KULTURTRANSFER UND DAS OKKULTE: REZEPTION ESOTERISCHER WISSENSBESTÄNDE AUS DER BRD IM SOZIALISTISCHEN POLEN
CULTURAL TRANSFER AND THE OCCULT: THE RECEPTION OF ESOTERIC PRACTICES FROM WEST GERMANY IN SOCIALIST POLAND

Summary/Abstract: While esoteric practices in the GDR became largely marginalised, investigations intoparanormal phenomena in West Germany developed into an autonomous field of research, as evi-denced by the Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene in Freiburg i.B. Theinstitute was founded by the psychologist and physician Hans Bender, who gained an internationalreputation and whose name was known also in socialist Poland. The paper examines selected as-pects of the cultural transfer of esoteric practices from West Germany in the 1970s and 1980s. Itaddresses the following topics: the reception of Hans Bender’s ideas in socialist Poland, the dis-semination of selected anthroposophic concepts, the importance of German publications for LeszekSzuman’s books on astrology and the occult, and the exemplary role of the German magazine Es-otera for the Polish monthly Biuletyn Psychotronika: Trzecie Oko. The analysis of these issues alsohelps to highlight the significance of cultural brokers. The focus lies here on the theatre director,writer and promoter of esoteric practices Lech Emfazy Stefański, the literary translator and expertin anthroposophy and gnosis Jerzy Prokopiuk, the astrologer Leszek Szuman, and the journalistand New Age promoter Lucyna Winnicka.

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