New Thinking Aug 24, 2023 Ronnie Pontiac was the personal research assistance for Manly P. Hall at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles. He is author of American Metaphysical Religion: Esoteric and Mystical Traditions of the New World. Here he explains why 19th Century America was a fountain of innovative metaphysical traditions, many of lasting influence. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:46 The Civil War 00:14:32 Transcendentalists 00:16:37 William James 00:25:24 Victoria Woodhull 00:33:19 Religious amalgamation 00:42:57 Platonism 00:54:22 Madame Blavatsky 01:05:47 Spiritual communes 01:09:34 Conclusion Edited subtitles for this video are available in Russian, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, and Spanish. New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. (Recorded on June 13, 2023)