Read Online Colin Wilson's 'Occult Trilogy': A Guide for Students by Colin Stanley - Free Book Online
Authors: Colin Stanley
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level of mental intensity where everything in the world …becomes fascinating.”(78)
The remainder of Chapter Three: ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’concentrates on authenticated instances of ‘time-slips’ and reports, from the likes of Arnold Toynbee, of ‘duo-consciousness’ (appearing to be in two places at once):
“…there are times when duo-consciousness becomes so intense that it ceases to be an exercise in imagination and takes on a compelling quality of reality….It seems to be an unknown or unrecognised faculty, and as such I have suggested calling it Faculty X.”(82)
These experiences invariably happen when the subject is in a relaxed, meditative state bringing about a “switch from left-brain consciousness to right-brain consciousness”.(85) “Our left-brain perception separates us from reality as if we were enclosed by a wall of sound-proof glass” (88); it was “not made for grasping the living quality of experience; it keeps reducing the world to symbols and measurements.”(87) By contrast right-brain consciousness “spreads gently ‘sideways’, taking in the present moment, looking at things instead of through them” (85).Wilson reminds us, however, that we must not consider the left brain as the villain of the piece: “The left brain is, on the contrary, the key to our evolutionary destiny.‘Vision’ is important, but control is even more important.”(89) We should not therefore try to “escape the limitations of the left brain, but to put them to good use.”(91)
Wilson believes that our tendency to ‘upside-downness’ devalues our everyday consciousness making it “subnormal”.He sees ‘Faculty X’ as everyday consciousness “plus a dimension of meaning” making it “genuinely normal consciousness” (99) and is convinced that it is possible to achieve this at will:
“We must recognise precisely what is wrong with our subnormal everyday consciousness.We must also recognise that our tendency to ‘upside-downness’ constitutes a majorobstacle to learning to achieve genuinely normal consciousness.‘Upside-downness’ blinds us to reality….The first steps towards achieving normal consciousness is to grasp the mechanisms of ‘upside-downness’.”(100)
The final four chapters of Part One provide over 100 pages of recorded instances of time-slips, psychometry, clairvoyance, precognitive dreams, synchronicities and out-of-body experiences.Wilson believes that there is such a huge body of evidence to support these phenomena that to dismiss them all as fancy or invention—as many academics, sceptics and scientists do—is, in itself, illogical and unscientific.He is suggesting that there may indeed be more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies!
He concludes Part One by claiming that he was convinced that “the simple, straightforward answer to all the mysteries of the paranormal was the ‘hidden power’ inside all of us.”(210) However, although he once saw this as a “comprehensive theory of the paranormal” (210) he now feels that it is “subject to certain qualifications” (210).These are discussed in the more controversial Part Two of Beyond the Occult : ‘Powers of Good and Evil’.
In the opening chapter of Part Two: ‘The Search for Evidence’, Wilson reveals how the dawn of a new decade (the 1980s) caused him to re-think the conclusions reached in his two previous ‘Occult Trilogy’ titles by presenting the extraordinary poltergeist case of ‘The Black Monk of Pontefract’, a case he had personally investigated in 1980 and subsequently written an account of in his 1981 book Poltergeist! a study in destructive haunting (Sevenoaks, Kent: New English Library).This was the case that changed his mind, convincing him that poltergeists are not products of the unconscious mind but, in fact, spirits :
“It was an embarrassing admission to have to make …there isprobably not a single respectable parapsychologist in the world who
The remainder of Chapter Three: ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’concentrates on authenticated instances of ‘time-slips’ and reports, from the likes of Arnold Toynbee, of ‘duo-consciousness’ (appearing to be in two places at once):
“…there are times when duo-consciousness becomes so intense that it ceases to be an exercise in imagination and takes on a compelling quality of reality….It seems to be an unknown or unrecognised faculty, and as such I have suggested calling it Faculty X.”(82)
These experiences invariably happen when the subject is in a relaxed, meditative state bringing about a “switch from left-brain consciousness to right-brain consciousness”.(85) “Our left-brain perception separates us from reality as if we were enclosed by a wall of sound-proof glass” (88); it was “not made for grasping the living quality of experience; it keeps reducing the world to symbols and measurements.”(87) By contrast right-brain consciousness “spreads gently ‘sideways’, taking in the present moment, looking at things instead of through them” (85).Wilson reminds us, however, that we must not consider the left brain as the villain of the piece: “The left brain is, on the contrary, the key to our evolutionary destiny.‘Vision’ is important, but control is even more important.”(89) We should not therefore try to “escape the limitations of the left brain, but to put them to good use.”(91)
Wilson believes that our tendency to ‘upside-downness’ devalues our everyday consciousness making it “subnormal”.He sees ‘Faculty X’ as everyday consciousness “plus a dimension of meaning” making it “genuinely normal consciousness” (99) and is convinced that it is possible to achieve this at will:
“We must recognise precisely what is wrong with our subnormal everyday consciousness.We must also recognise that our tendency to ‘upside-downness’ constitutes a majorobstacle to learning to achieve genuinely normal consciousness.‘Upside-downness’ blinds us to reality….The first steps towards achieving normal consciousness is to grasp the mechanisms of ‘upside-downness’.”(100)
The final four chapters of Part One provide over 100 pages of recorded instances of time-slips, psychometry, clairvoyance, precognitive dreams, synchronicities and out-of-body experiences.Wilson believes that there is such a huge body of evidence to support these phenomena that to dismiss them all as fancy or invention—as many academics, sceptics and scientists do—is, in itself, illogical and unscientific.He is suggesting that there may indeed be more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies!
He concludes Part One by claiming that he was convinced that “the simple, straightforward answer to all the mysteries of the paranormal was the ‘hidden power’ inside all of us.”(210) However, although he once saw this as a “comprehensive theory of the paranormal” (210) he now feels that it is “subject to certain qualifications” (210).These are discussed in the more controversial Part Two of Beyond the Occult : ‘Powers of Good and Evil’.
In the opening chapter of Part Two: ‘The Search for Evidence’, Wilson reveals how the dawn of a new decade (the 1980s) caused him to re-think the conclusions reached in his two previous ‘Occult Trilogy’ titles by presenting the extraordinary poltergeist case of ‘The Black Monk of Pontefract’, a case he had personally investigated in 1980 and subsequently written an account of in his 1981 book Poltergeist! a study in destructive haunting (Sevenoaks, Kent: New English Library).This was the case that changed his mind, convincing him that poltergeists are not products of the unconscious mind but, in fact, spirits :
“It was an embarrassing admission to have to make …there isprobably not a single respectable parapsychologist in the world who
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