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Rebels & Devils: The Psychology of Liberation

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Rebels and Devils is a collection of works from some of the most rebellious and accomplished minds of our time; including such notorious authors as William Burroughs, Phil Hine, Peter Carroll, Austin Osman Spare, Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie, Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, Osho, and naturally Christopher S. Hyatt, as well as various others. Not only a collection of essays, it also consists of various photographs, poetry, biographies, interviews and even a comic drawn by S. Jason Black and co-written by Hyatt. Comprised of more than works psychology and magick; anything that could be deemed rebellious or individualistic; also covered are such topics as yoga, meditation, sex, drugs, guns, death, and the difference between rebellion and revolution.

I've never read anything by Israel Regardie before, as his most famous works seem centred around the Golden Dawn, and I've never had much use for formal magickal orders, so I was somewhat surprised to discover while reading an interview between him and Hyatt ('The Final Words of a Western Master') that he was so funny, as I tend to see that sort of thing as being dry work. Both humourous and insightful, he made an excellent point regarding the misconceptions readers have about the authors they read, very one dimensionally, and this certainly helps expand that.

In 'The Calling of the Holy Whore', Diana Rose Hartman, the only female author in the entire compendium, offers an intelligently refreshing re-interpretation of the Judeo-Christian myths surrounding Satan/Lucifer in the rebel guise, noting how 'devil' and 'divine' grew out of the same Indo-European root word devi, and 'demon' came from the Greek for genius, daemon. Hart contributes an interesting feminist perspective to rebellion, in embracing the holy whore within ourselves.

Christopher Hyatt reflects on the methods of modern slavery in 'Who Owns the Planet Earth':

"While most humans agree that slavery is evil - that the ownership of one human by another is immoral - few humans equate slavery with enforced education, welfare, health, and the idea of a perfect orderly universe. Slavery is usually associated with power over others and with the ability to enforce one's will on another without the fear of retaliation. Within the "right" of ownership and debt there is a hidden mystery - a metaphysics - a knowledge only available to those with the power to create and enforce their metaphysics. Whenever a new group achieves power, they also inherit the metaphysics and magickally, the ability to use it." (pg 110-111)

While Osho notes in 'Rebellion is the Biggest "YES" Yet':

"Rebellion is an individual action; it has nothing to do with the crowd. Rebellion has nothing to do with politics, power, violence. Rebellion has something to do with changing your consciousness, your silence, your being. It is a spiritual metamorphosis." (pg. 122)

The myriad of discussions on rebellion and liberation in its various forms make this a book to be treasured for years to come. While not every essay is a shining jewel to be discovered, there is a sufficient number that makes Rebels and Devils defiantly worth reading. I recommend that they be read as they appear, even though one may not be interested in every subject discussed, they do follow a loose sequence.

Rebels and Devils is a collection of literary forms, from essay to comic, dealing with the psychology of liberation. Standing alone, it is overwhelmingly inspiring at times, always thought-provoking, and seldom dogmatic. The point of this book can be as simple as an interesting read, or as grand as an eye-opening experience. Rebellion is a personal voyage, so this book does not call for any type of political action - rather it calls for meditation and self-reflection. Knowledge of self is perhaps the most powerful weapon we can possess.

Along with "rebellion" our mind might pull on other words by association, like "anarchy." Anarchy has a bad reputation, and it is well deserved if the only demonstrations or conceptualizations we can deal with involve unenlightened individuals all battling for their own ends. But the ultimate freedom discussed in Rebels and Devils involves more responsibility on the part of the individual. When we have reached a certain point of self-understanding, we cannot help but understand others better as well. We can see how relativism can enter morality without all of life reverting to chaos. The starting point is responsibility - taking full responsibility for all of our actions, thoughts, desires, and everything else we like to claim we own without bearing the full burden. Why bother making decisions when it's so much easier to turn to a priest, politician, doctor, lawyer, etc...? We believe that these figures can give us answers. We can also come to believe that we can answer for ourselves.

The added bonus of such a collection is the guaranteed introduction of further reading. With so many selections coming together to form this volume, you are bound to find at least a few authors whom you will be compelled to investigate further. I was already familiar with some of the contributors, but among the new introductions were Osho, Phil Hine, and Nicholas Tharcher. I had heard of many of the others, but never read them in this light. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has not already convinced hirself that there is only one, concrete, unshakeable path through life, and even more so to those who have.

I was very excited to read this book, and it immediately offered the expected ideas on liberation psychology: the need for individual rebellion to spark any sort of "real" change in the system, the distaste for organizations of any kind that weren't dedicated to the advancement of personal liberation, blatant and militatnt individualism, etc. For the most part, the book was funnier than it was informative and then.......it just crashes....... After i got halfway through the book, i got the feeling that i was only going to get more of the same old dogma, but in less and less creative ways.....no new issues facing or advocation liberation psycholgy were debated or expoused....i was right.....i could barely finish it. Perhaps because i'd read many of the theories of Robert Wilson and Leary better explained elsewhere (which were part of the FEW highlights in the book, I suggest checking out their individual works). Besides the refreshing chapters by Osho and a few other pseudo poem-allusions and other usefully hysterical laws to live by, the book was ALMOST not woth the money........

...

Included in the first edition were excellent essays by such well-known and controversial figures in the field of Liberation Psychology such as Robert Anton Wilson and Timothy Leary. Of course anyone who challenges the widely held sacred cows of society will be controversial. Unfortunately, none of these essays added anything to their solo works which deal far better with their individual theories. The remainder of the book included a juvenile, poorly drawn and written and incomplete comic book story about a voodoo man, and a large load of pseudo-mystical crap, and the braggings of various writers about what big rebels they are in the style of pretentious junior highschool student diaries.

Of course Wilson has pointed out that engaging in any behaviour that challenges societal imprints can help liberate a person from the neuroses of society, therefore even engaging in "pseudo-mystical crap" can help, so some may find even those parts of the collection useful, but I'd rather not trade society's imprints for that of some self-appointed guru. Overall the book was only worthwhile if you were interested in eventually becoming initiated into the mysteries of the Order of the Golden Dawn.

Given the publisher's history with other books, I do not expect that the second edition offers any improvement. So if you are interested in Psychological Liberation but not mystery cults, then be warned: the first edition is worth avoiding and I am sure the same is true for the second.

Rebels and Devils is a mammoth collection of essays with personal liberation as the central theme. Contributors include: Robert Anton Wilson, Phil Hine, Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare, Peter Carroll, William S. Burroughs, and a whole slew of others. The will to rebel is as natural as reproduction; Do not repress your instinctual drives, it will kill your soul! If "concensus reality" doesn't jive with you and you want to take your rightful place as a god or a devil, this book will put a smile on your face. Whether you consider yourself a magickian, anarchist, Christian inquisitor looking for fresh blood, or an all-around freak, you'll want this in your bookshelf.

Rebels & Devils isn't really that much different from many other titles published by New Falcon. This one too aims to make the reader aware of his or her own inner potential, create one's own world based on personal preferences, and all in all make the individual evolution as complete as possible.

Or in other words, a help-yourself book. However, please don't think this is just another spaced-out New Age book filled with boring clichés and worn-out suggestions for the modern man. No, instead it's an anthology of quite unique essays, poems, thoughts, ideas, and even a short comic, all written by famous thinkers, magicians, philosophers, and so on, with none of them being afraid to tell it like it is. It's an ugly world out there, and an ugly world demands tough methods for personal liberation.

To the greater mass - but not people who regularly read New Falcon publications - some of the authors are more famous than others. LSD-guru Timothy Leary, for example, who actually knew a whole lot more than just munching acid all day. Leary had interesting things to say on a wide range of topics, and his contribution to Rebels & Devils clearly shows his ability to do more than simply turn out and tune in. Other contributors include William S. Burroughs, "Satanist" Aleister Crowley, and Genesis P-Orridge, and even though not all contributions are equally interesting (some of them are actually quite boring), over all the anthology makes out a great read.

That is, in case you're one of those who appreciate controversial - a term most contributors would probably want to change to "actual" - knowledge. If you already believe in yourself and know what and how to think and act in order for your personal evolution to be the best it can be, then Rebels & Devils is probably more entertaining than it's instructive. But if that is not the case, then by all means make sure to pick up a copy. It'll be a great source of inspiration. Some chapters are definitely aimed towards an American audience, for instance James Wasserman's "Pulling Liberty's Teeth", dealing as it does with U.S. gun control and the right of every American to wear arms, a topic that most Swedes cannot relate to since most of us never even heal a real gun in our hands.

But all in all, the book can be read by people all over the world, since the struggle for personal evolution and happiness is something we all can relate to; no matter where we happen to live or what nationality we happen to be.

Do you treasure freedom like I do?

Rebels and Devils is a compendium of delightful madness and rebellion, a tome of playful but serious insurgence and individualism that upholds many of the raucous and wise tenets of freedom upon which this great country (U.S.) was founded.

If you like excessive government control and the systematic suppression of our basic inalienable rights, then please stay away. If you treasure the outdated notions that socialism is good for liberals and good for us all then go chew on something else.

If you want highly intelligent, incisive delivery of facts and figures and experiential methods for achieving more freedom, then read this book!

If you are proud to be an intelligent American or any other creature of independent thought and action, then you must have a copy in your library and read it often.

All the best...

This review originally appeared on The Magical Buffet website on 6/26/2011.

It's only an anthology, I thought. A nice way to ease myself into the writings that Original Falcon publishes. Sure it's titled "Rebels & Devils: The Psychology of Liberation", but still, it's just an anthology. Then, as you might suspect, the anthology kicked my ass.

"Rebels & Devils" features the writings of Robert Anton Wilson, William S. Burroughs, Timothy Leary, Ph.D., Phil Hine, Aleister Crowley, Osho, and more. I suspect you're getting the tone now, right? Trailblazers of a sort, people who left behind the status quo. In short, rebels and devils.

What does it mean to be a rebel? How do you become a devil? These questions are asked and sometimes answered not just in the typical short essay format (An absolute stunner of an essay comes from Diana Rose Hartmann titled "The Calling of the Holy Whore". Dare I call it a must read for every woman? I dare.), but also in the form of interviews (I loved Christopher S. Hyatt, Ph.D interviewing Israel Regardie!), fiction (Look forward to "Paradise Mislaid" by William S. Burroughs), poetry (I enjoyed "Prelude to a One-Night Stand" by Adam Matza. "I need a body-sized condom, to protect me from your malaise, and you from mine." Rough.), and even a comic strip from Christopher S. Hyatt, Ph.D and S. Jason Black called "VoodooMan".

"Rebels & Devils" dedicates a section of the book to "The World of Chaos", which includes discussing the practice of Chaos Magic. If you buy this book and only bother to read "Beyond the Event Horizon: Responses to Chaos Culture" by Phil Hine and "Undoing Yourself with Chaos Magic" by Robert F. Williams, Jr., you will come away with the best understanding of Chaos Magic that the uninitiated can hope to attain. At least that was the case for me!

So hopefully now you're psyched. You're chomping at the bit, ready to dive in. Consider this a word of warning, this book WILL kick your ass. Am I in charge of my destiny? Do I only focus on myself, leaving others to fend for themselves? Is that a good or bad thing? Am I weak in ways I didn't realize? These are just some of the thoughts that raced through my mind while reading this book. If it were a website, it would be NSFW (not safe for work). All manner of very adult themes are at play in "Rebels & Devils". However, if you're willing to take it on; if you're ready to be confronted by ideas you've never encountered before, presented in some extremely outside of the normal comfort zone kind of way, you will be rewarded at the end of the journey.

I really liked this. It is very interesting if you keep an open mind. I thought some of the essays were very mentally liberating, two thumbs up.

Talking about a big change in your live; ever feel like somthing important has been written for you.
Fear not beloved reader, you would realize that you're not special and I never felt better in my life after realizing that I'm not longer an individual but a part of an ever growing process of joy an destruction that are nedded in order to change and grow one on one with the world.

Dr. Hyatt has asambled an amazing rage of important an radical thinkers of our time, with the devoted and necesary section of Aleister Crowley, the real magician in a real world.

After this I realized that magic really works, and the best of all it is that works in the real world, if not ask Phil Hine or Peter Carroll.
I realized that everithing depends on my behavior learned or spontaneous, if you don't beleive me either ask Genesis P orridge.

This book is amazing, the best part is that you realize that "every man and woman are stars".