Colin Wilson

This video is a special release from the original Thinking Allowed series that ran on public television from 1986 until 2002. It was recorded in about 1990. It will remain public for only one week. 

Colin Wilson was one of the most prolific writers in the English language. His novels include The Mind Parasites, The Philosopher’s Stone and Sex Diary of a Metaphysician. Other major works include A Criminal History of Mankind, The Occult, Mysteries, Religion and the Rebel, The New Existentialism, New Pathways in Psychology and The Outsider–his first and most famous book.

Here he elaborates on his “Laurel and Hardy” theory of consciousness as a model for attaining optimal mental functioning. Crisis situations often thrust us into higher states of consciousness by forcing us to gain a psychological grip on ourselves. Imagination, he says, can lead us to states of alienation and depression. He presents his model of seven levels of consciousness ranging from extreme depression to the transcendence of space and time.

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Published on August 1, 2026