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The story is about Professor Gilbert Austin's conflict with the Tsathogguans, invisible mind parasites that menace the most brilliant people on earth.

Charles Peruzzi, a general practitioner in London's East End, finds himself the proponent of a revolutionary method of psychological therapy using computers to cure patients by breaking their personalities apart and restructuring them.

Howard Lester, a young scientist, becomes obsessed with the problem of death and begins a series of unconventional experiments aimed at increasing human longevity. In the course of their research, Lester and his friend Sir Henry Littleway make a startling discovery: a simple and harmless operation on the brain's prefrontal cortex results in vastly expanded consciousness and mental powers. After undergoing the procedure themselves, Lester and Littleway develop remarkable abilities, including 'time vision', a means of seeing backwards into time. They begin by looking at the relatively recent past-the eighteenth century and Shakespeare's England. But they soon find they can see much further back, to the days of Stonehenge and the Mayans, and even earlier.... But as they get closer to uncovering the beginnings of human existence, they make a terrifying discovery: something ancient and immensely powerful, long asleep, has been awakened by their activities, and is determined to stop them at all costs....

In The Strength to Dream (1962), Colin Wilson had criticized the works of H.P. Lovecraft, the American writer of weird tales, which led to Lovecraft's publisher August Derleth daring Wilson to write one better. This novel, The Philosopher's Stone (1969), was the result, a fascinating blend of science fiction, horror, and philosophy, told within the framework of Lovecraft's mythos.

The titular space aliens areenergy vampires, as opposed to the familiar stereotypical blood-sucking Earth vampires that suck blood and change into bats. They consume the "life force" by seducing living beings with a deadly kiss and also have the ability to take contol of their victims. Though initially the aliens' "true" form appears to be a bat-like creature, the creatures are ultimately revealed to be insubstantial energy-beings from a higher dimension. The novel's main protagonist is Captain Olof Carlsen, the commanding officer of the space exploration vehicle which discovered the vampires' spacecraft.

Also published as Lifeforce when the book was made into a movie of that name.

Gerard Sorme is a lonely young Londoner at work on his first novel, in which he intends to express his belief in the meaninglessness of life. His life changes suddenly in unexpected ways when he befriends Austin Nunne, a wealthy and charming gay man with violent sexual desires, and meets Austin's circle of friends: Gertrude, his well-meaning but naive Jehovah's Witness aunt, the ugly but kindly Father Carruthers, and a strange and fanatical artist named Oliver Glasp.

Meanwhile, someone else is busy exposing life's meaninglessness in a different way: a serial killer is brutally murdering women in Whitechapel in a manner reminiscent of the Jack the Ripper slayings. The police suspect a crazed sex maniac, but Gerard has his own theory of the killer's motives. As the killings continue and the investigation proceeds, Gerard suddenly finds himself haunted by a terrible suspicion: could his new friend Austin Nunne have anything to do with the crimes?

Gerard Sorme thinks the key to a more meaningful life lies in an expansion of human consciousness, and he believes that one way to expand it is through sexual experiences. He sets out to record in diary form his sexual encounters with various women: the middle-aged Gertrude, her teenage niece Caroline, and Diana, the wife of a mad composer determined to adapt Varney the Vampire into an opera. But Sorme finds his beliefs and ideas challenged when he meets the fascinating and dangerous Caradoc Cunningham, who seems to possess occult powers and who has developed his own ways of expanding consciousness through drugs, orgies, and black magic. And when Cunningham is targeted by his enemies, fellow black magicians who he believes are directing the powers of evil spirits at him, Sorme will find himself caught up in Cunningham's peril, culminating in his participation in a bizarre occult ritual....

Gerard Sorme has been hired by a New York publisher to edit a book on Esmond Donelly, notorious 18th-century Irish rake, friend of Rousseau, Boswell and Horace Walpole, and author of a bawdy work on the deflowering of virgins. Sorme's quest for information on Donelly takes him to the home of a pyromaniac and flagellant in Baton Rouge, the labyrinthine corridors of the British Museum, and a remote castle in Ireland. As he digs deeper into the mystery of Donelly, Sorme uncovers a tale of intrigue, conspiracy, and murder involving a secret society, the Sect of the Phoenix, that dates back to medieval times. But the Sect still exists, and Sorme's researches have not gone unnoticed by powerful men who have their own reasons for wanting the truth about Esmond Donelly to remain hidden....

Looks in depth at the works of David Lindsay.

Contents:

• 3 - The Haunted Man - essay by Colin Wilson
• 63 - Biography & Bibliography (The Haunted Man) - essay by Colin Wilson