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There are some books where ages pass between when I add them to my "to read" list and when I actually get my hands on them, let alone finish reading them. 📚

Colin Wilson's "The Occult" fits that description to a T: A massive 800-page tome written as an introduction to the subject of esoteric religion and a vehicle for Wilson's pet theories on psychic powers. These theories revolve around the so-called Faculty X, a sixth sense he uses as a one-size-fits-all explanation for as many supernatural phenomena as possible. 💫🔮 As is often the case with lengthy non-fiction works seeking to connect many different topics the average reader considers unrelated, it took me approximately a month getting through "The Occult" but I am glad I did so... despite the book being rather dated and at times unintentionally comical.

I am not quite convinced by Wilson's "Faculty X" hypothesis, let alone his support for Emmanuel Velikovsky's "worlds in collision" theory and the "World Ice Hypothesis" that last enjoyed official academic support in WW2 Germany and Italy. (I don't know if it fooled the Japanese) His writing style can also get dry and pompous despite Wilson not being an academic. I nonetheless found a ton of interesting obscure information about the history of art, religion, science and philosophy in here as well as how those fields have influenced one another. 👩‍🎨👩‍�� For example, I feel like I finally understand the ideas of the Armenian occultist G. I. Gurdjieff, who pops up as a cited source of inspiration for so many of my favourite artists, authors, musicians and other creative personalities.

Wilson also displays a good sense for capturing the surrounding social context around the occult subject matter he writes about, often going into detail about why certain phenomena captured the popular imagination when and where. "The Occult" contains a long list of literature as well at the end, inspiring the readers to go further in their quest. Despite me not being on board with all of Wilson's opinions, there is so much interesting new information here that I would recommend people with an interest in all kinds of obscure spiritual subjects to at least give this book a try.