Yes, you are right. The influential spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff held the view that the time of death for each person is predetermined. Gurdjieff’s teachings were based on a synthesis of various philosophical and religious traditions from the East and West.

In “Fragments of an Unknown Teaching” (this refers to Gurdjieff’s teaching), Ouspensky writes:

• “The lifespan of everyone is predetermined. What happens to a person depends on general laws that cannot be changed.”
• “A person has only a limited lifespan, a certain sum of possibilities. He is like a machine that has only a certain amount of fuel.”

• “For everyone there is a set term, and when their term arrives, they cannot postpone it for an hour nor advance it.” (Rumi, Persian mystic)
• “There is a time to depart from this world, and the last breath cannot be held back nor hastened.” (From the Rig Veda)
• “The hour of death is recorded for every creature, the predetermined end cannot be delayed nor brought forward.” (From the Arda Viraf Nameh, Zoroastrian scripture)
• “The end of everything is determined from the beginning.” (Leonardo da Vinci)
• “No one lives longer than their predetermined span, and no one dies before their decreed hour of death.” (Ramakrishna)
• “A law of nature has been established that whatever is born faces a predetermined hour of death.” (From the Shri Guru Granth Sahib, sacred scripture of Sikhism)
• “For the born, death is certain. Why then should one lament over the inevitable?” (From the Bhagavad Gita)
• “Time glides away like flowing water and has a fixed limit which it cannot exceed.” (Ovid, ancient Roman poet)
• “For every man there is a fixed hour, and when his hour comes, he cannot delay it for a minute nor can he live a minute longer.” (Muhammad)
• “It is a law of nature that whatsoever lives must die at the appointed time.” (Ovid)
• “Man’s days are numbered, You have appointed his life’s limit, he cannot pass it.” (Job 14:5)
• “The hour of death is inscribed on every man’s forehead, and it arrives with the shift of the stars of life.” (From the Zohar, Kabbalah book)
• “Man has a course to run and a span of life determined, whose bounds he cannot overpass.” (Shri Vasudevananda)
• “The hour of death is fixed, the moment when life’s thread is severed is predetermined.” (Saadi, Persian poet)

• Yes, many indigenous peoples and traditional cultures have the notion that the time of death for each person is predetermined. Here are some examples:
• Among the Navajo in North America, it is believed that a person’s thread of life is spun by the holy Spider Women at the moment of creation. The length of this thread determines the lifespan.
• The Aboriginal people of Australia see death as an integral part of the eternal Dreamtime cycle. The time of death is part of an overarching cosmic order.
• According to the beliefs of many Polynesian island peoples such as the Maori and Hawaiians, a person’s lifespan is precisely determined before birth.
• In the Siberian shaman tradition of the Evenki people, the moment of death is part of the all-encompassing order of nature and the cycle of life.
• Various indigenous tribes of South America, such as the Yanomami and Guarani, also believe that each newborn has their death day already “woven in.”
• According to the traditional nature religion of the Inuit, the moon determines a person’s lifespan and time of death.
• In these nature-connected, cyclical worldviews, the inevitability of birth and death within the intended cosmic rhythm plays a central role. The specific time of death is often seen as predetermined and unalterable.