Nihilism and the Dark Side

The first part of this episode is a reading from my book, Advaita Vedanta—Question of the Real. It may seem strange to begin a book that serves as an introduction to Advaita Vedanta Non-dualism, which is primarily a Hindu darshana, with a critique, albeit a brief one, of the corrosive influence of Western philosophy. So far as nihilism goes, while there might be very few persons that would declare it as a ‘path’, a way that they follow, our purpose is to show that nihilism in a very general sense arises inevitably from the humanism that now dominates the world, in spite of its pretence of being rational and its claim to support individual self expression while crushing all difference—and all opposition to its uniform values. The second part is a reading from my book Dreaming Thelema and Magical Art and focuses on one of HP Lovecraft’s most compelling and prophetic tales, Nyarlathotep.Part One: Nihilism and the Western MalaisePart Two: Dreaming Thelema; NyarlathotepThe music Nightjar (Return) was composed and played on the guitar, five-string electric bass and Egyptian drum by myself, Oliver St. John.