Strange Powers by Colin Wilson

Author:Colin Wilson [Wilson, Colin]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Body; Mind & Spirit, Occultism
ISBN: 9780349137322
Google: _0PVAAAAIAAJ
Publisher: Latimer New Dimensions
Published: 1973-12-15T09:03:28+00:00

Three

Dr Arthur Guirdham

I had just completed The Occult—some time around August 1970—when I saw a review of a book called The Cathars and Reincarnation by Arthur Guirdham. It was a short review, but it said that it was probably the best authenticated case of reincarnation on record. So I hastened to buy the book, which was published by Spearman—a firm that seemed to have succeeded Rider as England's chief 'occult' publishers.

The book arrived in mid-September. It had a sub-title: 'The record of a past life in 13th century France'. I settled down to read it; from the blurb, it sounded fascinating.

My first impression was of disappointment. It began by stating that one of the writer's patients—he was a doctor—had written down all kinds of details about the Cathars, a heretical sect of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and that at the time she wrote, most of these details were unknown to scholars. Since that time—twenty-six years ago—many of these details have been verified, said Dr Guirdham.

He certainly had my attention. In fact, it seemed fairly clear to me that he had the material of a best-seller. All he had to do was to tell his story simply, in chronological sequence.

Unfortunately, this was precisely what he didn't do. His style was clear enough, but he got involved in all kinds of minor details about the Cathars and thirteenth-century France until I was completely bogged down. What it needed was to tell the reader, in words of one syllable, exactly who the Cathars were, and their history up to the time of their destruction by the Inquisition. And then, step by step, to tell the story of his patient, whom he calls Mrs Smith, and show how it corresponded in detail with what is known of the Cathars in Languedoc in the middle of the thirteenth century—particularly of the murder of the two Inquisitors at Avignonet in 1242, which led to the great persecution of Cathars, culminating in the massacre of Montsegur.

On the other hand, the very fact that he hadn't tried to turn the book into another Search for Bridey Murphy was evidence for the genuineness of the book. I got the impression that, as a doctor, he was slightly embarrassed by the sensational nature of the material he was presenting, and was anxious to present it as soberly as possible.

The story presented in The Cathars and Reincarnation is, briefly, as follows:

Throughout his adult life, Arthur Guirdham has felt a strong attraction to the heretical sect known as the Cathars, or 'pure ones'. Their basic doctrine was similar to that of the Manichees and the Gnostics: that this world is the domain of Satan, and that human beings are the spirits of angels who revolted against God, and who have been condemned to spend a lifetime imprisoned in the body. This world is hell, created by the devil. A man's only chance of redemption is to become united with Christ in this life, to become completely pure.

The Catholic Church has always

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