08-08-2005, 12:00 AM
Outstanding contribution, Abramelin! Thanks for your generous effort in sharing all this text. Your choice of "juicy bits" shows your own developed comprehension of the FI, as well as that of Colin Wilson.
The insights offered in Wilson's 1967 work are indeed amazing material to compare with Castaneda's information on the 'flyers' published in 1998. Wilson's independence to any influence from Castaneda is quite obvious. His difference in perspective makes for a valuable alternative "star chart" as he would put it, for us to collate with that of Castaneda's Toltec Sorcery steeped one. Excluding the obvious fictionalizations, with very few exceptions the similarities are uncanny. A sad difference is that Wilson underestimates the severity of the problem. The real parasites have been herding human beings on this planet for thousands of years, and so successfully that very few individuals are free of being brainwashed to a degree that rivals Wilson's description of "zombies".
It would be very interesting to learn exactly how much of the novel's conception represents Wilson's conscious awareness of the existence of the FI. Examining this from an esoteric perspective, if in fact it all came from his imagination, it does not in any way negate the value of the universal truths he has arrived at regarding the human condition. After scanning information about Wilson, I strongly suspect that he has deliberately presented, in science fiction sugar coating, his own hard-won, non-fictional insights combined from his development of "new existentialism" philosophy and psychology, explorations into occultism, and years of scholarship into ancient history, etc. His stated artistic inspiration for this novel was H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulu epic.
A good review of the book can be found at: www.webster.edu/~corbetre...sites.html
There is also a website devoted to Colin Wilson. It has an informative interview done with him at age 70 by Geoff Ward in 2000: www-personal.umich.edu/~j...nat70.htm.
I'm inspired by your posting to read the whole book for myself. BTW, you are correct that The Mind Parasites *is* currently out of print, however, Amazon.com is now taking advance orders for a new reprinting of it which will be available soon. The best place to get a reasonably priced used copy right away is www.abebooks.com.
The practical insights presented in The Mind Parasites merit further examination on this forum in the near future!
- Toltechie
The insights offered in Wilson's 1967 work are indeed amazing material to compare with Castaneda's information on the 'flyers' published in 1998. Wilson's independence to any influence from Castaneda is quite obvious. His difference in perspective makes for a valuable alternative "star chart" as he would put it, for us to collate with that of Castaneda's Toltec Sorcery steeped one. Excluding the obvious fictionalizations, with very few exceptions the similarities are uncanny. A sad difference is that Wilson underestimates the severity of the problem. The real parasites have been herding human beings on this planet for thousands of years, and so successfully that very few individuals are free of being brainwashed to a degree that rivals Wilson's description of "zombies".
It would be very interesting to learn exactly how much of the novel's conception represents Wilson's conscious awareness of the existence of the FI. Examining this from an esoteric perspective, if in fact it all came from his imagination, it does not in any way negate the value of the universal truths he has arrived at regarding the human condition. After scanning information about Wilson, I strongly suspect that he has deliberately presented, in science fiction sugar coating, his own hard-won, non-fictional insights combined from his development of "new existentialism" philosophy and psychology, explorations into occultism, and years of scholarship into ancient history, etc. His stated artistic inspiration for this novel was H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulu epic.
A good review of the book can be found at: www.webster.edu/~corbetre...sites.html
There is also a website devoted to Colin Wilson. It has an informative interview done with him at age 70 by Geoff Ward in 2000: www-personal.umich.edu/~j...nat70.htm.
I'm inspired by your posting to read the whole book for myself. BTW, you are correct that The Mind Parasites *is* currently out of print, however, Amazon.com is now taking advance orders for a new reprinting of it which will be available soon. The best place to get a reasonably priced used copy right away is www.abebooks.com.
The practical insights presented in The Mind Parasites merit further examination on this forum in the near future!
- Toltechie