Simon Kidd

“I do not believe that all Eastern traditions reputed to have an esoteric value actually contain such value, since it is very often only nominal values that are represented. The esoteric is, far more often than not, a highly extroverted exercise in advertisement, gimmicks, and reliance upon hoary associations yoked to simplistic or erroneous belief ... What constitutes a traditional esoteric psychology is likely to remain a subject for disagreement amongst various parties, but one might venture to suggest that it would be invisible and unobtrusive by comparison with less esoteric manifestations of great secrets and prerogatives.”
― Kevin R.D. Shepherd, The Resurection of Philosophy

“There are currently very few writers in either East or West who demonstrate much understanding of mystical ranges, and hence the values here are largely in abeyance. The typical 'Western Mysticism,' of the modern variety, is an excuse for narcissism and banality. Its vaunted therapy is sometimes classified, appropriately enough, as Neo-Reichian. It is arguably suitable fare for an increasingly illiterate audience who are narrowing down their alternatives to one only: ignorance of real values.”
― Kevin R.D. Shepherd, Meaning in Anthropos

“... finer tendencies of the psyche are eroded by crude stimuli, crude verbiage, and crude behaviour.”
― Kevin R.D. Shepherd, Meaning in Anthropos

“For those who are pedantic about classifications, it is perhaps best to describe Meher Baba as a neo-Kaivani, just as the Kaivanis can be termed neo-ishraqi in their departure from Islamic idioms. The gnostic dynamic does not stand still in its intercultural avenues of expression, and indeed, if it does so in a mono-cultural guise, it is likely to be no longer a dynamic but merely petrified conditioning. The easiest thing for anybody to do is to repeat secondhand material; the consequence is generally unenlightened dogmatism, not to mention distortion.”
― Kevin R.D. Shepherd, Meher Baba, an Iranian Liberal