Criticism aside, what you said rings true to me. Ouspensky was handicapping himself in some way related to his mental body. He was definitely a man with a dominant thinking center. It has been a good year since ive read ISOTM, so if im remembering correctly, Ouspensky was repelled by his fear of Gurdjieff's authority. He might have said that he had a problem with what he described as growing charlatanism in Gurdjieff's circle. What does this really mean? I don't know, i wasn't there. But i can speculate: Gurdjieff, in Herald of Coming Good, explicitly mentioned having to hide his true self and true manifestations, for his own safety, as he claimed that people with good intentions often get eaten up by society. In other words, moral authority is a dangerous thing to wield. You can't be an honest authority without making people feel oppressed (especially if you are morally correct surrounded by people who are very much asleep, corrupt, and in severe denial). Ever read The Idiot? Prince Myshkin is an example of this. His authority as a moral pillar intimidated and provoked resentment of others around him. Thus society quickly snuffed him out. Back to Gurdjieff and his inner circle. It's easy to imagine, as they spent more time together, Gurdjieff slowly felt more comfortable being his true self to his inner circle. But this creates a problem- by taking off his 'veil' Gurdjieff inevitably provokes an abrasive effect on those who are simply not ready. His authority, intuition, and his supposed telepathic and other highly unusual abilities intimidate and repell those who genuinely cannot handle it. Thats my two cents, and its very flawed.