Since WW II, 'channeling' has largely replaced older styles of mediumship in the movement loosely known as the New Age. Yet the two are intimately related. As both historical chronicle and metaphysical critique, The Spiritist Fallacy, together with its companion volume, Theosophy: History of a Pseudo-Religion, is a valuable study of New Age origins. Guénon takes the 'spirit manifestations' of the Fox sisters in Hydesville, New York (in 1847) as his starting-point, but while accepting the reality of many such 'manifestations', denies that they represent the spirits of the departed. He sees them, rather, as fostering belief in a kind of rarefied materialism, as though the 'spirit of the deceased' were no more than an invisible, quasi-material body, and death no more than a 'shedding' of the physical body while the 'spirit' remains otherwise unchanged-a belief widespread today in popular culture. The author demonstrates how various 'spirit philosophies' are little more than reflections of their own milieux-'English spirits' being conservative and denying reincarnation, 'French spirits' accepting reincarnation and espousing progressivist or revolutionary ideas, etc. And he addresses the strange fact that 'manifestations' associated from antiquity with haunted houses suddenly, in the 19th century-and within five years of their appearance-spawned an international pseudo-religious movement, speculating that certain magicians (possibly from the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor) may have intentionally produced the Hydesville phenomena by actively projecting hidden influences upon the passive psyches of their mediums. The mutual influence of Spiritism and Theosophy, and the adverse affects of 'spirit entities' upon many mediums, are also covered in considerable detail. The Spiritist Error is both an exposé of 'unconscious Satanism' and a highly useful critique of the false ideas of the afterlife which are so prevalent in our time. "Guénon established the language of sacred metaphysics with a rigor, breadth, and intrinsic certainty that compel recognition as a standard of comparison for the twentieth century." -Jean Borella "Guénon gave proof of a universality of understanding that for centuries had had no parallel in the Western world." -Frithjof Schuon "It was Guénon who taught me to seek and love the truth above all else, and to be unsatisfied with anything else." -Fr Seraphim Rose "Encountering Guénon's work is akin to being struck by lightning: a dazzling initiation into a hitherto unknown way of seeing reality that reclaims the original integrity of the human condition." -Samuel Bendeck Sotillos "Guénon's mixture of arcane learning, metaphysics, and scathing cultural commentary is a continent in itself, untouched by the polluted tides of modernity." -Jocelyn Godwin "Guénon was an unsurpassed master of the science of symbolism." -Martin Lings "Guénon reaffirmed the values that constitute the only sound basis for living a life with dignity and purpose, or forming of a civilization worthy of the name." -Philip Sherrard "Guénon was one of the greatest prophets of our time, whose voice is even more important today than when he was alive." -Huston Smith "No modern European writer was more significant than René Guénon, who expounded the universal metaphysical tradition that is the indispensable basis for any civilization deserving to be so called." -A. K. Coomaraswamy "Guénon's works are such potent metaphysical attacks on the downward drift of Western civilization as to make all other contemporary critiques seem half-hearted by comparison." -Jacob Needleman