In search of PD Ouspensky

A few years back I, like so many others since its posthumous publication over 60 years ago, fell under the spell of Peter Demian Ouspensky’s ‘In Search of the Miraculous’, the author’s meticulous, yet captivating account of his years of training under the mystical tutelage of the enigmatic, slightly sinister Mr G — Ouspensky’s way of referring to the Greco-Armenian magus G I Gurdjieff. Having found a copy in my local library and been suitably intrigued, I had to take it out, quickly devouring the whole book in a few short bursts of concentrated reading. I was completely thrilled by it. It was like nothing I’d read before, offering up tantalising glimpses into a mysterious self-contained teaching which promised a direct route into higher realms of consciousness, ultimately enabling those fearless enough to take it an escape from the mundane world of mechanical suffering to which, it claimed, we were chained by our normal perceptions.