Occult America_ The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation - Mitch Horowitz [0]
“Teases out fascinating stories of the ‘dreamers and planners who flourished along the Psychic Highway.’ ”
—DANIEL STASHOWER, The Washington Post Book World
“A treasure trove … What Mr. Horowitz has done is link the mystical history of the United States into a coherent, fascinating narrative.… His section on fascism and the occult is the clearest I’ve ever read.”
—SUSAN CORSO, The Huffington Post
“A brilliant job of tracking down how positive thinker Norman Vincent Peale borrowed his core self-help philosophy from a religious movement called New Thought.”
—JULIA DUIN, The Washington Times
“Employing extensive research while writing with an authoritative tone, Horowitz succeeds in showing how a ‘new spiritual culture’ developed in America.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Treats esoteric ideas and movements with an even-handed intellectual studiousness that is too often lost in today’s raised-voice discussions about religion and belief systems.”
—CHRISTOPHER PORTER, Washington Post Express
“Patriots and paranoids alike have tramped through this field, and it badly needed sorting out. Mitch Horowitz does it with scholarship, style, and tales that evoke wide-eyed amazement.”
—JOSCELYN GODWIN, professor of music, Colgate University
“This enthralling read tells the surprising story of how occult spirituality in America informed the rise of progressivism, equal rights, and the belief in the universality of religious truth.”
—ENLIGHTENNEXT
“A fascinating look at the role of mysticism and alternative spirituality in our nation’s history.”
—Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“A fantastic tour guide to the fringes of reason, high weirdness, deep esoterica, secret societies, and mystery religions.”
—DAVID PESCOVITZ, Boing Boing
“One of the best recent books on patterns of belief.”
—ROBERT GUFFEY, Fortean Times
“Reveals the mystical and occult origins of some of our most valued philosophies.”
—KRISTINE MORRIS, Spirituality & Health
“A wild intellectual ride … It’s amazing to think that today’s societal ideals such as equality and personal development are offshoots of the beliefs of various mystical subcultures and alternative thought leaders, but Horowitz’s arguments are entirely convincing.”
—PAM GROSSMAN, Phantasmaphile
“A sparkling, down-to-earth, and often deeply touching account of a powerful, much misunderstood force in the formation of America’s cultural and spiritual identity.”
—JACOB NEEDLEMAN, author of The American Soul
“Occult America is a truly remarkable achievement.”
—JOHN S. D. EISENHOWER, author of The Bitter Woods
“A fantastic work. A truly artful blend of criticism and sympathy.”
—JEFFREY J. KRIPAL, chair of the Department of Religious Studies, Rice University
A 2010 Bantam Books Trade Paperback Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Mitch Horowitz
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
BANTAM BOOKS and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., in 2009.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Horowitz, Mitch.
Occult America : white house séances, ouija circles, masons, and
the secret mystic history of our nation / Mitch Horowitz.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-553-90698-1
1. Occultism—United States—History. 2. Parapsychology—
United States—History. I. Title.
BF1434.U6H67 2009
130—dc21
2009009864
www.bantamdell.com
v3.1_r1
To Allison,
who makes everything possible
“O Egypt, Egypt, there will remain of thy religion only fables …”
—HERMETICA
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction: What Is the Occult?
(And What Is It Doing in America?)
Epigraph
1. The Psychic Highway
2. Mystic Americans
3. Don’t Try This at Home: Ouija and the Selling of Spiritualism
4. The Science of Right Thinking
5. The Mail-Order Prophet
6. Go Tell