Wake Up Inside: Gurdjieff, Hypnosis, and the Three-Pointed Path

Ryan DeJonghe
Nov 11, 2025
2 min read

How a mystic and a modern hypnotist challenge living life on autopilot.

Asleep at the Wheel: Gurdjieff’s Wake-Up Call

In 2011, I had a cardiac arrest that changed everything. One part of the experience was a profound sense of peace; the other was figuring out how to truly live with this second chance.

I began searching for ways to access that deep calm and clarity—without, you know, dying first. I explored religion, spirituality, and even dabbled in “plant medicine.” That’s when I discovered George Gurdjieff.

Gurdjieff believed most people live unconsciously, driven by habits and instinct. “Man is a machine,” he famously said. Not exactly uplifting, but it hit home.

Enter the Trance: Hypnosis Beyond the Myths

Around the same time, I was diving into hypnotherapy—not the flashy stage kind, but the therapeutic process that helps people change their thinking and, often, their lives. As I went deeper, I started noticing surprising parallels between hypnosis and Gurdjieff’s teachings.

Both revolve around breaking free from mental autopilot. It felt like realizing grandma’s lasagna recipe could also fuel rocket ships—unexpected, but undeniably connected.

The Three-Point Meditation: Awareness in Action

One of Gurdjieff’s key practices was “self-remembering”—not remembering to run errands, but becoming deeply aware of your existence. He developed a three-point meditation to cultivate this awareness:

Tune into your physical sensations.
Observe your emotional state.
Notice your thoughts.

Simple, right? Try it for ten seconds. You might notice tight shoulders or a flicker of irritation before your mind wanders to dinner plans. It’s harder than it sounds.

Hypnosis and the Nature of Trance

This is where hypnosis and Gurdjieff’s ideas overlap. Hypnosis, far from clichés like swinging watches, guides people into a focused, heightened state of awareness using “pacing and leading.”

“Feel the chair supporting you...”
“Notice the sound of your breathing...”
“Sense the temperature against your skin...”

These steps ground you in the present moment, much like Gurdjieff’s meditation. Then comes the “leading,” where new possibilities emerge:

“And as you breathe, that calm can spread further with each inhale...”

It’s a shift from what is to what could be, creating space for meaningful change.

From Mechanical to Mindful

Both Gurdjieff’s teachings and hypnosis share the same goal: waking up. Gurdjieff’s methods were intense and demanding, almost like boot camp for self-awareness. Hypnosis offers a gentler, more accessible approach—helping you recognize patterns in your thoughts and behaviors, and giving you the tools to change them.

Science supports these methods: both mindfulness and hypnosis enhance neuroplasticity, improving focus and adaptability. By noticing your “programming,” such as recurring worries or unhelpful habits, you reclaim the freedom to make intentional changes.

So…Am I Awake Yet?

Both Gurdjieff’s philosophy and hypnosis (whether through self-hypnosis or working with a practitioner) have shown me the power of paying attention to the present moment. But both require a simple, transformative act: awareness.

Whether you call it self-remembering or guided trance, the goal is the same—seeing yourself clearly, free from distractions and habits.

You may not levitate, but you might catch yourself being fully human—and that’s a wake-up call worth answering.