Kirjahaku

When Colin Wilson died in December 2013, one perceptive obituary writer suggested that, despite the seemingly diverse subject matter of his books, Wilson's legacy lay in the field of consciousness studies. This is undoubtedly true. In Super Consciousness (first published in 2009), Wilson, nearing the end of his creative life, decided to succinctly summarise the ideas he had developed during years of research first as an existentialist philosopher and a psychologist, and later as an explorer of the occult. In the Foreword Wilson states: “I am now 75, and most of my life has been devoted to a search for what might be called ‘the mechanisms of the Peak Experience’, or ‘power consciousness’. This book might be regarded as a kind of DIY manual of how to achieve it.” Peak Experience – the experience of sudden overwhelming happiness – is a concept coined by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908–1970), but while Maslow believed that Peak Experience could not be induced, Wilson thought otherwise. He points out that boredom and lack of purpose are among the most destructive states we can experience, and instead emphasises the importance of acknowledging the reality of free will and actively evolving our own consciousness to find deep meaning and joy in every part of life. In this fascinating and optimistic work, Wilson looks at what we can learn from the Peak Experiences of Yeats, Blake, Sartre, Nietzsche, Robert Graves and other luminaries, revealing the process of how we too can gain incredible insight into the deepest mysteries of existence. This new edition includes a foreword by Colin Wilson's bibliographer, Colin Stanley.

Almost two decades after writing his famous The Occult, Colin Wilson re-examined the whole spectrum of the mystical and paranormal, producing a general occult theory that remains as compelling as the evidence of atomic particles. Originally published in 1988, Beyond the Occult contains a huge amount of new material and evidence, which came to light following publication of The Occult. It combines scientific thinking on the nature of physical reality with a wide range of fascinating case studies, from the Swiss dowser who located the body of a missing woman to the lucky American whose dreams foretold the winning horses in multiple races to scores of accounts of mystical experiences of the Divine, of spirit possession and of poltergeists. Part One covers the amazing hidden powers of the human mind: ESP, clairvoyance, psychometry, precognition, psychokinesis, and dowsing. Part Two considers the more mysterious forces for good or evil – poltergeists, spirit possession, and reincarnation – that convinced Colin Wilson of the reality of disembodied spirits. In Beyond the Occult, Colin Wilson puts forward a convincing case that our so-called 'normal' experience may, in fact, be subnormal, and that evolution may have brought us near the edge of a quantum leap into a hugely expanded human consciousness. This new edition includes a foreword by Colin Wilson's biographer, Colin Stanley.

'A major work ... an extraordinary tour de force, [this book] will materially help to bring both sides (science and paranormal studies) together in a way which could lead to real and important advances in our view of the universe' – New Scientist First published in 1978, Mysteries is the powerful and enlightening sequel to The Occult, continuing Colin Wilson's investigations into the paranormal, the occult and the supernatural. The experience of his own panic attacks gave Wilson his insight into the concept of the ladder or hierarchy of selves with which we are all associated. In this book he fully explores this idea of multiple selves, explaining how our lower, childish selves are linked to depression and anxiety. The book offers an optimistic message to counteract our contemporary tendency towards pessimism and nihilism: purposeful activity will always allow us to call on our higher selves and bring concentration, control and a sense of meaning into life. Wilson uses the concept of the multi-personality to explain a wide range of paranormal phenomenon, from dowsing and demonic possession to precognition and spoon-bending, and he analyses the work of all the big names in 20th-century supra-rational research (from T C Lethbridge to Margaret Murray to Carl Jung) from this perspective. The story ranges widely, from the stone circles to 1960s LSD adventures, and Wilson's analysis is woven with hundreds of entertaining paranormal anecdotes and case studies taken from throughout history, including his own experiences of dowsing at the Merry Maidens stone circle and of visions and lucid dreaming.