I often forget that I’m a bit odd. Well, according to some people, that is. I don’t so much see myself that way. But I’ve spent some time today doing “market research” on Amazon in relation to what types of books, subject matters and treatments are really in vogue these days among the occult, New Age, and paranormal crowds. And I’m very struck by the differences between what I’ve found and what I’m doing. I mean, sure there are areas of overlap, but if I had to sum up most of the books that are on their “best-seller” lists in these categories, it would go something like this:

• For occult and paranormal stuff, you have the ever-popular “Encyclopedia of…” format. Basically just provides a really brief overview of a wide variety of things, without really bothering to get into the messy details, or worry about how it all fits together. (A variation of the encyclopedia is the “anti-encyclopedia” which tries to disprove or discredit phenomena en mass.)
• Pagan and Wiccan books seem to borrow from this encyclopedia-style format a lot, except they like to use words like “Guide” and “Practical” (and of course: “Practical Guide”)
• Occult books also seem to use the following keywords: Mysteries, Teachings, Lessons, Secrets, Codes. I guess this is to clue you into the fact that you’re getting into something which is “hidden” or “occult”
• New Age stuff seems to be very much about self-improvement. Whether that means energy healing, or in terms of “manifesting your desires” by harnessing “willpower” or the “creative unconscious.”
• Beside the self-improvement New Age stuff, there’s also the side I’ll call “extensions of consciousness.” It tends to overlap a lot with the previous one, but focuses more specifically on life after death and out-of-body travel.
• There’s also the alternative history books. These generally take common religious stories or other types of history, and try to “prove” that everything you think you know about it is wrong, because it all actually hinges around this one alternate fact which was lost or buried at some point. I think the spate of secret society books fits into this as well, but merely focuses in contemporary life, rather than the past.

I know I certainly delve into a lot of those things in my discussions of various topics. And there’s certainly an important place for all those things. But I feel like what I’m doing is substantially different, and I’m trying to articulate exactly how and why. I know a major aspect of the difference is that I’m not so much trying to “teach” any particular system or school of knowledge. Rather, I’m more interested in cultivating a mindset which is radically different from the dominant one. It draws on traditional religious and occult teaching because they tend to focus on that which transcend literal facts into psychic truths. And I’m also trying to prove that you can navigate these regions without something like joining a cult, or giving into completely ridiculous wishful thinking.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve got so far. If anybody has anything to add to that description of either what I’m doing, or what the prevailing trends in the “industry” seem to indicate, shoot it my way.