HORROR HAS A bad rap among many spiritual seekers mostly because they are uncomfortable with the effects horror has on their emotions. They feel that it has a purely negative effect and is associated with "dark" forces. However, literary horror is primarily cautionary and cathartic and, when read for instruction, can lead to deep insight. Teaching readers to read horror for insight is a goal of my proposed book entitled Beauty of the Beast.

Beauty of the Beast will be about how literary horror contributes to psychological and spiritual development. It will be intended for book lovers who read literature as an integral part of their character or spiritual formation. Beauty of the Beast will show the relationship between literary horror and the human story by examining the original narrative, the author’s narrative and the reader’s narrative.


Beauty of the Beast will be about how literary horror contributes to psychological and spiritual development.


The knowledge that we are all monsters on the way to becoming human beings ought not be an occasion for shame but an opportunity to attend to our spiritual growth. The primary purpose of horror is to bring us up against our human limitation and to enable us to become compassionate. I would like readers to more deeply appreciate that we are formed in community through narrative and that what we read can greatly impact our character formation.

Read excerpts from various sections of the book proposal:

	Opening
	Brief Synopsis
	Introduction: Tales that Transform
	Chapter One: In the Pit up Against the Pendulum
	Chapter Two: Monsters at the Margin
	Chapter Three: The Price of Pretension
	Chapter Four: On Slaying or Becoming a Vampire
	Chapter Five: Keep My Memory Green

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