Shichanina, Yu. V. Spiritual and Moral Searches as a Life Journey: Peter D. Ouspensky. Multidimensional Universe and George Gurdjieff’s System. Essay No. 2.

Abstract: Philosophical views of one of the most mysterious and controversial philosophers who were into the spiritual and moral search Peter D. Ouspensky are described as the philosopher’s life journey which, unlike usual chronicles of life, is filled with philosophical reflection, has the internal psychological truth and shows the philosopher’s ideas in terms of the philosopher’s personal biography. From the philosophical point of view, spiritual and moral search involves, first of all, a search or a process, a living force that, unlike in classical philosophical systems and scientific researches, has the structure and content expressing the results of a completed research. Peter D. Ouspensky’s philosophy is viewed not as the system of categories but as the spiritual and moral search of the philosopher as a human. In this regard, his philosophy has much potential for creative co-partnership and a new understanding of universal philosophical ideas and timeless values in terms of the modern age. The analysis carried out by the author was focused on the most fundamental creative ideas of Peter D. Ouspensky: secret knowledge, esoteric Christianity, experimental mysticism, the fourth dimension, multi-dimensional universe, superman, eternal returns and ‘psychological’ evolution of the humanity. All these ideas are closely connected and complete each other. The second essay is devoted to the so-called ‘Gurdieff’s’ period in Peter D. Ouspensky’s period (1915 – 1924), contradictory relations between the teacher and the follower and between Gurdjieff’s system and Ouspensky’s ideas. According to the author, those were the years of rewarding work over developing a new model of Universe and methods of psychological evolution of the humankind and, at the same time, the years of drudgery, spiritual discordance and reappraisal of values.

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