Inner Studies a course of Twelve Lessons by Rev. Dr Otoman Zar-Adusht-Hanish
Publication: 1902 Sun-Worshiper Publishing Company First Edition
a rare first edition copy of the controversial “Inner Studies”. The work gained notoriety for its alleged obscene content, which included explicit sexual material. The book’s author, Otoman Zar-Adusht Ha’nish, was indicted in 1912 based on the perceived obscenity of the work.
In addition to its sexual content, the work contains several lessons with a variety of natural healing methods aimed at transitioning individuals from a state of lethargy to one inspired from pure divine action. These methods were intended to promote spiritual and physical well-being, offering a holistic approach to personal healing and empowerment. Other lessons explore the dynamics of male and female relationships, with the authors holding the belief that women are far superior in an evolutionary sense to men.
Ha’nish was the founder of the religious movement known as Madaznan. The movement later desribed in the trial as “immoral”. In court, a chapter on marital relations from Hanisch’s Inner Studies was presented as evidence. The chapter described pure tantric sexual intercourse and was read into the record. According to the Chicago Daily News, the reading caused several women to leave the courtroom, and even Hanisch himself blushed upon hearing his own words.
He was said to have been born in 1844 to a Russian diplomat in Tehran, and reportedly, as a child, he was sent to a clandestine society of Zarathustrians nestled in the mountains of Iran.
Only six institutional holdings, per Worldcat.
Condition: publishers buckram cloth boards, gilt title to spine and cover, shakespeare and company stamp to flyleaf, several pages with evidence of erasend pencil marks, several pages with creasing from dog eared pages which have been bent back into shape, a bright copy, tightly bound in Very Good condition