Mysticism in Fiction

Mysticism in Fiction

Mysticism in fiction is in the same boat as Sci-Fi, in that, if it is to be any good, it either has to have been experienced or researched by the writer. Unfortunately, there are too many authors who just make it up as they go along and give both genres a bad name.

I don’t want to talk about anyone else, so I will have to use my own life and books as examples. All but one of my ‘non-Thai’ books contain mysticism, or what I think most people would call mysticism. In the context of this article, by mysticism, I mean Spiritualism, Faith Healing, Witchcraft and related subjects.

I apologise to the purists, I know that it is a loose grouping, but not in the eyes of many. What follows refers to me only, not to other members of my family, although it might do, but that is their story.

My mother told me that she was a White Witch when I was about six. So, she being my lovely mother, I was never frightened of witches. My father confirmed it about twelve years later and added that her mother was as well.  At six or so, she also told me that she would die at at forty-two, which she did, fourteen years later. This is the basis for my novel ‘Fate Twister’.

One day, I told Mum, quite innocently, that an older couple had wished a car crash on me. Shortly thereafter, they crashed and died months later. I told my father and he told me the story of a client that hadn’t paid him and landed up in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He made me promise never to tell Mum anything ‘bad’ again.

That and much more convinced me that anything is possible. However, I am Wayne from the novel, because I cannot sustain the level of concentration / prayer / spell necessary to bring about the twist of fate, but I know that some people can, and that it is mostly women. Fate Twister is not just fiction.

My father, and most of his family, were Spiritualists. He, his three sisters and his mother were the most adept. They could do most things including healing, talking to the ‘dead’, automatic writing etc.

I went to Spiritualist Churches on and off from six to thirty-six years of age. From about twelve until now, I have regularly read books by older Eastern mystics and gurus. Less so now though, because I think that there has to come a time, one day, to do, and stop thinking about doing.

My version of ‘doing’ is the way I treat other people and putting my knowledge into my books.

The Megan Series of twenty-two novelettes is about the Spiritual Awakening of a young Celtic girl – a mixture of true stories about my mother and myself.

‘A Night in Annwn’ is a distillation of everything that I have learned and now believe in.

So, please, all you literary snobs, who turn your noses up at fiction, you could be the ones who are losing out.

This is the last of my articles on literary snobbery, unless someone upsets me again 🙂

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Mysticism in Fiction

PS: Intellectual snobbery is like AIDS. You might not know you have it until long after you have been infected. Spread by higher education…, but the cure is self-awareness not abstention.

PPS: ‘Behind The Smile’ is based on experience. My only two fictional series are: ‘Tiger Lily’ and ‘Dead Centre’, but I will discuss whether that is actually true with anyone who has read them.