Gurdjieff's Lesser and Greater Liberation: Exorcism and Deliverance from Subjective and Objective Evil

The work of liberation is not psychological self-improvement. It is a confrontation with evil—first subjective, then objective. It concerns the emancipation of a human being from two domains of bondage: the interior corruption of one's own Being and the exterior forces that act upon one's Being from the cosmos.

Gurdjieff framed this as the Lesser Liberation and the Greater Liberation. What Christianity calls purification and deliverance appears here as freedom from internal influences, and freedom from external influences (see Views from the Real World, pp. 221-272).

The Lesser Liberation:

Deliverance from Internal Influences (Subjective Evil)

The Lesser Liberation is liberation from the interior mechanism itself—what Gurdjieff described as the “man-machine”, our ingrained habits, associations and acquired energetic patterns that belong uniquely to ourselves. These internal forces are not merely mechanical but are frequently expressions of subjective evil. Here one encounters:

• Thoughts that distort and accuse.

• Emotions that degrade and enslave.

• Impulses and appetites that pull downward.

• Identifications that drown conscience.

• Passions that function as inner tyrants.

These are not neutral psychological events.They are distortions in the energetic architecture of the soul. The Christian Fathers name them logismoi, passions, or demonic provocations. Gurdjieff describes them as involutionary forces that can fragment and crystallize wrong work of centers, feeding on the organism’s energy.

The Lesser Liberation is the formation of a conscious presence strong enough to witness these influences without collapsing into them—and, crucially, to receive grace (higher energies) that purifies, heals, or expels them. This is why the Fourth Way has always had a hidden consonance with the Christian science of the heart: all inner work must, at least, involve repentance, purification and deliverance.

The interior man must be transformed and cleansed. The subjective evil must be named and worked on. The inner parasites of false emotion and false thought must be nullified or dissolved. No stable “I” can appear while internal influences of this nature dominate the organism.

The Greater Liberation:

Deliverance from External Influences (Objective Evil)

The Greater Liberation concerns a different order of bondage. Humanity is immersed in a field of influences—cosmic, solar, planetary, psychic and spiritual. These forces are not abstractions. They are objective evil when their origin seeks disruption or destruction, and objective good when their origin seeks creation, and re-unification.

Gurdjieff divided these into influences of various orders—mechanical life, planetary currents, esoteric tradition, and forces from higher cosmic levels, traditionally expressed more sharply as, for example:

• Demonic forces– external powers that seek to distort, consume, or destabilize.

• Angelic and noetic forces– higher influences that elevate, illumine, and protect.

• Planetary currents– collective emotional atmospheres, ideological pressures, and mass hypnotic forces.

These are not psychological constructs; they are energetic realities acting upon the human being. To attain the Greater Liberation is to become capable of discerning, resisting, or receiving these influences. One must not only cleanse the inner chamber—one must also guard its perimeter.

And here the implication becomes unavoidable: any authentic Fourth Way practice must include the dimension of exorcism and/or deliverance,** for objective evil is real, operative, and cosmological. This deliverance and/or exorcism is not magical technique. It is not ritual mechanics. It is the deliberate invocation of the grace of God—the Only Power that can confront objective evil at its own level. Without the Greater Liberation, the Being of a Being, the soul, remains vulnerable to forces vastly stronger than its own will.

The Nature of Evil as Influence

Evil is not a moral category or an abstract problem. It is an influence—an energy with direction, intention, and hierarchy. Thus:

• Subjective evil operates within a human being and unique to themselves.

• Objective evil operates upon a human being from outside and universal in character.

Both distort the intellectual, emotional and body centers. Both obscure conscience. Both weaken the embryonic soul. A human being becomes free only as these influences are recognized, confronted, and vanquished.

Inner work without deliverance is incomplete. Deliverance without inner work is unstable.

Liberation and the Birth of a Soul

The Lesser Liberation frees a man from subjective evil. The Greater Liberation frees him from objective evil. Only in the union of both does a soul begin to independently crystallize, where a human being becomes:

• No longer dominated by his inner passions.

• No longer subject to external corrupting powers.

• Able to receive higher influences consciously.

• Able to cooperate with the grace that descends from Above.

This is the path Gurdjieff described. This is the Way of Christ.

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**While exorcism and/or deliverance is commonly associated with Christianity, various forms of these practices can be seen in religions and spiritual traditions across the world.