Not all of Nicoll’s thoughts on Christ are found in The New Man and The Mark. Certain others were publoshed only in his Psychological Commentaries. But some very few others were related only privately, and Beryl Pogson passed some of these on to her groups, and some unknwon number of them were posthumously publishedlished in his life.

In More Work Talks ed. Lewis Creed, first ed. 1967, ed. 1991, Quark Books, York, she reports that Nicoll said that the creation of Eve from Adam’s rib in Genesis has a special meaning: namely, that “the emotional centre taken out of him became woman.” (23-24). This is remarkable. I don’t know why Nicoll thought it, and I am not sure what it is based on, but it is worth pondering, if one thinks that such a detail in Genesis cannot be accidental.

I am not sure that this is from Nicoll, but she speaks about purifying by “the blood of Christ” as in that “blood” there is no longer any self-will (55 and 64).

When Pogson relates the churches in Revelation (the Apocalypse) the zodiac, this is, I am fairly sure from her. I would find it hard to believe that there was anything in this.

Far more persuasive is Dr Nicoll’s private and unpublished interpretation of the Good Samaritan: “The man going down to Jericho who fell among thieves was tormented by the useless suffering of his negative emotions. The Priest and Levite, representing acquired conscience, do not help him. The Good Samaritan pores oil on his wounds; he is real conscience who has mercy. We have to have mercy on ourselves. Acquired conscience is merciless.” (111)

In Work Talks at the Dicker 1966, 1993, she quotes Nicoll, in unpublished material, says that concerning opening the inner divisions of centres, a sensualist has “the disease of disbelief.” He noted that “we are not told how Christ cured the blind man whom he led out of the city of Bethsaida. We only know that Bethsaida represents disbelief as stated in Matthew 11 verse 21.” The cure is narrated in Mark 8:22-25 (38) This is fascinating because it shows how by reading the Gospels as a whole, one can make connections which explain what otherwise would be unclear. It goes on: “the blind man represents the man suffering from the disease of spiritual blindness. This is the illness of sensual man. The first step in his cure is to lead him out of his disbelief, but we are not told how Christ did this. It is simply said that he took the blind man by the hand and let him out of the town.”

Further, “once he had been led out of the disbelief of his sensual mind, his ‘eyes’ were given something coming directly from Christ. In the language of parable the eyes represent the understanding. To lift the eyes is to lift the level of understanding. This had to be done twice before he saw spiritual – that is, non-sensual – truth clearly. … He gains partial sight. Notice here that a tree draws its life from the sun above it as well as from the Earth below it.” (55 and 64)

Of great importance, since this long predates the Four ideals Exercise, Pogson must be quoting Nicoll when she says:“Mr Gurdjieff explains that the certain substance arises from physical death and also from conscious dying to oneself. … The higher in scale a person is the more energy is released. The saints in dying to themselves or in dying consciously would release much of this energy and you know Christ could release so much that it could maintain Christianity through its era.” (78) In other books, she will say a little more about this.

In The Very Next Thing, Bob Hunter and Beryl Pogson, Eureka 2007, she says that: “In prayer you go against yourself. In the Fourth Way it is the same thing. Mr Gurdjieff made it his task to form groups so that by their working together some of this energy could be created and stored in the great accumulator.” (11-12) Again, this is valuable: we know little about the accumulators except how critical they are.

Again, of the first value, she says: “… it is our wrong feeling of I that keeps our troubles going. In the last year or two of his life, Dr Nicoll used to continually refer to this wrong feeling of I.” (107)

Finally, at p.200, Mrs Pogson spoke of Christ’s resurrection, when he appeared in what seemed to be a physical body. She said: “This is a power given by the glorious Resurrection Body. It is called the Body of Will. Gurdjieff says that those who follow Christ can attain to this body of light, which has the power to assume a physical body and appear. This body gives the power to work in the world. This is what Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and Nicoll all told us.”

Again, this relates to the Four Ideals Exercise. We are fortunate indeed to have these exercises. It is a shame that good people like Nicoll and Pogson did not