Colin Wilson at Parabola: Richard Smoley reviews Beyond the Robot

Here’s a link to a thoughtful and constructive review of Beyond the Robot: The Life and Work of Colin Wilson by my friend and colleague Richard Smoley, author of How God Became God, Forbidden Faith, and other works on western esotericism. Richard was for many years an editor at Gnosis magazine and is now editor at Quest and his book Inner Christianity is a classic. My review of How God Became God can be found in the September-October issue of New Dawn, no. 158.

3 thoughts on “Colin Wilson at Parabola: Richard Smoley reviews Beyond the Robot

  1. I just finished reading Beyond the Robot and it was a wonderful homage to a man that has impacted many of us.

    There’s been a question on my mind for years now that I never found an answer to, and maybe you might be able to help shed some light.

    Several decades ago, there was a guru known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh who lead a pretty big movement. I found his work quite insightful, but curiously I also saw he made references to Gurdjieff and the work of Wilson, particularly, The Outsider.

    Yet I never heard Wilson mention anything about him, neither in his cult books nor in his mystical teacher books. I would have thought Wilson knew about Osho and sharing many similar views and the admiration of people like Gurdjieff, he would of covered him in some way as the contemporaries they were.

    Is there any knowledge you may have behind the reason for this?

  2. I just finished reading Beyond the Robot and it was a wonderful homage to a man that has impacted many of us.

    There’s been a question on my mind for years now that I never found an answer to, and maybe you might be able to help shed some light.

    Several decades ago, there was a guru known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh who lead a pretty big movement. I found his work quite insightful, but curiously I also saw he made references to Gurdjieff and the work of Wilson, particularly, The Outsider.

    Yet I never heard Wilson mention anything about him, neither in his cult books nor in his mystical teacher books. I would have thought Wilson knew about Osho and sharing many similar views and the admiration of people like Gurdjieff, he would have covered him in some way as the contemporaries they were.

    Is there any knowledge you may have behind the reason for this?

    1. I imagine Colin knew who Rajneesh was but most likely didn’t find a time or place to write about him. Rajneesh, you know, borrowed from many thinkers and used their ideas in his own work. I would think Colin would have been happen to know he mentioned The Outsider. Cheers, Gary

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