John Godolphin Bennett, (8 June
1897 - 13
December 1974) was a British mathematician, scientist,
technologist, industrial research director, and author. He is
perhaps best known for his many books on psychology and
spirituality, and particularly the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff. Bennett met Gurdjieff in Constantinople in 1921, and
later helped to co-ordinate the work
of Gurdjieff in England after Gurdjieff's arrival in
Paris. He also was active in starting the British section of
the Subud movement, and co-founded its British
headquarters.
Bennett was born in London, England, educated at Kings
College School, London; Royal Military Academy, Woolrich;
School of Military Engineering, Chatham; and School of
Oriental Studies, London.
He was a Fellow of the Institute of Fuel, London, from 1938
onwards; Chairman, Conference of Research Associations,
1943-1945; Chairman, Solid Fuel Industry, British Standards
Institution, 1937-1942; Chairman and Director, Institute for
the comparative study of History, Philosophy, and the
Sciences, Kingston-on-Thames, 1946-1959. [1]
Bennett integrated scientific research with studies of
Asiatic languages and religions. He foresaw the growth in
chaos theory, dynamic/evolving values systems, and optimal
psychology, and laid the groundwork for later studies of
contemporary spirituality. [2]
Early Life, WWI, marriage
Bennett spent his early childhood in Italy, and learned to
speak Italian before he spoke English. He would later display
an extraordinary talent for languages, which enabled him to
talk with many spiritual teachers in their native tongues, and
to study Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic and Christian sacred texts
in their original forms.
Bennett makes little reference to his childhood in his
autobiography, 'Witness', but elsewhere he credits his mother
with instilling in him the virtues of hard work and
tolerance.
At school, he excelled in sports and captained the school
rugby football team. He won a scholarship in mathematics from
Oxford University, but never had the chance to take advantage
of this. He continued to play rugby football for the army
(against such opponents as the New Zealand national team),
breaking his arm once and his collar bone twice.
In the First
World War, at the age of twenty-one, Bennett became a
captain in the Royal Engineers, with responsibility for
signals and telegraphy.
In France in 1918, he was blown off his motorcycle by an
exploding shell. Taken to a military hospital, operated upon,
and apparently in a coma for six days, Bennett had an 'out of body experience' which convinced him
that there is something in man which can exist independently
of the body.
- "It was perfectly clear to me that being dead is quite
unlike being very ill or very weak or helpless. So far as I
was concerned, there was no fear at all. And yet I have
never been a brave man and was certainly still afraid of
heavy gun fire. I was cognizant of my complete indifference
toward my own body."
This set his life on a new course - he described the return
to normal existence as the return to a body that was now in
some sense a stranger.
Bennett was recruited as an intelligence officer, studied
Turkish, and was sent to Constantinople, where he held a sensitive
position in Anglo-Turkish relations. His fluency made him the
confidant of many high-ranking Turkish political figures, and
helped him to develop his knowledge of Turkey and to gain
insights into non-European ways of thinking.
- "All day long I was dealing with different races:
English, French, Italian, Greek, Armenian, Turkish, Kurdish,
Russian, Arab, Jews and people so mixed up as to be no race
at all. Each and every one was convinced of the superiority
of his own people. How could everyone be right and all the
rest wrong? It was nonsense."
His love of Turkey would remain with him for the rest of
his life.
After the war, Bennett had married his first wife, Evelyn,
with whom he had a daughter, Ann. Evelyn stayed in England,
however, and Bennett's immersion in Turkish affairs and his
relationship with Winifred Beaumont, an English woman living
in Turkey, placed increasing strain on the marriage, which
subsequently failed. Bennett later married Winifred, a woman
twenty years his senior, and they remained together until her
death, forty years later. (He would be married for a third
time in 1958, to Elizabeth Howard.)
Gurdjieff and Ouspensky
After the First World War and the Russian Revolution, many displaced people
passed through Constantinople en route to the West. Part of
Bennett's job was to monitor their movements. Among them were
G.I. Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky, who Bennett met through
Prince Sabaheddin, a reformist thinker who had introduced him
to a wide range of religious and occultist ideas, including Theosophy and Anthroposophy.
Bennett became determined to pursue the search for a deeper
reality. It was a search he would continue for his entire
life.
When Gurdjieff and Ouspensky moved on to Europe, Bennett
remained in Turkey, committed to his work and fascinated by
the political and social developments that finally led to the
fall of the sultanate and the proclamation, on October 29 1923 of
the Turkish republic. However, Bennett had been profoundly
impressed with Gurdjieff's ideas about the arrangement of the
human organism and the possibility of a man's transformation
to a higher state of being, and would later dedicate much of
his life to the elaboration and dissemination of those
ideas.
Gurdjieff founded his Institute for the Harmonious Development of
Man at the Château Le Prieuré in Fontainebleau-Avon, south
of Paris, in October 1922. Bennett visited in the summer of
1923, spending three months at the institute. This experience
further convinced him that Gurdjieff had profound knowledge
and understanding of techniques by which man can achieve
transformation. Gurdjieff encouraged Bennett to stay longer,
but Bennett was short of money and so felt obliged to return
to work in England. Though Bennett expected to return to the
group soon, he would not meet Gurdjieff again until 1948.
Bennett served the British government as a consultant on
the Middle East, and interpreted at the 1924 conference in
London intended to settle disputes between Greece and Turkey.
He was invited to stand for parliament, but he chose instead
to give his personal studies precedence over his public
life.
He joined Ouspensky's groups, and continued to study
Gurdjieff's system with them for fifteen years, though
Ouspensky broke off all contact with Gurdjieff himself in the
early 1920's.
Coal Industry
During this time, Bennett became involved with various coal
mining ventures in Greece and Turkey. These were ultimately
unsuccessful, but gave him expertise in mining and coal
chemistry. He spent four years in Greece, and was involved in
protracted negotiations involving land claims by members of
the deposed Turkish royal family.
In 1938, he was asked to head Britain's first industrial
research organization, the British
Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA). With
the outbreak of World War II, BCURA's research was focussed
on developing fuel efficient fireplaces and finding
alternatives to oil. BCURA developed cars powered by coal-gas
and a coal-based plastic.
Group Work
In 1941, Ouspensky left England to live in the United
States. By now, Bennett was running his own study groups and
giving talks on the subject of Gurdjieff's system. The groups continued and
expanded in London throughout the Second World War.
Bennett began writing and developing his own ideas in
addition to Gurdjieff's. Ouspensky repudiated him in 1945,
which proved very painful for Bennett, who had also lost touch
with Gurdjieff, and believed him to be dead.
- "Ouspensky fell under the impression that Bennett was
setting himself up as a teacher and plagiarising his lecture
material. Instructions were sent to all members of
Ouspensky's groups to disassociate themselves from Bennett,
who found himself vilified and ostracised, but still
supported by a small loyal following. He decided to go ahead
with his work of communicating his understanding of the
System to people, and to create a society or institute to
serve as its vehicle." [3]
Coombe Springs
In 1946, Bennett and his wife founded the Institute for the Comparative Study of History,
Philosophy and the Sciences:
- "To promote research and other scientific work in
connection with the factors which influence development and
retrogression in man and their operation in individuals and
communities; to investigate the origin and elaboration of
scientific hypotheses and secular and religious philosophies
and their bearing on general theories of Man and his place
in the universe; and to study comparative methodology in
history, philosophy and natural science." [4]
The Institute bought Coombe Springs, a seven-acre estate in
Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey,
which had housed research laboratories used by BUCRA. The
Bennetts moved in with ten of Bennett's closest pupils with
the intention of starting a small research community. Coombe
Springs became a center for group work, and in addition to the
small community who lived there permanently, hundreds of
people visited Coombe Springs for meetings and Summer
Schools.
The old laboratories were used as dormitory space and known
as the 'fishbowl' because of the amount of glass they had. A
'new building' was later built for superior accommodation. The
main house was used for meetings as well as accommodation.
Coombe Springs took its name from an original Elizabethan
Spring House in the grounds, which, until the mid-nineteenth
century, had provided water to the palace at Hampton Court.
Bennett was convinced that the Gurdjieff's system could be
reconciled with modern science. He started work on a
five-dimensional geometry which included 'eternity' as a
second time-like dimension. introducing this in his first
published book, 'The Crisis in Human Affairs' (1948).
Reunion with Gurdjieff
Ouspensky had died in 1947. In 1948, Bennett went to the
USA and met Ouspensky's wife, through whom he learned that
Gurdjieff had survived the French occupation and was living in
Paris. Though it was now twenty five years since they had last
met (due mainly to Ouspensky's long standing veto on Gurdjieff
to members of his groups), Bennett quickly decided to renew
contact. In the eighteen months before Gurdjieff's death (in
October, 1949), Bennett visited him frequently, despite his
heavy professional schedule (he was now working for the Powell
Duffryn coal company) and his responsibilities towards the
group work at Coombe Springs.
A month spent working very intensively with Gurdjieff's
group in the summer of 1949 laid the foundation for a
significant transformation in his life and spiritual work. At
that time, Gurdjieff's apartment in Paris had become a 'Mecca'
to the 'followers of his ideas' who converged from many
different countries. Bennett learnt of Gurdjieff's writings,
and read 'Beelzebub's Tales To His Grandson' for the first
time. At the beginning of 1949, Bennett was named as
Gurdjieff's 'Representative for England' and later gave public
lectures in London on Gurdjieff and his ideas.
This period was described in Elizabeth Bennett's book
'Idiots in Paris', which was based on Bennett's diaries and
her own memories.
Gurdjieff's death in 1949 was a serious blow for all his
followers. Disagreements arose in the group, partly as a
result of Gurdjieff's having afforded his closest associates
conflicting areas of authority. In Bennett's case, the
conflict was exacerbated by his own interpretation and
development of Gurdieff's ideas.
After Gurdjieff's death, the various groups looked to Jeanne de Salzmann to give them direction and
hold them together, but there was little inherent harmony
between them. At this time Bennett was a member of a small
group headed by Madame de Salzmann, putting his work at Coombe
Springs under her overall guidance. In 1950, Bennett was
falsely accused of harbouring communists on his staff and was
forced to resign from Powell Dufryn (later resisting several
attractive offers to return to a career in industrial research
and administration). This left him free to concentrate more
fully on the group work at Coombe Springs. He lectured
frequently, trying to fulfill a promise he had made to
Gurdjieff to do everything in his power to propagate his
ideas. Friendly relations continued with Madame de Salzmann
and her groups throughout 1951 and 1952, but by then Bennett
was convinced that his more senior students were not making
progress, and that he had to find out for himself whether
there still existed an ancient tradition or source from which
Gurdjieff had derived his teaching.
Travels in the middle East
In 1953, he undertook a long journey to the Middle East,
visiting Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Persia. His search,
chronicled in his book 'Journeys in Islamic Countries' brought
him into contact with Sufis of extraordinary accomplishment,
such as Emin Chikou and Farhad Dede, but he found in none of
them the quality he perceived in Gurdjieff, of universal
understanding transcending local conditioning.
During 1954, there were increasingly evident differences of
opinion between Bennett and Madame de Salzmann regarding the
promulgation of Gurdjieff's teachings, and Bennett came to
realise that an effectual working relationship with her groups
was not possible. Bennett wished to execute Gurdjieff's last
directives literally, by disseminating his ideas and writings
as widely as possible, especially Beelzebub's Tales to his
Grandson, which Madame de Salzmann wanted to keep away
from the public eye.
In 1955, he initiated a project to build an unusual
nine-sided meeting hall at Coombe Springs for the performance
of Gurdjieff's sacred dance movements. This, together with his
public lectures in London, completed the rift with Madame de
Salzmann. The project took two years to complete. At the
opening in 1957, Bennett commented that the real value of such
a project was in building a community rather than the building
itself.
Subud
In 1956, Bennett was introduced to Subud, a spiritual
movement originating in Java. For a number of reasons, Bennett
felt that Gurdjieff had expected the arrival of a teaching
from Indonesia, and in spite of deep reservations, Bennett was
'opened' by Husein Rofe in November of that year.
Bennett regarded the latihan, the spiritual exercise of
Subud, as being akin to what the mystics call diffuse
contemplation. He also felt that it had the power of awakening
conscience, the organ that Gurdjieff regarded as necessary for
salvation. An invitation was sent to the movement’s founder,
Muhammad (Pak) Subuh to come to England. Pak
Subuh came to Coombe Springs where all of Bennett's pupils
were given the opportunity to be 'opened'.
It was a highly explosive event that included the
miraculous cure of the film star, Eva
Bartok, and, subsequently, the violent death of one of
Bennett's pupils. In an extraordinarily short time, Bennett
found himself instrumental in spreading Subud all over the
world. He traveled extensively to spread the Subud message,
sometimes in the company of Pak
Subuh. Bennett translated Pak Subuh's lectures into
various languages, and his own introductory book, 'Concerning
Subud', sold thousands of copies worldwide.
Bennett's heavy involvement in Subud meant a gradual fading
away of the work-group activities and exercises that had been
practised until the advent of Subud. The meeting hall was left
without its intended viewers' balcony and its striking
pentagonal floor was filled in to allow for latihans. Its
original purpose was not to be fulfilled for many years.
Some of Bennett's pupils were dismayed. Subud seemed to
some to be the antithesis of Gurdjieff's methods for spiritual
awakening, and Bennett's enthusiasm for it served to deepen
the divisions within the Gurdjieff groups. Many people left
the Coombe Springs groups, but others came in large numbers,
and for several years Coombe Springs was the headquarters of
the Subud movement in Europe, attracting serious seekers and
sensation seekers.
In 1958, monks from the Benedictine Abbey of St. Wandrille,
interested in Subud, contacted Bennett who, the following
year, made the first of many visits which brought him into
close contact with the Catholic church. Pere Bescond was the
first monk to be 'opened', followed by many others. It was at
St. Wandrille that Bennett had a deep experience of the
destined unification of Islam and Christianity. This
possibility had haunted him for a long time and he had given
it philosophical expression, through his concept of essential
will, in 'The Dramatic Universe'. Soon after, he entered the
Catholic Church.
By 1960, Bennett had come to the conclusion that the
practice of 'latihan' alone was inadequate, and he resumed the
work that he had learned from Gurdjieff. By 1962, after
devoting himself selflessly to its growth and expansion,
Bennett left the Subud organization, feeling that a return to
the Gurdjieff method was necessary.
Although he maintained to the end of his life that he had
derived great benefit from Subud, it was now the turn of Subud
members to be dismayed, and many turned against him.
Meanwhile the Institute had been largely given over to
Subud to the extent, at one time, of instigating a move to
forbid the sale of Gurdjieff's books at Coombe Springs. In
spite of this, Bennett reinstated lecture courses on
psychokinetics, an action that led to increasing conflict
among the membership.
A battle of power ensued in 1962 that resulted in Subud
acquiring its own organization and Bennett resigning from the
Subud brotherhood and his role as leader of the Coombe Springs
Community and Director of Research of the Institute.
From 1963, the pattern of exercises that were subsequently
followed at Coombe Springs combined the latihan with different
techniques such as the Gurdjieff movements. The meeting hall
was completed with the fitting of a balcony for viewers and an
external access through stairs for spectators. Lectures were
held on topics ranging from Sufism to Synchronicity, and
Bennett resumed work on the final volumes of his "personal
whim", the epic 'The Dramatic Universe', which he had been
working on for more than ten years, constantly writing,
revising and re-writing.
The Shivapuri Baba
Meanwhile, Bennett had made contact with the Shivapuri
Baba, a Hindu sage living in Nepal. He had first heard of
the Shivapuri Baba in the early 1940s, and now learned from
Paul Ripman (a fellow student of Ouspensky) that the yogi was
still alive. [5]
Bennett visited the Shivapuri Baba twice between 1961 and
1963, by which time the Shivapuri Baba was reportedly 137
years old. Bennett was impressed with the vitality and
simplicity of the Shivapuri Baba's teaching, and later
referred to him as his teacher. Bennett undertook to propagate
the Shivapuri Baba's teaching, and made various attempts to
incorporate it into his own work.
The Shivapuri Baba died in 1963, shortly after he had
approved the draft for his biography, Bennett's 'Long
Pilgrimage - The Life and Teaching of the Shivapuri Baba'.
ISERG
In the summer of 1962, Bennett gave a seminar on Spiritual
Psychology in which the various elements he had received
(particularly from Gurdjieff, Subud and the Shivapuri Baba)
were integrated into a coherent psycho-cosmology. This marked
a major step in his understanding of a comprehensive
methodology that combined both active and receptive 'lines of
work'.
By this time Bennett was also working with a group of young
scientists called ISERG (Integral Science Research Group)
headed by Tony Hodgson and soon joined by A.G.E. Blake and
others. This group investigated educational methods, the
nature of science and similar subjects. The group maintained a
contact with David
Bohm, one of the most original minds in contemporary
physics.
Research Fellowships were created to enable Hodgson and
Blake to concentrate their time on educational work. Out of
this came the idea of structural communication which led the
Institute into co-operative work with G.E.C. in the
field of teaching machines.
In 1963, Bennett launched the Institute's journal,
'Systematics'. The journal was designed to spread the ideas of
the discipline of Systematics, a practical analytical method
based on his own researches into the laws governing processes
in the natural world. The journal ran for eleven years with
major contributions from all disciplines.
Idries Shah
While the educational work was progressing, Bennett learned
of Idries
Shah, an exponent of Sufism.
When they met, Shah presented Bennett with a document
supporting his claim to represent the 'Guardians of the
Tradition'. Bennett and other followers of Gurdjieff's ideas
were astonished to meet a man claiming to represent what
Gurdjieff had called 'The Inner Circle of Humanity', something
they had discussed for so long without hope of its concrete
manifestation.
Bennett introduced "teaching stories" to his groups on
Shah's instructions. These are now widely published and
recognized as important teaching materials containing the
essence of Sufi knowledge and insight.
It remained unclear as to what the future relationship
between the Institute, Bennett and Shah could become.
Eventually Bennett decided to put Coombe Springs at Shah's
disposal to do with as he saw fit. In October 1965 at an
extraordinary General Meeting of the Institute, Bennett
persuaded the membership to take this step.
Shah originally indicated that he would take Bennett's
psychological groups under his own wing. Bennett welcomed
this, as it would allow him to concentrate on research and
writing. However, he again found himself unpopular - not only
with conservatives within the Institute, but also with other
followers of Idries Shah and members of his organisation SUFI
(Society for the Understanding of the Foundation of
Ideas).
In the spring of 1966, The Institute for Comparative Study
donated Coombe Springs to Shah, who promptly sold it for a
housing development. The Djamee was destroyed. About half the
people who had studied under Bennett were integrated into his
groups while the rest were left 'in the air'. The Institute
was left with the educational research work as its main focus.
The work with the Hirst Research Laboratories of G.E.C. bore
fruit in the new teaching machine, the 'Systemaster', and
Bennett organised various young people around him to write and
develop teaching materials that followed the structural
communication method.
Bennett and some of the Coombe Springs residents had moved
into a nearby house in Kingston-upon-Thames, where the family
(the Bennetts now had two sons and two young daughters) would
live quietly for four years before Bennett embarked on his
last great project - an experimental school for passing on
techniques for spiritual transformation.
International Academy for Continuous Education
By 1969 the company which had been formed to explore
structural communication - Structural Communication Systems
Ltd. - was floundering and Bennett's health, too, was in a
dangerous state. After his recovery, Bennett looked afresh at
the situation and the conviction came to him that he should
take up the work that Gurdjieff had started at the Prieuré in
1923 and been forced to abandon. He would start a School of
the Fourth Way.
Bennett became very interested in young people, especially
those who surfaced from the social and cultural turmoil of the
1960s with serious questions about the significance of life
but with few satisfactory answers. As part of his research,
Bennett attended the rock music festival on the Isle
of Wight in 1970. The outcome was the establishment of an
"academy" to teach some of what he had learned in trying to
discover the "sense and aim of life, and of human life in
particular."
On the twenty fifth anniversary of the Institute, in April
1971, a jubilee celebration on the theme of The Whole Man was
held. In a very short time, primarily in the USA, Bennett
recruited many students and in October 1971 the International
Academy for Continuous Education was inaugurated in Sherborne,
Gloucestershire.
Bennett had begun this enterprise with no programme in mind
and with only a handful of helpers. Initially, his ideas had
involved running a school in the midst of 'life-conditions' in
Kingston with two dozen students, but contact with a young
representative of the New Age Movement in the USA persuaded
him to think in terms of larger numbers and a relatively
isolated locale in the countryside. Bennett realized that work
on the land (which he considered to be an essential part of
teaching the proper relationship between mankind and the rest
of creation) would require a larger number. Both Hasan Shushud
and Idries Shah made recommendations that, for the most part,
he disregarded.
He quickly attracted one hundred pupils, and in 1971, with the support of the Institute for
Comparative Study, he inaugurated the International Academy
for Continuous Education, in the village of Sherborne, Gloucestershire, England.
The name was chosen "to indicate on the one hand its
Platonic inspiration and on the other to emphasize that it was
to offer a teaching for the whole life of the men and women
who came to it."
As he tells the story in his autobiography, although
various spiritual leaders had urged him at various points in
his life to strike out on his own path, it was not until near
the end of his years that he felt fully confident to assume
the mantle of the teacher. Bennett relates how Gurdjieff had
told him in 1923 that one day Bennett would "follow in his
footsteps and take up the work he had started at
Fontainebleau." In 1970, following the promptings of a still,
small voice from within that said, "You are to found a
school,"
Bennett proposed that there should be five experimental
courses each of ten months duration. The courses proved
fruitful, and many people have continued, as he had hoped, to
work with the ideas and methods he presented.
In April 1972, the Sufi Hasan Shushud came to stay for
a few months at the Academy. The two had met in Turkey ten
years previously, and Hasan Shushud had visited Bennett's
Surrey home in 1968, when Bennett was initiated in Shushud's
wordless, universal zikr, which, Bennett concluded, bore
results similar to those of the latihan, while omitting many
of the risks attendant on 'opening' unprepared people. Bennett
had since grown increasingly attracted to the Khwajagan, the
Masters of Wisdom of Central Asia extolled by Hasan. Bennett
worked on a version of the Sufi's book Hacegan Hanedani, to be
published jointly under his and Shushud's names (Shushud
eventually refused to have a book published with his name
joined with that of a Christian). He was also working on a
book concerning Gurdjieff's ideas.
While criticising Bennett's methods, Hasan impressed on him
that "Your only home is the Absolute Void". Shushud eventually
agreed that what Bennett was doing was more suitable for young
western seekers than his own strict methods of fasting and
zikr.
In the same year, Bennett began editing Gurdjieff's Third
Series of writings, 'Life is Real Only Then When I Am',
undertaking its publication on behalf of the Gurdjieff family
(who were having difficulties in dealing with the Gurdjieff
Foundation). He also revisited Turkey, meeting with Hadji
Muzaffer, the Sheikh of a Halveti Dervish Khalka.
During the period of the second course at the Academy, a
Cambodian Buddhist Monk, the Reverend Mahathera V. Dharmawara,
known as 'Bhante', came to Sherborne at Bennett's invitation.
Techniques of meditation were introduced that continue to be
practised by many people.
Other visitors were Suleiman Dede, head of the Mevlevi order in Konya, as well as his
disciple Reshad Feild. Idries Shah paid a brief visit
during the first year, but soon left, with harsh views on the
attitudes and disposition of the students.
Throughout the period of the Institute's existence, Bennett
had been toying with the idea of founding a spiritual
community. He saw the Sermon on the Mount as a document describing
the true community. His contact with Idries Shah combined this
in his mind with the possibility of establishing a Power House
where 'enabling energies' could be concentrated. He set his
sights on some kind of self-sufficient community, populated by
Sherborne graduates, to evolve out of the school. He was
profoundly influenced by contemporary ideas, such as those of
Schumacher, about the need for alternative
technology and by the argument of conservationists for
intelligent, ecologically sound agriculture. He was also
greatly impressed that his spiritual hero and inner teacher,
Khwaja Ubaidallah Ahrar (15th century) had turned to
farming after his period of training.
Soaring price of land in the UK led to Bennett's interest
in starting something in the USA. In 1974, he signed an
agreement whereby the Institute loaned $100,000 to a newly
formed society for the foundation of a psychokinetic
community. He signed this document shortly before his death on
December 13 1974.
The Claymont Society was founded to attempt to carry
out Bennett's vision, but without the help of his
guidance.
In the Summer of 1974, he visited the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rome to question him
about Transcendental Meditation and his interpretation of the
Bhagavad Gita. Bennett had been initiated
into TM several years before and first met the Maharishi in
1959. He disputed Maharishi's presentation of the Gita in
which he eliminated the need for sacrifice and suffering.
In the last year of his life, he gradually made it known to
those working with him, that his own personal task centred on
the creation of a way of religious worship that would be
accessible to men and women of the West who were lacking in
religious formation. During this period he made experiments
with the Islamic namaz and Sufi zikr.
The teachings he developed in his last years were recorded
and published in a series of books put together by Anthony
Blake. He showed that at last he was independent of Gurdjieff
and had his own understanding of the spiritual world, based on
a radical questioning of all current assumptions.
Bennett died on Friday, December 13 1974,
shortly after the start of the fourth course. That course, and
the fifth, were completed by his wife, working with a few of
his most experienced pupils.
With his death the Institute was faced with the typical
problems of a body which had been led almost single-handedly
by one man since its inception. The decision was taken to
continue the Academy's work until the five-year period,
originally specified by Bennett, had been completed. The
setting up of the USA community at Claymont Court, West
Virginia, went ahead even though there was no longer a means
of guaranteeing the necessary spiritual support and guidance
that had been an integral part of the vision.
After the completion of the five-year cycle, the Institute
found itself with no clear aim, direction or leadership. By
the 1980s it had been more or less destroyed by the advent of
a self-styled teacher from the USA, who seized power in the
absence of strong leadership. Though gifted with genius in
certain areas he lacked Bennett's wide understanding and
compassion. With the Institute destroyed, there then remained
only the books and the legacy of his inspiration. His work
lives on in individuals who face for themselves the hazards of
the search for reality.
In the months before he died, Bennett worked to establish
an experimental "ideal human society" embodying the methods
and ideas that he had developed and derived from Gurdjieff. He
made substantial efforts to overcome the rifts that had grown
between different groups of Gurdjieff's followers, and was
beginning to talk about the development of new forms of
worship appropriate for the modern world.
Books
- Works by J.G. Bennett
- Creation (Exploration of the idea that man
lives in many worlds)
- Creative Thinking (The conditions necessary for
creative insight)
- Deeper Man (Gurdjieff's ideas applied to the
critical condition of 20th century society)
- Dramatic Universe, The (A search for a unified
vision of reality)
- Elementary Systematics: A Tool for Undertanding
Wholes (Conceptual tool to find pattern in complexity.
A handbook for business)
- Energies: Material, Vital, Cosmic (exploration
of the theory of Universal Energies developed from
Gurdjieff's hints)
- First Liberation, The ( Working with Themes at
Sherborne House)
- Gurdjieff: A Very Great Enigma (The ideas of
Gurdjieff and the mystery that surrounded him)
- Gurdjieff - Making a New World (Biography
exploring Gurdjieff's role in bringing ancient wisdom to
the West)
- Hazard: The Risk of Realization (First book of
talks given on ideas found in The Dramatic Universe)
- How We Do Things: The Role of Attention in
Spiritual Life (Chapters on Function, Sensitivity,
Consciousness, Decision, & Creativity)
- Intimations: Talks with J.G. Bennett at Beshara
(talks given to students of Reshad Feild and of the great
Sufi Mystic Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi)
- Idiots In Paris (Diaries of Elizabeth &
J.G. Bennett in Paris with Gurdjieff)
- Is There Life On Earth? (Introduction to
Gurdjieff's ideas arousing a practical concern for the
future of life on this planet)
- Journeys In Islamic Countries (Diaries of
Bennetts's search for the sources of Gurdjieff's
teachings)
- Long Pilgrimage (The life and teaching of the
Shivapuri Baba)
- Making A Soul: Human Destiny and the Debt of Our
Existence (Instruction based on Bennett's view of the
fundamental purpose of human existence)
- Masters Of Wisdom: An Esoteric History of the
Spiritual Unfolding of Life on This Planet (Historical
study and a vision of the workings of higher intelligence)
- Needs Of A New Age Community: Talks on Spiritual
Community & Schools (Includes Bennett's
commentaries on 'The Sermon on the Mount')
- Sacred Influences: Spiritual Action in Human
Life (Essays on the qualities of Life, Nature, Doing,
Wisdom, God, and Sacred Images)
- The Sevenfold Work ('The
Work' resolved into seven lines applicable to past and
present practice and experience)
- Sex (The relationship between sex and spiritual
development)
- The Spiritual Hunger Of The Modern Child
(Bennett, Mario Montessori, A.I Polack and others on the
nature of a child's spirituality)
- A Spiritual Psychology ( a workbook for
creating an organ of perception and mode of existence
independent from the vagaries of life)
- Sunday Talks At Coombe Springs (A collection of
some of Bennett's most creative thinking)
- Talks On Beelzebub's Tales (From Bennett's
talks on Gurdjieff's series 'Beelzebub's Tales to His
Grandson'.
- Transformation (The process by which a man can
become a 'New Man')
- Way To Be Free (Conversations between Bennett
& his students on the difference between work done
from the mind and work from essence)
- What Are We Living For? (A critique of western
culture)
- Witness: The Story Of a Search (Autobiography)
[6]
Sources
External links
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