It includes enough of Ouspensky's personal comments and experiences to make an entertaining story, but it isn't a self-indulgent book about the author ("and then he said this to me, and then I said that to him. For instance, the idea that war is caused by the uncomfortable proximity of certain planets at certain times seems to be more an illustration of the way mass movements are the result of mechanical forces.

What we think of as an individual choice oftentimes really is just us acting (or, to be more precise, reacting) according to the impulses that are ingrained in us and to external forces.

As for Gurdjieff's Fourth Way, while I have sympathy for the spiritual seeking of something further, not too unlike religion, the teachings are vague, fantastic, contradictory, beguiling, and unlikely to be any more positive than many 'unbelievers' or non-practitioners in practice.

There are at least four spiritual paths, the one who practices is asceticism, the monk who does it socially and emotionally, the intellectual and finally the follow a guru. Ouspensky made the term "Fourth Way" and its use central to his own teaching of the ideas of Gurdjieff. Ci sono invece altre cose che mi sono suonate più familiari perché le conosco dallo Yoga, come i benefici delle tecniche di respirazione; il fatto che l'uomo è composto da tanti piccoli sé e non conosce il vero Sé finché non elimina il superfluo e l'inutile (l'ho spiegato proprio grossolanamente! More than anything else, however, personal relations described in this latter part of the book partake of a unique quality of feeling which may strike the reader as puzzling, even chilling, yet perhaps also as evidencing new possibilities of the reach of the human heart. The book cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket (if applicable) is included for hard covers.

The ray of creation or chain of worlds is ruled by the same laws that govern the inner and outer life of man and everything in surrounding nature.

Tina Flintoff said: “Simon is a unique talent and has a genuine passion for this subject – I’m really looking forward to seeing how he engages with some of the world’s most extraordinary people. In short, the evolution of man is neither the mechanical, biological process of modern science, nor the social or planetary phenomenon of the contemporary “Aquarians.Past a certain stage, evolution is not and cannot be automatic, mechanical; it requires special work and conscious discipline. Interspersed with this are some interesting personal observations of how Gurdjieff conducted his practice and any special effects of the teachings that the student Ouspensky experienced (which is very little). Probably one of the best summaries of the whole of Gurdjieff's teachings, and also a nice map of the whole 'generally accepted' story of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky's work. His metaphysics bears no resemblance to anything I've encountered before and I suspect he had a very active imagination. Unbeknown to Ouspensky, a Russian émigré by the name of Nicholas Bessarabof took a copy of Tertium Organum to America and placed it in the hands of the architect Claude Bragdon, who could read Russian and was interested in the fourth dimension.

One of the most dramatic and personal sections of the book occurs in this latter part—where Ouspensky vividly describes experiences of an inexplicable nature regarding his relationship with Gurdjieff, experiences or facts which Gurdjieff had promised him would eventually come. Over the series, Simon will witness inexplicable superhuman abilities – death defying acts which confound physics and push the human body beyond the realms of possibility. The very real danger here is that using the tools of modern bio-technology, companies only need small amounts of specimens, be it animals, plants, microbes or a molecular extract from any of the three, to make large quantities of chemicals of medicinal and commercial interest. Throughout the last year and a half or so of reading this book, it forced me time and again to rethink the degree of control I have over my own life, to question dominant norms and values, to assess whether I am spending my energy correctly, and generally just to think of ways to improve myself.

It is clear that Ouspensky in this case seeks to portray a personal state of consciousness which he believes is unlike anything in the known mystical literature of the world.