Customer Reviews

The Occult

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Colin Wilson brings an excellent conversational tone to "The Occult." Despite the fact that Wilson seems to have included virtually every pre-1970 seer, philosopher, adept, alchemist, prophet, soothsayer, necromancer and sorcerer, the book never seems poorly organized or disjointed. This is a testament to Wilson's writing style. Although by its very nature superficial, "The Occult" comes across as a conversation about the subject with a well-versed, highly-educated and rather witty enthusiast. As such, you will likely have as much fun reading it as I have. This is probably the most readable book on the topic, and a fine place to start if you're new to this.

Despite its' breadth, however, "The Occult" has one fatal flaw, and that is Wilson's inability to truly weigh competing points of view. For example, while Wilson provides rather lively portraits of Caligostro, Nostradamus, Mesmer, Pythagoras and the like, he uncritically reprints sensationalistic stories about them. Any historian of Greek philosophy can tell you that the stories Wilson shares regarding Pythagoras are most likely fiction, and any Freemason can correct Wilson's misconceptions about the Masons in his section on Caligostro. (Freemasonry is NOT a religion, despite Wilson's claims).

Still, this book deserves much praise. The Tarot is here, but so is the I Ching. Crowley is here, but so is Zen. The Kabbalah is here, but so are the Masons. And so on. While casting his net wide may open him up to charges of being a dillentant, it also saves this from being yet another collection of ghost stories and pseudo-myth. Don't buy this book because Halloween is coming. Buy it if you have ever cared about mystery, religion, philosophy, or spiritualism. You probably won't like everything about "The Occult" but I think you will be glad that you have read it and will probably want to read it again.

I was drawn to this book after being impressed by Colin Wilson's ideas in "The Mammoth Encyclopedia of the Unsolved." This book was written early in Colin Wilson's career after a publisher commissioned him to write it - he admits not having had much interest in the subject when he started. It was first published in 1971 but the copyright was renewed by Mr. Wilson in 2003 (apparently without bothering to update the text.)

The meat of this book is a "history" of occultism presented as condensed biographies of some of its most famous figures (John Dee, Paracelsus, Nostradamus, Cagliostro, Daniel Dunglas Home, Madame Blavatsky, Rasputin, Aliester Crowley, etc) The accounts are fascinating to read but I found myslef plagued by doubts as to the veracity of the "facts" as the author has presented them. I already regarded him as a potential hoaxer after his collaboration with L. Sprague de Camp on the Skoob _Necronomicon_ but I don't know enough about these historical figures to tell how much of the story is hogwash.

In the one field he discussed in which I HAVE done some prior research, Mr. Wilson showed himself to be without any knowledge whatsoever. His two chapters about the Evolution of Man and Primitive Magic are full of embarrassing mistakes and crude distortions. He also makes much of the notion that people during the Classical period of ancient Greece were colorblind, which is patently ridiculous since we know that painting was an art in Classical times. He also repeats a mistaken theory (which was accepted among academics at the time but has since been disproven) about the purpose of paleolithic cave art. Given the number of bald-faced errors in this section of the text, I remained skeptical of the entire rest of the book, although there are passages in which Wilson hits his stride and is quite fascinating.

He also expounds a vague theory about "Faculty X," a power supposedly latent in all humans, which we have forgotten how to use but can access by exertion of the will ... I think... It's unclear because Mr. Wilson's theories about Faculty X are not entirely well-thought-out. Every time it seemed he might be on to something, he would proceed to miss his own point and contradict himself a few pages later.

This book is immature and unformed, the author's first foray into the realm of the Occult. It's an interesting read, but if you want something of substance I'd recommend "The Mammoth Encyclopedia of the Unsolved" or the sequel to this volume, "Mysteries" (which I'm currently 1/3 of the way through reading and finding it to be MUCH more substantial.)

This book totally changed my outlook on life. Colin Wilson's penetrating look into the occult -- its history, causes and effects -- left me with a different worldview and a better understanding of the world beyond.

"The Occult" demystifies the world of magic, supernaturalism, and religion. And gives you a clearer, practical view of this strange and interesting world that exists all around us but is seldom seen.

Before I became interested in Freemasonry & before studying Mystery School works, when I was a teenager....just-after being booted out of home for having an earring and hair below collar-length....a friend talked with me about my natural psychic abilities and loaned me "The Occult," by Colin Wilson. This book left a great impression on me and I have always remembered and appreciated this work. Also, this book introduced me to Numerology & opened my thinking in other areas. The various characters involved in The Occult are discussed, throughout the book and...if I remember correctly...I believe there are pictures of famous occultists in Black and White. I have never owned a copy of this book, but the copy I borrowed changed hands so many times that I can assure it's value as a good read.... I think Wilson did a great job with what he knew at the time.

Let the title scare you off and you'll miss a fine volume on just about everything we have conjured up in our brief history. I particularly found the concept of 'Faculty X' (somewhat of a seventh sense) to be fascinating. Colin Wilson was a celebrated author in the sixties, with his popular work 'The Outsider'. Here, Wilson provides examples of everything from apparitions to physical transfer across continents of a person, to scientific study of unexplained phenomena. The book is quite long and must be digested over time. After all, the secrets of our time require plausible explanation. And even then, would you believe? Put yourself to the test...

griff

If you want a fairly objective view of the occult and its origins, this is the book. I found it really refreshing because it made an attempt to explain the psychology behind much of the ritual and religion that we, as human beings, cling to. It did not discount the development of the human soul or claim that it was non-existent, yet did not go too far in the direction of the effusively new-age either. A good read. I lent it to someone too, never got it back.

A fascinating read into the occult in the Western world throughout the centuries. Well structured allowing you to see the inter-relationship between the different movements and schools of thought.

I found this to be an extremely interesting and challenging book, the kind of work that has to be re-read several times. It contains an amazing amount of information but reads very well notwithstanding. The information appears fairly complex, but it is given in a clear style and with respect for the reader. I am very pleased to recommend it to any thoughtful reader who wishes his/her intellectual horizons expanded and who concerns himself/herself with fundamental questions of human identity and nature.

Wilson's overview of the extraordinary powers of human beings is ripe with interesting, well-told stories but short on the argumentation that ties his underpinning theoretical framework together. His basic argument is that humans possess abilities beyond our normal understandings of consciousness that are undeveloped because we need to be hyper-focused in the contemporary age. The plethora of interesting and well-told stories that comprise the bulk of the volume are meant to support this thesis, all the way from the ancient Egyptians to Aleister Crowley, from Pythagoras to UFOs. That's the useful part of this volume. The problem seems to be that Mr. Wilson, who wants his arguments and his examples to be credible, can't quite make up his mind whether they are reliant on our internal psychological workings or on actual external events, and there are several pages worth of examples where he keeps changing his mind, presumably to be appropriately skeptical. Read Wilson's work as a diary of interesting and unusual stories from the human past, not as a well-constructed philosophical argument about the nature of reality and human ability, and you'll get from this work what it has to offer.

Colin Wilson is not my favourite writer on the occult, but he does a good job of it -- and there are some very interesting pieces of information to be found within this book. I purchased it because I was looking for additional information about Gregory Rasputin, which I did indeed find, but I would caution those who read Mr. Wilson's work to consider that he seems to have his own agenda, so think about what he says in his books before you jump on his words and assume that they are all factual.