ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the New Age into the embodied performer/doer and establishes how this centres Jerzy Grotowski’s work and person within the New Age. It explores the manifold resonances between concepts used in Grotowski’s work and that of Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff’s and begins by contextualizing Gurdjieff’s work and its place in the New Age. The chapter maps out Gurdjieff’s position and legacy within the New Age, exploring his beliefs regarding the state of man and his belief regarding the necessity of waking up mankind. Gurdjieff’s teaching on objective consciousness holds the individual mechanistically-driven limited self to be of little importance. Religious historian Andrew Phillip Smith suggests that because Gurdjieff grew up in Armenia, he could easily have been exposed to Gnostic currents or groups that had historical connections with Armenia. Gurdjieff attached great importance to the discipline of bodily movement; one of the most important practical aspects of his teaching was the sacred dance work called the Movements.
