There are some people in occult history who warned against using the Ouija Board, who said: "This is a dangerous door to the unconscious. Don't approach this thing."
Mitch HorowitzWhen spiritualism dawned, suddenly women who wanted to engage in the civic and religious and political culture were becoming transmediums.
Mitch HorowitzAll the quantum physics experiments have occurred chiefly on the atomic scale and we are taught to believe that nature's laws are consistent.
Mitch HorowitzScience, as it reaches the public mind, has both served to discredit and unintentionally reaffirmed mystical ideas.
Mitch HorowitzI think spiritualism, mesmerism, the mental healing movement, provided some people with the most meaningful experiences of their lives.
Mitch HorowitzAmerica became a special source of attraction to people who were fleeing the aftereffects of the 30 Years War and the religious persecution that began to sweep through Europe in the period between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. And when people got here, very often they succeeded.
Mitch HorowitzOnce the social and spiritual opening was created for women in the form of spiritualism, suddenly ambitious women who wanted to participate in the culture had a kind of a voice.
Mitch HorowitzAmericans were in love with mesmerism because it was something that you could do in your own home. You could mesmerize or hypnotize your aunt or your mother or your father and people would go into these trance states and you could introduction autosuggestions tot hem or as some people saw it, you could cure them of illnesses.
Mitch Horowitz