Total Man: An Evolutionary Theory of Personality, London, Allen Lane/Penguin Press, 1972; New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973; New York, Ballantine, 1974; London, Abacus, 1975
An epic voyage (180,000 words, 530 pages) through the duality of mankind in every sphere and at all levels--literature, psychology, evolution, linguistics, community--demonstrating its crucial significance for every individual. Following publication, Gooch received an entry in Who's Who in the World.
"Drawing on literature and legend, on science fiction, mythology, history, physiology, psychology, linguistics, and art, British psychologist Stan Gooch has written a daring new interpretation of the human psyche. Total Man, which contains what may be the best defense of the I Ching as a way of knowledge since Carl Jung, presents a rare attempt at providing a complete system of thought aimed at fostering the evolution of a 'new consciousness.'”
Publishers Weekly
“An extraordinary study. His vision of duality is arresting and his exploration will fascinate layman and scholar alike--never dull.”
Library Journal
“One of the most exciting and original thinkers to appear in many
years.”
Books and Bookmen
Personality and Evolution: The
Biology of the Divided Self, London, Wildwood House, 1973
Continues Gooch's deep exploration into human consciousness and of the meaning
and purpose of the process behind evolution. This book was made Choice of the
Year in the Sunday Times, London.
“An abstract does no justice to the richness of material, live writing and exceptionally clear thinking which Stan Gooch commands.”
Jacquetta Hawkes, Sunday Times
“We cannot but admire Stan Gooch's massive and challenging endeavor.”
Los Angeles Times
The Neanderthal Question, London, Wildwood House, 1977
In this book Gooch begins his detailed examination of the culture and evolutionary backgrounds of our two ancestors, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man. While the genetic crossbreeding of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon has implacably been denied by the scientific community, by 2001 that establishment was at last forced to admit that we are indeed a genetic hybrid between the two species. However, Gooch's claim that not just modern psychology but our present society owes a strong debt to Neanderthal culture (see Cities of Dreams, below) is still hotly contested by conventional science.
Gooch further proposes that Cro-Magnon evolved not in Africa but in the Far
East, not emerging from Africa some 200,000 years ago, but entering it
about that time.
“The most gripping part of his work deals with Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal man. He writes as if he had just come from a television interview with several."
Time Out
“All Stan Gooch's books are infused with his amazing thinking. They are a force for good. I have read them with delight.”
Brian Aldiss
The Paranormal, London, Wildwood House, 1978; London, Fontana/Collins, 1979; New York, Harper/Collins, 1980,1981
Gooch divulges that in his mid-twenties and prior to obtaining a degree in psychology, he trained as a medium and developed remarkable paranormal abilities (in the early 1980s Gooch appeared several times on Granada television where he successfully transmitted telepathic images to the viewing audience--the switchboards in Manchester and Liverpool were jammed for the rest of the day). The first part of the book concerns his own paranormal experiences and those of acquaintances, but the rest presents a groundbreaking general theory of the paranormal.
This work was the first about the paranormal ever to be reviewed--and favorably
so--by the British Journal of Psychology.
“A book that even the sceptic can read with enjoyment and profit--not just
for the converted.”
British Journal of Psychology
“To his credit Gooch insists upon approaching the paranormal on its own terms--terms radically different from those proposed by investigation of the orthodox sciences. But the primary value of Gooch's vision lies in his ability to advance and inspire the reader.”
Singularities
“An original and exciting book by a brilliant writer.”
Robert Temple
“Stan Gooch is a splendid advocate of the open-minded approach to the world lying beyond our ordinary sense.”
Manchester Evening News
Guardians of the Ancient Wisdom, London, Wildwood House, 1979; London, Fontana/Collins, 1979; Amsterdam, Standaard, 1980; Antwerp, Van Holkema, 1980
Explores the many parallels found in worldwide myths and legends. Crucial
aspects of all cultures (South American, North American, Australian, Asian,
European) share an ancient but common origin--the moon-worshipping culture of
Neanderthal man which 30,000 years ago mingled with that of Cro-Magnons.
“Gooch's brilliance is undeniable.”
Books and Bookmen
“Above all Gooch is a creative thinker. How can a book fail to appeal when
clear writing and creativity are combined with courageous speculation.”
Daniel Miller
“The latest and most daring of evolutionary theories--so well presented that it is difficult not to be convinced.”
Western Daily Press
The Double Helix of the Mind: The Secrets of Mental Evolution and Advance, London, Wildwood House, 1980
This volume is firstly notable for its rejection of Roger Sperry's “split-brain” theory concerning the cerebrum's hemispheres (for which Sperry received a Nobel prize, and which took the academic and public worlds by storm) as fundamentally flawed, in fact, Gooch was the only voice in the scientific community to denounce Sperry's idea; then, in the year 2000--two decades after Gooch's objection--this same establishment announced that the split-brain thesis had been abandoned.
As an alternative, Gooch continues to develop his view that it is the cerebellum--
at
the rear of our heads--which is responsible for dreaming, trance states,
creativity, paranormal experiences, and much more.
“This important book will surely provoke wide-ranging debate.”
Science of Thought Review
“Relentlessly original.”
Stanley Krippner
The Secret Life of Humans, London, J. M. Dent & Sons, 1981
An astonishing collection of fully authenticated accounts of the human mind's power over both the body and environment around it. For example: the woman experiencing appendicitis who under hypnosis removed a piece of bone from her appendix, passed it through her intestines, and excreted it; a sufferer from multiple disseminated tuberculosis and on the point of death, who totally recovered in a few hours at the shrine of Lourdes--the medical examination then showing no trace of the disease; a policeman who, following a cycling accident, developed paralysis, blindness, and many other physical defects, all of which were duplicated by his dog lying under the bed (as confirmed by a veterinarian)--both dying at the same moment.
“Gooch boldly recalls our attention to the fact that man--in nature, society, history--is such a many-sided being; that to lose this vision is to place ourselves in real peril--that we must put into proper perspective the recent 'authority' of science.”
New Humanist
“Like yourself, I have been trying to make sense of experiences that are consistently devalued by mainstream science. Your admirable summaries have given me the courage to take some steps forward.”
Peter Redgrove
“A wealth of examples--fascinating case after fascinating case--both intriguing and impressive.
Dumfries
and Galloway Express
Creatures from Inner Space, London, Rider/Century Hutchinson, 1984; Tokyo, Tuttle-Mori, 1987
Further information from Stan Gooch's own episodes with the paranormal in later life, and those of individuals known personally to him--such as Trudie Styler, wife of the pop star Sting (in the book referred to as “Sandy”), who underwent an incubus attack.
Gooch now states categorically that all alternative experiences arise from the cerebellum: poltergeists, incubus and succubus assaults, memories of past lives, multiple personality, split personality, alien visitations and abductions, hypnosis, dreaming, the unconscious mind, automatic writing, mediumistic possession, miracle cures, precognition and postcognition, hypnotic regression, telepathy, clairvoyance, clinical neurosis, and so on. Further, women have a larger cerebellum than men, and in his view this is why women hypnotize faster, and experience more dreaming, multiple personality, paranormal events, etc.
He underscores the fact--long accepted in the relevant sciences--that a direct reptilian ancestor of ours had two pairs of eyes: one atop the head and linked to the cerebellum, the other set in front and connected to the cerebrum. At that time the cerebellum was the dominant of the two brain organs, but over time the cerebrum took command. The eyes on the upper head fused, and sank down into the brain to form the pineal gland--mysticism's “third eye,” as it was called by Hindus 3000 years ago, who of course had no knowledge of conventional evolution.
Although being overthrown, the cerebellum continued its own development to the present. Despite a deceptively smaller size, due to deep convolutions the cerebellum has in fact a surface area--or cortex--75 percent as great as that of the apparently much larger cerebrum. And from many points of view the cerebellum is not the next highest developed brain organ on our planet, but the premier feature. Thus the Purkinje cells of the cerebellum can form as many as 100,000 connections with other fiber bodies, whereas a normal figure for cells in the cerebrum is 1000 connections; there are also more cells in the granular layer of the cerebellum cortex than in brain's entire remainder.
Yet the cerebellum is virtually excluded from all university textbooks on psychology and physiological psychology; typically it receives a dozen pages in volumes nearly a thousand pages long. Moreover, Neanderthal man possessed a considerably larger cerebellum than Cro-Magnon....
“What an interesting, crowded, maddening whirlwind of a book.”
Renée Haynes, The Tablet
“The evidence presented is curiously compelling and the book well worth reading.”
Irish Independent
“Frighteningly well argued.”
Times Educational Supplement“Gooch presents a legion of bizarre happenings, crying out to be called incredible--except that they are witnessed, documented, authenticated. The book is startling enough to upstage Stephen King and makes horror comics seem pedestrian.”
Daily Mail
Cities of Dreams, London, Rider/Century Hutchinson, 1989; London, Aulis Publishers, revised and augmented edition, 1995
Gooch culminates his pursuit of Neanderthal culture and biology--as well as their effects on our lives today--in this comprehensive volume. There is no way that the richness and scope of his narrative can be summarized here, so a sampling follows.
For example, Christianity is a direct descendant--a garbled but also deliberate encoding--of the Neanderthal moon religion. Thus the date of Easter, the festival of Christ's death and resurrection, is determined each year by the lunar cycle--why Easter is a moveable feast. Christ dies on the cross--symbol for the moon in all pre-Christian cultures. He dies on a Friday (the 13th), Freija's day--and she is the moon goddess. His death takes place at the beginning of the Jewish sabbath--the Hebrew name for the (originally monthly) festival of menstruation for the moon goddess. Christ and his 12 disciples constitute a coven of 13. But there is only one such number found in nature, the 13 full moons and new moons occurring in each alternate year--in response to which women respectively ovulate, conceive, and menstruate.
Others in this numerical lineage of covens are Robin Hood and the 12 merry men, as well as King Arthur and his 12 knights. Hence the stories of Christ, Robin Hood, King Arthur--along with many others, including Sleeping Beauty, and the Death of Balder--are all in essence and origin one. The ballads tell us that Robin dies after being bled to death by an evil priestess. Robin is the commonest name for a witch's familiar throughout Britain, and also slang for the penis (from robinet, a tap or faucet). Hood itself is a reference to Neanderthal's traditional headgear, as can be deduced from the venerable Haxey Hood game, and numerous other sources. (Incidentally, King Arthur's “round table” is a 13-zodiac, while the two oldest stone zodiacs ever found, one in Israel and the other North American, are also of this configuration.)
What is the story that we are discussing? The Neanderthal lunar religion, has the moon sacrificing the sun on the last day of the year, then graciously resurrecting it so that life on Earth may continue. In the actual ceremony, the “King for a Year” is killed by having his genitalia cut off--to turn him into a menstruating woman (cf. the “spear” in Christ's side, and the “spear through both thighs” of the Fisher King). The genitals are then eaten and the blood drunk--hence the same acts symbolized in the Christian Eucharist.
On the biological side it is rather obvious that contemporary humans have inherited two conflicting sets of instincts, formed during the very different pasts of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon--precisely what transpires when widely contrasting animal species are crossed in the laboratory. Neanderthal was sexually promiscuous in the extreme, including homosexuality, lesbianism, and what is today called child abuse. But Cro-Magnon had evolved pair-bonding, with one partner for life. And this is the reason we long for everlasting love “forsaking all others,” while at the same time eagerly pursue “one-night stands.”
One of the further results of our hybrid nature remains at the social level, where left and right-wing politics vie--with no other explanation for this universal polarity. Thus the Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, and “ethnic cleansing” arise from the instinctive Cro-Magnon attempt to destroy its equally innate Neanderthal rival... in the “final solution.” The French and Russian Revolutions as well as various anticapitalist movements are efforts by the Neanderthal to obliterate the CroMagnon aspect. So Communists, Socialists, and Democrats reflect the Neanderthal strain, whereas Fascists, Conservatives, and Republicans evoke their Cro-Magnon anthesis. Of course, we are all simultaneously both, therefore the contrived solutions never endure . . .
These are but a few features from Cities of Dreams' vast thoughtscape.
“With this his latest book Stan Gooch may be ready to rejoin the academic establishment as an innovator whose originality can no longer be ignored. Cities of Dreams proves than far from being an eccentric maverick Gooch is one of the most formidable and consistent thinkers alive today, and that his own manifest belief in the importance of his work is totally justified.”
Colin Wilson, Literary Review
“Stan Gooch is a careful and passionate researcher. We need him. For we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge but not of the Tree of Life, and as Joseph Campbell used to say, wouldn't you like a bite of that? Cities of Dreams is a book of daring, of insight, of imagination. A book of the timeless and a book of our time.”
Research Into Lost Knowledge Organization