Includes bibliographical references (p. 319-328).

Prague's other universe -- Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) -- The goldsmith and the guardian angel -- Michel de Nostradamus (1503-1566) -- The art of astral medicine -- Ben Jonson (1572-1637) -- The occult as confidence game -- Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) -- In search of the historical Noah -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) -- The battle over light -- William Blake (1757-1827) -- The horse's mouth -- Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869) -- The fall of an Angel -- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) -- The last man -- Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) -- Triumph and tragedy of the inner self -- Victor Hugo (1802-1885) -- What the shadow's mouth says -- Jules Verne (1828-1905) -- The prophet as Peter Pan -- Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) -- The fruits of Enlightenment -- Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) -- Mistress of Hidden Wisdom -- William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) -- Metaphors for poetry -- H. G. Wells (1866-1946) -- Did the father of science fiction have a near-death experience? -- Thomas Mann (1871-1950) -- "It was not possible but it happened" -- Harry Houdini (1874-1926) -- Ultimate escape -- Winston S. Churchill (1874-1965) -- Encounter in the transvaal -- Carl G. Jung (1875-1961) -- Speaker for the dead -- Sri Yashoda Ma -- A guest in the House of Krishna -- Doris Lessing (1919-) -- Canopus in Argos : archives -- Norman Mailer (1923-2007) -- Boxing with the devil -- Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) -- Martyr-genius of Japan -- James Merrill (1926-1995) -- I and mine hold it back brothers.

"A look at the metaphysical experiences that shaped the lives and work of 24 great men and women from the Renaissance to modern times"--Provided by publisher.