From the author's Preface. THIS volume has grown out of a paper originally read at a discussion meeting of the British National Association of Spiritualists, held at their rooms, 38 Great Russell Street, London, on the evening of December 16, 1878. In that paper I presented certain evidence for the identity of spirits who have from time to time communicated with me; and I founded an argument upon the evidence produced. Confined within narrow limits by the exigencies of the occasion, I dealt with one phase of the subject only, and my treatment of it was cursory. I have, however, considered it best to print the paper as it originally was delivered, with some few additional facts, and to supplement its imperfections and omissions, to some extent, in other parts of the book, especially in the Introduction. I have also reprinted from the Spiritualist certain papers bearing on the general subject of this work; and I have added in another Appendix cases of identity before published...

First published in 1869, this book describes the spiritualist activity of Scottish-born Daniel Dunglas Home (1833-86), who emerged as a medium in the United States in the wake of the Fox sisters' alleged 'spirit rappings' in the mid-nineteenth century. Written by the Irish journalist and politician Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin, Lord Adare (1841-1926), who befriended Home in 1867, the book records Adare's observations of seventy-eight spiritualist sittings over two years, and reports verbatim the conversations between Home and the spirits with whom he was allegedly in contact. Adare also describes Home's supernatural interactions away from the formal setting of a seance. The accounts were originally written as private reports to Adare's father, the landowner and archeologist Edwin Wyndham-Quin, third Earl of Dunraven. Dunraven was deeply interested in spiritualist activity and wrote the introduction to this work, which also includes a classification of all spiritualist phenomena.

Eduard von Hartmann (1842 1906) had expected to follow his father's military career, but an injury forced him to reassess his ambitions. Torn between music and philosophy, he settled on the latter and in 1869 published his first book, The Philosophy of the Unconscious, which proved a great success. Published in 1885 as the period saw an enormous rise in the popularity of spiritualism, this work attempts to give psychological explanations for all occult phenomena, including subjective delusions as well as 'objective' physical manifestations, without resorting to hypotheses of ghosts, demons or trickery. C. C. Massey, a leading theosophist and translator of the work, wrote, 'Now for the first time, a man of commanding intellectual position has dealt fairly by us as an opponent.' This work will appeal to anyone with an interest in the growth of spiritualism and the philosophical and metaphysical debates of the nineteenth century.

By studying intersections among new cults of wealth, ritually empowered amulets and professional spirit mediumship-which have emerged together in Thailand's dynamic religious field in recent decades-Capitalism Magic Thailand explores the conditions under which global modernity produces new varieties of enchantment. Bruno Latour's account of modernity as a condition fractured between rationalizing ideology and hybridizing practice is expanded to explain the apparent paradox of new forms of magical ritual emerging alongside religious fundamentalism across a wide range of Asian societies. In Thailand, novel and increasingly popular varieties of ritual now form a symbolic complex in which originally distinct cults centred on Indian deities, Chinese gods and Thai religious and royal figures have merged in commercial spaces and media sites to sacralize the market and wealth production. Emerging within popular culture, this complex of cults of wealth, amulets and spirit mediumship is supported by all levels of Thai society, including those at the acme of economic and political power. New theoretical frameworks are presented in analyses that challenge the view that magic is a residue of premodernity, placing the dramatic transformations of cultic ritual centre stage in modern Thai history. It is concluded that modern enchantment arises at the confluence of three processes: neoliberal capitalism's production of occult economies, the auraticizing effects of technologies of mass mediatization, and the performative force of ritual in religious fields where practice takes precedence over doctrine.

Published in 1874, this collection of reports by the chemist and scientific journalist Sir William Crookes (1832-1919) describes his controversial research into psychic forces. In 1870, Crookes decided that science had a duty to study preternatural phenomena associated with spiritualism, and he spent the next four years carrying out experiments which tested famous mediums including D. D. Home, Kate Fox and Florence Cook. This fascinating work describes Crookes' witnessing of the movement of bodies at a distance, rappings, changes in the weights of bodies, levitation of individuals and automatic writing. Although he was strongly criticised by his contemporaries, Crookes would not be deterred from his psychical research, demonstrating that he thought all natural phenomena worthy of scientific investigation. A great experimentalist, Crookes refused to be bound by tradition and convention, and his story reveals one of the important episodes in the history of the spiritualist movement.

John W. Edmonds (1799-1874), a prominent New York judge, and George T. Dexter, a New York physician, met though their shared interest in the spirit world. They were both dabbling in the spiritualist movement - first with scepticism - and decided to join forces in their investigations of such phenomena as 'spirit-rappings'. Dexter eventually found himself 'fully developed as a writing medium', with his pen controlled by unseen forces. Their conclusions, published in 1853 in Spiritualism, which went into numerous editions and was followed in 1855 by a second volume, caused much controversy. Drawing from their observations, the work gives examples of the authors' purported interaction with the spirit world and their journey from doubt to belief. Volume 2 sees Dexter develop as a 'speaking medium' and includes transcriptions taken by Edmonds of what the spirits relayed through his co-author during the meetings of their circle of spiritualists.

The Anglican clergyman and founding member of the Society of the Holy Cross, Charles Maurice Davies (1828 1910), published Mystic London in 1875. The work is a collection of Davies' observations and researches into urban spiritualism. It includes descriptions of London mesmerists, mediums and s ances, and discussions of Darwinism, secularism and the non-religious. Davies, who discovered spiritualism in Paris in the mid-1850s, and became a committed spiritualist after the death of his son in 1865, argued in this work that the principles and practices of spiritualism did not pose any threat to Christianity and that the two movements had much in common and could peacefully coexist. The work is an indispensable source on the presence of alternative religion in London and for the beliefs and practices of nineteenth-century spiritualists. It offers a fascinating insight into Victorian experiences and attitudes towards the occult and the supernatural.

John W. Edmonds (1799-1874), a prominent New York judge, and George T. Dexter, a New York physician, met though their shared interest in the spirit world. They were both dabbling in the spiritualist movement - first with scepticism - and decided to join forces in their investigations of such phenomena as 'spirit-rappings'. Dexter eventually found himself 'fully developed as a writing medium', with his pen controlled by unseen forces. Their conclusions, published in 1853 in Spiritualism, which went into numerous editions and was followed in 1855 by a second volume, caused much controversy. Drawing from their observations, the work gives examples of the authors' purported interaction with the spirit world and their journey from doubt to belief. Volume 1 includes detailed introductions by both authors explaining their experience with spiritualism, which are followed by the letters from two spirits - nicknamed 'Sweedenborg' and 'Bacon' - who communicated their thoughts through Dexter.

In this 1917 publication English physicist Sir William Fletcher Barrett (1844 1925) purports to rescue psychical research from the scorn of his colleagues and provide indisputable evidence for the existence of psychic phenomena. A successful scientist (he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society and was honoured with a knighthood), Barrett was better known for his psychical work and his attempts to reconcile it with his scientific pursuits. Certain that the human spirit could linger after bodily death, in this book Barrett examines a wide range of spiritualist practices including levitation, spirit photography, mediumship, automatic writing, the ouija board, clairvoyance, and telepathy, carefully considering the evidence for each phenomenon in the hope that they will in time be recognised as scientifically established facts. This book is a much-revised edition of Barrett's 1908 publication On the Threshold of a New World of Thought, republished to include more 'trustworthy' evidence.

Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin (1805-71) is often called the father of modern conjuring. His name was later adopted by magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, whose highly sceptical expose of Victorian spiritualism is also published in this series. The best-known magician of his time, Robert-Houdin toured France, England and Germany, performed for Queen Victoria, and was sent to French Algeria by Napoleon III to demonstrate the perceived superiority of French magic to the local shamans. This book, originally published in 1868, is devoted primarily to coin and card tricks, but Robert-Houdin also describes many other magical tricks and includes a history of conjuring. In 1877 the book appeared in this English translation by Louis Hoffmann (1839-1919). Hoffmann (real name Angelo John Lewis, a barrister) had published his own guide to magic in 1876, and both books caused controversy for revealing the secrets of stage magicians in such unprecedented detail.

Ukrainian-born Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) was a powerful and controversial member of the spiritualist world and for a time famous for her powers as a medium. She was a co-founder of the theosophy movement in the United States, which she later extended to Europe and India, drawing from her extensive global travels and her familiarity with a broad range of belief systems, from Asian religions to New Orleans voodoo, as well as secret societies such as the Freemasons. Drawing from Hinduism and Buddhism, theosophy aimed to understand the mystic powers of the universe and promote the study of other religions. In The Secret Doctrine, published in 1888, Blavatsky aims to explain the spiritual origins of the world. Volume 1 looks at the world's 'cosmic evolution', the mystical symbolism that developed throughout this process, and scientific criticism.

Ukrainian-born Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) was a powerful and controversial member of the spiritualist world and for a time famous for her powers as a medium. She was a co-founder of the theosophy movement in the United States, which she later extended to Europe and India, drawing from her extensive global travels and her familiarity with a broad range of belief systems, from Asian religions to New Orleans voodoo, as well as secret societies such as the Freemasons. Drawing from Hinduism and Buddhism, theosophy aimed to understand the mystic powers of the universe and promote the study of other religions. In The Secret Doctrine, published in 1888, Blavatsky aims to explain the spiritual origins of the world. Volume 2 looks at the creation of humans and animals, and considers the lost world of Atlantis.