Taking With the Left Hand: Enneagram Craze, People of the Bookmark, & The Mouravieff "Phenomenon" [Paperback]

William Patrick Patterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1998

A lucid and compelling account of conflict and charlatanism surrounding the Gurdjieff Work, one of the most important alternative spiritual movements of our day. The first book to explore one of the taboo subjects of our time—spiritual theft, distortion and appropriation—Patterson details and documents how a principal symbol of the teaching has been stolen and commercialized by the so-called enneagram community; how Robert Burton, founder of the Fellowship of Friends, distorted the teaching; and how Mouravieff, a Russian esotericist, plagiarized and appropriated it.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Arete Communications (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879514109
• ISBN-13: 978-1879514102
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,610,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare find, November 28, 2002

By 

R. Clampitt "seeker" (Palmdale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Taking With the Left Hand: Enneagram Craze, People of the Bookmark, & The Mouravieff "Phenomenon" (Paperback)

Let me start by saying I'm not involved with any 4th Way group or part of the Ennegram craze.

Mr. Patterson has dared to take on some of the spiritual cannibals that have stolen and distorted the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff. Though this book is guaranteed to infuriate followers of Palmer, Ichazo, Burton's cultists, Amiss etc.

First he takes on the Ennegram popularizes like Ichazo, Naranjo and the voluminous Helen Palmer who dared to claim instruction by a noted 4th Way teacher and turned out to never have met the man. Patterson also exposes her as a shallow new-age type of thinker with a penchant for self-promotion through her own words.
She has no real lineage nor even formal instruction in the 4th way nor any real tradition for that matter. Of course the shadowy showman Ichazo(much like Castenada) is put in for good measure. He systematically goes about deconstructing Ichazo premises on the ennegram and his mythical and oft changing spiritual pedigree.

Patterson then goes after The Fellowship of Friends or people of the Bookmark(as known here in Calif - as his followers used to stuff burton's calling cards in 4th Way books.) A 4th way cult based on Burton's strong persona. Patterson show's Burton to be a posuer and con-artist without real instruction or lineage. Burton main claim to fame is his ability to milk money out of followers and make himself wealthy. F of F is also a considered a outright cult. Check out Steve Hassans web site for info.

Another target is Robin Amiss(...) and his long dead predecessor Boris Mouravieff who concocted the notion that Gurdjieff's teachings were fundamentally derived from Eastern Christianity. Amiss is shown to be a clever fabricator of facts in his book "A Different Christianity" and distorter of truths. Patterson does a fine job exposing Mouravieff motivations for doing what he did.

Amiss is taken to task in a systematic manner in which he compared G's teachings to Eastern Orthodox material. Replete with references he demolishes Amiss's claims. BTW all anyone needs to do is get a copy of O's "In Search of the Mircaluous" a copy of the Philokalia or Theophans works and compare them. You'l see that there is no place for a householder in serious myticism. It's for monks only. St. Theophan was a hermit and monk - hardly someone who understood the way of the householder.
Also there is no mention of 'self-observation' or 'self-remembering'. Anyone whose ever practiced the Jesus Prayer and done any sort of 'self-observation' knows they are not the same.
Amiss's hidden teachers are also shown to be fabrications without reality.

You'll also learn how Mouravieff played a in the split between Ouspensky and G. And how he conned O into delaying publication of "Tales of the Miraculous"

Overall a fine book demonstrating how self-taught self-promoters can [copy] teachings and convince people they have the real thing. So much so that their followers can longer know the real deal from the fake. If Patterson comes off shrill or a purist perhaps it's because so many people have stolen from G and peddled garbage under his name.

Overall a fine book on that belongs estoricist reader's bookshelf.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't improve on Luscombe, April 12, 2001

By 

Steve Adams (Denton, North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Taking With the Left Hand: Enneagram Craze, People of the Bookmark, & The Mouravieff "Phenomenon" (Paperback)

First, I hope you read Jim Luscombe's fine review - I can't improve on what he wrote. He didn't specifically mention the enneagram people, some of whom are innocently misled by the distortions and lies of Oscar Ichazo and his people. I have friends who were genuinely surprised when I revealed to them that the enneagram was never created specifically for the purpose of use with the psychology of types. There is obviously a great deal of damage done by the unscrupulous people behind these movements, and Patterson's book does a vital service by bringing this all out in the light. Many times I have referenced and recommended this book in situations where people were in the dark about one or more of these movements. I encourage you not only to read this book, but to promote it and to promote its cause.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There's more here than you may think, April 4, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Taking With the Left Hand: Enneagram Craze, People of the Bookmark, & The Mouravieff "Phenomenon" (Paperback)

Taking With the Left Hand

I almost didn't buy this book because, although I am interested in learning more about the esoteric teaching of the Fourth Way, I was not particularly interested in reading about the enneagram craze, Robert Burton (Fellowship of Friends) or Boris Mouravieff. I didn't know who Mouravieff was, I felt that Burton had already been effectively discredited and the exploitation of the enneagram was one more sad story about our greedy culture that I didn't want to read.

However, I am glad that I did read Taking With the Left Hand for a number of reasons. First, it confirmed and gave me a deeper understanding of some things that I already knew. In our society so many people want the quick lesson for transformation so that they can begin 'teaching' for either power or money or both. The greed and arrogance of some people mixes with the suggestibility of others for disastrous results.

Secondly, I am glad because through these three examples Patterson discusses the broader issues of esotericism. He shows how esoteric "ideas and practices are powerful in themselves, and when introduced into secular life they will necessarily be taken over by the ego and used for its own glorification and the domination of others." One important tenet that the enneagrammers have missed is that "through long and keen observation of his recurring individual manifestation" each person must come to his psychological fixation by himself. He cannot buy it at a one-day workshop.

Patterson also explains some important Fourth Way concepts - which was my main interest in reading this book. In his critique of Burton's book Self-Remembering, Patterson displays a deep understanding of the practice that can only come from receiving the teaching through a direct transmission from his own teacher. It is very obvious that Burton does not have that understanding because he never submitted himself to the discipline and training received through an authentic teacher.

The section on Mouravieff was filled with much information about the origin of the Fourth Way teaching.

So don't pass this book by - there is a lot more in it than you might think.