Awakening begins when a person realizes that they are going nowhere and they do not know where to go. — G. I. Gurdjieff the online fourth way school G. I. Gurdjieff, circa 1930s circa G. I. Gurdjieff, “All accumulated vibrations create a current. This current brings the force of love. Real love is a cosmic force which goes through us. If we crystallize it, it becomes a power — the greatest power in the world.” “The growth of conscience consists in the growth of the intellect and the growth of superior emotions which accompany it — religious, moral, aesthetic.” — G. I. Gurdjieff The Online Fourth Way School Email: [email protected] (530) 908-2410 www.GurdjieffLegacy.org The Online Fourth Way School The School (est. 1992), born in the direct lineage and esoteric tradition of The Fourth Way, is a seminal teaching of spiritual evolution in the Technological World-Time, the “Son of Man,” that confronts and challenges our very Identity. The School offers the perspective and practices enabling the student to recapture the true meaning and purpose of human life, and ends the ever-increasing soulless waste of our attention, energy, time taken in the unconscious misuse of Technology in all its forms. Unique to this rich and practical teaching of self- evolution is that instead of seeking to change our life we are taught how to rightly observe and use it. Nothing is to be believed, everything is to be verified. Able to observe how our past lives our present, the student slowly frees themselves from false personality and begins to strive to live from essence, what they truly are. Objective values replace the subjective and a new self-sensing of energy and attention offer a Fourth Dimension of Understanding and Conscience. G. I. Gurdjieff Foreseeing the technologizing of life which, if not mastered, will diminish spiritual evolution, G. I. Gurdjieff (1872–1949) introduced and established in the West a long-hidden. ancient esoteric teaching of self- development. “The Fourth Way,” said Mr. Gurdjieff, is “completely self-supporting and independent of other spiritual lines and it has been completely unknown up to the present time.” Grounded in a conscious exploration of ourselves as we are, not as we imagine ourselves to be, a direct experiencing of our fullest extension slowly opens. Instead of personalizing ordinary life’s uncertainty, negativity and suffering, the student learns how to use these to come to real being, understanding and conscience. William Patrick Patterson Mr. Patterson is a leading exponent and teacher of The Fourth Way. He is in the direct lineage extending from G. I. Gurdjieff to Lord John Pentland, the remarkable man Gurdjieff chose to lead the Work in America. For over forty-five years Mr. Patterson has actively practiced and studied the teaching of The Fourth Way. He leads groups on the West Coast, as well as overseeing groups in the Midwest and East Coast. He gives four public seminars a year, each keyed to exploring Fourth Way themes. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Gurdjieff Journal, est. 1992, the first publication entirely devoted to exploring the perspectives and practices of the Teaching and applying its use in ordinary life. Mr. Patterson, author of nine books on The Fourth Way, is the director-writer-narrator of the award- winning documentary film trilogyThe Life & Significance of G. I. Gurdjieff, as well as Introduction to The Fourth Way—From Selves to Individual Self to The Self, Part I; The Movement from Sex to Love, Part II; Mr. Gurdjieff & The Meaning of Life, Part III; and Spiritual Pilgrimage to Mr. Gurdjieff’s Father’s Grave. One Path, Two Approaches The Online Fourth Way School is available if you reside in an area when study groups do not yet exist. Not based in impersonal communication which is meaningless in terms of self-evolution, the School is centered on responder-student correspondence allowing immediate exploration of the tenets of the Teaching based on the student’s own self-experience. On the first and fifteenth day of the month from September through June of every year, the student emails reports of their experience and observations, as well as any questions that may arise. Replies are sent within several days that speak directly to what is reported, and giving appropriate exercises. Videos which speak directly to various aspects of the Teaching are given, and a student-rate is given to seminars. Study Groups are available for those residing in areas where groups meet. These consist of weekly meetings, exercises, practices, active-being meditation, CBI (conscious body-breath impressions) and Days of Self-Exploration. To apply, please send an email to Studies@ GurdjieffLegacy.org telling of your interest and aim and with what, if any, spiritual practices you have been involved with. Once accepted, a nominal monthly gift is requested. .