Understanding the Esoteric through Progressive Awareness

Abstract

Many researchers of Western esotericism today assume a “methodological agnosticism” whereby they limit themselves to historical and textual verification. They do not adjudicate whether the specific esoteric tradition studied is genuine or spurious, reasonable or unsound, grounded in a spiritual reality or premised in fantastical impossibilities. In this article, I draw on G.I. Gurdjieff’s understanding of the “Law of Three” as extended by British philosopher and Gurdjieff associate J.G. Bennett to argue that a phenomenological approach is a valuable interpretive complement to methodological agnosticism because it offers a reliable conceptual and methodological means for probing esoteric claims as they might be understood via firsthand encounter and experience. Bennett particularized Gurdjieff’s presentation of the Law of Three by describing it in terms of six triads; i.e., systems of three forces that interact to sustain a specific action, process, or happening. In this article, I draw on my ongoing understanding of Gurdjieff’s Law of Three and Bennett’s six triads to suggest that esoteric knowledge is not necessarily “hidden” or “beyond the ordinary” but can unfold in a process of progressive awareness whereby the student engages in an empathetic, deepening understanding of phenomena. Instead of the “outsider” perspective of methodological agnosticism, one draws on an “insider” perspective of committed, first-person involvement.