George Ivanovich Gurdjieff was an Armenian philosopher, mystic, spiritual teacher, and composer of Armenian and Greek descent, born in Alexandropol, Russian Empire. Gurdjieff taught that most humans do not possess a unified consciousness and thus live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it is possible to awaken to a higher state of consciousness and achieve full human potential. Gurdjieff described a method attempting to do so, calling the discipline "The Work" or "the System". According to his principles and instructions, Gurdjieff's method for awakening one's consciousness unites the methods of the fakir, monk and yogi, and thus he referred to it as the "Fourth Way".
Meetings with Remarkable Men', autobiographical in nature, is the second volume of the All and Everything trilogy written by the Greek-Armenian spiritual teacher G. I. Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff started working on the Russian manuscript in 1927, revising it several times over the coming years. An English translation by A. R. Orage was first published in 1963.
Jeanne de Salzmann often addressed as Madame de Salzmann was a French-Swiss dance teacher and a close pupil of the spiritual teacher G. I. Gurdjieff.
Peter Stephen Paul Brook was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). With them, he directed the first English-language production in 1964 of Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss, which was transferred to Broadway in 1965 and won the Tony Award for Best Play, and Brook was named Best Director. He also directed films such as an iconic version of Lord of the Flies in 1963.
Pyotr Demianovich Ouspenskii was a Russian esotericist known for his expositions of the early work of the Greek-Armenian teacher of esoteric doctrine George Gurdjieff. He met Gurdjieff in Moscow in 1915, and was associated with the ideas and practices originating with Gurdjieff from then on. He taught ideas and methods based in the Gurdjieff system for 25 years in England and the United States, although he separated from Gurdjieff personally in 1924, for reasons that are explained in the last chapter of his book In Search of the Miraculous.
Thomas Alexandrovich de Hartmann was a Ukrainian-born composer, pianist and professor of composition.
The Gurdjieff movements are a series of sacred dances that were collected or authored by G. I. Gurdjieff and taught to his students as part of the work of self observation and self study.
John Godolphin Bennett was a British academic and author.
In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching is a 1949 book by Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky which recounts his meeting and subsequent association with George Gurdjieff.
The Fourth Way is an approach to self-development developed by George Gurdjieff over years of travel in the East. It combines and harmonizes what he saw as three established traditional "ways" or "schools": those of the body, the emotions, and the mind, or of fakirs, monks and yogis, respectively. Students often refer to the Fourth Way as "The Work", "Work on oneself", or "The System". The exact origins of some of Gurdjieff's teachings are unknown, but various sources have been suggested.
Terence Henry Stamp is an English actor. After training at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, he started his acting career in 1962. He was called the "master of the brooding silence" by The Guardian. His performance in the title role of Billy Budd, his film debut, earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer. Associated with the Swinging London scene of the 1960s – during which time he was in high-profile relationships with actress Julie Christie and supermodel Jean Shrimpton – Stamp was among the subjects photographed by David Bailey for a set titled Box of Pin-Ups.
The Limey is a 1999 American crime film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Lem Dobbs. The film features Terence Stamp, Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzmán, Barry Newman, Nicky Katt, and Peter Fonda. The plot concerns an English career criminal (Stamp) who travels to the United States to investigate the recent suspicious death of his daughter. It was filmed on location in Los Angeles and Big Sur.
The Sarmoung Brotherhood was an alleged esoteric Sufi brotherhood based in Asia. The reputed existence of the brotherhood was brought to light in the writings of George Gurdjieff, a Greek-Armenian spiritual teacher. Some contemporary Sufi-related sources also claim to have made contact with the group although the earliest and primary source is Gurdjieff himself, leading most scholars to conclude the group was fictional.
New religious movements and cults have appeared as themes or subjects in literature and popular culture, while notable representatives of such groups have themselves produced a large body of literary works.
The Teachers of Gurdjieff is a book by Rafael Lefort that describes a journey to the Middle East and central Asia in search of the sources of G. I. Gurdjieff's teaching, and culminates in the author's own spiritual awakening, by meeting and "opening" to the teachings of the Naqshbandi Sufis. The author's search finally leads him to the Sarmoun monastery in Northern Afghanistan where Gurdjieff had been previously taught.
Olgivanna Lloyd Wright was the third and final wife of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whom she met in November 1924. The two married in 1928. In 1932 the couple founded Wright's architectural apprentice program and the Taliesin Fellowship. In 1940, Olgivanna and Frank founded the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Olgivanna became the President of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation upon her husband's death in 1959. She remained the president until a month before her own death in 1985. Peters became her successor.
The Study Society is registered with the Charity Commission as Registered Charity Number 1155498. Its stated objects are for the public benefit:
- to advance the education of the public in religion, science, philosophy and the arts.
- the promotion of moral and spiritual welfare.
David Kherdian is an Armenian-American writer, poet, and editor. He is known best for The Road from Home, based on his mother's childhood—cataloged as biography by some libraries, as fiction by others.
Al Clark is an Australian film producer. He is best known for his producer role on TheAdventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and his executive producer role on the film, Chopper. Clark is also the author of four books. Time Flies and Time Flies Too are Clark's memoirs, which merge the early days of punk and new wave popular music with the truncated British film renaissance of the 1980s and the world of international film finance, and later chronicle his move to Australia and his work there. Clark's first book Raymond Chandler in Hollywood provides an insight into the work of the writer of detective fiction and includes interviews with many of the Hollywood figures who were associated with Raymond Chandler and his films. His second book Making Priscilla, also titled The Lavender Bus: How a Hit Movie Was Made and Sold, is a behind-the-scenes tale outlining the follies of film-making and how The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert became an international success.
Jean-Claude Lubtchansky was a French film editor, documentary and television director.
