I've been looking at P.D. Ouspensky's "A New Model of the Universe" which Maurice Nicoll drew on in writing his quite fascinating book "Living Time" (see earlier postings). Ouspensky is probably best known as the author of "In Search of the Miraculous", which is about his experience as a disciple of the mystic and sage, Gurdjieff. Put very simply, Gurdjieff's teaching posits higher levels of consciousness which are potentially accessible to us through using our power of attention to attain a state of "self-remembering" - a certain objective awareness of our own existence. Reading "A New Model of the Universe" it becomes clear why he was so interested in Gurdjieff. Largely written before his meeting him, the book is essentially an exploration of the notion of esotericism. He sets out his stall from the start of chapter one:

The idea of a knowledge which surpasses all ordinary human knowledge and is inaccessible to ordinary people, but which exists somewhere and belongs to somebody, permeates the whole history of the thought of mankind from the most remote periods.

He then goes on to investigate such diverse topics as the interpretation of the tarot cards, yoga in its various manifestations, the nature of dreams and their possible interpretation, the science of hypnotism, the concept of the "superman", the significance of the sphinx, the possibility of the transmutation of sex energy and much, much more! There is also a fascinating exploration of the fourth dimension and the mysterious nature of time ( the link with "Living Time").

Particularly intriguing was the chapter given over to an investigation of the New Testament from the point of view of esotericism. He paints a very convincing picture of Jesus, not as the leader of a universal church, but as the teacher of a limited esoteric group seeking to attain the "Kingdom of Heaven" in this life through a raising of level of consciousness. His reading of the parables from this new standpoint is especially persuasive.

However, reading Ouspensky can be hard work at times. It may be a sort of intellectual honesty, but he doesn't go out of his way to charm the reader. His tone is very much: "I've done a lot of serious study of these things and it's like this. If you don't like it, then bad luck!" There's also a lot of phrases of the type, " it's perfectly clear that...", "this, of course , is simply...", we always find..." - the sort of thing which in an undergraduate essay would produce a rash of red biro with comments such as, "how?", "explain!", "why?"etc!

Nevertheless the book contains some astonishing material presented in a no-nonsense, non-sensationalist manner. I'm not going to try to read it and understand it all in one go, but I feel it's a book which I'll be coming back to again and again.