THE THEORY OF CONSCIOUS HARMONY

Sacramento: By The Way Books, 1998. Paperback in new condition.. New edition with addition of a 19-page index biography of Collin; 231 pages. Collin was a student of P.D. Ouspensky and was with him from 1936 until Ouspensky's death in October of 1947. The biographical note explains that the experiences Collin went through at the time of Ouspensky death "Profoundly affected his whole being." Collin gained a perception of what and where his work was to be. For a period he remained in London and began writing "The Theory of Celestial Influence." In June of 1948 he went to New York, enroute to Mexico--the place where he felt he was to begin his work. By 1949 he had moved to the outskirts of Mexico City and began translating of Mr. Ouspensky's books into Spanish. In the book, Collin challenges the reader to penetrate one's inner world by working to achieve unity and harmony, with the ultimate aim of escaping time. Collin writes, "In all experiments and efforts and dissapointments, we must never forget the idea of self-remembering. No matter whether one is scientifically or mystically inclined, or whether one finds oneself mired in one's old life or in the middle of quite new experiences, this provides one's compass. This will show the direction in which to go and prevent one from ever becoming lost." The book was compiled by his wife, Janet Collin, following Collin's sudden death in May, 1956. He had climbed 98 steps up a church tower and suffered a heart attack, hit his head on the tower and fell to his death in the town square in Cuzco, Peru while visiting work groups he had helped establish in South America. Luckily, Collin had kept copies of his letters he had written over the years to people all over the world. "Conscious Harmony" is an emotional vignette drawing on key points related to the work in answer to individual's queries and notes to him from 1944 to 1956. Janet Collin compiled these and edited notes to create 35 different selections of major work ideas. Of particular note is the quality of positiveness that marks his writing throughout. "There is so much to do in preparation for the future, so many different fields in which harmony must come, and all by means of ordinary everyday men like ourselves...In individual men, harmony among fuctions; harmony between body, soul and spirit; harmony among its different members, harmony between its leader and its origin; in the great esoteric impulse launched through Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, harmony among all lines and groups; harmony between them, their founders and God; in the world, harmony among all branches of knowledge, all peoples, all esoteric lines," Collin wrote.