Observations placeholder
Gurdjieff - Described by Fritz Peters
Identifier
010721
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Fritz Peters had known Gurdjieff from boyhood. During the war, Peters was an American GI, and in 1945 he was experiencing severe strain and depression. In Paris, he called on Gurdjieff in a state verging on nervous breakdown. Gurdjieff persuaded him to lie down, but after a few minutes Peters went to look for
Gurdjieff in the kitchen. Gurdjieff refused to give him aspirin but began to make coffee.
A description of the experience
Gurdjieff Remembered - Fritz Peters
He then walked across the small room to stand in front of the refrigerator and watch me. I could not take my eyes off him and realised that he looked incredibly weary - l have never seen anyone look so tired.
I remember being slumped over the table, sipping at my coffee, when I began to feel a strange uprising of energy within myself - l stared at him, automatically straightened up, and it was as if a violent electric blue light emanated from him and entered into me.
As this happened, I could feel the tiredness drain out of me, but at the same moment his body slumped and his face looked grey as if he was being drained of life. I looked at him, amazed, and when he saw me sitting erect, smiling and full of energy, he said quickly:
'You all right now - watch food on stove - l must go. .'
He was gone for perhaps fifteen minutes while I watched the food, feeling blank and amazed because I had never felt any better in my life. I was convinced then - and am now - that he knew how to transfer energy from himself to others; I was also convinced that it could only be done at great cost to himself. It also became obvious within the next few minutes that he knew how to renew his own energy quickly, for I was equally amazed when he returned to the kitchen to see the change in him; he looked like a young man again, alert, smiling, sly and full of good spirits.
He said that this was a very fortunate meeting, and that while I had forced him to make an almost impossible effort, it had been - as I had witnessed - a very good thing for both of us.