 The Gurdjieff biographer James Moore described the book as a "distasteful fabrication" 

The book first appeared in 1966 from the British publishing house Victor Gollancz.A second edition was published in 1998 by Malor Books under the editorial directorship of Robert Ornstein, a prominent American associate of Idries Shah.A Spanish version has been published by Alif Publishing Corp., which publishes many of Omar Ali-Shah's works, and a Portuguese one by Edições Dervish.