Barbara Probst

Line of Sight Barbara Probst

Chosen by G. I. Gurdjieff to lead his teaching in America, Lord John Pentland founded the Gurdjieff Foundation in New York City in 1953 and served as its president until his death in 1984. In this unique collection of anecdotes and vignettes, Barbara Probst draws on her experiences as Lord Pentland's personal secretary in the last five years of his life to offer a vivid portrait of a man who embodied Gurdjieff's call to awaken to oneself, always and everywhere, and who sought to awaken that call--in deft, subtle, and unexpected ways--in those who were near him. As Probst notes in her introduction, not only was Lord Pentland head of the Gurdjieff Foundation and instrumental in spreading Gurdjieff's ideas throughout North America, he was also a successful businessman, keenly involved in a range of endeavors. With a penetrating vision that could encompass ideas on a vast scale along with the smallest details of the individual in front of him, he left indelible impressions on those who knew him. Thanks to this memoir, those who did not know him are offered a glimpse of a truly remarkable teacher for whom the inner and outer worlds were always related.