I haven’t touched a book about Mysticism in many years. Ever since I jumped on the bandwagon of Sustainability I have left the mystery behind, the paranormal, occult, secret societies, aliens, etc. But when I recently travelled I picked up "Beyond the Occult: Twenty Years’ Research into the Paranormal" (Caxton Editions, London; 1988, 2002) by Colin Wilson. I used to read Colin Wilson quite a bit in the late 70s and 80s and thought how interesting it would be to pick him up now, especially since some of our traditional and usual modes for changing governments, ourselves and others are getting a bit stale.

This book actually ought to have been called "Mysticism and Beyond," since Colin Wilson deals with mysticism much more than he does the occult. In his earlier books such as "Mysteries" and "The Occult," he did deal with such topics as poltergeists, life after death, dowsing, paranormal activities and the like, but in this book he evokes the mystical tradition with commentary by William Blake, Arnold Toynbee and Goethe. It is their visions and experiences that compelled me to read on and to write this review since I sense it will only be in incorporating these mystical visions and their practical consequences that we may find some genuine hope in a world gone awry.

But before I get into that I would like to add some notes about Colin Wilson. I’ve been an avid fan of his since I read his first book "The Outsider" back in 1977. He wrote the book at the young age of 26 and became an instant celebrity. His enclopedic mind explored many literary writers who wrote in the vein of the "Outsider," that character who has been labeled the romantic, the stranger, the alien, who has a difficult time coping in this strange, strange world and who envisions a different world.

Later he came out with a book entitled "The Black Room" where he focused on the occult origins of the Nazis, when they were interested in altered states as well as occult powers in their manipulation and control of the population and their alleged relationship with certain Tibetan lamas. The black room was an isolation tank where altered states and visions would happen to our protagonist during his attempt to contact the Nazis and avert the tragedy that eventually happened.

Another title among his more than 100 titles — covering such wide-ranging topics as criminology, sex, sci-fi, biographies, literature and the paranormal — that influenced me deeply was "The Mind Parasites," a sci-fi novel that explored the idea that humans were plagued with a parasite that kept them asleep to their deeper purpose as well as to their supra-normal talents. The parasites would keep us dumb and numb. To give you a practical example of how the parasites worked just imagine having a profound insight and just about the time you locate a pen and paper to jot down its profundity you get an urge to have a snack. If you surrender to the urge, often times you will absolutely forget the insight. That is the power of the mind parasites, and the only way a man can fight these anti-evolving viruses is to travel to the other side of the moon. Remember, it’s sci-fi ... and with good sci-fi the writers will write about vitally important tendencies or intimations in a way that can shake up our larger reality.

"New Pathways in Psychology" explored the work of Abraham Maslow, the psychologist who tired of always focusing on patients who were suffering, in agony and full of neuroses. He decided to research people who were healthy, to discover what made them tick. What made them successful? Was it attitude or class or what?

While researching healthy individuals, he discovered that their happiness was explained as having peak experiences, those moments when you feel more alive, feel uncannily happy, when bliss is turned on. And the interesting thing about his research, which Colin Wilson writes almost obsessively throughout all of his books, is that when happy healthy people talk about and share their peak experiences, they often have more of them — sort of the complete opposite of commiseration, where in your misery you seek others to spread the virus of misery, to the perverted delight of others. Even though Maslow was writing back in the 70s during the human potential movement, his work’s importance and our current desperate need for vitality and aliveness is all the more important today.

The list of Colin Wilson’s biographies will also give you an idea of where this author is leading his readers: Bernard Shaw, Georg Gurdjieff, Carl Jung, Rudolf Steiner, Wilhelm Reich and Aleister Crowley (most of my heroes during my youth). Colin Wilson stretches our minds as well as his own in areas that are often disturbing, challenging, and provocative.

In "Beyond the Occult," he writes about the work of William James, Eileen Garrett, Lawrence LeShahn, Henri Bergson, Robert Graves, Carl Jung, Emanuel Swedenborg, Graham Greene, Arnold Toynbee, David Bohm, Karl Pribram, Robert Morris, Stan Gooch, Soren Kierkegaard and numerous other researchers, psychics, mediums and mystics. At times of despair, as when the US government went ballistic over Iraq and Afghanistan, I was devastated. Rather than simply respond in knee jerk fashion by turning to activism to deal with my despair, I allowed the despair to enter into me. I allowed it to filter through my psyche’s fibers, trusting that it would teach me something. And sure enough the lesson was that hope was definitely out of reach for an immediate turnaround of our government’s empire policies. With so many people supporting this regime, some radical changes need to take place. And probably some outrageous personal and political crises have to occur before things turn around. And the fact is, it’s not going to happen with the same minds that created the problem in the first place.

In another book I came across a similar insight. In a piece by P.D. Ouspensky, from his "A New Model of the Universe" (1931) he also despaired about all the various peace conferences that were happening in his time (1906 and 1907). He wrote, "Phrases, phrases, sympathetic, ironical, blatant, pompous, lying, and worst of all, utterly automatic, phrases which have been used a thousand times and will be used again on entirely different, perhaps contradictory, occasions. I have to make a survey of all these words and opinions, pretending to take them seriously, and then, just as seriously, to write something on my own account. But what can I say? It is all so tedious. Diplomats and all kinds of statesmen will gather together and talk, papers will approve or disapprove, sympathize or not sympathize. Then everything will be as it was, or even worse... ." This was at a time when he was a correspondent for the "The Morning" in Moscow.

Why the same type of solutions time after time, the same protests, the same pleas for peace, the same conferences? We are missing something vital. It is not just a regime change that we need in the US. That would be wonderful, but a regime change is not necessarily going to assist us in guaranteeing peace and prosperity and sustainability. Radical changes need to happen to us as well, as individuals. Not only an attitude change, but something deeper, profound.

And right now I can’t even say that death might alter us. After visiting some relatives who were close to death I saw no changes in their makeup or belief system. I was hoping for a light to beam from their eyes with unconditional love. I wanted acceptance for themselves as well as others who were in their presence. I wanted to see their heart open and gush a love that was radical, that moved them, that inspired others to remove/heal their shadows and mean-spirited selves. And I saw none of that. Even if there were moments of exquisite healing and love, I saw how quickly the robot of their old selves can take over as if nothing happened. It reminds me of a quote I carry around with me by Sir Winston Churchhill: "Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across the truth. Most jump up, brush themselves off and hurry on about their business as if nothing happened." I wonder even if large groups of people had not only glimpses of truth but of mystical realization. I doubt that it would be enough for an entire planet to save itself.

Yes, it is important to have different information and analysis like Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman, Granny D. These are inspiring people and we need to listen to them, learn from them and share their insights and analyses with others ... quickly. But what about us? What happens when we come close to death or act/pretend/imagine as if death is over our shoulder? Or as the Sufis say, "death is closer to your jugular than you can imagine." Do we change, do we become the love we seek? Do we become the changes that we seek or do we simply go along in our hypnotic state and consume, bitch, complain, work, compile more money, and/or hate the leaders? As noted by M. Scott Peck, modern evil is that which "one percent of the people cause, but in which a hundred percent of us ordinary sinners participate through our everyday sins."

The other day I was talking with some people about why they thought solutions were not very "sexy" in a world that is totally full of problems. One person surprised me by saying that "seeking solutions assumes that there is a problem ... and many people don’t see the problem." "Wow!" I exclaimed. Maybe he is right. Maybe we need to go back to square one and reiterate the problems step by step, carefully, with minutia. Perhaps I will publish an entire issue focusing on the problems and forget the solutions. Perhaps we need to deluge the world with even more problem analysis so we can join the masses in more analysis and more bitching and more complaining and leave the solutions to the government officials which we rarely vote for. And then perhaps we can have an orgy in facetiousness and join the cult of nihilism and create another movement that will swell and swell and gain worldwide attention so that solutions like sustainability will even get smaller than they already are. Perhaps my facetiousness has something to do with a call I just received from the Book Den who said, "Get your HopeDances out of here. It would have been nice if you asked. But even if you asked I would have told you that no one picks them up here and we simply toss them." And if HopeDances can’t succeed in the city of Santa Barbara, claimed as one of the most progressive cities on the coast of California (except for Arcata and Santa Monica) then what is a person to do?

I’d like to go back to P.D. Ouspensky’s words. In that same essay he writes: "All these talks about universal peace are only dreams. First of all because the people who start conferences and those who are going to debate on peace will sooner or later start a war. Wars do not begin by themselves, neither do ‘peoples’ begin them, however much they are accused of it. It is just those men with good intentions who are obstacles to peace. But is it possible to expect that they will understand this? Has anybody ever understood his own worthlessness"... What is the use of attempting to expose lies when people like them and live in them? It is their own affair. But I am tired of lying. There are enough lies without mine."

Colin Wilson’s "Beyond the Occult" is a beginning. He has so much material about mystical experiences and profound insights that deeply inspire people who have those experiences that perhaps that is the way to go. And I’m not talking about putting LSD or MDMA in the water system for a momentary glimpse into nothingness and everythingness to create a rupture in material consciousness. That might be worse, since often after a breakdown and breakthrough, comes even more repression since they might have seen the light prematurely and were not prepared for it ... and then often they will try to make sure it will never happen again ... and do everything in their power to keep the status quo, to maintain the comfort and security that they already fought so hard to achieve.

Lately I have spent time with some very right-wing people trying to get into their heads, perhaps understanding what it is they want (to try to reach some sort of commonality) or what it is that can open them to see that frequently their right-wing thoughts and actions are against their own self-interests. I heard more and more news and stories about practical things: kitchen renovations, cars, clothes, fashion, what tastes good, what’s good on TV. After a few days I had to work hard to decipher if there was something wrong with me or if perhaps I was hanging out with people who had absorbed so much corporate media that they actually became clones and broadcasters of corporate messages. With that thought I became a bit frightened. I sensed I was living in a sci-fi TV show and that the mind parasites had actually entered them and they desperately wanted my body and mind, like in "The Body Snatchers," I felt like the guy screaming in the street trying to warn people. I’m not there yet but if you see me hollering and freaked out because of what I saw, please try to listen to me, at least before you take me away.

After a few days of conversing with these people, I noticed that in our discussions or talks there was never once mentioned: the environment, the war on Iraq, the political damage that has happened throughout the world because of our incessant empire building, the urgency that is in front of us, ... nothing, nada... only stuff that was right in front of their noses: their personal problems, their relationships, their money situation, and even those problems were interpreted as somehow their fault, i.e., they were not working hard enough. They often would cast political shenanigans or global crises as inevitable and their complaining as natural as the air we breathe.

One night I popped in a video about the Israeli-Palestinian horror and a crowd of them fell asleep within minutes! So don’t tell me that information is going to be the solution to our problems. Can you imagine if mainstream TV had all these great and inspiring programs and films and videos being aired 24/7? You think people would change? I would hope so ... but after this minor episode I think we might see a different type of revolution. They would be screaming in the streets to get back their soap operas and their general hospital shows and their wrestling shows and their sports programs and their CNN that tells them that everything is gonna be okay because we have a mighty military power and no one can touch us. If you want to see activists out in the streets, that’s when they will come out. Cut out some coffee and hard liquor and fried foods and smoking ... they will come out in hordes. You think 30 million taking to the streets for peace before the war in Iraq started was enormous. That will be a drop in the bucket when the conservatives come out and protest in the streets if their entertainment and comfort gets a little rattled.

Granted, I got a little carried away with my personal brand of despair but I want to link it to the books by Colin Wilson. We need to shake ourselves out of the slumber by intensifying our attention. Throughout his books he continually reiterates this simple but profound idea: that by focussing our attention and applying much intention we can move out of the usual boring, humdrum of existence. The world is indeed mysterious and magical. We have been duped to think otherwise by a system and culture. We have been hoodwinked. But if we study closely when we have these moments of peak experience or mini-mystical experiences, they can be guideposts along the way to remind us that the humdrum of existence is a delusion, an illusion to keep us asleep. If we can tap into how those peak experiences happen, if we can figure out how not to allow doubt, guilt and the rest of the other negative emotional states drag us down, we just might be able to take the important steps necessary to liberate ourselves — to the point of having more and more peak experiences. Not just for our own personal salvation or personal joy or personal financial betterment but to help liberate others as well. We can’t do anything for other people if we are continually stuck in negative emotions most of the time. Nor can we liberate ourselves if we continually focus on liberating ourselves while forgetting or refusing to see the other.

If you are getting bored with the incessant and similar types of solutions for our world, check out a book by Colin Wilson and let your mind stretch.

Bob Banner washes windows to pay the rent and to put food on the table. He plays tennis and tries to read books that stretch his hardened beliefs.