ABSTRACT
The term "metaphysical" refers to groups that share a basic characteristic in searching for a reality above and beyond the common sense phenomenal world, and having found it, to apply their discovery in a practical manner. The metaphysical quest is as old as humankind, but in the eighteenth century it received a newer and more practical twist in the work of such people as Franz Anton Mesmer and Emanuel Swedenborg. During the nineteenth century, numerous spiritual explorers expanded upon their basic insights and created a host of new movements and organizations—the Theosophical Society, the National Spiritualist Association, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn—to mention a few.
