The article is an attempt to analyze The Willows by Algernon Blackwood in terms of the sociological concept of multiple realities. Trying to answer the question of how people experience reality, due attention will be paid to the literary description of the situation in which a human being is confronted with a reality that terrifies and disturbs. Literature in general, including horror literature, is treated here as an important, from the cognitive standpoint, platform for discussion about human experiences, which, following Sigmund Freud, can be described as uncanny. I treat Blackwood’s The Willows as a reconstruction of the dispute over the legitimacy of knowledge and the sources of cognition in the conditions of a specific epistemological (categorical) chaos in the face of experiencing the uncanny.

The text discusses the anthroposophical proposition of a cultural model based on two interconnected elements: the thought process and spiritual development. The founder of anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, demonstrating his extensive knowledge of the then popular proposals for shaping scientific thought, especially philosophical, proposes his unique approach to the existing reality and its possible future forms of existence.

The little known legacy of Julian Ochorowicz in Cieszyn Silesia is discussed in this article. This is the region where the controversial philosopher and psychologist spent several years. The scientist conducted his research on mediumists in Wisła, where he engaged in social and scientific activities and gathered a large collection of books. The author discusses the fate of his material legacy and the endeavours of the heirs of his scientific theories. Julian Ochorowicz’s scientific achievements and thought were propagated by the people he had met personally, such as Jan Pilch and Jan Wantuła or by those associated with the esoteric centre that developed in Wisla in the interwar years (Andrzej Podżorski, Józef Chobot, Jan Hadyna). As it turns out, Julian Ochorowicz had a significant influence on teachers of folk schools who were also publishers of magazines and esoteric books in the multi-denominational Cieszyn Silesia.

Research into esoteric ideas and their permeating non-esoteric social practices has revealed a curious phenomenon: the influence of anthroposophy, one of the most important European esoteric movements of the twentieth century, on Polish agriculture in the Second Polish Republic (II RP), as well as the development of modern ecological thought in Polish scientific circles before the Second World War, especially among naturalists and agronomists. This article marks an initial attempt to name the sources, origin as well as methods applied in transforming esoteric ideas, initially presented by Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) in 1924. The ideas were connected with spiritual aspects of agriculture of the future and proved to be a very attractive alternative for the development of civilisation, which inspired both Polish landowners and scientists in the 1930s.

The vegetarian diet was seen by esotericists at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as the only diet fully compliant with the laws of Nature. Adopting it was therefore treated not only as a way of staying healthy (i.e. maintaining a psycho-physical and spiritual balance) and progressing spiritually, but also as a duty towards Nature and a way to preserve its original, pure and therefore beneficial character. The aim of this paper is to analyse pro-vegetarian and – as the author claims – at the same time pro-ecological discourse developed within the Polish esoteric milieu at the turn of the twentieth century. Based on the example of Polish esoteric vegetarians, the specificity of argumentation and characteristic depiction will be presented as well as the practical implementation of the proclaimed postulates.

Stanisław Hadyna was a versatile artist – he composed music, gave concerts on the piano, created theatre plays, and authored plenty of books. In the collective conscience, however, he remains the founder of the band “Śląsk”, which now bears his name. The aim of the article is to present his interests in spirituality, which were related to concepts of renewal – of man and the world. In Stanisław Hadyna’s search for spirituality he combined two visions of reality, which at first glance seem irreconcilable. The foundation of the first was the mythology of childhood, containing stories about happy times and glorified nature. The second vision, on the other hand, led to the darkness of a world devastated by wars and totalitarianism, where gloomy cities and machines reign; people forget about the most important values, and survival turns out to be virtually impossible. Both images, however, are integrated by a myth that combines the story of an idyllic beginning with the tragedy of the characters who are looking for freedom, despite everything that happens around them. Creating a new world, as if against all odds, also became the main message of his work in “Śląsk”.