Colin Wilson’s Levels of Consciousness
In his book, Super Consciousness: The Quest for Peak Experience, Colin Wilson lays out his philosophy of life, which I wrote about in my last post. Toward the end of that book, Colin Wilson, began thinking about how many levels of consciousness he could identify. The levels reflect how much “power consciousness” we possess, that is, … Read more
Beyond the Robot
I’ve been reading a book about literary critic, novelist, philosopher and lay psychologist, Colin Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) by Gary Lachman, and another by Wilson himself. Although Wilson has written somewhere close to one hundred books, I had never heard of him until I read Lachman’s biography. Born of humble stock … Read more
Our Birth Is But a Sleep and a Forgetting
When my nephew was two years old, he told his mother about “purgatory”. Neither of his parents were religious and he had never been to church. His grandparents were Protestant and would have had no reason to discuss purgatory with him. Then he told his mother, “everything is wuv, (love), mommy.” Today he has no … Read more
Predicaments and Problems
My friend, Michael Dowd, (rest his soul) sent me a blog post by John Michael Greer, an author who writes on nature, culture, and the future of industrial society from a Druid perspective. Mr. Greer draws a compelling distinction between predicaments and problems. Predicaments, by definition, are not merely unpleasant situations. They are unpleasant situations … Read more
3 A.M. Anxiety: Who Ya Gonna to Call?
I was awake at 3 am. My dog was anxious, whining. Maybe I tapped into his field. Or more likely he tapped into mine. My mind was whirling with everything that’s wrong in my life. Story after story, scenario after scenario, all reinforcing the “truth” that my life was teetering on a precipice. Everything, I … Read more
Just Be Yourself
During a sacred plant ceremony I found myself on the receiving end of a temporary gift of clairvoyance, ( “clear seeing”). I was in a room with twenty-five others, sitting with an open, clear mind, listening to the beautiful suffering. Strange as this latter phrase might sound, it’s an apt description of the experience of being … Read more
The Watcher and the Witness
I came across the term “the watcher” reading the late and controversial, Buddhist monk, Chogyam Trungpa’s book, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. The watcher is the expression of self that learns, over decades of socialization, to watch what s/he says, watch how he acts, watch what he wears, watch his tone of voice, watch whether he … Read more
Smile at Your Heart: Coming Back to Joy
Singer-songwriter, Lucinda Williams, sings a protest song about losing her joy in life: “You stole my joy, I want it back”. It’s a terrible thing to lose joy in life. It can erode gradually, even though there comes a definitive moment when we awaken to its absence in our life. Although it can feel sudden, typically … Read more
The Great Purge
There comes a time in the evolution of the soul when you simply get tired of how you’ve been doing life. The predominant cultural vision for what constitutes a life falls short. You’ve watched your personality (ego) turn your life into a war zone. You’re tired of how invested you are in being right. You’ve … Read more
Allowing Humility, Reverence, and Gratitude
I’ve given this post the title of “allowing” humility, reverence, and gratitude, because these are feelings that we are not able to manufacture. They are signs that we are making the transition from the level of personality to soul. Only when the vigilance of the personality to defend itself is relaxed are we able to … Read more
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