The Victorian Astral Projection Craze: Occultism and Magic

While proper Victorians sipped tea and adjusted their corsets, a secret rebellion was brewing in respectable parlors across England. Between evening prayers and morning newspapers, the most unlikely spiritual revolutionaries were attempting something extraordinary—abandoning their bodies entirely to float through the cosmos like ethereal tourists.

In an age when crossing town was an adventure, the Victorians discovered astral projection: why settle for a carriage ride when your soul could rocket through star-studded heavens, spy on distant conversations, or chat with spirits over celestial crumpets?

The supposedly strait-laced, corset-bound Victorians were actually history’s most audacious spiritual adventurers. They didn’t just believe in ghosts; they wanted to become them. But what drove an entire generation to abandon their physical forms for cosmic wandering? The answer reveals a hidden side of Victorian life far stranger than any ghost story.