Robert C. Fuller – författare

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Spiritual But Not Religious: The Basics is an accessible guide to the defining attributes of individuals who define themselves as Spiritual but Not Religious (SBNR), who comprise at least 25% of the American population. Topics covered include:

The book introduces the broad spectrum of beliefs and practices associated with individuals who identify as being spiritual but not religious. Featuring portraits of real people’s experiences of being SBNR, the book explains the terminology, historical background, contemporary expressions, and probable future of this enduring strain of American religiosity. This is the go-to resource for anyone interested in understanding more about the beliefs of those who are spiritual but not religious.

Spiritual But Not Religious: The Basics is an accessible guide to the defining attributes of individuals who define themselves as Spiritual but Not Religious (SBNR), who comprise at least 25% of the American population. Topics covered include:

The book introduces the broad spectrum of beliefs and practices associated with individuals who identify as being spiritual but not religious. Featuring portraits of real people’s experiences of being SBNR, the book explains the terminology, historical background, contemporary expressions, and probable future of this enduring strain of American religiosity. This is the go-to resource for anyone interested in understanding more about the beliefs of those who are spiritual but not religious.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

The story of mesmerism in nineteenth-century America is the story of how, for the first time, a psychological theory arose to meet the everyday religious and intellectual needs of Americans. Robert Fuller gives us the first complete history of American mesmerist philosophy. He traces its development from an obscure scientific hypothesis to a powerful spiritual philosophy that deeply influenced many of the period''s emerging Protestant religious sects. He investigates in depth the role of mesmerism in the Mind-Cure movement and New Thought and paints for us the cultural land­scape existing at a time when thousands of antebellum Americans turned from their churches to the realm of psychology in search of self-understanding.In the early part of the century, mesmerism was for the most part the territory of carnival showmen. Itinerant mesmerists during the 1830s placed subjects in trancelike states from which they could divulge the contents of sealed envelopes and describe in detail locales to which they had never traveled. Literary figures such as Poe and Hawthorne seized upon mesmerism, depicting its workings at their most sinister and diabolical extreme. But by midcentury, mesmerism was beginning to enter the American consciousness in ways that involved anything but parlor trickery. Straddling a fine line between religious myth and scientific philosophy, mesmerism''s spiritual tenets resonated almost perfectly with important currents in contemporary religious life. Universalists, Swedenborgians, and early spiritualists adopted the doctrine of mesmerism as evidence of man''s unity with the Almighty. The self-made mind-cure practitioner Phineas Quimby used mesmeric theory to develop his "power of positive thinking," a concept that led eventually to the emergence of the Christian Science movement. But, Fuller shows, mind-cure cultists such as Quimby also helped transform mesmerism into a kind of self-help spirituality. Later writers condensed the principles of mesmeric healing into handy maxims that could be assimilated by a popular reading audience. Thus Mesmerism and the American Cure of Souls presents a paradigmatic instance of the role played by psychology in the American sensibility. In addition, Fuller''s study constitutes a rich and hitherto unexplored chapter in American intellectual history.