A robust and colorful collection of hundreds of pamphlets, flyers, newsletters, and other ephemera related to a wide-range of 1970s New Age and Spiritualist groups. Though there is material from...
A robust and colorful collection of hundreds of pamphlets, flyers, newsletters, and other ephemera related to a wide-range of 1970s New Age and Spiritualist groups. Though there is material from all around the country, the bulk of it comes from the midwest, an area not often recognized as the hub of Metaphysical investigation that it was.
Of the Illinois-area organizations represented in the collection, the largest amount of material is from the Chicago chapter of the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship. The SFF was founded in 1956 by psychic and medium Arthur Ford and today is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. There is also a sizable amount of material from the Spiritual Advisory Council, which was founded in Glenview, IL, in 1970 by Paul Johnson. Johnson, the son of a Lutheran minister, said he became interested in spiritualism in 1970 after taking on a spiritualist group as a client. During a subsequent visit to the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg, Johnson said he was moved by the spirits of the fallen soldiers and the violent emotions he felt still lingered there.
Other midwestern organizations represented include the Foundation: Church of the Millenium, who were the subject of a 1974 New York Times profile headlined, “Young Sect No Longer Hails Devil;” the Ancient Astronaut Society; the Aquarian Astrological Society; the Wisconsin Society for Psychical Research; and many more.
Also included are flyers for events, lectures, get togethers, etc., including the First Annual Para Dimensional Conference; a “Spectacular ESP Party” organized by the Mind Frontiers in 1978 and hosted by David Techter, who has written extensively on Parapsychological matters; and many more.
Publications include issues of The Midwest Psychic News, the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship Newsletter; and more.