Mysteries

Mysteries, by Colin Wilson (Putnam, 667 pp., $15).

This is an encyclopedic treatment of the supernatural that begins with the assumption that seers, UFO watchers, dowsers, and people haunted by ghosts are not kidding. They honestly believe they’ve seen something, Wilson maintains, and on this basis he recites case after spooky case of happenings that seem to defy explanation. If he had stopped at storytelling, Mysteries could be written off as an unfortunate triumph of gullibility over good sense. But Wilson goes three reckless steps further. He tells why people have seen whatever they’ve seen, how someday we all will be able to see, and why the ability is a good thing. According to Wilson, a person who sees a ghost, say, is experiencing a state of heightened mental awareness. The ghost is fact; seeing it depends on the viewer’s sensitivity. Wilson says sensitivity resides in all men, but lies dormant in most of us because we are skeptical. With a little effort— deep relaxation, concentration, focusing, etc.—we can overcome our handicap. Or, Wilson claims, we can wait around until natural selection lifts us from the murk of doubt: evolution works toward the ideal, and the psychic is a superior breed of man—”fully human,” as Wilson puts it. Doubters will eventually perish like the dinosaur. As proof of his bizarre theory, Wilson offers the testimony of persons widely regarded as cranks. He puts inordinate trust in hunches: he praises one source for putting across a “feeling of revelation.” Trying to validate the unknown by invoking the unknown, he calls upon the “unconscious,” the “subconscious,” “higher levels” of thought. When these devices fail, the weapon of last resort is emotion. “This vast computer we call the brain was meant to operate at a far higher level of efficiency.” Wilson, in search of other-worldly meaning, argues with simple earthly shouting.

PH

About the Author

Paul T. Hornak

Featured Tags

Manage following

Literature

UFOs

Mysteries, by Colin Wilson (Putnam, 667 pp., $15).

This is an encyclopedic treatment of the supernatural that begins with the assumption that seers, UFO watchers, dowsers, and people haunted by ghosts are not kidding. They honestly believe they’ve seen something, Wilson maintains, and on this basis he recites case after spooky case of happenings that seem to defy explanation. If he had stopped at storytelling, Mysteries could be written off as an unfortunate triumph of gullibility over good sense. But Wilson goes three reckless steps further. He tells why people have seen whatever they’ve seen, how someday we all will be able to see, and why the ability is a good thing. According to Wilson, a person who sees a ghost, say, is experiencing a state of heightened mental awareness. The ghost is fact; seeing it depends on the viewer’s sensitivity. Wilson says sensitivity resides in all men, but lies dormant in most of us because we are skeptical. With a little effort— deep relaxation, concentration, focusing, etc.—we can overcome our handicap. Or, Wilson claims, we can wait around until natural selection lifts us from the murk of doubt: evolution works toward the ideal, and the psychic is a superior breed of man—”fully human,” as Wilson puts it. Doubters will eventually perish like the dinosaur. As proof of his bizarre theory, Wilson offers the testimony of persons widely regarded as cranks. He puts inordinate trust in hunches: he praises one source for putting across a “feeling of revelation.” Trying to validate the unknown by invoking the unknown, he calls upon the “unconscious,” the “subconscious,” “higher levels” of thought. When these devices fail, the weapon of last resort is emotion. “This vast computer we call the brain was meant to operate at a far higher level of efficiency.” Wilson, in search of other-worldly meaning, argues with simple earthly shouting.