Gurdjieff Terminology and Understanding

Also, for discussion purposes, not for condoning substance abuse, why was Gurdjieff convinced by psychoactive substances such as opium, coffee, alcohol, etc?

Gurdjieff’s liberal use of caffeine, tobacco a
nd alcohol throughout his long teaching career
has been documented by biographers, journalists and
students. Coffee and cigarettes were a
daily fixture in Gurdjieff’s life and were effectiv
ely employed to energize his writing pursuits
during the 1920s and 1930s.

---

Gurdjieff possessed an extensive and profound
knowledge of psychoactive substances and
their effects, much of it clearly based on personal
experience. Rafael Lefort, who attempted to
trace the sources of Gurdjieff’s knowledge, claims
that Gurdjieff studied in Eastern esoteric
schools where he was taught “the science of pharmacy and pharmacology, how to plant and use
plants of importance, how to extract their essences
and how to use these essences.

---

He then told me that following his motor accident h
e had been compelled to produce energy artificially. To this end, during the few following years, he had consumed enough drink to have killed ten men and, in addition, forty pounds of opium. To my question, “Did you kn
ow in advance what you were doing, or was it an experiment attended by grave risk?” he replied, “It was necessary to create energy artificially, my condition and my means and aims were such. I knew it, yet it was also an experiment and a risk.”

Gurdjieff’s consumption of spirits clearly played an important role in the dissemination of his teachings and interactions with students. He reportedly could drink very large amounts of alcohol without showing obvious signs of inebriation. According to A.R. Orage: “Gurdjieff, who had an unusual capacity for drink, made a careful distinction between ordinary drinking and conscious drinking which could free the ‘I’ to think, feel, talk and act; that is, to expose
‘essence’.”

What would have been the benefits of alcohol to Gurdjieff in his spiritual development in any way? He seemed to use alcohol on his students too.

"Gurdjieff, who had an unusual capacity for drink, made a careful distinction between ordinary drinking and conscious drinking" - this seems strange?

It seems strange that I should read that he drank heavily and be such an intelligent occultist?

Is it just that Gurdjieff misunderstood alcohol? Or am I missing anything?

Thank-you for reading! God-bless

Just an update.

I understand Djartklom as being the activity of the trinity in a source outside of itself leading to, as Gurdjieff states, the 'blending' of substances into a whole [Okidanokh becoming active within the initiate] within the three brains through conscious efforts of ego annihilation and patient watchfulness [being-Partkdolg-duty]?

Nevertheless, Aieioiuoa [Remorse] I vaguely understand as being an essence of the ray of Okidanohk that activates in an initiate in order that they might understand their predicament [being that the three brains are inactive, disfunctional, and primarily consist in projecting illusion and untruth] that they have spun for themselves?

Also, on the pronunciation of Aieioiuoa, my guess is that it is a mantra because of its use of the vowels, so I imagine it is pronounced something like:

Ah-ee-eh-ee-oh-ee-oo-oh-ah



Have a very good day