Further Reading
From Barbelith
If you'd like to learn more about any of the subjects covered by The Invisibles, Barbelith would recommend the following:
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Psychedelia, Entheogens and Drugs:
Links
- The Vaults of Erowid - Documenting the Complex Relationship Between Humans and Psychoactives (http://www.erowid.org). Possibly the world's greatest database on psychoactive plants and chemicals, and how people use them for medicine, spiritual development and recreation. The "trip reports" are not to be missed.
- Lycaeum.org - the Entheogen Database (http://www.lycaeum.org). A very similar project to Erowid, with more of a historical, cultural bent.
Books
- W.S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, The Yage Letters (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0872860043/noahwylemanorani). Two of the leading lights of the Beat Generation swapped letters -- Ginsberg back in New York, and Burroughs plunging into the depths of the Amazon, seeking out the final high that promises to help him kick heroin. "Yage" is basically the same stuff as "ayahuasca," a DMT-containing brew used to access higher realities.
- Jim DeKorne, Psychedelic Shamanism: The Cultivation, Preparation and Shamanic Use of Psychotropic Plants (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0966693256/noahwylemanorani). Like the title says, a grower's guide to entheogenic plants -- used by various cultures through history to open the eyes to divine layers of reality. In the mid-90s, this became one of the bibles of the burgeoning ayahuasca movement.
- Terence McKenna, True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Author's Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil's Paradise (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062506528/noahwylemanorani). This book launched the ayahuasca/urban shamanism revolution. Possibly one of the most influential books on mid-90's neo-psychedelic culture.
- Daniel Pinchbeck, Breaking Open the Head : A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0767907434/noahwylemanorani). A cynical New Yorker writer undergoes some changes after visiting with his ancestors during a West African ibogaine ritual.
- Rick Strassman, DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0892819278/noahwylemanorani). A first-person history of DMT research in America -- by the doctor who ran one of the only legal psychedelic research projects since the 1950s. Contains scads of information about DMT and how it relates to our brains, our perceptions, and, possibly, mystical religious experiences, Near Death Experiences and alien abductions.
Gnosticism, Heresy and Religion
Links
- Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, at Bartleby.com (http://www.bartleby.com/81/). If you want to know what all those magical names *really* mean, this is the place to look. Every character from every folk rhyme you've ever forgotten.
- "Ganesh" in the wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh). A well-researched (and continuously evolving) article on our favorite member of the Hindu pantheon, the Remover of Obstacles.
Books
- Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln Holy Blood, Holy Grail (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0440136482/noahwylemanorani). The basic distillation of all Knights Templar/Priory of Sion/Jesus Christ's Merovingian grandchildren conspiracy theories. The blockbuster bestseller The DaVinci Code was basically just a reheating of this stuff drizzled over a murder mystery plot.
- Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen:The Living Gods of Haiti (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0914232630/noahwylemanorani). Written in the early 1950s, this is still the seminal text on Voudou and Yoruba syncretic religion, written by a white woman (an experimental filmmaker, not an anthropologist) initiated into Haiti's secret religion.
- Philip K. Dick, Valis (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679734465/noahwylemanorani). A semi-autobiographical Gnostic text disguised as science fiction, with a God-like, information-beaming satellite linked to living divine plasma attempting to enter our reality to heal it.
- (Also see Phil K Dick's Exegesis)
- Stephan Hoeller, Gnosticism: New Light on the Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0835608166/noahwylemanorani). An overview of early Gnostic beliefs, as written by a true believer. Includes pre-Christian groups, early church thinkers, and contemporary groups in the Middle East and beyond.
- Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679724532/noahwylemanorani). An introduction to scriptures held sacred by the Gnostics, focusing on the Nag Hammadi library (lost for centuries, then discovered in Egypt in 1945).
- Haruki Murakami, Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375725806/noahwylemanorani). A "new journalism" look at the lasting effects of the Aum Shinri Kyo subway attacks, and how the cult impacted ordinary Japanese citizens, written by one of Japan's foremost novelists.
- David Gordon White (ed), Tantra in Practice (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0691057796/noahwylemanorani). An academic overview of tantrism -- visionary meditation -- in Hinduism and Buddhism.
Slush
- Something about "double souls" or cross-dressing shamanism -- gender roles in ritual.
- A decent history of secret societies, if such a thing exists.
Magick, Reality Tunneling, and Ontological Terrorism
Links
- Wilhelm Reich (http://www.philhine.org.uk/writings/ess_reich.html), notes on a lecture given at Treadwell's Bookshop on 1st September, 2005 by Danny Lowe. A decent overview of Reich's life, work and the revolutionary theories of character armor, bions and orgone energy.
Books
- Peter Carroll, Liber Null and Psychonaut (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0877286396/noahwylemanorani). Two of the founding texts of chaos magick, the 80s' gift to the world of occultism.
- Phil Hine, Condensed Chaos: An Introduction to Chaos Magic (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/156184117X/noahwylemanorani)
- (See also Phil Hine's website (http://www.philhine.org.uk/))
- Russ Kick, You Are Being Lied To: The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966410076/noahwylemanorani)
- Donald Michael Kraig, Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0875423248/noahwylemanorani). A beginner's guide to traditional ritual magick in the Western occult tradition.
- Malaclypse, Principia Discordia, Or, How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her: The Magnum Opiate of Malaclypse the Younger (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1559500409/noahwylemanorani). The holy book of Discordianism, a faith dedicated to chaos, linking Surrealism, post modernism and psychedelia.
- (or peruse the online version here (http://www.ology.org/principia/).)
- Israel Regardie, 777 And Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0877286701/noahwylemanorani). An occult guide to some of Crowley's densest, but most useful writings -- a master system of occult correspondences between numbers, Hebrew and Greek alphabets, the "Qabalistic" Tree of Life, the I Ching, Indian philosophy and higher mathematics.
- Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger: The Final Secret of the Illuminati (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1561840033/noahwylemanorani) and Prometheus Rising (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1561840564/noahwylemanorani). The author of the incredibly influential Illuminatus! trilogy gets all non-fiction, drawing connections between psychology, ritual magick, conspiracy theory, and Discordianism -- basically, sex, drugs and rock'n'roll as powerful forces of personal, universal change.
Hyperspace, Information Theory and the 2012 Singularity
Links
- Barbelith discusses Timewave Zero here (http://www.barbelith.com/topic/9894) and the Mayan Long Count here (http://www.barbelith.com/topic/21873).
- Levity.com's pages on Terence McKenna, Timewave Zero and Novelty Theory (http://levity.com/eschaton/finalillusion.html) (not updated recently, but it's where the 2012 Singularity comes from). They also have a page on the Mayan Long Count ending on Dec 21, 2012 (http://www.levity.com/eschaton/Why2012.html).
Books
- Michio Kaku, Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385477058/noahwylemanorani).
- Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0670033847/noahwylemanorani). As good an introduction to transhumanism as any -- with all the religious, eschatological implications of non-biological life the transhumanist revolution implies.
Pop Culture, Politics and Rock'n'Roll
Links
- The Boiler (http://www.theboiler.com/) - an exclusive site dedicated to contemporary mod culture.
Books
- Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674535812/noahwylemanorani). A cultural history that links 1970s punk rock back through the Situationists to the Surrealists of the dawn of the 20th century.
- Thomas McDonough (ed), Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262633000/noahwylemanorani). A collection of the central texts from this highly influential subversive movement, one of the first groups to grapple with ideas of public consciousness and ownership/reclamation of imagery.
- Mezz Mezzrow, Really the Blues (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0806512059). A memoir from the jazz years of the 1930s -- music, gangsters, and dope on the streets. Mezzrow played with Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke and a host of other legends... and claims to have invented the term "jam" for an improvised musical get-together. He started as a clarinetist and wound up doing time for selling grass. The slang glossary alone is priceless. One of the most influential books most folks have never heard of.
- Michael Moorcock, The Cornelius Chronicles (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380447843). Gideon Stargrave is basically just another iteration of Jerry Cornelius, a reality-warping, gender-swapping assassin, guru, and rock star.
- Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684824779/noahwylemanorani). The Jazz Era as conspiracy theory -- with voodoo priests infecting white culture with the viral rhythms of African popular music.
Video
- Backbeat (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106339/), a film about the Beatles' early years in Hamburg, focusing on the friendship between Stu Sutcliffe and John Lennon.
- The Prisoner (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005NKCQ/noahwylemanorani) TV Series. Hailed as one of the trippiest things EVER on TV, this stylish show follows Number Six, a retired spy who refuses to be numbered, as he attempts to escape The Village, an idyllic island retreat that serves as a high-tech prison for those who know too much.
- The Wicker Man (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070917/), a horror film from the early 1970s, in which an upright, Christian policeman uncovers a secret society of pagans in a small English town. They're led by Christopher Lee, so you know they're bad news. Some of the imagery from Volume Three was borrowed or adapted from this film, but the plot resonates with The Invisibles as a whole.
Slush
- There's an old Nexus thread on Billy "Brilliant" Chang -- I can't find it on Barbelith, but it might be waybacked or something.
- WS Burroughs bio
- John Lennon bio
- Something about Marquis de Sade.
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