In Search of the Miraculous (Audio Literature Presents)

Rating:
Summary: The only serious alternative
Review: The essence of this book derives from notes made by Ouspensky and his fellow students in the first teaching groups Gurdjieff had in Moscow and St. Petersburg before the revolution. Here Gurdjieff first expounded the remarkable teaching that he had found and reconstructed, the ancient esoteric Christianity, from an Egypt before the sands. It seems Gurdjieff later took it for granted that this first exposition would be available, for nowhere else is the teaching set out so manifestly. If you are prepared to know the truth of your situation, read this book.
The new attempt to market this book by having someone wellknown for teaching A Little Course in Miracles out there in California is misleading. Anyone who teaches that kind of thing cannot have understood what this book is about. Certainly she cannot have absorbed the information on white and black magic given in chapter eleven. So if you cannot get a used version of the earlier editions, just skip the introduction.

Rating:
Summary: This goes for the Ouspensky books in general.
Review: There's one very valuable concept in this system; self-observation, and the conscious attention that's required for self-observation. The author gives proofs that this is not as easily achieved as one might expect. At some point in the system, the general truths have been stated and some 'further-out' conclusions are drawn. At that point, these books taught me a lesson that they didn't intend: Many philosophies have their most valuable parts at the beginning, after which we are often better off drawing our own conclusions.

Rating:
Summary: Expect the unexpected...
Review: This is that once-in-a-lifetime book, the kind you'd like to find in that ancient, out-of-the-way used bookstore that you wish existed. Every chapter in this book, every page, unfolds a new enigma, and Ouspensky writes so well, like a master suspense novelist, that you find yourself drawn to read on no matter how unusual some of the teachings get. Indeed, some of the material in the book seems nonsensical--but if you're patient, the nonsense is immediately followed by a watershed of wisdom, wisdom of a kind I've never read before. Highly rewarding, rich with unique insight, I eagerly recommend this to any seeker of Truth who keeps an open mind.