An occultist confronts modernity — The following is the introduction to the author’s Uncertain Places: Essays on Occult and Outsider Experiences (Inner Traditions, Nov 8, 2022). To write on metaphysical themes is to live in a state of constant uncertainty. Or at least it ought to be that way. The simple fact is: we do…

There exists a strain of thought today, some of it in academia and political commentary, that historically links occult and New Age movements to fascism and rightwing extremism. Even if one writes with critical sympathy on occultism, as I do, its diffuse history and influence — intellectually, spiritually, socially, and…

The artist’s view of non-linear reality — In 2017, I reviewed Michael Nesmith’s (1942–2021) memoir Infinite Tuesday for the Washington Post. I was pleased to recently discover that Nez wrote this on Facebook, April 15, 2018: “Here is a review from Mitch Horowitz of the Washington Post of Infinite Tuesday when it came out in hardcover last…

Celebrating an outcast classic — This essay is adapted from my introduction to the 50th anniversary edition of The Black Arts (2017). This year marks the 50th anniversary of historian Richard Cavendish’s landmark study of the occult, The Black Arts. …

The life story of American occultist Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907) has all the twists and turns of Harry Potter novel. But its plot is real. If you can follow Olcott’s career, you can follow much of the development of occult, New Age, Eastern, and esoteric spirituality in the modern…

A response to Christopher Lasch’s critique of New Age — Historian and philosopher Christopher Lasch (1932–1994) was among the most trenchant and informed critics of New Age and alternative spirituality, as he was of many facets of what he considered America’s cultural decline. I deeply miss Lasch’s presence on the American scene, even as I dissent from facets of his…

The final year of mystic Neville Goddard — “To outgrow is to die. You die to one state and you move into another state.” — Neville Goddard, May 5, 1972 It is difficult to speak of Neville Goddard’s final lectures since we possess a valuable but incomplete record of the teacher’s public talks from the last year of…

We may not like the father of modern PR (I don’t) but we must understand him — I am not sure that I personally like Edward Bernays (1891–1995). But I admire his skills as a communicator — and, it must be stated plainly, a manipulator of communication. In Crystalizing Public Opinion, written in 1923, Bernays foresaw, from his early vantage point as a “public relations counsel,” how…