Gurdjieff’s magnum opus, All and Everything, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, is not about THAT Beelzebub or maybe it is. He is a fallen angel, after all. In any event, Gurdjieff loved to “bury the dog deeper.” So he created an allegory in long convoluted sentences with words that were concocted from languages that were foreign to Western ears, just for starters. However, the book—which is as thick as a bible, encodes esoteric world “laws” and “myths” that may be seated in truth. Many Gurdjieffians have spent their lives parsing and digesting the knowledge encompassed in this volume.
Essentially, the storyline is about a wise, old being traveling on a spaceship with his grandson, Hassein, whom he is very fond of. Hassein is a curious lad, especially about those “strange three-brained beings on the planet Earth.” In fact, he can never get enough of them. As the two while away unfathomable hours of space travel his doting grandfather, Beelzebub, tells Hassein stories of his own “descents” throughout the centuries onto the planet Earth.
As it turns out, Beelzebub has made something of a study of the habits and odd reasoning of these “unfortunate” three-brained beings. Three brained in the sense of having separate thinking, moving and emotional brains. Curious and unfortunate in the sense that their three “brains” don’t communicate well with each other causing untold harm to themselves and others.
Intellect, scholar and creative genius, Anthony Blake, a close student of J.G. Bennett’s and fellow collaborator on his books, has come up with an inventive new chapter to Beelzebub’s Tales. Introducing Zeinab, the first female character to have a position of note in the tale, he has not only written a new storyline but has created a dramatic video presentation. This presentation may need the traditional three go-rounds to penetrate its message about a new form of travel, read inner-travel. Anthony’s video, The New Design, is at least worth a look-see for its sci-fi production value.