Doppelgangers

by Gerald Heard, H.F. Heard (Pseudonymn)

Henry Fitzgerald Heard, commonly known as Gerald Heard (1889 - 1971), was a historian, science writer, philosopher, and influential forerunner of the consciousness development movement.

This work is a macabre novel of the not so distant future focuses upon a man caught within the duel between the despot of the underworld and the tyrant of the upper world.

The future world of 1997 is held in the grip of a benevolent dictator who runs it, willy nilly, for its own good with the full measure of aid and control which science by then can afford. Yet to every dictator there will always be opposition, an opposite drive, in this case, literally underground, and organised ruthlessly as the world of light despotically driven forward overhead. A willing victim is selected by the dictator of darkness who shall assume the habits and physical characteristics of the upper world's ruler through rigorous training and extreme grafting operations so painful as to require the greatest fortitude for their endurance. The author traces the fate which awaits this victim once he is ready to ascend into the light and has become the double, the doppelganger, of the upper world's dictator.

Genres: Fiction, Dystopia

253 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Gerald Heard, born in London on October 6, 1889, of Irish ancestry, was educated in England, taking honors in history and studying theology at the University of Cambridge. Following Cambridge, he worked for Lord Robson of Jesmond and later for Sir Horace Plunkett, founder of the Irish Agriculture Cooperative movement. Heard began lecturing from 1926 to 1929 at Oxford University's Board of Extra Mural Studies. In 1927 he began lecturing for South Place Ethical Society. From 1929 to 1930 he edited "The Realist," a monthly journal of scientific humanism whose sponsors included H.G. Wells, Julian Huxley, and Aldous Huxley. In 1929 he published The Ascent of Humanity, an essay on the philosophy of history that received the prestigious Hertz Prize by the British Academy. From 1930 to 1934 he served as the BBC's first science commentator, and from 1932 to 1942 he was a council member of the Society for Psychical Research.

In 1937 Gerald Heard came to the United States, accompanied by Aldous Huxley, after having been offered the chair of historical anthropology at Duke University. After delivering some lectures at Duke, Heard gave up the post and soon settled in California where from 1941 to 1942 he founded and oversaw the building of Trabuco College, a large facility where comparative-religion studies and practices flourished under Heard's visionary direction. Trabuco College, 30 years ahead of its time, was discontinued in 1947, and the vast properties were subsequently donated to the Vedanta Society of Southern California.

During the 1950s, Heard's main activities were writing and lecturing, along with an occasional television and radio appearance. His broad philosophical themes and scintillating oratorical style influenced many people and attracted a legion of interested persons. But chiefly he maintained a regular discipline of meditation for many years, as the core of his mature beliefs centered around the intentional evolution of consciousness.

A prolific writer, Heard penned some thirty-eight books, the most important of which are his pioneering academic works documenting the evolution of consciousness, including The Ascent of Humanity (1929), The Social Substance of Religion (1931), The Source of Civilization (1935), Pain, Sex and Time (1939), and his last book, The Five Ages of Man (1964). He also wrote several popular devotional books, including The Creed of Christ (1940) and Training for the Life of the Spirit (1941-42). Under the name H. F. Heard (H. F. for Henry FitzGerald, his given name), he wrote a number of mysteries and fantasies, including A Taste for Honey (1941) and The Great Fog and Other Weird Tales (1944). Following five years of illness, Gerald Heard peacefully passed away at his home in Santa Monica, California, on August 14, 1971.

Reviews

[Cyril · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up while browsing in a 2nd hand bookshop in Rosebank ... Gerald Heard was into LSD and the idea that mankind was evolving into an age of consciousness.

This book is an unbelievably long and tedious monologue (256 pages) disguised as a poorly plotted novel. If you are interested in his ideas, read the non-fiction.
as for this book,

avoid!
avoid!
avoid!

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite long and tedious; would be an interesting thought experiment, was not an interesting novel.

[Elley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't finish it! Slow and boring.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

sweet

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Profound book.

[Dp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hm

Did not meet my expectations. More a philosophical or sociopolitical treatment than a story, Interesting but not a science fiction story.