Category: New Age in Russia
“A Life Worth Living” is the title given by Jim for a biographical brochure (Hickman 2019). Jim Hickman (1947–2025) devoted his life to the massive grassroots movement of Soviet-American citizen diplomacy in...
This next part further develops the themes addressed in my previous blog post, focusing on the reciprocal dynamics involving popular Sufism in Central Asia. Entanglement: Western Esotericism under the Shadow of Sufi...
By Dany Savelli On October 2, 1920, the Russian painter Nicholas Roerich and his wife arrived in the United States and remained there until May 8, 1923. The difficult period they experienced...
By Rafał T. Prinke Modern interest in astrology, revived in Victorian England, slowly spread to the Continent during the early decades of the 20th century[1]. In Poland, first symptoms of it appeared...
The complex esoteric milieu in Soviet society, although centered around influential figures and groups in major cities of the European part of the USSR, was not homogenous. Less noticeable peripheral areas in...
Unidentified flying objects (UFOs)[1] were one of the key themes of the Soviet paranormal discourse – the “Soviet improbable” (Konakov 2022, 7) or “the unknown”[2] – along with psychics, Bigfoot, telepathy, and...
The photograph of me and two other yogis sitting in the Lotus position on the shores of the Black Sea in Crimea is a document of my youth. Like my photo portrait,...
While preparing the conference “New Age Cultures in Late and Post-Soviet Russia” in June 2022 with recommendations of films to watch, we realized that so far no one has examined a single...
Author: Nikolay Smirnov Now, when I hear the term ‘Russian New Age’ in the context of the war in Ukraine with the ongoing transformation of Russian society into something more and more...
Author: Viktoria Vitanova-Kerber The “Bulgarian Nostradamus,” the “Pythia of Petrich,” or more conventional “Grandmother Vanga” (Baba Vanga) – many names have been attributed to the clairvoyant, healer, and recent internet celebrity Vangeliya...
Author: Jim Hickman The John Denver adventures began in 1984, shortly after the first meeting of the ASE in France. Through a mutual friend, John asked me to arrange a series of...
Author: Jim Hickman Beginning in the late 1970s and ending as the 20th century came to a close, I traveled extensively between the US and the USSR. For seven years, I was...
Author: Margarita Meshkova As it may suggest, the occult landscape of Russia is heterogeneous, and occult communities are not monolithic. So, the perception of the Russian invasion of Ukraine varies from group...
Author: Nestor Manichkin Formulas expressing good wishes spells and blessings have long become one of the traditional objects of scientific attention. While folklorists consider these ethical or religious speech formulas a ritual...
Author: Boris Falikov The re-enchantment that started in the USSR after many years of forced secularization was unique as the continuity from pre-revolutionary Russia was mainly broken, and the iron curtain separated...