I Would Still Be Drowned in Tears
Vanderblumen Publications 2014
Pb, 174pp, refs, bib, $14.95, ISBN 9780964430464
This slender but precise study of the role of spiritualism during Abraham Lincoln’s presidency (1861–1865) and the concurrent Civil War makes fascinating reading and lays out a neglected aspect of American history. Hamilton shows how Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd – socially accomplished and well educated, but depressed and even suicidal in later life – shared his strong belief in the prophetic power of dreams. In the 1840s, when Lincoln practised law in Springfield, Illinois, the couple sought a cure for Mary’s migraines in the clinics run by Mesmerists. As Hamilton notes: “An unexpected side-effect from being mesmerized was that during trances many patients claimed that they had seen spirits and had gained clairvoyant powers.”
Inevitably, the Lincolns developed a strong interest in spiritualism, which played some part in his political decisions. The popularity of séances in the northern states of the US was powered by the rise of the Fox sisters (from 1848 onwards) and their reported demonstrations, and their fame was at its peak when Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. During Lincoln’s presidency, Mary Lincoln convened séances in the White House, but this was not the first spiritualist incursion there. Nine years earlier, in 1853, when Franklin Pierce was president, his wife Jane had summoned the Fox sisters to the White House to hold a séance for their three sons who had met early deaths.
A telling story of those superstitious Lincolns concerns the Great Comet of 1861, one of the brightest in the modern era, that blazed (even in daylight) across 100 degrees of the sky that April, just as the Civil War began. Like many, Olla, a female slave of a family known to the Lincolns’ children, believed the celestial apparition was an omen of disaster. A biography of Lincoln’s youngest son Tad tells of Olla’s description of it as a great sword with its handle pointing south; her interpretation was that the North will win over the South. She is said to have added: “But dat Linkum man, if he takes de sword, he’s gwine perish by it.” The story was passed to the Lincolns minus the prophecy. When the Lincoln children told their parents, “Mrs Lincoln laughed, but the President seemed strangely interested.”
Hamilton, a historian of the period, writes clearly, holding even a general reader’s interest without overwhelming it with detail.
Hay House 2014 Tertön Sogyal, regarded by many as a visionary saint and one of the most influential mystics of the 19th century.
This book presents, for the first time in English, a detailed study of the life and teachings of Tertön Sogyal, a teacher and companion to the 13th Dalai Lama. Of interest here – besides an extraordinarily robust mysticism that accommodates reincarnation, visions, prophecies and ‘spirit-entities’ that personify either emanations of Buddhas of or subjugated demons – is Pistano’s portrait of the Tertön’s yogic training, endurance and antique discoveries. In Tibetan tradition, the title tertön is bestowed upon those who discover termas, ‘treasures’ – which may be texts, ritual objects, relics or long-hidden teachings, etc – believed to have been concealed by Padmasambahva – the Indian guru who promoted Buddhism in Tibet in the eighth century – until the time was right for their revelation.
Fearless in Tibet also records the historic meeting of the two present day ‘simultaneous’ incarnations of Tertön Sogyal, one of whom, Sogyal Rinpoche, provides the book’s introduction. Given all that weight and solemnity, Pistono’s writing gallops along and enlightens as it entertains.
Picador 2015 humiliation, its modern form can involve assuming the victim’s identity to post offensive material, the circulation of private pictures or letters, or having one’s email address ‘bombed’ by countless spammed emails. A silly joke, a clumsy phrase, an awkward photo, even an earnestly expressed point of view may trigger the bullying response; in truth, the perpetrators need very little provocation to unleash their torrent of digital psychological harassment. The book is not essentially fortean, but Ronson’s search for an explanation dissects human motivation as manifest through the Internet; he can only offer the suggestion that such events perform like ‘control loops’ attempting to ‘normalise’ social interaction according to vague and pathological ideas about what is normal.