Why the radical metaphysics of thought-causation just might work — I believe that some of us dedicated to experimental spirituality and mind metaphysics must attempt to theorize the mechanics and delivery systems behind what we experience and observe. There exist, of course, manifold risks of personal bias toward a favored thesis. But to limit the wish to “know thyself” to…

Luck is learnable — All my life, I’ve been fascinated with the question of good luck. I believe that what we call luck or fortuitous circumstance is not blind chance but rather a network of causative factors, which can be identified and cultivated. As the 1908 occult classic The Kybalion puts it: “Chance is…

How positive-mind pioneer Christian D. Larson combined soaring rhetoric with ethical compromises — The famous coinages of inspirational giant Christian D. Larson (1874-1962) appear everywhere: “be all you can be;” “attitude of gratitude;” “live the simple life;” “make yourself over;” and “live in the present.” Today’s culture would sound differently without the influence of the twentieth-century motivational icon.

How a Pearl Harbor veteran and radio broadcaster unlocked the secret of life in six words — The emergence of business motivation as an electronic medium — first on vinyl albums, cassette tapes, and DVDs and later through podcasts, audiobooks, and apps — grew from the aching search of a child of the Great Depression. He was a Marine who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, a…

Academia and social media abound with claims of Nazism’s “occult” and “green” roots — the reality is more complex — In late 2020, I was invited to sit in on a Zoom call of scholars, curators, and historians who were planning a Holocaust memorial monument in Ukraine. …

There were many greats — these ten stood out — In nearly twenty years as a historian of the occult, I have been touched by many great works. While writing my latest book, Modern Occultism (September 19, 2023)— a history of occult thought from late-antiquity to the present — these ten assumed a special place. So much is missing from…

You have no choice but to play— scholar of esotericism Richard Smoley suggests how — Asked by the New York Times in 2023 what books he avoids, novelist Aleksandar Hemon replied with lettered-class oblige: “No advice books, least of all self-help manuals…” The moment a category is pinned on something — a person, a type of literature, a politics — its relationships and parameters are…

The Yankee mystic was poised to become America’s great metaphysical voice — but complexities intervened — Could 20th century America — the land of positive-thinking, recovery movements, and self-help — produce the morally persuasive, mass transcendental religion for which many seekers yearned? The answer seemed to lie within one of the era’s most unique and persuasive metaphysical thinkers: Ernest Holmes (1887–1960). In the early 20th century…

How a heterodox intellect remade Satanism — and caught hell for it — The search — if it’s real — is not a blanket of bromides or group-sanctioned routine. Its practitioners rarely appear in familiar lanes. In 1969, an authentically seeking and heterodox U.S. Army officer — and specialist in psychological operations or PSYOP — entered the orbit of Church of Satan (CoS)…