Frankenstein's Castle: The Right Brain: Door to Wisdom [Paperback]

Colin Wilson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Ashgrove Publishing Ltd (October 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0906798124
• ISBN-13: 978-0906798126
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #224,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The psychology of Faculty X, March 21, 2000

By 

Ard (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frankenstein's Castle: The Right Brain: Door to Wisdom (Paperback)

However slim, this is probably one of Wilson's most important books, aiming to explain what the author would call "the psychology of Faculty X". One of Wilson's main interests over the years has been an obsession with the possibilities of altered states of consciousness, such as been shown in stages of deep hypnosis. How can it be that in these states we can access information that goes far beyond our conscious memory, or perform impossible physical feats, that suggest a much greater control over the body by the mind than has been thought possible.

Surveying the arguments, we pass the results of split brain-surgery and the discovery of the two different brains, and more important: the interplay between the two. Here enters the left and the right brain, each seeming to house a different mind: the rational and objective mind in the left brain hemisphere, and the intuitive and subjective mind in the right. In 'normal' situations, these minds are often divided and in each other's way. But in certain extreme situations, such as times of crisis, or during intense efforts, sometimes we slip into a higher state of synchronization between the two different selves. The result is a peak experience, a rise in consciousness, in which we come closer to the domain which is ours to claim. Or as Wilson would have it, "Normal consciousness is thorougly sub-normal".

Even though a bit outdated by now (some of the information is not new anymore but public knowledge), this book is a handbook for this area of Colin Wilson's ideas, very accessible, clear and entertaining. After reading this book, the interested reader should try to get their hands on its unofficial sequel, "Access to inner worlds".