Father Paul

This book was quite a disappointment. Father Paul -- Earl Blighton -- founded the Holy Order of MANS, the New Age monastic order that, after Father Paul's death, converted en masse to Eastern Orthodoxy. I naturally assumed that a book titled Memoirs of a Mystic would be a memoir by Father Paul about his life and particularly his role in the Order. I was surprised Philip Lucas' history of the Order, Odyssey of a New Religion, didn't make more use of this work, and hoped I'd learn new things about Father Paul and the Order.

But instead of a memoir, this book is actually an anthology of poetry. An anthology of very bad poetry. The imagery is tired and the messages are trite. Like most amateur poets, Father Paul has basically mastered rhyme (as long as the rhyming words are only one syllable), but has no feeling for meter. For example:

The clouds always clear, and there's the blue sky.
The love we feel, when Father'[s] near
Drives away all the fear.
So thanks to Father and the monks,
Here's realization of the Self is near
For each of my Brothers here.
This is my prayer.

Father Paul should have stuck to prose.… (mehr)