Maurice Nicoll (1884-1953)
The course of his life
David Scott Blackhall meets Dr.Nicoll
NICOLL,
Maurice The New Man Stuart, London, 1950, 153 pages, hb
dw
Republished by Eureka Editions in quality paperback
This
book indicates that all teaching, such as the Gospels
and many other
older and newer teachings, in the short period of known
history, is about
transcending the violence which characterizes
mankind's
level of being.
It affirms the possibility of a development of another
level of being
surmounting violence. The point of view taken is that
the
goal of Man
and Woman is this inner development, which is the only real
psychology.
It thus brings together in a single phrase, The New
Man
all religious and esoteric teaching.
Bob Hunter about Maurice
Nicoll
Maurice
Nicoll The Mark Watkins, London, 1954, hardback/wrappers,
214
pages
New edition by Eureka Editions now available
This book
is a companion to The New Man. It discusses,
in relation to
the Gospels, the idea that real religion is about
another
man, latent but
unborn, in every man. The end of this transformation of
a man is thought
of as The Mark to be aimed at. The author
explains
that in the Gospels
the word translated as sin means in the literal
Greek
missing the mark,
as of a spear thrown at some object and failing to
hit
it. And from meaning
to miss the mark it came to mean failing one's
purpose,
and so erring or
wrong doing. It is Dr.Nicoll's contention that when a
man is overpowered
by outer life and influenced only by all that acts
upon
him from outside, and argues, only from
what he can see, he is
machine-driven
by his senses, and internally, the wrong way round.
He is dominated by
external life and has no life in himself. That part of him which is
truly
himself, and from which his own individual existence and growth can
begin
is lost. It is in
the wrong place. And this is sin. That is, in this
sense,
everyone has missed the mark,
missed the idea of his own existence.
Maurice
Nicoll Selections from Meetings 1953 Eureka
Editions, 1998, 220 pages,
quality paperback
From
the Introduction: ....Regarded
from a strictly factual viewpoint, this book
comprises further
commentaries
by Maurice Nicoll on his widely appreciated
Psychological
Commentaries
on the Teaching of G.I.Gurdjieff and P.D.Ouspensky,
mainly on
papers
in the final, fifth volume. It could almost be a second appendix to
that
collection. In the aspect of value, however, Selections from
Meetings
in 1953 can
stand alone; it has the potential to show the
perceptive
reader a challenging pattern
for the true conduct of life. Even to
those
familiar with The Work, a telling phrase in
Nicoll's inimitable style
may
peirce the veil obscuring their understanding of a vital
part of the
teaching.
It is not
surprising that this selection contains potent
ideas; it reflects Nicoll's thoughts
on The Work at the culimination of
his life and his teaching....
Maurice Nicoll, A Portrait Biography
-- Beryl Pogson, Fourth Way Books, New York, 1990, 288 pages, paperback More about Beryl Pogson
Psychological
Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff & Ouspensky Maurice
Nicoll,
Watkins/Stuart 1952, Complete set of 5 volumes, 1766 pages,
hardback/wrappers
New edition by Weiser in 6 volumes (Index added)
(Send
e-mail for availability from Eureka).
Dr.Maurice Nicoll, one of the early believers in psychological medicine was a well-known Harley Street specialist. He was the son of Sir William Robertson Nicoll, the literary critic and editor. He studied at Cambridge -- where he took a first in science -- at St.Bartholomew's Hospital and in Vienna, Berlin and Zurich. After his Army Medical Service in the 1914 War in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, he became a medical Officer at the Empire Hospital for injuries to the brain and spinal cord, and, owing to the fact that he was a pupil of Dr.Jung he brought in many new ideas in regard to the psychological treatment of shell shock, which had been taken as a purely physical disturbance. In 1921 he met Ouspensky and in 1922 he went to the Institute at Fontainebleau to study directly under Ouspensky's teacher Gurdjieff. He afterwards resumed his practise in London and studied under Ouspensky until 1931 when he was given permission to teach. The Commentaries were written from Dr.Nicoll's own understanding of the teaching in its practical application to himself and to the members of his groups. They were begun during the years of the last war and continued afterwards, taking the form of weekly papers to members of the groups who were scattered over the world. In these papers the fundamental ideas of the System of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky are expounded with clarity so that help is given to the reader towards understanding the efforts required to reach that individual level of development indicated as the goal of all the Great Religions -- attainable only by practical work on oneself.
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This page updated January
28, 2006