An Esoteric Quest for Inner America Faculty Spotlight- Mitch Horowitz

Mitch Horowitz is the editor-in-chief of Tarcher/Penguin in New York and the author of the forthcoming Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation which has been called “a fascinating book” by Ken Burns and “a sparkling, down-to-earth, and often deeply touching account” by Jacob Needleman.

It was a huge factor in moving me toward the book. As I began to reissue works from the renaissance in American metaphysical thought, roughly from the late-19th and early 20th centuries, I was surprised to discover how widely esoteric thinkers participated in the nation’s political and social culture. For instance, Wallace D. Wattles, the author of the 1910 New Thought work The Science of Getting Rich, was also a socialist activist who saw “mind power” as a means to redistribute wealth to working people. In turn, Marcus Garvey, the black-nationalist hero, took up these kinds of ideas and framed New Thought as a liberating philosophy for black America. One would never ordinarily make the connection between New Thought and the dawn of Black Nationalism – but there it was just under the surface. In reissuing the books of figures like Manly P. Hall (The Secret Teachings of All Ages) and Paul Foster Case (The Tarot), I came to understand the hunger that existed among American occult thinkers in the early 20th century to spread esoteric ideas as broadly as possible. These figures had none of the airs of secrecy that sometimes existed among European occult thinkers; they wanted esoteric concepts to be widely accessible – and they helped lay the groundwork for the New Age culture that became popular decades later. 

What were the most fascinating new discoveries you made about American spiritual life in your research for the book?

There were many, but two stand out for me. First was the impact of African magical traditions on America and, second, was the overwhelming influence of Theosophy on the nation’s mainstream spiritual and political life.

To start with the first example, the entire idea of Africa as a cradle of world civilization – today very popular, but once very marginal – began to enter the American mindset through the migration of African magical and esoteric ideas to the New World. By the early 20th century, the African-American magical system called hoodoo (often confused with the related but very different Afro-Caribbean religion of Voodoo) produced a literature and a spiritual counter-culture that challenged the West’s misconception that Africa lacked a deep mythological past.  African traditions later gained a voice in America through the work of figures like Marcus Garvey and Alex Haley. But it was the magical tradition of hoodoo that first awakened the nation, or at least parts of it, to African culture. On a different tack, I was repeatedly surprised by the deep influence of Theosophy – the esoteric movement founded in New York in the late 19th century by Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott. Early on, Theosophy’s founders relocated to India; but Theosophy’s influence was so bountiful that it actually reverberated from India back to America in unexpected ways. Martin Luther King’s belief in religious universality was influenced by Gandhi; as a young law student, Gandhi – and he was very specific about this – first encountered the principle of religious pluralism through his contact with Theosophy. Theosophy’s cofounder Colonel Olcott was American, and through his travels in the East, particularly in Sri Lanka, he helped ignite a Buddhist revival that deeply touched America in years ahead.

Tell us about the “Burned Over District” the stretch of land in Upstate NY that became a hot bed for spiritual innovation in the mid 19th century.

I began writing Occult America with the idea that California would form its epicenter; I saw Los Angeles, in particular, as the wellspring of American occultism. But I discovered that many years before the California Gold Rush helped settle the West, the real birthplace of alternative spirituality in America was Central New York State. In the early to mid-19th century, an astonishing range of alternative religious and social movements sprang from a narrow stretch of land called the Burned-Over District, which runs from Albany to Buffalo. It was called the Burned-Over District because of the religious passions that swept through area – the place was considered on fire with the Holy Spirit. Within a few decades, the Burned-Over District gave rise to the Shakers, the Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventism, Spiritualism, Suffragism, and American variations of utopianism (like the Oneida community). In the late 18th century, it was home to a religious settlement founded by America’s first female spiritual leader, Jemima Wilkinson. She was a spirit medium who called herself the Publick Universal Friend. In and around the Central New York area there appeared the nation’s first-known episodes of spirit-channeling and mental healing. The Burned-Over District was as significant to development of mystical religions in America as the sands of the Sinai were to Judaism. 

You are speaking in June at the Open Center as part of the Inner America Series entitled Made in America: The Hidden History of ‘Positive Thinking’, what are the esoteric origins of the kind of positive thinking phenomenon that continues to grip America up to this present day?

The concept that mind-shapes-reality – or the “power of positive thinking” – actually began in America as an occult philosophy. And it grew into one of the most influential religious ideas of the modern world. Today its impact is everywhere – from church pulpits to mega bestsellers to recovery programs to inspirational calendars. Essentially, the notion that our thoughts create our fortunes began with the experiments of a New England clockmaker named Phineas Quimby, who found that positive moods could lift his tuberculosis. Quimby’s experiments attracted very influential participants. One of them was Mary Baker Eddy who later founded the religion of Christian Science – but other people, with lesser-known names, went on to combine Quimby’s mental-healing with occult philosophies from the Old World, such as  Mesmerism (or hypnotism) and Swedenborgianism, which sought to plumb the powers of the human mind. In short, all this galvanized into a distinct religious philosophy that identified the human mind as a channel of Divine creative power. It was called New Thought, among other names. And while the name New Thought remained unknown to most Americans, the philosophy became the operating system for most of our self-help programs. It figured into landmark books like Think and Grow Rich, How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Power of Positive Thinking and, of course in our own time, The Secret.  This concept of belief-in-self became so central to the American mindset that we cannot imagine a time when it wasn’t with us. But, in fact, it grew from the early experiments and ideas of occult innovators on American soil.

How has the greater knowledge that you have acquired from your research affected your view of the United States and the multiple challenges it faces in the present moment?

I don’t think the inventiveness of the American past forms any guarantee for the future, but it is deeply heartening to see that America remains a place of spiritual openness and innovation. In recent years, for example, the conservative, Bush-era Supreme Court affirmed the rights of a Brazilian-American spiritualist sect to use psychedelic drugs in some of its religious ceremonies. And the Department of Veteran’s Affairs recently recognized Wicca as an official religion within the U.S. military – its adherents are now entitled to full military honors and burial (including a pentagram on gravestones). This kind of religious liberty – and it’s very precious – allows America to continue to be seen as a social laboratory and as a place that can help find solutions in the world. And it shows that we are continuing to fulfill what may be our deepest purpose as a nation: the protection of the individual’s search for meaning.

At the Esoteric Quest conference Mitch will be presenting a workshop titled “Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation” . He will also be teaching two classes at The Open Center in June.

For conference details: www.esotericquest.org
Please note the first level of Early Bird Pricing ends May 21.

Open Center Class:
A Series of Talks on Inner America