It’s George Ivanovich Gurdjieff’s birthday. Born in Armenia in 1872, George was one of the prototype celebrity new-age gurus who have since become ubiquitous in the West. His main idea was that most people sleepwalk their way through life, and it was his job to jolt them awake so they could attain their full potential. His ideas were popular in the early 20th century and remain so today. So, did George like a drink? He did. In fact, his main way of drawing his students out of their slumber-shells, so he could see what lay underneath, was to aggressively and continuously encourage them to get roaring drunk. According to prominent guru Osho, and I quote, “Gurdijieff was very insistent about drinking. He would drink as much as a man could drink and was never drunk. That was the whole point. You can never see the real person unless he is drunk. The first day a disciple was there, the first initiation would be through alcohol. The master wants to know the unconscious immediately because there the real work is to be done. He does not want to waste time with the conscious personality, the sober personality. That is a mask.” Unquote. You know, I generally don’t go for the whole new age thing, but I think me and George would have gotten along.
