The Fourth Way is a term Gurdjieff used to distinguish the esoteric system he brought to the west early in the 20^th century from the three traditional ways leading toward growth in being.

1. The Way of the Fakir. It is primarily work on the physical centers, the body.

2. The Way of the Monk is work mainly on the emotional center.

3. The Way of the Yogi is chiefly work on the mind.

The Fourth Way works to balance the body, the emotions, and the mind, and to educate them to function harmoniously together. This is done only in a school under the direction of someone who has gained understanding through their own study and work in such a school. The aim of all methods in a Fourth Way School is to increase consciousness in students through the balancing of lower centers and preparing them for connection with Higher Centers. There are specific methods given only as the student acquires the proper understanding to do them and to profit from them. The reason for a school is to speed up the transformation process and to provide safeguards against the inevitable going astray into imagination and wrong reception of knowledge. A teacher who knows is required.

Finding a valid Fourth Way School is not easy but is possible. The seeker should approach this search with discrimination and caution, because there are groups using the name of Gurdjieff and terms relating to his system that have perverted it and use it for their own purposes. After finding a teacher, one has to first be prepared through intellectual study of the system and begin to apply basic methods of self-study, before one can enter the school itself. A real Fourth Way school has exoteric and esoteric levels. Schools are not permanent institutions, but are formed for a specific time and place, and then dissolve. While the aims of a school remain constant, each teacher, study group, and school is specific and unique in application.