The Occult Nineteenth Century
Roots, Developments, and Impact on the Modern World
Editors: Pokorny, Lukas, Winter, Franz (Eds.)
Free Preview- Provides insights into the multi-faceted realm of the occult nineteenth century
- Written with an international scope
- Brings together original and cutting-edge contributions from both senior and junior academics
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- About this book
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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.
- About the authors
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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.
- Reviews
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“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)
“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)
- Table of contents (18 chapters)
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Introductory Remarks
Pages 1-12
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Carl August von Eschenmayer and the Somnambulic Soul
Pages 15-35
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Priest-Doctors and Magnetisers: Mesmerism, Romantic Medicine, and Catholic Thought in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century
Pages 37-57
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Animal Magnetism and Its Psychological Implications in Hungary
Pages 59-83
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From Fluidum to Prāṇa: Reading Mesmerism Through Orientalist Lenses
Pages 85-110
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Table of contents (18 chapters)
Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- The Occult Nineteenth Century
- Book Subtitle
- Roots, Developments, and Impact on the Modern World
- Editors
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- Lukas Pokorny
- Franz Winter
- Series Title
- Palgrave Studies in New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities
- Copyright
- 2021
- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Copyright Holder
- The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
- eBook ISBN
- 978-3-030-55318-0
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-030-55318-0
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-3-030-55317-3
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- XII, 444
- Number of Illustrations
- 1 b/w illustrations
- Topics
