George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (Armenian: Գեորգի Իվանովիչ Գյուրջիև, Georgian: გიორგი გურჯიევი, Greek: Γεώργιος Γεωργιάδης, Russian: Гео́ргий Ива́нович Гюрджи́ев, January 13, 1866 – October 29, 1949) was an influential spiritual teacher of the early to mid-20th century who taught that the vast majority of humanity lives their entire lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it was possible to transcend to a higher state of consciousness and achieve full human potential. Gurdjieff developed a method for doing so, calling his discipline "The Work" (connoting "work on oneself") or "the Method" according to his principles and instructions,. Gurdjieff's method for awakening one's consciousness is different from that of the fakir, monk or yogi, so his discipline is also called (originally) the "Fourth Way". At one point he described his teaching as being "esoteric Christianity".

At different times in his life, Gurdjieff formed and closed various schools around the world to teach the work. He claimed that the teachings he brought to the West from his own experiences and early travels expressed the truth found in ancient religions and wisdom teachings relating to self-awareness in people's daily lives and humanity's place in the universe. The title of his third series of writings, Life Is Real Only Then, When 'I Am', expresses the essence^{[citation needed]} of his teachings. His complete series of books is entitled All and Everything.

The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (P.L. 78-346, 58 Stat. 284m), known informally as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). Benefits included low-cost mortgages, loans to start a business or farm, cash payments of tuition and living expenses to attend college, high school or vocational education, as well as one year of unemployment compensation. It was available to every veteran who had been on active duty during the war years for at least ninety days and had not been dishonorably discharged. Combat was not required. By the end of the program in 1956, roughly 2.2 million veterans had used the GI Bill education benefits in order to attend colleges or universities. An additional 6.6 million used these benefits for some kind of training program.

Since the original 1944 law, the term has come to include other veteran benefit programs created to assist veterans of subsequent wars as well as peacetime service. Historians and economists consider the GI Bill a major political success—especially in contrast to the treatments of World War I veterans—and a major contribution to America's stock of human capital that sped long-term economic growth.

William Patrick Patterson is a spiritual teacher of The Fourth Way, an ancient, esoteric teaching of self-development brought to the West by G. I. Gurdjieff. Patterson is also an author, filmmaker and speaker on spiritual themes, including The Fourth Way, Being & Becoming, Advaita Vedanta, Self-Awakening, Self-Observation, Esoteric Christianity, and Conscious-Body-Breath-Impressions.

William Patrick Patterson was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was an exchange student at the University of Vienna, Austria, and graduated from Bowling Green State University, Ohio, with a B.A. degree in English and minors in Philosophy and Psychology. He worked in New York for IBM, J. Walter Thompson, BBD&O and Hartcourt Brace. He founded and edited In New York magazine and ran it for five years before selling it in 1969. Thereafter, he was the editor-in-chief of Food Management magazine and high-tech editor of Industry Week magazine. He resides in California.

Patterson was a longtime student of his seminal teacher Lord John Pentland, who was appointed by Gurdjieff to be the leader of the Work in America and was the president of the New York and San Francisco Gurdjieff Foundations. The rare-born Danish mystic Sunyata, who was given this name in 1936 by Ramana Maharshi, lived with Patterson starting in 1982 and introduced him to Advaita Vedanta. Sunyata died in 1984 at the age of 94, but in the previous year he introduced Patterson to Dr. Jean Klein, a Western Advaita master with whom Patterson studied until Klein’s death in 1998. Dr. Klein provided the foundation for a direct experiencing of the body, allowing Patterson to incorporate Work principles with Advaita Vedanta, which he has named Conscious-Body-Breath-Impressions. Dr. Klein also provided the necessary catalysis and encouragement for the writing of Patterson’s first book on The Gurdjieff Work, Eating The “I”: A Direct Account of The Fourth Way.

Balfour Patrick Patterson (born 15 September 1961) is a former fast bowler for the West Indian cricket team in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Born in Portland, Jamaica to Maurice and Emelda, Patterson attended Happy Grove High School and Wolmer's School, receiving his Jamaica School Certificate.

Patterson's father and grandfather played parish level cricket in Jamaica and Patterson showed ability from an early age and made his debut for Jamaica in 1983. He also played for Lancashire in the English County Championship, between 1984 and 1990, and Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield 1984-85.

Patterson arrived on the international scene in the absence of Michael Holding for the 1986 Sabina Park Test against England, and was instantly heralded as the fastest bowler in the international game. Broadly built, aggressive and quick, Patterson took seven wickets on debut. He kept his place and became a regular new ball bowler for the West Indies.Graham Gooch, seasoned England opener, remarked that Patterson frightened him with his fast bowling.

"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise.

The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.

The earliest recorded use^{[citation needed]} of the term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to a letter written by a young Alexander Hamilton in September 1772, when he was 15. In a letter to his father James Hamilton, published in the Royal Dutch-American Gazette, he described the response of the Dutch governor of St. Croix to a hurricane that raked that island on August 31, 1772. "Our General has issued several very salutary and humane regulations and both in his publick and private measures, has shewn himself the Man." ^{[dubious – discuss]} In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.