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The Problem of Disenchantment
Author: Egil Asprem
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2018-05-31
Total Pages: 662
ISBN-13: 1438469942
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Challenges the conventional view of a “disenchanted” and secular modernity, and recovers the complex relation that exists between science, religion, and esotericism in the modern world. Max Weber famously characterized the ongoing process of intellectualization and rationalization that separates the natural world from the divine (by excluding magic and value from the realm of science, and reason and fact from the realm of religion) as the “disenchantment of the world.” Egil Asprem argues for a conceptual shift in how we view this key narrative of modernity. Instead of a sociohistorical process of disenchantment that produces increasingly rational minds, Asprem maintains that the continued presence of “magic” and “enchantment” in people’s everyday experience of the world created an intellectual problem for those few who were socialized to believe that nature should contain no such incalculable mysteries. Drawing on a wide range of early twentieth-century primary sources from theoretical physics, occultism, embryology, radioactivity, psychical research, and other fields, Asprem casts the intellectual life of high modernity as a synchronic struggle across conspicuously different fields that shared surprisingly similar intellectual problems about value, meaning, and the limits of knowledge. Egil Asprem is Associate Professor of History of Religions at the Department of Ethnology, History of Religions, and Gender Studies, Stockholm University, and the author of Arguing with Angels: Enochian Magic and Modern Occulture, also published by SUNY Press.
"Margery" the Medium
Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research
Author: American Society for Psychical Research
Publisher:
Published: 1925
Total Pages: 826
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →List of members in v. 1, 6, 12.
Vision, Science and Literature, 1870-1920
Author: Martin Willis
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-07-22
Total Pages: 308
ISBN-13: 1317321855
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This book explores the Victorian concept of vision across scientific and cultural forms. Willis charts the characterization of vision through four organizing principles – small, large, past and future – to arrive at a Victorian conception of what vision was. Willis then explores how this Victorian vision influenced twentieth-century ways of seeing.
The Magician and the Spirits
Author: Deborah Noyes
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2017-08-22
Total Pages: 162
ISBN-13: 0803740182
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →“Noyes makes history accessible and irresistible . . . Excellent.”* A century ago, the curious idea that spirits not only survive death but can be contacted on the “other side” was widespread. Psychic mediums led countless séances, claiming to connect the grieving with their lost relations through everything from frenzied trance writing to sticky expulsions of ectoplasm. The craze caught Harry Houdini’s attention. Well-known by then as most renowned magician and escape artist, he began to investigate these spiritual phenomena. Are ghosts real? Can we communicate with them? Catch them in photographs? Or are all mediums “flim-flammers,” employing tricks and illusions like Houdini himself? Peopled with odd and fascinating characters, Houdini’s gripping quest will excite readers’ universal wonderment with life, death, and the possibility of the Beyond. *School Library Journal, starred review of Ten Days a Madwoman
Final Seance
Author: Massimo Polidoro
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2010-06-03
Total Pages: 264
ISBN-13: 1615924248
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →. . . Polidoro has written--and written well--a saga of two Titans that is also a remarkable exploration of both superstition and obsession, at the lush twilight of the Edwardian era.--Baltimore SunThis is the story of an unusual friendship between two of the most intriguing characters of the early 20th century-renowned escape artist Harry Houdini and celebrated mystery writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes). Both men were fascinated by the occult practice of spiritualism, Houdini as an ardent skeptic who often publicly exposed fraudulent mediums and Conan Doyle as a true believer who became convinced that the dead could and did communicate with the living. Despite their differing perspectives the two men not only respected each other but became friends. The correspondence between them on the subject provides a fascinating glimpse not only into the personalities of two talented and interesting celebrities but also into a psychic phenomenon that is the ancestor of today's channeling craze.Based on original correspondence, photographs, and his own extensive research, Massimo Polidoro reconstructs this unusual friendship between a believer and a skeptic, which weathered mediums, seances, an apparition of Houdini's departed mother, automatic writing by Conan Doyle's wife, public debunkings, and hurt feelings. He also discusses the final rift that ended the friendship of the two strong-willed men. Fans of Conan Doyle, Houdini, magic, and the historical roots of the New Age will be delighted by this amazing story.Massimo Polidoro is executive director of the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, editor of Scienza & Paranormale (Science and the Paranormal), and author of twelve books on the paranormal.
Secrets of the Psychics
Author: Massimo Polidoro
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2012-06-14
Total Pages: 302
ISBN-13: 1615925872
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This intriguing examination of the bizarre and the strange by a topnotch investigator will interest both skeptics and believers alike. Illustrations.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Ghosts and Hauntings
Author: Tom Ogden
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 1999
Total Pages: 406
ISBN-13: 9780028636597
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →You're no idiot, of course. You know Casper was a friendly ghost and that the Phantom Hitchhiker is someone you'd rather not meet on a deserted highway late at night. But when it comes to knowing the authentic roots of ghost stories--and which ones remain unexplained to this day--you don't stand a ghost of a chance. Don't get spirited away yet! The Complete Idiot's Guide to Ghosts and Hauntings is an eerie investigation into the firsthand accounts, legends, literature, and dramatic works surrounding the world of ghosts. In this Complete Idiot's Guide, you get:
The Secret Life of Houdini
Author: William Kalush
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2008-09-04
Total Pages: 998
ISBN-13: 1847396194
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Using exclusive access to newly uncovered archives, Kalush and Sloman reveal the clandestine agreements in which the British and Americans recruited Houdini to be an active secret agent. In exchange for his cooperation, the governments of these two countries facilitated his rise to the top of the world stage. The authors give thrilling accounts of his assignments, such as his participation in early aerial surveillance and his use of his own magic magazine to communicate espionage-related information. After the war, Houdini embarked upon what became his most dangerous mission when he took on the Spiritualist movement. Convinced that Spiritualist mediums were frauds, he became obsessed with exposing them. But the Spiritualists were a powerful adversary. An organized network of fanatics, led by Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle, worked relentlessly to orchestrate a campaign that would silence Houdini forever. Grounded in solid research, but as exciting and dramatic as a good thriller, THE SECRET LIFE OF HOUDINI traces the magician's long and circuitous route from struggling vaudevillian to worldwide legend.
