New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove • Mar 12, 2024 • “For all the problems in our country as long as we’re protecting the individual search for meaning, we’re going to make it. When we stop protecting that, that’s when we’re going to fail.” -Mitch Horowitz Misunderstood and associated with sinister elements or conspiracies, the occult has, in fact, played a prominent role in promoting religious freedom, social justice, and the individual search. When we think of free-thinking societies, the freedom for all women and men, regardless of color or creed, to believe or doubt, we think of the value and protection of the individual search for meaning. In this conversation, Mitch Horowitz, alternative spirituality scholar and PEN award-winning author of “Modern Occultism,” “Occult America,” “One Simple Idea,” “The Miracle Club,” “Daydream Believer,” and others examines the positive role of secret societies such as the Illuminati. Horowitz delves into the impact occultism has had on social movements including suffragism and abolitionism and how it fostered greater religious equality. He explores the significant influence of women on these movements with figures such as Madame Blavatsky and the Gnostic Cathars and highlights alternative approaches to spirituality such as Thomas Jefferson’s view of the Bible to reshape American spirituality. Horowitz discusses how occultism sometimes must lower its profile (“light must be taken underground”) in order to protect the “individual’s search for meaning.” Finally, he asserts how occultism and mysticism can transcend political borders, creating a unifying effect. Be sure to listen for Horowitz’s comparison of Gnosticism to the first twenty minutes of the 2024 film “Barbie.” 00:00 Introduction and Setting 04:54 The “Mystical Core of America” 10:02 Occultism, Enlightenment, Equality & Social Movements 15:41 Pushback Against Occultism 19:32 Secret Societies: “Sometimes Light Must Be Taken Underground” 21:15 The Illuminati— “Protecting the Search” 26:55 The Gnostic Cathars and Their Persecution 31:39 Madame Blavatsky, Gandhi, MLK 39:24 Modern Occultism People & Stories 46:00 Skeptical Inquiry: Debunking & Denialism 48:30 The “What-Ifs” of American Spirituality 57:15 UFO Disclosure as a Bipartisan Issue 01:09:10 “Turning Down the Heat” in 2024 Order the new book by Mitch Horowitz “Modern Occultism: History, Theory and Practice” https://amzn.to/3Tta3zA
Tag Archives: Mitch Horowitz
Bio: Mitch Horowitz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Mitchell Hurwitz.
| Mitch Horowitz | |
|---|---|
| Horowitz speaking in Kansas City, Missouri in 2019 | |
| Born | November 23, 1965 (age 57) |
| Occupation(s) | Writer and editor |
| Website | mitchhorowitz.com |
Mitch Horowitz (born November 23, 1965) is an American writer in occult and esoteric themes. He is the former editor-in-chief of TarcherPerigee.[1] A frequent writer and speaker on religion and metaphysics in print and on television, radio, and online, Horowitz’s writing has appeared in The New York Times,[2] The Washington Post,[3] The Wall Street Journal,[4] Time,[5] and CNN.com,[6] and he has appeared on NPR,[7] CBS News,[8] NBC News,[9] and Vice News.[10] In 2022, Ferdinando Buscema noted that “Horowitz is among the most articulate and respected voices in the contemporary occulture scene.”[11]
Works and scholarship
Horowitz is the author of Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation (Bantam, 2009/2010). The book received the 2010 PEN Oakland/ Josephine Miles Award.[12]
Horowitz hosted, co-wrote, and produced the 2022 documentary The Kybalion, directed by Ronni Thomas and shot on location in Egypt.[13][14] He also appeared on seasons I and II of Shudder’s Cursed Films on AMC+, a selection of SXSW 2020.[15][16]
Horowitz plays a newscaster in the forthcoming Paramount feature film My Animal, directed by Jacqueline Castel, a selection of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.[17]
Horowitz’s writing has appeared in Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies,[18] Parabola,[19] Esopus,[20] Fortean Times,[21] and with the Religion News Service.[22]
Horowitz has called attention to the worldwide problem of violence against accused witches, helping draw notice to the human rights element of the issue.[23]
In 2009, Horowitz was on the faculty of the urban holistic learning center, the New York City Open Center,[24] for its annual Esoteric Quest.[25] He presented lectures at the Open Center entitled The Psychic Highway: New York’s ‘Burned-Over District’ and the Growth of Alternative Spirituality in America[26] and Made in America: The Hidden History of ‘Positive Thinking’.[27]
At Tarcher/Penguin, Horowitz published titles in world religion, esoterica, and the metaphysical,[28] as well as works in philosophy, social thought and politics, including Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by director David Lynch,[29] 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck and Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber. He has published a number of works by religious scholar[1] Jacob Needleman, including The American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders and the What is God?[30]