Egil Asprem: "Science in the Early Twentieth-Century Occult Public Sphere”

Audio recording: Egil Asprem, "Science in the Early Twentieth-Century Occult Public Sphere: The Case of H. Stanley Redgrove”

This talk will examine the reception of scientific discourse in the occult public sphere through the case of H. Stanley Redgrove’s (1887–1943) extensive notes, letters, essays, and book reviews in The Occult Review. Redgrove was a prolific, well-read, and often perceptive participant in the British occult public sphere of the early twentieth century. He contributed no fewer than 244 items to The Occult Review alone between 1908 and 1940, on topics as diverse and wide-ranging as the history of alchemy, mathematics, modern physics and chemistry, contemporary philosophy (he reviewed Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in 1923), and standard occult topics such as Rosicrucianism, hermeticism, mysticism, ritual magic, astrology, psychical research, and spiritualism. A chemist by training, Redgrove also published textbooks in mathematics and physical chemistry, authored the influential Alchemy: Ancient and Modern (Rider & Sons, 1911), and a work of amateur neo-Baconian and idealist philosophy entitled The Magic of Experience: A Contribution to the Theory of Knowledge (1915). On top of this, Redgrove was also a founding member and president of the short-lived Alchemical Society (1912–1915), significant for its blended membership of historians, occultist practitioners, and scientists.

Redgrove’s production showcases the fluid borders between the “occult” and the “popular-intellectual” public sphere of the period, but it also draws attention to internal skirmishes in the occult discourse on “science”. On the one hand, there is often little that separate the authors of occultist periodicals from esteemed scientists and philosophers who write for a bigger audience in terms of the issues that interested them (the nature of life and mind, the relation between mind and matter, the possibility of life after death, supernormal abilities, and so forth). On the other, participants in occult discourses often sought legitimacy by aligning ideas with the prestige of “cutting-edge science” – a risky strategy at a time when the bar of scientific literacy was rapidly rising. Often performing the role of the critic, Redgrove’s voice in occultist debates over science highlights both the controversial nature of science in the occult sphere, and the connections with mainstream intellectual discourses.

Egil Asprem is an Associate Professor (docent) of History of Religions at Stockholm University. His research is primarily in the area of Western esotericism, with a special focus on modern and contemporary currents. Thematically, he is interested in issues such as the relationship between esotericism and science, the transformation of esoteric thought and practice during processes of modernization, and the cognitive and psychological basis for esoteric mentalities, interpretive strategies, and forms of practice. His publications cover a broad range of subjects in this area, including Western ritual magic, parapsychology, contemporary paganism and shamanism, theosophy and anthroposophy, modern kabbalah, new natural theologies, conspiracy theories, new age, popular science in/as popular religion, etc. Egil is also interested in questions of theory and philosophy of science as related to the study of religion in general and esotericism in particular, and he has recently published a long series of articles on how current cognitive science can offer explanations for aspects of esotericism.

He is currently working on the project "Occult Minds: Esotericism as Cognition and Culture" and editing a large reference work for Brill on contemporary esotericism. In addition, he is also involved in developing a “building block approach” to religion and cognition in collaboration with Ann Taves at the University of California Santa Barbara, and is writing a book on how the new interest in mechanistic models of explanations within the philosophy of science sheds new light on the notion of “explanation” in the study of religion.

This paper was presented at the "Periodical Occulture and the Occult Public Sphere" workshop on Friday 14th July 2017, at Birkbeck, University of London. The workshop was part of the 'Popular Occulture in Britain 1875-1947' project. For more information, see http://www.stir.ac.uk/popular-occultu....