Henry Maurice Dunlop Nicoll (19 July 1884 – 30 August 1953) was a Scottish neurologist, psychiatrist, author and noted

Fourth Way The Fourth Way is spiritual teacher George Gurdjieff's approach to human spiritual growth, developed and systematised by him over years of travel in the East (c. 1890 – 1912), and taught to followers in subsequent years. Gurdjieff's students ...

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as the Western mystery tradition, is a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas and currents are united since they are largely distinct both from orthod ...

teacher. He is best known for his ''Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky'', a five-volume collection of more than 500 talks given and distributed to his study groups in and around London from March 1941 to August 1953.

Life and work

Nicoll was born at the manse in

Kelso, Scotland Kelso is a market town in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Roxburghshire, it lies where the rivers Tweed and Teviot have their confluence. The town has a population of 5,639 according to ...

, the son of

William Robertson Nicoll Sir William Robertson Nicoll (10 October 18514 May 1923) was a Scottish Free Church of Scotland (1843-1900), Free Church minister (religion), minister, journalist, editor in chief, editor, and man of letters. Biography Nicoll was born in Lums ...

, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland and renowned man of letters. From 1903 to 1906 Nicoll studied science at Gonville & Caius College in

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

earning First Class Honours in the Natural Science Tripos. From 1906 to 1910 he attended

St Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 by Rahere, and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust. History Early history Barts was founded in 1123 by ...

qualifying in medicine as a surgeon and neurologist. He served as ship's-surgeon for a brief stint to and from Buenos Aires before proceeding to tour the European hotbeds of the New Psychology, Vienna, Berlin, and finally, Zürich, where he met and became a close friend and colleague of C.G. Jung in 1912. Jung legitimised Nicoll's belief in the mind-body dynamic by curing him of a

stammer Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder characterized externally by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses called blocks in which the person who ...

. Nicoll spent the next decade with his father-figure even making Jung godfather of his only child, Jane, in 1921. In 1917 Nicoll published his first non-fiction monograph, ''Dream Psychology'', the "First didactic presentation of Jung's psychology," according to the Jungian scholar Sonu Shamdasani. In addition to his personal friendship with Jung, from 1912 through 1921 Nicoll published a number of articles on Jung's theories in professional journals, so it would not have been out of character for Nicole to have served as a Jungian proxy at his

Harley Street Harley Street is a street in Marylebone, Central London, named after Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

during the First World War, where he first treated the wounded at the

Gallipoli The Gallipoli Peninsula (; ; ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name (), meaning ' ...

Suvla Bay View of Suvla from Battleship Hill Suvla () is a bay on the Aegean coast of the Gallipoli peninsula in European Turkey, south of the Gulf of Saros. On 6 August 1915, it was the site for the Landing at Suvla Bay by the British IX Corps as ...

offensive, and after recovering from dysentery, he arrived with the 32nd Field Hospital of the 10th Irish division and did the same at the

Siege of Kut The siege of Kut Al Amara (7 December 1915 – 29 April 1916), also known as the first battle of Kut, was the besieging of an 8,000-strong British Army garrison in the town of Kut, south of Baghdad, by the Ottoman Army (1861–1922), Ottoman Ar ...

, in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

. In October 1921 he met P. D. Ouspensky, a student and then a teacher of

George Gurdjieff George Ivanovich Gurdjieff ( – 29 October 1949) was a philosopher, mystic, spiritual teacher, composer, and movements teacher. Born in the Russian Empire, he briefly became a citizen of the First Republic of Armenia after its formation in 1 ...

. Despite the recent birth of his only child, Jane, the following spring Nicoll sold his Harley Street medical practice within a month after meeting the “Tiger of Turkestan” (Gurdjieff’s nickname), and by that fall he, his wife Catherine, Jane, and the child's nanny arrived at the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man outside Paris. In the summer of 1923, when Gurdjieff closed down his institute, Nicoll joined Ouspensky's group. In 1931 he followed Ouspensky's advice and started his own study groups in England. Many of these talks were recorded verbatim and documented in a six-volume series of texts compiled in his book series ''Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky''. Nicoll is best known as a teacher and practitioner of the

esoteric Christianity Esoteric Christianity is a mystical approach to Christianity which features "secret traditions" that require an initiation to learn or understand. The term ''esoteric'' was coined in the 17th century and derives from the Greek (, "inner"). Th ...

of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, but as his authorised biographer Beryl Pogson notes he privately read

Swedenborg Emanuel Swedenborg (; ; born Emanuel Swedberg; (29 January 168829 March 1772) was a Swedish polymath; scientist, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, Christian theologian, philosopher, and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ...

and the Gospels. In fact, his synthesis of the aforementioned esoteric Christianity with the New Christianity as especially expounded by Swedenborg in his multi-volume exegetical work

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resulted in what could be described as a mystical Christianity unique to the

tradition if not all of

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. His early tutelage under

Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of over 20 books, illustrator, and correspondent, Jung was a c ...

led to a lifelong interest in and self-application of

dream interpretation Dream interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to dreams. In many ancient societies, such as those of Egypt and Greece, dreaming was considered a supernatural communication or a means of divine intervention, whose message could be in ...

. His associated reflections on

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Gnosticism Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek: , Romanization of Ancient Greek, romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: Help:IPA/Greek, �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced ...

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William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...

, along with variety of Indian and Chinese traditions (not to mention an assortment of individuals throughout history who have commented on consciousness) are as a whole present in ''Living Time and the Integration of the Life'' (completed by WWII but not published until 1952); yet both his published works and private papers have for the most part been publicly commented upon only infrequently.

Bibliography

Books

*''Dream Psychology'', 1917, 2nd, 1919 *''Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky'' **Volumes 1-3 privately printed, 1949, then Vincent Stuart Ltd., 1952 **Volume 4, Vincent Stuart Ltd., 1955 **Volume 5, Vincent Stuart Ltd., 1956 **Samuel Weiser Inc., 1996, (5 volumes with additional index volume) *''The New Man : An Interpretation of Some Parables and Miracles of Christ'', 1950 **First American edition, 1951 **Penguin, 1972 **Watkins, 1981 **Shambhala, 1984 **Eureka Editions, 1999 *''Living Time and the Integration of the Life'', 1952 **Watkins, 1976 **Eureka Editions, 1998 *''The Mark'', posthumous, 1954, 1955 **Watkins, 1981 **Shambhala, 1981 **Eureka Editions, 1998 *''Simple Explanation of Work Ideas'', privately printed, 1968 **Eureka Editions, 1999 *''Notes Taken at Meetings, January 18, 1934 to April 8, 1934'', Eureka Editions, 1996 *''Selections from Meetings in 1953 at Great Amwell'', Eureka Editions, 1997 *''Informal Work Talks and Teachings: 1940-1950'', Eureka Editions, 1998

Poetry

* ''Poems'', privately printed, 1956

Professional articles

*"Why Is The 'Unconscious' Unconscious?", 1918, ''The British Journal of Psychology'', Volume 9, Number 2 *"Neurosis of War", 1920, ''The Medical Annual''

Using the pen-name "Martin Luttrell Swayne"

Novels and novellas

* ''The Sporting Instinct'', Hodder & Stoughton, 1910 * ''Lord Richard in the Pantry'', Methuen & Company, 1911 * ''Cupid Goes North'', Hodder & Stoughton, 1913 * ''In Mesopotamia'', Hodder & Stoughton, 1918 * ''The Blue Germ'', Hodder & Stoughton, 1918

Unpublished novel

* ''Pelican Hotel'', unpublished, 1939

Short-stories

* "A Game of Consequences", ''London Magazine'', October 1911 * "The Black and Gold Curtain", ''London Magazine'', April 1912 * "The Mystery of the 'Vathek'", ''Pall Mall Magazine'', 94-104, January 1913 * "Life-Like", ''The Strand Magazine'', 206–13, February 1913 * "Life-Like", "The Times’ Red Cross Story Book by Famous Novelists Serving in His Majesty's Forces", 74–82 * "The Piano-tuner", ''London Magazine'', 73–79, April 1913 * "Sir Clifford's Gorilla", ''The Strand Magazine'', 24–31, July 1913 * "The Alabaster Jar", ''The Strand Magazine'', 212–20, August 1913 * "The Flying Log", ''London Magazine'', November 1913 * "The Corot Landscape", ''The Strand Magazine'', 516–23, November 1913 * "Half a Ton of Dynamite", ''The Strand Magazine'', 18–27, January 1916 * "The Sleep-Beam", ''The Strand Magazine'', 187–93, March 1918 * "The Whistling", ''Lloyd's Magazine'', October 1918 * "An Awkward Situation", ''The Strand Magazine'', 83–91, July 1924 * "A Sense of the Future", ''The Strand Magazine'', 174–84, August 1924 * "An Obvious Case", ''The Strand Magazine'', 405–13, October 1924

Plays

* "One Good Turn", with Eille Norwood, 1912 * "Lord Richard in the Pantry, A Play in Three Acts", adapted from the novel by Martin Swayne, 1918

Biographies of Nicoll

* ''Maurice Nicoll: A Portrait'', Beryl Pogson, 1961 **Fourth Way Books, 1987 * ''The Diary of a Modern Alchemist: Working with Dr. Maurice Nicoll'', John H. Reyner, 1974 **Eureka Editions, 2014 * ''Portrait of a Vertical Man: An Appreciation of Doctor Maurice Nicoll and His Work'', Samuel Copley, 1989 * ''Maurice Nicoll: Forgotten Teacher of the Fourth Way'',

Gary Lachman Gary Joseph Lachman (born December 24, 1955), also known as Gary Valentine, is an American writer and musician. He came to prominence in the mid-1970s as the bass guitarist for rock band Blondie. Since the 1990s, Lachman has written full-time, ...

, 2024

Biographical material about Nicoll

* ''A Few Recollections of Dr Nicoll and of Amwell 1949-1953'', Diana Pettavel, 1999

References

External links

* * *
''The New Man''
An Interpretation of Some Parables and Miracles of Christ'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicoll, Maurice 1884 births 1953 deaths Scottish spiritual teachers Scottish spiritual writers Fourth Way Alumni of the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital People from Kelso, Scottish Borders Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Scottish science fiction writers 20th-century Scottish novelists Scottish male novelists Students of George Gurdjieff