Okkulte Moderne

Catholicism and esotericism seem to have hostile relations but in fact the opposite is true. In both traditions, we find stigmata, revelations, visions, “magic”, spiritualistic contacts...

We explore which are the theological and sociological concepts which make this possible. The porous transfer zone between “orthodox” theology and “heretical” ideas is central. For example, the legitimating structure of “scripture and tradition” allowed for the integration of religious practices that did not originate in Christianity or justified revelations apart from the Bible. This kept groups within the church which in Protestantism were often “eparated” – and thus hardly noticed by researchers.

This means for religious studies to revise the strongly Protestant boundary-work to determine the demarcation lines of a Christian “orthodoxy” and thereby to redefine the role of spiritualistic theologies. Catholicism is characterized here by a border landscape in which esoteric ideas were flexibly adapted – and in which one often renounced the definition of a precise, eliminatory boundary line.

Rudolf Steiner's (1861–1925) anthroposophy is present in society (Waldorf schools, Weleda, Demeter…) but not in scholarly research. This volume is the first to present academic research articles that close this gap by delving into examples, documenting the state of research for selected topics, and helping to establish anthroposophy studies in the academic field.

The main subjects of analysis in the present book are the stages of initiation in the grand scheme of Theosophical evolution. These initiatory steps are connected to an idea of evolutionary self-development by means of a set of virtues that are relative to the individual’s position on the path of evolution. The central thesis is that these stages were translated from the “Hindu” tradition to the “Theosophical” tradition through multifaceted “hybridization processes” in which several Indian members of the Theosophical Society partook. Starting with Annie Besant’s early Theosophy, the stages of initiation are traced through Blavatsky’s work to Manilal Dvivedi and T. Subba Row, both Indian members of the Theosophical Society, and then on to the Sanâtana Dharma Text Books. In 1898, the English Theosophist Annie Besant and the Indian Theosophist Bhagavan Das together founded the Central Hindu College, Benares, which became the nucleus around which the Benares Hindu University was instituted in 1915. In this context the Sanâtana Dharma Text Books were published. Mühlematter shows that the stages of initiation were the blueprint for Annie Besant’s pedagogy, which she implemented in the Central Hindu College in Benares. In doing so, he succeeds in making intelligible how “esoteric” knowledge was transferred to public institutions and how a broader public could be reached as a result.

The dissertation has been awarded the ESSWE PhD Thesis prize 2022 by the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism.

How does a field of knowledge achieve legitimacy as science? The focus of this historical analysis is on the ever-controversial “fringe discipline” of parapsychology and its most important advocate Hans Bender. It analyzes the history of this contingent discipline, examining the interaction between science, society, and the public media in manufacturing scientific legitimacy.

The historiographers of religious studies have written the history of this discipline primarily as a rationalization of ideological, most prominently theological and phenomenological ideas: first through the establishment of comparative, philological and sociological methods and secondly through the demand for intentional neutrality. This interpretation caused important roots in occult-esoteric traditions to be repressed.
This process of “purification” (Latour) is not to be equated with the origin of the academic studies. De facto, the elimination of idealistic theories took time and only happened later. One example concerning the early entanglement is Tibetology, where many researchers and respected chair holders were influenced by theosophical ideas or were even members of the Theosophical Society. Similarly, the emergence of comparatistics cannot be understood without taking into account perennialist ideas of esoteric provenance, which hold that all religions have a common origin.
In this perspective, it is not only the history of religious studies which must be revisited, but also the partial shaping of religious studies by these traditions, insofar as it saw itself as a counter-model to occult ideas.

Where was the locus of parapsychology – the academic involvement with the occult – during the 20^th century? In this first attempt at an international comparison, the authors examine various institutional venues, including private salons, academic societies, and universities, while also addressing prominent opponents. Essays on practical applications of parapsychology and cinematic presentations supplement their findings.

This volume addresses controversies connected to the testing of the capacities and potentials of mediums. Today we commonly　associate the term "medium" with the technical communication between transmitters and receivers. Yet this term likewise applies to　those who cooperate with agencies that exceed the presumed domain of the material world. Insofar as one presumes a division　between distinctly opposed categories of religion and the secular, technical media tend to be associated with the secular and human　(trance) mediums tend to be associated with religion after 1900. This volume concerns the ways in which the term　medium still marks an overlapping of – and thus problematizes – the aforementioned division between religion and the secular, the　personal and the technological.

The term medium carries with it a seed of doubt that is itself inseparable from investment in the medium's power: insofar as they　communicate with an "other" realm, mediums offer the hope and promise of new possibilities and improved efficiency, and thus of a　better life; yet they have simultaneously been under suspicion of altering (or even inventing) the messages they communicate. It is due　to this combination of promise and suspicion that "mediumism" has tended to evoke scientific, religious, and moral controversies. Thus,　we can speak of a "mediumistic trial" – that is, a process in which a medium is put to the test concerning its potentials and　trustworthiness. Around 1800, experts were asked if a modern secular institution would be capable of inspiring, domesticating or　excluding trance mediumship. This question has stayed with us ever since, and the answers have remained inconclusive. That is why　the past and present of mediumship may be asked to elucidate each other.

As the science of man, anthropology was among the most exciting disciplines during the period of intense change from the early modern era to modernity. Where demons had once wielded their power, after 1800, it was now the unlimited shoals of the subconscious that were disseminated. Or did they actually stay right next to each other and within one another?