[In Mysteries] Colin Wilson addresses the same theme that has consistently threaded its way through all of his books, beginning with The Outsider, which brought him world attention in his early twenties—that so-called "conscious" human beings are pygmies, mere fragments of their true selves.

But, he avers, "human beings will one day recognize, beyond all possibility of doubt, that consciousness is freedom….

Part of Wilson's hopeful conclusion is directly based on his personal confrontation with a series of what he calls "panic anxiety attacks" which lasted several months and brought him to the edge of a nervous breakdown….

Wilson's account of how he finally overcame these attacks is a courageous example of how it is possible to deal with oppressive problems through introspection….

Wilson lays a large share of the blame for this state of affairs on our incessant search for security. He maintains that while freedom...