky's dense and logical essays, to Gurdjieff's own oft-impenetrable tomes (like Beelzebub) that a fresh point of view is always welcomed by me. I thought Wilson hit the nail on the head by placing almost all of his focus on Gurdjieff's notion of 'super efforts', which for me is the cornerstone of G's whole philosophy and by far the most original part of it. By making efforts far above and beyond our usual endeavors, we are forced to unite various of our usually independent and uncoordinated selves, and this union can persist after the super effort is complete - even if the effort was towards an arbitrary or meaningless goal. This process can be repeated and those small 'unified selves' built upon, over and over. In this way Gurdjieff hoped to develop a 'unified self' in his students, and I have to say the idea and the practice of it itself seem eminently logical and worthwhile to me.

Wilson also sums up with a critical look at G's ideas and his perpetually troubled relationship with P.D. Ouspensky, (arguably) his main disciple. Definitely worth a look, even I think for those who have spent a significant amount of time reading about Gurdjieff or who are involed with the Work.

This is the most boring books I've read of all the work-books. Nothing new, but presented in a way, that does not really touch the urgency of the theme and of our times.