Alan Watts on Gurdjieff: "Gurdjieff was a magnificent old rascal, who lived a joyous life, and most of his disciples live extremely restricted, rigid, and serious lives -- because the object of Gurdjieff's method was to weed out those who understood from those who do not, and those who understood went away and those who did not understand remained. "Gurdjieff laid a trap for people who think that the purpose of life…
It is kind of like when scammers claim they are from Nigeria or purposely misspell words or use bad grammar. "Here! Perform these 40 silly dances and you'll become omnipotent" is the early 20th century version of "Hello kind sir/m'am. I am the crown prince of Nigeria..."