Publisher's description:
 
The interwar period was a golden age of the uncanny. Clairvoyants, fakirs, Theosophists, mind-readers, miracle-workers and jinn-summoners—all assured the masses that, just like the newly discovered invisible forces of electricity, radiation and magnetism, unseen spiritual powers commanded a realm of hidden human potential. This was a transnational movement of eccentrics, gurus and prophets, with East and West interacting in unexpected ways.
 
Drawing on untapped sources in Arabic as well as European records, Raphael Cormack follows two of the most unusual and charismatic figures of this age: Tahra Bey, who took 1920s Paris by storm as an ‘Oriental’ missionary; and Dr Dahesh, who harnessed Western science to create a pan-religious faith in Lebanon. Travelling between Cairo, New York and Jerusalem, Paris, Istanbul and Rio de Janeiro, the two mystics reflected the desires and anxieties of a troubled age. These forgotten holy men, who embodied the allure of the unexplained at a time of dramatic change, speak to our own unstable world today.
 
‘Raphael Cormack’s enthralling Holy Men of the Electromagnetic Age makes clear the connections not merely between science and magic but also, more ambitiously, between science, magic and celebrity.’ - The Wall Street Journal
 
‘[An] impressively researched book. … Cormack’s overall take on the seductive power of unreason in troubled times … is … sound.’ - Literary Review
 
‘Raphael Cormack revisits the early-20th-century golden age of spiritualism to uncover the stories of . . .  Arab mystics who combined science and esoteric faith to explain a world in flux.’  - Publishers Weekly
 
Condition: New
 
Binding: Hardback
Year: 2025
Publisher: Hurst
Pages: 292
Dimensions (to nearest cm): 24 X 17cm