The Fourth Way

A posthumously compiled record of verbatim talks and question-and-answer sessions given by P.D. Ouspensky between 1921 and 1946, organised thematically in the order he himself followed. The book covers the full scope of the Fourth Way system: the study of consciousness and its four states, the plurality of 'I', the division of man into centres, self-observation, self-remembering, negative emotions, identification, the Law of Three and the Law of Seven, the Ray of Creation, the Food Diagram, and the conditions under which genuine inner development is possible. Ouspensky considered the question-and-answer format more essential than the lectures themselves, and this book reflects that conviction — the material gains its character from the pressure of real questions from students at different stages of understanding. It serves as one of the most comprehensive and practically oriented expositions of Gurdjieff's teaching available, and is widely regarded as an indispensable companion to 'In Search of the Miraculous'.