Monthly Archives: November 2021

Giving Thanks for Games

Games have been a universal cultural phenomenon for thousands of years and possibly longer. Senet. Mehen. The Royal Game of Ur. Backgammon. Pachesi. Mancala. Go. Draughts. Chess. Dice. Cards. Dominos. Marbles. Hide-and-Seek. Stop-and-Go. Tag. Word games. Trivia games. Wargames. Resource management games. Railroad simulation games. Roleplaying games. Video games. On and on.

Games have histories, some remembered and some lost. One story tells of a Chinese emperor Yao who had his couselor Shun design the game Go for his unruly son. In 11th century Persia, it is said that Burzoe invented nard, a variant of backgammon. Albert Lamorisse, a French filmmaker, invented the strategic board game, Risk. From its tabletop wargaming roots, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson invented Dungeons & Dragons and rediscovered roleplaying games. Allan Alcorn, an American engineer and computer scientist, invented the video game Pong. Richard Garfield, an American mathematician, invented the trading card game, Magic: The Gathering. Klause Teuber, a German dental technician, invented the strategy and negotiation board game Catan. 

Games can serve as a leisure activity to relax and pass the time. While a variety of vices can attach themselves to games, playing games is not a vice in itself.

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Gurdjieff, Death, and Immortality: Two Papers

In early 2020, I had been considering attending the All & Everything conference, since it was to be held in Salem, Massachusetts, not far from where I live. But then circumstances caused the in-person conference to be cancelled and instead, the conference would be held online. This was less interesting to me, so I did not attend.

Still, I had an interest in what was to be presented at the conference. And in researching what papers were to be submitted to the conference, I came across a paper by Jan Jarvis and later a rebuttal to her paper by Rafael Lefort Jr.

The papers were particularly interesting to me in that they presented Gurdjieff’s ideas on death and immortality, the rebuttal more accurately than the original paper, in my opinion.

The Jarvis 2020 paper is titled Role of Abstract Ideals in the Creation of the Kesdjan.

The Lefort Jr rebuttal is titled Esoteric Christianity vs. Secular Humanism in Esoteric Clothing: A Rebuttal to ‘Role of Abstract Ideals in the Creation of the Kesdjan’.

The original paper was presented at a conference in 2020 and recently, the Q&A for the conference was published. It is evident however from the Q&A that her assertions were hardly challenged at all.

If you’re interested in the topics of death and immortality as presented by Gurdjieff, I recommend reading the rebuttal—it touches on all of the points of the original paper and is more thoroughly researched on the topics presented. To date, I have seen no counter paper to refute the Lefort Jr rebuttal.