How to Survive Secular Mysticism (2026)
How To Survive Secular Mysticism is a fierce meditation on the cultural hijacking of mystical language and imagery. Alex Head’s swirling aesthetic sensibility and kaleidoscopic commentaries pull us through the subtle yet profound distinctions between lived spirituality and its secular simulacrum, demanding conscious intention and devotional presence amid ever-intensifying chaos.
- Ferdiansyah Thajib, author of Enduring Otherwise
Dense and earnest, this is someone thinking seriously about finding transcendence through art, community, and presence rather than doctrine. 'Secular mysticism' numbs you, disorients you, and opens you to external control. Genuinely strange and original writing, somewhere between cultural criticism, spiritual autobiography, and conspiracy theory, held together by artistic intelligence.
- Erin Honeycutt, pamphleteer
Secular Mysticism includes but is not limited to:
• Uninitiated or uneducated audiences exposed to
religious ideas and icons such as the ‘all seeing eye’
• Drugs and alcohol consumed without intention
• Social-media generated content consumed without
consent
• Trigger responses to environmental stimuli that confuse
thoughts and feelings, opening a way in for fear and anger
• Hypnotic sexual imagery such as the ‘Super-Hero’
Colophon:
How to Survive Secular Mysticism
Alex Head
Plural Studio
2026, Berlin
First edition
All rights reserved
Fonts: Suisse Neue, Suisse International, Suisse
Works, Work Sans, Fergus McDonald
Layout: Lizard in the Spring
Editing: Anna Kostreva
Cover image, after a collaboration with artist
Gabriel Birch, circa 1994
ISBN: 978-3-9828617-0-8
Images: Fabrizio Dal Vera/Aperture Lab Berlin
Contents:
I + I
Between a Thought and a Feeling
Three Days
Liquids
If Thoughts Become Things Then Freedom Freedom Freedom
Aboriginal Dream Time Healing VsStar Trek Voyager, E07, S04: Scientific Method