About book Occult America: The Secret History Of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation (2009)
What with all this talk lately about the Illuminati and the monstrous meaning behind the "All-Seeing Eye" on the dollar bill, I wanted to get some sober information on the subject from a historian. I was expecting to be scared by stories of supremely powerful and wicked secret organizations.The actual history, in this book anyway, is a lot less dramatic. The "occult" influence on America amounts to the popularity of things like Tarot, numerology, fortune-telling, meditation, and knowledge of other dimensions bequeathed through trance -- not the frightening cabals of superhumans I was expecting. It's actually a relatively tame string of isolated but influential occult enthusiasts and scholars who captured the public imagination with their promises of self-improvement (often by mail order), contacting the dead, and by introducing Eastern ideas like reincarnation.The story behind the "All-Seeing-Eye" on the dollar bill is also underwhelming. It was a rarely-used symbol that meant "Architect of the Universe," or God, which was first put on the dollar bill in the 1930s under the influence of FDR's first vice president who, yes, WAS an influential man with an interest in esoteric study. But he wasn't a member of some untouchable group of occult Plutocrats, he was just a politician whose interest in metaphysical stuff earned him ridicule. He was later replaced by Harry Truman.Something else that's interesting is that the occult in America, with the exception of Nazi sympathizer William Pelley, has always been associated with Progressive politics like suffrage and abolition. Popular interest in the occult appears to come from people who are bored by and want to rebel against established traditions. The good is that maybe mainstream religion could stand to look at why it's losing members to other belief systems. The bad is that maybe people want to leave just because the occult demands less responsibility -- for instance, a nation practicing the sexual liberation of Wicca would devolve into a jungle. Just look at how America's moral fiber has unraveled since the 60s.Some people in here are more interesting than others; "New Thought" is a wildly popular but stupid idea ("the Secret" is its latest repackaged version), while the work of Manley Hall sounds like an earnest attempt to really summarize ancient esoteric principles that can help one better understand reality. After thinking about it, and in light of things I've read elsewhere about the occult, this book seems to have been sterilized. By that I mean there's no dark practices or any hints of them at all in here. Even Dion Fortune's "Psychic Self Defense," published in the 1920s, was more disturbing than this dry and tame book. Plus, while I regard the subject with fear and loathing, there's a certain frightful symbol on the cover that the book's content never touches on at all. This lie in advertising is another thing that makes me think this book is a lie - a tame and whitewashed history, like it's some kind of a political tool to dissuade the curious. Very interesting subject matter, presented in a rather clear, easy-to-understand manner. I gave it three stars, because, while it was interesting, I think it was a little dense, so it was a rather slow read for me. It got me very interested in Occult/Mysticism/Alternative religion as a subject, and I've since read other books on the subject matter. I recommend it for anyone interested in this subject.
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Interesting history of how the occult influenced America and vice-versa. Lacks character though.
—Nomzibear
Factually interesting, but a stylistic nightmare. Meandering and hard to follow.
—overlyobsessedgonefan
