Mysticism After Modernism - by James J O'Meara (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In the wake of changing political attitudes and cultural values, it's time for a look at what can now be discerned as an equally new development, on the fringes of Western civilization, among what came to be known as "popular culture," during the so-called pre- and post-war eras: a new kind of spiritual teacher or "guru," one more interested in methods, techniques and results than in dogmas, institutions, or - especially - followers.

James O'Meara examines these "populist gurus" from a wide variety of different perspectives, featuring substantial chapters on well-known figures such as William Burroughs, Aleister Crowley, Colin Wilson, Alan Watts, Neville Goddard, and Julius Evola, as well as such fringe phenomena as Chaos Magick and even the origins of the Internet's 'meme magic.'

Could it be that those who have looked in vain for a revival of traditional spirituality, have been looking in the wrong place? Perhaps it has been here all along, but in a new form, more appropriate for the modern era.

Review Quotes

Mitch Horowitz, PEN Award-winning author of Occult America and The Miracle Club says that- "Our spirituality has gotten too tame today. James J. O'Meara has a solution: revive the tradition of the not-so-mad guru, the outlaw seeker, and the rebel swami. In this mosaic of profiles and netherworld journeys, you will encounter primal religious thinkers, from Alan Watts to a man called Neville, who seek, above all, to make the spiritual search powerful, practical, slightly dangerous, and bracingly relevant to the individual. Thank God."

"The book could be seen as being itself an example of the subject of one of its essays, Burroughs' cut-up technique, in which O'Meara slices up some sacred texts - and a few sacred cows as well - and rearranges them to suggest new pathways towards the Transcendent. When O'Meara cuts into the esoteric canon, it's just possible that a bit of the Truth leaks out." --John Morgan, New Dawn Magazine

"Mysticism After Modernism lays claim to the Right's Modernist heritage, suggesting that Modernism and the Right are not incompatible and seeking a revival of traditional spirituality." - World of the Right: Radical Conservatism and World Order (Cambridge, 2024, ) p.117.