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Occult Trilogy #3
Beyond the Occult
Hoping to prove that the universe of the paranormal is as consistent and comprehensive as that of modern science, Wilson discusses the unseen powers of the human mind, poltergeists, spirit possessions, and reincarnations
381 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1989
46 people are currently reading
706 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 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 1, 2017
Colin Winson is always a good read, provided you don't take him too seriously: his style is always chatty and pleasant, and if you are interested in things occult, then he is a good introduction to the subject.
My edition of this work was published in 2008, but it is essentially a reprint of the work which was published in 1988.
The fun with Wilson is that he is amazingly eclectic and wide-ranging in his search for stories to back up his assessments. I have always found stories about amazing incidents and events fun to read; but I have always maintained a certain scepticism about them all. Wilson, on the other hand, seems to be convinced that all these stories are touching on 'something', he calls it a 'higher' quality of consciousness, which we should strive to access if we are to evolve to the next plane of our 'perfection' as human beings (he tends to call the rest of us lazy, ignorant or entrapped, though not in an aggressive or angry way).
The problem I have with this is that Wilson seems to be quite prepared to take stories from whereven he can find them, indiscriminately, and piles them up in massess of stories which he considers as 'evidence' that something special is happening. I see these 'proofs', however, as merely an accumulation of anecdotes; many of them are taken from events and locations over hundreds of years. But anecdotes are anecdotes; simply accumulating them 'proves' nothing.
Wilson used these 'inductive' anecdotes to back his positing of something 'higher' and more powerful that human nature has, and which our everyday concerns and worries have 'edited out' or 'censored' (an action he considers to be a mistake — others might consider it to be necessary for survival). This approach is common in many so-called esoteric groups or individuals (one comparatively recent claim calls this otherness which we all posses as the 'akashic' field — if I understand Wilson correctly, he calls this 'life', i.e. that 'life' is something extraneous to ourselves and which imbues us, or comes into us from outside).
All of this is, of course, speculation, as far as I am concerned. Some might consider this more 'real' than reality. All I can say is that more rigid proofs than simply accumulating data is needed before one can claim that something significant is going on (if it is going on at all).
One minor irritant to Wilson is that in his zeal for collecting anecdotes, or 'facts', he tends not to question them too seriously (he does use of technique of 'questioning' them to a certain extent, but usually only to then say: 'but what about THIS...' and comes up with a more 'puzzling' narrative). Another fault is that he appears to take matters out of context. He mentions, for example, the Fox sisters, and how their extraordinary experiences generated a worldwide interest in Spiritualism. All true. But he inexplicably refrains from revealing that later the sisters freely admitted that it was all a hoax. This revelation did not do any harm whatsoever to the Spiritualism they had 'unleashed': believers just moved onto other more interesting 'manifestations'.
The Occult is always a fascinating field to dip into: one must always be aware, however, that unless and until something more solid than mere anecdotal evidence surfaces, conclusions based on it should be taken with many grains of salt.
My edition of this work was published in 2008, but it is essentially a reprint of the work which was published in 1988.
The fun with Wilson is that he is amazingly eclectic and wide-ranging in his search for stories to back up his assessments. I have always found stories about amazing incidents and events fun to read; but I have always maintained a certain scepticism about them all. Wilson, on the other hand, seems to be convinced that all these stories are touching on 'something', he calls it a 'higher' quality of consciousness, which we should strive to access if we are to evolve to the next plane of our 'perfection' as human beings (he tends to call the rest of us lazy, ignorant or entrapped, though not in an aggressive or angry way).
The problem I have with this is that Wilson seems to be quite prepared to take stories from whereven he can find them, indiscriminately, and piles them up in massess of stories which he considers as 'evidence' that something special is happening. I see these 'proofs', however, as merely an accumulation of anecdotes; many of them are taken from events and locations over hundreds of years. But anecdotes are anecdotes; simply accumulating them 'proves' nothing.
Wilson used these 'inductive' anecdotes to back his positing of something 'higher' and more powerful that human nature has, and which our everyday concerns and worries have 'edited out' or 'censored' (an action he considers to be a mistake — others might consider it to be necessary for survival). This approach is common in many so-called esoteric groups or individuals (one comparatively recent claim calls this otherness which we all posses as the 'akashic' field — if I understand Wilson correctly, he calls this 'life', i.e. that 'life' is something extraneous to ourselves and which imbues us, or comes into us from outside).
All of this is, of course, speculation, as far as I am concerned. Some might consider this more 'real' than reality. All I can say is that more rigid proofs than simply accumulating data is needed before one can claim that something significant is going on (if it is going on at all).
One minor irritant to Wilson is that in his zeal for collecting anecdotes, or 'facts', he tends not to question them too seriously (he does use of technique of 'questioning' them to a certain extent, but usually only to then say: 'but what about THIS...' and comes up with a more 'puzzling' narrative). Another fault is that he appears to take matters out of context. He mentions, for example, the Fox sisters, and how their extraordinary experiences generated a worldwide interest in Spiritualism. All true. But he inexplicably refrains from revealing that later the sisters freely admitted that it was all a hoax. This revelation did not do any harm whatsoever to the Spiritualism they had 'unleashed': believers just moved onto other more interesting 'manifestations'.
The Occult is always a fascinating field to dip into: one must always be aware, however, that unless and until something more solid than mere anecdotal evidence surfaces, conclusions based on it should be taken with many grains of salt.
September 25, 2017
I have read all three of his occult books in order. This is the best as it is the culmination of his exposure to all that is mysterious and try as he might he has become a believer in some taboo theories for scientists. I love that our world is full of mystery and we can become something more than we are led to believe.
January 22, 2022
always interesting
I always find Colin Wilson’s books interesting and informative. He is well read, likes quoting the greats - a little too much - and spins a good anecdote as well as the best of them. His occasional smug pomposity is outweighed by his earnest boyish enthusiasm. He is not a heavy weight thinker or weighed down by any form of deep expertise - as far as I can tell - but he is broad in his thinking, open minded and seems to ask all the right questions. Maybe a little too open minded. And you don’t read him for his light weight answers. Either wrong or just so many repetitious platitudes.
On the substantive content of this work. Please. Anecdotes are not evidence. Unfortunately people lie. And lies are exaggerated and repeated. So what would count as evidence? Not even personal experience unfortunately since people fool themselves and lie to themselves as much as they lie to others. So what ?
This book is mostly a rehash of old material. The new stuff - brief excursions into pop interpretations of quantum physics - is laughably childish. He is way out of his league there and really should have left those bits out. When pop writers start discussing quantum physics the result is almost invariably just so much crap.
I always find Colin Wilson’s books interesting and informative. He is well read, likes quoting the greats - a little too much - and spins a good anecdote as well as the best of them. His occasional smug pomposity is outweighed by his earnest boyish enthusiasm. He is not a heavy weight thinker or weighed down by any form of deep expertise - as far as I can tell - but he is broad in his thinking, open minded and seems to ask all the right questions. Maybe a little too open minded. And you don’t read him for his light weight answers. Either wrong or just so many repetitious platitudes.
On the substantive content of this work. Please. Anecdotes are not evidence. Unfortunately people lie. And lies are exaggerated and repeated. So what would count as evidence? Not even personal experience unfortunately since people fool themselves and lie to themselves as much as they lie to others. So what ?
This book is mostly a rehash of old material. The new stuff - brief excursions into pop interpretations of quantum physics - is laughably childish. He is way out of his league there and really should have left those bits out. When pop writers start discussing quantum physics the result is almost invariably just so much crap.
August 15, 2018
Beyond the Occult:
A fantastic read! I struggled to put it down. Any one who what’s “proof” that humans are more than what we are lead to believe we are, should read this book. I take my hat off to this author as not many people who write books, take the time to UPDATE their findings after new discovery’s are made regarding his previous material... Thank you for this “Peak Experience” and giving me the knowledge to have many many more.... 10/10
A fantastic read! I struggled to put it down. Any one who what’s “proof” that humans are more than what we are lead to believe we are, should read this book. I take my hat off to this author as not many people who write books, take the time to UPDATE their findings after new discovery’s are made regarding his previous material... Thank you for this “Peak Experience” and giving me the knowledge to have many many more.... 10/10
May 8, 2024
Did I even finish? I have no idea. I had zero idea what Wilson was talking about after a certain point he’s either the most incredulous person in the world, or he was just going to keep writing to finish a book contract. He convinced me of absolutely nothing, and I kept reading in hopes that something was going to come across. It’s a pity, because Wilson‘s writing at the beginning of this book and “the occult“ were so good that I was excited to keep reading.
June 27, 2024
I've read this before, years ago and I remember I liked it, but I was a bit unimpressed by it. All these years later, I thought I might have a new outlook and I didn't. It's a brilliant book, truly it is and it's well worth reading. The thing I don't like is the taking of second hand stories as fact. They are not and can't be proven one way or another. So it's become subjective. Aside from that, the book gives the reader plenty to think over and wonder about.
January 5, 2025
I do enjoy Colin Wilson's Occult series, this one being the final installment. I feel it's important to take his writing with a (sometimes large) pinch of salt as he does tend to provide insubstantial evidence and cite opinions as facts. However, if you're into hidden mysteries, the paranormal, and the psychic and spiritual, this is an engaging and comprehensive look at the occult. Would recommend reading after Colin Wilson's 'The Occult'.
July 5, 2018
Another fantastic offering from Wilson. His analysis of the boundless potential of human beings and their powers is exhaustive and insightful.
October 27, 2022
Thought provoking and clearer summary of the author’s forays into the deeper questions. Recommended.
February 11, 2019
Stimulating book on the occult and Wilson's ideas on philosophy and psychology. I've read this two or three times over the years and always find worthwhile thoughts in it
January 2, 2015
This book had been sitting on my bookshelf for at least a couple of years, continually demoted in an overgrowing ‘to read’ pile. I had read The Serial Killers by Colin Wilson years ago, so as I write this I can no longer recall my impressions of that book.
What I do know is that after reading the lengthy and often tedious Beyond The Occult I was tempted to revisit the pages of my previous encounter with Wilson, if only to see if certain passages bothered me as much as some of the more bemusing moments in this treatise on the supernatural.
I will say from the outset that Wilson was an interesting chap; he’s obviously well-read, with expansive interests and an energy that enabled him to churn out many works on the topics that captivated him. I should also add that he possessed an accessible writing style, managing to express his views in a manner that doesn’t leave the reader cross-eyed, although at times he does simplify to a fault.
I consider myself a fairly open minded person – evidenced by purchasing this book in the first place – but it wasn’t long before getting into the pages of Wilson’s book that the credulity of the author became apparent, if not grating.
One brief example can be found on page 142: “Sanderson’s wife may have seen the ancient houses by ‘tuning in’ to her husband — husbands and wives are often telepathic.” Wilson has a tendency of attempting to advance his opinion with throwaway lines such as this, bereft of any critical reasoning.
Being blunt, there were several passages in this book that actually aggravated me in terms of substance, as Wilson often creates a flimsy foundation with which to expand his thoughts, based largely – if not almost entirely – on anecdotal evidence. The fact that this evidence – and I use that term loosely – is often plucked from age old obscurity does little to help his case. It is not too surprising that references and footnotes are conspicuously absent.
Wilson also ventures into the realms of philosophy, an early and perpetual interest for him, as he attempts to debunk the likes of Schopenhauer along with what he perceived to be the pessimism in Sartre’s Nausea and Camus’ concept of the absurd. In almost all cases he reduces such thinkers to the an uncharitable level of inert defeatism, when given their respective lives and the dynamic nature of their thought nothing could be further from the truth.
There are some interesting tidbits throughout, with the passages on synchronicity being somewhat intriguing, but by and large I found working through this to be a serious test of my patience, with my obsessive tendency of striving to finish any book I start perhaps the only reason I made it to the final page.
Whilst I commend Wilson’s enthusiasm, his book seems little more than a desperate attempt to sow optimism for the now and perhaps more to the point, for the hereafter. However, in 500 pages he only really succeeds in occasionally raising an eyebrow – largely from bemusement – without really convincing the reader on the merit of his beliefs, let alone providing as much food for thought as he intended.
What I do know is that after reading the lengthy and often tedious Beyond The Occult I was tempted to revisit the pages of my previous encounter with Wilson, if only to see if certain passages bothered me as much as some of the more bemusing moments in this treatise on the supernatural.
I will say from the outset that Wilson was an interesting chap; he’s obviously well-read, with expansive interests and an energy that enabled him to churn out many works on the topics that captivated him. I should also add that he possessed an accessible writing style, managing to express his views in a manner that doesn’t leave the reader cross-eyed, although at times he does simplify to a fault.
I consider myself a fairly open minded person – evidenced by purchasing this book in the first place – but it wasn’t long before getting into the pages of Wilson’s book that the credulity of the author became apparent, if not grating.
One brief example can be found on page 142: “Sanderson’s wife may have seen the ancient houses by ‘tuning in’ to her husband — husbands and wives are often telepathic.” Wilson has a tendency of attempting to advance his opinion with throwaway lines such as this, bereft of any critical reasoning.
Being blunt, there were several passages in this book that actually aggravated me in terms of substance, as Wilson often creates a flimsy foundation with which to expand his thoughts, based largely – if not almost entirely – on anecdotal evidence. The fact that this evidence – and I use that term loosely – is often plucked from age old obscurity does little to help his case. It is not too surprising that references and footnotes are conspicuously absent.
Wilson also ventures into the realms of philosophy, an early and perpetual interest for him, as he attempts to debunk the likes of Schopenhauer along with what he perceived to be the pessimism in Sartre’s Nausea and Camus’ concept of the absurd. In almost all cases he reduces such thinkers to the an uncharitable level of inert defeatism, when given their respective lives and the dynamic nature of their thought nothing could be further from the truth.
There are some interesting tidbits throughout, with the passages on synchronicity being somewhat intriguing, but by and large I found working through this to be a serious test of my patience, with my obsessive tendency of striving to finish any book I start perhaps the only reason I made it to the final page.
Whilst I commend Wilson’s enthusiasm, his book seems little more than a desperate attempt to sow optimism for the now and perhaps more to the point, for the hereafter. However, in 500 pages he only really succeeds in occasionally raising an eyebrow – largely from bemusement – without really convincing the reader on the merit of his beliefs, let alone providing as much food for thought as he intended.
Read
July 26, 2011Mostly incoherent. The first part is full of confused and confusing psycho-babble gobbledygook and makes little sense. Wilson quotes fact and fiction without discrimination and seriously over-intellectualises - or at least attempts to; I didn't understand much of the first part and I suspect Wilson didn't either! However, I was rather taken with his 'Stan and Ollie' metaphor for the human psyche, and the chapters on clairvoyance, doppelangers, and precognition were interesting in parts. The second part works slightly better, as it is more measured and less credulous and confused, which makes me more inclined to take Wilson's ideas on board than in the first section. Wilson is particularly interesting in this part on the subjects of possession and multiple personalities, taking a measured approach to two controversial and puzzling topics. However, he then goes and blows it all in the final chapters of the book by spouting some dubious and very confused (but non-religious) semi-creationist nonsense. Wilson seems to have serious problems in understanding how to analyse very different types of source material, which makes some of his conclusions somewhat mystifying, and at times hints at a wilful misunderstanding of his materials. He does make a number of very interesting and valid points, but the incoherence of many of his arguments means that this book has absolutely no sense of focus.
August 1, 2009
Beyond The Occult is an educational and insightful reading experience that deserves serious praise for its uplifting, optimistic, and mood-enhancing messages and advice. However, those who are already aware of spiritual realities and religious truths will likely benefit less from reading this book than individuals with less spiritual knowledge and experience. The target audience seems to be atheists, agnostics, and neurotics. I found myself agreeing with (and benefitting from) most of the information and arguments in this book; yet, ultimately, I was disappointed because the author is obviously ignorant of many of the truths that have been revealed by God to humankind. The author is very excited about his convictions regarding the existence of spiritual things, but he carefully avoids critical issues like God, life after death, and salvation. Throughout the book he dances around the issue of "the meaning of life", but no satisfactory explanation is provided. It's kind of funny that this author believes his message is novel. Maybe to an atheist or agnostic it is, but for religious people with spiritual knowledge this book's message is merely a refresher course of some of the basics. Still, the advice provided within this book's pages describing a way to enhance one's mood and productivity is both inspired and useful.
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).
Read
February 21, 2011will ts an amazing book he wrote when he was 24 years old!!! so o my god i feel like an idiot because i know ts amazing but cant the hell understand t!!! it's complicated !! is it just me or every1 know that!!! i hope that alot of people do not got so i feel ok and not stupid!!
March 22, 2009
One of his older works but still a pleasant read with C.W.'s usual flair for intrepid research into the realms beyond.
October 8, 2009
Interesting-educational.
March 12, 2021
A big fat book with some clever and interesting ideas
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews