Gurdjieff Bennett and the Fourth Way (2)

exploration of the uniqueness of Bennett's situation and perspective, it is first
necessary to take into account the existence of a further category of spiritual teachers.
What these people have in common is that: (a) they neither knew Gurdjieff personally
nor did they emerge from a known branch of the lineage stemming from him; but (b)
they make strong reference to Gurdjieff's name and/or to the established pattern of
‗myths‘ relating to the source of his teaching as part of their own claim to spiritual
authority. To the extent to which these people draw on Gurdjieff and his teaching 65 I
shall refer to them as ‗non-lineal pretenders‘. Brief descriptions of five exemplars of
this syndrome follow:
Robert Burton.
Burton is the originator of the ―Gurdjieff Ouspensky
Centres‖ (mainly U.S.A.). However, he has no known lineal connection with
either Gurdjieff or Ouspensky. But, as the name of his organization implies,
its teaching is based on that of Gurdjieff as transmitted through Ouspensky. 66
Moreover, Burton's central claim to personal authority in terms of higher being
is expressed in Gurdjieff's terminology (he claims to be ―Man No.6‖ 67 .) 68
E.J.Gold. Gold, also an American, draws on Gurdjieff's terminology and
alludes to Gurdjieff at every point of his own teaching. For instance, the title
of one of his books, Secret Talks With Mr G., is clearly designed to suggest
that the contents come directly from Gurdjieff; similarly, the title of his
organization, the ‗Institute for the Harmonious Development of the Human
Being‘ is a clear allusion to Gurdjieff's ‗Institute for the Harmonious
Development of Man‘ of the 1920s. Additionally, his book Confessions of a
Sufi contains the strong implication that he, somehow, psychically inherited
Gurdjieff's authority.
24