The Archives of Franklin Merrell-Wolff
The Franklin Merrell-Wolff Fellowship is pleased to offer its members access to the Wolff Archives through the Fellows Page tab on this web site (this page will appear once you log in). Please note that although access to this material is restricted to members of the Fellowship, membership in the Fellowship is free to all. Click here to join the Fellowship and gain access to this material.
The archives of Franklin Merrell-Wolff span a period of nearly seventy years, from his first publication in January 1916 until his “last word on tape” in December 1984. On August 7, 1936, at the age of forty-nine, Wolff experienced the first of two mystical states of consciousness that he termed “Fundamental Realizations.” From that date forth, Wolff’s writings and discourse carry a sense of authority and afflation not found in his earlier work. Accordingly, the catalog of Wolff’s archives differentiates his writings prior to that date (“Early Work”) from his subsequent work. This is not to say that Wolff’s earlier writings are not erudite; indeed, they clearly convey the hallmarks of a keen and analytical mind. Moreover, this early work provides valuable insight into the fecundity of the psychological and intellectual groundwork that preceded Wolff’s 1936 realizations. [1]
In the decade or so following his 1936 realizations, Wolff wrote a number of seminal works. Pathways through to Space was begun ten days after his first transformative experience (or, as Wolff would say, “imperience”), and documents in journal form both his outer experiences and his inner life in the three months that followed, and contains as well various philosophical reflections on what had taken place. It is a gem in the corpus of mystical literature. After this autobiographical focus, Wolff turned to the production of work more systematically organized and designed to address philosophical questions studied in the academic milieu of the day. Wolff first penned the article “Concept, Percept and Reality,” which appeared in the 1939 volume of The Philosophical Review, one of the most highly regarded philosophy journals published in English. A four-part treatise followed: entitled “The Philosophy of Consciousness-without-an-object,” Wolff’s intent in this work was to restore the office of philosophy to “A Way of Realization” as opposed to simply a monitor of physical science. [2]
During the decade mentioned above, and in the ensuing years of his life, Wolff wrote a number of short essays intended primarily for his students and his close associates, and he engaged in voluminous correspondence with the same; other than this, however, he virtually ceased all formal writing. Beginning in 1951, he began to express himself using another format—he recorded his words on magnetic tape using a reel-to-reel tape recorder. In the following thirty-three years, he amassed over 300 recordings that amount to over 280 hours of discourse. Transcriptions of this material, as well as a subject catalog of these recordings, are available to members of the Franklin Merrell-Wolff Fellowship.
The Wolff Archives also contain various written and recorded works of Wolff’s two wives (Sarah A. Merrell Wolff, also known as Sherifa; and, Gertrude Adams Wolff, also known as Lakshmi Devi). This material may be accessed through the Fellows Page of the Franklin Merrell-Wolff Fellowship website.
Wolff’s books Pathways Through to Space and "The Philosophy of Consciousness-without-an-object" are currently published by SUNY Press. To purchase these books (through SUNY Press) please click on the highlighted titles below:
Pathways Through to Space and the first two parts of "The Philosophy of Consciousness-without-an-object" are available under the title Franklin Merrell-Wolff’s Experience and Philosophy: A Personal Record of Transformation and a Discussion of Transcendental Consciousness (Containing His Philosophy of Consciousness Without an Object and His Pathways Through to Space).
The third and fourth parts of "The Philosophy of Consciousness-without-an-object" are offered as Transformations in Consciousness: The Metaphysics and Epistemology (Containing His Introceptualism). [3]
Please note that Wolff recommended reading (and wrote) Parts 1, 3 and 4 of "The Philosophy of Consciousness-without-an-object" before Part 2.
[1] Much of Wolff’s early work was written under the pseudonym “Yogagñani,” a name bestowed upon him by Yogi Hari Rama, an Indian teacher with whom Wolff had a close association in the 1920s. Wolff lived to the age of ninety-eight years, so there is a remarkable symmetry to his life: his “early work” was written during the first half of his life, his “post-realization work” was produced during the second half of his life.
[2] Other than the article that appeared in The Philosophical Review, Wolff’s work after 1936 was created using the nom de plume “Franklin Merrell-Wolff,” a name that combined his surname with that of his first spouse. His given name was Franklin Fowler Wolff.
[3] The work “Introceptualism” referred to in the subtitle refers to an earlier edition of Parts 3 and 4 of "The Philosophy of Consciousness-without-an-object." This SUNY Press publication is an edited version of Parts 3 and 4, which are reorganized into three parts: Parts I and II of this work make up the original Part 3, and Part III corresponds with the original Part 4.
