Pyotr Demianovich Ouspenskii's Biography(Books)(Photos)

Peter D. Ouspensky (March 4, 1878–october 2, 1947), (pyotr
Demianovich Ouspenskii, also Uspenskii or Uspensky), a

physical body, emotions and mind. Ouspensky picked up this
idea and continued his own school along this line.

Russian philosopher, invoked euclidean and noneuclidean
geometry in his discussions of psychology and higher

P.D. Ouspensky made the term "Fourth Way" and its use

dimensions of existence.

central to his own teaching of the ideas of Gurdjieff. He
greatly focused on Fourth Way schools and their existence

Ouspensky has a reputation for his expositions of the early
work of the Greek-Armenian teacher of esoteric doctrine

throughout history.

George Gurdjieff, whom he met in Moscow in 1915. He was
associated with the ideas and practices originating with

he finally gave up the (Gurdjieff) "system" that he had
shared with people for 25 years in England and the United

* Rodney Collin

States, but his own recorded words on the subject ("A Record
of Meetings," published posthumously) do not clearly endorse

this judgement nor does Ouspensky's emphasis on "you must
make a new beginning" after confessing "I've left the

system"; all this happened in Lyne Place, Surrey, England in
1947, just before his demise. While lecturing in London in

1924 he announced that he would continue independently the
way he began in 1921. All in all, Ouspensky studied the

Self-remembering

Gurdjieff System directly under Gurdjieff's own supervision
for a period of ten years, from 1915 to 1924. Ouspenky's

Ouspensky personally confessed the difficulties he was
experiencing with self-remembering, a technique to which he

book In Search of the Miraculous is a recounting of what
Ouspensky learned from Gurdjieff in those years between 1915

had been introduced by Gurdjieff himself. Gurdjieff
explained to him this was the missing link to everything

and 1924.

else. While in Russia, Ouspensky himself experimented with
the technique with a certain degree of success and in his

lectures in London and America, he emphasized its practice.
The technique requires a division of attention, so that a

There are three recognized ways of self-development
generally known in esoteric circles. These are the Way of

person not only pays attention to what is going on in the
exterior world but also in the interior. The psychiatrist

the Fakir, dealing exclusively with the physical body, the
Way of the Monk, dealing with the emotions, and the Way of

Dr. Sjoernval who was also a follower of Gurdjieff in Russia
mentioned to Ouspensky that this was what professor Wundt

the Yogi, dealing with the mind. What is common about the
three ways is that they demand complete seclusion from the

meant by apperception. Ouspensky refused to believe it.
Gurdjieff explained the Rosicrucian principle that in order

world. According to Gurdjieff, there is a Fourth Way which
does not demand its followers to abandon the world. The work

to bring about a result or manifestation, three things are
necessary. With self-remembering and self-observation two

of self-development takes place right in the midst of
ordinary life. Gurdjieff called his system a school of the

things are present. The third one is explained by Ouspensky
in his tract on Conscience: it is the non-expression of