writer who first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson has since written widely on true crime
, mysticism
and other topics. He prefers calling his philosophy new existentialism or phenomenological existentialism.
Born and raised in Leicester
, England, Wilson left school at 16. He worked in factories and at various occupations, and read in his spare time.
No matter how honest scientists think they are, they are still influenced by various unconscious assumptions that prevent them from attaining true objectivity. Expressed in a sentence, Charles Fort|Fort's principle goes something like this: People with a psychological need to believe in marvels are no more prejudiced and gullible than people with a psychological need not to believe in marvels.
The Americans have always been more open to my ideas. In fact, I could earn a living in America just by lecturing. One of my brightest audiences, incidentally, were the prisoners in a Philadelphia gaol - brighter than my students at university.
The self-surmounter can never put up with the man who has ceased to be dissatisfied with himself.
But Zarathustra made it clear in which direction the answer lay; it is towards the artist-psychologist, the intuitional thinker. There are very few such men in the world's literature; the great artists are not thinkers, the great thinkers are seldom artists.