What do you think?
Rate this book
Occult Trilogy #2
Mysteries
Thru personal experience, Colin Wilson discovered that human beings consist of a ladder or hierarchy of selves, whose upper members may be called upon at will for personal transformation & deep knowledge. His new-found knowledge spurred him to write Mysteries: An Investigation into the Occult, the Paranormal & the Supernaturalan attempt to apply his theory to all paranormal phenomena, from precognition to Uri Geller's spoon bending. He presents detailed studies of hauntings, possession & demonic hypnosis, as well as magic, the Kabbalah & astrology. At the heart of his work is a fascinating discussion of the Great Secret of the alchemists, which he sees as the key to the mystery of the ladder of selves.
244 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
73 people are currently reading
835 people want to read
About the author
Colin Wilson
403 books1,290 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Colin Henry Wilson was born and raised in Leicester, England, U.K. He left school at 16, worked in factories and various occupations, and read in his spare time. When Wilson was 24, Gollancz published The Outsider (1956) which examines the role of the social 'outsider' in seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures. These include Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William James, T. E. Lawrence, Vaslav Nijinsky and Vincent Van Gogh and Wilson discusses his perception of Social alienation in their work. The book was a best seller and helped popularize existentialism in Britain. Critical praise though, was short-lived and Wilson was soon widely criticized.
Wilson's works after The Outsider focused on positive aspects of human psychology, such as peak experiences and the narrowness of consciousness. He admired the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow and corresponded with him. Wilson wrote The War Against Sleep: The Philosophy of Gurdjieff on the life, work and philosophy of G. I. Gurdjieff and an accessible introduction to the Greek-Armenian mystic in 1980. He argues throughout his work that the existentialist focus on defeat or nausea is only a partial representation of reality and that there is no particular reason for accepting it. Wilson views normal, everyday consciousness buffeted by the moment, as "blinkered" and argues that it should not be accepted as showing us the truth about reality. This blinkering has some evolutionary advantages in that it stops us from being completely immersed in wonder, or in the huge stream of events, and hence unable to act. However, to live properly we need to access more than this everyday consciousness. Wilson believes that our peak experiences of joy and meaningfulness are as real as our experiences of angst and, since we are more fully alive at these moments, they are more real. These experiences can be cultivated through concentration, paying attention, relaxation and certain types of work.
Colin Henry Wilson was born and raised in Leicester, England, U.K. He left school at 16, worked in factories and various occupations, and read in his spare time. When Wilson was 24, Gollancz published The Outsider (1956) which examines the role of the social 'outsider' in seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures. These include Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William James, T. E. Lawrence, Vaslav Nijinsky and Vincent Van Gogh and Wilson discusses his perception of Social alienation in their work. The book was a best seller and helped popularize existentialism in Britain. Critical praise though, was short-lived and Wilson was soon widely criticized.
Wilson's works after The Outsider focused on positive aspects of human psychology, such as peak experiences and the narrowness of consciousness. He admired the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow and corresponded with him. Wilson wrote The War Against Sleep: The Philosophy of Gurdjieff on the life, work and philosophy of G. I. Gurdjieff and an accessible introduction to the Greek-Armenian mystic in 1980. He argues throughout his work that the existentialist focus on defeat or nausea is only a partial representation of reality and that there is no particular reason for accepting it. Wilson views normal, everyday consciousness buffeted by the moment, as "blinkered" and argues that it should not be accepted as showing us the truth about reality. This blinkering has some evolutionary advantages in that it stops us from being completely immersed in wonder, or in the huge stream of events, and hence unable to act. However, to live properly we need to access more than this everyday consciousness. Wilson believes that our peak experiences of joy and meaningfulness are as real as our experiences of angst and, since we are more fully alive at these moments, they are more real. These experiences can be cultivated through concentration, paying attention, relaxation and certain types of work.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 2, 2020
This was as fascinating as usual but I'm starting to get slightly frustrated with the overlap between Wilson's books. He boasts in some of his introductions that various editors have asked him to cut his books by a third or so but doesn't seem to be aware of how much of his books contain (often word for word) sections of exactly the same material. Sometimes even within a book the same material is repeated - which is a shame as the books are so interesting and well-written - Wilson really does have a brilliantly interesting way of communicating his ideas.
Where it is original, Mysteries is a great read and well worth looking up.
Where it is original, Mysteries is a great read and well worth looking up.
May 5, 2008
Interesting but not insightful. Something I picked up on a trip.
May 18, 2008
Awesome sequel to The Occult. More strange phenomena, magic, and weirdness. More philosophical than The Occult, Wilson is trying to make a case for his theories on why man posseses strange latent powers and how he can use them.
February 17, 2016
The always eclectic Colin Wilson puts together a ton of different strings of occult, paranormal and esoteric philosophy, happenings and beliefs in this weighty volume that is worth the read and though mostly just slightly above average is occasionally brilliant. I've now read 'The Outsider', 'The Occult' and this one and I've realized Wilson is just too credulous, taking too many accounts of the paranormal at their word. But he is definitely a good source of information as he compounds example upon example from obscure source in making his points. And the points he makes, though sometimes seeming like self-help messages, are useful hopeful beliefs about the potential of the future of the human race, and using anxiety to advantage, overcoming boredom and low energy to achieve control and motivation, and honing energy and focus through self-will... Though I may not believe I'll be realizing any latent psychic abilities or telekinesis, his ideas are insightful and every once in a while all the various threads he is spinning come together to form just the right measure of color, depth and weight to give you something you can wear home.
-----------------------------------------------------------
This is the book that has the bit about Galileo and the Pope / and Cardinal Bellarmine (including the part about the birds at the vatican) that seems to have set you reeling. Just got back to reading it again today 4/27/2012, picked up from pg 188 where that bit is, now on 204 end of that chapter. There is a lot of good reference to sources around 188 for more on that.
He might exaggerate the truth by just telling his X-Factor theory, but his books are pretty cool to read. I’ve read ‘The Occult’ and ‘The Outsider’ and I’m about halfway through ‘Mysteries.’
-----------------------------------------------------
The Timeless Zone - from ‘Mysteries’ by Colin Wilson
“He seemed to be catching a glimpse of a theory of the universe that went beyond relativity and quantum physics. First matter had dissolved into energy; now energy seemed to be somehow dissolving into mind stuff—or at least, to be in some way dependent on it.
His natural pragmatism inclined him to the belief that one day all this would be accepted as casually as radio or television. In Legend of the Sons of God he writes:
If scientists could get rid of the mental block which prevents them investigating a vast subject right under their noses, they could soon learn a great deal more than my wife and I are capable of doing. The block no longer seems to restrain scientists in America and Russia … Let us assume that in a hundred years’ time the block will have gone completely and what is now known as the ‘odd’ will have become a commonplace of bio-electronics. By then it will be possible, no doubt, to get on to the second mental whorl at will, using some elaborate electronic machine to alter the vibrational rate.
The reference to American and Russian scientists suggests that he may be referring to the experiments in telepathy that are described in The Dawn of Magic (although Mina Lethbridge assures me that he never read the book). But his following paragraph indicates another possibility:
I should imagine this would necessitate some kind of dynamo to produce a field of force around the experimenters, and this would be contained in a hemispherical type of housing. Having altered your personal bio- electronic field of force from that of your earth body to the vibrations of the next whorl, you would be in the timeless zone and could go backwards and forwards in time. It would probably be possible also to move the whole machine instantly in any direction by the power of thought. This hypothetical machine is not at all unlike what is reported of the flying saucers.
What Lethbridge may have had in mind—in the reference to scientists—is the curious legend of the Philadelphia Experiment, which has become part of modern UFO folklore. According to Dr Morris K. Jessup, a machine such as Lethbridge describes has been constructed, by US Navy scientists. Jessup wrote one of the earliest books on flying saucers—The Case for the UFO (1955)—and was a teacher of astronomy and mathematics at the University of Michigan, an eminent scientist whose researches led to the discovery of thousands of binary stars. After investigating Inca and Maya ruins, Jessup arrived independently at Lethbridge’s notion that they might have been set up by some ‘levitating power’. Soon after publication of The Case for the UFO, Jessup received two letters from a man who signed himself Carlos Allende (or Carl Allen), who described the ‘experiment’.
Allende claimed that in October 1943, the Navy had tried inducing a tremendously powerful magnetic field on board a destroyer in Philadelphia, presumably on the Delaware River. ‘The “result” was complete invisibility of a ship. Sailors on board the ship became semi-transparent to one another’s eyes (‘vague in form’). The ship itself vanished from its Philadelphia dock and reappeared at its other regular dock at Newport, Virginia. Half the crew became insane. Some went into a semi-comatose state which Allende calls ‘deep freezing’. They had to be exposed to another piece of electronic equipment to ‘unfreeze’ them. One man walked through the wall of his cabin in the sight of his wife and children, and vanished. Two more burst into flame as they were carrying compasses and burned for eighteen days. Other ‘frozen’ crew members were restored by ‘laying on of hands’.1
The story sounds preposterous enough, and is made more so by Allende’s claim that he read it in a Philadelphia newspaper. It is full of inner contradictions—in one paragraph, Allende says the experiment took place at sea, and a page later, in Philadelphia—and seems to be the work of a crank. But according to Jessup’s friend, Dr Manson Valentine (quoted in Berlitz’s book on the Bermuda Triangle), Jessup was asked to go to the Office of Naval Research in Washington, and was there shown a heavily annotated copy of his book on UFOs and asked if he recognised the handwriting. Some of it resembled Allende’s, and Jessup gave them the Allende letters, which included his address in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. Subsequently, Allende vanished, and the Office of Naval Research went to the trouble of having Jessup’s book mimeographed, together with all the written comments.
Three years later, in April 1959, Jessup was found dead in his parked station wagon in Dade County Park, Miami; a hose connected the exhaust with the interior of the car. Many ‘ufologists’, including John Michell, have suggested that Jessup’s death was not suicide, but this claim is unsupported by a shred of evidence. Jessup was depressed by his failure to make a living as a writer and by the collapse of plans to investigate UFO evidence in Mexico.
Valentine asserts that Jessup ‘had a theory that the power of magnetic fields could transform and transport matter from one dimension to another’. He also states that in the last year of his life, Jessup was approached by the Office of Naval Research to work on ‘the Philadelphia Experiment on similar projects’ but had declined ‘because he was worried about its dangerous ramifications’. No doubt the Allende letters are from a crank, yet it still seems possible that Jessup had stumbled on to something that Naval scientists felt worth investigating.
It is worth mentioning another version of the Philadelphia Experiment story, as reported (allegedly) by the Russians; it was told to the writer Robert Charroux by Professor Doru Todericiu, who claimed to have derived his information from behind the Iron Curtain. The Russian version asserts that the Americans were experimenting with a magnetic field in the shape of a Moebius Strip. A Moebius Strip is a geometrical figure with only one side. It can be constructed easily by taking a long strip of paper, giving it a twist, and gluing the ends together. The resulting circle of paper has only one side—as can be verified by tracing a pencil line down its centre; the line connects up with its own beginning without having to change sides. If the circle is cut into two with a pair of scissors—cutting along the pencil line—the result is one large circle, and not, as you might expect, two interlinked circles.
According to the Russian version, the powerful magnetic field was in the shape of a Moebius Strip, and a submarine (not a destroyer) traced its course, turning over once in the course of every revolution. Some electronic device was then used to cut the field in two. At this point, the submarine vanished from Philadelphia, to reappear in Newport. The chief interest of this version—which is at least as preposterous as Allende’s—is that again, a powerful magnetic field is alleged to have been involved.
Now Lethbridge’s—and Jessup’s—belief in the properties of such a field is less absurd than it sounds. There was a point in the late 1920s when the British government was willing to finance research into the matter. In the 1920s, Dr W. E. Boyd became convinced that high- frequency electric currents could increase man’s telepathic powers, and he constructed a machine which he called an emanometer. A team of government investigators was deeply impressed by the high scores consistently attained by subjects in card-guessing experiments, and reported favourably on the emanometer. Then came the Depression and the coalition government; funds were no longer available, and the idea was dropped. In recent years it has been revived again by Peter Maddock, head of the Parascience Institute, who presented a paper on Boyd’s ideas and on his own experiments to a Parascience Conference held at City University, London, in August 1976. Maddock pointed out that Russian scientists seem to have stumbled upon the same discovery; in Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, Sheila Ostran- der and Lynn Schroeder mention that Russian scientists have improved telepathic communication and ESP by surrounding subjects with an artificial magnetic field. They also mention the report that a Washington electronics engineer told the Parapsychology Foundation that ‘working with high frequency machines, my colleagues and I have found that we are on occasion telepathic’. This would not have surprised Lethbridge. He believed that telepathy takes place via the intermediary of the ‘second whorl’, so that his high frequency ‘time machine’ would also have the effect of amplifying man’s telepathic abilities.
Lethbridge’s aim was to make a comprehensive ‘table of vibrations’ with the use of the pendulum, a table that would include ideas as well as material substances. In his last years, he was beginning to formulate a notion of the universe in which mind and matter—or ideas and objects—were no longer opposites, but were somehow aspects of a broader continuum.”
#mysteries #paranormal #cyberpunk #cult #occult #philadelphia experience #esp #Colin Wilson #books #literature #philosophy #science #story #character #rpg #rpg maker #games
-----------------------------------------------------------
This is the book that has the bit about Galileo and the Pope / and Cardinal Bellarmine (including the part about the birds at the vatican) that seems to have set you reeling. Just got back to reading it again today 4/27/2012, picked up from pg 188 where that bit is, now on 204 end of that chapter. There is a lot of good reference to sources around 188 for more on that.
He might exaggerate the truth by just telling his X-Factor theory, but his books are pretty cool to read. I’ve read ‘The Occult’ and ‘The Outsider’ and I’m about halfway through ‘Mysteries.’
-----------------------------------------------------
The Timeless Zone - from ‘Mysteries’ by Colin Wilson
“He seemed to be catching a glimpse of a theory of the universe that went beyond relativity and quantum physics. First matter had dissolved into energy; now energy seemed to be somehow dissolving into mind stuff—or at least, to be in some way dependent on it.
His natural pragmatism inclined him to the belief that one day all this would be accepted as casually as radio or television. In Legend of the Sons of God he writes:
If scientists could get rid of the mental block which prevents them investigating a vast subject right under their noses, they could soon learn a great deal more than my wife and I are capable of doing. The block no longer seems to restrain scientists in America and Russia … Let us assume that in a hundred years’ time the block will have gone completely and what is now known as the ‘odd’ will have become a commonplace of bio-electronics. By then it will be possible, no doubt, to get on to the second mental whorl at will, using some elaborate electronic machine to alter the vibrational rate.
The reference to American and Russian scientists suggests that he may be referring to the experiments in telepathy that are described in The Dawn of Magic (although Mina Lethbridge assures me that he never read the book). But his following paragraph indicates another possibility:
I should imagine this would necessitate some kind of dynamo to produce a field of force around the experimenters, and this would be contained in a hemispherical type of housing. Having altered your personal bio- electronic field of force from that of your earth body to the vibrations of the next whorl, you would be in the timeless zone and could go backwards and forwards in time. It would probably be possible also to move the whole machine instantly in any direction by the power of thought. This hypothetical machine is not at all unlike what is reported of the flying saucers.
What Lethbridge may have had in mind—in the reference to scientists—is the curious legend of the Philadelphia Experiment, which has become part of modern UFO folklore. According to Dr Morris K. Jessup, a machine such as Lethbridge describes has been constructed, by US Navy scientists. Jessup wrote one of the earliest books on flying saucers—The Case for the UFO (1955)—and was a teacher of astronomy and mathematics at the University of Michigan, an eminent scientist whose researches led to the discovery of thousands of binary stars. After investigating Inca and Maya ruins, Jessup arrived independently at Lethbridge’s notion that they might have been set up by some ‘levitating power’. Soon after publication of The Case for the UFO, Jessup received two letters from a man who signed himself Carlos Allende (or Carl Allen), who described the ‘experiment’.
Allende claimed that in October 1943, the Navy had tried inducing a tremendously powerful magnetic field on board a destroyer in Philadelphia, presumably on the Delaware River. ‘The “result” was complete invisibility of a ship. Sailors on board the ship became semi-transparent to one another’s eyes (‘vague in form’). The ship itself vanished from its Philadelphia dock and reappeared at its other regular dock at Newport, Virginia. Half the crew became insane. Some went into a semi-comatose state which Allende calls ‘deep freezing’. They had to be exposed to another piece of electronic equipment to ‘unfreeze’ them. One man walked through the wall of his cabin in the sight of his wife and children, and vanished. Two more burst into flame as they were carrying compasses and burned for eighteen days. Other ‘frozen’ crew members were restored by ‘laying on of hands’.1
The story sounds preposterous enough, and is made more so by Allende’s claim that he read it in a Philadelphia newspaper. It is full of inner contradictions—in one paragraph, Allende says the experiment took place at sea, and a page later, in Philadelphia—and seems to be the work of a crank. But according to Jessup’s friend, Dr Manson Valentine (quoted in Berlitz’s book on the Bermuda Triangle), Jessup was asked to go to the Office of Naval Research in Washington, and was there shown a heavily annotated copy of his book on UFOs and asked if he recognised the handwriting. Some of it resembled Allende’s, and Jessup gave them the Allende letters, which included his address in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. Subsequently, Allende vanished, and the Office of Naval Research went to the trouble of having Jessup’s book mimeographed, together with all the written comments.
Three years later, in April 1959, Jessup was found dead in his parked station wagon in Dade County Park, Miami; a hose connected the exhaust with the interior of the car. Many ‘ufologists’, including John Michell, have suggested that Jessup’s death was not suicide, but this claim is unsupported by a shred of evidence. Jessup was depressed by his failure to make a living as a writer and by the collapse of plans to investigate UFO evidence in Mexico.
Valentine asserts that Jessup ‘had a theory that the power of magnetic fields could transform and transport matter from one dimension to another’. He also states that in the last year of his life, Jessup was approached by the Office of Naval Research to work on ‘the Philadelphia Experiment on similar projects’ but had declined ‘because he was worried about its dangerous ramifications’. No doubt the Allende letters are from a crank, yet it still seems possible that Jessup had stumbled on to something that Naval scientists felt worth investigating.
It is worth mentioning another version of the Philadelphia Experiment story, as reported (allegedly) by the Russians; it was told to the writer Robert Charroux by Professor Doru Todericiu, who claimed to have derived his information from behind the Iron Curtain. The Russian version asserts that the Americans were experimenting with a magnetic field in the shape of a Moebius Strip. A Moebius Strip is a geometrical figure with only one side. It can be constructed easily by taking a long strip of paper, giving it a twist, and gluing the ends together. The resulting circle of paper has only one side—as can be verified by tracing a pencil line down its centre; the line connects up with its own beginning without having to change sides. If the circle is cut into two with a pair of scissors—cutting along the pencil line—the result is one large circle, and not, as you might expect, two interlinked circles.
According to the Russian version, the powerful magnetic field was in the shape of a Moebius Strip, and a submarine (not a destroyer) traced its course, turning over once in the course of every revolution. Some electronic device was then used to cut the field in two. At this point, the submarine vanished from Philadelphia, to reappear in Newport. The chief interest of this version—which is at least as preposterous as Allende’s—is that again, a powerful magnetic field is alleged to have been involved.
Now Lethbridge’s—and Jessup’s—belief in the properties of such a field is less absurd than it sounds. There was a point in the late 1920s when the British government was willing to finance research into the matter. In the 1920s, Dr W. E. Boyd became convinced that high- frequency electric currents could increase man’s telepathic powers, and he constructed a machine which he called an emanometer. A team of government investigators was deeply impressed by the high scores consistently attained by subjects in card-guessing experiments, and reported favourably on the emanometer. Then came the Depression and the coalition government; funds were no longer available, and the idea was dropped. In recent years it has been revived again by Peter Maddock, head of the Parascience Institute, who presented a paper on Boyd’s ideas and on his own experiments to a Parascience Conference held at City University, London, in August 1976. Maddock pointed out that Russian scientists seem to have stumbled upon the same discovery; in Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, Sheila Ostran- der and Lynn Schroeder mention that Russian scientists have improved telepathic communication and ESP by surrounding subjects with an artificial magnetic field. They also mention the report that a Washington electronics engineer told the Parapsychology Foundation that ‘working with high frequency machines, my colleagues and I have found that we are on occasion telepathic’. This would not have surprised Lethbridge. He believed that telepathy takes place via the intermediary of the ‘second whorl’, so that his high frequency ‘time machine’ would also have the effect of amplifying man’s telepathic abilities.
Lethbridge’s aim was to make a comprehensive ‘table of vibrations’ with the use of the pendulum, a table that would include ideas as well as material substances. In his last years, he was beginning to formulate a notion of the universe in which mind and matter—or ideas and objects—were no longer opposites, but were somehow aspects of a broader continuum.”
#mysteries #paranormal #cyberpunk #cult #occult #philadelphia experience #esp #Colin Wilson #books #literature #philosophy #science #story #character #rpg #rpg maker #games
September 7, 2021
I like reading Wilson and for the most part he presents a fairly rational and level headed investigation. The only problem is that he also brings in examples that have been debunked or exposed, (sometimes even saying so, but asserting that there is still some value to it), which casts doubt on the validity of the rest of his evidence and arguments.
Worse yet, in introducing the Kabbalah as a subject Wilson relays a theory that Jews have more Neanderthal DNA than other people, and that that is why they are such a magical race. The combination of anti-semitism and such a ridiculous claim really undercuts the credibility of the section.
Worse yet, in introducing the Kabbalah as a subject Wilson relays a theory that Jews have more Neanderthal DNA than other people, and that that is why they are such a magical race. The combination of anti-semitism and such a ridiculous claim really undercuts the credibility of the section.
January 31, 2013
There is a sense that, although his published works must number over a hundred, Wilson is just writing the same book over and over again. But, as someone once said, Colin Wilson could make a telephone book an interesting read, it simply doesn’t matter. Mysteries does feature the enduring Wilson theme of expanded consciousness and how to achieve it and what it means to have it to the individual and to humanity but along the way we are treated to a somewhat idiosyncratic but intelligent view of the history of science and the search for the mysterious Faculty X. However, you soon realize, if you’ve also read more contemporary forays into the same or similar territory, how prescient some or even most of his writing was. This book covers some of the same ground as Capra’s almost contemporaneous “The Tao of Physics” and pre-empts Lynn McTaggarts, “The Field” by a good twenty years! It could just possibly be one of the most important books of the late twentieth century – only time will tell.
July 5, 2009
Colin Wilson must be one of the most credulous people to walk the face of the earth. This large volume is full of all sorts of stories and accounts pulled from various sources, and Wilson makes little attempt to help the reader to decide which ones are better supported by evidence than others, leaving everything on the same level as the most ridiculous accounts in here (of which there are a few).
There's some interesting stuff in here as well, but since I've read a lot of Wilson's other writings, this feels like he's just re-hashed many of the same old stories from his files, and is going the long way around in making the same old point. Wilson has done this better elsewhere, and more briefly.
There's some interesting stuff in here as well, but since I've read a lot of Wilson's other writings, this feels like he's just re-hashed many of the same old stories from his files, and is going the long way around in making the same old point. Wilson has done this better elsewhere, and more briefly.
October 31, 2017
Fascinating Tour Through Mysterious Realms
Mysteries is an interesting and erudite excursion into the unknown. Here Colin Wilson pens the kind of fun, massive book that you can lose yourself in for a while, pondering the mysteries of our world.
The text is very readable, and although occasionally you might feel the author spends too much time examining one topic or another, at least he never skimps anything over. Delving into various paranormal and supernatural topics, Wilson relates many fascinating anecdotes and ideas to stimulate your mind and imagination.
Always scholarly yet at the same time entertaining, Colin Wilson is the perfect guide to take you on a tour through these mysterious realms.
Mysteries is an interesting and erudite excursion into the unknown. Here Colin Wilson pens the kind of fun, massive book that you can lose yourself in for a while, pondering the mysteries of our world.
The text is very readable, and although occasionally you might feel the author spends too much time examining one topic or another, at least he never skimps anything over. Delving into various paranormal and supernatural topics, Wilson relates many fascinating anecdotes and ideas to stimulate your mind and imagination.
Always scholarly yet at the same time entertaining, Colin Wilson is the perfect guide to take you on a tour through these mysterious realms.
May 26, 2010
I must-read for anyone interested in paranormal phenomenon. If I could only own one book in this genre, it would be "Mysteries".
I have read and reread it and cannot recommend it highly enough.
I have read and reread it and cannot recommend it highly enough.
November 21, 2023
I enjoyed the premise and idea of this book as I am always looking for anything non-fiction on the occult and paranormal fields.
This book has a lot of insightful stories and information, but the way he explained things was just a bit too “much”. A lot of stuff was repeated at random points throughout the book, in the same chapters and also in different ones. I personally also had a hard time keeping track of all the different people he spoke of. He mentioned names and I didn’t recall what they did. A lot of it was in random instances. It is just a personal thing I struggled with anyways, but thought I would mention it in case anyone else struggles with names in reading.
It was a lot of the same info. The book and certain chapters could have been condensed and I would have enjoyed it a lot more.
This book has a lot of insightful stories and information, but the way he explained things was just a bit too “much”. A lot of stuff was repeated at random points throughout the book, in the same chapters and also in different ones. I personally also had a hard time keeping track of all the different people he spoke of. He mentioned names and I didn’t recall what they did. A lot of it was in random instances. It is just a personal thing I struggled with anyways, but thought I would mention it in case anyone else struggles with names in reading.
It was a lot of the same info. The book and certain chapters could have been condensed and I would have enjoyed it a lot more.
August 10, 2021
This was a perfect tonic when I was stuck for something to read. While his previous book, The Occult, succeeds better as a unified whole, there's marvelous stuff in these pages. I stuck pieces of scratch paper to mark passages I especially want to reread later on and it's been occurring to me that I didn't use nearly enough scratch paper. I can't think of too many books running over 600 pages that glide by so fast, so effortlessly.
August 6, 2019
A compendium of all things bizzare and unexplained. A great and well rehearsed read.
November 19, 2021
Fun collection of weird and oddball factoids and anecdotes.
December 7, 2022
This is more 4.5 stars. It overall is sweeping and compelling. However the author’s attitudes are at times dated or overly naive and this does undermine the core theses of the book.
February 19, 2017
Wow!
Detailed, thorough & full of information, combining many different thoughts & ideas of lots of people, & lots of experiences regarding the paranormal.
Detailed, thorough & full of information, combining many different thoughts & ideas of lots of people, & lots of experiences regarding the paranormal.
December 8, 2024
It's so of its time period. When I was young I thought "surely magic exists," after all it's referenced in fairy tales, children's books, adult books, tv shows, movies, theatre, art, everywhere. It seems to be one of those things that sat outside science, so of course science couldn't prove it, any more than science can prove I love my partner, or that the Pursuit of Love series by Fragonard is beautiful.
So I searched for magic, and sometimes thought I found it, and read everything I could about where others may have found it, including this book, and its predecessor (which was so large it palled after a while through its sheer overwhelmingness).
This sequel is the one to read if you only want to choose one. It's also quite a bit shorter. I don't recall that it requires reading of the first to be enjoyed, I think it would be fine on its own.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
So I searched for magic, and sometimes thought I found it, and read everything I could about where others may have found it, including this book, and its predecessor (which was so large it palled after a while through its sheer overwhelmingness).
This sequel is the one to read if you only want to choose one. It's also quite a bit shorter. I don't recall that it requires reading of the first to be enjoyed, I think it would be fine on its own.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
do-not-read
June 15, 2019I've only read one of Wilson's books (G.I. Gurdjieff: The War Against Sleep), and that was many years ago. Having learnt more about Wilson since then, I'm not motivated to familiarize myself with his other publications. Substantial criticisms of Wilson have been made by others with far stronger claims to competence in this area. A good summary has been published in a recent blog post by independent writer, Kevin R. D. Shepherd, who has been writing critically about Wilson, and related figures, since the late 1970s. See Colin Wilson (posted January 2018).
March 3, 2011
It talks about paranormal incidents & Human subconscious.Each chapter talks about specific topics, (i.e) a chapter for UFO another one for Dragons, Ghosts. He narrates anecdotes from the experts of the topics being discussed. In a chapter 'How many me's are there' which is about Multiple personality and subconscious ,he discusses the caseof a patient of Carl Jung;Followed by his perception on it.
skipped some chapters like UFO's , Dragons because until and otherwise I see them on my own eyes I will not be convinced but it had other interesting chapters that kept me hooked to it whenever I could make some time to read.
skipped some chapters like UFO's , Dragons because until and otherwise I see them on my own eyes I will not be convinced but it had other interesting chapters that kept me hooked to it whenever I could make some time to read.
August 9, 2013
colin wilson has been largely writing the same book-but with different titles-the only exceptions being his debut and some of his immensely imaginative fiction. this one is a re hash again- but worth reading as a refresher for a wilson fan. And as an introduction to wilson's pedagogy and assimilation of the history of human thought/ experiences for the novice.
September 25, 2008
Sure a lot of people would find this total bs but man, this book was interesting...learned a lot about some weird stuff/beliefs from back in the day.
February 4, 2013
An enormous sprawling essay of a book. Full of great stories, some more believable than others.
December 17, 2013
Rest in Peace, Mr. Wilson. I enjoyed books like this one, sir.
May 25, 2012
This book kept me alive during my worst depression
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews