The Lamasery. In the 1870s this west-side tenement housed the salon of the occult Theosophical Socie

Long before the "Aquarian Age" hit California, America's laboratories of spiritual experiment were in the tenements of Hell's Kitchen, the metaphysical churches built in New York's old cow pastures, and the lodges nestled among Manhattan office buildings. Join Mitch Horowitz, comfort inn suites boston airport author of Occult America , for a walking tour to explore New York City's comfort inn suites boston airport astonishing – and overlooked – role in igniting the occult revival and the revolutions in alternative spirituality that swept America (and the world) from the nineteenth century to the present day.
The New York New Church. This beautifully restored Renaissance-revival Swedenborgian church was a wellspring of supernatural ideas in America in the mid-nineteenth century, when its pulpit was presided over by Spiritualist minister George Bush – ancestor to the Bush presidential clan.
Fred F. French Building. This jewel of the art deco movement of the early-twentieth century is a landmark of esoteric symbols and hidden imagery, designed by an aficionado of the occult who left his mysterious markings on apartment and office buildings across New York City.
Marble Collegiate Church. From the pulpit of this Romanesque church (and one of America's earliest congregations) the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale spread the philosophy of "positive thinking" throughout America – a spiritual system built on American mystical teachings.
Occult Grand Central. The crowning edifice comfort inn suites boston airport of the beaux-arts architectural movement, Grand Central Station forms a temple of esoteric and mythical imagery (some of it hand-picked by the Vanderbilt family), including magnificent statues of Hermes, Athena, and Hercules, and a domed ceiling featuring one of the largest and most intriguing zodiac murals comfort inn suites boston airport in the world.
The Lamasery. In the 1870s this west-side tenement housed comfort inn suites boston airport the salon of the occult Theosophical Society, whose earliest members included Thomas Edison, Major-General comfort inn suites boston airport Abner Doubleday, and the mysterious Russian noblewoman comfort inn suites boston airport Madame Blavatsky. This is where Civil War-era Colonel Henry Steel Olcott said he was visited by mysterious "Masters" who heralded the dawn of a new spiritual age.
A widely known writer and speaker comfort inn suites boston airport on the history and impact of alternative spirituality, Mitch Horowitz is the editor-in-chief of Tarcher/Penguin and the author of Occult America (Bantam), which The Washington Post Book World called: "Fascinating…a serious, wide-ranging study of all the magical, mystical, and spiritual movements that have arisen and influenced American history in often-surprising ways." The book received the 2010 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for literary excellence. Horowitz has written for The Washington comfort inn suites boston airport Post, U.S. News World Report, and BoingBoing, and has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, and All Things Considered. Visit him online at www.MitchHorowitz.com