P. D. Ouspensky

Peter D. Ouspensky (1878 - 1947), (also Piotr Dimianovich Ouspenskii) was born in Moscow and died in England. He was a Russian philosopher, a mystic, a mathematician of considerable calibre, a journalist and a prolific writer of several books about possible higher dimensions of our universe, even before meeting Gurdjieff. His first book The Fourth Dimension appeared in 1909, his second book Tertium Organum in 1912 and A New Model of the Universe in 1914. This last work made him known all over the world. He was convinced that there were centers in the world where the knowledge and wisdom he had written about were preserved from a very remote age, and he went looking for them, travelling extensively in Europe and the East. His endeavour wasn't very successful and he returned to Russia only to find that what he had been looking for far away from home was right there in his own country not far from where he lived. Ouspensky meets G. I. Gurdjieff in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1915 and from then on it is his task to lucidly explain and integrate into a logical system, the raw materials given to him by his Master. He does this to the best of his ability in the book he is perhaps most famous for, namely In Search of the Miraculous, published posthumously in 1947. Experts agree that this book is the clearest and best exposition of the teachings of Gurdjieff as he taught it to his early pupils in St. Petersburg and during their travel to the West in the difficult and trying circumstances during the Russian Revolution. In the West, Gurdjieff and Ouspensky part ways never to meet again. Gurdjieff finally settles in France and Ouspensky travels on to England setting up residence in London, where he teaches Gurdjieff's system from 1921 to 1946. Shortly after his death in 1947, The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution is published, together with In Search of the Miraculous. His book The Fourth Way appears in 1957. The papers of P.D. Ouspensky are held in the archives of Yale University Library.

Published works by P.D. Ouspensky

• Tertium Organum: The Third Canon of Thought, a Key to the Enigmas of the World. (Translated from the Russian by Nicholas Bessaraboff and Claude Bragdon) Rochester, N.Y.: Manas Press, 1920; New York: Knopf, 1922; London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1923, 1934; 3rd American edition, New York: Knopf, 1945
• A New Model of the Universe: Principles of the Psychological Method in Its Application to Problems of Science, Religion and Art (Translated from the Russian by R. R. Merton, under the supervision of the author) New York: Knopf, 1931; London: Routledge, 1931; 2nd revised edition, London: Routledge, 1934; New York: Knopf; 1934
• The Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution New York: Hedgehog Press, 1950
• Strange Life of Ivan Osokin New York and London: Holme, 1947; London: Faber & Faber, 1948, first published in Russian as Kinemadrama (St. Petersburg, 1915)
• In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949; London: Routledge, 1949
• The Fourth Way: A Record of Talks and Answers to Questions Based on the Teaching of G. I. Gurdjieff (Prepared under the general supervision of Sophia Ouspensky) New York: Knopf, 1957; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957
• Conscience: The Search for Truth (Introduction by Merrily E. Taylor) London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979
• A Further Record: Extracts from Meetings 1928–1945 London and New York: Arkana, 1986

References

• Ouspensky, The Unsung Genius by J.H. Reyner