The Occult Nineteenth Century: Roots, Developments, and Impact on the Modern World

by Lukas Pokorny (Editor), Franz Winter (Editor)

Overview

The nineteenth century witnessed a proliferation of alternative religious currents and practices, appropriating earlier traditions, entangling geographically distinct spiritual discourses, and crafting a repository of mindscapes eminently suitable to be accommodated by later generations of thinkers and practitioners. Penned by specialists in the field, this volume examines important themes and figures pertaining to this occult amalgam and its resonance into the twentieth century and beyond. Global guises of the occult, ranging from the Americas and Europe to India, are variously addressed, with special attention to the crucial role of mesmerism and the origins of modern yoga.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030553203
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	01/10/2021
Series:	Palgrave Studies in New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities
Edition description:	1st ed. 2021
Pages:	444
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Lukas Pokorny is Professor and Chair in Religious Studies at the Department of Religious Studies, University of Vienna, Austria.

Franz Winter is Professor of Religious Studies at the Department of Religious Studies, University of Graz, Austria.

Table of Contents

1. Introductory Remarks.- 2. Carl August von Eschenmayer and the Somnambulic Soul.- 3. Priest-doctors and Magnetisers: Mesmerism, Romantic Medicine, and Catholic Thought in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century.- 4. Animal Magnetism and Its Psychological Implications in Hungary.- 5. From Fluidum to Prāṇa: Reading Mesmerism through Orientalist Lenses.- 6. Total Recall: The “Panoramic Life Review” near Death as Proof of the Soul’s Timeless Self-Presence in Western Esotericism of the Nineteenth Century.- 7. Stages in the Development of an Occult Linguistics.- 8. The Art of Esoteric Posthumousness.- 9. Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie and Sexual Regeneration.- 10. The Theosophical Maitreya: On Benjamin Creme’s Millenarianism.- 11. Martial Arts Spirituality in Sweden: The Occult Connection.- 12. A Study into a Transreligious Quest for the Ultimate Truth: Indian, Muslim, and European Interpretations of the Upanishads.- 13. Occult’s First Foot Soldier in Bengal: Peary Chand Mittra and the Early Theosophical Movement.- 14. Re-Imagining an Ancient Greek Philosopher: The Pythagorean Musings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho).- 15. African and Amerindian Spirits: A Note on the Influence of Nineteenth Century Spiritism and Spiritualism on Afro- and African-American Religions.- 16. Sri Sabhapati Swami: The Forgotten Yogi of Western Esotericism.- 17. Tracing Vivekananda’s Prāṇa and Ākāśa: The Yogavāsiṣṭha and Rama Prasad’s Occult Science of Breath.- 18. Guru and Messiah: On the First Yoga Handbook in Polish Language: Wincenty Lutosławski’sThe Development of the Power of Will by Means of Psychophysical Exercises (1909).

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This impressive volume demonstrates the globally entangled and boundary-shattering nature of what we have come to know as ‘alternative spirituality.’ Meticulous historical analyses of mesmerism and occultism are combined with comparative and transcultural perspectives on theosophy, yoga, and new religious movements and the relations between art, esotericism, medicine, and politics, to show just how central ‘the occult’ really was to the formation of modern culture. The study of occultism and spirituality will never be the same again.” (Egil Asprem, author of The Problem of Disenchantment: Scientific Naturalism and Esoteric Discourse, 1900–1939)

“This wide-ranging collection of essays provides a major contribution towards understanding and appreciating the importance of the occult—as a style of thought and a mode of acting—approached as a global phenomenon. Its historical focus underscores the importance of the ideas, personalities, and movements situated in the nineteenth century as an exceptionally fertile period in the course of which the cross-cultural forms of esotericism encountered and influenced each other.” (Gordan Djurdjevic, author of India and the Occult: The Influence of South Asian Spirituality on Modern Western Occultism)

Editorial Reviews

This impressive volume makes an important contribution to the understanding of occult concepts in the nineteenth century, their origins, and their influence on modern culture. … The volume represents a compilation of highly original scholarship, being a valuable and muchrecommended addition to the study of occultism and esotericism.” (Nicole Maria Bauer, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 47 (1), March, 2021)

From the Publisher