Ever since I appeared on Coast to Coast AM on June 1, I have been looking in at Amazon to see the size and duration of any boost in sales attributable to the show. I’m interested not only in The Cosmic Internet, but my earlier books, as well: The Sphere and the Hologram, Muddy Tracks, Babe in the Woods, and Messenger. (A sixth book, Chasing Smallwood, isn’t listed with Amazon.)
As you no doubt know, the lower the number, the better a book is selling. As I learned years ago when I was with Hampton Roads, though, the fact that a book falls even hundreds of thousands in the rankings doesn’t mean you sold more than a couple of books! Anyway, it’s sort of fascinating to watch. One thing, clearly, that one appearance gave a strong boost to my other books.
It’s taking a while to get the website completed. While we wait, I thought I might as well provide a preview of coming attractions. Here is one, the novel I recently completed.
Babe in the Woods
We’ve all heard of mystery schools, places where people can go to further their psychic and spiritual development. In our day, there are not a few people claim to be able to provide such training, but – as in most things in life – caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware.
But – how can the buyer beware? On the one hand, you don’t want to be giving your time and your money and your sincerity to something that is only self-delusion, or, worse, a sophisticated con. On the other hand, how can you judge something that (if real) is by definition beyond your ability to judge it? Sometimes there’s nothing to do but to jump in and see for yourself, and hope for the best.
As it happens, I have been fortunate enough to attend a sort of modern American shorthand version of such a mystery school, namely a series of week-long courses at The Monroe Institute. (A week is not a lot of time, but in the right circumstances it can be enough time to get you the tools you need. Then you spend the rest of your life applying them.) This novel is my attempt to give readers the flavor of the experience.
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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.