Holy men of the electromagnetic age A forgotten history of the occult

Review by Booklist Review

Medical marvels, scandalous entertainment, and philosophical enlightenment were all extravagantly promised by the fakirs, mediums, and other occult folks Cormack presents in this book. But more important than details of their sometimes-gruesome shows is the author's focus on the world of that moment and why so many--from average audience members to world leaders--were so caught up in the mystique. Cormack describes the interwar period and all the uncertainty it contained: staggering technological advances in medicine and communication, the 1918 flu, the Armenian genocide, and the First World War all called into question the rules of progress and possibility. Fakirs and their kin offered one way forward, teasing secrets for prosperity, connection with the dead, and power. Parallels of this time and the present are easily spotted, leading to much thought about what stories and tales of supposed miracles our age may be known for. Ending with a thoughtful reading list for those captivated by the figures here, Holy Men provides a rich look at some influential and unusual shapers of history.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

After the mass carnage of WWI, a swiftly growing number of "palm readers, clairvoyants, hypnotists, mind readers, and jinn summoners" found receptive audiences, notes Arabic studies scholar Cormack (Midnight in Cairo) in this illuminating if stodgy account. Drawing on little-studied Arabic sources regarding those who plied their supernatural trade during the interwar period, Cormack contends that the "occult movement" was not merely a new twist on the long-standing Western "orientalist" obsession with the East but was also a worldwide "religio-philosophical movement" inspired by 20th-century advancements like electricity and magnetism (as well as horrified by the era's mass destruction). "Occultists promised that they were the midwives of a new modern age... that would bring untold miracles," Cormack writes, recounting the parallel stories of two little-remembered "mystics" with inverse paths. Salim Mousa al-Ashi, a Palestinian raised in Beirut who went by Dr. Dahesh, presented himself as a Western-trained scientist and traveled the Levant performing miracles that "defied nature," like making objects appear and healing the sick; meanwhile, Tahra Bey (born Krikor Kalfayan in Armenia) fashioned himself as a Sufi "missionary" to Paris and caused a sensation with his demonstrations of mind reading and communicating with the dead. Cormack's narrative is a bit dry, with the exception of a chapter about Harry Houdini trying to debunk the two mystics' miracles as magic tricks. Still, patient readers will find plenty of insight. (Mar.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

The occult world of charismatic, miracle-working holy men. Cormack, a professor of modern languages and culture at the U.K.'s Durham University, investigates numerous enterprising men, or con men, who came to the fore preaching new kinds of occult religions after World War I during a turbulent time of crisis and rebirth. Tahra Bey, the "Egyptian fakir" from Istanbul, set up shop in poor, ravaged Athens. The Armenian--Cormack is good at describing the Armenian people's plight--astounded people with his Houdini-like physical and mental "powers," including being buried alive for long periods of time and enduring swords and knives. The gruesome show went to Italy in 1924, where he added to his act, supposedly hypnotizing rabbits and chickens. In France, where spiritualism and magic were booming, his shows were hugely popular and profitable. A curious Marie Curie attended one. Bey's success spawned a Rahman Bey in London in 1926. Others turned up to ride the occult wagon, like the eccentric Dr. Hereward Carrington, while Harry Houdini fought their charlatanry. Fakirism was on the wane in the late '20s when an American named Hamid Bey, more performer than prophet, became popular on the vaudeville circuit preaching "applied life vibration." The next fakir Cormack profiles is Dr. Dahesh Bey from Beirut, a prolific author, conjurer, and renowned hypnotist who read the minds of others and "communicated directly with the souls of the dead," all while spiritualism was spreading throughout the West. Dahesh "was creating a successful mystical persona for this modern age." In the 1940s, he was at the peak of his popularity with his new religious message of Daheshism. The news that he passed in 1984 in Connecticut went largely unnoticed. A fascinating, detail-laden history of a time when occultism ran rampant. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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