Böcker i Cambridge Library Collection - Spiritualism and Esoteric Knowledge-serien

The philosopher and literary author Isaac Taylor (1787-1865) published this book anonymously in 1836. The work is a development of two earlier works: Saturday Evening (1832) and Natural History of Enthusiasm (1829), all three attempts to provide a philosophy to deal with the major problems and spiritual questions of the day. The popularity of Physical Theory led to Taylor relinquishing his previous anonymity. The work is a religious and philosophically speculative exploration of the possible paths of knowledge to information regarding the future existence of human beings. Taylor believed that knowledge of the human physical constitution could be used to conjecture information about the modes of human eternal life and eternity's scheme of moral duties. The work was very popular among contemporaries and offers today an important insight into Victorian intellectual life. It is a rich source for historians of nineteenth-century religious philosophy.

The distinguished surgeon and medical writer Walter Cooper Dendy (1794-1871) published On the Phenomena of Dreams in 1832. The work carefully traces the history of western thought and philosophy on the topic of dreams and visions, examining authors from Aristotle to Hume and Pyrrho to Berkeley, and maps the development of poetical and literary traditions on the subject. Dendy's work then moves to an attempt to find a medical explanation and material source for dreams, psychic visions and illusions. Dendy presents his concept of a ghost as an intense idea, and attempts to classify and categorise different types of psychic experiences. Dendy's work was a pioneering attempt to find scientific solutions to supernatural phenomena. Very popular at the time, it now offers an invaluable insight into the Victorian fascination with the occult and the desire to approach the supernatural with reason and the rigours of scientific investigation.

Horace Bushnell (1802-1876) was a minister in the Congregational church. A prolific author, his Christian Nurture established his reputation, and some scholars have asserted the work's singular importance to American Protestant Liberalism and Christian education in the nineteenth century. This work, first published in 1858, exemplifies Bushnell's importance and influence in nineteenth-century Protestantism and discusses 'the great question of the age'. Controversially defining the supernatural as extant outside the realm of the divine, Bushnell argues that the human is an example of the supernatural, human freedom which makes this so: man acts both within and without the chain of cause and effect; mankind is part of both nature and supernature. Controversially, then, Bushnell places the supernatural within 'the one system of God'. For theologians and scholars of religious history and the history of ideas, this work will be of great interest.

Published just a year before his seminal Le Sommeil et les Reves (1861), this book by French scholar L. -F. -Alfred Maury (1817-1892) examines the complex history of occult philosophy. A librarian by profession, Maury was widely published in geography, archaeology, medicine, law, psychology and bibliography as well as history, and was a well-known figure in Parisian intellectual circles. In this 1860 publication Maury considers the relationship between science and magic, purporting to demonstrate how people have been 'elevated' from the darkness of supernatural belief into the light of modern science. The book is divided into two parts. The first examines the traditions of magic and astrology in the ancient civilisations of Persia, Greece, Babylon, Rome, and the Orient, and the influence of Christianity on magic. The latter half includes an investigation of possible explanations, considering magic in relation to drugs, dreams, hallucinations, somnambulism, and the imagination.

Ukrainian-born Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) was a co-founder of the theosophy movement in the United States, which she later extended to Europe and India, though her later years were dogged by ill health and controversy. In this book, published in 1886, A. P. Sinnett (1840-1921), a fellow theosophist and writer, sets out a defence of Blavatsky, writing that 'I have reason to believe that the attempt will respond to the wishes of a great many people ... who regard the current aspersion on Mme. Blavatsky's character with profound indignation'. He outlines the many extraordinary events in her life, covering her childhood in Russia and claims to an early connection with the supernatural world, her brief unhappy marriage and decade of extensive global travels, her time of study in India, and the criticism she received about some of her 'phenomena' and practices.

This translation from the Greek by Thomas Taylor (1758-1835) was first published in 1821. Taylor's early writings and translations into English influenced such romantic poets as Blake, Coleridge and Keats. Iamblichus is thought to have been born in Syria in the middle of the third century and is regarded as one of the great Neoplatonist philosophers. He founded a school in which he taught 'white magic' or 'theurgy'; he sought to uncover the invisible side of nature and to give Man the means to effect the union of the divine spark with its parent-flame within him. In this work, divided into ten sections, he gives a complete canon of pagan religious thought and belief and explains their background. The Neoplatonist Porphyry's Letter to Anebo, in which he criticises religious rituals and practices, and Iamblichus' response to this criticism, and defence of these traditions, are included.

Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), co-founder of the Theosophical Society, was a versatile man. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of American agricultural education and also served in the U.S. War Department. Later Olcott was admitted to the New York Bar and became interested in psychology and spiritualism, travelling to India and Sri Lanka with Madame Blavatsky to explore eastern spiritual traditions, especially Buddhism. In this volume (published in 1900) Olcott chronicles how he and Madame Blavatsky journeyed to India and Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in the years 1878 to 1883 to oversee the foundation of new branches of their Society. This is part classic travel writing in which the author gives breathless descriptions of the beauty of Indian nature, culture and philosophy and part characterisation of Madame Blavatsky's 'psychological eccentricities' as Olcott experiences them. To him she was and remained 'an insoluble riddle'.

Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), co-founder of the Theosophical Society, was a versatile man. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of American agricultural education and also served in the U.S. War Department. Later Olcott was admitted to the New York Bar and became interested in psychology and spiritualism, travelling to India and Sri Lanka with Madame Blavatsky to explore eastern spiritual traditions, especially Buddhism. This volume (1895) describes the first meeting between Olcott and Madame Blavatsky and the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875. Olcott continued to practise as a lawyer (and supported the Society financially) while in the evenings he and Madame Blavatsky would entertain visitors or collaborate on the book Isis Unveiled. The author portrays his friend as a spiritual medium and describes how Madame Blavatsky's body was from time to time possessed by other 'entities'.

Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), co-founder of the Theosophical Society, was a versatile man. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of American agricultural education and also served in the U.S. War Department. Later Olcott was admitted to the New York Bar and became interested in psychology and spiritualism, travelling to India and Sri Lanka with Madame Blavatsky to explore eastern spiritual traditions, especially Buddhism. In this polemical volume (first published in 1932), Olcott describes his view of the history of the Society between 1893 and 1896: conflicts and long-standing tensions had led to a split in 1895, precipitated by a clash between Olcott and William Judge, Vice-President of the Society in America. After the split Olcott carried on travelling widely and lecturing, having established a study centre in Chennai, India, for the movement now known as the Theosophical Society - Adyar.

Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), co-founder of the Theosophical Society, was a versatile man. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of American agricultural education and also served in the U.S. War Department. Later Olcott was admitted to the New York Bar and became interested in psychology and spiritualism, travelling to India and Sri Lanka with Madame Blavatsky to explore eastern spiritual traditions, especially Buddhism. This volume covers the period 1883-1887: Olcott tells of his meetings with many of the 'Masters' of the Society and considers what has been achieved since he and Madame Blavatsky met in Vermont in 1874. He is invited to Burma by its king, who is interested in hearing about Olcott's work; Madame Blavatsky resigns as Corresponding Secretary of the Society and goes into exile in Europe. The author, however, is determined to give a fair assessment of her invaluable contribution to the Society.

Karl Kiesewetter (1854-1895) was the most influential German theosophical writer of his time, and wrote several books on the history of esotericism and occultism. This biography of Mesmer (1734-1815) was first published in Leipzig in 1893. It begins with two very substantial historical chapters. The first discusses practitioners of 'animal magnetism' before Mesmer, citing evidence dating back to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Babylonian cuneiform records. The second discusses the history of visions, dreams, trances, soothsaying and divination, referring to the Greeks and the Gnostics. The second half of the book focuses on Mesmer himself. It describes his childhood near Lake Constance, his university education in philosophy and medicine, his medical practice in Vienna and his interest in 'cosmic magnetism'. It documents his treatments and the controversies they caused, his travels, his benefactors and detractors, and ends with a summary of his theories including extracts from his work.

The German scientist and philosopher Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert (1780-1860) studied theology and medicine, but gave up his medical practice to teach natural history at Erlangen and Munich, specialising in botany, forestry and mineralogy. He also gave public lectures on topics including animal magnetism, clairvoyance and dreams, and strove to develop an understanding of the cosmos that could reconcile Enlightenment philosophy with Christian faith. This 1814 study of the symbolism of dreams was highly regarded in its day, and its influence extended to the works of Freud and Jung nearly a century later. Schubert considers the working of the mind in the state between waking and sleeping, and proposes that dreams and their symbols, not being bound by language, are universally comprehensible. His book focuses mainly on those dreams that, in his view, lead to prophetic insights and an experience of the divine presence.

Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854-1934), ordained an Anglican priest in 1879, developed interests in spiritualism and occultism (then highly fashionable), and by the mid-1880s was a leading figure in the recently-founded Theosophical Society. He travelled to India, North America and eventually Australia on the Society's business, his influence only temporarily dented by a furore in 1906-8 involving allegations of child abuse. Leadbeater believed he was clairvoyant, and his many writings include this book, first published in 1899 and reissued here in a fifth edition marking the Theosophical Society's Diamond Jubilee in 1935. Leadbeater primarily addresses readers convinced of the existence of clairvoyance and familiar with theosophical terms. He argues that the 'power to see what is hidden from ordinary physical sight' is an extension of normal perception, and describes a wide range of phenomena including intentional and unintentional clairvoyance, premonitions, telepathy, and 'seeing' the past and the future.

The psychologist Edmund Parish makes a valuable contribution to the study of the psychology of perception as well as introducing a theory of insanity in this 1897 work. The author tells the reader that it grew out of an examination of the German 'International Census of Waking Hallucinations in the Sane', the results of which he had analysed. Rather than merely translating the German original, Parish has added new information and considered criticism of his own previous work. The book is a sustained effort to define 'the common organic principle which, under whatever diversity of conditions, underlies alike normal and fallacious perception', by incorporating the most recent psychological and neurological research. Parish is especially interested in casting light on the waking hallucinations of healthy persons, as he regards this phenomenon as having been largely ignored by previous research.

First published in 1886, this comprehensive analysis of nineteenth-century spiritual experiments questions our long tradition of encounters with the supernatural, and why it appeared to have declined in influence in the writer's era. Maudsley (1835-1918), a medical psychologist and pioneer psychiatrist, sets out to bring such alleged spiritual phenomena under scientific investigation. Emphasising the natural defects and errors of human observation and reasoning, as well as the prolific activity of the imagination, this inquiry into the causes of belief in the supernatural suggests that much of it can be explained though hallucination, mania, and delusion. The book is divided into three parts: the first section concentrates on the causes of fallacies in the sound mind, while the second considers unsound mental action. The focus of part three is theopneusticism, or the attainment of supernatural knowledge by divine inspiration. This second edition appeared in 1887.

Early in his career, the German doctor Franz Mesmer (1734-1815) became fascinated by the concept that the invisible natural forces or 'magnetism' exerted by planets, minerals and animals (or humans) could produce physical effects including healing. His influential 'discoveries' were highly controversial, and Mesmer tried persistently but unsuccessfully to obtain scientific recognition for his theory of 'animal magnetism'. This book, published in 1814, was edited by Mesmer's friend J. C. Wolfart, also a medical doctor and a former sceptic. Its scope goes far beyond the mere question of healing individuals. Mesmer proposes a system that he claims would both improve the physical and mental health of individuals and promote the ethical ordering of society. Mesmer appeals to future leaders to develop his blueprint of a more 'natural' and balanced world order, based on his understanding of Enlightenment science and his observations of human physiology, psychology, education, government and justice.

Written by folklorist Andrew Lang (1844-1912), this 1894 publication examines the ambivalent relationship the living have attempted to forge with the dead throughout history. Nicknamed 'the Wizard of St Andrews', this prolific polymath also worked as an anthropologist, classicist, historian, poet, mythologist, essayist and journalist, producing over a hundred publications in his lifetime. Largely ignored by scholarship, this book suggests expanding the study of folklore to include contemporary narratives of supernatural events. Taking its title from the legends of the notorious Cock Lane ghost, the work considers the survival of ancient beliefs such as hauntings, clairvoyance, and other phenomena believed to transcend the laws of nature, and how such beliefs have persisted through great social upheaval and change. It includes chapters on savage and ancient spiritualism, comparative psychical research, haunted houses, second sight, crystal gazing, and Presbyterian ghost hunters, among others.

Austrian philosopher, playwright, and artist Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) is perhaps best known as an educational philosopher and reformer, the founder of Steiner (or Waldorf) schools located around the world. Steiner was an active member and leader of the German branch of Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical Society before forming his own Anthroposophical Society. His engagement with the occult stems from his work in theosophy and anthroposophy, philosophies invested in reaching and understanding the 'supersensible' world that relies on a cultivation of body, spirit, and soul. This anonymous translation of the fourth German edition was published by the Theosophical Publishing Society in 1914; the first edition was published in Germany in 1909. Steiner asserts in this work the necessary and intrinsic connection between what is possible through cognition with the power of the soul and the spirit. It will be of interest to scholars of spiritual philosophy, spiritual movements, and social psychology.

Austrian philosopher, playwright, and artist Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) is perhaps best known as an educational philosopher and reformer, the founder of Steiner (or Waldorf) schools located around the world. These schools' philosophy represents the priorities Steiner discusses in Theosophy: the development of body, soul, and spirit. Goethe was an important influence on Steiner, and he edited the poet's scientific works (1889-1896). Steiner was an active member and leader of the German branch of Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical Society, eventually broke away from theosophy, as he developed his own spiritual philosophy termed 'anthroposophy'; this philosophical movement asserted the potential of realizing a spiritual reality through cognition. This 1910 translation by Elizabeth Douglas Shields is of the book's third German edition; it was first published in 1904. This work will be of particular interest to historians of philosophy, of spiritual movements and of education.

The lawyer and journalist Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907) published People from the Other World in 1875. Part 1 of the work is a careful account of Olcott's 1874 investigations into the famous Eddy brothers of Chittenden, Vermont, and their claimed psychic powers. Part 2 is a report into two Philadelphia mediums who claimed to be able to call up two spirits called John and Katie King. The account includes descriptions of seances, healings, levitation, teleportation and the famous Compton transfiguration. Olcott, a founding member of the Theosophical Society and its first president, was a pioneer of psychical research. This work, deeply influenced by Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891), who he met at Chittenden, is one of his most popular. It offers an important insight into the nineteenth-century fascination with the occult and is a classic example of a Victorian attempt to approach the supernatural with the rigours of scientific investigation.

The renowned lawyer and journalist Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907) published this work in 1885. In this work Olcott carefully lays out his arguments for the basis of theosophy, arguing for the truth of all religions because they share the same ancient roots or 'ur-religion'. As a founding member and the first president of the Theosophical Society, Olcott uses the work to set out the aims and objectives of the Society and attempts to reconcile his spiritual beliefs with science, reason and modernity. The work also includes accounts of his attempted empirical investigations into hypnotism, mesmerism and other spiritualist activities. The final chapters include discussions of India, Buddhism and Zoroastrian religion. The work was deeply influenced by Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891), then Olcott's close friend but later his opponent. It is a key text of the nineteenth-century theosophical movement and is an indispensable source for research into Victorian occult philosophy.

For most of his life a clerk in the post office, Frank Podmore (1856-1910) was a prolific author on psychical research. As an undergraduate Podmore became interested in spiritualism, and he joined the British National Association of Spiritualists. Eventually disillusioned by that society, Podmore co-founded several organisations: the Progressive Association (in 1882); the Fellowship of the New Life (1883); and, spurred by his desire to see political change, the Fabian Society (1884). Podmore's membership in the Society for Psychical Research influenced his activities and interests, and he spent the next twenty years investigating and writing on psychical phenomena. Podmore's two-volume Modern Spiritualism (also reissued in this series) is a source for this 1909 work, which 'constituted the most scholarly history of mesmerism and its offshoots to that date', according to one reviewer. This work will interest historians of science and medicine, and scholars of Victorian religious movements.

For most of his life a clerk in the post office, Frank Podmore (1856-1910) was a prolific author on psychical research. As an undergraduate, Podmore became interested in the ideas of spiritualism, and he joined the British National Association of Spiritualists. Eventually disillusioned, Podmore co-founded several organizations: the Progressive Association (in 1882); the Fellowship of the New Life (1883); and, spurred by his desire to see political change, the Fabian Society (1884). Podmore's membership in the Society for Psychical Research influenced his activities and interests, and he spent the next twenty years investigating and writing on psychical phenomena. His second book (of 1897) discusses a range of topics, from spiritualism to poltergeists to telepathy. Podmore seeks to ascertain the truth about psychical phenomena, and this work will be of great interest to scholars interested in the history of science, psychical research, and Victorian scientific and spiritualist movements.

Frank Podmore (1856-1910) was a paranormal researcher and socialist who co-founded the Fabian Society. He became interested in spiritualism while studying at Oxford and joined the Society for Psychical Research. Forced to leave his employment at the Post Office amid rumours of a homosexual scandal, Podmore was later found drowned in suspicious circumstances. This 1894 volume is a detailed and comprehensive study of a variety of unexplained phenomena. The author reviews numerous scientific tests of telepathic ability involving the transmission of thoughts, tastes and images (illustrated by reproduction of sketches purportedly sent between psychics). Also reported are researches into clairvoyance, automatic writing and even attempts to induce sleep using telepathy. The author explores a variety of rational explanations for the phenomena, including fraud and the influence of hypnosis and suggestibility. Diligent and carefully argued, Podmore's examination of the scientific study of the supernatural is also colourful and enthralling.

In this book of 1825, Samuel Hibbert (1782-1848) attempts to uncover the physical or physiological causes which might account for claims of seeing ghosts and other apparitions. Hibbert trained as a doctor, and uses anecdotal and case-study evidence to show that external physical circumstances - such as the use of stimulants, brain inflammation, hallucination during fever, or alcohol withdrawal - are most likely to be the causes of apparent sightings of supernatural phenomena. He explores the power of suggestion, whether derived from superstitions, folk tales or biblical imagery, on the imagination of the impressionable. Using the idea that the train of thought can be stimulated or depressed, and that different levels of semi-consciousness can admit of different levels of contemplation and concentration, Hibbert hypothesises that for each apparition or ghostly spectre there is a rational explanation.

Written by renowned Swiss physician and experimental psychologist Theodore Flournoy (1854-1920), this 1911 publication offers a scientific treatment of nineteenth-century spiritual interests and beliefs. Dedicating his work to the Swiss scientist and psychical researcher Marc Thury and to the American psychologist and philosopher William James, Flournoy approaches the subject of 'spiritism', or communication with the dead, with great caution, claiming that it had never been adequately proven and that such practices could most likely be explained as mental processes inherent in the mediums themselves. While recognising and offering validation of the existence of phenomena such as telekinesis, clairvoyance and telepathy, as well as the survival of the soul after death, in this book Flournoy casts doubt on the living human's ability to contact the spirits of the deceased.

Catherine Crowe (1790-1872) was a successful author of fiction, non-fiction and plays, who moved in literary circles and corresponded with the prominent authors of her day, including W. M. Thackeray and Harriet Martineau. Her interest in the supernatural and the spiritual dimension, and her frustration with the narrow-mindedness of her generation, are evident in this work, first published in 1859. A strong believer in the possibilities of spiritual planes and of forces beyond contemporary human knowledge, she suggests that much is still unknown to the human race, and that the advance of scientific materialism may hinder the search for spiritual insight. Unusually for her time, Crowe also questions the literal truth of the Bible, suggesting metaphorical interpretations of scripture, and asks how modern miracles or prophets might be recognised, in a society so closed to the possibility of the physically impossible.

Daniel Dunglas Home (1833-1886) was a charismatic medium whose seances were attended by European royalty and eminent Victorians like Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Thrown out by his aunt because of the paranormal events which plagued him since childhood, Home became a 'professional house guest' and medium at the age of 17. During seances he purportedly levitated, handled hot coals and channelled the voices of the dead. This volume, first published in 1877, is an evocative examination of spiritualism which explores the history of the practice via the Greeks, the Romans, and Joan of Arc. Simultaneously attacking fraudulent mediums while celebrating 'true' spiritualist practitioners, this fascinating work details both the criticism and support received by Home and features reproductions of numerous fan letters. Although colourful and impassioned, Home's polemic is written in an amiable style and provides fascinating insights into the life and work of the self-proclaimed 'Grandfather of English Spiritualism'.

Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan (1809-1892) was the wife of the mathematician and logician Augustus De Morgan and mother of ceramicist William De Morgan. In Threescore Years and Ten, completed in 1887, edited by her daughter Mary, and published in 1895, De Morgan recounts her formative early years and the influence of her father, the social reformer William Frend. She followed in his footsteps and fought for many causes, including higher education for women and prison reform. She was also an early animal rights activist and campaigned against vivisection. Throughout her life, De Morgan encountered some of the leading writers and thinkers of the time - she was introduced to William Blake when she was a child and many years later found herself the neighbour of Thomas Carlyle. De Morgan's reflections on her life offer an insight into the intellectual world of a Victorian social reformer.

Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan (1809-1892) was the wife of the mathematician and logician Augustus De Morgan and mother of the celebrated ceramicist William De Morgan. In this book, published in 1863, De Morgan, writing as 'CD' - with a preface by her husband signed as 'AB' - acknowledges that alleged spirit manifestations have faced much criticism and scepticism, but argues that it was a little-understood phenomenon that merited further investigation. She spent a decade on this research, and focused on the role of the mediums, people who were believed to communicate with the spirit world. She was aided in this by the arrival of a medium who lived with the De Morgan family for six years. Her chapters also examine in depth the process of dying and ideas about the afterlife. A first-hand account of the nineteenth-century spiritualist world, this book provides a fascinating glimpse into Britain's changing religious landscape.