Modern-day society is different from that of Gurdjieff’s time. He died 50 years ago and was at the peak of his teaching 70 years ago. All those who were in direct contact with him and who could pass on his thoughts correctly are dead, but, more importantly, the energy that Gurdjieff created within his groups is a reality we will never know or experience. 

The only thing he left us are his books (see the bibliography pages) and those of his more intellectual disciples. But this is not really enough. Work on ourselves has always been, and still is, a practical experience which has to take place within an “environment” conducive to the creation of growth experiences. 

Today, in the year 2000, the quality of our automatism is markedly higher. 

While from one side our technological evolution leads us toward new warmth and offers us (with almost no effort) everything we need almost instantaneously, the evolution of our consciousness sleeps quietly in an even softer, more comfortable bed.

However, for those who can perceive it in their gleams of half-presence, the energy of wakefulness continues to flow and is at the disposal of those who can (even if only for one moment, and with great effort) get up from the mattress of their unconscious mechanism. But in order to get up you have to realise that you are lying down… there is no deeper sleep than the one in which we believe that we are awake… we need an even louder and more persistent alarm-clock so that we cannot go back to sleep so easily, the alarm clock doesn't have to be a slave to "Gurdjieff's method" but it has to know the basic principles, and on that basis it has to be able to construct new methods more suitable for the people of the third millenium. 

But we can't find such an alarm clock inside ourselves. 

We need outside help, and we have to realise that it is not so pleasant to have to get up, but also that after we get through that, we will forget all the efforts we have had to make and we'll be able to enjoy a "real" life. The problem we have to face is how to find this alarm clock. But if our will to get up is strong enough, we will be chosen, sooner or later, by someone who can see where we are going. There are very few wakeful people, but they do exist... 

The need for a living Master is indispensable. A Master doesn't necessarily have to use Gurdjieff's methods, he can adjust these methods to the needs of modern man. 

Without him nothing is possible.

The dawn of our existence began the day we were born.

 The dusk will come the day of our death.

 Will we have got up from that bed?

 Will we have lived this long day?