''Meetings with Remarkable Men, autobiographical in nature, is the second volume of the ''

All and Everything George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (; rus, Гео́ргий Ива́нович Гурджи́ев, r=Geórgy Ivánovich Gurdzhíev, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj ɪˈvanəvʲɪd͡ʑ ɡʊrd͡ʐˈʐɨ(j)ɪf; hy, Գեորգի Իվանովիչ Գյուրջիև; c. 1 ...

'' trilogy written by the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

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 Alfred Richard Orage (22 January 1873 – 6 November 1934) was a British influential figure in socialist politics and modernist culture, now best known for editing the magazine ''The New Age'' before the First World War. While he was working as a ...

was first published in 1963.

Overview

The book takes the form of Gurdjieff's reminiscences about various "remarkable men" that he met, beginning with his father. They include the

priest Pogossian; his friend Soloviev, and Prince Lubovedsky, a Russian prince with metaphysical interests. In the course of describing these characters, Gurdjieff weaves their stories into the story of his own travels, and also into an overarching narrative which has them cooperate in locating spiritual texts and/or masters in various lands (mostly Central Asia). Gurdjieff calls this group the "Seekers of Truth". Most of them do in fact find truth in the form of some suitable spiritual destiny. The underlying philosophy, especially as articulated in an appendix, amounts to the assertion that people generally live their lives asleep, are unconscious of themselves and, accordingly, behave like machines subject to outside causes and pressures. Also, one of the chief assessments of the novel is that the people of the past epochs lived in more suitable outer conditions and at higher inner levels than the people today. Many additional hidden harmonies are noted or alluded to. Claims that seem to contradict modern beliefs have inspired some to question the book's "autobiographical" character. For example, Gurdjieff claims to have first heard the

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with ...

as an oral epic sung from memory by his father; to have made contact with various ancient brotherhoods including the

Sarmoung Brotherhood 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 ...

; to have copied a map of "pre-sand Egypt"; and to have witnessed a number of miracles and esoteric phenomena. There is currently in existence an esoteric group of loosely affiliated individuals who engage in what is called "The Work", which is the ''doing'' part of Gurdjieff's teachings. It may be argued that many of the vignettes in ''Meetings'' are meant to be symbolic, or "teaching stories".{{citation needed, date=March 2015

Adaptations

The book was adapted into a film, ''

Meetings with Remarkable Men ''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 192 ...

'', in 1979 by

Peter Brook Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) 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 Sha ...

.Meetings with Remarkable Men: Writers

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References

External links

''Meetings with Remarkable Men'', ''Gurdjieff International Review''

Gurdjieff Movements studies
1963 novels Autobiographical novels Books by George Gurdjieff Greek novels adapted into films