PHILOSOPHERS WANTED

Cross track posters have sometimes appeared on the London tube with this headline, advertising courses in philosophy at the School of Economic Science.  A similar one's appeared in my local newspaper, Tunbridge Wells's  The Courier with a photo of a child paddling and the headline Does your life feel this simple? It goes on to say you don't need any academic qualifications only an open and inquiring mind. The fee for enrollment is £65.

The ad is on behalf of the Kent School of Philosophy, and at the bottom in small print it says this is branch of the School of Economic Science.

I read an investigation into this school by two journalists on the Evening Standard. Unfortunately I lent it to a friend and lost track of it, and can't remember their names, but it was well-written and convincing. They discovered that if you joined the school and stuck with it, you would eventually discover the esoteric philosophy behind it all, which was of the Gurdjieff/Ouspensky school - a philosophy which is perhaps a bit 'weirder' than the ads might suggest.

But the ads must work, because they are very expensive, and i noticed the other day that the School of Economic Science has a very large, prosperous-looking HQ in Marylebone.

I was going to say that this approach makes me slightly uneasy, but on reflection I suppose it's not a million miles away from methods that secret societies have always used - the cunning way. I'm not sure what i think.

But there is another way - to put all your weirdness, your madness upfront, to be be as clear and simple as you possibly can, to admit that this is not academically respectable and can never be proven except by personal experience.

Comments

[String]

'But there is another way - to put all your weirdness, your madness upfront, to be be as clear and simple as you possibly can, to admit that this is not academically respectable and can never be proven except by personal experience.'

I am confused by this sentence...especially the second part, to admit what is not academically respectable? The ads? Or being mad upfront?

Just got your book today, enjoying it so far!

[Lawrence Gasman]

I don't really know anything about the School of Economic Science, but they certainly have staying power. When I sudied philosophy at the London School of Economics in the early 1970s, the same ads that you mention were on the tube even then Did they disappear in the intervening 35 years I wonder?

We LSE students used to laugh at the ads because of the similarity of the LSE and School of Econ. Science names. With our oh-so-sophisticated knowledge of philosophy of science, how superior we felt.

We had a lot of growing up to do. The world was a lot bigger than we thought.

[jonathanblack]

String - your hunter's eye has spotted a confusingly written sentence. I was recommending putting one's madness upfront, and recommending trying to be as clear as possible about one's mad and weird views, rather than pretending to be respectable, or trying to give them a gloss of respectablility.

Another related thing: I think one has to risk sounding stupid!

Thanks, Lawrence - nicely put. I'm sure I've seen the ads in the tube since the 70s - and, as i say, just now in the local paper. They're on the march again.

[Mike]

It's like an ARG. Hell, maybe it IS an ARG.

[String]

Well just call me Herne...Ha! I am thoroughly enjoying your book, at Chpt 14 now - like Graham's book, Supernatural, it is placing some very important puzzle pieces together for me. Thank you.

Don't you think though, that many shamanistic or wizardly practices use 'mystery' and 'subterfuge' to engage the conscious and thus at another level engage the subconscious? Not saying for always for the right reasons - but necessary for a certain amount of 'work' to be done.

However, academically, I tend to agree with you, educational honesty hearkens back to the time when we could not lie - rather like an OOBE where everything is quite obvious - danger, not danger etc. Seems to me that I am quite uncomfortable with the covert observation of pupils for possible entrance into whatever secret society...but then again I am an outsider and have declined all invitations not to be.

At the risk of sounding stupid, right before I opened your book I wrote a blog on creativity...named it 'Feed me Seymour' - Plant Power! -and in addition am very happy with the way you treated the Julian Jaynes, Jung issue. With me education started pre-teen with Frank Baum and associated types of mythical tales, then at 13 with Velikovsky and onwards...excellent read, I can't put it down! It is rare to find catalytic authors - you are definitely such!

I am recommending your book to others.

[jonathanblack]

Sorry, Mike - I'm being thick. An ARG? Do they wear sandals and only clothes made of natural materials?

Herne, so is that your portrait at Cerne Abbas. I'm impressed!

I think the covert observations are always benign - at least the ones conducted on behalf of the good secret societies. I heard a snippet of interesting info the other day. The security services of various countries scan data on individuals - credit cards, court records etc - looking for something called Red Light Runners. These are young risk takers, who can be groomed for dangeous missions.

Great title for your blog. Will you link it up to this one?

[String]

Sure, I haven't used that blog much, but will be doing more so now - most of my interaction has been with myspace, I used to have quite a few articles up on the subjects discussed in your book. ;-) but I took them down - I tend to 'clean house' periodically.

- Quite by coincidence - Last night I rented Coppola's film 'Youth Without Youth' - of course, he discussed the very topics you do in the first 14 chapters - quite odd - or rather...back in the flow.

Thanks for the other snippet of info - I think I am a light runner of a different aspect! I say this eying a rainbow fractal from a crystal playing about on the wall above my computer!

[Mike]

Sorry I should have been more explicit. ARG= Alternate Reality Game. Like you see an ad in the classified section of a newspaper and call a certain number which then leads you into down what's called The Rabbit Hole, into an "alternate reality." The good ARGs really blur the line between "reality" and "fiction."

Youth Without Youth is based on the book of the same name by Mircea Eliade... who was very much an occultist.

I've been reading an interesting book called Eros and Magick of the Renaissance by Ioan Culianu. Anyone familiar with this book?