Patrick Harpur, Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld
… I will be outlining a way of perceiving the world which, while it does not explain the appearance of strange images, renders them intelligible. It is a way which requires, first of all, not that we believe, but that we suspend disbelief, as in the enjoyment of a theatrical production; a way which asks us to foster what Keats called “negative capability–that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” In this frame of mind, we can meet the apparitions on their own ground, in their own twilight, rather than dragging them into the misleading light of day. We can follow where they lead, providing we are as elusive and allusive, as tricky and contradictory, as they are–as long as we are willing to be led out of our depth where, with luck, we’ll be found to be not drowning but waving.
The truth behind apparitions is, I fear, less like a problem to be solved than an initiation into a mystery; less like an investigation than a quest on which we must not be above taking tips from helpful old crones or talking animals in order to wrest the world-transforming treasure from the dragon’s cave. We may even have to abandon our idea of truth altogether if we are to find it.
I’m in! I’ve had this book on my to-read list for years but stumbled across it again in a library search for The Secret Commonwealth.