John O'loughlin

The Soul of Being John O'loughlin First edition

Conceived in a chronologically continuous aphoristic terms, this 1998 project by John O'Loughlin is nevertheless divided into twelve sections, each of which bears a headed title in quasi-essayistic vein. Examples of such titles include 'Fair to Life', 'Collective and Individual', 'Self vis-à-vis Not-Self', 'Form and Content(ment)', and 'Metaphysical Salvation'. There is also, at the end, a fairly long appendix which has the merit, not uncharacteristic of the author's appendices, of both summing-up the text and, in this particular case, illustrating the 'reculer pour mieux sauter', or stepping back in order to leap further forward, attitude which underlines much of the foregoing philosophy. Certainly this book goes deeper than the previous one, 'Ultranotes from Beyond' (1997-8), in terms of its understanding of the Self and the methodology of self-actualization, or self-realization, by which the bridge from ego to soul is crossed.