Gurdjieff Studies
@gurdjieffstudies.bsky.social
Quotes and studies of #Gurdjieff's writings and talks, and those of his immediate pupils. Focussing especially on medicine, hypnotism and consciousness.
https://journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com
https://journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com
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Journal of Gurdjieff Studies | Till Spiegel | Substack
Exploring Gurdjieff's writings and talks, and those of his immediate pupils. Click to read Journal of Gurdjieff Studies, by Till Spiegel, a Substack publication.
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com
The journal newsletter "Gurdjieff Studies" is especially occupied with two major strands:
1. Everything related to what could be called "Gurdjieff's Medicine."
2. Hypnosis, magnetism, & consciousness.
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com
1. Everything related to what could be called "Gurdjieff's Medicine."
2. Hypnosis, magnetism, & consciousness.
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com
Once, in June 1936, Gurdjieff said to Alice Rohrer, one of the “Rope” group, when she remarked that she was going to walk home, for exercise, “Why you want exercise?” Alice replied, “To make strength.” Gurdjieff responded...
December 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Once, in June 1936, Gurdjieff said to Alice Rohrer, one of the “Rope” group, when she remarked that she was going to walk home, for exercise, “Why you want exercise?” Alice replied, “To make strength.” Gurdjieff responded...
"Ordinarily impressions are received in a mechanical way. They are received by our personality, which reacts with automatic thoughts and feelings that depend on its conditioning. We do not assimilate impressions because personality itself cannot be alive—it is dead..."
December 15, 2025 at 2:11 PM
"Ordinarily impressions are received in a mechanical way. They are received by our personality, which reacts with automatic thoughts and feelings that depend on its conditioning. We do not assimilate impressions because personality itself cannot be alive—it is dead..."
"Patience is the Mother of Will. If you have not a mother, how can you be born?"
(Gurdjieff, in J.G. Bennett - Witness, 1974, p.113)
(Gurdjieff, in J.G. Bennett - Witness, 1974, p.113)
December 14, 2025 at 7:30 AM
"Patience is the Mother of Will. If you have not a mother, how can you be born?"
(Gurdjieff, in J.G. Bennett - Witness, 1974, p.113)
(Gurdjieff, in J.G. Bennett - Witness, 1974, p.113)
"[Ouspensky] said the only emotion we really know is the emotion of being identified, and that we have no real emotions because we are always identified and worried, anxious, negative, about everything that happens to us…"
December 14, 2025 at 7:00 AM
"[Ouspensky] said the only emotion we really know is the emotion of being identified, and that we have no real emotions because we are always identified and worried, anxious, negative, about everything that happens to us…"
“...Seated, calm, you relax carefully. Then, as if you were in front of an unknown person, you begin to influence yourself through suggestion... Explain it to yourself as if to someone else. One time, ten times, you explain it to yourself..."
December 13, 2025 at 3:30 PM
“...Seated, calm, you relax carefully. Then, as if you were in front of an unknown person, you begin to influence yourself through suggestion... Explain it to yourself as if to someone else. One time, ten times, you explain it to yourself..."
There are a number of self-suggestion practices mentioned by Gurdjieff in various places. These often include the instruction to first relax the body. In a relaxed state, there is usually more possibility for contact with the body.
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/conscious-...
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/conscious-...
Conscious autosuggestion between the "individuality" and the body
This leads on from from the post On One Centre Hypnotising Another, and the thought that through conscious autosuggestion, intentional contact can be made between the different parts of the human bein...
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com
December 13, 2025 at 2:16 PM
There are a number of self-suggestion practices mentioned by Gurdjieff in various places. These often include the instruction to first relax the body. In a relaxed state, there is usually more possibility for contact with the body.
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/conscious-...
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/conscious-...
Although usually only unconsciously hypnotic, through conscious autosuggestion, intentional contact can be made between the different parts of the human being, as described by Gurdjieff.
[More in link]
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/on-one-cen...
[More in link]
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/on-one-cen...
On One Centre Hypnotising Another
Although usually only unconsciously hypnotic, through conscious autosuggestion, intentional contact can be made between the different parts of the human being, as described by Gurdjieff.
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com
December 13, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Although usually only unconsciously hypnotic, through conscious autosuggestion, intentional contact can be made between the different parts of the human being, as described by Gurdjieff.
[More in link]
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/on-one-cen...
[More in link]
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/on-one-cen...
"It is a very good thing, which is worth doing, to work on oneself in the early morning, before, as it were, descending into life and duty…"
December 13, 2025 at 7:31 AM
"It is a very good thing, which is worth doing, to work on oneself in the early morning, before, as it were, descending into life and duty…"
"In real work sweat pours from the brow; it even pours from the heels."
(Gurdjieff, in Paris Meeting, Thursday, September 9, 1943)
(Gurdjieff, in Paris Meeting, Thursday, September 9, 1943)
December 12, 2025 at 2:49 PM
"In real work sweat pours from the brow; it even pours from the heels."
(Gurdjieff, in Paris Meeting, Thursday, September 9, 1943)
(Gurdjieff, in Paris Meeting, Thursday, September 9, 1943)
"…this capacity for being captivated is, under many different guises, a property of each one of us. This binds us and prevents our being free…"
December 11, 2025 at 11:53 PM
"…this capacity for being captivated is, under many different guises, a property of each one of us. This binds us and prevents our being free…"
"Why am I alive? Start by eliminating all the familiar answers. Find all useless. No answer is left except the craving for an answer."
(Alfred Richard Orage)
(Alfred Richard Orage)
December 10, 2025 at 6:51 AM
"Why am I alive? Start by eliminating all the familiar answers. Find all useless. No answer is left except the craving for an answer."
(Alfred Richard Orage)
(Alfred Richard Orage)
"Contrast association with the effort to arrive at some personal understood truth... One effect is likely to be a momentary light-headedness, a shift of center of gravity. Blood tends to go to the back of the head..."
December 8, 2025 at 2:24 PM
"Contrast association with the effort to arrive at some personal understood truth... One effect is likely to be a momentary light-headedness, a shift of center of gravity. Blood tends to go to the back of the head..."
"There is a different circulation for associative and for real thinking. We are really conscious only when we are trying to ponder."
(Orage)
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/the-cerebe...
(Orage)
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/the-cerebe...
The Cerebellum or Centre #4
The cerebellum, in its Latin root means “little brain,” and is the diminutive of cerebrum, which etymologically not only refers to the brain, but to the understanding. Of especial interest, given the ...
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:22 AM
"There is a different circulation for associative and for real thinking. We are really conscious only when we are trying to ponder."
(Orage)
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/the-cerebe...
(Orage)
journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/the-cerebe...
Jane Heap, who worked with both Gurdjieff and A.R. Orage, says in her notes that negative emotions “Next after associations source of our greatest loss of energy. She also said, when talking about wrong functioning, which included inner considering, inner and outer chattering: ...
December 7, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Jane Heap, who worked with both Gurdjieff and A.R. Orage, says in her notes that negative emotions “Next after associations source of our greatest loss of energy. She also said, when talking about wrong functioning, which included inner considering, inner and outer chattering: ...
"Though designed to have a passion for understanding and power to develop it man has departed from the norm. Man is in a state of hypnosis…"
December 6, 2025 at 11:07 PM
"Though designed to have a passion for understanding and power to develop it man has departed from the norm. Man is in a state of hypnosis…"
"Everything is friction, or may be. Can we deal with it is the question."
(P.D. Ouspensky in "A Record of Meetings")
(P.D. Ouspensky in "A Record of Meetings")
December 5, 2025 at 10:39 PM
"Everything is friction, or may be. Can we deal with it is the question."
(P.D. Ouspensky in "A Record of Meetings")
(P.D. Ouspensky in "A Record of Meetings")
"In talking about inner states it is useless to begin with some vague generalization. For instance, to talk about “chaotic states”... To talk in this way is to talk chaotically. One of the objects of self-observation is actually to observe something..."
December 5, 2025 at 6:28 PM
"In talking about inner states it is useless to begin with some vague generalization. For instance, to talk about “chaotic states”... To talk in this way is to talk chaotically. One of the objects of self-observation is actually to observe something..."
"…there is nothing accidental or unnecessary in nature and…there can be nothing; everything has a definite function; everything serves a definite purpose."
(Gurdjieff in "In Search of the Miraculous" by P.D. Ouspensky, p.305)
(Gurdjieff in "In Search of the Miraculous" by P.D. Ouspensky, p.305)
December 4, 2025 at 12:31 PM
"…there is nothing accidental or unnecessary in nature and…there can be nothing; everything has a definite function; everything serves a definite purpose."
(Gurdjieff in "In Search of the Miraculous" by P.D. Ouspensky, p.305)
(Gurdjieff in "In Search of the Miraculous" by P.D. Ouspensky, p.305)
"…it is very difficult for a man to decide to throw everything to the devil and begin real work. And why is it difficult? Principally because his life is too easy and even if he considers it bad he is already accustomed to it. It is better for it to be bad, yet known.
December 3, 2025 at 10:23 PM
"…it is very difficult for a man to decide to throw everything to the devil and begin real work. And why is it difficult? Principally because his life is too easy and even if he considers it bad he is already accustomed to it. It is better for it to be bad, yet known.
"Now Personality is the function of relationship to the external world. It is what relates you to things. If you have a weak, untrained Personality, your relationship to the external world is a weak one, and you are probably a nuisance to others…"
December 2, 2025 at 4:36 PM
"Now Personality is the function of relationship to the external world. It is what relates you to things. If you have a weak, untrained Personality, your relationship to the external world is a weak one, and you are probably a nuisance to others…"
"Whoever wishes to learn to love his neighbor must begin by trying to love plants and animals. Whoever does not love life does not love God. To begin straightaway by trying to love a man is impossible, because the other man is like you, and he will hit back at you."
(Gurdjieff - "Views")
(Gurdjieff - "Views")
December 1, 2025 at 9:46 PM
"Whoever wishes to learn to love his neighbor must begin by trying to love plants and animals. Whoever does not love life does not love God. To begin straightaway by trying to love a man is impossible, because the other man is like you, and he will hit back at you."
(Gurdjieff - "Views")
(Gurdjieff - "Views")
"When Katherine Mansfield returned to the Prieuré, Gurdjieff said that she must spend a lot of time in the cowshed, since the emanations of the animals and the fumes would help her…"
December 1, 2025 at 10:01 AM
"When Katherine Mansfield returned to the Prieuré, Gurdjieff said that she must spend a lot of time in the cowshed, since the emanations of the animals and the fumes would help her…"
" 'In verbal reasoning we substitute association for real experience. We cannot yet explore the character of objective truth and the character of the technique for attaining this…"
November 30, 2025 at 1:38 PM
" 'In verbal reasoning we substitute association for real experience. We cannot yet explore the character of objective truth and the character of the technique for attaining this…"
"Be responsible for self, irrespective of everyone else. Never blame anyone for anything that happens to us. Not like children casting blame. We are mechanical as trees with no free-will. We can blame no one..."
November 28, 2025 at 1:02 PM
"Be responsible for self, irrespective of everyone else. Never blame anyone for anything that happens to us. Not like children casting blame. We are mechanical as trees with no free-will. We can blame no one..."
"There are many sayings in ancient esoteric literature bearing on Man’s relationship to himself and to all the different parts in him, both higher and lower, that refer to the necessity of keeping a certain heat within him..."
November 28, 2025 at 11:35 AM
"There are many sayings in ancient esoteric literature bearing on Man’s relationship to himself and to all the different parts in him, both higher and lower, that refer to the necessity of keeping a certain heat within him..."