Occult America : the secret history of how mysticism shaped our nation

Author

Mitch Horowitz

Call Number

• 130.973 H8168 (CEN)

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Edition

1st ed.

Publication Information

New York : Bantam Books, c2009.

Physical Description

290 p. ; 22 cm.

Summary

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 of mystical and esoteric movements to the birth of the New Age era, tracing the many people and episodes that continue to exert such a powerful pull on the public today.

Contents

• Introduction: What is the occult? (and what is it doing in America?)
• The psychic highway
• Mystic Americans
• Don't try this at home : Ouija and the selling of spiritualism
• The science of right thinking
• The mail-order prophet
• Go tell pharaoh : the rise of magic in Afro-America
• The return of the "secret teachings"
• New deal of the ages : politics and the occult
• The masters among us
• Secrets for sale
• "The greatest mystic who ever lived in America"
• Epilogue: Aquarius rising : the new age dawns.