Some years ago I had to decline to publish Mark Kimmel’s fascinating first novel, Trillion, strictly for financial reasons. Since then I have remained on his newsletter, information for which I include at the end of this post. The following is his most recent.
The Cosmic Paradigm Newsletter
by Mark Kimmel
October 31, 2007
Fear
In recent days I have observed how many times fear creeps into my consciousness. This has caused me to look at my actions and see how many of them were driven by fear.
The dictionary defines fear as: 1 A feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by present or imminent danger 2 A feeling of disquiet or apprehension
I would suggest broader definitions: 1. Fear is the opposite of love. 2. Fear is a state of mind that focuses one singularly on oneself.
When one is acting out of fear he or she will put his or her own interests above any concern for the rights of others. If I am hungry, I will steal. If I am threatened I will kill. In the extreme, if I see the situation as totally hopeless, I will choose suicide.
But fear is usually much more subtle. Fears remains buried in our unconscious mind until they are triggered by a particular situation. Dealing with our fears is the grist of psychotherapy, beginning with Freud’s focus on sexuality and continuing to modern treatment methods.
Fear, buried in our unconscious, is triggered as our current lives unfold. Our parents taught each of us certain precautionary things: “Watch before you cross the street.” Religious teachings imprinted yet others: “If you do that, you will go to hell.” And our training in the workplace added still others: “Be on time, or be gone.” Fear is often translated into “should” and “must.”
SPEND A DAY EXAMINING HOW FEAR DRIVES YOUR ACTIONS. I did this and was amazed to see how fears subtly emerged. As I drove my vehicle I worried about the condition of its tires. I was conscious of obeying the traffic laws lest I get a ticket. I watched where I was going to avoid getting lost, or worse, having an accident. And, of course, I kept an eye on the gas gauge.
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[I have a long list of books that could be important to you, and as time permits I intend to create a list here, and give a hint as to why you may wish to read them. Pardon a parent's pride if I put my own two at the top of the list.]
Muddy Tracks: Exploring an Unsuspected Reality
This is what I call my interim report, discussing what I tried and what I found up through 1997, including among other things hypnotism, dream analysis, “past-life” exploration and four programs at The Monroe Institute, especially the Gateway Voyage in late 1992, which finally got me through the door. And if I could do it, there is no reason to assume that others could not.
Messenger: A Sequel to Lost Horizon
James Hilton’s wonderful novel introduced the word Shangri-La to the world’s vocabulary in 1932. Many years ago I began thinking — how could the lamasery at Shangri-La survive the coming of the Communist Chinese? By the time I finished my fourth version, Messenger had become a tale about human possibilities, and how we could develop them. If you could live forever…? How would you spend your time?
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[If you wish to know something about the books here that I have not yet described, or even said why I think you should read them, you could always do what I do: go to Amazon.com and see if they have a description. Of course this is only a stopgap measure, but it may be a while before I get around to annotating this list.]
Fiction
The Demon Lover, by Dion Fortune. See Travelers and Mapmakers.
Moon Magic by Dion Fortune. See Travelers and Mapmakers.
The Goat-Foot God, by Dion Fortune. See Travelers and Mapmakers.
The Mind Parasites, by Colin Wilson. See Travelers and Mapmakers.
The Philosopher’s Stone, by Colin Wilson. See Travelers and Mapmakers.
The Secrets of Dr. Taverner, by Dion Fortune. See Travelers and Mapmakers.
The Sea Priestess, by Dion Fortune. See Travelers and Mapmakers.
The Winged Bull, by Dion Fortune. See Travelers and Mapmakers.
Winged Pharaoh, by Joan Grant. I am obliged to place this in fiction, but it doesn’t feel like fiction to me. It made me homesick for a place I had never been.
Non-fiction
The Ancient Atlantic, by L. Taylor Hansen. A strange and fascinating book that may be difficult to find. Copyright 1969, published by Amherst Press, Amherst Wisconsin.
In the Dark Places of Wisdom, by Peter Kingsley
Medicinemaker, by Hank Wesselman.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections, by Carl G. Jung.
The Outsider, by Colin Wilson. See Travelers and Mapmakers.
The Secret Vaults of Time, by Stephan Schwartz.
Serpent in the Sky, by John Anthony West. See Travelers and Mapmakers.
Spiritwalker, by Hank Wesselman.
Visionseeker, by Hank Wesselman.