GURDJIEFF WORK COMMUNITY

Bennett’s life purpose was to integrate the understanding he acquired from spiritual traditions, mathematics, and science into a comprehensive system.

During his youth, a significant experience led him to a profound quest concerning life and human existence. While serving in the British army, "in March 1918 he was almost fatally injured and invalided back to England. While lying more dead than alive following his injury, he experienced an out-of-body sensation that later proved to be one of the great turning points of his life” and set him on the path to yearn to understand the meaning and significance of human life.

After the war while working in Turkey in Anglo-Turkish relations, he first met Gurdjieff in 1923, whom gave him many new ideas and inspirations about the possibility of man’s transformation. Years later, after having left Turkey, he lived for 3-months Gurdjieff's Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. This visit proved to him the soundness of Gurdjieff’s teaching and that Gurdjieff indeed had something beyond what anyone else could offer regarding knowledge and techniques to further man’s development.

After this, he jumped fully into Gurdjieff’s system and techniques. While he was living and working in London, he studied with another student of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, for about 15 years. He then left Ouspensky’s group and went deeper into his own personal search in Coombe Springs, a property that he purchase in England, dedicated to spiritual work. There with a number of renown thinkers and scientists he wrote his magnum opus, The Dramatic Universe; a 4-book series written to bridge the gap between science, philosophy, and spirituality. In 1948 Bennett would meet Gurdjieff again after finding out he was still alive in Paris after the Nazi occupation. Bennett visited Gurdjieff many times and worked with him closely over the 18 months before he died.

After Gurdjieff’s death, Bennett continued to practice, teach, and write about the 4th way, although he never stopped seeking and being open to incorporate other teachings. In 1956, Bennett was introduced to Subud, a devotional practice founded by the Indonesian Muhammad Subuh. For two years, he immersed himself deeply in Subud, bringing many of his students into this practice. Later, disillusioned with Subud, he met a group of Benedictine monks and converted to Catholicism. He also met and worked with a great Hindu sage, the Shivapuri Baba, who touched him and helped him make some final steps in his transformation. Bennett met Shivapuri Baba in 1961, and 1962 and the Baba encharged him to write about his life and ideas, then he died soon after their last meeting; he was 136 years old. After that, in the 1960s, Bennett decided to let go of his attachments and unconditionally donated the entire Coombe Springs property to Idries Shah, an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition.

In Bennett’s last years, he inaugurated the International Academy for Continuous Education in the village of Sherborne, England. There he led four 9-month courses centered around the Gurdjieff work. This was offered to hundreds of people from all around the world to make a sturdy foundation for their further inner development.

Bennett died in 1974 at Sherborne during a course. Before he died he had also purchased a property in the US in West Virginia in Claymont to further what he had started at Sherborne. Many 9-months courses were also completed there after Bennet’s death under the direction of Pierre Elliot, who himself was a student of Gurdjieff and Bennett.

J. G. Bennett had a supreme will power and when he wished to do something, he went to the limit. He also had a great heart and affected countless of people who worked with him and changed the course of their lives.