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m k m m Wil: By Mark Che' Myst?ri?e by Colin Wilson; G.P. Putna Before reviewing Colin Wilson would like to take the liberty to e development and the significance develoDment. Wilson is, above all else, a wr during faith in the potential of I somewhat ironic that the stoi generally considered the pessirr philosophy known as existentialis For myself, Friedrich Nietzscl sent me into a kind of mental am within me a vast re-evaluation c my psychic. Although the noti< tialism both terrified and intrigu have doubts about adopting s overview of life. Perhaps as a counter-react detachment and inevitability, I s of Hermann Hesse. I was later tc discovered Hesse some time ea tensively on his intriguing spirituality. It was during the peak of m> friend suggested that I locate two Existentialism and The Outsider Nietzsche and Hesse came proclaiming that the path ou mysticism. I would like now to outline brie which begins with the book menti The Outsider was published remains Wilson's bestselling an< The Outsider, Wilson develops li philosophy, a philosophy that h expanded in numerous follow-up i Wilson also develops here hii tation; a very readable blend ol sonal impact. He leaves you wi somehow experienced the know reiterating "another's" findings. Wilson presents his idea by wa endless numbers of examples ? theories or notions which add t theme. In The Outsider, Wilson trac< lives of great writers, stressing t m Good By Gwendolyn Broome Qoobersvlll* Breakdown by Robert Lleberman; Gamma Books; $4.95. Robert Lieberman's new boo] Goobersville Breakdown, is at th very least a quite unusual om Upon opening the book and readir the first page you say to yourse that this can't be for real. 1 Goobers ville Breakdowr Lieberman plays on all yoi senses. He teases all your sei sitivities and completely flirts wit your mind. At the end of the boo you wonder how this strange knows you so well. Neil H. Nudelman is the mai character in Lieberman's book, is Nudelman who takes us on a tri into a world that we've lived in fc years but know so little about. H introduces us to all of life's littl negatives. His experiences ar those we all fantasize about but ar son e> trailer im's Sons; $15.00. i s new dook Mysteries, l stablish both my personal ! Wilson has played in that iter who possesses an enthe human spirit. So it is ry begins with what is listic extreme, a body of m. le's The Birth of Tragedy i moral shock and caused >n virtually every level of )ns ingrained in existen led me, in time I began to ?uch a terribly nullistic ion to such themes of tumbled on to the writings > learn that Wilson too had rlier and had written exsuggestions of internal r interest in Hesse that a u?i... u.. rn... xr uuuiva uy wuauii, . It was in these books that together, with Wilson it of existentialism was ifly Wilson's development, oned above, The Outsider, in 1956 and to this day i most discussed work. In terally every aspect of his as been re-evaluated and studies. s unique style of presenf scholarly order and perth the feeling that he has ledge, rather than simply ty of combining seemingly ind from these compiling ;o an overall structure or is the characters and the :heir relationship to a type ersville* too locked up in life eve ceive trying. Nudelman unlocks k, inhibitions. He frees all o le selves. Nudelman wakes e. morning with a case o ig along with his kidney If heart condition, brain tui n halitosis. "And on top of? i. he remarks. "I feel c v , - 0 ir feeling so good." n- He destroys a man's hoi ;h putting in a window. He k man's harmless boot ;r businessmen and rewrite; pornographic novel. He v n chairman of the People's It of China and asks for a p fourth-grade teacher. Nuc >r quite impoverished, [e believes thai he will ont le very wealthy and gives i e last penny to beggars oi e who drops by his house. :plainss fPililB Bp] Bfc?HH^WIWIl^?EpiS of existential detachment from the wor throughout these studies Wilson cites f their seemingly total pessimistic nature We are all familiar with even the characters of fiction or drama expr redeeming quality or feeling sometime play. For Wilson, this is important ? tl affirmation," those times, when ever personalities can see reason, or happin fleeting moments. could be u r to con- Upon first being introd Nudelman, you feel that t all our has got to be a lunatic and y ur secret no pity for him. After all, ? up one working. He has a wife and f cancer He has bundles of bills trouble, always complaining of s< nors and visible illness, and he seer all that," the soft touch for anyone i uilty for However, at the end of t you are feeling quite use while passionate toward Nudel t takes a you slowly come to real c about Nudelman could be you. ?it into a Goobersville Breakdown /rites the the title of the book Republic Nudelman has been workir job as a years. The question tha lelman is haunting Nudelman is whe but he his town. Goobersville. or h * day be on the verge of a breakdo\ away his is a question that runs thr< r anyone minds of all of us while rea< book. Is it our country or >upern< a?MSLqjj ^ 6Xpcr "civth ! because of ! lost it via ei It should ! existentiali jiearl^ the^l i v concentrati proved futi lower and : 11 counter the M upon a mor Bringing j "I's," Wils< of a ladder, so the high extraneous whereas u voking such Id around them. Yet The pren laws or loopholes in selves." th< is. With the most down-and-out parisons th essing at least one Mysteries ; in a given story or occult, the ] hose feelings of "re- It begins i the most nullistic dowsing, 1 ess, if only for a few our town uced to town that is going craz he man somehow losing control rou have Goobersville is a to^ he's not millions in America. It family, its poor, its bigots, its . He is varitible sexual prefe [>me in- its good and bad. C ns to be shoves under our nose in town, which we would mi he book sweep under the rug. G ; com- through its continuous man as shows us life at its wors ize that Robert Lieberman he an unusual ana oriius i is also work in this book. It I which both barrels. A little < lg on for can be found in some c t keeps the book. Through hi theritis violence, sex, reli .~ iL.4 1 ii.- _ \\ A i? - ic witti is pruianuy, ail laKen 10 vn. This he offers us a mil High the meaning. The absurd v ding this it can only be descrifc city or madness at its most sar aturcxL imental psychologist Abraham ire termed "peak experiences, as these performing an import; ure, perhaps as the fundamenta itivity and will. ainifests this notion in what he ca :th sense. A full explanation of :annot be expounded upon here, bi Wilson believes at one time we al se" (and perhaps mystics still urbanization and numerous oth /olution. I be clear now how Wilson pr sm to mysticism and the occu last fifteen years, since he publis has wholeheartedly directed lite ward the investigation and the mena. This brings us to his most his most comprehensive study, IV jgins Mysteries by describing a s le experienced in the autumr he attack as a tightening of the ch 1 heartbeat "to a point that te to rnntrnl this nprvnns pnprcrv . v -OJ jbvious ways, such as willing tl ing on some extraneous affair le, he realized the attacks were more "childish" self. He found ; attacks by "waking myself up fi e purposive 'me.' " in Gurfjieff's notion that we all cc on suddenly sees these 4Ts" as b For Wilson the ladder is shaped er one ascends upon the ladder, l me. The size of the rungs relates t concerns one must deal wit the ladder, concentration and ii pon descent, intent and directi i "panic attacks." nise of Mysteries is that on sue j puzzle of the occult may be foun< same incredible range of exam at have become the hallmark of probes through virtually every [>aranormal and the supernatural with an extensive study into f tu wiui sptrcuiv; energy uirccieu See Af] H I gill y, or are we phonies, its Qf|rfl j rences and I ioobersville & %$ those things ? craziness, is done both > r\f /\f nil U1 flings it out 1 i)f everyone ;haracter in : 4 s usage of igion and \ their limits, .ch deeper Robert , Lie vay he does ' ed as total mum >f le. Maslow, such " He sees exint function in 1 driving force lis Faculty X, a the nature of ut it will suffice I possessed this do) and that ler factors, we ogressed from It. In fact, for hed The Occult :rally all of his irrmliratinns of r ? ? ? ; recent, and in lysteries. leries of "panic i of 1973. He lest and a rapid rrified." After in a number of lem to stop or , all of which a product of a he could then illy and calling mtain dozens of eing like rungs like a triangle, the smaller the o the amount of h; thus when itent increase, on diffuse, inh a "ladder of i. iples and comWilson's work, aspect of the >endulums and towards the /stBti&s, page 17 "4- -Vs f|j| tfl Iff I I? 3? ILLC berm&n f?i /> i\ ?} >