Best of: Introducing the Occult by Colin Wilson edited by Colin Stanley

Best of: Introducing the Occult, by Colin Wilson and edited by Colin Stanley

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
The views of the pinions expressed on this podcast by
the host android the guests do not necessarily affect the
use of the host and or paranorl Buzz Radio and
word sponsors. The use of any material produced by Paranormal
Buzz Radio without express writing consent is prohibited. Paraormal Buzz
Radio will not be held responsible for you holding your knees,
crying and rocking in a corner in a puddle of
your own eurine, or being beheaded by a group of children.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
In the corn field.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
In fact, if you go across the group of children
own a cornfield, we promise to make que of you
as you run away screaming a terror the center. Discretion
is advised.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
You're listening to are Paranormal and Friends with your hosts,
Cam Purvis and Alison Robinson. Make sure to check us

(01:36):
out on our Facebook pages RIP Paranormal and Friends and
RIP Paranormal Busters for up to date show information and events.

(02:04):
Hey everyone, welcome to r EP Paranormal and Friends. We
have a special guest for you.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
He is Colin Wilson's bibliographer. He's also the founder of
Colin's Archive at the University of Nottingham and He has
also written two novels, a book of nonsense verses, and
many studies on Colin Wilson's work, and then also has
out excuse me, I had to get that out of there,

(02:37):
introducing the occult as well. That just came out, I
believe in December. So please welcome Colin Stanley to the show.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
Hi you, I'm fine, Thanks, thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Oh yes, absolutely so. Can you kind of tell us
first what made you become a writer and how did
you get involved with being the bibliographer for Colin Wilson.

Speaker 4 (03:10):
Yeah? Sure, Well, I mean, first of all, I suppose
I ought to say something about Colin Wilson for those
who are not overly familiar with him. He was born
in nineteen thirty one in the East Midlands city of
Leicester here in the UK, and he moved to London

(03:35):
age nineteen in nineteen fifty one, and whilst drifting in
and out of several unrewarding jobs menial tasks, he was
continually working and reworking on a novel that was eventually
published as a Ritual in the Dark in nineteen sixty.

(03:57):
During this time, he famously slept rough on Hampstead heath
to save money and see. He worked on the novel
in the famous British museums around reading room during the day,
but on Christmas Day in nineteen fifty four he hit
upon the idea for what became his first and probably

(04:20):
his most famous book, The Outsider, which is a psycho
philosophical study of alienation in modern literature and thought. And
this was published in May nineteen fifty six to tremendous
critical acclaim and has never been out of print since,

(04:41):
either here or in the States. He then moved with
his girlfriend Joy to Cornwall in the west of England,
where he settled down for the next fifty five years,
producing an awe inspiring body of work. To be honest,
over one hundred and eighty books, six hundred essays and

(05:04):
articles for variety of newspapers and magazines, and one hundred
and eighty introductions to other authors' work. He was essentially
an existentialist philosopher. His classic study Introduction to the New Existentialism,

(05:24):
first published in nineteen sixty six, has just been reprinted
by an academic publisher. But he's also written on crimes, psychology, sects,
the occult. As we'll find out literature, music, Unexplained, Phenomena, history, prehistory, wine,

(05:46):
and over twenty novels in various genres. Sadly, he died
in December twenty thirteen, aged eight. He two. I first

(06:06):
met him in nineteen eighty one, when I was working
at the University of Nottingham as a librarian. I just
wrote to him on the off chance i'd written. I'd
read quite a lot of his work, and I wrote
to him and said I'd like to be your bibliographer.

(06:30):
And he wrote back virtually by return of post, very enthusiastically,
and inviting me to come down to his house in
Cornwall to go through his library. And well, I've been

(06:51):
doing that every year since, basically, but I shall never
forget the first meeting with him, because I hadn't really
realized what I'd taken on. Although I yes, although i'd read,
as I said, as I'd read a fair bit of

(07:14):
his published work, I hadn't realized that he was probably
the most prolific writer of the twentieth century. And as
I sat at his dining table and he piled off
all his work beside me, I began to think, oh

(07:34):
goodness me, what on earth have I taken on. And
you know, over the years, I've to be honest, I've
struggled to keep up with him, a fact that amused
him greatly. But I did knuckle down, and I think

(07:58):
I produced a adequate bibliography of his work. And then
I went on to write various students' guides to various
aspects of his work. I did one on his outside

(08:18):
a cycle of books, one on the Occult trilogy, one
on his existential criticism, and then the fourth on his psychology. So, yes,
he's kept me. He's kept me very busy over the years.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
So how how did you decide what went into introducing
the Occult, which it seems like he has so much
that he's written about witchcraft and all that. How did
you figure out which ones you wanted to put into this?

Speaker 4 (09:00):
Well, he, as I said, he've written over one hundred
and eighty introductions to other authors book. I struggled to
think of another author who's written more. And let's not
forget that he was a full time professional writer and

(09:20):
time was money to him, and for him to dedicate
so much time to the promotion of other authors' work,
often without any thought of a reward. A lot of
these introductions would have been done just as favors. It's

(09:42):
a testament to how generous a person he was. And
you know these are not just the hastily scribbled paragraphs
relying on his name for an endorsement. These very significant essays.

(10:06):
And so when I came to put together the book,
I tried to choose a variety of subjects, and I
tried to choose the more in depth introductions. For example,

(10:32):
in the nineteen eighties, he was asked by a publishing company,
Aquarium Press, to suggest and introduce some classic works on
the occult, and he chose Catherine Crow's The Night Side
of Nature and Sir William Barrett's Deathbed Visions, and these

(10:54):
formed volumes one and two of the Colin Wilson Library
of the Paranormal, and I chose to choose both of
these for introducing the occult. And he was also a
great advocate of the work of the dowser TC Lethbridge.

(11:18):
And although they never met, Lethbridge died just before Wilson
contacted him in the early seventies. Colin wrote about him
extensively in the second of his occult trilogy Books Mysteries,
and went on then to write introductions to Lethbridge is

(11:45):
the Power of the Pendulum and the Essential TC Lethbridge.
The former has been reprinted in this book, but you know,
you can look through this book and you can read
Colin Wilson on magic, on witchcraft, on exorcism, ghosts, poltergeist, locknest, monster,

(12:13):
the afterlife, dousing, and much much more. It does show
his encyclopedic knowledge of the subject.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Do you have a favorite subject of his?

Speaker 4 (12:33):
Well, I like his early work very much, the stuff
that he wrote between fifty six and The Occult in
seventy one. So I'm more interested in Colin as an
existentialist philosopher and as a psychologist. And when he was

(13:00):
commissioned to write this extraordinary book, The Occult in the
late nineteen sixties, a lot of people were very surprised.
They thought, you know, he was selling out somewhat, he
was downgrading himself from a philosopher to jump on the

(13:26):
sort of occult bandwagon which happened around then. I mean,
in the late sixties there was a a real interest,
particularly amongst the sort of hippie generation, in all things mystical,
and the Occult kind of took advantage of that interest.

(13:52):
But it was an extraordinary book. Joyce Carol Oates I
believe described it as a book of wonders, which indeed
it is, and it inspired him to go on and
write these other two books, Mysteries in seventy eight, I believe,
and then Beyond the Occult in nineteen eighty eight, which

(14:15):
became known as his his Occult trilogy. When he was
asked shortly before he died, which he thought was his
most important book, he did say Beyond the Occult, and
you know he stuck to that.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
What were his views on like on like ghosts.

Speaker 4 (14:45):
Well, you know, he'd always been interested in these things,
and he when he was asked to write The Occult
so he said, strangely that he wasn't very interested in

(15:05):
the subject, but when he started to research it, As
it is with all subjects, really, if you look at
them superficially, it's easy to dismiss them. But once you
start researching something in depth and you see the weight

(15:27):
of evidence. I mean, so many people over the years
have seen have seen ghosts, and continue to see ghosts.
So I mean Colin was convinced of the reality of ghosts.
Although he liked to put sort of a psychological slant

(15:51):
on it.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
How do you think his work has influenced people today?

Speaker 4 (16:09):
Yeah, well you only have to see that his all
his work is being reprinted, all the early novels that
he wrote. And let's not forget that he considered his
novels to be almost as more important than his nonfiction

(16:30):
work because basically they put his philosophical ideas into practice.
So he he rated his his novels very highly, and
he was very much in the sort of continental tradition
of existentialism, the philosopher novelist. I suppose someone like Sartro

(16:53):
you know who who wrote who wrote novels as as
well as nonfiction works. So all those have been reprinted,
all the Occult trilogy. I don't think the Occulture has
ever been out of print. And The Outsider, of course,
has never been out to print. The Outsider cycle of books,

(17:17):
which was Religion and the Rebel, the Age of Defeat,
Strength to Dream Origins as Sexual Impulse, and Beyond Beyond
the Outsider, They've all been reprinted. And so you can

(17:37):
see that although Colin himself admitted that he did write
too much, I mean, over one hundred and eighty books,
there's going to be a lot of ephemeral stuff in there,
and they've all kind of faded away, but there's this

(17:58):
bare bones of his work which has lasted and remains
to this day and is much discussed. And as you
probably know, I've convened to international Colin Wilson Conferences here

(18:22):
at the University of Nottingham, and so people have been
coming from all over the world, you know, scholars, academics,
fans to these conferences, and there is no end of
things for them to discuss because Colin was a polymath

(18:45):
and he wrote on so many different subjects, and so
you've got really free, free reign as to what you
can you can talk about. I've always said to my
speakers at these conferences that you can talk about whatever
subject you like, as long as you know Colin would

(19:08):
have found it interesting. We've had some very very lightning conferences.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
Now did you say that's annually or bi.

Speaker 4 (19:21):
Annually by annually, but we had one The first one
was in twenty sixteen, the second one was in twenty eighteen,
and of course you can probably work out what happened
to the one in twenty twenty right that unfortunately had
to be canceled. I'm hoping that there's going to be

(19:43):
one later this year, because I think people are starting
to feel more confident about traveling now. And as I
just explained, most of the delegates come from abroad, from America,
from Australia, New Zealand, all over the place. With Japan,

(20:07):
you know, very Colin is very highly regarded in Japan.
In fact, there are more titles of his work in
print in Japanese and there are in English.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
M hmm, that's interesting, yeah.

Speaker 4 (20:29):
Very interesting. Yes, I mean Colin used to go there
occasionally and one day he'd be in a city center
in Tokyo or something, signing copies of his books for
the general public, and the next day he'd be at
some university, you know, lecturing two students. So he was

(20:52):
seen as both a popular and an academic writer in Japan,
something which could never happen in England. You know that
you could never be both, that you could you either
have to be one or the other. I think I
think things are a little bit more liberal where you are.

(21:15):
In America. You were quite happy to accept that people can,
you know, be academics and popular writers as well.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yes, now introducing the occult you this came out in December.

Speaker 4 (21:32):
Right it did.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
I launched it at a bookshop in London, Watkins Bookshop
and a specialist occult bookshop in London on a December
the December the eighth. We had a short talk and
then I signed copies of the book. And I'm back

(21:57):
to London again next week to do another talk about
Colin and and the Occult.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Oh so you're you're keeping keeping kind of busy with this,
So that's good.

Speaker 4 (22:10):
Yes, indeed, you know, I'm hope also doing some talks
later in the year on Collins's first novel, which I
mentioned earlier, Ritual and Dark. It's a big London novel,
and you know I should go down to London and

(22:30):
do some talks about that for various organizations and libraries.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
Cool. Now your book can be this book can be
purchased on Amazon. And then you had the John Hunt Publishing.
I believe I found it at Barnes and Novel also.

Speaker 4 (22:51):
Oh yeah, well, I mean they're sort of got worldwide
distribution John Hunt. It's actually published by Axis Axis Monday,
who are part of the John Hunt setup, who are
now apparently owned by by Watkins Publishing. So I struggle

(23:13):
to keep up with these publishers, you know, they're always
sort of taking over each other right, left and center.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Yeah, right exactly. Now do you have any are you
on social media at also if our listeners want to
see what you're.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
Up to you or yes, yes, indeed I have as
I have a Facebook page that's just my name Colin Stanley,
and I also administer the Colin Wilson r IP Facebook page.

(23:50):
So if anyone is interested in Colin, they should really
try and subscribe to that to that page. And I
should also mention that there is to be a four
part feature film about Colin coming out at any time. Now.

(24:14):
It's throughout sometime this month. I'm not sure where it's
going to be shown. The fact that it's in four
parts probably means that it's going to be on television.
It's directed by Jason Figures and produced by John West.
They are they have produced lots of films on occult

(24:39):
topics in the past, and so that is definitely something
something to look at for in the future.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yes, absolutely, I wonder if it's like a four part
I wonder if maybe it would come out, Well, it
might be on TV, but I wonder sometimes you know,
they do those things on like Netflix and things too,
so I wonder maybe.

Speaker 4 (24:59):
It's part Well, I don't know at the moment what's
how they're going to distribute it. They haven't said. They're
still finalizing you know, the final post production things that
they have to do, and then they'll presumably let me know.

(25:19):
I think they're going to have a premiere somewhere here
in the UK, but I don't know any more details
apart from that, except that I was asked to, you know,
take part in it as one of the talking talking heads,
you know, and also other experts like Gary Lackman who's

(25:43):
written that fantastic book on Colin called Beyond the Robot,
and people like Philip Pullman. He's very much influenced by Colin,
and you know he'll be he'll be on the film
as well talking about him. So something to look forward

(26:06):
to us.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
Yes, yes, we'll.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Just have to kind of keep our keep our eyes
out our for you hear anything, let me know, and
then I can also post the information too, so that
way that I'm sure a lot of our listeners will
be intrigued to watch that.

Speaker 4 (26:22):
So mm yeah, yes, well, thank you.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
For joining us. It was a pleasure talking to you
about all these fascinating works. Now everybody will need to
just go and check out the book Introduce the Vehicles.
We'll post everything on our social media as to where
you can purchase this book, and then we'll also be

(26:50):
posting your information as well, so if anybody wants to
follow you see what you're up to, or follow follow
the Colin Wilson's page for information, we'll post that as well,
so that way everybody can stay tuned and see what
is up and maybe then they can find out also
about that four part feature there. So yes, so thank

(27:15):
you Colin for joining us. It was a

Speaker 4 (27:17):
Pleasure, pleasures, Thank you very much