Against Everyone with Conner Habib

Jaksot

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  AEWCH 326: FELIX JOHN TAYLOR on THE LIGHT OF THE HERMETIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN 15.09.2026 1t 41min

  AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB 326: FELIX JOHN TAYLOR on THE LIGHT OF THE HERMETIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWNThe first time I heard about the Golden Dawn, I was in high school. I was gay, Syrian, reading all the time, shunning sports. My town was filled with neo-Nzis and fundamentalists, celebrated stupidity and football players.I wanted to feel something like power in a disempowering place, so I went to Brentano’s and found the most startling magic book there. On its cover was a person drawing a pentagram of crackling blue light with a wand. In it, instructions on making magical tools and spellcasting. And in its title, the word magick was written with a K. In contrast to the hell of school, the book represented an academy of magic. I found there allusions to The Golden Dawn, a group from almost a century prior, with secrets of not just power, but antiquity and the cosmos.But they also seemed rigid, too elaborate and hierarchical. Plus I didn't like their most infamous member, Aleister Crowley, so I turned away from them. As I deepened my interests in occultism into adulthood, my pursuit of esoteric christianity, particularly the work of Rudolf Steiner, I steered clear.I've become more sympathetic over time to the Golden Dawn. That doesn't mean I'm going to wade into their rituals, but that a real re-assessment has occurred. So this episodes’s guest, librarian and scholar FELIX JOHN TAYLOR ’s beautiful book, The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: Magic Arts and the Occult Revival was a great find for me. In it, he gives a portrait of the Golden Dawn through its key members and its art. A picture emerges of not just a magickal group, but an art and social movement, working to redefine morality for the sake of inclusiveness and creativity. After all, Crowley fell in love with a drag queen at a gay bar in 1897. Oscar Wilde and Edward Carpenter influenced the group. So did Steiner, for that matter! W.B. Yeats brought his Golden Dawn work to revitalize Irish identity.I’m so happy you’ll be joining me and Felix John Taylor in this reappraisal.Support the show on Patreon!Make a one-time donation!Buy Felix's book.
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  AEWCH 325: THOMAS WATERS / WELCOME TO THE NEW MAGICKAL WORLD 08.09.2026 1t 38min

  Friends, I've been doing this podcast for over eight years and one thing I've noticed since the beginning: guests always want to talk about spirituality. I know, I know, it's self-selecting. I'M the one who wants to talk about it. Sure, that's true. But also, everyone is EXCITED to discuss it when I bring it up. It's like it's on the tip of everyone's tongues and has been for a decade. Now, it's starting to be fully pronounced, like a spell shouted into the air. I’m sure you’ve seen it too: whether it’s the convergence of witchcraft and feminism, the popularization of political wellness which has ritual components, the appearance of crystals in the Los Angeles mayoral race, the conspiratorial intimations about black magick during lockdowns... People have been trying to interpret the world through a spiritual lens that religion doesn't seem up to - but the political realm has so overwhelmed people’s perceptions that instead of being TRANSFORMED by spiritual encounter, they're merely grafting it onto already-established, politicized worldviews.This includes political pundits and secularized media ridiculing spiritual perspectives as a distraction from their failure to scrutinize 60 hour work weeks, economic bamboozling, or outdated attitudes about gender.I've done my best to mediate this, because I could see it all coming (not bragging, promise, you can hear me discuss it on early episodes!). I’ve tried to occupy a sort of cultural position that was largely held in the past by de-witchers, fairy doctors, alchemical scientists and more, people who separated what's true and false when it came to spiritual paths, critiques, and pursuits. They constituted a whole classes of laborers people largely disappeared by the materialist, academic, and professional world.But we can’t wait any longer, we need experts in this field. An expert I trust and appreciate so deeply on these matters is Thomas Waters, lecturer in history at Imperial College London (and AEWCH 98 guest) So we talk together about magick’s role today, and the new magickal realm we find ourselves in.I’m so excited to share this episode with you. support the show: patreon.com/connerhabibbuy Magick: Decoding the Visual Culture of Spells, Illusions and Psychic Powers by Thomas Waters from an indie bookshop buy Cursed BritainA History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times by Thomas Waters from an indie bookshop
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  AEWCH 324: A.J.A. WOODS on THE VALUE OF MARXIST THEORY & THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL (and why it scares people) 07.07.2026 1t 32min

  I talk with intellectual historian, A.J.A. WOODS , author of the excellent and very readable The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy: Why the Right Blames the Frankfurt School for the Decline of the West on to the show to discuss all this.In their book, A.J.A. traces the great movement of blaming everything good and bad - from trans liberation to sexual abuse, from religious plurality to totalizing Satanism, from fighting state violence to supporting gulags - on something called cultural Marxism.If it sounds incoherent, that’s because coherence is not really the point. The illusion of coherence is. And the illusion is created by noise and density.I have my own shaky relationship to the Frankfurt School, and I'm so happy to share this exploration with you in hopes that it will inspire you to rethink and/or revisit these philosophers.Support the show: patreon.com/connerhabib
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  AEWCH 323: MITCH HOROWITZ on YOUR TRUE ESOTERIC SELF 23.06.2026 1t 43min

  Friends, “The hour is late. It is time for unwanted guests to leave.” That's a line from this episode's guest, MITCH HOROWITZ, in his latest book, Esoterika: Formulas Against the False Self. The book as I see it, is a book of ethics. And its central question is: how do you navigate who you are and what your ethics are when you touch the continuously transformative fires of spiritual pursuits?In that sense, it is a book for anyone exploring their spirituality.In it, Mitch traces his own inner (and outer) conflicts with spiritual maxims. Particular to Mitch is the conundrum of: How do I get what I want, yet retain my integrity? What do I do when there's a conflict? And where does magic come in?This is a great discussion and one where we navigate our own tensions of belief and disbelief; will and surrender.Support the show via patreon.com/connerhabib
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  AEWCH 322: MARK BOOTH (AKA JONATHAN BLACK) on OCCULT INFLUENCES IN MODERN SCIENCE 09.06.2026 1t 28min

  On this episode of Against Everyone with Conner Habib, I talk with esoteric author and scholar MARK BOOTH (AKA Jonathan Black), whose excellent new book, THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE: HOW ANCIENT WISDOM MADE THE WORLD, traces the occult influences found in modern science, especially the science of physics.Mark’s book is not just an outline of confluences. In other words, it’s not one of many books already available which seem to validate spiritual wisdom with modern science. Instead, it is something more singular and more needed for our time. It shows how esoteric ideas and thinkers, seers and magicians, intersected with scientists as they developed the theories that live in our own scientific worldviews. Mark is also the author of one of the best introductions to real esoteric perspectives, The Secret History of the World , as well as The Sacred History: How Angels, Mystics and Higher Intelligence Made Our World and the ebook, The Secret History of Dante: Unearthing the Real-Life Mysteries of the Inferno.Mark has been a dream guest for me since I started this show over eight years ago. Although we spoke a few times in the intervening years, I'm so excited that we finally got to talk in this capacity, for the podcast.But we weren't alone! In a perfect example of spiritual entanglement, when Mark brought up the physicist Wolfgang Pauli - famed for the so-called Pauli effect or shorting out technology wherever he went - our recoding crashed completely, and we had to restart the call. Luckily, it's still all intact for you!
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  AEWCH 321: JOSHUA RIVERS & SHULI BRANSON on WHAT WE MUST LOSE TO GAIN THE WORLD 04.06.2026 1t 57min

  Using AEWCH 317-320 as a starting point, I talk with JOSHUA RIVERS, poet and host of the excellent BUSY BEING BLACK podcast + frequent AEWCH guest, SHULI BRANSON (host of the podcast THE BREAKUP THEORY podcast, and translator of Guy Hocquenghem's Gay Liberation After May '68.) about the small task of remaking the world.At the center of the episode is a thought that's something like: We have to lose - via transformation - so much to gain the world.The last time Shuli was on the show was a conversation with a third person, too, with Dean Spade on AEWCH 277 thinking through how to think bigger than the state. On that episode, we each brought a question for the other two guests, and we do that again - but this time prompted by Josh. These are the questions:JOSHUA: How do you care for what you love?CONNER: If you let go of the set of capitalism vs communism (or socialism) what’s left in your view of how to change the world?SHULI: How do you open things up so that you have a new and altered view?Along the way we talk about poetry, science, occultism, politics, and...well, so much else. And the episode ends with dancing. I'm so excited to share this episode with you.Support the show on patreon: patreon.com/connerhabib
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  AEWCH 320: A NEW SPIRITUAL SOCIETY, PT 4 - The spiritual heart of ECONOMY 07.05.2026 1t 12min

  Like many people, I often feel that I don’t understand economics, but, like everyone, I have my own role to play in the economy. So do you. So does everyone. We are all in economy, so we all have something to offer in understanding it.AEWCH 24 guest Erin Ryan once joked that  “Economics is astrology for dudes” Economics feels intentionally mystified, filled with untruths and abstractions, and hopelessly complicated. Those who claim they do understand it are usually people (certain kinds of men, as per Ryan’s joke) who use the economy in a certain way, and are therefore limited to a certain view of it.Because we are kept at arms length from economic understanding, we have to resort to questions like, “Why is this piece of paper worth something?” or , “Why do numbers moving from one account to another mean something?” If we're not outright ridiculed for asking, we are often left without much more than broad answers that are detached from history and that lead us away from doing anything about whatever we’ve learned.But these are the questions we need to ask, and we need to come up with new answers. This is fourth episode in my series of episodes called A New Spiritual Society, working through how to renew, revitalize, and re-engage with culture, politics, and economics by looking at their spiritual heart. This episode stands on its own - but you can also enrich the listening by starting with the introduction to this series on AEWCH 317, if you want to hear more about how and why I’m approaching. AEWCH 318 is on culture, and AEWCH 319 is on politics.I hope you find this look at the spiritual heart of economy gratifying, and a help in circulating new perspectives that are closer to the truth.Support the show on patreonpatreon.com/connerhabib
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  AEWCH 319: A NEW SPIRITUAL SOCIETY, PT 3 - The spiritual heart of POLITICS 29.04.2026 44min

  Friends, we might not feel up to the task, of changing the world, but not only are we up to the task, but we are all engaged with it already. Shaping the world is part of being alive and we all contribute, whether we know it or not.This episode is part of my series on the social art of renewing, rethinking, and revitalizing the social organism:A NEW SPIRITUAL SOCIETYThis time, I talk about POLITICS - why politics in our time is about so much more than elections, political parties, protests, and laws. It's about time, utopia, and connection.Support the show today via ⁠patreon⁠or⁠Make a one time contribution⁠.Want to work with me on your creative, business or everyday life? ⁠Click here for a list of services⁠.
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  AEWCH 318: A NEW SPIRITUAL SOCIETY, PT 2 - The spiritual heart of CULTURE 21.04.2026 42min

  Friends, we might not feel up to the task, of changing the world, but not only are we up to the task, but we are all engaged with it already. Shaping the world is part of being alive and we all contribute, whether we know it or not.Welcome to my new series of episodes on the social art of renewing, rethinking, and revitalizing the social organism:A NEW SPIRITUAL SOCIETYThis time, I talk about CULTURE, what culture really is in our time and what we're being called to do to renew this sphere so it can be strong in its own right and withstand the pressures of politics and economics.Support the show today via patreonorMake a one time contribution.Want to work with me on your creative, business or everyday life? Click here for a list of services.
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  AEWCH 317: A NEW SPIRITUAL SOCIETY, PT 1 - An Introduction To Social Threefolding For Our Time & Renewing Culture, Politics, and Economy 14.04.2026 26min

  Friends, We might not feel up to the task, of changing the world, but not only are we up to the task, but we are all engaged with it already.No one who has ever lived, even briefly, has not altered the earth by contributing their own destiny to it, and the way in which that destiny radiated out to affect everyone.Shaping the world is part of being alive.We all contribute. This is often broken down into a clunky simplistic and fundamentally flawed statement that “everything is political.” But the truth is everything in our lives - individually, with each other, and with the whole of humanity not to mention the earth itself - is connected to natural, human, and spiritual laws.How do we bring ourselves out of the automatic everyday ways we shape the world just by merely existing, and into the intentional, purposeful, and true activity of developing a newly spiritual society?Welcome to my new series of episodes on how to start to renew and recreate the social world in our time:A NEW SPIRITUAL SOCIETYOver the coming episodes, I'll be looking into the spiritual heart of culture, politics, and economics, to see what's living there, and how we can bring ourselves to the task of nourishing it.With Rudolf Steiner's concept of social threefolding as a companion along the way, we'll move past old ideas and into essential, living concepts to move forward.On this first episode, I introduce what I'm up to, define the terms, set the direction, and invite you along.Support the show via patreon.Patreon.com/connerhabib
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  AEWCH 316: On Child Abuse & Political Conspiracy 12.03.2026 58min

  In an episode that is at once political, spiritual, and intensely personal, I talk about why we need to see the Epstein files in the right light to understand what's at stake: for survivors, for abusers, and for the world at large.Support the show: patreon.com/connerhabib
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  AEWCH 315: J.F. Martel / Only Art Can Save Us Now 04.02.2026 2t 4min

  I talk with author, teacher, and cohost of Weird Studies, J.F. Martel about how art is the only way out of our predicament.Support the show: patreon.com/connerhabibBuy J.F.'s book.Listen to Weird Studies.
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  AEWCH 314: ASAD HAIDER on IDENTITY, DESIRE, AND MAGIC 21.01.2026 1t 21min

  Asad Haider, the political theorist and philosopher, whose book critiquing identity politics from a (non-class-reductive) leftist perspective, Mistaken Identity: Mass Movements and Racial Ideology remains a powerful contribution and who was on AEWCH 26, died suddenly in December of last year.I’ve reproduced that episode as AEWCH 314*, with a new introduction. To plant a tree in Asad's memory, go here.To support the show, go to patreon.com/connerhabib
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  AEWCH 313: PILAR LESKO on HOW TO DEAL WITH BIG CHANGES 07.01.2026 2t 3min

  In conversation with Pilar Lesko about change, Christianity, the dead, and more.Happy New Year!support the show: patreon.com/connerhabib
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  AEWCH 312: 312: MITCH HOROWITZ + TONS OF SPECIAL GUESTS on NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS! 30.12.2025 2t 5min

  Friends,Happy New Year! And welcome to the New Year’s Resolution episode of Against Everyone with Conner Habib, featuring my conversation with esoteric scholar and writer, MITCH HOROWITZ.But this show is filled with special guests, including:Philosopher and writer FEDERICO CAMPAGNAEsoteric teacher ALAN CHAPMANBestselling author and death expert CAITLIN DOUGHTYMystery and horror novelist SARA GRAN Christian Community priest and esoteric christian PATRICK KENNEDYCap'n Jazz, Joan of Arc, and Kinsella & Pulse front person TIM KINSELLASpiritual teacher and abundance explorer PILAR LESKORapper and cultural theorist VIC MENSAArtist and journalist UNA MULLALLYWriter and Team Human host DOUGLAS RUSHKOFFOn this episode Mitch and I talk about the resolutions sent in by these past AEWCH guests, and I hope our discussion inspires you to come up with a meaningful resolution for yourself, whether you’re listening to this before the year turns over to 2026, or in the days, weeks, and months that follow. A New Year’s resolution is an expression of vulnerability. They reveal how we see ourselves, our strengths, and our failings, in relationship to the world.So I (and Mitch!) encourage you to make them, and offer thoughts on how and why.May this episode be a small well to draw nourishment from whenever you need to access some resolve.With love, always with love,CHSupport the show: patreon.com/connerhabibSign up for a yearlong tarot reading, The Year of Light, with Conner by January 5 2026 and get a discount when you use the code: brandnewyearAt AEWCH.square.site
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  AEWCH 311: RUDOLF STEINER'S RADICAL SOCIAL-POLITICAL PROJECT with AARON FRENCH & HENRY HOLLAND 17.12.2025 2t 34min

  In this double-length and in-depth episode, I look at the social-political project of the late 19th early 20th century occultist, philosopher, and social reformer Rudolf Steiner with scholars and academics Aaron French and Henry Holland, who are writing Steiner's biography for SUNY Press, and have just offered the keynote at Harvard University's conference on Rudolf Steiner's life and work.On this episode, we attend to a question Henry asks: “Is a leftist reading of Steiner possible?"Please support this show on patreon:Patreon.com/connerhabib
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  AEWCH 310: THE PARANORMAL IS NORMAL with BEN MACHELL / THE SPIRIT-ERA & ITS AFTERMATHS, PT 4 10.12.2025 1t 30min

  Friends,This is the fourth episode* in a series called The Spirit-Era and Its Aftermaths in which I look at the way spiritual, technological, and occult flourishings at the turn of the 19th into 20th century are still with us today, and in fact, being echoed by our own time.This time, we’re moving closer and closer to our present age, away from the Spirit-Era and into its aftermaths, tracking the ways that paranormal investigations, and paranormal phenomena themselves, changed as they emerged from that era.And I look into all of the with my guest, journalist ⁠BEN MACHELL⁠, author of the compulsively readable and also illuminating book ⁠Chasing the Dark: A 140-Year Investigation of Paranormal Activity⁠.One thing I’ve noticed again and again in researching and recording this series of episodes is that the so-called esoteric, the miraculous, the paranormal are all common.Whether it’s a haunting, someone who is able to accomplish a feat of endurance, or the ways in which the world is simply very strange if we just look at it without taking it for granted: these are not aberrant occurrences. We have all experienced them, or heard about someone who has, or have shared stories about them, or have found some evidence for them or theorized about them.So when we tell stories about the paranormal, we are really just telling stories about the normal world.In Ben’s book, he takes a long and thoughtful journey following the life and work of paranormal investigator Tony Cornell, a member of the Society for Psychical Research who appeared on TV, wrote books, and even was featured in a computer magazine for building a device to try to detect paranormal phenomenon. But unlike the performative ghost conjurers of the late 19th century or the fakirs in the early 20th, Tony (1924 - 2010) wasn’t trying to create spectacular performance, and wasn’t motivated purely by egotistical posturing as a debunker either. Rather he sought to understand what was really happening in people’s lives.Through following Tony, Ben depicts a fascinating alternate history of the everyday: people simply living their lives, but then experiencing something they don’t understand and can't explain, something that feels out of place to reality itself. Sometimes the unexplainable isn’t the phenomena, but a feeling, a need to cry for help.So a picture begins to emerge - the paranormal as the presence of motivators - whether in our own behavior or in furniture and dishes flying through the air that we can’t grasp, that we need help with.What a change from where the Spirit-Era started, with the frightening glamour of the table rapping spirits and the ectoplasmic bonds of spiritualist gatherings. And what a difference, also, from the spiritual thinkers who sought to create coherent theories. Here, the theories fell away in the face of spontaneous phenomena for which there were no experts. But if there were an expert, Tony Cornell would be the best of them; and his approach was to live with the uncertain, the unknown.Support the show: ⁠PATREON.COM/CONNERHABIB
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  AEWCH 309: FAKIRS AND FAKERS with RAPHAEL CORMACK / THE SPIRIT-ERA & ITS AFTERMATHS, PT 3 02.12.2025 1t 20min

  This is the third episode in a series called The Spirit-Era & Its Aftermaths in which I look at the way spiritual, technological, and occult flourishings at the turn of the 19th into 20th century are still with us today, and in fact, being echoed by our own time.The Spirit-Era is marked by occultists, paranormal investigators, and magicians... But it is also marked by performances of all kinds: stage magic, but also actual magic. Stage magic passing as real magic, real magic posing as trickery. There were the performance of spiritualism, of charismatic theologians, and of feats of incredible endurance. As in our own time, People had difficulty parsing out what was real and what was illusion. And there was no shortage of advice on how to attain magical aptitude and ability, or promises of unlimited health and vitality. Beyond this difficulty distinguishing  truth from fantasy, there was a thrilling draw to the ambiguity, and whatever power might be there, in the spot in between what was and what might be. This negative space, this open area of reality, affected people all over the world, including the middle east.These tensions - between genuine and the spectacular, strengthening and the seducing, are the themes of this installment in the series - on Fakirs & Fakers with DR. RAPHAEL CORMACK, Assistant Professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University, and author of the highly readable, eye-opening, and excellent book Holy Men of the Electromagnetic Age: A Forgotten History of the OccultRaphael’s book, and our discussion connects us to two figures who were emblematic of their time:The performer-fakir, Tahra Bey, an Armenian performer who achieved fame in the 1920s as a man of incredible talents; not only to drive sharp objects through his skin, to be buried alive and survive, or to lie down on a bed of nails; but also to beguile huge audiences. Tahra Bey, who fooled the world into thinking he possessed both heritage and secrets from Egypt, and that he could teach anyone to do what he did.The other figure is Dr. Dahesh, Palestinian-born mystic and teacher, founder of the spiritual current known as Daheshism, which still has adherents today. Dr. Dahesh was said to be able to take off his own head, to spring back to life after execution, and to understand the workings of the cosmos. He was also an art collector, for whom a museum in New York is named. He remains a well-known figure in Lebanon where he was both celebrated and persecuted, but eventually moved to Connecticut, where he died in at the age of 74 in 1984.As Raphael says in this episode, “Writing a history of the occult is writing a history of something that doesn’t quite fit into the box of history, even on its on terms.”So how do we interpret the performance from the truth? And what does it mean to desire not just the miracle because it astounds us, but the lack of miracles because it allows us to be complacent?I’m so excited to share this episode with you.8 years. 300+ episodes. All free. SUPPORT THIS SHOW: patreon.com/connerhabib
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  AEWCH 308: LITERATURE AS OCCULTISM with ALLAN JOHNSON / THE SPIRIT-ERA & ITS AFTERMATHS, PT 2 25.11.2025 1t 40min

  This is the second episode in a series called THE SPIRIT-ERA & ITS AFTERMATHS in which I look at the way spiritual, technological, and occult flourishings at the turn of the 19th into 20th century are still with us today.In the second installment in the series, I talk with ALLAN JOHNSON Professor of English Literature at University of Surrey, meditation coach, and author of the excellent book, The Sacred Life of Modernist Literature: Immanence, Occultism, and the Making of the Modern WorldIn that book, Allan states: “The occult has always walked the perilous line between desiring a textual form while resisting the possibility that this form can ever be completely achieved.”One of my big frustrations with spiritual influencers is that most of them don’t seem to have a good grasp of art, but particularly literature. They do something like this: they read literature that has magical CONTENT and create metaphors and analogies that - all-too conveniently - mirror the lessons of their own esoteric view. And they generally reach for the usual suspects: Tolkien, Le Guin, Coehlo, etc.But the location of esoteric strength in literature is less in the content and much more in its FORMS and STYLES. These forms were brought to us most prominently in modernist fiction - in James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka, and more. But also by poets like TS Elliot, Ezra Pound, and WB Yeats.In the works of modernist writers, the reader’s involvement is demanded to complete the text. These are writers who initiate us as we read their works.This conversation with Allan offered the chance to explore ideas I'd been longing to talk about for years, I'm so excited to share them with you here.SUPPORT THE SHOW ON PATREONBuy Allan's book
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  AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB 307: ON THE IMPORTANCE OF GHOST HUNTING with ALICE VERNON / THE SPIRIT-ERA & ITS AFTERMATHS, PART 1 18.11.2025 1t 38min

  This is first episode in a series called The Spirit-Era and Its Aftermaths. Across the next few installments of AEWCH, I’ll be investigating the way the spiritual, technological, and occult flourishing at the turn of the 19th/20th century is affecting our lives to this day. The Spirit-Era was a time marked by spirits, of course. But also miracles, hucksters, paranormal investigators, and genuine spiritual teachers. There were seances and fakirs, performances of incredible feats in private and on stages both which were thought to be revelations of different worlds, or worlds that could be possible.The intelligentsia of the time might go to see spirits materialize in dark rooms. They might write novels inspired by meeting  notorious occult figures. Or maybe they would decide to form societies to investigate the afterlife. Many of the Spirt-Era's most famous artists and writers found themselves inspired by and even joining occult orders. New occult organizations and forms - some with anarchist aspirations, others connecting to labor rights movements, still others taking fascist turns, - were rising and falling.Like in our own era, new technologies emerged and others became popularized. The telephone became more available, and so, later, did the car  and motion picture with sound. But also there was the fortune cookie, bringing a sort of precogniostic levity to the everyday. These innovations marked changing experiences of time and space across the planet.Plagues, wars, sinking ships. It seemed like there was never a moment of rest. I’m sure you can relate.Two themes ran through the Spirit-Era: the shifting relationship of the spiritual and material, and the deep understanding that everything was changing, so anything might be possible.In these episodes, we won’t just be trying to learn from history to avoid repeating it, but rather to deeply consider the Spirit-Era and conjure its best aspects.Because within the spectacle, there were many revelations to be had. Some of them we take for granted in our everyday lives, and forget they were handed to us by people who took the great risk or the absurd plunge into the era's spiritual possibility.We’ll look at the ways paranormal investigations pushed on science, how esotericism informed advancing literature and performance. We’ll even investigate whole world views with their own coherence, that developed at the time, and see why we can learn so much from  them.And we'll look at why so many of these boundary-pushing advances are stigmatized today. One reason I’ll mention now: The Spirit-Era is difficult for us because it isn’t part of the past, but something beyond us. A future where we allow ourselves to think in ways that dissolve the material realm as we know it, and try to understand the forces - whether social, dialectical, economic, or spiritual - fully anew.The Spirit-Era reflects the past and the future through smoke and mirrors. Yes, the tools of illusionists and frauds. But amongst the trickery, the truth of light and surface is there. In the aftermaths of the Spirit-Era, we continue to use its insights and gestures to figure out what we think is real, what is solid, and where illumination comes from.Welcome to this series.On the first episode, I talk with ALICE VERNON, author of Ghosted: A History of Ghost Hunting, and Why We Keep Looking. The book is vast in scope, and considers the many emotional resonances we have with paranormal investigation, ghost-hunting, and why it is important to us. We start in the 1st century, and go all the way to AI in this wide-ranging conversation about the topic. But the Spirit-Era here is unavoidable. People grieving, hustling, debunking, and believing all surround the seance tables, inviting new presences, new technologies, and new methods of investigation.I’m so happy to present this series and episode.SUPPORT THE SHOW VIA PATREONBuy Ghosted: A History of Ghost Hunting, and Why We Keep Looking by Alice Vernon