In 1972, Roberta Chromey left her college co-ed life in New Jersey ad spent a year studying esoteric spirituality in the English countryside. Under the the watchful eye of J.G. Bennett, she and her fellow students learned to sense and work with the subtle flow of energies all around them as they studied meditation, dance, and metaphysics and worked to rehabilitate a dilapidated manor house. Bennett’s teacher was a mysterious mystic known as George I. Gurdjieff who taught a system od spirituality he called the Fourth Way. Sometimes mislabeled a charlatan, but deeply beloved by many of his students, he was one of the 20th centuries most influential spiritual visionaries.
Roberta has a new memoir out, Real People: At the Pinnacle with Irmis Popoff and the Second Basic Course at Sherborne House with J.G. Bennett: A Memoir. This is the kind of book that doesn’t just tell a story— it provides something of a spiritual transmission. While I was reading it, there were a few spots where I felt myself going into an altered state, as if I had been meditating for hours upon hours. I had to put the book down and come back to it when I felt more grounded! It’s an enjoyable read for those of you interested in esoteric metaphysics, country life in the Cotswolds, and life in neo-monastic intentional communities.
Roberta and her husband Jack would return to the U.S. and become some of the first members in a new intentional community dedicated to the Fourth Way in the mountains of West Virginia. For 50 years they and their friends have lived together, taught the Gurdjieff system, and hosted retreats on 400 acres of rolling green hills.
Here are some links to Roberta’s community, The Claymont Society, and her personal work:
Roberta’s blog: https://realpeoplenow.com/
50 Years in a Gurdjieff Community with Roberta Chromey