Modern Occultism in Late Imperial RussiaModern Occultism in Late Imperial Russia traces the history of occult thought and practice from its origins in private salons to its popularity in turn of the century mass culture. In lucid prose, Julia Mannherz examines the ferocious public debates of the 1870s on higher dimensional mathematics and the workings of seance phenomena, discusses the world of cheap instruction manuals and popular occult journals, and looks at haunted houses, which brought