Mystical philosopher Manly Palmer Hall wasn’t my grandfather, yet he was. Both my grandfathers had been killed in a war, but fate provided a friend who gave me all the grandfatherly gifts of wisdom and opportunity anyone could hope for. I was there when this photo was taken in the PRS vault; my girlfriend and … Continue reading
Puritan alchemists founded America; sounds like bad fiction but it’s fact. As befits a young republic, the history of the earliest origins of American Metaphysical Religion amounts to a long list of extraordinary characters, daring experiments, and unlikely friendships. We’ll meet alchemists who persecuted witches, alchemists who were governors, and several alchemists who served as … Continue reading
If life after death is a fact, wouldn’t our favorite activities somehow unconsciously resemble it? Wouldn’t we symbolize the truth over and over again, remembering but not recognizing that we’re remembering? We love to become motionless consciousness. Consuming experiences vicariously, like the dead observing the living, we watch movies or TV shows, feeling the tension … Continue reading
Their approach is self consciously American. Consistently witty, they simultaneously accept and reject all explanations of the phenomena, because the right words for what really happened probably don’t exist yet. They focus on providing sane and simple practices any one can experiment with. I found in Across the Unknown such a provocative collection of exercises … Continue reading
“The world is run as it is to demonstrate individual responsibility!” The Betty Book By popular demand this blog and the next will explore the belief system the Invisibles, that is, the spirits, gave to Stewart Edward White through the mediumship of his wife Betty, and after her death, through the mediumship of their friend … Continue reading
One of America’s favorite hobbies since at least the 19th century has been attempted communication with the dead. From backwoods cults of pre-Revolutionary days to distinguished university professors, Americans of every race and religious tradition have been preoccupied with ghostly chats. In 2012 on television the Long Island Medium delivers a message from the dead … Continue reading
Prague Castle at night. What is a Bohemian? Bohemian. The word in English is a polite way of dismissing a beatnik, hippie, or hipster. To say that someone is bohemian accuses them of being artistic, kooky, way out of the ordinary, probably devoted to underground arts or shady spiritual pursuits. In the early 19th century … Continue reading
Did you ever hear the story of how your parents met? We pretend America began with the Pilgrims but our unclaimed spiritual heritage starts much earlier. According to the current consensus, twelve thousand years before European colonists landed, Paleolithic tribes arrived having hunted mammoths, mastodons, and caribou from generation to generation across a continent. They … Continue reading
He arrives at the end of the Renaissance with a mind so modern he was more suited for Silicon Valley than Elizabethan London. Thomas Harriot was the first to assemble and use a telescope in England. Months before Galileo, he was the first human being to accurately map the surface of the moon. He was … Continue reading
The All Seeing Eye caps the American pyramid. When most people think of American religion we think of evangelicals preaching to huge stadiums, or Protestant ministers in neighborhood churches, or choirs in southern Baptist congregations. Most Americans believe America is a Christian country, founded by Christians. But a new vision of American history has been … Continue reading
