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Strange But True
World Famous Strange but True: The World's Strangest Mysteries in One Volume
World Famous Strange But True - The World's Strangest Mysteries in One Volume [Paperback] Wilson, Colin and Evans, Dr. Christopher
- GenresNonfiction
494 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1995
1 person is currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
Colin Wilson
403 books1,291 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.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 4, 2017
This book on real-life mysteries was really good. It contains not only descriptions of sightings/experiences but also logical explanations by the author which included theories and suggested possibilities, making the book very interesting.
Some of the topics included here were: unexplained disappearances of people and entire armies; Charles Hoy Fort - the man who loved mysteries - and his investigations; Devil's Graveyards like the Bermuda Triangle and other strange areas in the seas and disappearances; Tom C. Lethbridge and his investigations of ghouls (as defined by him); uninvited visitors such as the famous Loch Ness Monster, and such others; curses, jinxes, ancient forces; creatures from other worlds causing stuff like The Devil's Footprints, etc.
The author suggests that "there may be parallel worlds in our universe." That "perhaps these worlds do not exist in other dimensions, but only on other energy levels."
"This book," as he says, "has been about the interaction of these levels of reality." That some creatures (including people) "seem to have slipped through a 'crack' in our reality into another world", while other phenomena such as poltergeists, UFOs, and lake monsters seem to have slipped through the other way, possibly being linked by certain types of powerful electrical phenomena.
The book is just over a hundred pages, yet a lot of interesting stuff is included, and in easy language. I have been reading Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World on the side which comes within the same genre. Yet, that one is pretty much only full of descriptions of sightings and testimonials, while containing not-so-interesting theories. Of course considering that it is a slightly dated book.
Colin Wilson is well-known for his other bigger, detailed books on similar topics with The Occult as one of his famous ones. I will certainly be reading his other books dealing with this subject.
Some of the topics included here were: unexplained disappearances of people and entire armies; Charles Hoy Fort - the man who loved mysteries - and his investigations; Devil's Graveyards like the Bermuda Triangle and other strange areas in the seas and disappearances; Tom C. Lethbridge and his investigations of ghouls (as defined by him); uninvited visitors such as the famous Loch Ness Monster, and such others; curses, jinxes, ancient forces; creatures from other worlds causing stuff like The Devil's Footprints, etc.
The author suggests that "there may be parallel worlds in our universe." That "perhaps these worlds do not exist in other dimensions, but only on other energy levels."
"This book," as he says, "has been about the interaction of these levels of reality." That some creatures (including people) "seem to have slipped through a 'crack' in our reality into another world", while other phenomena such as poltergeists, UFOs, and lake monsters seem to have slipped through the other way, possibly being linked by certain types of powerful electrical phenomena.
The book is just over a hundred pages, yet a lot of interesting stuff is included, and in easy language. I have been reading Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World on the side which comes within the same genre. Yet, that one is pretty much only full of descriptions of sightings and testimonials, while containing not-so-interesting theories. Of course considering that it is a slightly dated book.
Colin Wilson is well-known for his other bigger, detailed books on similar topics with The Occult as one of his famous ones. I will certainly be reading his other books dealing with this subject.
October 12, 2017
Some good chapters and stories/explanations that I found really interesting, however I found some others boring of the lack of explanations frustrating. Admittedly I speed read some of the latter sections that simply didn’t enthral me. There are much better books out there on similar subjects.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews