Abstract

In the article, the author studies the modern community of George Gurdjieff’s followers. The author sees the core idea of George Gurdjieff’s teaching as a conscious evolution of a man, first of all through awakening from what he calls a semi-hypnotic “waking sleep,” in which he claimed people ordinarily live. The author compares Gurdjieff's concept of self-remembering with similar concepts in Buddhism and Hinduism. The research question is whether modern followers of George Gurdjieff’s teaching rethink the goal and methods of Gurdjieff’s teaching under the influence of Hindu and Buddhist concepts. In order to answer the research question, the author primarily uses quantitative research method. By analyzing the online surveys, received from Gurdjieff’s followers, the author comes to the conclusion that Gurdjieff’s followers tend to utilize some concepts from Hinduism and Buddhism that were not widely proliferated during the life George Gurdjieff. The author supposes his followers will continue acquiring elements from other teachings, or modern psychological theories.