In Watcher On The Hills, physicist Raynor C. Johnson examines 36 cases of mystical and spiritually transformative encounters experienced by ordinary people. The higher self, the soul and personality, higher mystical experience and cosmic consciousness are all examined.

The author tells us: “I have written this book because the testimony of those who have had moments or mystical experience seem to me a clear pointer to the truth of the world. I find these testimonies impressive in their sincerity, in their unanimity, and in their influence on the lives of those to whom they came. It is satisfying to have the assurance that (in William James’s words), ‘the inmost nature of reality is congenial to powers which we possess.’ But for everyone who has had such a glimpse there are 1000 who would desire it, but have had none. Immersed in the routine and monotony of everyday life, uninspiring and uninspired, they feel remote from such experience.”

This book is for those people.

“In most religions the ultimate verities are believed—and may therefore be doubted; in mysticism they are experienced, and doubt is no longer possible.” ~ Swami Vivekananda

Raynor Carey Johnson was born on 5th April 1901 in Leeds, England. He earned a BA and MA at Oxford University and a PhD in physics at the University of London. He later taught physics at Queens University Belfast and the University of London where his specialist subject was spectroscopy; the study of the interaction between matter and radiated energy. He authored and co-authored a number of scientific papers, and published three scientific books, Spectra, Atomic Spectra, and Introduction to Molecular Spectra. In his field he was considered a leading research scientist of the time.

In 1934 Johnson, his wife Mary, and their children, moved to Australia where he had been invited to take up the post of Master of Queen’s College at the University of Melbourne. It was there that he became friends with the author Ambrose Pratt who introduced him to psychical research, mysticism, and the Society of Psychical Research.

After many years of studying eastern religion and the paranormal Johnson abandoned his Methodist beliefs and particularly the belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ. In Johnson’s mind Jesus was one of the greatest spiritual beings to grace this earth but not the source of all creation.

In the space of ten years, Johnson authored four books on mysticism, The Imprisoned Splendour, Nurslings of Immortality, Watcher on the Hills, and The Light and the Gate.

In 1964 he retired from academia and spent the rest of his life devoted to mysticism and God, traveling to India to a bid to experience enlightenment rather that just the intellectual pursuit of it. In 1984, his final book, Light of All Life: Thoughts towards a philosophy of life was published. He died on 16th May 1987.