Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man

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Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man was an esoteric spiritual school founded by G. I. Gurdjieff in 1922 also known as Le Prieuré for the name of the property that he purchased in Fontainebleau-Avon south of Paris in France. The school was dedicated to work on oneself as a means of spiritual self-perfection and self-observation in the struggle against waking sleep towards achieving the state of self-remembering or subjective consciousness -- the third state of consciousness -- there being four states of consciousness in total.

The following excerpt by an article of Clifford Sharpe "The Forest Philosophers" gives a flavour of the atmosphere at the Institute:

The psychological aspect of the Gurdjieff-Ouspensky teaching might be briefly described as the practical, detailed and infinitely painstaking application of the ancient precept: Know thyself. All the teaching is strictly practical. Only enough theory indeed is given to provide a language in which the results of self-study can be recorded and mutually related. The student may, if he likes, believe all he is told, but he is always reminded that belief is not knowledge, and can be of no value to him until he has verified it by direct self-observation; and he is continuously discouraged from discussing ideas, or even using words, of which he cannot offer concrete illustrations drawn from his own experience. (Published in the New Statesman, London: Vol. XX(516), March 3, 1923, pgs. 626–627 and Vol. XX(518), March 17, 1923, pgs. 687–688.)