Gurdjieff's Pupils

Rina Hands   (1908-1994)
A pupil of J.G. Bennett, Rina Hands was given the honorary title of "égout," a French word for sewer or drain, by Mr. Gurdjieff. Present at his dinners in the last year of his life, she has a deep experience with his toasting to 21 different idiots; "The Science of Idiots," he calls it. Sitting in Gurdjieff's dining room she recounts, for example, how when the toast came to all Compassionate Idiots, he suddenly asked her, "You, Blonde there—natural or not I never know—are you Compassionate Idiot?" Later, she learns from Bennett that the whole of Beelzebub was being retyped. Knowing how to make herself useful, Hands offers her services as a typist and so goes to Gurdjieff 's apartment each day, "taking part in whatever was going on at the time."