Daniel Martin
AUTHOR

Daniel Martin

Religion & Spirituality
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After graduating from St. Thomas College in 1979, Daniel Martin stuck his thumb out on Interstate 94 at Snelling Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota, hitchhiking east. He returned a year later, still hitchhiking east. While on that journey around the world, he read Charles Mackay's "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds," first published in 1841. Charles Mackay wrote about the tulip bulb mania and the poor sailor who mistook a priceless bulb for an onion and ate it for breakfast. He wrote about alchemy, which was practiced with all seriousness by great thinkers of the time like Thomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon. He wrote about the Crusaders who raped and pillaged their way to Jerusalem in order to save their souls. Daniel Martin was captivated by how relevant and relatable these delusions are nearly two centuries later. Seventeenth-century tulip bulb markets bear a striking resemblance to cryptocurrency exchanges. Magnetizers and hypnotists still ply the back alleys of alternative medicine, but now they are accompanied by homeopaths, acupuncturists, and energy healers. People still die from religious delusions like suicide bombing and the Kenya Starvation Cult. The idea of a modern sequel to Mackay's work percolated in the deep recesses of Daniel Martin’s brain for more than forty years and is finally now in print.
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