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Holy Men of the Electromagnetic Age

A Forgotten History of the Occult

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Holy Men of the Electromagnetic Age

By: Raphael Cormack
Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman
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Summary

An international history of the uncanny in the 1920s and 1930s.

The interwar period was a golden age for the occult. Spiritualists, clairvoyants, fakirs, Theosophists, mind readers, and Jinn summoners all set out to assure the masses that just as newly discovered invisible forces of electricity and magnetism determined the world of science, unseen powers commanded an unknown realm of human potential.

Drawing on untapped sources in Arabic in addition to European ones, Raphael Cormack follows two of the most unusual and charismatic figures of this age: Tahra Bey, who took 1920s Paris by storm in the role of a missionary from the mystical East; and Dr. Dahesh, who transformed Western science to create a panreligious faith of his own in Lebanon. Traveling between Paris, New York, and Beirut while guiding esoteric apprenticeships among miracle-working mystics in Egypt and Istanbul, these men reflected the desires and anxieties of a troubled age. As Cormack demonstrates, these forgotten holy men, who embodied the allure of the unexplained in a world of dramatic change, intuitively speak to our unsettling world today.

©2025 Raphael Cormack (P)2025 Tantor Media
20th Century Middle East Modern Religious Studies Africa
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Claims to be a “forgotten history of the occult”, but this book is solely about historic Fakirs and nothing else. It’s fine in that respect. Good title and cover, pretty repetitive writing though. No flair. Gets boring. The audiobook version’s narrator is very monotone and pronounces many words completely wrong.

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