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Guide to Alternative Religions Literature collection
ARC Mss 84
ARC Mss 84
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Table of contents
Title: Alternative Religions Literature collection
Identifier/Call Number: ARC Mss 84
Contributing Institution:
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
5.0 linear feet
(5 cartons)
Date (inclusive): 1910-2015
Date (bulk): 1960-2000
Abstract: The collection contains books and printed materials on alternative religions and spiritual ideologies. Within these materials
are writings describing ideologies, practices, history, and discourse surrounding known 20th century alternative beliefs and
figures from related fields.
Purchased, 2016.
Open for access.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
The 1960s has been historically conspicuous for a large growth of the development and practice of non-traditional or alternative
religious movements. As new religious and spiritual ideas expanded, old ideologies reemerged or diverged into newer lense
of interpretation. This collection centers on alternative religions and philosophies consisting mainly of books, booklets,
and other printed material, encompassing beyond the sixties revival but rather from the early 1900s to 2012, illustrating
the variation in dissementation, hybridity, and evolution of alternative religions. The material span across many fields inquiry
from the diversity of Metaphysics, Buddhism, Meditation, Geomancy, Psychicism, Astrology, Tarot, Kabbalah, Theosophy, Shamanism,
Paganism, and to other esoteric spiritual studies. The material also includes concepts of gender and sexuality within the
context of spirituality. The fear and superstition of alternative beliefs or actions out hegemonic social context at times
incite hysteria and/or prejudice and there is a small subset of books detailing how modernity and traditional customs produce
socio-cultural tensions in the form of persecution and superstition as a tool for power. Overall, these works traverse between
fiction and nonfiction with some literature of erotica, mysteries, biographies, and thrillers surrounding mysticism, magic,
the supernatural, or spiritual experience.
While many of themes intersect, the collection is arranged by theme or religious family and works are listed alphabetically.
The collection has been arranged by subject.
Periodical publications were removed from the collection and added to the American Religions Collection preexisting serial
collection.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Astrology
Astrology and reincarnation
Booklets
Books
Cabala
Mediation
Mysticism
New Age movement
Occultism
Paganism
Pamphlets
Reincarnation
Shamanism
Spiritual life
Wicca
Yoga