The Occult: A History

The Occult: A History is a 1971 nonfiction book on the occult by the English writer Colin Wilson. The work covers a wide range of figures and currents, including Aleister Crowley, George Gurdjieff, Helena Blavatsky, Kabbalah, primitive magic, Franz Mesmer, Grigori Rasputin, Daniel Dunglas Home, Paracelsus, P. D. Ouspensky, William Blake, Giacomo Casanova and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, among others.

The book is divided into three parts. The first is a survey of the subject, with chapters such as "Magic: The Science of the Future". The second, "A History of Magic", examines the occult throughout history. The third, "Man's Latent Powers", deals with topics such as spiritual entities, in the chapter "The Realm of Spirits".

Its reception was mixed. Joyce Carol Oates called it an excellent idea and a rich, strange and surprising work that rewards many readings. A reviewer for the Boca Raton News dismissed it for failing to explain what Wilson's "Faculty X" might achieve. Kirkus Reviews praised the historical section and criticized the other two. Joshua Gunn, in Modern Occult Rhetoric, noted that Wilson's effort to prove the existence of psychic and astral forces detracted from his scholarship.