POSTHUMOUS HUMANITY: A STUDY OF PHANTOMS
Book Details + Condition: Wizards Bookshelf (San Diego, CA). First Edition thus, 1981. Hardcover with grey cloth boards and gilt title (etc) to front and spine. Translated from the French and annotated by Henry S. Olcott, President of the Theosophical Society. Also included is an Appendix “shewing the popular beliefs current in India respecting the post-mortem vicissitudes of the human entity” (also prepared by Olcott). Author Adolphe d’Assier’s investigation of life after death, in which he seeks to explain scientifically such phenomena as phantoms, werewolves, vampires, and doppelgängers. He describes phantoms as a "post-mortuary personality," a creature distinguishable from the common ghost through vigorous application of scientific terminology and scientistic aesthetics. D’Assier references "magnetic fluid" and the mesmeric ether in his treatise, and disavows supernaturalism and superstition, even as he finds accounts of incubi, lycanthropy, vampirism, and astral projection thoroughly believable, incorporating them into his mesmeric ether theory. In very good condition, with firm binding and a clean interior - book has not been read.
