LEADER 04335nam 2200661 a 450 001 9910457104903321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-8014-6171-5 024 7 $a10.7591/9780801461712 035 $a(CKB)2550000000035279 035 $a(OCoLC)732956585 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10467983 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000538366 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11333455 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000538366 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10557568 035 $a(PQKB)11749863 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3138104 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse28867 035 $a(DE-B1597)515401 035 $a(OCoLC)1083630341 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780801461712 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3138104 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10467983 035 $a(OCoLC)922998075 035 $a(EXLCZ)992550000000035279 100 $a20070730d2008 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aLaboratories of faith$b[electronic resource] $emesmerism, spiritism, and occultism in modern France /$fJohn Warne Monroe 210 $aIthaca $cCornell University Press$d2008 215 $a1 online resource (307 p.) 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a0-8014-4562-0 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $aInterpreting the tables tournantes, 1853-1856 -- Mesmerism and the challenge of spiritualism, 1853-1859 -- The invention and development of spiritism, 1857-1869 -- Spiritism on trial, 1870-1880 -- Confronting the multivalent self, 1880-1914 -- Epilogue : the emergence of a new heterodoxy. 330 $aAt a fascinating moment in French intellectual history, an interest in matters occult was not equivalent to a rejection of scientific thought; participants in séances and magic rituals were seekers after experimental data as well as spiritual truth. A young astronomy student wrote of his quest: "I am not in the presence or under the influence of any evil spirit: I study Spiritism as I study mathematics." He did not see himself as an ecstatic visionary but rather as a sober observer. For him, the darkened room of occult practice was as much laboratory as church.In an evocative history of alternative religious practices in France in the second half of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, John Warne Monroe tells the interconnected stories of three movements-Mesmerism, Spiritism, and Occultism. Adherents of these groups, Monroe reveals, attempted to "modernize" faith by providing empirical support for metaphysical concepts. Instead of trusting theological speculation about the nature of the soul, these believers attempted to gather tangible evidence through Mesmeric experiments, séances, and ceremonial magic. While few French people were active Mesmerists, Spiritists, or Occultists, large segments of the educated general public were familiar with these movements and often regarded them as fascinating expressions of the "modern condition," a notable contrast to the Catholicism and secular materialism that prevailed in their culture.Featuring eerie spirit photographs, amusing Daumier lithographs, and a posthumous autograph from Voltaire, as well as extensive documentary evidence, Laboratories of Faith gives readers a sense of what being in a séance or a secret-society ritual might actually have felt like and why these feelings attracted participants. While they never achieved the transformation of human consciousness for which they strove, these thinkers and believers nevertheless pioneered a way of "being religious" that has become an enduring part of the Western cultural vocabulary. 606 $aMesmerism$zFrance$xHistory 606 $aSpiritualism$zFrance$xHistory 606 $aOccultism$zFrance$xHistory 607 $aFrance$xReligion$y19th century 607 $aFrance$xReligion$y20th century 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aMesmerism$xHistory. 615 0$aSpiritualism$xHistory. 615 0$aOccultism$xHistory. 676 $a130.944 700 $aMonroe$b John Warne$f1973-$01049250 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910457104903321 996 $aLaboratories of faith$92478093 997 $aUNINA