This book offers the reader an introduction to the writings of Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Tauler, Nicholas of Cusa, Paracelsus, Jacob Boehme, Angelus Silesius, Novalis and includes the more recent thinkers, such as Schopenhauer and Wittgenstein, who were influenced by the tradition. It is the first study of its scope to take into account the much ignored historical preconditions of German mysticism and the first to trace the thematic evolution of mystical literature from a core of biblical and Augustinian materials. It also follows in the footsteps of recent scholarship in showing...

Paranormal Experience and Survival of Death amasses data and surveys from a century of research on the paranormal on four continents: Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Studying the tensions between religious and scientific perspectives, Becker reviews numerous substantiated accounts of demon-possession, of memories of past lives, of ghostly apparitions, and out-of-body experiences. He analyzes the medical evidence and what such experiences imply about survival after death. The author then looks at the reasons for the taboos on scientific discussion of such research within the social sciences,...

Gnosis traces the use of powerful gnostic visionary techniques from Hellenistic Gnosticism and Jewish merkabah mysticism, through Muhammad, the Ismaeilis, and theosophical Sufism to medieval neoplatonism, and renaissance alchemy.

The existence of Madame Blavatsky's occult 'Masters' has been fiercely debated for more than a century. Although scores of books have been written about her, none has focused on the historical identities of these elusive teachers. This book profiles 32 of Blavatsky's hidden sponsors, including leaders of secret societies in Europe and America, religio-political reformers in Egypt and India, and even British government agents. The milieu in which she carried out her spiritual quest is vividly revealed as a hotbed of revolutionary plots and secret coalitions. But beyond all the politics was a...

This is the first systematic treatment of esotericism to appear in English. Here is also a historical survey, beginning with the Alexandrean Period, of the various esoteric currents such as Christian Kabbalah, Theosophy, Alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and Hermeticism. Common characteristics of these currents are the notion of universal interdependency and the experience of spiritual transformation. The author establishes a rigorous methodology; provides clarifying definitions of such key terms as "gnosis," "theosophy," "occultism," and "Hermeticism;" and offers analysis of contemporary esotericism...

The ancient Greeks held that "number rules the universe" and that "God ever geometrizes." Here author Sarah Voss explores the historical connection between mathematics and religion in her provocative book, What Number Is God? Citing many examples, she shows that humankind has long used mathematics metaphorically to understand and make sense of life's most fundamental questions.

As Voss shows, contemporary society also uses metaphors of mathematics to investigate such issues, though in a fashion that is frequently overlooked or denied. The intentional use of contemporary mathematical ideas...

Behind 'Abd al-Kader's role of brilliant warrior lay another, that of spiritual master in the direct lineage of Ibn 'Arabi, the Shaikh al-Akbar (the greatest shaikh). The thirty-nine texts translated here were chosen because they represent the major themes of the teaching of 'Abd al-Kader. Many are commentaries on passages from the writings of Ibn 'Arabi. They offer a rare opportunity to share the illumination of a master writing from his own direct experience.

The author examines the careers of the most distinguished disciples of the Theosophical Masters. He begins by examining the concept of initiation promoted by the Theosophical movement's founders. Each section investigates a separate category of initiates, focusing consecutively on Hindus, Muslims, Bahais, Buddhists, and the Western female occultists.

More than just a study of Theosophy, this book explores many related developments in political and religious history. Among the figures it illumines in new ways are Anagarika Dharmapala, Alexandra David-Neel, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, and...

This is the fascinating story of Paschal Beverly Randolph, an African American who carved his own eccentric path in the mid-nineteenth century from the slums of New York's Five Points to the courts of Europe, where he performed as a spiritualist trance medium. Although self-educated, he became one of the first Black American novelists and took a leading part in raising Black soldiers for the Union army and in educating Freedmen in Louisiana during the Civil War. His enduring claim to fame, however, is the crucial role he played in the transformation of spiritualism, a medium's passive...

Two books in one, Advice to the Serious Seeker is an introduction for scholars to the perennialist school of comparative religious philosophy and at the same time a guidebook for the general reader who is looking for intellectually serious but accessible answers to questions about the spiritual life.

Scholars will find a comprehensive introduction to the work of Frithjof Schuon, the leading contemporary figure in the perennialist or traditionalist school of comparative religion. Written by James S. Cutsinger, one of the world's foremost academic authorities on the perennial philosophy,...