From the introduction: A wave of interest in spiritualism and the occult swept Europe and the United States during the late nineteenth century, and many secret societies were formed during that era. Many were shams instigated by frauds serving no forces save the leaders' naked self-interest, but a scant few were genuine. One of these was the Hermetic Order of Ebon Wisdom, founded in 1887 by two Londoners, Josiah Flynt and Jessica Fisher, and a Japanese expatriate, Leonard Ito. Their ultimate purpose was to achieve immortality, and they ultimately did - although it was not the immortality they had expected to find.