Free Strange Powers by Colin Wilson Page B

man—he needed to be with a son who was a born rebel and always into mischief. (At this point, Robert made an interesting digression. He himself, he says, is not a particularly good or patient father. 'I love my children, but I don't really like them. Because, I suppose, they're too much like me—rebellious. Particularly Bobby. Which is largely my own fault. I decided I wanted to have a child with the same birthday as myself. So my wife and I did calculations. In fact, Bobby arrived a few hours after my birthday—6 May—was over. But if there's anything in astrology—our characters are almost identical.' *) [* I must admit that I never cease to be amazed at the weird accuracy of astrological character assessments. According to Derek Parker's The Compleat Astrologer , the character of the Taurean—21st April to 21 May is 'Practical, reliable, adept at business, having strong powers of endurance, a firm sense of values'. Negative traits may include possessiveness and an obsession with routines. 'He will be likely to be successful in a career to do with finance, and he will look forward to security (with pension) in retirement.. .At the same time, he has a distinct artistic leaning.' As to the relation with his children: 'It is very difficult for the Taurean, with his very conservative instincts, to bridge the generation gap with the young; and all too easy for him, with his liking for discipline, to ignore the fact that his children may not be in sympathy with his ideas...'
    Robert may have inherited some of his 'psychic' faculties from his mother; she was the sort of person who could say at breakfast 'I've got a feeling I'm going to hear from so and so today'—and the postman would then arrive with the letter. But on the whole, there was nothing psychic about his family; it was a matter that simply did not interest them. So when, at the age of four or five, Robert found himself one evening looking down on his own body in the bed, there was no one in the family who could explain to him that he was simply experiencing 'astral projection'. Children take these things much more for granted than adults, so this odd ability never worried him. He was certainly not one of Reichenbach's 'sick sensitives'. In fact, his account of himself as a child makes him sound more like Richmal Crompton's Just William, with a touch of Jefferies' Beyis. He played elaborate imaginative games with a close friend, and they encouraged one another in such dangerous feats as dropping off a railway bridge on to the moving carriages below. This adventurous 'Just William' element continued to be a strong part of his character; later on, he traveled thousands of miles around Europe and North Africa on the tops of trains, or, occasionally, clinging underneath the carriages.
    In spite of his self-discipline, his attention to detail, Leftwich is basically an anarchist. 'I can't bear any form of regimentation.' Listening to his anecdotes, I was suddenly reminded of Gurdjieff. In his autobiographical book Meetings with Remarkable Men , Gurdjieff emerges as an amiable rogue. He spent the first half of his life wandering from place to place—'bumming around', as we would say now making a living as best he could; his methods were usually ingenious, sometimes downright crooked. And yet, beyond all shadow of doubt, he was no charlatan; he possessed knowledge and he possessed power. In many ways, Robert's personality make-up resembles Gurdjieff s. It suddenly struck me that these anecdotes about his anti-authoritarianism, his obsession with travel, are not as irrelevant as I at first thought. He was telling me a story about an RAF driving instructor who was supposed to teach him to drive a truck. Robert could already drive, so when the man began to explain: 'This is the ignition key, this is the clutch' he became impatient. When he started the truck, he went from first, into second, then into third gear. At which the instructor stopped him with a roar of rage. 'If