Neil Kramer: Reality Is An Intensely Magical Thing

I am a teacher (if I want to engage in conversation). Salesman (if I don’t).

I am currently reading Immortal Poems Of The English Language by Oscar Williams.

My earliest memory of reading is reading a book about witches with my Mum.

The Secret Teachings Of All Ages by Manly P Hall. A book that comprehensively illustrates how mysticism shapes much of modern society.

Milkman. Up at 4am. The whole job done in a dreamy stupor. Strange.

I used to read a lot. Now I don’t. That’s a good thing in my life. I’d rather look at the mountains or watch the birds in the branches.

There are many. Here’s a few:

In Search Of The Miraculous by P.D. Ouspensky, The Kybalion by William Walker Atkinson, The Way Of Hermes by Clement Salaman, How To Know Higher Worlds by Rudolf Steiner, The Secret Doctrine by Helena Blavatsky, Journey To Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda, Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche.

The Corpus Hermeticum. Various different translations. It’s a volume of Hermetic writings from Greece and Egypt. It is one of the most layered and encoded texts you can imagine. Full of wisdom. Always revealing more.

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki. Just a lovely timeless book. Accessible by all levels of spiritual attainment.

Esoteric.

The same as it is now. Only the human experience would change. It would become more immediate and colourful.

I used to like William Burroughs an awful lot and read most of his stuff. Even his bizarre and nuanced dream journals. But I’ve not touched his texts for over a decade now. I’m a different person to the guy who ate all that up. It was a valuable part of my development though. I still prize my signed first edition copy of The Place Of Dead Roads. It actually used to belong to Rock Hudson.

Yes. Books will still be around, but they’ll be considered as antiques from the old world. I think new mediums will arise that’ll be better than static books with ink on paper.

A work that inspires a path of total self-determination and fierce individualism.

At the time, it was Tales Of Power by Carlos Castaneda. I read that in the early 90’s and it was a very inspirational experience. It reminded me that reality is an intensely magical thing and the ordinary world is a load of bollocks because people choose unconsciousness.

I enjoy learning about the natural world. So I’m slowly going through bird, animal, and plant books related to North America.

I don’t know. Two titles I think are very amusing are Things I Did … and Things I Think I Did by Jean Negulesco, and Me: Moir by Vic Reeves, the British comedian whose real name is Jim Moir.