02.08.08
Gurdjieff as spy? A comment
Two good comments about Gurdjieff as a suspected intelligence agent.
I will upgrade these comments to post level, due to their interest (keeping in mind the author speaks for himself, we are crippled by our ignorance here). Thank you for the insight.
I tried to indicate a similar sentiment in the /gmancon series (see the links), but of course it is difficult to know, and Gurdjieff’s activities are a reminder at least that not only he but many others have used the ‘esoteric’ to deceive people. Behind Gurdjieff perhaps lies ‘another’ unknown who must have thought it would be intelligently ‘funny’ (someone’s bon idee) to make a guru out of a spy, and in any case get someone with the devil’s talents to root out whatever might be rescued from the truly obscure labyrinth of the ‘sufi’ world.
Another issue, as the commenter states in his own way, is the ‘switch’ to a politician’s ethics (and thence the spy’s ethics!) in the sense of Machiavelli and the stance toward ‘lies in public’.