On a spaceship to nowhere

I bought David Kherdian's book in the belief that it would contain sensational revelations about the Gurdjieff cult. It did not. Actually, Kherdian is a supporter of Gurdjieff and his religious viewpoint, known as The Work. So is his wife Nonny, frequently mentioned in the book. Even the title is pure Gurdjieff. It alludes to "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson", a strange novel written by Gurdjieff, with the plot set on a spaceship. (Like most mortals, I never finished it.)

Most of Kherdian's book is incomprehensible flim flam. I never understood what on earth Kherdian and Nonny were searching for, if they ever found it, and if so, how. Yet, I read the book twice. It feels like a spaceship to nowhere. It's incredibly boring, too. I'm sure Beelzebub's grandson Hassein had more fun at the spaceship Karnak!

But yes, if you read "On a spaceship with Beelzebub" carefully, you can draw certain conclusions the author doesn't want to draw himself. Judging by his description, some of the Gurdjieff groups are indeed cults, or at least pretty weird. They assign their members meaningless and menial work, which is usually carried out in a very amateurish way. In one group, Kherdian encountered a whole lot of people working on a house, all of whom seemed to be suspicious of each other, not letting their true feelings show, while asking their superiors only the most meaningless of questions. There were even two working class types who had been assigned to a forge, where they had been stuck for years! Kherdian doesn't draw the obvious conclusion: the group is cultish. That would explain why everyone is afraid of everyone else, and why everyone is so negative, under the polished surface - it's because the promised perfection never comes, but to say so would be to undermine the authority of the leadership and The Work. Therefore, people keep silent while watching the slightest move of everybody else... A classical cult situation.

Kherdian also tells a bizarre story about the group leader, Lord Pentland, who one day suddenly announced that The Work was finished, and that he would resign and leave! The next day, Pentland came back again, and nobody questioned anything. Nobody, that is, except Kherdian and Nonny, who left the group. (Despite this, they were emotionally attached to Pentland even afterwards.) It's unclear whether Pentland had a nervous breakdown, or whether his "resignation" was a ploy, perhaps a trick to weed out dissidents like the Kherdians. I've heard of similar confidence tricks in other cults.

Apart from this, the reader gets the impression that "the work" in the Gurdjieff Foundation consisted in listening to Pentland's theoretical lectures, doing menial work tasks, meditating, and learning a strange form of dance. But what for? I constantly get the impression that a trained psychologist (or pastor) would be able to sort out whatever nebulous problems these people think they are having. At one point, Nonny gets some kind of experience of "enlightenment" while baking. She seems to have been the only one.

The latter half of the book deals with Kherdian and Nonny joining another Gurdjieff group, this time in a remote part of Oregon. This group was led by a woman, Mrs. Stavely. Most of the other members where hippies, creating a rather strange situation for the middle-aged Kherdians. This part contains the only funny anecdote in the entire book: the group made the mistake of hiring baby-sitters from the local community, mostly made up of Bible-believing Christians. The baby-sitters saw the book "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson" and were shocked. Beelzebub, of course, is the devil himself. Stavely's group also made the stupid mistake of conducting its rituals outdoors, at midnight, with candle lights. The locals became convinced that Stavely, Kherdian, Nonny and the hippies were a bunch of Satanists, and even organized an armed posse to drive them from the area, but luckily they were stopped at the last minute by the county police!

Welcome to Oregon, 40 years ago.

(10 years later, the Oregonians *really* got their baptism of fire. We all know who came knocking on their door then, don't we? Does the name Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh ring a bell?)

I really can't recommend "On a spaceship with Beelzebub". I guess you should read it if you are obsessed with The Work. Otherwise, you might as well give it a pass.

Incidentally, I noticed that the author doesn't mention this particular book on his website...

WRITTEN BY A GRANDSON OF MULLAH NASSREDDIN