| INTP Discussion Forum > The Local Pub > Gurdjief |
| Posted by: pokerwolf Jun 11 2004, 12:32 AM |
| For those into the enneagram, have any of you read any of Gurdjief's books? My favorite was "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson." Anybody read it? Also, have any of you explored other aspects of the enneagram besides the psychology tests? Math? Music? etc. |
| Posted by: Vagabond Jun 11 2004, 12:36 AM |
| Ah man... will you believe me if I say I have that one on my "to read" list...? Maths and music in relation to the Enneagram - sounds interesting... if you have any introductory material (like links to articles etc) do share... (Yes I am an ignorant... but come over here and ask for books on the enneagram... most likely they will think you are asking for books on how to perform satanistic ceremonies...  ) |
| Posted by: pokerwolf Jun 11 2004, 12:59 AM |
| I don't have any links as I haven't thought about this stuff much for quite some time, pre-internet. It will probably turn into my next tangent though, so I'll post any links I find that are interesting. I came across an Ouspensky book at a used book store back in college. He was a student of Gurdjief, so I started looking for books by the man himself. I ordered every one in print at the time. I was going through a strange time in my life, trying to "find myself" or enlightenment or something. I also read all of Castaneda's books (meant to ask about this in the "lucid dreaming" thread). Anyway, the enneagram symbol is derived from plotting the fractions of 7 around a circle with 9 points representing the numbers 1 to 9. 1/7 = 0.142857142857... and 2/7 = 0.285714285714... etc. I'm very into numbers, so I started searching for other numbers whose fractions behaved similarly. I found one...any guesses? I'm not very into music, so I didn't explore that much, but the symbol also describes the octave. I don't remember how exactly, but Ouspensky really got into it. As an aside, I remember one story of Gurdjief's travels where he came upon a Sufi living in a cave. The Sufi had a piano inside the cave. He would play a combination of notes and cause actual physical changes in Gurdjief's body. Wild stuff...of course the more I "grow up" the less I believe any of that kind of stuff, but who knows? It was definately interesting reading. There's much more, but this post is already turning into a novel...lol. |
| Posted by: nobarcode Jun 11 2004, 07:53 PM |
| I have read it and old George is one of my favorites. It's been awhile since I've read much by him. I think "VIEWS FROM THE REAL WORLD" is one of my favorites tho. Ha! at least the title is. |
| Posted by: yomama Jun 13 2004, 08:46 AM |
| Vaguebound, the best introductory book to read on the subject is "In search of the miraculous" by PD Ouspensky. Gurdjieff had connected with Ouspensky because he knew that Ouspensky could communicate his ideas in writing (to the West, at least) much better than he ever could. it was only after Ouspensky's version was delayed and G. was incapacitated that G. decided to write his own version. when he finally saw Ouspensky's version, he said it was excellent, but said his own version was better. (G being an 8w7) as far as Beelzebub's tales-- i'd say reading it takes a lot of discipline, madness, patience and guts. is it worth it? sure. does it have anything to do with the modern Enneagram of personality and the obsession with personality theories/systems so many people get off on? no. will these books please all you incredibly sophisticated and intellectually superior INTP's? probably not. Gurdjieff was a primitive Eastern mystic and Ouspensky was working with concepts that have since been superceeded by Modern Science. that's life. |
| Posted by: pokerwolf Jun 13 2004, 04:26 PM | ||||
That's the one I read first. It really gets into the enneagram stuff as I recall.
You got that right!  |