Creating a Soul by Girard Haven is about the practical work of the Fourth Way. "Practical" in this context means something more than physical or mental exercises that the reader can attempt in the privacy of his or her own study. In these pages, Mr. Haven speaks about the difficult, day-to-day work to awaken from the sleep in which we all are immersed. Practical, then, means both beginning to see things as they are and attempting to act from what one sees. Practical also means distinguishing between the efforts that one is capable of making by oneself and the line beyond which one cannot pass without outside assistance. The Fourth Way is a teaching of spiritual development... brought to the West in the early part of this century by George Gurdjieff and Peter Ouspensky... It can be said that the Fourth Way, more than any other system of knowledge known to us in modern times, stresses the importance of work on being. It is not enough to know the words, one must strive to be the words...
