John O'Loughlin first got the idea of writing a collection of dialogues in 1978 after reading the French philosopher Diderot, one of the outstanding practitioners of the genre, and the results, several weeks later, were four fairly lengthy philosophical dialogues, which enabled him to continue developing the dualistic theories begun the previous year (1977) and included in both the mainly essayistic 'Between Truth and Illusion' (which contains his first ever philosophical dialogue) and the comparatively more aphoristic 'The Illusory Truth'. Their subject-matter ranges from book collecting as...

The essayistic introduction to this little collection of abstract poems attempts to point up a distinction between poetry and antipoetry, and then to contrast both of these with what has been termed superpoems - the abstract poetry of a transcendental age or civilization which strives to dissolve grammatical appearances into a non-descriptive essence. Whether or not John O'Loughlin was successful in this or even correct in his overall theorizing at this time (1983), Abstracts is a collection of poems which, whilst mostly readerly (or capable of being read), is devoid of conventional...

Unlike John O'Loughlin's first collection of non-readerly abstract poems and/or poetic word art, simply called 'Contemplations' (1985), which was uniformly lower-case in its monosyllabic structures, this later project, which dates from 1993 and has been entitled 'Supercontemplations', is comprised of mixed-case monosyllabic structures that are also intended, albeit on a more flexible and arguably imaginative basis, to facilitate a contemplative frame-of-mind at the expense of readerly norms, thereby transcending the intellect in what could be regarded as a mode of literary salvation akin to...

Conceived in loosely cyclical form, this 1994 project harks back to the author's 'supernotational' works, which date from the mid-80s, comprising essayistic aphorisms and aphoristic notes, in respect of the greater variety of length and treatment between the contents, some of which are arguably aphoristic, others essayistic, but all of which thematically follow from John O'Loughlin's previous philosophical titles, including the four volumes of maxims beginning with 'Maximum Truth' (1993), in a no-less comprehensively methodical vein.

Akin in structure to 'From Satan to Saturn', its immediate predecessor, this second 1994 text is nonetheless arguably more cyclically methodical and aphoristically consistent, as it develops its curvilinear style through some seventy-two cycles comprised of varying numbers of aphorisms, which continue the author's quest for philosophical - or, more accurately in relation to their metaphysical scope, theosophical - perfection along both old and new channels of speculative investigation.

Continuing in the vein of the revolutionary transvaluations characteristic of both 'Occasional Maxims' (1994) and 'Maximum Occasions' (1994-5), this volume of aphoristic philosophy nevertheless returns us, in due cumulative fashion, to the cyclical style of writing adopted by John O'Loughlin in 'From Punishment to Grace' (1994), albeit with the addition of side titles to recurring numerals, and with a view to bringing to completion a task which really began several years ago ... when he boldly set-out on the long and difficult path that leads to Truth, or metaphysical knowledge. Little did he...

Progressing through 125 cycles of sequentially-numbered essayistic aphorisms (supernotes), 'Eternal Life' ... subtitled 'Supernotes from Beyond' ... brings John O'Loughlin's philosophy to a kind of theosophical head in what is arguably one of the most thematically perfect of all his works, and one that, so we believe, should stand near the conceptual apex of his oeuvre, as he both sums-up and elaborates upon previous truths, or aspects of metaphysical knowledge, with a view to advancing the cause of eternal life in a world which is still, alas, all too temporal

This 1996 project, the title of which, viz. 'Book of Beliefs', arguably owes something to Henry Miller's 'Book of Friends' in its informal structure and the subtitle of which, viz. 'The Omegala', is an oblique tribute to anything omega-orientated, is more informally cyclic than 'Eternal Life' (1995), its immediate precursor in John O'Loughlin's aphoristic canon, but remains, nonetheless, one of the most comprehensively exacting and demanding of all his philosophical works, and also, in the long run, one of the most thematically rewarding.