Wilson - Mysteries: An Investigation Into the Occult, the Paranormal, and the Supernatural

Diversion Books
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Copyright 1978 by Colin Wilson
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First Diversion Books edition May 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62681-871-2

The Outsider
A Criminal History of Mankind
Strange Powers
The Occult
Written in Blood

For Eddie Campbell, with affection

It would have been impossible to write this book without the help of many friends who have kept me supplied with material, or drawn my attention to cases that I might otherwise not have seen. Chief among these has been Ira Einhorn, who is virtually a one-man liaison service for parapsychologists and scientists interested in various aspects of the paranormal. My old friend June OShea has also provided me with invaluable material, including Walter Princes original articles on the Doris case. Lawrence Leshan spoke to me of the Philip case, and put me in touch with Dr George Owen, who not only sent me his wifes book on the subject, but provided equally fascinating material on Matthew Manning, Uri Geller and on poltergeist phenomena. I am also indebted for material to C. L. Tilburn, Hugh Corbett, Walter Williams, Robert Turner, Joyce Carol Oates, Doris Cerea, Kathie Schlichting, Angelica de St. Prix, Jerry Neff, John Comley, Sir Robin Mackworth-Young, Jacquetta Hawkes, Arthur Young, Martin Gardner, Nigel Morland, Jesse Lasky jnr, Carol Davies, Anita Gregory, Wilson Knight, Theo Brown, Andrew Green, Idries Shah, Linda Woolery, Arthur Guirdham, Geoffrey Ashe, Bjrn Sjval, Sheila Clarkson, Stephen Skinner and Robert Temple. The National Enquirer was kind enough to send me photostats of various items that I had otherwise been unable to trace. The Society for Psychical Research, represented by its Librarian Miss Eleanor OKeefe, has been equally generous in lending me otherwise unobtainable books, as has the Harry Price Library of London University. The staff of the London Library has shown incredible patience and ingenuity in tracing dozens of obscure books and references that would otherwise have been unavailable to me. (Their particular triumph was the details of the career of Benot de Maillet.)

Finally, I wish to offer my warmest thanks to my English and American editors, Rivers Scott and Anne Freedgood, for their truly enormous labours in getting this book into its final shape.

Colin Wilson

My experience of panic attacks. The schoolmistress effect. My realisation that we contain a hierarchy of selves. J. G. Bennetts description of his experience of higher consciousness at Fontainebleau. Faculty X. Gurdjieffs power to transfer energy. Fritz Peters story. Rasputin revives Anna Vyrubova. Story of the two monks. Suffocating effects of the robot. Nietzsches vision on Leutsch. Ramakrishnas suicide attempt. Men are far stronger than they suspect. What lies at the top of the ladder of selves? My aim in writing this book. The mechanics of contacting our higher selves. Can paranormal phenomena be explained in terms of the ladder-of-selves theory? Dowsing, divination, multiple personality. Ian Stevensons case of Jasbir Lal Jat. Poltergeist activity. Anne Owens glimpse of the future. Alan Vaughans experience of possession and higher consciousness. Proust, William James, Toynbee: All is well feeling. Basic importance of security. The ultimate questions about the universe: do they have answers? Sartres nausea: Camuss absurdity. Lack of inner pressure. The failure of psychical research to provide conclusive answers. Attempt at a comprehensive theory of the occult. T. C. Lethbridge and the pragmatic approach.

Tom Lethbridge moves into Hole House. Lethbridge and dowsing. The witch who lived next door. Her astral projections. She teaches Tom how to throw pentagrams. How to use the pendulum. Locating buried silver. Lethbridge studies rates of length. Searching for truffles. The problem of ghosts. The invisible porter of Trinity. The ghoul on the stairs. The apparition of Hole Mill. Was she a tape recording? The suicide in the wood. The blanket of depression on Ladram beach. Mina is urged to jump over the cliff. The common denominator: water. Lethbridges field theory of ghosts and ghouls. Bill Lewis and Leonard Locker. Are ghosts intelligent? Beverley Nichols story of the haunted house of Torquay. Arthur Guirdhams theory of houses that induce illness. Lethbridges poltergeist on Skellig Michael. A ghost steals the sandwiches. Vanishings and apports. Sir Oliver Lodges tape recording theory. Andrew Green and the house in Ealing. The haunting of the Ma Barker house in Florida. Unusual powers of animals: the cats second sight. Are cats whiskers divining rods? The behaviour of the hawk moth. Is dowsing electrical? Sexual electricity. Freida Weisl, whose orgasms made ornaments jump off the mantelpiece. Electrical theory of the paranormal. Lethbridge and other dimensions. Can the pendulum reveal what is beyond death? The second whorl of the spiral. The timeless zone. Robert Leftwich and the superconscious theory of dowsing. Jungs other selves. The concept of promotion. Our inborn passivity. Lethbridges last days. Lethbridges four areas of study.

The owner of Skellig Michael suggests a theory. Lethbridge disagrees. The white dog of Hole. The tile with the white hare. The search for the giant of Wandlebury Camp. The legend of the ghostly knight. The mystery of the giant hill figures. The Cerne Abbas giant. The Long Man of Wilmington. The white horses of England. Dragons? Lethbridge locates the Wandlebury giant and discovers three figures. The Celts and their gods. Lethbridges theories cause controversy. He leaves Cambridge. Frazer and The Golden Bough. Andrew Langs criticisms. Margaret Murray and the god of the witches. Lelands Aradia. The old religion. Lethbridges theories of the Great Mother. The sun god Lugh becomes St Michael. Gerald Gardner and the witchcraft revival. Norman Cohns criticisms of Margaret Murray. Michael Harrisons Roots of Witchcraft: the phalluses hidden in the altar. The Bishop of Exeter catches the monks worshipping the pagan Diana. Sheila-na-gigs. Michael Damess theory of the purpose of Silbury Hill: a giant fertility figure? My own investigations into the Old Religion in Cornwall. The Helston furry dance; the Padstow Obby Oss. The Hungerford tuttimen. The horned dancers. Lethbridge on magic. Are the stone megaliths storage batteries? Levi and Crowley on magic: the Astral Light. Robert Graves and the moon cult.

The modern occult revival. Gerald Gardner, The Morning of the Magicians. The Piri Reis maps. Kenneth Arnold sights the first flying saucers. George Hunt Williamson and the Great Pyramid. Kubricks 2001. Lethbridge reads von Dniken. Von Dnikens inaccuracies. His literary offences. Lethbridges theory of space men. Who were the giants in the earth? The war in heaven. Lethbridge on Stonehenge. Geoffrey of Monmouths account. Where did the stones come from? Lethbridges investigations. Were the stones intended to guide space craft? Robert Temples Sirius Mystery. How did the Dogon know Sirius was a double star? Lethbridge at the Merry Maidens. My own experience of dowsing. Alfred Watkins discovers ley lines. Are leys ancient trade routes? Guy Underwood and his theory of aquastats. The earth force. White horses and dragons. John Michells theory of leys. The feng-shui lines. The currents of the earth force. Does this explain the Old religion? Man and the earth. Leys and acupuncture. The coiled serpent. Hermes as god of the leys. The earth as a living being. Its forces can interact with the human mind. Poltergeists and ley lines. Black dogs. Animal ghosts. Colin Godmans story of the white dog of Blaize House. Ancient man as a nomad. The theories of Alexander Thom and Gerald Hawkins: the megaliths as astronomical observatories. The new Carbon 14 dating of Stonehenge. Euan MacKies theory of a theocratic lite caste in the late Neolithic. Evidence that the Great Pyramid was an observatory. Why was ancient man so fascinated by the skies? James Baileys theories of ancient sea kings long before 2000 BC. Evidence in South America. The White Gods of the South American Indians: were they Europeans? Pierre Honors theory that they were Cretans. Lethbridge and Prince Madoc.