DL/A-Z//BAT - [Correspondence with Brian Bates]
Reference code
DL/A-Z//BAT
Level of description
File
Title
[Correspondence with Brian Bates]
Date/s
08/06/1983-06/07/1983
Quantity & Format
4 Letters (typescript and MS)
3 Manuscripts
3 Manuscripts
Corporate name
Octagon Press
Personal name
Shah, Idries
Creator
Bates, Brian
Scope and content
001 is a letter from Brian Bates to Doris Lessing. He introduces himself and his recent book The Way of the Wyrd, "about an Anglo-Saxon path to psychological and spiritual awareness". He mentions admiring Lessing's Briefing for a Descent into Hell and teaching humanistic and transpersonal psychology. Mentions New Age thinking, R.D. Laing, Francis Huxley, and Arthur Koestler. He mentions that he has enclosed the preface to his book, and asks whether Lessing would be willing to provide a puff piece for it.
002 is a draft of the preface to The Way of the Wyrd by Brian Bates.
003 is a draft list of references for The Way of the Wyrd.
004 is a letter from Lessing to Bates. Lessing praises Bates's efforts to "retrieve lost information about this period in our history", but states that she has reservations. She mentions Carlos Castaneda, stating that she considers his work to be fiction. She states that her own Briefing for a Descent Into Hell is similarly a work of fiction drawing from "material readily available from several different traditions". She suggests that her name was suggested to Bates because she is interested in Sufism. She mentions Idries Shah, and quotes his attitude towards "the kind of phenomena described by you and by Castaneda" as "spills, chills and thrills". She states that she cannot provide a "puff" for Bates's work because she doesn't want to encourage people to think she is following a path similar to his. She mentions including a catalogue of books from Octagon Press.
005 is a letter from Bates to Lessing, announcing the inclusion of the full bibliography for his book The Way of the Wyrd.
006 is the bibliography for The Way of the Wyrd.
007 is a letter from Bates to Lessing, written in response to 004. He thanks her for reading his work and writing. He denies knowing that she followed Sufism, saying that he valued her comments based on her Briefing for a Descent Into Hell. He demonstrates some knowledge of Sufism and discusses Castaneda and the nature of reality.
002 is a draft of the preface to The Way of the Wyrd by Brian Bates.
003 is a draft list of references for The Way of the Wyrd.
004 is a letter from Lessing to Bates. Lessing praises Bates's efforts to "retrieve lost information about this period in our history", but states that she has reservations. She mentions Carlos Castaneda, stating that she considers his work to be fiction. She states that her own Briefing for a Descent Into Hell is similarly a work of fiction drawing from "material readily available from several different traditions". She suggests that her name was suggested to Bates because she is interested in Sufism. She mentions Idries Shah, and quotes his attitude towards "the kind of phenomena described by you and by Castaneda" as "spills, chills and thrills". She states that she cannot provide a "puff" for Bates's work because she doesn't want to encourage people to think she is following a path similar to his. She mentions including a catalogue of books from Octagon Press.
005 is a letter from Bates to Lessing, announcing the inclusion of the full bibliography for his book The Way of the Wyrd.
006 is the bibliography for The Way of the Wyrd.
007 is a letter from Bates to Lessing, written in response to 004. He thanks her for reading his work and writing. He denies knowing that she followed Sufism, saying that he valued her comments based on her Briefing for a Descent Into Hell. He demonstrates some knowledge of Sufism and discusses Castaneda and the nature of reality.
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DL - Doris Lessing Archive
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DL/2008 - Doris Lessing Archive 2008 deposit
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DL/A-Z - [A-Z Correspondence of Doris Lessing]
- DL/A-Z//BAT - [Correspondence with Brian Bates]
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DL/A-Z - [A-Z Correspondence of Doris Lessing]
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DL/2008 - Doris Lessing Archive 2008 deposit