GEORGE IVANOVITCH GURDJIEFF was born in 1866 and died in Neuilly, Paris, on 29 October 1949. According to Meetings with Remarkable Men, his autobiography, the young Gurdjieff was, a fervent seeker after esoteric knowledge. He travelled widely in search of traditional and hidden knowledge with the burning question “What is the sense and significance of life on Earth, Human life in particular? “ always on his mind.
From 1912 in Moscow until his death in Paris, Gurdjieff attracted a select circle of pupils and began to teach a system hitherto unknown in the west. In 1922 he settled in France opening his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man.
The Groups Gurdjieff established attracted many gifted people of the time and his key pupils in turn formed their own groups in order to pass down the teaching. Today there are Gurdjieff groups operating in all 4 corners of the globe.
The Bradford Gurdjieff Society (based primarily in Bradford, Leeds and Manchester) is a direct descendent from the original UK groups established by the Gurdjieff pupils.
Gurdjieff wrote 4 books of which All and Everything or Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson is the magnum opus.
Mr Gurdjieff's message is that man's place, if not asleep, is to struggle to hold his attention, to make a place for influences which can help him to be as he ought to be. The system is a practical method of how we can learn to begin to take our place. We can only find it for ourselves, but we cannot work alone, we need the work of others with the same aim around us. Mr Gurdjieff's work made it possible for man to discover his real place in the scheme of things in order that he may receive the help a teacher may give him.
