Seven

My Seven Cultural Heroes

I found it difficult to specify seven of my cultural heroes. Notwithstanding I found it an interesting task. Other thinkers such as Paul Tillich, Samuel Angus, Fritjof Capra, J. G. Bennet and the popular 'outsider' Colin Wilson are automatically excluded from the list. Yet their insights on ideas and new ways of thinking are often as compelling as the chosen seven.

It may not be pleasing to all that my list does not include any women or any Russian or Asian men. It is not because of any bias. It because of the limitation of my life-space and the pattern of my life.

I havce included the seven men because they broadened and deepened my own thought. Most of them are outsiders in their own way and most of them are very scholarly. They all challenge convential thinking directly or indirectly without demanding allegiance or agreement. Their thought invites inquiry and open-endedness and inter-connectedness.

Albert Schweitzer
(1875 -1965)

Albert Schweitzer
He was one of my late teenage heroes. I have referred to him in some of my religious works. his ‘Quest of the Historical Jesus’ shook my early fundamentalism to the core. See my ‘Mysterium and Historia’ (R5).

Rudolf Steiner
(1861 -1925)

Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiners written works and published Lectures constitute a whole library and have captured my attention for over 50 years. My ‘Backpackers’ book on his teachings is written by a non-Anthroposophist who, nevertheless, read his books and lectures in amazement. Steiner’s epistemology and his application of synthetic geometry make his teachings difficult to understand but leave the reader with a great sense of wonder. A New Age herald (See P8). His work unites Science and Art, and Science with Beauty and Morality.

Marshall McLuhan
(1911 -1980)

Marshall McLuhan
McLuhan has been called the prophet of the Electronic Age. Every media extension involves an amputation! I have treated his work in my book consciousness. (See P10)

Carl Gustav Jung
(1875 - 1961)

Carl Gustav Jung
I regard Jung as a Modern Gnostic and Alchemical Psychologist. I was particularly interested in his theory of polarities such as Causality and Non-Causality. His highlighting of the nature of co-incidence and synchronicity captured my attention. I explored these interests in ‘Time, Space and Causality’ (P1) and ‘Nova Hermetica and its Three Magi’. (See P1 and P7)

Eric Erikson
(1902 - 1994)

Erik Erikson
My article about Erikson appears in my fifth Golden Book (L9). He was an art teacher who became a social scientist. He combined Psycho-analytic Theory with Sullivan's Social Theory. His work identified 8 Psycho-Social Crises which had to be negotiated in the developmental sequence of the human. His science has an artistry about it. (See L9)

Mircea Eliade
(1907 - 1986)

Mircea Eliade
Eliade was a cross-cultural anthropologist. He was a man of great erudition and scholarship who did not advertise himself like Joseph Campbell. I have referred to him in my work on ‘Consciousness’. (See P10)

Peter Ouspensky
(1878 - 1947)

Peter Ouspensky
Ouspensky was a self-directed outsider who sat at the feet of Gurdjieff for seven years. He was an original thinker and sought a new model of the universe with seven dimensions. He tackled difficult issues such as coincidence and synchronicity. See my ‘Time, Space and Causality’. (See P1)