CHAPTER 1

The Occult

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The Occult was Colin Wilson's first commissioned book and hemade no secret of the fact that, at first, it was not a subject thatinterested him greatly. When he sought the advice of RobertGraves on whether he should write it, he was told very firmlythat he should not. However, with a young family to support,Wilson needed the money and fortunately went ahead with theproject. During the course of his research, he found his attitudeto the subject changing:

"Although I have always been curious about the 'occult' ... ithas never been one of my major interests, like philosophy, orscience, or even music.... It was not until two years ago, whenI began the systematic research for this book, that I realisedthe remarkable consistency of the evidence for such mattersas life after death, out-of-body experiences (astral projection),reincarnation. In a basic sense my attitude remainsunchanged; I still regard philosophy—the pursuit of realitythrough intuition aided by intellect—as being more relevantmore important, than questions of the 'occult'. But theweighing of the evidence ... has convinced me that the basicclaims of 'occultism' are true."

The completed book, dedicated to Graves, was published onOctober 4, 1971, by Hodder & Stoughton in the U.K. and RandomHouse in the U.S. In his new Introduction to a 2003 reprint,published by Watkins Publishing, he wrote, "The publication ofthis book had the effect of changing my life". Cyril Connolly andPhilip Toynbee who, as critics, were instrumental in turning hisThe Outsider into a bestseller in 1956, but had subsequentlychanged their minds and then ignored his work for fifteen years,relaxed their embargo and came out in support of him again.

"But for me, The Occult did a great deal more than make me'respectable', it also served as a kind of awakening. Before1970, I had been inclined to dismiss 'the occult' as superstitiousnonsense. Writing The Occult made me aware that theparanormal is as real as quantum physics (and, in fact, has agreat deal in common with it), and that anyone who refuses totake it into account is simply shutting his eyes to half theuniverse." (Wilson (1), xxii)

A huge book (over 600 pages), it became the first in a trilogy ofequally bulky volumes on the subject. Mysteries followed in 1978(London: Hodder and Stoughton) and Beyond the Occult (London,New York: Bantam Press) in 1988. The book also spawnednumerous popular, illustrated books on the subject which havebeen issued under his name since the 1970s and, indeed, continueto appear today [see following checklist].

The Occult is divided into three parts, preceded by a shortIntroduction. The first part, 'A Survey of the Subject', statesWilson's own preoccupations and convictions. The second, 'AHistory of Magic', concentrates on individual 'mages' andadepts. The third part, 'Man's Latent Powers', looks at witchcraft,spiritualism and ghosts with a final chapter that discusses themetaphysical questions that arise out of occultism.

"The thesis of this book is revolutionary ..." Wilson declares onthe first page of his Introduction. Primitive man believedthe world to be full of unseen forces whereas today our rationalminds tell us that these forces existed only in his imagination.The problem, says Wilson, is that we have become "thinkingpigmies" who have forgotten "the immense world of broadersignificance that stretches around [us]". It is his belief thatcivilisation cannot evolve until the occult is taken for granted "onthe same level as atomic energy" and he recommends thatwe re-learn the technique of expanding inwardly and relax ourhard-headed approach to subjects such as premonition, life afterdeath etc.

"Man has reached a point in his evolution where hemust ... turn increasingly inward. That is, he must turn to thehidden levels of his being, to the 'occult', to meanings andvibrations that have so far been too fine to grasp."

He claims that the science of cybernetics has suggested that thereis a certain order and meaning behind the universe and that:

"All this means that for the first time in Western history abook on the occult can be something more than a collection ofmarvels and absurdities. Religion, mysticism and magic allspring from the same basic 'feeling' about the universe: asudden feeling of meaning...."

In Part 1, Chapter 1, which has the seemingly paradoxical title'Magic—The Science of the Future', Wilson explains thatalthough he had read books on magic and mysticism in hisyouth, he did so "because they confirmed my intuition ofanother order of reality, an intenser and more powerful form ofconsciousness ...". But if, at that time, he had been askedwhether he literally believed in magic, he would have answered:No. "Magic, I felt, was no more than a first crude attempt atscience, and it had now been superseded by science". Hecontinues:

"If I still accepted that view, I would not be writing this book.It now seems to me that the exact reverse is true. Magic wasnot the 'science' of the past. It is the science of the future. Ibelieve that the human mind has reached a point in evolutionwhere it is about to develop new powers—powers that wouldonce have been considered magical."

In the animal kingdom 'magical' powers (such as the hominginstinct) are commonplace:

"Civilised man has forgotten about them because they are nolonger necessary to his survival ... In fact, his survival dependsupon 'forgetting' them. High development of the instinctivelevels is incompatible with the kind of concentration upondetail needed by civilised man."

Wilson then recounts some incidents of premonition andtelepathy in his personal life before outlining recorded cases ofastral projection by John Cowper Powys and August Strindberg.This encourages Wilson to produce his own basic theory of thepower of the human mind, introducing the important concept of'Faculty X': "that latent power that human beings possess to reachbeyond the present":

"Faculty X is a sense of reality of other places and other times,and it is the possession of it—fragmentary and uncertainthough it is—that distinguishes man from all other animals."

He quotes examples of 'Faculty X' from Marcel Proust's autobiographicalnovel À la Recherche du Temps Perdu and ArnoldToynbee's A Study of History. These...