Is the universe alive? Are there hidden connections within it, revealed in history & in sacred texts? Can we understand or even learn to control these secrets? Have we neglected an entirely separate science that works according to a different set of principles?
Certainly by the time of the Renaissance in Europe, there were many thinkers who answered in the affirmative to all of these questions. Despite the growth of modern science & a general disenchantment of the world, the 'occult' or 'esoteric' tradition has evolved in the West, manifesting itself in such diverse groups as the Freemasons, the Mormons, Christian Scientists, the Theosophists, New Ageists & American Fundamentalism. Paradoxically, the turn to science & the triumph of evolution in the nineteenth century produced an explosion of occultism, increasing its power as a kind of super-science. Gothic, fantastic, & supernatural fiction flourished, while Spiritualism emerged as a serious inquiry into the possibility of contacting the dead. After all, if you could communicate with the living at great distances, why should a similar teletechnology not be possible to the other world?
Disciplines had not yet hardened, & the borders were as yet undefined between parapsychology & psychology, between mythology & anthropology. Mesmerism became hypnotism, & the subconscious came to be recognized as more than a medium's stomping ground. This book describes the growth & meandering path of the occult tradition over the past five hundred years, & shows how the esoteric world view fits together.