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HISTORY
OF THE INSTITUTE FOR THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY AND
THE SCIENCES, LTD.
J.
G. BENNETT
John
Godolphin Bennett (8th June 1897 - 13th December 1974), the Founder of
the Institute, tells of his own search in his autobiography, Witness.
He first met Gurdjieff in Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1920 through Prince
Sabaheddin. His first visit to the Prieuré where Gurdjieff had
his school was in late 1922. He returned in July 1923, to stay for two
or three months, and was not to see Gurdjieff again for twenty-five years.
As with many other of Gurdjieff's followers, his search was universal
in intent and, as the following pages will show, led him to study widely
and make contact with many teachers representing different traditions.
When he died, it did not appear to some of us that his search had come
to an end and that we could rest on his laurels.
Bennett's life of search wonderfully demonstrates the principles of hazard
that he sought to understand and communicate throughout his life. In spite
of having written one of the most comprehensive and deep studies of human
knowledge of the twentieth century - The Dramatic Universe - he always
insisted that the spiritual was unexpected and that freedom and virtue
were possible only because of the fundamental uncertainty of existence.
This is a brief history of the The Institute for the Comparative
Study of History, Philosophy and the Sciences, Ltd. which Bennett created
in 1946 as a vehicle for his work. Though it is largely the story of this
one extraordinary man, we should remember the hundreds and even thousands
of people who were involved over the forty years of its existence.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
P.
D. Ouspensky
The Institute was the brainchild of J. G. Bennett. At the end of the war,
he was working with groups of people following the ideas of P. D. Ouspensky.
Ouspensky was then living in the USA and Bennett was called on more and
more to explain the ideas of 'the system' as he had received it from Ouspensky.
'The system' was the organisation of Gurdjieff's teaching that Ouspensky
had evolved for himself. In contrast to Gurdjieff's method of fragmentary
exposition, Ouspensky had attempted to produce a coherent psycho-cosmology
that could be logically understood.
Ouspensky fell under the impression that Bennett was setting himself up
as a teacher and plagiarising his lecture material. Instructions were
sent to all members of Ouspensky's groups to disassociate themselves from
Bennett, who found himself vilified and ostracised, but still supported
by a small loyal following. He decided to go ahead with his work of communicating
his understanding of the System to people, and to create a society or
institute to serve as its vehicle. This Institute was founded in 1946.
Its title - The Institute for the Comparative Study of History, Philosophy,
and the Sciences Ltd. - was deliberately chosen for its awkwardness and
length. The Institute was intended simply as a device whereby the advantages
of a legal charity would facilitate the pursuit of Gurdjieff's ideas.
The Psychokinetic Principle
However, Bennett's selection of Aims and Objects established the Institute
in a universal and not only Gurdjieffian rendering of the psychokinetic
principle:
"To promote research and other scientific work in connection with
the factors which influence development and retrogression in man and their
operation in individuals and communities; to investigate the origin and
elaboration of scientific hypotheses and secular and religious philosophies
and their bearing on general theories of Man and his place in the universe;
and to study comparative methodology in history, philosophy and natural
science." (Para. 3 (a) Aims and Objects) (1)
In Bennett's language, there is Psychoteleios man - the finder, Psychostatic
man - the sleeper, and Psychokinetic man - the seeker. Bennett regarded
the psychokinetic man as neither totally asleep nor totally awake: caught
'between two stools', and he is inevitably a troubled person in great
need of spiritual guidance.
Coombe
Springs
In 1946, Coombe Springs was acquired for the Institute. This site in Kingston-upon-Thames,
Surrey, had been used for research laboratories by the British Coal Utilisation
Association of which Bennett was the Director. Bennett's groups expanded
and in addition to the small community who lived there permanently, hundreds
of people visited Coombe Springs for meetings and Summer Schools.
The old laboratories were used as dormitory space and known as the 'fishbowl'
because of the amount of glass they had. A 'new building' was later built
for superior accommodation. The main house was used for meetings as well
as accommodation, housing the first Mrs Bennett and such loyal supporters
as Olga de Nottbeck. In the grounds was the original Elizabethan Spring
House from which Coombe Springs had its name that, right up until the
mid-nineteenth century, provided water to the palace at Hampton Court.
In this period, Bennett was convinced that the 'system' taught by Gurdjieff
could be reconciled with modern science. He started work on a five-dimensional
geometry that included 'eternity' as a second time-like dimension. In
his first published book The Crisis in Human Affairs (1948) he introduced
this dimension, claiming that 'eternity-blindness' explained why we did
not see or understand the underlying guiding intelligence behind human
history. He also made it clear that Gurdjieff's system was 'not a body
of doctrine, but a compendium of methods . . . of bringing about that
change in human nature which is implied in what I have called the Psycho-kinetic
principle". In 1949, he published another book What are we Living
for?.
Noah's
Ark
Nevertheless, everyone at that time felt strongly that civilization as
it was known was falling apart and the only right course of action was
to build a Noah's Ark in which everything worth preserving could be collected
for the benefit of a future time. This led Bennett and his friends to
look for a place secure from political, economic and social turmoil. A
strong contender at that time - though it must appear a strange choice
to us -was South Africa. In 1948, Bennett made a journey to that Republic
to assess the feasibility of moving there to form an independent community.
With typical enthusiasm, Bennett ventured forth, though inwardly he had
many doubts. Even while in Kenya, he received a clear indication that
Africa was not the right place and that he should remain where he was.
He also received indications, particularly from Jans Smuts, that the intrinsic
nature of the trouble to come was not being understood correctly. Smuts,
author of Holism and Evolution, was also an inspiration for Bennett's
later development of systematics.
He was to continue to look for a place of 'withdrawal and concentration',
right up until his death in 1974.
Madame
Ouspenksy
In the same year, he went to the USA and was able to meet Madame Ouspensky,
whom he greatly admired. Ouspensky himself had died in 1947. Through Madame
Ouspensky Bennett learned that Gurdjieff was still alive and operating
in Paris; and, in fact, was living just a few hundred yards from where
Bennett had lectured the previous year.
Madame Ouspensky was a great supporter of the movements created by Gurdjieff
and only a brief record was ever made of her talks. (2)
Gurdjieff
Bennett quickly decided to renew contact with Gurdjieff. It was now twenty
five years since they had last met, due mainly to Ouspensky's long standing
veto on Gurdjieff to members of his groups. Bennett had no idea of what
to expect, but was prepared to abandon everything, including Coombe Springs
and his wife, if Gurdjieff so demanded.
At that time, towards the end of Gurdjieff's life, his flat in Paris had
become 'Mecca' to the 'followers of his ideas' who converged from many
different countries, in particular England, France and the USA, to meet
again often for the first time in many years. During this phase of visiting
Gurdjieff, Bennett learnt of Gurdjieff's Three Series of Writings and
read Beelzebub's Tales for the first time. At the beginning of 1949, Bennett
was named as Gurdjieff's 'Representative for England' and later gave public
lectures in London on Gurdjieff and his ideas.
This period was described in Elizabeth Bennett's book Idiots in Paris
based on Mr Bennett's diaries and her own memories.
Gurdjieff died in 1949 and was buried in Fontainebleau on November 5th.
Madame de Salzmann
After Gurdjieff's
death on October 29th, 1949, the various groups looked to Madame de Salzmann
to give them direction and hold them together, but there was little inherent
harmony between them. At this time Bennett was a member of a small group
headed by Madame de Salzmann, putting his work at Coombe Springs under
her overall guidance. In 1950, Bennett was falsely accused of harbouring
communists on his staff and was forced to resign from Powell Dufryn. This
left him free to concentrate more fully on the inner work of his pupils.
Friendly relations continued with Madame de Salzmann and her groups throughout
1951 and 1952, but by then Bennett was convinced that his more senior
pupils were not making progress, and convinced too that he had to find
out for himself whether there still existed an ancient tradition or source
from which Gurdjieff had derived his teaching.
Emin Chikou and Farhad Dede
Farhad Dede
In 1953, he made a 'Journey in Islamic Countries'
(3), visiting Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Persia. His search led to his encounter
with many Islamic Sufis, some of extraordinary accomplishment, such as
Emin Chikou and Farhad Dede. But he found in none of them that quality,
so outstanding in Gurdjieff, of universal understanding which transcends
local conditioning.
His search for esoteric understanding in the Middle East came to little,
but he experienced a deep sense of history and the thousands of years
involved in cultural change.
Beelzebub's Tales
During 1954, there were increasingly evident
differences of opinion between Bennett and Madame de Salzmann regarding
the promulgation of Gurdjieff's teachings. Also, Bennett came to realise
that an effectual working relationship with her groups was not possible.
Bennett wished to execute Gurdjieff's last directives literally, by disseminating
as widely as possible his writings and ideas, especially Beelzebub's Tales,
whereas Madame de Salzmann wanted to keep Beelzebub sequestered away from
the public eye.
Image by Bob Jefferson
Abdullah Daghestani
In 1955, while visiting friends in Beirut,
Bennett received a summons from a remarkable Naqshbandi, Sheikh Daghestani.
On meeting him, Bennett received not only indications of his future troubles
with other Gurdjieff followers but also the nature of his true destiny:
Bennett was to prepare the way for a great Messenger from God. Despite
his bewilderment and feelings of inadequacy in the face of this message,
he was deeply influenced by what he had heard and always kept its impact
with him during future events.
Djameechoonatra
Later in the year, after travelling in Persia,
Bennett began to build an extraordinary kind of 'western tekke' called
the Djameechoonatra, (a term from Beelzebub's Tales meaning "the
place where one receives one's second being food"), built of nine
sides and orientated towards Gurdjieff's grave. This, together with his
public lectures in London, completed the rift with Madame de Salzmann.
The 'Djamee' as it was known, was constructed particularly for the performance
of Gurdjieff's Movements, and originally designed on the basis of the
enneagram with a sunken pentagonal floor, echoing the shape of the magnificent
stained glass windows. With the advent of Subud, the floor was filled
in and used for laitihans. It was not for some years that the Djamee was
used for Movements and finally completed only in the 1960's with the fitting
of balcony for viewers and an external access through stairs for spectators.
The Djamee was destroyed in the late 1960s when Idries Shah sold Coombe
Springs for development to fund his own centre in the south east of England.
The Dramatic Universe
For more than ten years, Bennett had been working on his 'personal whim',
his great book The Dramatic Universe, which he constantly wrote, revised
and re-wrote. Published in 1955, the first volume. The Foundations of
Natural Philosophy contained original ideas on a six-dimensional space-time
framework and a systematics of existence. It was largely ignored by the
professional philosopher and scientist. But in this work he was aided
by Meredith Thring, an engineer, and Bruin Brown, a physicist. Another
important colleague at this time was the cybernetician David Foster. (4)
Subud
By the summer of 1956 Bennett had heard of Subud, a spiritual movement
originating in Java that appeared to have affinities with Gurdjieff's
ideas. He was told by an old friend, Ronimund von Bissing, who had been
initiated into Subud, that this movement was of great spiritual significance
and that he should meet one of its emissaries, Husein Rofe. In spite of
deep reservations, Bennett was 'opened' by Rofe in the November of that
year. Bennett regarded the latihan, the spiritual exercise of Subud, as
being akin to what the mystics call diffuse contemplation. He also felt
that it had the power of awakening conscience, the organ that Gurdjieff
regarded as necessary for salvation. An invitation was sent to Muhammad
(Pak) Subuh to come to England. Although it had not been his original
intention, Pak Subuh came to Coombe Springs where all of Bennett's pupils
were given the opportunity to be 'opened'.
It was a highly explosive event that included the miraculous cure of the
film star, Eva Bartok, (which was covered by all the newspapers) and,
subsequently, the violent death of one of Bennett's pupils. In an extraordinarily
short time, Bennett found himself instrumental in spreading Subud all
over the world. (5)
Bennett's heavy involvement in Subud meant a gradual fading away of the
work-group activities and exercises that had been practised until the
advent of Subud. The 'Djami' was left without its intended viewers' balcony
and its striking pentagonal floor was filled in to allow for latihans.
The Djami's original purpose of being a setting for the performances of
the Gurdjieff movements was not to be fulfilled again for many years.
St. Wandrille
In 1958, monks from the Benedictine Abbey of St. Wandrille, interested
in Subud, contacted Bennett who, the following year, made the first of
many visits which brought him into close contact with the Catholic church.
Pere Bescond was the first monk to be opened, followed by many others.
It was at St. Wandrille that Bennett had a deep experience of the destined
unification of Islam and Christianity. This possibility had haunted him
for a long time and he had given it philosophical expression, through
his concept of essential will, in The Dramatic Universe.
Soon after, he entered the Catholic Church.
Psychokinetic Studies
By 1960, Bennett had come to the conclusion that practice of the Subud
latihan alone, without self-discipline, was inadequate as a way and he
resumed his inner work that he had learned from Gurdjieff. Meanwhile the
Institute had been largely given over to Subud to the extent, at one time,
of instigating a move to forbid the sale of Gurdjieff's books at Coombe
Springs. In spite of this, Bennett reinstated lecture courses on psychokinetics,
an action that led to increasing conflict among the membership. One faction
regarded anything but Subud practices as 'use of the mind' and therefore
'bad', while another thought that practice of the latihan was perfectly
consistent with the pursuit of spiritual research or psychokinetic studies.
A battle of power ensued in 1962 that resulted in Subud acquiring its
own organization and Bennett resuming his role as leader of the Coombe
Springs Community and Director of Research of the Institute. He resigned
as 'helper' in the Subud brotherhood and many did so with him. But many
others condemned him as unspiritual and turning away from the Will of
God.
The pattern of exercises etc. that were subsequently followed at Coombe
Springs combined the latihan with different techniques such as the Gurdjieff
movements. Lectures were held on topics ranging from Sufism to Synchronicity.
Shivapuri Baba
Early in 1961, another great spiritual influence loomed on the horizon.
Bennett received an indication that he should make contact with the Shivapuri
Baba, a remarkable Indian Sage who lived in Nepal. He had first heard
of the Shivapuri Baba from Professor Ratnasuriya, in the early 40s. Just
before receiving the 'message', Bennett had heard from Paul Ripman that
the Shivapuri was still alive. Both Ripman and Ratnasuriya had been pupils
of Ouspensky.
Bennett visited the Shivapuri Baba in 1961 and 1962 and, at his suggestion,
wrote a book on his teachings called The Long Pilgrimage. (6) One of the
remarkable features of this encounter was the Shivapuri Baba's insistence
that Bennett was incorrect to involve himself so heavily in external duties
and that he should take more to personal meditation. Bennett made various
attempts to propagate the Shivapuri Baba's teaching and to incorporate
it into his own teaching.
A Spiritual Psychology
In the summer of 1962, he gave a highly significant seminar on Spiritual
Psychology in which the various elements he had received -from Gurdjieff,
Subud and the Shivapuri Baba in particular - were integrated into a coherent
psycho-cosmology. (7) This marked a major step in his understanding of
a comprehensive methodology that combined together both active and receptive
'lines of work'.
ISERG
David Bohm
By this time Bennett was also working with a group of young scientists
called ISERG - Integral Science Research Group - headed by Tony Hodgson
and soon joined by A. G. E. Blake and others. This group investigated
educational methods, the nature of science and similar subjects. There
was a powerful contact with Professor David Bohm, one of the most original
minds in contemporary physics. (8)
Research Fellowships were created to enable Hodgson and Blake to concentrate
their time on educational work. Out of this came the idea of structural
communication which led the Institute into co-operative work with G. E.
C. in the field of teaching machines.
In 1963, Bennett launched the Institute's journal Systematics. The journal
was designed to spread the ideas of the discipline of 'Systematics' that
Bennett had originated in writing The Dramatic Universe and developed
with the aid of the Research Fellows. 'Systematics' was an entirely new
approach to the development of understanding. The journal ran for eleven
years with major contributions from all disciplines. (9)
Idries Shah
While the educational work was progressing, Bennett heard of the presence
in this country of a new teacher, Idries Shah. When they met, the Shah
presented Bennett with a document supporting his claim to represent the
'Guardians of the Tradition'. Bennett and other followers of Gurdjieff's
ideas were astonished to meet a man claiming to represent what Gurdjieff
had called 'The Inner Circle of Humanity', something they had discussed
for so long without hope of its concrete manifestation.
On Shah's instructions, Bennett introduced to his people the teaching
stories that are now widely published and recognized as vitally important
teaching materials which contain the essence of Sufi knowledge and insight.
But it remained unclear as to what the future relationship between the
Institute, Bennett and Shah could become. Eventually Bennett decided to
put Coombe Springs at Shah's disposal to do with as he saw fit. In October
1965 at an extraordinary General Meeting of the Institute, the membership
was persuaded by Mr. Bennett to take this step, and early in 1966 the
transfer was made.
Originally Shah indicated that he would take Bennett's psychological groups
under his own wing. Bennett partly welcomed this as a means to relieve
him to concentrate on research and writing. However he again found himself
unpopular - not only with conservatives within the Institute, but also
with other followers of Idries Shah and members of his organisation SUFI
(Society for the Understanding of the Foundation of Ideas).
Later the following year. Shah sold Coombe Springs. About half the people
who had studied under Bennett were integrated into his groups while the
rest were left 'in the air'. The Institute was left with the educational
research work as its main focus. The work with the Hirst Research Laboratories
of G. E. C. bore fruit in the new teaching machine, the 'Systemaster',
and Bennett organised various young people around him to write and develop
teaching materials that followed the structural communication method.
Higher Intelligence
In his Summer Schools and Seminars, Bennett developed the notion of Higher
Intelligence and spoke about the importance of developing a communication
with higher intelligences as being the key to the real work.
Hasan Shushud
In 1968 a remarkable Sufi,
Hasan Shushud, came to visit Bennett at his home. Bennett had first met
him six years previously in Turkey. At that first meeting Hasan had given
him a copy of his book Hacegan Hanedani (Masters of Wisdom (10) ) and
imparted to him his way of Itlak Yolu - absolute liberation. Through Hasan
Shushud, Bennett came to understand that higher intelligence is more intimate
to man than he had previously understood. He became initiated in Shushud's
wordless, universal zikr.
Experimenting with the zikr, Bennett concluded that it bore results similar
to those of the latihan, while omitting many of the risks attendant on
'opening' unprepared people.
Hasan attempted to persuade Bennett to establish himself as a teacher
in his own right.
International Academy for Continuous Education
By 1969 the company which had been formed to explore structural communication
- Structural Communication Systems Ltd. - was floundering and Bennett's
health, too, was in a dangerous state. After his recovery, Bennett looked
afresh at the situation and the conviction came to him that he should
take up the work that Gurdjieff had started at the Prieuré in 1923
and been forced to abandon. He would start a School of the Fourth Way.
On the twenty fifth anniversary of the Institute, in April 1971, a jubilee
celebration on the theme of The Whole Man was held. In a very short time,
primarily in the USA, Bennett recruited many students and in October 1971
the International Academy for Continuous Education was inaugurated in
Sherborne, Gloucestershire.
Bennett began this enterprise with no programme in mind and with only
a handful of helpers. Initially his ideas had involved running a school
in the midst of 'life-conditions' in Kingston. It was probably contact
with a young representative of the New Age Movement in the USA that persuaded
him to think in terms of larger numbers and a relatively isolated locale
in the countryside. Both Hasan Shushud and Idries Shah made recommendations
that, for the most part, he disregarded.
Khwajagan
In April 1972, Hasan Shushud came to stay for a few months at the Academy.
Over the last few years Bennett had grown more and more attracted to the
Khwajagan, the Masters of Wisdom of Central Asia extolled by Hasan. Bennett
worked on a version of the Sufi's book Hacegan Hanedani (11), to be published
jointly under his and Shushud's names, but Shushud eventually refused
to have a book published with his name joined with that of a Christian.
He was also working on a book concerning Gurdjieff's ideas.(12) .
While criticising Bennett's methods, Hasan impressed on him that "Your
only home is the Absolute Void". Shushud eventually agreed that what
Bennett was doing was more suitable for young western seekers than his
own strict methods of fasting and zikr.
Life is Real Only Then When 'I Am'
In the same year, Bennett began editing Gurdjieff's Third Series of writings.
Life is Real Only Then When 'I Am'. He undertook its publication on behalf
of the Gurdjieff family who were having difficulties in dealing with the
Gurdjieff Foundation.
Sheikh Muzaffer
That same year, he revisited Turkey and met with, besides Hasan, Hadji
Muzaffer, the Sheikh of a Halveti Dervish Khalka.
Bhante
During the period of the second course at the Academy, he learnt of a
remarkable Cambodian Buddhist Monk, the Reverend Mahathera V. Dharmawara,
known as 'Bhante', with whom he made an inner contact. Bhante came over
to Sherborne at Bennett's invitation. Techniques of meditation were introduced
that continue to be practised by many people.
Suleiman Dede
Another important visitor at the Academy was Suleiman Dede, head of the
Mevlevi order in Konya. Idries Shah paid a brief visit during the first
year, but soon left, with harsh views on the attitudes and disposition
of the students.
Fourth Way Community
Throughout the period of the Institute's existence, Bennett had been toying
with the idea of founding a spiritual community. His contact with Idries
Shah combined this in his mind with the possibility of establishing a
Power House where 'enabling energies' could be concentrated. More than
once he had opened himself to the possibility that Coombe Springs could
become a true community or even a Power House. He saw the Sermon on the
Mount as a document describing the true community.
He was well aware that although energies of a kind were building up at
the Academy's headquarters in Sherborne House, it was still far removed
from the condition of a Power House or true community. He set his sights
on some kind of self-sufficient community, populated by its graduates,
to evolve out of the school. He was profoundly influenced by contemporary
ideas, such as those of Schumacher, about the need for alternative technology
and by the argument of conservationists for intelligent, ecologically
sound agriculture. He was also greatly impressed that his spiritual hero
and inner teacher, Khwaja Ubaidallah Ahrar (of the 15th century) had turned
to farming after his period of training.
Claymont Society
He saw more possibilities - partly due to the soaring price of land in
the UK - of starting something in the USA rather than in this country.
This led, in 1974, to signing an agreement by which the Institute loaned
$100,000 to a newly formed society for the foundation of a psychokinetic
community. He signed this document shortly before his death on December
13th, 1974.
The Claymont Society was founded to attempt to carry out Bennett's vision,
but without the help of his guidance.
Maharshi Mahesh Yogi
In the Summer of 1974, he visited the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rome to
question him about Transcendental Meditation and his interpretation of
the Bhagavad Gita. Bennett had been initiated into TM several years before
and first met the Maharishi in 1959. He disputed Maharishi's presentation
of the Gita in which he eliminated the need for sacrifice and suffering.
Religious
Worship
In the last year of his life, he gradually made it known to those working
with him, that his own personal task centred on the creation of a way
of religious worship that would be accessible to men and women of the
West who were lacking in religious formation. During this period he made
experiments with the Islamic namaz and Sufi zikr.
The teachings he developed in his last years were recorded and published
in a series of books put together by Anthony Blake. He showed that at
last he was independent of Gurdjieff and had his own understanding of
the spiritual world, based on a radical questioning of all current assumptions.
J. G. Bennett died Friday, December 13th, 1974
With his death the Institute was faced with the typical problems of a
body which had been led almost single-handedly by one man since its inception.
The decision was taken to continue the Academy's work until the five-year
period, originally specified by Bennett, had been completed. The setting
up of the USA community at Claymont Court, West Virginia, went ahead even
though there was no longer a means of guaranteeing the necessary spiritual
support and guidance that had been an integral part of the vision.
After the completion of the five-year cycle, the Institute found itself
with no clear aim, direction or leadership. By the 1980s it had been more
or less destroyed by the advent of self-styled teacher from the USA, who
seized power in the absence of strong leadership. Though gifted with genius
in certain areas he lacked Bennett's wide understanding and compassion.
With the Djamee and Institute both destroyed, there then remained in tangible
form only the books and the legacy of his inspiration. His work lives
on in individuals who face for themselves the hazards of the search for
reality.
NOTES
(1) Ouspensky was obsessed with a fear of the authorities and wanted a
respectable outward cover for his activities. This was created in 1938
in the form of the 'Historico-Psychological Society' which undoubtedly
greatly influenced J. G. Bennett in the setting up of his own Institute
several years later. The objects of the Society were:
1) The study of problems of evolution of man and particularly the idea
of psycho-transformism.
2) The study of psychological schools in different historical periods
and in different countries, and the study of their influence on the moral
and intellectual development of humanity.
3) Practical investigation of methods of self-study and self-development
according to principles and methods of psychological schools.
4) Research work in the history of all religions, of philosophy, of science
and of art with the object of establishing their common origin where it
can be found and different psychological levels in each of them.
(2) Tales of Madame Ouspensky was published by Robert de Ropp.
(3) His diaries were published as Journeys in Islamic Countries.
(4) The first volume of The Dramatic Universe was published in 1956 and
the fourth in 1966. David Foster published a number of books himself,
including The Philosophical Scientists.
(5) During this period, Bennett wrote (in two weeks) the book Concerning
Subud.
(6) Published in 1965
(7) A Spiritual Psychology was published in 1964 and remains one of his
most important works
(8) The two year contact between Bennett and Bohm 1962-4 has been partially
recorded in The Bohm-Bennett Correspondence.
(9) Systematics was defined in Volume III of The Dramatic Universe. Structural
communication was developed - mainly by Tony Hodgson - into a method of
thinking in groups for managers using magnetic materials and, eventually,
computer software. It became further developed by A. G. Blake and John
Varney into logovisual technology (LVT) and is finding application in
many fields. Systematics was taken up by Saul Kuchinsky while still working
the Burroughs Corporation heading a team that developed some of the first
hand calculators. It was also used by John Allen particularly in his management
of the visionary Biosphere 2 project and by Simon Weightmann, head of
Religious Studies at SOAS, London University, in his studies of language,
religion and mysticism. It was eventually integrated with LVT by A. G.
E. Blake.
(10) (11) Shushud's book was eventually translated and published by Coombe
Springs Press as Masters of Wisdom of Central Asia, years after Bennett's
own Masters of Wisdom was published. Masters of Wisdom was published posthumously
and contains a summing up of his ideas of higher intelligence and guidance
in history. It was left incomplete.
(12) Gurdjieff - making a new world published in 1973
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