web01.fireside.fm Sun, 24 May 2026 10:35:54 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Weird Studies - Episodes Tagged with “Antinatalism” https://www.weirdstudies.com/tags/antinatalism Wed, 08 Jan 2020 14:00:00 -0500 Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel host a series of conversations on art and philosophy, dwelling on ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality." en-us episodic Art and philosophy at the limits of the thinkable Phil Ford and J. F. Martel Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel host a series of conversations on art and philosophy, dwelling on ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality." yes weird, art, philosophy Phil Ford and J. F. Martel admin@weirdstudies.com Episode 63: Faculty X: On Colin Wilson's 'The Occult' https://www.weirdstudies.com/63 af23565b-b643-42a5-bc65-167b4ca3505d Wed, 08 Jan 2020 14:00:00 -0500 Phil Ford and J. F. Martel 63 Faculty X: On Colin Wilson's 'The Occult' full Phil Ford and J. F. Martel Phil and JF discuss Faculty X, a key notion from Colin Wilson's classic study of the supernatural and Western esotericism, "The Occult." 1:19:05 yes <p>At its simplest, what Colin Wilson calls Faculty X is "simply that latent power in human beings possess to reach beyond the present." Yet its existence is evinced in all those phenomena that modernity files under "supernatural" or "occult." As difficult to explain as it is impossible to omit from any honest survey of human existence, the occult haunts the modern, not just as a vestige of the past but also, perhaps, as a promise from a time to come. For Wilson, magic isn't the living fossil the arch-rationalists would like it to be, but a "science of the future." Faculty X is an evolutionary power, innately positive, inseparable from the will to live and the unshakeable conviction that, somehow, this world has some real, ineffable meaning. In this episode, JF and Phil discuss Wilson's concept of Faculty X as elaborated in his monumental 1971 work, <em>The Occult</em>.</p> <p><strong>REFERENCES</strong></p> <p>Colin Wilson, <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Occult:_A_History" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">The Occult: A History</a></em><br> <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_and_Morty" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Rick and Morty</a></em>, American sitcom<br> Colin, Wilson, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dreaming-Some-Purpose-Colin-Wilson/dp/0099471477/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Dreaming to Some Purpose</a></em><br> Colin Wilson, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Outsider-Colin-Wilson/dp/0874772060/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+outsider+wilson&amp;qid=1578474099&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">The Outsider</a></em><br> Gary Lachman, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Robot-Life-Colin-Wilson/dp/0399173080/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Beyond+the+Robot&amp;qid=1578474127&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Beyond the Robot</a></em><br> Camus, <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Sisyphus" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">The Myth of Sisyphus</a></em><br> David Benatar, <em>Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence</em><br> Making Sense, <a href="https://samharris.org/podcasts/107-life-actually-worth-living/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">episode 107</a>: Is Life Actually Worth Living?<br> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wessel_Zapffe" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Peter Wessel Zapffe</a>, Norwegian philosopher<br> Thomas Ligotti, <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conspiracy_Against_the_Human_Race" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">The Conspiracy Against the Human Race</a></em><br> Francisco Goya, <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sleep_of_Reason_Produces_Monsters" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters</a></em><br> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Emil Cioran</a>, Franco-Romanian essayist<br> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Arthur Schopenhauer</a>, German philosopher<br> <em><a href="https://www.loa.org/books/342-at-the-fights-american-writers-on-boxing-hardcover" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">At the Fights: American Writers on Boxing</a></em>, Library of America collection<br> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Frazier" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Joe Frazier</a>, American pugilist<br> Henri Bergson, <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_and_Memory" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Matter and Memory</a></em><br> Edouard Schuré, <em>[The Great Initiates: A Study of the Secret History of Religions](Edouard Schuré, _<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Great-Initiates-Secret-History-Religions/dp/0893452289" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">The Great Initiates: A Study of the Secret History of Religion</a></em> <br> Weird Studies, <a href="https://www.weirdstudies.com/8" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">episode 8</a>: On Graham Harman's "The Third Table"<br> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Thomas Merton</a>, American monk<br> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Snyder" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Gary Snyder</a>, American poet </p> Colin Wilson, the occult, esotericism, magic, antinatalism, At its simplest, what Colin Wilson calls Faculty X is "simply that latent power in human beings possess to reach beyond the present." Yet its existence is evinced in all those phenomena that modernity files under "supernatural" or "occult." As difficult to explain as it is impossible to omit from any honest survey of human existence, the occult haunts the modern, not just as a vestige of the past but also, perhaps, as a promise from a time to come. For Wilson, magic isn't the living fossil the arch-rationalists would like it to be, but a "science of the future." Faculty X is an evolutionary power, innately positive, inseparable from the will to live and the unshakeable conviction that, somehow, this world has some real, ineffable meaning. In this episode, JF and Phil discuss Wilson's concept of Faculty X as elaborated in his monumental 1971 work, The Occult.

REFERENCES

Colin Wilson, The Occult: A History
Rick and Morty, American sitcom
Colin, Wilson, Dreaming to Some Purpose
Colin Wilson, The Outsider
Gary Lachman, Beyond the Robot
Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
David Benatar, Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence
Making Sense, episode 107: Is Life Actually Worth Living?
Peter Wessel Zapffe, Norwegian philosopher
Thomas Ligotti, The Conspiracy Against the Human Race
Francisco Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters
Emil Cioran, Franco-Romanian essayist
Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher
At the Fights: American Writers on Boxing, Library of America collection
Joe Frazier, American pugilist
Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory
Edouard Schuré, [The Great Initiates: A Study of the Secret History of Religions](Edouard Schuré, _The Great Initiates: A Study of the Secret History of Religion
Weird Studies, episode 8: On Graham Harman's "The Third Table"
Thomas Merton, American monk
Gary Snyder, American poet

]]> At its simplest, what Colin Wilson calls Faculty X is "simply that latent power in human beings possess to reach beyond the present." Yet its existence is evinced in all those phenomena that modernity files under "supernatural" or "occult." As difficult to explain as it is impossible to omit from any honest survey of human existence, the occult haunts the modern, not just as a vestige of the past but also, perhaps, as a promise from a time to come. For Wilson, magic isn't the living fossil the arch-rationalists would like it to be, but a "science of the future." Faculty X is an evolutionary power, innately positive, inseparable from the will to live and the unshakeable conviction that, somehow, this world has some real, ineffable meaning. In this episode, JF and Phil discuss Wilson's concept of Faculty X as elaborated in his monumental 1971 work, The Occult.

REFERENCES

Colin Wilson, The Occult: A History
Rick and Morty, American sitcom
Colin, Wilson, Dreaming to Some Purpose
Colin Wilson, The Outsider
Gary Lachman, Beyond the Robot
Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
David Benatar, Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence
Making Sense, episode 107: Is Life Actually Worth Living?
Peter Wessel Zapffe, Norwegian philosopher
Thomas Ligotti, The Conspiracy Against the Human Race
Francisco Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters
Emil Cioran, Franco-Romanian essayist
Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher
At the Fights: American Writers on Boxing, Library of America collection
Joe Frazier, American pugilist
Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory
Edouard Schuré, [The Great Initiates: A Study of the Secret History of Religions](Edouard Schuré, _The Great Initiates: A Study of the Secret History of Religion
Weird Studies, episode 8: On Graham Harman's "The Third Table"
Thomas Merton, American monk
Gary Snyder, American poet

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