Lo and Beholders can be defined as a religious-technological extremists whose roots date back to the later enlightenment age in the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, then known as Pomerania of Sweden and where the hanseatic Stralsund, present-day sister city of Pori . Stralsund s Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Wismar’s Old Town.
The Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Johan August Sandels, the last general governor of the Principality, can be regarded as one of the world’s first Lo and Beholder, along with Carl Magnus Möllersvärd and his Keijo. In 1813, Sandels reportedly celebrated Epiphany by the Borgwallsee und Pütter See lake recovering from a depression due to the end of the great Swedish empire, when he, his five-man domestic help, Major Möllersvärd and his Keith, suddenly witnessed a strong Lo and Behold -phenomenon. The phenomenon was said to have lasted for three hours.
Sandels was particularly affected by the phenomenon; In his letter to the Archbishop of Uppsala, he told him that the incident had exhausted him, both mentally and physically. As adviced by the Archbishop, Sandels made acquaintance with Herman Albert Dotcom, the grand master of the Greifswald’s Ittuminati secret society , who introduced him to the ancient and secret tradition of the Ittuminati . After the early autumn initation followed by the summer of hard study and harsh self-discovery at the Elden Monastery, he felt that he was sufficiently stable to continue to serve Gustav IV Adolf, and to receive the Norwegian regent’s ungrateful post in a remote and always so unfashionable Christiania. Dotcom became Sandels’ lifelong mentor. The second and final version of ”Korosmonicon – bland Garner, trasor och trådar” written by ”old Santa-Jonttu” recounts his experiences by the Borgwallsee und Pütter See lake. In his book “Sora-Jomppa” creates a peculiar synthesis of Swedenborg, 17th-century continental rationalism and Prussian occultism. Based on the thoughts presented in the book, Möllersvärd and other members of Sandels’ affiliates developed the philosophical principles on which Lo and Beholderism, eclectic bubblism, and later Corosmology are based.
After returning to Finland, Möllersvärd and her sensual French-born mother, Maria Charlotta L’Estraden took on the task of spreading the Lo and Beholderism among gentry and clergy. After the unexpected death of Maria Charlotta in 1823, Carl Magnus continued to work with the small town bourgeoisie, peasants, crofters and farm workers. Although this majority of the Finnish-speaking population initially had a skeptical attitude towards Lo and Beholderism, by Finnish famine of 1866–68, it was already the majority of the movement. Especially in southern Satakunta and Vakka-Suomi, the practically high brow movement made it a viable competitor even to the Evangelical Lutheran State Church.
Fin de siècle
As a result of migration, Lo and Beholderism also gained ground on the new continent, mainly in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota in the US and British Columbia, Canada, where it was struggling for popularity with abolitionists, presbyteries and classical mechanics. This competitive situation had an impact on Lo and Beholderism, so that the focus shifted from traditional incitement to eristic argumentation. Lo and Beholderism was also influenced by the older American layman tradition, and after a long, so-called Wiener process, merged with the Brownian movement, forming a contemporary Corosmological school.