Von Eckartshausen was the author of
The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, a work of
Christian mysticism which was later taken up by
occultists. It was translated into English by
Isabelle de Steiger. He joined the order of the
Illuminati founded by
Adam Weishaupt, but "withdrew his membership soon after discovering that this order only recognized enlightenment through human reason." Von Eckartshausen was acquainted with
Johann Georg Schröpfer, an early pioneer of
phantasmagoria, and himself experimented with the use of
magic lanterns to create "ghost projections" in front of an audience of four or five people. He died in Munich at the age of 50. ==Influence==