Hypnogogic Prose and the New Scripture Project

Why the West needs new sacred narratives — and the language to tell them.

Most people in the West have completely abandoned scripture - and for good reason.

What you might call Old Scripture - for example the Old Testament and the New - contains enormous amounts of objectionable and even quite depraved material.

New Atheism was very effective at exposing these aspects of scripture. So effective in fact that there is no chance that widespread devotion to Old Scripture will return.

The problem is: when you erase the foundational stories of a culture without replacing them, that culture will sicken and die or spin wildly out of control.

This is because we are made of story.

We are quite literally narrative creatures. Every political view you hold, every moral outlook you cherish: all of these things are at their base some kind of story. Together they form the fundamental narratives of a society or culture.

If our narratives fail, we must replace them as a matter of urgency.

If the narratives of the West are not replaced then we will continue the rapid descent into our facile, deliberately manipulated cartoon world of materialism and self-interest and the despair that inevitably haunts it.

The fundamental project of New Scripture is to preserve the sane parts of Old Scripture while cutting out the crazy. To weave these remnants together with new material into foundational stories that are humane, uplifting, refining, and inspiring.

Along with the narrative dimension of New Scripture we also need to preserve and update the specific hypnogogic language that Old Scripture uses to such powerful effect.

Its “ravenous splendor of language” to quote a very unfashionable author.

This rhythmic, poetic, repetitive, insistent mode of speech is a central part of why scripture moves people so deeply. We must create an updated and democratised version of it if we are to achieve the same effect.

In this series of articles I will detail what New Scripture is, how it sounds, why it matters, and what it might become.

I will provide examples from my books, while also emphasising the most fundamental tenet of the genre: that the categories of New Scripture can never be closed.

This is not about one charismatic individual dominating the field. It must be a cooperative and constructive effort by numerous talented writers, working together to build a repository of story that might found a more just and sane society.

There is a real possibility that other modern writers are already co-creating New Scripture, whether intentionally or instinctively.

I haven’t yet found it in the marketplace of ideas but if you do write in this mode - or know someone who does - I would be most grateful to hear from you.

P. Julian - Winter 2025

For full texts of my books click here.

For further information on New Scripture and Hypnogogic (Hyp) Prose click here.

To access full texts of my books at Internet Archive click here.

To access this and my other articles on Medium click here.