I have been reading books by Colin Wilson for around twenty years. My favourites are among the lesser known ones, such as 'Tree by Tolkien' and the books on wine and music.
It seems to be that there is one idea at the heart of his work, marvellously developed and shown from many angles in all his works. The idea is along the lines that our normal waking consciousness is flat and limited, but there are moments when we 'expand' and experience new vistas of meaning.
Many of Wilson's books end with the assertion that we are on the edge of a new era in human consciousness. I suppose I am always hoping for just a little more on how ordinary people, who have glimpsed extended vistas of consciousness, can in fact practise attaining expanding consciousness. I know that Wilson does not especially espouse drugs (he writes of his own early experience with LSD) nor does he recommend yoga or mainline religious practices. So I am left intrigued as to how we will attain to this greater consciousness, which we have glimpsed.
In Wilson's thought such moments are attained in some way through an awakening to a vast impersonal universe which nonetheless pulses with meaning. I wonder too about the place of normal human relationships in his existential philosophy. If there is happiness and peak experience through poetry and philosophy, what about the world of human communication. He has written about the origins of the sexual impulse. I am thinking more about the possibilities of human expansion of consciousness in the day to day life we live with other people.
Thanks for the chance to contribute.
I believe will can be developed to great heights, but that leaves love to be developed also.
Love and will go together, and to improve one without the other leads to disaster. Erich Fromm said that in the nineteenth century the problem was that 'God is dead' and in the twentieth century the problem is that 'Man is dead'. An interesting idea he also explains is that we are in this turn of the millennium right back where we were 2000 years ago--when man had no sense of himself except when he belonged to a majority or a group of somekind. And why is this? Because of man's search for the perfect social/political system which has dead-ended in failed socialism and equally failed capitalism. Only when man can live with man in love can mass experiences of 'awakening' occur. Otherwise, it will continue like it is with the few gaining the 'knowledge' and the many remaining 'asleep'.
Gerald James
The exchange over "The occult" between Gerald and myself came to a halt. I am not really at odds with your views even if I would contest that a phenomenon can't be unexplained and well-documented simultaneously. However I noticed with interest your reference to Zen (Buddhism?). As you didn't comment my earlier renderings of Robert Pirsig's ideas I take it that it was not his book "Zen, and the Art..." that was on your mind. I also read with interest your entry of Sep. 9 about Fromm's idea regarding mankind's development, but this I don't find relevant to what Richard Lawrence speaks about regarding Colin Wilsons "new era". If anything, our present "sense of ourselves" is connected with the individual (at least Western mind) and profoundly different from the "Sphinx" era when - according to Wilson - humans possessed a completely different perception of reality. The search for the ultimate political system is a fairly recent fad and frustration over communism's or capitalism's failure cannot trigger such deep metaphysical changes. The next great shift is possibly backwards - in a spiral sense - to collectiveness, which is the way I interpret Wilsons "expansion of consciousness" notion. I also wonder what you put into the terms "love and will": Is the first the collective and the second the individual?
Bo Skutvik
On the issue of the quality of occult phenomena to man's search for higher being, I was clear in my Aug. 30 entry that I hold little belief in it, and the documentation that has been done so far is unconvincing (that I have seen, so I ask Mr. Skutvik to please point me in the direction of the 'well-documented' so I can take a look, because obviously I am interested but haven't seen the good stuff yet.) I do agree that the next world shift may be toward collectiveness (to which the internet is contributing in a beyond-enormous manner). I am thinking of the collectiveness of soul, the development of all man for the individual's sake, the practical noosphere. So I delight in those thinkers like Fromm, Maslow, Jung, Buber, Shaw and even Pirsig who recognize the quality of man's relationship to man is tantamount to the development of the individual.
And the problem of our day is a lack of myth which is the catalyst. I certainly do equate love with the collective and will with the individual. This century's rise of psychoanalysis is in proportion to the fall of the will. And the will has fallen due to the destruction of myth by organized religion (for the most part). Love suffers in close relation. A new myth must be created to expell this chaos; a new catalyst is needed to relate man to man again and give the will its meaning back. I look toward man's new interest of the future in this. The philosophers of today (esp. Colin Wilson) use science fiction to portray this new myth that is emerging (which I wish I could identify more concretely, and if I could I'd be a wealthy man). This exciting myth is evolving rapidly, though, and how can it not? The image of the collectivness of humankind launching forth into the universe from this planet as a complete entity comes to mind. But before anything like this is to happen, man's duty and responsibility to himself and his birthplace must be taken more seriously. This is the where the need for a 'perfect' political system comes into play.
Gerald James
Hello to all fellow Colin Wilson Fans! Does anyone know of any upcoming C. W. speaking engagements or lecture tours in North America? I've been a Wilsonian for years now and find that the internet has been the best source of material and links for C.W. I welcome all correspondence and e mail from other fans. I am especially interested in reviews written by C. W. from the 1950's 'to the present.
I am also a giant Poe(Dupin)/A.C. Doyle(Sherlock Holmes)/H.P. Lovecraft fan. My postal address is:
Mark Sokoll
190-22 Crocheron Avenue
Flushing, NY 11358 U.S.A.
I got interested in C.W. in kind of a perverse way: back in the early '80's I was in the throes of resistance to the occult and was subscribing to _The_Skeptical_Enquirer_ and _The_Humanist_Bulletin_. They were denouncing lots of folks as heretics (Science too is a religion!) and alluded to Wilson's "The Occult". Being a fellow who'd always rather read a gloss than wade through floods of source material I ran off to the library and got ahold of it. I was still solidly biased against occultism but attracted to the idea of "faculty X". More importantly I was impressed by Wilson's honesty and politeness to people of other points of view; a major contrast to the attitudes of the S.I. contributors! That led me to "The Outsider" and some of his essays: I can't pretend to have read his other books, as yet.
I sympathize with Gerald and his views on Wilson's fascination with the occult but don't entirely agree with his sweeping rejection of it. One of C.W.'s attractions to me is that while he seems so much more "down to earth" than the guru crowd (Gurdjieff et al.), who proceed from the periodic manifestations of transformative Wonder and "faculty X" realizations off to neo-Platonic realms of god-consciousness, he is at the same time an open-minded optimist who's willing to consider possibilities defensively dismissed by the reductionist devotees of "scientific" materialism (which includes Hofstader, Gardner, and Sagan.) I have to add that with all apologies to Mr. Skutvik I've worked with many teens and when mysterious mischief occurs I'm inclined to attribute it to an age which invests enormous time and creativity in finding ways to outwit security precautions, rather than poltergeists! Kids pull off some amazing scams. I'd need evidence, not that something mysterious occurred, but that a mysterious process was involved. Anyway...
I'm also inclined to believe that Geller is a fake. This is not because of the ENORMOUS efforts such people as Randi have gone to to run him down but because of my knee-jerk prejudices against alien super- comuters called Hoova! That doesn't PROVE Geller a fake, anymore than one can PROVE that there was no alien landing in Roswell. I'm skeptical of UFOs but "absence of evidence isn't evidence"! I think you have to respect C.W.'s curiousity and willingness to explore an idea, whether you an agree with it or not. Several respondants raised the point that the quality of man's relationship to man is critical to his self- development, and therefore the development of a better society. That requires that we accept that we could be wrong and that the other guy, no matter how much we disagree with him, JUST MIGHT POSSIBLY be right. This has been the fatality of all "perfect" political systems: they become fixated on fixing folks who may not have been broke. I don't agree with the assertions made by your respondants who assert that capitalism and socialism have failed. Capitalism sure hasn't: it's succeeded all too well! The problem is that capitalism is amoral: it's based on the ever greater efficiencies achieved in the pursuit of self-interest. Self-interest isn't necessarily in the interests of the whole (but sometimes it is!) Socialism has only failed where it's based on the imposition of totalitarian values on unwilling subjects. There have been, and are, plenty of socialistic organizations that work: they're voluntary associations with consensual decisionmaking.
I can't resist adding that the one area where I REALLY disagree with C.W. (and many others) is the idea that humanity, as a whole, is evolving. I see no evidence for it. There have always been SOME advanced individuals and many blinkered ones. People are, and have evidentally always been, very diverse! One thing all the major religions agree on is that transcendance is a matter of self-development (conquering sin, at the very least!) Nobody seems to be pinning any hopes on the likelihood of God just saying, one fine day, "OK, that's it, I'm enlightening everybody!" For some reason, we all have to prove ourselves. Of course there are greater and lesser degrees of transcendental elitism - another topic for discussion. But it seems (or I think) that each of us has to strive subjectively toward enlightenment. It's like these movies where the devil shows himself: if we KNEW there was definitely a hell there'd be instant piousness! But then there'd be no real spiritual development, since everyone would be acting out of self-interest, rather than God-wrestling. Does that make any sense?
Ah well, more than enough for now! Hope this isn't too much rant. More about Colin W. later.
Thanks again, Andy.
In contemplating Wilson's book "The Mind Parasites" and in considering new information on brain-infecting viruses, I now believe this book has a more literal meaning. While Wilson himself apparently regards the text as a metaphor, it is truer than we suspect. What engenders this idea is a recent issue of Discover magazine which has an article on the Borna virus, a mind-fuzzing parasite. This virus lodges in the limbic system of the brain of various mammals, often producing marked changes in personality and behaviour. Maladies from CFS to depression to schizophrenia are implicated in infection.
This virus is hard to test and often the sufferers are labeled with a "psychological" diagnosis. Sound familiar? This is very similar to the hidden, controlling, will-deadening forces that Wilson postulates underlie and attack our psyches in his fictional work. The concept, and how humans respond to the idea of being controlled by outside forces, are completely accurate. Is a virus outside or inside?
However, Cthulian mythos as metaphor is one thing, viruses attacking our nervous systems is quite another. The focus on developing mental powers which Wilson advocates is all very nice but imagine trying to fight off an attacker with a mind crippled by that very attacker.
New evidence is pointing towards a different cause of mental disorder and perhaps general low-level mental and physical functioning. The field of pyschiatric virology is gaining adherents, mostly in Europe. Hopefully this trend will spread.
If this research is accurate and followed-up, anti-viral drugs, from echinacea to amantadine, are more profitable an avenue to explore for raising consciousness than most philosophical speculations on love and/or will. Indeed, heightened awareness includes physical causes of disorder as much as, say, social collectivity or cognitive unity.
The Mind Parasites is a prophetic book, perhaps unintentionally. With Liv Bode's work on the Borna virus, it is clear that they (the parasites) are here with us now in considerable numbers. The collective action of scientific discovery among humans is the first step in defeating them. It is time to begin the real work.
Jason Parker
I was very interested in Jason's entry on possible actual 'mind parasites'. I shall investigate Discover magazine for the article as soon as possible. I don't know how much 'intentionality' this virus has, but the idea of it is rather frightening and fascinating..
Andy's discussion is also full of good ideas, although I disagree with his view of my 'sweeping' disregard for the occult. I am sorry if I have sounded pessimistic, for what I was attempting to do was to sound optimistic while at the same time being as cautiously rational as possible without falling over the border to the pessimistic again. This, I believe, is an art that few can master (especially and obviously, myself excluded from this few). I do think that Carl Sagan was a person who had this artistic touch, and his last book is a testament to it. Colin Wilson, of course, does it so easily it's annoying. This art is why some authors 'click' so easily with readers, and those who lack it fail to ever get their ideas across successfully no matter how incredible they may be. I can see a possible industry of the future in developing and teaching this art to people in order to allow their ideas to flow. The barrier of language is forceful, though.
But, I must disagree strongly with Andy's disbelief in the non-evolution of humanity as a whole, for I see it quite clearly and was awakened to it with a blinding brilliance in Colin Wilson's work which quickly led me to mythology. I believe we are in the chaotic transition of the myth of the past changing to the myth of the future, and the outsider individual is the sign post in the crossroads. I could spew out a thousand examples of this transition, but the main excitement to me is that I see humanity's steps ALREADY on the path of futuremyth. The most dramatic event of the next century, I believe, will be the chaotic reclamation of religion from the organized back to the individualistic. Also, I think and hope that Maslow's Eupsychian Management will be embraced more widely in transforming the 'failing' capitalism societies. However, my worries are about what this chaotic transitionary period's effects may be for the future. I know that the more chaotic something is the more creative it can be in the end, but the unsurity of living through it is disenchanting at times.
Gerald James
I have following CW on and off since the 70's, I've always had a similar obsession in discovering the means of producing these 'peak experiences' so often mentioned by him. After over 25 years of study in this area, I have drawn a few conclusions, none of which, I should add, can produce 'pe's at will! However, some very striking examples of these experiences have occurred in my own life which stay vividly in my memory. The main thing that these have in common is something very simple and basic, yet so difficult to achieve; it involved a complete acceptance of everything that was happening, EXACTLY AS IT WAS, with no wish for it to be different in any way. In other words, it was a letting go, a release from the customary resistance that we experience to what is going on in our lives at any given time.
I can explain better by describing one such I had back in 1972. I was getting over an illness which had taken its toll on me and involved several months of convalesence. I was on holiday in Norfolk with my family and, as they were all out shopping for the morning, I decided to sit in the sunny front room of the house we were staying at and listen to the radio. Now, this, you might think, was a pretty mundane setting to be having a peak experience. However, I just sat there for an hour or so, not really thinking much, looking around the room and listening to the greatest hits of 1972! As I began to observe more closely, I started by noticing colours; there was red lampshade and I began to stare at it and study it. The ordinary furniture then began to take on a strange kind of magic, I could really SEE everything. I just sat and stared and suddenly, everything SHONE. The colours were so vivid, just ordinary things but I was overwhelmed by how BEAUTIFUL everything was! Ridiculous, isn't it! I stayed in this state for what seemed an age, but the spell was broken by my family returning; who knows what might have happened if I had gone on a bit longer.
This is what has always seemed so absurd to me; it is not necessarily the moments when you think you SHOULD be happy, SHOULD find life wonderful and meaningful that can produce these peak experiences. They can come 'out of the blue' such as happened to me above. As CW has always emphasised, they make our ordinary consciousness seem hopelessly inadequate.
I would be very interested to hear others with similar experiences. Thanks for reading.
David Daish.
This is in respone to what you wrote in your entry to the "Disscussion Area" back in Octeber 15, 1996 of last year. This notion of Colin Wilson's about Man not being "Truely" Man, being between animal and "true" Man. Is the claim that we have such knowledge of Man being caught in a state where he is limited to being between an animal and being "true" man, not a claim to an objectivity of sorts? And if it is, does this conflict with what is seemingly Wilson's Nieztschean perspectivism on Life and Man's overall situation? That is, how can we make a valid projection (about the fact that man is not true man and that he will some day become one) if we are trapped within a state in the first place? Are we not trying to make an analysis of a system within a system? Are we not making faulty judgments by virtue of our limited situation? Do we not make a false observation claiming what is "truely" man. Wouldn't such an observation be contingent upon information available to a persepective which is not Man's. For we are making projections about ourselves from within our selves. Is this not inherently limited from the beginning? For us to state something like this, is this not again a claim to some fictitious objectivity? Does it not imply some ability to step outside ourselves and look down upon ourselves as though we are not who we are anymore but are now something alien to Man?
Don't get me wrong I feel the same way about Man the way Wilson himself does! I truely and absolutley agreee with Wilson's statement. For I to believe we can have glimpses into what might be and that I think such a claim will have a futre if it is taken to mean that man will go beynd just seeing daily regimentated life as the only life there is. That if he will begin to see a life as a whole that surpasses the one he lives now. That is if he will resolutely commit himself to the inner life of possibilities that resides within him. But I have had problems recently trying to reconcile my Wilsonian views of Man and the future greatness of him with the field of perspectivism as proposed by Nietzsche. My concern, and I am extremely reluctant to state it, is that I worry there may not be hope for the inspiring claim that Man will become "true" in the Wilsonian sense. I think that if there is some hope in the claim it might be found within the field of Phenomenology( Which is for the moment far too extensive to be defined in this letter). I do not yet know of whether Wilson has read of this field though. For so far I have read but a few of Wilson's most excellent writing of which he by far surpasses most writers in the past few decades. (I Have read only the Outsider of which I found in the library amoungst a million other volumes by chance while looking for critiques of Camus' the Stranger). My final question, to sum all this verbiage up. Is there any hope for Wilson's prediction of Man becoming what Wilson sees as "truely" Man?
Might want to track down the song "O.O.B.E." by the Orb, which samples Wilson talking about the 'third world'. I sought this page out on account of mention of him in the CD liner notes. Do you know what work of his this is from so I can hear or read what else he had to say about this?
MODERATOR'S NOTE: If anyone knows the answer to this question, please send it to me so that I can post it to the board. I'd like to know the answer myself!--JM
The sampling comes from Colin Wilson's tape of his reading of "The Essential Colin Wilson."
MODERATOR'S NOTE: Thanks, Gerald!--JM
I was reading E.F. Schumacher's stuff again and find the idea of our selves being held together as 'organized fields' of life in the purely scientific view is still so much intriguing. The idea is of Professor Harold Burr, and is that our proteins regenerate at a certain rate so that when you see someone 6 months from now not one of his molecules will be the same as now, and it is probably some electrodynamic field that holds that person's tangible self together. Furthermore, this field of life of a man is not some accident but a product of the influence of the entire universe. Sounds pretty Gurdjieffian to a certain extent. It is also used in place of the Theory of Evolution which Schumacher rightly criticises as a pompous folly of science. Also, if I were to delve into an investigation of the occult, I would be inclined to seek the answers in this realm. Any comments or ideas?
Gerald James