Dystopian Science Fiction/Cosmic Horror as an Oracle of the Now
Colin Wilson and the Mind Parasites
“the whole world seemed to sicken. Civilised institutions, whether old or new fell, as if some primal disorder was reasserting itself. And men asked themselves, why should this be?”
- Nigel Kneale, Quatermass IV (opening dialogue)
As many of you who have followed my work over the last decade have ascertained, my outlook on this world, along with the state of humanity as a whole—as an emerging folkloric trajectory—has been greatly influenced by British and American dystopian science fiction and cosmic horror creators. Not just the great H. P. Lovecraft, but also Colin Wilson, August Derleth, Nigel Kneale and John Wyndham. I am who I am today because of their output of work and the effects—overwhelmingly positive—which they had upon me during my formative years growing up, and into the present.
In many ways, these authors have been something of my own personal ‘spirit guides’ during the course of my life. As it engages with the dissolving reality surrounding us. Distant druids of the recent present. Revealing prophecy and wisdom in the guise of their novels and short stories.
Information, consul, portents…means of survival. I got it all from them.
In the true Jungian sense of the creator or artist being something of a prophet revealing the future soon to come within their creations, I can think of no other literary genre which has presented us with such an abundance of deeper truths—along with the dangers and means to survive oncoming eruptions of the psyche and resulting material manifestation within this five sense reality—than the 20th Century British and American dystopian Sci-fi and Cosmic Horror writers. What we call social and current affairs—generally in terms of crisis—these artist/creators had already given us the warning signs. As well as the possible solutions to the crisis awaiting us as it emerges and takes hold.
Knowing the danger exists is halfway to defeating it. For it fears being exposed and examined within direct analytical and rational language. The Woke and Progressive ideologies being prime examples which we are facing with today.
Bearing all this in mind, I was reminded of the following except from British author Colin Wilson (26 June 1931 - 5 December 2013) within his novel The Mind Parasites. That was posted on my social media this morning. The plot revolves around a Professor Gilbert Austin who makes a horrifying discovery; that for hundreds of years mind parasites have been sequestered within human consciousness. Being alien in nature, the Tsathoggua—a supernatural entity derived from the Cthulhu Mythos—is attempting to take control of the earth by changing human consciousness, and the human sense of self. Everything becomes inverted and bewildering with superficial hyper-emotional irrationality, as well as base sexual desires being the beachheads from which to assault the minds of humans in order to make them what we are not.
Read the following except and ask yourself if this sounds familiar in the context of Western Man today?:
“Now I suspect that these mind vampires specialise in finding races who have almost reached this point of evolution, who are on the brink of achieving a new power, and then feeding on them until they have destroyed them. It is not their actual intention to destroy because once they have done this, they are forced to seek another host. Their intention is to feed for as long as possible on the tremendous energies generated by the evolutionary struggle. Their purpose, therefore, is to prevent man from discovering the worlds inside himself, to keep his attention directed outwards. I think there can be no possible doubt that the wars of the twentieth century are a deliberate contrivance of these vampires
…I have another theory, which is so absurd that I hardly dare to mention it. This is that the mind vampires are, without intending it, the instruments of some higher force. They may, of course, succeed in destroying any race that becomes their host. But if, by any chance, the race should become aware of the danger, the result is bound to be the exact opposite of what is intended.
One of the chief obstacles to human evolution is man's boredom and ignorance, his tendency to drift and allow tomorrow to take care of itself. In a certain sense, this is perhaps a greater danger to evolution—or at least, a hindrance—than the vampires themselves. Once a race becomes aware of these vampires, the battle is already half won. Once man has a purpose and a belief, he is almost invincible. The vampires might serve, therefore, to inoculate man against his own indifference and laziness. However, this is no more than a casual speculation…”
I find the mind parasite concept very fascinating! Especially, the added notion of the parasite serving potentially as an inoculation...plus, the parallels with the last few years intrigues further. Along the same lines, I recently watched a video from Allan Varah (on YT) who also discusses the parasite phenomena using Toxoplasma gondii, a very clever cat parasite, as an analogy for these times. You may enjoy checking that out. Thanks Thomas. I enjoy your writing and shared thoughts. Very empowering.