Magical Consciousness

Author : Susan Greenwood,Erik D. Goodwyn
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 309 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2015-08-20
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317517207

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Magical Consciousness by Susan Greenwood,Erik D. Goodwyn Pdf

How does a mind think magically? The research documented in this book is one answer that allows the disciplines of anthropology and neurobiology to come together to reveal a largely hidden dynamic of magic. Magic gets to the very heart of some theoretical and methodological difficulties encountered in the social and natural sciences, especially to do with issues of rationality. This book examines magic head-on, not through its instrumental aspects but as an orientation of consciousness. Magical consciousness is affective, associative and synchronistic, shaped through individual experience within a particular environment. This work focuses on an in-depth case study using the anthropologist’s own experience gained through years of anthropological fieldwork with British practitioners of magic. As an ethnographic view, it is an intimate study of the way in which the cognitive architecture of a mind engages the emotions and imagination in a pattern of meanings related to childhood experiences, spiritual communications and the environment. Although the detail of the involvement in magical consciousness presented here is necessarily specific, the central tenets of modus operandi is common to magical thought in general, and can be applied to cross-cultural analyses to increase understanding of this ubiquitous human phenomenon.

Author : Susan Greenwood
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2019-09-30
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781351628013

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Developing Magical Consciousness by Susan Greenwood Pdf

Offering a new template for future exploration, Susan Greenwood examines and develops the notion that the experience of magic is a panhuman orientation of consciousness, a form of knowledge largely marginalized in Western societies. In this volume she aims to form a "bridge of communication" between indigenous magical or shamanic worldviews and rationalized Western cultures. She outlines an alternative mythological framework for the latter to help develop a magical perception, as well as giving practical case studies derived from her own research. The form of magic discussed here is not fantastic or virtual, but ecological and sensory. Magical knowledge infiltrates the body in its deepest levels of the subconscious, and unconscious, as well as conscious awareness; it is felt and understood through the connection with an inspirited world that includes the consciousness of other beings, including those of plant, animal and the physical environment. This is anthropology from the heart rather than the head, and it engages with the messy area of emotions, an embodiment of the senses, and struggles to find a common language of listening to one another across a void of differences. The aim is to provide a non-reductive structure for the creative interplay of both magical and analytical modes of thought. Passion is a motivator for change, and a change in attitude to magic as an integrative force of human understanding is the main thread of this work.

Author : Susan Greenwood,Erik D. Goodwyn
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 278 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2015-08-20
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317517214

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Magical Consciousness by Susan Greenwood,Erik D. Goodwyn Pdf

How does a mind think magically? The research documented in this book is one answer that allows the disciplines of anthropology and neurobiology to come together to reveal a largely hidden dynamic of magic. Magic gets to the very heart of some theoretical and methodological difficulties encountered in the social and natural sciences, especially to do with issues of rationality. This book examines magic head-on, not through its instrumental aspects but as an orientation of consciousness. Magical consciousness is affective, associative and synchronistic, shaped through individual experience within a particular environment. This work focuses on an in-depth case study using the anthropologist’s own experience gained through years of anthropological fieldwork with British practitioners of magic. As an ethnographic view, it is an intimate study of the way in which the cognitive architecture of a mind engages the emotions and imagination in a pattern of meanings related to childhood experiences, spiritual communications and the environment. Although the detail of the involvement in magical consciousness presented here is necessarily specific, the central tenets of modus operandi is common to magical thought in general, and can be applied to cross-cultural analyses to increase understanding of this ubiquitous human phenomenon.

Author : Susan Greenwood
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2020-06-03
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781000189827

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The Nature of Magic by Susan Greenwood Pdf

This book examines how and why practitioners of nature religion - Western witches, druids, shamans - seek to relate spiritually with nature through 'magical consciousness'. 'Magic' and 'consciousness' are concepts that are often fraught with prejudice and ambiguity respectively. Greenwood develops a new theory of magical consciousness by arguing that magic ultimately has more to do with the workings of the human mind in terms of an expanded awareness than with socio-cultural explanations. She combines her own subjective insights gained from magical practice with practitioners' in-depth accounts and sustained academic theory on the process of magic. She also tracks magical consciousness in philosophy, myth, folklore, story-telling, and the hi-tech discourse of postmodernity, and asks important questions concerning nature religion's environmental credentials, such as whether it as inherently ecological as many of its practitioners claim.

Author : Nicholas Humphrey
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2012-11-11
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780691156378

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Soul Dust by Nicholas Humphrey Pdf

A radically new view of the nature and purpose of consciousness How is consciousness possible? What biological purpose does it serve? And why do we value it so highly? In Soul Dust, the psychologist Nicholas Humphrey, a leading figure in consciousness research, proposes a startling new theory. Consciousness, he argues, is nothing less than a magical-mystery show that we stage for ourselves inside our own heads. This self-made show lights up the world for us and makes us feel special and transcendent. Thus consciousness paves the way for spirituality, and allows us, as human beings, to reap the rewards, and anxieties, of living in what Humphrey calls the "soul niche." Tightly argued, intellectually gripping, and a joy to read, Soul Dust provides answers to the deepest questions. It shows how the problem of consciousness merges with questions that obsess us all—how life should be lived and the fear of death. Resting firmly on neuroscience and evolutionary theory, and drawing a wealth of insights from philosophy and literature, Soul Dust is an uncompromising yet life-affirming work—one that never loses sight of the majesty and wonder of consciousness.

Author : Olivier Manitara
Publisher : Éditions Essénia
Page : 139 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2019-11-20
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

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The magical power of salt by Olivier Manitara Pdf

Magic is not new, but its high knowledge has been lost... "In June 2018, however, in a totally unexpected way, the divine world partially lifted the veil on this high knowledge and during its celebration, the great Uriel Archangel offered the Essenes the secrets of salt magic, as a sacred science allowing them to become powerful in their works on earth. This unique magic offered to the Essenes as the hieroglyph of a great inner power had discreetly brought a new light into the world... Discover the power of this magic of salt and the intelligence behind this historical event and sacred mystery that is transforming the world's destiny. You will never understand salt the same way again....

Author : Melita Denning,Osborne Phillips
Publisher : Llewellyn Worldwide Limited
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 1985
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 0875421946

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Magical States of Consciousness by Melita Denning,Osborne Phillips Pdf

Author : Philip H. Farber
Publisher : Weiser Books
Page : 178 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2008-07-01
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 9781609250195

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Meta-Magick: The Book of ATEM by Philip H. Farber Pdf

In Meta-Magick: The Book of Atem, Philip H. Farber combines traditional ritual sensibilities with contemporary concepts of neurolinguistics and memetics to create a unique entity - Atem. In this instance, the essence of an entity is encoded in a book and activated by the reader. At the same time, the book is a comprehensive manual of evocation, containing dozens of easy-to-follow rituals and exercises for exploring and creating magical entities of every sort. Farber teaches readers to wake up from their habitual trance, to reprogram themselves to stand in the Mystery without unnecessary mystification. This supercharged fusion of tried-and-true magical and psychological techniques moves beyond trauma, healing, and recovery into self-fulfillment and self-transformation. Combining both disciplines with methods such as intentionality, autohypnosis, visualization, personification, and experiential journeys, Farber creates a powerful system that opens the way to peak experiences, self-knowledge, even cosmic consciousness. Rather than importing standardized healing images, readers learn to create their own emergent metaphors, their own creative strengths and flexible freedom.

Author : Christina Susan Waters
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 704 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Electronic
ISBN : UCAL:X62808

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Consciousness and the Magical by Christina Susan Waters Pdf

Author : Gareth Knight
Publisher : Skylight Press
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781908011015

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The Magical World of the Inklings by Gareth Knight Pdf

"Because of the combination of information, understanding and insight on which it is founded, The Magical World of the Inklings is more than outstanding. It is not in the same league with anything else I have come across." - Owen Barfield The works of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams and Owen Barfield have had a profound impact on the contemporary world. Together they were The Inklings, a small literary group of friends who set out to explore the 'mythopoeic' or myth-making element in imaginative fiction. The Magical World of the Inklings reveals how each of these writers created a 'magical world' which initiated the reader into hidden and powerful realms of the creative imagination.

Author : Lynne L. Hume Ph.D.,Nevill Drury
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2013-01-24
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 9781440804199

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The Varieties of Magical Experience by Lynne L. Hume Ph.D.,Nevill Drury Pdf

A rare combination of personal and academic, this book showcases the myriad avenues for transcending the boundaries of reality through direct sensory experience. The Varieties of Magical Experience: Indigenous, Medieval, and Modern Magic provides a comprehensive volume that examines magic in all its aspects. Through detailed case studies, verbatim accounts of personal experiences, and first-hand experience from the authors' own active participation in many alternative religious rituals and ceremonies, this unique book reveals how magic can be a universal phenomenon that crosses cultural, historical, and spatial boundaries. The work is organized in five sections that embrace several broad themes: indigenous magical and shamanic practices; medieval witchcraft; sorcery and hermetic magic; and contemporary Western magical practices, including the role of sexuality, trance, and meditation. The introductory section explores the idea of magic, other realities, and the employment of all the senses, while the final section discusses contemporary issues of ecology and cybermagic. The authors give voice to the powerful emotions and feelings that result from a magical encounter, providing engaging and accessible information to general readers, while those well versed in the opaque world of magic and occultism, consciousness studies, and imaginal and disembodied realms will appreciate the book's content at a deeper level.

Author : Susan Greenwood
Publisher : Berg
Page : 172 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2009-11-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781847886415

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The Anthropology of Magic by Susan Greenwood Pdf

Magic is arguably the least understood subject in anthropology today. Exotic and fascinating, it offers us a glimpse into another world but it also threatens to undermine the foundations of anthropology due to its supposed irrational and non-scientific nature. Magic has thus often been 'explained away' by social or psychological reduction. The Anthropology of Magic redresses the balance and brings magic, as an aspect of consciousness, into focus through the use of classic texts and cutting-edge research. Suitable for student and scholar alike, The Anthropology of Magic updates a classical anthropological debate concerning the nature of human experience. A key theme is that human beings everywhere have the potential for magical consciousness. Taking a new approach to some perennial topics in anthropology - such as shamanism, mythology, witchcraft and healing - the book raises crucial theoretical and methodological issues to provide the reader with an engaging and critical understanding of the dynamics of magic.

Author : Julian Jaynes
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Page : 580 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2000-08-15
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780547527543

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The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes Pdf

National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry

Author : Marianne Eloise
Publisher : Icon Books
Page : 250 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2022-04-07
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781785788161

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Obsessive, Intrusive, Magical Thinking by Marianne Eloise Pdf

'I FELT RECOGNISED ON EVERY PAGE, LEARNT SO MANY NEW THINGS, AND LAUGHED SO HARD I CHOKED ON MY WATER. READ THIS!!!' NAOISE DOLAN, AUTHOR OF EXCITING TIMES 'CANDID, WITTY ... A BRAVE BOOK THAT PUTS VULNERABILITY FULLY ON SHOW' INDEPENDENT Obsessive was, still is, my natural state, and I never wondered why. I didn't mind, didn't know that other people could feel at peace. I always felt like a raw nerve, but then, I thought that everyone did. Writer and journalist Marianne Eloise was born obsessive. What that means changes day to day, depending on what her brain latches onto: fixations with certain topics, intrusive violent thoughts, looping phrases. Some obsessions have lasted a lifetime, while others will be intense but only last a week or two. Obsessive, Intrusive, Magical Thinking is a culmination of a life spend obsessing, offering a glimpse into Marianne's brain, but also an insight into the lives of others like her. From death to Medusa, to Disneyland to fire, to LA to her dog, the essays explore the intersection of neurodivergence, fixation and disorder, telling the story of one life underpinned and ultimately made whole by obsession.

Author : Nevill Drury
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 152 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2022-03-07
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781000569995

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Inner Visions by Nevill Drury Pdf

First published in 1979, Inner Visions discussion the nature of contemporary magical thought – encompassing the Tarot and the Qabalah – and considers its impact on the creative imagination. The author presents a fusion of the creative, magical and mythological undercurrents which are part of the ‘new consciousness’, and traces the influence of surrealist art and the expansive psychedelic period on the art and music of the 1970s. He looks, for example, at the relationship of the fantasy art on record sleeves to the electronic inner-space music which it often accompanies, and shows that this form of modern music represents one facet of the contemporary reaction against scientism and of the search for what Roszak has termed the visionary sources of our culture. The author concludes that a major mythological impulse is emerging in our culture and that magical and surreal approaches represent a profoundly invigorating and inspiring attitude linking the individual to the cosmos. This will be a fascinating read for anyone interested in magic, mythology, art, music and literature.