ABSTRACT
In the early twentieth century both fictional and (purportedly) factual narratives abounded that professed an Egyptian presence in the séance room, from mummy bandages that materialized in the dark to apparitions of ancient Egyptians that sought to make contact with the living. This chapter argues that links between the modern world and that of antiquity in these contexts were used to affirm the belief that the modern “West” was the natural inheritor of the mysticism and wisdom of the “East.” In accordance with contemporary psychology’s emphasis upon accessing repressed or buried secrets, the re-emergence of ancient Egypt in these spiritualist scenarios stands for generalized—and shared—psychological esoterica. At a time when psychological practitioners including Sigmund Freud were envisioning the mind as a stratified organ reminiscent of the archaeological site, ancient Egypt comes to symbolize the darkest depths of the psyche.
