ParanormalReview.com News

UNITED STATES. American literary giant Norman Mailer, now 84, has expanded further on his belief in reincarnation – a subject already covered in these columns. He does so in an extraordinary new book – On God – which takes the form of a dialogue between Mailer and one of his literary executors, Michael Lennon.

Mailer tackles some of the thornier issues about the nature and purpose of human experience and reveals an astonishing theology that sees God and the Devil waging war within each individual.

An introduction to an excerpt in the New York Times Magazine, titled “The Rise of Mailerism”, reveals Mailer’s concept of God – He or She – as the greatest artist, whose main focus of attention is the human soul.

“But his theology is not theoretical to him,” the introduction explains. “After eight decades, it is what he believes to be true. He expects no adherents, and does not profess to be a prophet, but he has worked to forge his beliefs into a coherent catechism.”

Here, for example, are his views on Heaven and Hell:

“I don’t believe in Hell as eternal punishment. Rather, Hell has dimensions. Some parts of it are critically worse than others. My notion remains that the only Heaven and Hell we ever receive—the only judgment that comes to us—is by way of reincarnation. To wit, as a reward we can be given a better possibility in our next life. Or we can be born into a worse one, if that is what we deserve. I’m not interested in absolute moral judgments, eternal Heaven, eternal Hell—to the contrary.”

He believes in karma but faces up to the possibility “that God may have His or Her occasional problem operating the mechanics of reincarnation”.

Mailer doesn’t expect to have many adherents to “Mailerism” but his book is certain to enjoy a lively debate. His view of a personalised God and the Devil, at war with each other, is quaintly old-fashioned and some of his other ideas are equally illogical.

But on another level it is deeply thought-provoking as it grapples to understand the purpose of our existence and the evil that co-exists with good in most people.

Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007
Category: Reincarnation

Return