Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation [Hardcover]

Mitch Horowitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 2009

 
From its earliest days, America served as an arena for the revolutions in alternative spirituality that eventually swept the globe. Esoteric philosophies and personas—from Freemasonry to Spiritualism, from Madame H. P. Blavatsky to Edgar Cayce—dramatically altered the nation’s culture, politics, and religion. Yet the mystical roots of our identity are often ignored or overlooked. Opening a new window on the past, Occult America presents a dramatic, pioneering study of the esoteric undercurrents of our history and their profound impact across modern life.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Book Description
It touched lives as disparate as those of Frederick Douglass, Franklin Roosevelt, and Mary Todd Lincoln--who once convinced her husband, Abe, to host a séance in the White House. Americans all, they were among the famous figures whose paths intertwined with the mystical and esoteric movement broadly known as the occult. Brought over from the Old World and spread throughout the New by some of the most obscure but gifted men and women of early U.S. history, this “hidden wisdom” transformed the spiritual life of the still-young nation and, through it, much of the Western world.

Yet the story of the American occult has remained largely untold. Now a leading writer on the subject of alternative spirituality brings it out of the shadows. Here is a rich, fascinating, and colorful history of a religious revolution and an epic of offbeat history.

From the meaning of the symbols on the one-dollar bill to the origins of the Ouija board, Occult America briskly sweeps from the nation’s earliest days to the birth of the New Age era and traces many people and episodes, including:

• The spirit medium who became America’s first female religious leader in 1776
• The supernatural passions that marked the career of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith
• The rural Sunday-school teacher whose clairvoyant visions instigated the dawn of the New Age
• The prominence of mind-power mysticism in the black-nationalist politics of Marcus Garvey
• The Idaho druggist whose mail-order mystical religion ranked as the eighth-largest faith in the world during the Great Depression

Here, too, are America’s homegrown religious movements, from transcendentalism to spiritualism to Christian Science to the positive-thinking philosophy that continues to exert such a powerful pull on the public today. A feast for believers in alternative spirituality, an eye-opener for anyone curious about the unknown byroads of American history, Occult America is an engaging, long-overdue portrait of one nation, under many gods, whose revolutionary influence is still being felt in every corner of the globe.

---

Amazon Exclusive: Mitch Horowitz on the Occult in American History

Scholars of American history have often dismissed occult traditions, such as Spiritualism, Mesmerism, divination, channeling, and mental-healing, as little more than oddball social trends to be analyzed, fretted over, and debunked. This is a mistake. To really grasp the religious development of our nation, its occult movements and believers must be understood for what they are: communities of belief, who left a profound impact on the culture of America and the modern world.

Early American history is entwined with esoteric spirituality. North America’s first intentional mystical community reached its shores in the summer of 1694. That year, the determined spiritual philosopher Johannes Kelpius led about forty pilgrims out of Central Germany--a region decimated by the Thirty Years’ War--and to the banks of the Wissahickon Creek, just beyond Philadelphia. The city then hosted only about 500 houses, but it represented a Mecca of freedom for the Kelpius circle, who longed for a new homeland where they could practice their brands of astrology, alchemy, numerology, and mystical Christianity without fear of harassment from church or government.

Soon more mystical thinkers from the Rhine Valley journeyed to America, building a larger commune at Ephrata, Pennsylvania. A young woman named Ann Lee fled persecution in her native Manchester, England and relocated her esoteric sect, the "Shaking Quakers"--or the Shakers--to upstate New York in 1776. That same year, a Rhode Island girl, Jemima Wilkinson, declared herself a spirit channeler, took the name Publick Universal Friend, and began to preach across the northeast. The trend was set: America became a destination for religious idealists, especially those of a supernatural bent.

By the 1830s and 40s, a region of central New York State called "the Burned-Over District" (so-named for its religious passions) became the magnetic center for the religious radicalism sweeping the young nation. Stretching from Albany to Buffalo, it was the Mt. Sinai of American mysticism, giving birth to new religions such as Mormonism and Seventh-Day Adventism, and also to Spiritualism, mediumship, table-rapping, séances, and other occult sensations--many of which mirrored, and aided, the rise of Suffragism and related progressive movements. The nation’s occult culture gave women their first opportunity to openly serve as religious leaders--in this case as spirit mediums, seers, and channlers. America’s social and spiritual radicals were becoming joined, and the partnership would never fade.

Indeed, the robust growth of occult and mystical movements in nineteenth-century America--aided by the influence of Freemasonry and Transcendentalism--helped transform the young nation into a laboratory for religious experiment and a launching pad for the revolutions in alternative and New Age spirituality that eventually swept the globe. In the early twentieth century, the new spiritual therapies--from meditation to mind-body healing to motivational thinking--began revolutionizing how religion was understood in contemporary times: not only as a source of salvation but as a means of healing. In this sense, occult America had changed our world. --Mitch Horowitz

From Publishers Weekly

America has provided fertile ground for alternative spirituality, particularly the form known as occult, whose American leaders, unlike their more grandiose European counterparts, sought to remake mystical ideas as tools of public good and self-help, says Horowitz, editor-in-chief at Tarcher. Looking back at the growth of the spiritualist and utopian movements, he introduces the reader to a parade of personalities, both familiar and obscure: dreamers and planners who flourished along the Psychic Highway. He begins with Shaker Mother Ann, who arrived in America in 1774 followed by, among many others, pioneer prophetess Jemima Wilkinson; Poughkeepsie Seer Andrew Jackson Davis; Madame Blavatsky, who founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 and popularized the word occultism; Frank B. Robinson, the Mail Order Messiah; and Edgar Cayce with his past-life readings. Horowitz covers a wide variety of topics, from voodoo to the tenets of the New Age, psychics in the White House, Rosicrucianism, Wicca, arcane Masonic imagery, Tarot cards, the controversial reincarnation of Bridey Murphy and the origin of the science fictional Shaver mystery. Employing extensive research while writing with an authoritative tone, Horowitz succeeds in showing how a new spiritual culture developed in America. (Sept. 15)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (September 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553806750
• ISBN-13: 978-0553806755
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #214,591 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

MITCH HOROWITZ the editor-in-chief of Tarcher/Penguin and the author of OCCULT AMERICA (Bantam 2009/2010), which The Washington Post Book World called: "Fascinating...a serious, wide-ranging study of all the magical, mystical, and spiritual movements that have arisen and influenced American history in often-surprising ways." The book received the 2010 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for literary excellence. Time Out magazine has called his Occult New York Walking Tours a "can't-miss event" featuring "seldom-told stories of New York's mystical history." He has written for U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, Big Think, and Boing Boing, and has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, and All Things Considered. You can visit him online at www.MitchHorowitz.com. See below for upcoming events.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tour through the byways of American religious history, November 6, 2009

By 

Kenneth Johnson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation (Hardcover)

Mitch Horowitz rescues many colorful characters from obscurity in this entertaining tour through the byways of American religious history. My favorite sections of the book were those describing individuals whose teachings flourished in the early twentieth century but are almost forgotten today. Psychiana was a successful mail-order religion that did not long survive the death of its founder Frank Robinson. Baird Spaulding concocted tall tales about encounters with Oriental spiritual Masters in books that were widely read in the 1930s and 40s. The Moorish Science Temple is a fascinating amalgamation of occult doctrines with black nationalism, whose founder Noble Drew Ali has been little studied by historians. Manly P. Hall authored an occult classic, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, in his twenties and led an organization that epitomized southern California eclecticism through most of the twentieth century. Benjamin Williams popularized astrology and Tarot under his pen name C.C. Zain, but like Hall was famous mainly in the Los Angeles area. All these individuals are given their place in the American religious landscape as pioneers of a movement Horowitz calls occultism or "the occult" which he concludes "resulted in a vast reworking of arcane practices and beliefs from the Old World and the creation of a new spiritual culture." The obscure characters are placed into historical context with exploration of occult ideas in better known movements like Mormonism and New Thought, which contributed to a new spiritual culture. Familiar but little-understood topics like Hoodoo and the history of the Ouija board are illuminated in new ways by Horowitz's groundbreaking research.

While amusing and entertaining, Occult America is grounded in years of scholarship and depicts its subjects with a mixture of respect and detachment that might be called "sympathetic objectivity." The final chapter about Edgar Cayce is the most thoughtful, balanced account of the "sleeping prophet" seen in years, appreciative without being credulous. On Theosophy, Horowitz is well-informed and wise, recognizing its contribution to religious pluralism along with its penchant for fantastic claims and scandal. Andrew Jackson Davis was far more the founder of Spiritualism than the Fox sisters, and Horowitz gives him the attention he deserves as an American original. Having written on those subjects I can endorse the author's scholarship as thorough and his commentary as insightful; in areas less familiar to me the book gives every indication of consistent reliability. I have been reading books on what might be called "occult history" for thirty years, and cannot recall one that is more enjoyable to read, or more informative about a diverse cast of characters, than Occult America.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hidden History, October 26, 2009

By 

Ray Grasse (Chicago, Illinois) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating and long overdue look at a largely ignored side of American history. This is must-reading not just for history buffs and students of esotericism, but for anyone wanting to better understand the roots of the American character, since it's all-too-easily overlooked how profoundly these mystical undercurrents have shaped this nation's values, politics, and dreams. I knew a fair amount this topic before going in, but he's managed to unearth some facts and characters even I knew nothing about.

I notice some of the other reviews here mentioning what this book leaves out, but as an editor and writer myself, I can't agree with that. By focusing on the key characters and episodes that he does, Horowitz gives us a concise overview of a very complex subject, leaving the reader to pursue its many leads if they so choose--and in so doing will certainly reach a far wider audience than otherwise, in the respectable tradition of writers like Stephen Jay Gould. He's managed to take a potentially dry subject and make it extremely accessible--and that's no small feat. Kudos.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended - both entertaining and a crucial historical record, September 28, 2009

By 

Greg Kaminsky "rochester92" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation (Hardcover)

Mitch Horowitz, as editor-in-chief at Tarcher/Penguin has brought forth many excellent volumes of esoteric and New Age books. The same depth of understanding of his material and outstanding research also contributes to this important historical account that he has delivered in "Occult America." In my opinion, this book is important because it ties together much of the esoteric history of the U.S. from a journalistic perspective, in a very readable manner. Horowitz knows his subject intellectually, historically, and as one who has cultivated the promotion of these ideas as his life work. His passion for, and depth of understanding of, his subject is obvious throughout this book. I found "Occult America" to be extremely interesting and entertaining, providing a view of the people and ideas that shaped the religious and philosophical life of the country, including Paul Foster Case, Manly Hall, Henry Steel Olcott, Ernest Holmes, Edgar Cayce, Joseph Smith, Henry A. Wallace, Frederick Douglass, Mary Baker Eddy, and the list goes on.

Among the profiles of religious seekers, prophets, teachers, and often colorful individuals, one important point Horowitz makes is that some of these "New Age" beliefs have become widely-accepted, including:

"1. Belief in the therapeutic value of spiritual or religious ideas.
2. Belief in a mind-body connection in health.
3. Belief that human consciousness is evolving to higher stages.
4. Belief that thoughts, in some greater or lesser measure, determine reality.
5. Belief that spiritual understanding is available without allegiance to a specific religion or doctrine."

Another important point made by Horowitz is that new thought has been openly promoted in this country since the very beginning as the land of religious freedom and experimentation. Much of this fascinating history and its tremendous impact has been overlooked, ignored, and in some cases, maybe suppressed. As part of the historical record, none of it should not be pushed under the rug. Thankfully, Horowitz has reminded us all about the diverse and esoteric spiritual heritage of this country, treating the subject with scholarship and respect.

Mitch Horowitz's podcast interviews are a wonderful introduction to the subjects in "Occult America" for anyone who is still on the fence about reading it.