In fact Wilson had not abandoned philosophy at all. Indeed, he always considered his ‘serious’ occult books – i.e. ‘The Occult Trilogy’* – to be a logical extension of his ‘new existentialism’, providing evidence that man possesses latent powers which, if tapped and harnessed, could lead to hugely expanded consciousness and potentially even an evolutionary leap. In a lengthy Introduction to the new Watkins edition of Beyond the Occult, published in 2008, he wrote:
When The Occult appeared in 1971, it soon became apparent that many people who had regarded me as a kind of maverick existentialist now believed that I had turned to more trivial topics, and abandoned the rigour of my ‘Outsider’ books. To me, such a view was incomprehensible. It seemed obvious to me that if the ‘paranormal’ was a reality – as I was increasingly convinced that it was – then any philosopher who refused to take it into account was merely closing his eyes.
