"I of my own knowledge…"

In ancient Egypt (so says Joan Grant, in Winged Pharaoh), the priests used this formula in their teaching: “I of my own knowledge tell you that this is the truth.”

Not, “This is what I have been taught,” but, “I of my own knowledge…”

Where, today, would we find equivalent knowledge? Equivalent institutions?

Our universities and churches cannot produce such teachers. They teach what is said to be true, or might be true, or ought to be true, or what we wish were true. But knowledge cannot be transmitted by those who do not know.

Who has first-hand knowledge of the true nature of physical-matter reality? Of the worlds beyond physical life? Of what we as individuals and as groups can achieve?

In this, religion and science both have failed us.

Religion fails us in attempting to teach from faith rather than from personal knowledge. This leads naturally to a demand for faith and obedience as substitutes for study and knowledge.

Science fails us in refusing to investigate certain categories of experience or thought (such as what people call the supernatural, whether labeled as religion or parapsychology) because it believes, before investigation, that these categories of experience are nonsense.

In both cases, this failure is not necessarily the result of hierarchies scheming to obtain and retain power. Just as often, it is the result of people not realizing that first-hand knowledge is there to be obtained.

Obviously, there is no sense in denying that religion and science have worth, that they are at least partly based on truth, that at best they are based on a desire to find truth. But each is more valuable when it grounds its view of the nature of the universe less on inherited beliefs (no matter how widespread) and more on first-hand knowledge.

We are starving for that knowledge. In fact, we often kill others, and may kill ourselves, substituting arbitrary certainty for knowledge that we do not have. Uncertainty – and the fear that uncertainty brings – leads individuals and societies to do desperate things. If you don’t know, you must rely on faith. But faith implies doubt. Doubt – and the resulting repression of doubt – breed fanaticism and intolerance. Worse, they breed ignorance pretending to infallibility, which breeds charlatans and blind followers.

The good news is that first-hand knowledge is available.

From work at The Monroe Institute and elsewhere, I learned how to obtain first-hand knowledge of life beyond what our society considers normal. I learned how to extend my abilities in ways that our society considers to be impossible. My experience shed light on the reality that has been described (and repeatedly misunderstood) in scripture the world over.

I am not an Egyptian priest, and I cannot transfer my first-hand knowledge. But I can tell how you may obtain your own first-hand knowledge, and I can offer my own preliminary report of my own findings.

That’s what this site is all about. Among other things, I will share with you true stories that give a sense of what first-hand experience makes possible, hoping to describe my journey of self-discovery (self-creation?) in such a way as to encourage you on your own journey.

I of my own knowledge tell you what follows.

 [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?

* * *

[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.