H.P. Lovecraft — Complete Fiction Index
TL;DR: H.P. Lovecraft — Complete Fiction Index: Index for searching Lovecraft's fiction for predictive programming themes, especially: remote control / viewing from another world or plane — compare Wells' Crystal Egg, Tolkien's Palantír. These stories contain explicit mechanisms for perceiving, communicating with, or being controlled by entities from other worlds, dimensions, or time periods.
Downloaded from hplovecraft.com.
All works public domain (Lovecraft died 1937). 104 fiction pieces + 2 essays.
Total fiction corpus: ~710,000 words.
Purpose
Index for searching Lovecraft's fiction for predictive programming themes, especially:
remote control / viewing from another world or plane — compare Wells' Crystal Egg, Tolkien's Palantír.
HIGH RELEVANCE: Remote Viewing / Control / Dimensional Devices
These stories contain explicit mechanisms for perceiving, communicating with, or being controlled by entities from other worlds, dimensions, or time periods.
The Haunter of the Dark (1935) — ~9,200 words
File: txt/the-haunter-of-the-dark.txt
Device: The Shining Trapezohedron — a polyhedral scrying stone, forged on Yuggoth, that functions as "a window on all time and space." Gazing into it summons the Haunter of the Dark, establishing a psychic link between viewer and entity. The stone shows "heaven & other worlds" and the Haunter "tells them secrets in some way."
Key quote: "Of the Shining Trapezohedron he speaks often, calling it a window on all time and space, and tracing its history from the days it was fashioned on dark Yuggoth, before ever the Old Ones brought it to earth."
Predictive programming angle: Compare directly to Wells' Crystal Egg (1899) — both are alien-manufactured crystal objects that permit viewing of other worlds, and both permit reciprocal observation. The Trapezohedron is explicitly a two-way link.
From Beyond (1920) — ~3,000 words
File: txt/from-beyond.txt
Device: Tillinghast's electronic resonance machine — activates dormant sense-organs (especially the pineal gland) to perceive overlapping dimensions. Beings from "beyond" can also perceive and attack the operator.
Key quote: "We shall overleap time, space, and dimensions, and without bodily motion peer to the bottom of creation."
Key quote: "That gland is the great sense-organ of organs—I have found out. It is like sight in the end, and transmits visual pictures to the brain."
Key quote: "In these rays we are able to be seen as well as to see."
Predictive programming angle: The pineal gland as a literal organ of interdimensional perception — compare to every occult tradition calling it the "third eye." The machine's reciprocity (we see them, they see us) parallels the Crystal Egg's two-way function.
Beyond the Wall of Sleep (1919) — ~4,300 words
File: txt/beyond-the-wall-of-sleep.txt
Device: A homemade telepathic radio (transmitter/receiver based on "atomic or molecular motion, convertible into ether waves"). Used to communicate with a cosmic entity trapped inside a sleeping human.
Key quote: "I am an entity like that which you yourself become in the freedom of dreamless sleep. I am your brother of light, and have floated with you in the effulgent valleys."
Key quote: "We are all roamers of vast spaces and travellers in many ages... dwelt in the bodies of the insect-philosophers that crawl proudly over the fourth moon of Jupiter."
Predictive programming angle: A cosmic intelligence imprisoned in a human body, communicable only via technological assistance. The entity describes consciousness as naturally mobile across bodies and worlds — the body as a prison, not a home.
The Shadow out of Time (1936) — ~25,000 words
File: txt/the-shadow-out-of-time.txt
Device: The Great Race of Yith perfected mind-projection across time — seizing bodies in the far future, swapping consciousnesses, interrogating captive minds in alien bodies. Uses "suitable mechanical aid" for projection.
Key quote: "With suitable mechanical aid a mind would project itself forward in time... seize on the best discoverable representative of the highest of that period's life-forms; entering the organism's brain and setting up therein its own vibrations while the displaced mind would strike back to the period of the displacer."
Key quote: "From cases of the permanent projection of elder minds arose many of those lasting changes of personality noticed in later history—including mankind's."
Predictive programming angle: The most complete expression of the theme. An advanced race routinely seizes human bodies across time for intelligence-gathering. The displaced human is trapped in an alien body millions of years in the past. Personality changes in historical figures are explained as permanent mind-swaps. This is the Palantír concept taken to its logical extreme.
The Whisperer in Darkness (1931) — ~26,400 words
File: txt/the-whisperer-in-darkness.txt
Device: Mi-Go (Outer Ones) surgically extract brains, place them in metal cylinders of Yuggoth-mined alloy, connect them to "electrodes reaching through and connecting at will with elaborate instruments capable of duplicating the three vital faculties of sight, hearing, and speech."
Key quote: "My brain is in that cylinder and I see, hear, and speak through these electronic vibrators... Do you realise what it means when I say I have been on thirty-seven different celestial bodies?"
Key quote: "When the electrodes are disconnected, one merely drops off into a sleep of especially vivid and fantastic dreams."
Predictive programming angle: The brain-in-a-jar is the literal technological implementation of disembodied consciousness. Compare to transhumanism's "mind uploading." The Mi-Go offer this as a service — the extracted brain can travel to 37 worlds. The seduction is the pitch: freedom through disembodiment.
The Thing on the Doorstep (1933) — ~10,700 words
File: txt/the-thing-on-the-doorstep.txt
Device: Occult body-exchange through hypnotic domination of will. Ephraim Waite → daughter Asenath → husband Edward Derby. Chain of possession across generations.
Key quote: "She constantly took his body and went to nameless places for nameless rites."
Key quote: "He changed forms with her when he felt death coming—she was the only one he could find with the right kind of brain and a weak enough will... On, on, on, on—body to body to body—he means never to die."
Predictive programming angle: Immortality through serial body-theft. The sorcerer's method is presented as ancient knowledge. Compare to legends of Wandering Jew, body-hopping demons, and modern "walk-in" claims.
The Challenge from Beyond (1935, collaborative) — ~6,000 words
File: txt/the-challenge-from-beyond.txt
Device: Crystal cubes with hypnotic discs, functioning as "ether-bridges." The cube attracts a mind, draws it in, transmits it across galactic distances to alien receiving equipment.
Key quote: "The mind that noticed the cube would be drawn into it by the power of the disc, and would be sent on a thread of obscure energy to the place whence the disc had come—the remote world of the worm-like space-explorers across stupendous galactic abysses."
Predictive programming angle: A crystal cube as alien trap — the most explicitly sinister version of the Crystal Egg idea. Here the crystal is bait, designed to capture minds. The alien race is an intelligence-gathering operation.
The Evil Clergyman (1937) — ~1,700 words
File: txt/the-evil-clergyman.txt
Device: A matchbox-like device combined with a violet ray-projector. Activating it causes permanent personality displacement — the narrator's body is overwritten.
Key quote: "There's been a certain change—in your personal appearance. He always causes that."
Predictive programming angle: The most compact expression: a small, innocent-looking device that permanently overwrites identity. Compare to modern anxieties about brain-computer interfaces.
The Trap (1931, with Whitehead) — ~8,400 words
File: txt/the-trap.txt
Device: An antique mirror functioning as a dimensional portal. A boy is physically drawn through the glass into a "reversed fourth-dimensional prison."
Key quote: "It was more than a mirror—it was a gate; a trap; a link with spatial recesses not meant for the denizens of our visible universe."
Predictive programming angle: The mirror as trans-dimensional trap — compare to Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, Snow White's magic mirror, and John Dee's obsidian scrying mirror.
The Mound (1930, for Zealia Bishop) — ~29,300 words
File: txt/the-mound.txt
Device: The underground civilization of K'n-yan (Tsath) possesses dematerialisation, rematerialisation, thought-projection, atomic energy, and reanimation — all through trained will.
Key quote: "By the sheer force of the technically trained will... a learned man of K'n-yan could dematerialise and rematerialise himself."
Key quote: "He experimented in the arts of dematerialisation and projection, hoping that he might thereby be able to throw his consciousness downward."
Predictive programming angle: The Vril concept under a different name. An advanced underground race with mastery over matter and energy through trained will. Compare directly to Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race (1871). Lovecraft read Bulwer-Lytton.
The Call of Cthulhu (1926) — ~11,900 words
File: txt/the-call-of-cthulhu.txt
Device: No physical device — Cthulhu transmits dreams and psychic impressions globally from his sunken city R'lyeh, affecting "psychically hypersensitive" artists and dreamers worldwide when the stars are right.
Key quote: "From February 28th to April 2nd a large proportion of them had dreamed very bizarre things, the intensity of the dreams being immeasurably the stronger during the period of the sculptor's delirium."
Predictive programming angle: Mass telepathic influence from a sleeping entity. The transmission is involuntary, affects only sensitives, and correlates with cosmic/seismic events. Compare to HAARP theories, mass formation, and the concept of "the signal."
The Dreams in the Witch House (1932) — ~14,600 words
File: txt/the-dreams-in-the-witch-house.txt
Device: The geometry of a room with non-Euclidean angles enables interdimensional travel during sleep. The witch Keziah Mason discovered this mathematically and uses it to physically transport between dimensions.
Key quote: [Search for "non-Euclidean", "angles", "geometry", "Keziah"]
Predictive programming angle: Architecture as portal technology. The room's angles function as a dimensional gateway. Compare to Masonic sacred geometry, ley lines, and cathedral construction.
MEDIUM RELEVANCE: Alien Contact / Cosmic Horror / Hidden Civilizations
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927) — ~51,000 words
File: txt/the-case-of-charles-dexter-ward.txt
Theme: Resurrection/channeling across time. An ancestor's personality re-emerges through necromantic ritual, eventually displacing the descendant's identity.
At the Mountains of Madness (1931) — ~40,500 words
File: txt/at-the-mountains-of-madness.txt
Theme: Elder Things' advanced pre-human civilization in Antarctica. Shoggoths as remote-controlled biological workforce. Creation of life. Maps of pre-Columbian Earth.
The Shadow over Innsmouth (1931) — ~26,700 words
File: txt/the-shadow-over-innsmouth.txt
Theme: Deep Ones' pact with humans — hybridization program. The narrator discovers his own Deep One heritage. Genetic transformation as involuntary change.
The Dunwich Horror (1928) — ~17,400 words
File: txt/the-dunwich-horror.txt
Theme: Yog-Sothoth's influence from "beyond" producing hybrid offspring. Dimensional entities seeking entry into our world through breeding programs.
The Colour out of Space (1927) — ~12,400 words
File: txt/the-colour-out-of-space.txt
Theme: Alien force arriving via meteorite, draining life force from land and inhabitants. Remote influence without intelligence — or intelligence beyond recognition.
Through the Gates of the Silver Key (1932-33) — ~14,200 words
File: txt/through-the-gates-of-the-silver-key.txt
Theme: Dimensional travel via the Silver Key artifact. Randolph Carter's consciousness scattered across "the WHOLE of a Multiverse" — inhabiting alien bodies in other dimensions.
The Silver Key (1926) — ~5,000 words
File: txt/the-silver-key.txt
Theme: Precursor to the above. The Silver Key enables return to dreamlands/past. Dimensional travel through artifact.
The Horror at Red Hook (1925) — ~8,000 words
File: txt/the-horror-at-red-hook.txt
Theme: Occult summoning and possession rituals in urban setting. Portal between our world and demonic realms.
Nyarlathotep (1920) — ~1,200 words
File: txt/nyarlathotep.txt
Theme: Nyarlathotep as avatar/emissary of the Outer Gods — an entity that functions as remote agent of cosmic powers. Presents a science-demonstration show that drives audiences mad.
Hypnos (1922) — ~2,500 words
File: txt/hypnos.txt
Theme: Two men explore other dimensions through drug-induced sleep states. Encounter hostile entities. One is turned to stone.
The Music of Erich Zann (1921) — ~3,500 words
File: txt/the-music-of-erich-zann.txt
Theme: Music as dimensional barrier/bridge. Zann's playing holds back entities from the void beyond his window.
The Statement of Randolph Carter (1919) — ~3,000 words
File: txt/the-statement-of-randolph-carter.txt
Theme: Communication via telephone wire from underground tomb — voice changes as entity takes over.
The Nameless City (1921) — ~4,500 words
File: txt/the-nameless-city.txt
Theme: Pre-human civilization's ruins in the Arabian desert. Reptilian race.
Dagon (1917) — ~2,000 words
File: txt/dagon.txt
Theme: Risen Pacific island with monolith depicting aquatic races. Proto-Cthulhu.
Polaris (1918) — ~1,500 words
File: txt/polaris.txt
Theme: Dream-memories of a previous life in an Arctic civilization. Past-life consciousness.
The Outsider (1921) — ~2,500 words
File: txt/the-outsider.txt
Theme: Entity discovers it is not human by seeing its own reflection. Identity displacement.
He (1925) — ~4,000 words
File: txt/he.txt
Theme: Alchemist shows visions of old New York through a window — temporal viewing.
The Festival (1923) — ~3,500 words
File: txt/the-festival.txt
Theme: Ancient underground rites; entities that have maintained identity across centuries through transformation.
The Diary of Alonzo Typer (1935) — ~7,000 words
File: txt/the-diary-of-alonzo-typer.txt
Theme: House as portal to underworld entities. Trapped in a dimensional borderland.
Under the Pyramids (1924, for Houdini) — ~10,900 words
File: txt/under-the-pyramids.txt
Theme: Giant entities beneath the Pyramids. Pre-human civilization surviving underground.
The Strange High House in the Mist (1926) — ~3,500 words
File: txt/the-strange-high-house-in-the-mist.txt
Theme: House at the edge of a cliff as a meeting place between this world and the gods. Dimensional borderland.
LOWER RELEVANCE: Setting / Atmosphere / Other Themes
Fiction (alphabetical)
| File | Title | ~Words | Notes |
|---|
the-alchemist.txt | The Alchemist | 2,500 | Cursed family, immortal enemy |
ashes.txt | Ashes | 3,000 | Collaboration |
azathoth.txt | Azathoth | 500 | Fragment — the blind idiot god at center of chaos |
the-battle-that-ended-the-century.txt | The Battle that Ended the Century | 1,000 | Humorous sketch |
the-beast-in-the-cave.txt | The Beast in the Cave | 2,000 | Early work — cave creature |
the-book.txt | The Book | 500 | Fragment — forbidden book |
the-cats-of-ulthar.txt | The Cats of Ulthar | 1,500 | Dreamlands fable |
celephais.txt | Celephaïs | 2,000 | Dreamlands — escape to dream-city |
collapsing-cosmoses.txt | Collapsing Cosmoses | 1,000 | Humorous SF parody |
cool-air.txt | Cool Air | 3,500 | Living dead maintained by cold |
the-crawling-chaos.txt | The Crawling Chaos | 2,000 | Vision of world's end |
the-curse-of-yig.txt | The Curse of Yig | 5,500 | Snake god vengeance |
deaf-dumb-and-blind.txt | Deaf, Dumb, and Blind | 3,000 | Sensory deprivation and other-world contact |
the-descendant.txt | The Descendant | 1,000 | Fragment — Necronomicon reader |
the-disinterment.txt | The Disinterment | 4,000 | Body horror |
the-doom-that-came-to-sarnath.txt | The Doom That Came to Sarnath | 2,500 | Ancient civilization destroyed |
the-dream-quest-of-unknown-kadath.txt | The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath | 42,500 | Dreamlands epic |
the-electric-executioner.txt | The Electric Executioner | 5,500 | Madman on a train |
ex-oblivione.txt | Ex Oblivione | 700 | Dreamlands fragment |
facts-about-arthur-jermyn.txt |
Essays
| File | Title | Notes |
|---|
txt-essays/supernatural-horror-in-literature.txt | Supernatural Horror in Literature | Lovecraft's survey of the entire weird fiction tradition — essential reference for understanding his influences (Machen, Blackwood, Dunsany, Chambers, Bierce, Poe) |
txt-essays/notes-on-writing-weird-fiction.txt | Notes on Writing Weird Fiction | Lovecraft's own craft guide |
Search Keywords for This Corpus
To search the txt/ directory for specific predictive programming themes:
# Remote viewing / scrying devices
grep -ril "trapezohedron\|crystal\|scrying\|window.*time\|window.*space\|mirror.*dimension" txt/
# Mind transfer / body exchange
grep -ril "mind.*exchang\|body.*exchang\|consciousness.*transfer\|brain.*cylinder\|personality.*displac\|possess.*body" txt/
# Pineal gland / third eye / dormant senses
grep -ril "pineal\|third eye\|sense.*organ\|dormant.*sense\|atrophied.*organ" txt/
# Alien technology / advanced machines
grep -ril "machine\|apparatus\|device\|instrument\|vibrat\|resonan\|electric\|electronic" txt/
# Underground civilization / Vril
grep -ril "underground\|subterranean\|dematerial\|rematerial\|K'n-yan\|thought.*project" txt/
# Dream transmission / telepathy
grep -ril "dream\|telepat\|psychic\|mental.*project\|thought.*wave\|ether.*wave" txt/
# Non-Euclidean geometry / portal architecture
grep -ril "non-Euclidean\|angle\|geometry\|portal\|gate\|door.*dimension" txt/
# The Great Race / time travel
grep -ril "great race\|Yith\|mind.*project\|forward.*time\|backward.*time" txt/
