T H E N I C O L L S O C I E T Y

Promoting the legacy of Dr Maurice Nicoll

19 July 1884 – 30 August 1953

Linking people sharing interest in his work

Born in 1884 in the Scottish Borders, Dr Nicoll qualified as a surgeon and neurologist in 1910 at Bart’s Hospital in London, afterwards studying Freud’s theories and then travelling to Zurich in 1912 to study under CG Jung. Dr Nicoll soon began practice as a psychiatrist in London and worked with WHR River’s team on shell shock in 1917. He became a student of Fourth Way Ideas with PD Ouspensky in 1921, and in 1922 he closed his practice to study with GI Gurdjieff at Le Prieuré in Fontainebleau, France, bringing his young family with him.

Dr Nicoll taught and wrote on the Ideas until his death in 1953, leaving a large body of work on the Fourth Way and Esoteric Christianity. In addition to the influence of his three great mentors, Nicoll was inspired by ancient Greek and Egyptian thought, ancient Chinese and Indian texts, mediaeval theologians, Swedenborg, Blake, experimental scientists up to the twentieth century, and more.

Serious things cannot be understood

without laughable things

Plato, Laws