CHAPTER ONE:Spawn of the Magicians

Paris 1960. The Morning of the Magicians. New York 1975. I meet the magicians. They came from outer space. Erich von Daniken and Chariots of the Gods. The hippies and the mutants. The Nazis and the occult. Evening of the magicians.

CHAPTER TWO:The Return of H.P.Lovecraft

Weird Tales and H.P.Lovecraft. The Cthulhu Mythos. August Derleth and Arkham House. Colin Wilson and the Lovecraft revival. Lovecraft in the sixties. Lovecraft and the occult. Kenneth Grant, Lovecraft and Aleister Crowley.

CHAPTER THREE:The Dark Barbarians

Robert E. Howard, King Kull and Conan the Barbarian. 'Civilization is unnatural'. Howard and Spengler. Swords, sorcery and the appetite for 'other worlds'. Thirities pulp in sixties paperbacks. Ballantine's Adult Fantasy series. Tolkienmania.

CHAPTER FOUR:Journeys to the West

The mystic East via the wild, wild West. Krishnamurti, Aldous Huxley, Gerald Heard and Christopher Isherwood. Henry Miller and Big Sur. The Beats go on. Alan Watts and the wisdom of irresponsibility.

CHAPTER FIVE:For Madmen Only

The Hermann Hesse craze. George Steiner objects. Steppenwolf, the band and the book. Journey to the East. Hesse as precursor to the mystic sixties. Russian Man. Strange forces. C.G.Jung and the occult. Confrontation with the shadow. Jung and the I Ching, flying saucers and the Age of Aquarius. The strange case of Miguel Serrano.

CHAPTER SIX:Knocking on the Doors of Perception

Timothy Leary eats a mushroom. Drugs and the occult. Albert Hofmann and LSD. Gordon Wasson and Amanita muscaria. Andrija Puharich, Harry Stone and Uri Geller. Anais Nin has second thoughts.

CHAPTER SEVEN:Food of the Gods

Leary, Harvard and a modern 'mystery school'. Allen Ginsberg wants to call a God. Michael Hollingshead's mayonnaise jar. Dr Leary takes a trip. The World Psychedelic Centre. The IFIF. Castalia. Leary and Gurdjieff. Guru Tim heads East. Leary, Crowley and Dr Dee in Bou Saada.

CHAPTER EIGHT:The Teachings of Don Carlos

A fateful meeting in a Arizona bus station. The shaman's apprentice. Psychedelic pop anthropogy. Don Juanmania. The return of Don Juan. Don Juan returns yet again. Fiction, fact, or? Richard De Mille objects. Occultism on the quad.

CHAPTER NINE:Satan Wants Us

Astounding Science Fiction. L. Ron Hubbard and Dianetics. The rise of Scientology. Jack Parsons and the dark side of Pasadena. Stranger in a Strange Land. L.Ron and Parsons. Making a magical child. The Book of babalon. The strange death of Belarius Armiluss Al Dajjal Antichrist. Idries Shah. Gerald Gardner. Kenneth Grant again. Some famous satanists. Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan. The sad end of Jayne Mansfield.

CHAPTER TEN:Get with the Process

A visit to the San Francisco Oracle. The Process Church of the Final Judgement. When Robert met Mary Ann at the Scientology Shop. Alfred Adler, L.Ron and Compulsions Analysis. A vision in Xtul. The mind benders of Mayfair. Satan's swinging London. Lights out for the Greys. Last call for the Process. Ed Sanders and the Family.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:Magiacal Satanic Mystery Tours

John Lennon asks for Nitz Ga at the Indica Bookshop and has a psychedelic experience instead. Pop mysticism. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Swami Prabhupada and Krishna Consciousness. Paul is dead. The Rolling Stones and the decadent illuminati. Please allow him to introduce himself. Kenneth Anger gets Lucifer to rise. The hippies and the Hell's Angels. Altamont again. Donald Cammell's performance. Manson, the Beach Boys and bad vibrations. All in the Family. Jim Morrison exposes himself to fear.

CHAPTER TWELVE:The Magical Revolution

The aftermath of Altamont. Jung, Blavatsky and the rise of the Aquarian Age. Theosophical hippies. Gavin Arthur and the Oracle. The Love-Pageant Rally. Michael Bowen and the Psychedelic Rangers. The Human Be-In. UFO and the 14-Hour Technicolor Dream. R.D. Laing and the Liberation. Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman and Levitating the Pentagon. Gandalf's Garden. The View Over Atlantis.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:The Occult Explosion

A crucifixion on Hampstead Heath. Kohoutek fizzles. Man, Myth and Magic. Occult consumerism. The occult publishing boom of the 1970's. Earth mysteries. The New Age. 'Roccult' and roll, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and 'back-masking'. David Bowie and those occult Nazis again. Satan, Manson and 'Reich and roll'. the 8/8/88 satanic rally. Charlie and the 'ecofascists'.

LAST WORDS:Let The Sunshine In

Magic today. Fetish clubs and Nazi chic. Millennial cults. The Matrix.

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Synopsis
How did a decade that dawned with the Age of Aquarius end in Altamont and the Manson Family bloodbath? The 1960s were a time of revolution - political, social psychedelic, sexual. But there was another revolution that many historians forget the rise of a powerful current that permeated pop culture and has been a central influence on it ever since. It was a magical revolution - a revival of the occult. Previously rejected and ridiculed beliefs took centre stage, reaching the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, saturating the the hippies and flower power, hitting the big screen with Rosemary's Baby and the bookshelves with Lord of the Rings. The Tarot. I Ching, astrology, Kabbala, yogis, witchcraft, UFOs, Aleister Crowley. Yin Yang and the Tibetan Book of the Dead now became the common currency they are today. But the vibes went bad, the auras darkened. Did that darker undercurrent win out? Gary Lachman here charts this explosion, its rise and fall, and its enduring legacy