Holism and the Gurdjieff Work: Henri Bortoft’s Authentic Wholeness and J. G. Bennett’s Systematics

Seamon, David

doi:10.5840/asrr2024131107

Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review

Volume 15, Issue 1, 2024

G. I. Gurdjieff and the Work Tradition

David Seamon

Pages 26-51

https://doi.org/10.5840/asrr2024131107

Holism and the Gurdjieff Work
Henri Bortoft’s Authentic Wholeness and J. G. Bennett’s Systematics

This article discusses two complementary approaches to wholeness at least partly indebted to the system of self-transformation developed by spiritual teacher G. I. Gurdjieff: first, British philosopher of science Henri Bortoft’s discussion of authentic wholeness; and second, British philosopher J. G. Bennett’s systematics, a method for describing phenomena via the qualitative significance of numbers. The article begins with a review of the significance of wholeness in recent Western thinking, including Western esotericism. The article then highlights Bortoft and Bennett’s approaches to wholeness and considers how their efforts relate to a Gurdjieffian point of view. The argument is made that Bortoft’s discussion of understanding sets the stage for the manner of encountering and knowing presupposed by Bennett’s systematics. The author then draws on Bennett’s systematics interpretation of two-ness (the dyad) and four-ness (the tetrad) to illustrate how a systematics perspective clarifies the wholeness of the Gurdjieff Work as it is a comprehensive system of psychological and spiritual transformation.

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