In Colin Wilson’s The Occult, he writes around a few main themes; human beings have gotten caught in the “triviality of everydayness” and that the understanding of things greater than themselves is what makes human beings extraordinary. Wilson writes in his introduction “and since a man needs a sense of meaning to release hidden energies, this forgetfulness pushes him deeper into depression and boredom, the sense that nothing is worth the effort” (xxv). Meaning that since the world has becomes a cycle of working and making money, human beings have pushed the more occult, supernatural, “weird coincidences” that they experience every day into the back of their minds, where they do not have to worry about them. Every human experiences occult things, but most of them do not recognize these instances or choose not to pay attention in order to keep their lives in order.

Wilson also coined the term “Faculty X” to explain the ability that allows humans to reach into the occult, the hidden, the unknown, and obtain certain powers. Faculty X is the key that unlocks the deeper, more magical and confusing things in life. It is something that all humans have, but most haven’t tapped into. There are certain people in the world that can naturally access this part of themselves more easily, these include sorcerers, early mediums and even witches, but all humans can essentially work hard with Faculty X to unlock the hidden meanings behind the coincidences and magic that happen in their everyday lives. This is what distinguishes humans from other creatures; humans can access this within themselves. Wilson writes in his introduction: “Man has reached a point in his evolution where he must graduate from clocks to watches, from large to subtle. He must turn increasingly inward. That is, he must turn to the hidden levels of his being, to the ‘occult’, to meanings and vibrations that have so far been to fine to grasp” (xxxviii). His point is that it is time in human evolution for them to focus in and on their own “powers”. Wilson connects the stories of countless historical accounts of people all over the world experiencing strange unexplainable occurrences.

Colin Wilson wants the world to evaluate these phenomena and see how people can work with the world to reach their higher selves, their “supernatural”, probably more natural than most things in the world actually, abilities that allow them to utilize every corner of the universe. Wilson makes the point that having this sight while using Faculty X, and even possessing occult powers naturally, is not always evil or ominous. There is evil existing in some cases, but most often, “powers” or sixth senses are misunderstood by thousands of years of stigma and taboo attached to all things occult.

Wilson explores the idea of the world’s great artists and how they are able to use Faculty X with more ease than the rest of the population. He focuses in on the poets of the world, dedicating a chapter called “The Poet as Occultist”. In class, listening to music while examining great works of art allowed the viewers to use their own Faculty X.

“The poet is a man in whom Faculty X is naturally more developed than in most people” (Wilson, 113). In Edgar Allen Poe’s The Haunted Palace, Poe writes “And travellers, now, within that valley,/Through the red-litten windows see/Vast forms, that move fantastically/To a discordant melody,/While, like a ghastly rapid river,/Through the pale door/A hideous throng rush out forever/And laugh —but smile no more” (Haunted, Poe). Poe is able to use his Faculty X to bring other worlds, time periods and emotions into his poetry. Here he writes about an old, haunted palace and of all the life that used to happen there. He can envision and feel the presence of the throng of people in the old hallways. He uses his Faculty X to transport himself to another place and time. Poets are able to reach down into the concealed parts of their souls to make beautiful and dynamic poems that open entire new worlds to the reader and expand their minds and force them to work in new ways.

Wilson’s The Occult can also be used to analyze visual and auditory pieces of art. The combination of the Caspar David Friedrich painting Traveler Looking Over a Sea of Fog and listening to Beethoven’s Symphony #7 in A, Op. 92 Allegretto is an amazing example of an exercise to strengthen ones’ connection to things greater than themselves. When listening to these two pieces together, the listener can use their own Faculty X to make a connection/create a story behind the painting that fits the music. In the Beethoven Allegretto, the song continuously rises and rises for the entirety of the song. This can relate to the vastness of the painting. Wilson’s concept of Faculty X links to this because the music and the visuals can tap into something deep in each viewer; it can put the viewer in the shoes of the art. They can visualize themselves making this man’s journey and climbing that mountain. They can feel the wind and see the mist by listening to Symphony #7 at the same time. This is Faculty X. This is what makes the human experience so profound.

Along with musicians and artists and poets, Wilson writes about the other creatures existing in our world, creatures of the occult. These are probably the more obvious things that come to mind when one hears the word “occult”.

Along with the amazing and influential poets and artists of our time, Wilson writes about things that continue to populate Halloween stores and cheesy movies to this day: vampires, ghosts, werewolves, demons and devils, the creatures of the occult.

In the The Occult, there is a chapter entitled Witchcraft and Lycanthropy, Wilson goes into detail when speaking about witchcraft in so-called “primitive” societies. The fear of witchcraft stemmed from a few different things. The hold religion had on everyone at the time was very prevalent. Sex and sexuality were not allowed to be expressed freely. Often this lead to cases of lycanthropy and “devil possession”. Women who expressed this frustration were often labelled as witches and therefore condemned. One of the most significant reasons for the fear of witchcraft was, frankly, the fear of women being powerful. Wilson writes “the first secular trial for witchcraft at Paris, in 1390, a woman called Jehane de Brigue was accused of sorcery by a man she had cured when on the point of death!” (554). She had healed a man and he immediately said she was under the influence of the devil. Most of these cases of witchcraft were false accusations placed on women who acted out against oppressive society, and misconceptions about women healers and medicine women. In the painting The Magic Circle by JW Waterhouse, he depicts a strong, focused witch laying her circle for ritual work. This painting stood out because it shows a woman proudly being a witch and it is not the classic ugly, green, evil old woman. He shows her beautiful and skilled, simply doing what she is trained to do. The witch in the painting is a practitioner of the occult, one of the few in the world that knows how to utilize her own Faculty X to make change in her life.

Another resource that was looked at along with reading The Occult was the movie What We Do in the Shadows. A comedy about four vampires living in an apartment in modern day New Zealand. This movie is so unique because it takes on a silly, goofy perspective all the while dealing with something as sinister as vampirism. Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi take traditional vampire archetypes, the Dracula stereotype and the Nosferatu stereotype, and completely putting a new twist on them. They become silly and more human (and even a little more pathetic). They do not use their powers for evil, they are shown in the context of doing extremely mundane tasks. One quote stood out in Wilson’s introduction that seemed to go along with this movie in particular is “in the past few centuries, science has made us aware that the universe is stranger and more interesting than our ancestors realized. It is an amusing thought that it may turn out stranger and more interesting than even the scientists are willing to admit” (xli). The occult has been seen as something “dark”, “hidden”, “evil” for centuries, even causes the violent death of so many people. Yes—the definition of “occult” does involve the unseen and the subconscious, however this does not always mean dark and evil. What We Do in the Shadows is an excellent example of how people misjudge anything as soon as it is labelled occult.

              The Occult by Colin Wilson is an incredibly intriguing book that analyzes all part of the occult, from the classic images of a woman standing over a cauldron, to alpha waves in the brain. The view he takes on as someone with a more skeptical and “scientific” perspective makes this book a unique experience. Human kind has delved so far into science, it tends to forget the roots of deeper thinking; magic and the unknown. For humanity to move forward, it must recognize the importance of looking within and evaluating what powers each person possesses. The more closely human beings listen to the world around them, “the deeper [their] sense of wonder, the wider [their] curiosity, the stronger [their] vitality becomes, and the more powerful [their] grip on [their] own existence” (xxvi).