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n early 1960, on his way back from a conference in San Francisco, Koestler interrupted his journey at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where some experimental research was going on with hallucinogens. He tried psilocybin and had a "bad trip". Later, when he arrived at Harvard to see Timothy Leary, he experimented with more drugs, but was not enthusiastic about that experience either.[59] In November 1960, he was elected to a Fellowship of The Royal Society of Literature. In 1962, along with his agent, A D Peters and the editor of The Observer, David Astor, Koestler set up a scheme to encourage prison inmates to engage in arts activities and to reward their efforts. Koestler Arts supports over 7,000 entrants from UK prisons each year and awards prizes in fifty different artforms. In September each year, Koestler Arts run an exhibition at London's Southbank Centre.

Koestler's book The Act of Creation was published in May 1964. In November he undertook a lecture tour of various universities in California. In 1965 he married Cynthia in New York;[60] they moved to California, where he participated in a series of seminars at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Koestler spent most of 1966 and the early months of 1967 working on The Ghost in the Machine. In his article "Return Trip to Nirvana", published in 1967 in the Sunday Telegraph, Koestler wrote about the drug culture and his own experiences with hallucinogens. The article also challenged the conclusion about mescaline experience in Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception.

Koestler wrote several major novels, two volumes of autobiographical works, two volumes of reportage, a major work on the history of science, several volumes of essays, and a considerable body of other writing and articles on subjects as varied as genetics, euthanasia, Eastern mysticism, neurology, chess, evolution, psychology, the paranormal and more.[91]

Darkness at Noon was one of the most influential anti-Soviet books ever written.[92] Its influence in Europe on Communists and sympathisers and, indirectly, on the outcomes of elections in Europe, was substantial.[93] Geoffrey Wheatcroft believes that Koestler's most important books were the five completed before he was 40: his first memoirs and the trilogy of anti-totalitarian novels that included Darkness at Noon.[87]

Arthur Koestler statue in Budapest
Politics and causes
Koestler embraced a multitude of political, as well as non-political issues. Zionism, communism, anti-communism, voluntary euthanasia, abolition of capital punishment, particularly hanging, and the abolition of quarantine for dogs being reimported into the United Kingdom are examples. [citation needed]

Science
In his book The Case of the Midwife Toad (1971) Koestler defended the biologist Paul Kammerer, who claimed to have found experimental support for Lamarckian inheritance. According to Koestler, Kammerer's experiments on the midwife toad may have been tampered with by a Nazi sympathiser at the University of Vienna. Koestler came to the conclusion that a kind of modified "Mini-Lamarckism" may explain some rare evolutionary phenomena.

Koestler criticised neo-Darwinism in a number of his books but was not opposed to the theory of evolution in general terms.[94] Biology professor Harry Gershenowitz described Koestler as a "populariser" of science despite his views not being accepted by the "orthodox academic community".[95] According to an article in the Skeptical Inquirer, Koestler was an "advocate of Lamarckian evolution – and a critic of Darwinian natural selection as well as a believer in psychic phenomena".[96]

In addition to his specific critiques of neo-Darwinism, Koestler was opposed to what he saw as dangerous scientific reductionism more generally, including the behaviourism school of psychology, promoted in particular by B. F. Skinner during the 1930s.[97] Koestler assembled a group of high-profile antireductionist scientists, including C. H. Waddington, W. H. Thorpe, and Ludwig von Bertalanffy, for a meeting at his retreat in Alpbach in 1968. This was one of many attempts which Koestler made to gain acceptance within the mainstream of science, a strategy which brought him into conflict with individuals such as Peter Medawar who saw themselves as defending the integrity of science from outsiders.[97] Although he never gained significant credibility as a scientist, Koestler published a number of works at the border between science and philosophy, such as Insight and Outlook, The Act of Creation, and The Ghost in the Machine.

Paranormal
Mysticism and a fascination with the paranormal imbued much of Koestler's later work and he discussed paranormal phenomena, such as extrasensory perception, psychokinesis, and telepathy. In his book The Roots of Coincidence (1972)[98] he claims that such phenomena can never be explained by theoretical physics.[99] According to Koestler, distinct types of coincidence could be classified, such as "the library angel", in which information (typically in libraries) becomes accessible through serendipity, chance or coincidence, rather than through the use of a catalogue search.[100][101][102] The book mentions yet another line of unconventional research by Paul Kammerer, the theory of coincidence or seriality. He also presents critically the related concepts of Carl Jung. More controversial were Koestler's studies and experiments on levitation and telepathy.

ADVENT 183

Page 109

"At the root of our traditional units of measurement is the ancient, mystical science of numbers, to which Plato makes an obscure reference towards the end of Epinomis, here quoted from Lamb's translation.

The most important and first (study) is of numbers in themselves: not of those which are corporeal, but of the whole origin of the odd and the even and the greatness of their influence on the nature of reality. When he has learnt these things, there comes next what they call by the very ridiculous name of geometry, when it proves to be a manifest likening of numbers not like one another by nature in respect of the province of planes; and this will be clearly seen by him who is able to understand it to be a marvel, not of human but of divine origin. And then, after that, the numbers thrice increased and like to the solid nature, and those again which have been made unlike, he likens by another art, namely that which its adepts call stereometry.'

The text is probably corrupt, the expressions are unfamiliar and it is hard to follow Plato's meaning. But the reference, both here and in another passage in Laws, is to some method of relating different classes of phenomena to one numerical system, by which the adept may come to understand the unifying principle in nature. Of this knowledge Plato declares that it is the greatest of all blessings both to him who possessed it and to his community, but if it can not be acquired, the best substitute is simple faith in God since, on the / Page 110 / word of an initiate, matters are far better arranged than we can possibly conceive. He continues,'Every diagram and system of number and every combination of harmony and the agreement of the revolution of the stars must be made manifest as one in all to him who learns in the proper way, and will be made manifest if a man learns aright by keeping his eyes on unity; for it will be manifest to us as we reflect, that there is one bond naturally uniting all these things.'

The number 666 in metrology

The number which above all others acts as a bond between the various units of measurement is the perfect number of Chaldean mathematics, 666. For example, 666 feet = 150 cubits + 150 MY while 666 square feet = 90 square MY. Also 6660 square yards = 902 square MY and 66,600 square feet = 1502 square cubits. The Babylonians had a decimal system, but they also reckoned in units of 6, 60 and 600 and a curious survival of this system is found in the letters which the Romans used as numerals, for the sum of I, V, X, L, C and D is 666. "

Page 109

The most important and first (study) is of numbers in themselves: not of those which are corporeal, but of the whole origin of the odd and the even and the greatness of their influence on the nature of reality. When he has learnt these things, there comes next what they call by the very ridiculous name of geometry, when it proves to be a manifest likening of numbers not like one another by nature in respect of the province of planes; and this will be clearly seen by him who is able to understand it to be a marvel, not of human but of divine origin. And then, after that, the numbers thrice increased and like to the solid nature, and those again which have been made unlike, he likens by another art, namely that which its adepts call stereometry.'

STEREOMETRY

THE ART OF LIKENING UNLIKE THINGS

Page 109

Of this knowledge Plato declares that it is the greatest of all blessings both to him who possessed it and to his community, but if it can not be acquired, the best substitute is simple faith in God since, on the / Page 110 / word of an initiate, matters are far better arranged than we can possibly conceive. He continues,'Every diagram and system of number and every combination of harmony and the agreement of the revolution of the stars must be made manifest as one in all to him who learns in the proper way, and will be made manifest if a man learns aright by keeping his eyes on unity; for it will be manifest to us as we reflect, that there is one bond naturally uniting all these things.'

The number 666 in metrology

The number which above all others acts as a bond between the various units of measurement is the perfect number of Chaldean mathematics, 666. For example, 666 feet = 150 cubits + 150 MY while 666 square feet = 90 square MY. Also 6660 square yards = 902 square MY and 66,600 square feet = 1502 square cubits. The Babylonians had a decimal system, but they also reckoned in units of 6, 60 and 600 and a curious survival of this system is found in the letters which the Romans used as numerals, for the sum of I, V, X, L, C and D is 666. "

STEREOMETRY

THE ART OF LIKENING UNLIKE THINGS