Neville
4,196 words
Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)
It is with relief that one turns to Neville’s biography; the bright Sun, soft breezes and blue ocean of the Caribbean replace the dark and soggy little Plymouth Brethren colony.[1]
Neville speaks of his father many times – itself a clue – but here is one of my favorites, and it includes much interesting material for our considerations:
Aleister Crowley, presumably after having consumed his daily drug regimen.
4,286 words
Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)
“It’s when one gets to the parents that a bottomless pit opens. My dear, such a pair.”[1]
“Can we ever be certain that it was not our mother while darning our socks who began that subtle change in our minds? (more…)
5,125 words
Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)
In my previous essay on Stirner, I suggested that the modern online community, or the Internet itself, would be an excellent example of a “Union of Egoists.” And here we meet with Neville again; for although, like Stirner, his career was on a downslope at his death – for reasons we will soon examine – (more…)
Neville
5,554 words
Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)
“While, to get greater clarity, I am thinking up a comparison, the founding of Christianity comes unexpectedly into my mind.” — Max Stirner, The Ego and His Own
In recent essays, I’ve looked at the writings of Max Stirner[1] and tried to determine the reason for his increasing relevance in the Internet age, and to the Dissident Right in particular.[2]
547 words
1. Camille Paglia, Provocations: Collected Essays on Art, Feminism, Politics, Sex, and Education (New York: Pantheon, 2018).
Paglia is self-recommending, of course. I was a bit let down, as the subtitle seemed to promise a career-wide retrospective, while this is more like a reunion tour, with emphasis on more recent works. The key essays are a vast survey, “Cults and Cosmic Consciousness: Religious Vision in the American 1960s,” a liberal education in itself; (more…)
7,841 words
Mitch Horowitz
The Miracle Club: How Thoughts Become Reality
Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2018
“I don’t want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me. . . . When you decide to be something, you can be it. That’s what they don’t tell you in the church.”[1]
3,820 words
Chuck Palahnuik
Adjustment Day: A Novel
London: Jonathan Cape, 2018
“Ears, gentlemen. Sandinista ears.”[1]
I had almost reached the massive iron door, hidden behind a construction dumpster, that serves as the entrance to the abandoned glove factory that has been my squat for the past several years (more…)
Two of Obama’s mentors, whose imaginations helped to meme his presidency into existence: anti-white Pastor Jeremiah Wright with Bill Ayers, former terrorist leader of the Weather Underground.
4,834 words
“Anything is possible in this world. I really believe that. Dream on it. Let your mind take you to places you would like to go, and then think about it and plan it and celebrate the possibilities. And don’t listen to anyone who doesn’t know how to dream.”–Liza Minnelli
“Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will”–Antonio Gramsci (more…)
Neville Goddard
4,337 words
Part 2 of 2; part 1 here
Earlier, I noted Wilson’s second thoughts, 45 years later, about Religion and the Rebel as an “overstuffed pillow”; he specifically felt that the early biographical material on Rilke was “unnecessary.” But actually, it supplies us with a remarkable parallel to Neville’s method, as well as a hint of Wilson’s future development.
Wilson says if Rilke had died at age twenty-five, no one would have remembered him. Instead, he willed himself to be a poet. (more…)
6,326 words
Colin Wilson
Part 1 of 2
“What was needed was not some new religious cult but some simple way of accessing religious or mystical experience, of the sort that must have been known to the monks and cathedral-builders of the Middle Ages.”–Colin Wilson[1]
“The serpent said that every dream could be willed into creation by those strong enough to believe in it.”–Eve to Adam, in Shaw’s Back to Methuselah (more…)
4,321 words
Neville (Goddard)
At Your Command: The First Classic Work by the Visionary Mystic Neville
New York: Snellgrove Publications, 1939; Tarcher Cornerstone Editions, 2016 (includes Mitch Horowitz’s essay on Neville’s life and work, “Neville Goddard: A Cosmic Philosopher”)
“Can a man decree a thing and have it come to pass? Most assuredly he can!” — Neville Goddard, At Your Command (more…)
4,583 words
James Arthur Anderson
Out of the Shadows: A Structuralist Approach to Understanding the Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft
Introduction by S. T. Joshi.
Wildside Press, 2014
“Drawing the line between concrete detail and trans-dimensional suggestion is a very ticklish job.” — H. P. Lovecraft[1]