Super Consciousness: The Quest for the Peak Experience (2007/2009)
Colin Stanley
March 26, 2018 DOI: 10.4324/9780429471711-9 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mystical experience |
| Citations | 5 |
| Key points | The text recounts that Colin Wilson's Super Consciousness, conceived as a 60-page outline in 48 hours twelve years before its 2007 Japanese publication, was first published in English in 2009 by Watkins Publishing as both a print book and an e-book, with an earlier outline appearing in a 2002 double e-book introduced by Chris Nelson. |
Abstract
When Colin Wilson died in December 2013, it was suggested by one obituary writer that, despite the seemingly diverse subject matter of his books, his legacy lay in the field of consciousness studies. This is undoubtedly true and in Super Consciousness Wilson, nearing the end of his creative life, decided to summarise his major ideas. Although first published in Japanese in 2007 as The Search for Power Consciousness , it was conceived twelve years earlier when the book “… took shape in 48 hours in the form of a 60-page outline …” ( Wilson, 2009 a, p. 6). For various reasons it was set aside although the outline was published in 2002 as part of the double e-book The Ladder of Selves and The Search for Power Consciousness with an introduction by Wilson scholar Chris Nelson. The full version was first published in English by Watkins Publishing in 2009, as a printed book and an e-book simultaneously.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mystical experience, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Psychedelic Mystical Experience in the Human Encounter with Death | 1969 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Vectorial Cerebral Hemisphericity as Differential Sources for the Sensed Presence, Mystical Experiences and Religious Conversions | 1993 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The epistemic innocence of psychedelic states. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mystical Experience and Religious Doctrine | 1982 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |