Jim Morrison, Secret Teacher of the Occult: A Journey to the Other Side

- Examines Morrison's deep occult and artistic influences, including Kurt Seligmann's The Mirror of Magic, Colin Wilson's The Outsider, and the works of Jack Kerouac

- Draws on Morrison's lyrics and poems, his intimate writings, and the recollections of friends like photographer Paul Ferrara and Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek

The groundbreaking 1960s band The Doors, named for Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception, achieved incredible acclaim and influence, ultimately serving as a key group in the development of psychedelic and progressive rock. At the center of it all was complex front man Jim Morrison, who died in 1971 at only 27. Yet, as author Paul Wyld reveals, despite Morrison's reputation as a lewd, drunken performer, he was a full-fledged mystical, shamanic figure, a secret teacher of the occult who was not merely central to the development of rock music, but to the growth of the Western esoteric tradition as a whole.

Wyld looks at the mystical works that inspired Morrison, including Kurt Seligmann's The Mirror of Magic, Colin Wilson's The Outsider, and the writings of Nietzsche and Jack Kerouac. Drawing on Morrison's lyrics and poems, his intimate writings, and the recollections of friends like photographer Paul Ferrara and Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek, the author makes the case that Morrison was not simply a superficial dabbler in the occult but an actual secret teacher transmitting knowledge through the golden thread stretching back to Egypt and Thoth-Hermes.

Explaining how Morrison sought to use his role as a rock singer to promote the adventure of the spirit and express the power of inner experience, Wyld shows how praxis was at the heart of Morrison's approach, a commitment revealed in his journey through the arduous ordeals of shamanic initiation. The author also reveals how, like many other esoteric teachers, Morrison paid heavily for his occult teachings, enduring an unjust criminal conviction in 1970 and dying less than a year later after an intense campaign of public persecution.

Revealing Jim Morrison as a shaman, mystic, and sage, Wyld shows how Morrison was part of a great spiritual awakening, a calling to which he gave himself over fully.