Psychic and other exceptional experiences are surprisingly common but opinions as to their causes vary widely. Can tricks of the mind such as hallucinations, mistaken perception and errors of judgement explain such phenomena or does some yet to be understood non-sensory means of communication come into play? In Parapsychology, leading researchers from both the UK and the USA combine their expertise to form a lucid account of research into the science of psychic experience. Beginning with an introduction to the methodology, Parapsychology addresses topics including coincidence, telepathy, precognition, psychokinesis, healing, apparitions, reincarnation and out-of-body experiences. Each chapter describes the phenomenon, outlines the main lines of research and discusses the merits of possible explanations for such anomalies of cognitive function. Extensive suggestions for relevant further reading on each individual subject are provided, along with a detailed glossary of terms. Parapsychology provides an accessible and succinct overview of the research and current thinking on the subject of psychic and allied experiences. This balanced account of work in this fascinating area will be of great interest to students and researchers in psychology as well as anyone with an interest in the field.

This book takes what is often referred to as the "supernatural" to be normal natural phenomena that are closely linked to the neurobiology of the human species. Reflecting the neurocultural and biocultural perspective, the chapters cover phenomena such as out-of-body experiences, ghosts, and experiences of spirit entities. The contributors consider the "supernatural" as emerging from innate neurobiological structures and functions, and reflecting known neurobiological processes that explain their universality and persistence.

This is a highly original study of demon possession and the ritual of exorcism, both of which were rife in early modern times, and which reached epidemic proportions in France.
Catholics at the time believed that the Devil was everywhere present, in the rise of the heretics, in the activities of witches, and even in the bodies of pious young women. The rite of exorcism was intended to heal the possessed and show the power of the Church - but it generated as many problems as it resolved. Possessed nuns endured frequently violent exorcisms, exorcists were suspected of conjuring devils, and possession itself came to be seen as a form of holiness, elevating several women to the status of living saints.
Sarah Ferber offers a challenging study of one of the most intriguing phenomena of early modern Europe. Looking towards the present day, the book also argues that early modern conflicts over the Devil still carry an unexpected force and significance for Western Christianity.

Originally published in 1978, The Occult Sourcebook has been compiled primarily for the many people who are for the first time becoming engrossed by the numerous and often confusing possibilities underlying the occult sciences. It consists of a series of articles on key areas, providing the reader with easy access to basic facts, together with a carefully planned guide to further reading. Critical comments on the recommended books allow the reader to select those which best suit their interests. The authors have also included a 'Who's Who of the occult' to provide short biographies of some of the more amazing figures who have already travelled down the mystic path. The book offers a programmed system of exploration into the realms of the unknown. It will be invaluable to the increasing number of people who are concerned with the exploration of enlarging human consciousness.

This is a highly original study of demon possession and the ritual of exorcism, both of which were rife in early modern times, and which reached epidemic proportions in France.
Catholics at the time believed that the Devil was everywhere present, in the rise of the heretics, in the activities of witches, and even in the bodies of pious young women. The rite of exorcism was intended to heal the possessed and show the power of the Church - but it generated as many problems as it resolved. Possessed nuns endured frequently violent exorcisms, exorcists were suspected of conjuring devils, and possession itself came to be seen as a form of holiness, elevating several women to the status of living saints.
Sarah Ferber offers a challenging study of one of the most intriguing phenomena of early modern Europe. Looking towards the present day, the book also argues that early modern conflicts over the Devil still carry an unexpected force and significance for Western Christianity.

The beliefs and practices surrounding the meanings and symbols of the spirit world in Vietnam are explored in detail in this innovative study on popular religion in the country. The author shows an abiding interest in the 'subconscious life' at a grassroots level alongside rational formations of cosmological understanding which effect politics and economics on a national scale.
By bringing together oral histories, reports and fiction writing alongside more conventional documented sources, this book reveals an area of history which has been largely neglected.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203489071

Written by Joseph L. Henderson, one of the first generation of Jungian analysts, and Dyane N. Sherwood, a practising analyst, this book is a striking and unique contribution to the resurgence of interest in alchemy for its way of representing the phenomenology of creative experience.

Transformation of the Psyche is organized around 22 illuminated paintings from the early Renaissance alchemical manuscript the Splendor Solis, and is further illustrated by over 50 colour figures. The images of the Splendor Solis are possibly the most beautiful and evocative alchemical paintings to be found anywhere, and they are widely known to students of alchemy. Jung reproduced several Splendor Solis images in his works, yet prior to this book no one has explored the symbolism of the paintings as a series in relation to the process of depth psychological transformation. This book is the first scholarly study of the paintings in their entirety, and of the mythological and historical allusions contained within the images. Transformation of the Psyche does not simply explain or analyze the pictures, but invites the reader to participate in the creative and transforming process evoked by these images.

Transformation of the Psyche is a truly unique book that will be of immense value and interest to analysts and psychotherapists, as well as scholars of mediaeval and renaissance intellectual history and students of spiritual disciplines.

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Civilizations of the Supernatural: Witchcraft, Ritual, and Religious Experience in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Traditions brings together thirteen scholars of late-antique, medieval, and renaissance traditions who discuss magic, religious experience, ritual, and witch-beliefs with the aim of reflecting on the relationship between man and the supernatural. The content of the volume is intriguingly diverse and includes late antique traditions covering erotic love magic, Hellenistic-Egyptian astrology, apotropaic rituals, early Christian amulets, and astrological amulets; medieval traditions focusing on the relationships between magic and disbelief, pagan magic and Christian culture, as well as witchcraft and magic in Britain, Scandinavian sympathetic graphophagy, superstition in sermon literature; and finally Renaissance traditions revolving around Agrippan magic, witchcraft in Shakespeare's Macbeth, and a Biblical toponym related to the Friulan Benandanti's visionary experiences. These varied topics reflect the multifaceted ways through which men aimed to establish relationships with the supernatural in diverse cultural traditions, and for different purposes, between Late Antiquity and the Renaissance. These ways eventually contributed to shaping the civilizations of the supernatural or those peculiar patterns which helped men look at themselves through the mirror of their own amazement of being in this world.

Contents:
Preface 1. Introduction 2. Approaches to witchcraft 3. Feminists and witches 4. Feminists and the Goddess 5. Researching witches: Becoming enchanted 6. Feminist witchcraft in New Zealand: Origins and development 7. The attraction of witchcraft 8. The attraction of the Goddess: Witches' worldview 9. What witches do 10. Ritual as artefact 11. How magic works 12. Re-membering the witch and the Goddess References

Contents:
Preface 1. Introduction 2. Approaches to witchcraft 3. Feminists and witches 4. Feminists and the Goddess 5. Researching witches: Becoming enchanted 6. Feminist witchcraft in New Zealand: Origins and development 7. The attraction of witchcraft 8. The attraction of the Goddess: Witches' worldview 9. What witches do 10. Ritual as artefact 11. How magic works 12. Re-membering the witch and the Goddess References

Death Metal is among the most despised forms of violently themed entertainment. Many politicians, conservative groups and typical Americans attribute youth violence and the destruction of social values to such entertainment. The usual assumptions about the Death Metal scene and its fans have rarely been challenged.

This book investigates the demographic trends, attitudes, philosophical beliefs, ethical systems, and behavioral patterns within the scene, seeking to situate Death Metal in the larger social order. The Death Metal community proves to be a useful microcosm for much of American subculture and lends insight into the psychological and social functions of many forbidden or illicit entertainment forms. The author's analysis, rich in interviews with rock stars, radio hosts, and average adolescent fans, provides a key to comprehending deviant tendencies in modern American culture.

Based on fieldwork in the north Indian state of Rajasthan, this book focuses on supernatural affliction - illness and misfortune ascribed to demonic spirits or ghosts and to other mystical agents, such as sorcerers and witches. The study augments and extends the existing scholarship on a range of issues, including inter alia beliefs about spirit possession, sorcery, witchcraft and the evil eye. The themes of ritual practice, especially exorcism or healing ceremonies, Hindu priests and curers, popular Hinduism and pilgrimage are discussed, and the anthropology of South Asia is explored with an emphasis on medical anthropology and Indian ethnomedicine. At a theoretical level, the book sharply contrasts with much of the literature on spirit possession or on supernatural affliction and its treatment, as the author's phenomenological orientation involves movement away from psychological or psychiatric paradigms as well as from other forms of Western rationalism that have tended to dominate scholarly work. The book thus offers fresh insights, both in terms of understanding supernatural malaise and its treatment, and in terms of the application of the approach the author engages.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203222539

Originally published in 1982, The Shaman and the Magician draws on the author's wide experience of occultism, western magic and anthropological knowledge of shamanism, to explore the interesting parallels between traditional shamanism and the more visionary aspects of magic in modern western society. In both cases, as the author shows, the magician encounters profound god-energies of the spirit, and it is up to the individual to interpret these experiences in psychological or mythological terms. The book demonstrates that both shamanism and magic offer techniques of approaching the visionary sources of our culture.

Gathering together the vast literature on witchcraft related issues published in the last decade, this six-volume set focuses on issues such as gender, government and law, the culture of religion and the occult. Using approaches from several disciplines, including anthropology and sociology, this source provides a sweeping overview of the occult.

'Magical Interpretations, Material Realities brings together many of today's best scholars of contemporary Africa. The theme of "witchcraft" has long been associated with exoticizing portraits of a "traditional" Africa, but this volume takes the question of occult as a point of entry into the moral politics of some very modern African realities.' - James Ferguson, University of California, USA

'These essays bear eloquent testimony to the ongoing presence and power of the occult imaginary, and of the intimate connection between global capitalism and local cosmology, in postcolonial Africa. A major contribution to scholarship that aims to rework the divide between modernity and tradition.' - Charles Piot, Duke University, USA

This volume sets out recent thinking on witchcraft in Africa, paying particular attention to variations in meanings and practices. It examines the way different people in different contexts are making sense of what 'witchcraft' is and what it might mean.
For example: the State in Cameroon; Pentecostalism in Malawi; the university system in Nigeria and the IMF in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. The editors provide a timely overview and reconsideration of longstanding anthropological debate about 'African witchcraft, while simultaneously raising broader concerns about the theories of the western social sciences.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203398254

This is the first major study of the most famous Reclaiming witch community, founded in 1979 in San Francisco, written by an author who herself participated in a coven for ten years. Jone Salomonsen describes and examines the communal and ritual practices of Reclaiming, asking how these promote personal growth and cultural-religious change.

Gathering together the vast literature on witchcraft related issues published in the last decade, this six-volume set focuses on issues such as gender, government and law, the culture of religion and the occult. Using approaches from several disciplines, including anthropology and sociology, this source provides a sweeping overview of the occult.

Contents:
Megged, Amos. 'Magic, Popular Medicine and Gender in Seventeenth-Century Mexico: The Case of Isobel de Montoya.' Social History 19 (1994)

Klaniczay, Gábor. 'Shamanistic Elements in Central European Witchcraft.' In Mihály Hoppál, ed., Shamanism in Eurasia (G öttingen, Germany: 1984).

de Blécourt, Willem. 'Witch Doctors, Soothsayers and Priests on Cunning Folk in European Historiography and Tradition.' Social History 19 (1994).

O'Neil, Mary. 'Magical Healing, Love Magic and the Inquisition in Late Sixteenth-Century Modena.' In Stephen Haliczar, ed., Inquisition and Society in Early Modern Europe (Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble, 1987).

Davies, Owen. 'Healing Charms in Use in England and Wales, 1700-1950.' Folklore 107 (1996).

Sebald, Hans. 'Shaman, Healer, Witch. Camparing Shamanism with Franconian Folk Magic.' Ethnologica Europaea 14 (1984).

Alver, Bente Gullveig and Torunn Selberg. 'Folk Medicine as Part of a Larger Concept Complex.' Scandinavian Yearbook of Folklore 43 (1987).

Cassar, P. 'Healing by Sorcery in 17th and 18th Century Malta.' St. Lukes Hospital Gaz. (Guardamangia) 11 (1976).

Gentilcore, David. 'The Church, the Devil and the Healing Activities of Living Saints in the Kingdon of Naples After the Council of Trent.' In Ole Peter Grell and Andrew Cunningham, eds., Medicine and the Reformation (London, UK: Routledge, 1993).

Fox, Sylvia. 'Witch or Wise-Woman? Women as Healers Throughout the Ages.' Jaarboek Liturgie Onderzoek 8 (1992).

Cave, Alfred A. 'Indian Shamens and English Witches in Seventeenth-Century New England.' Essex Institute Historical Collections 128 (1992).

Hicks, David. 'On Syphilis and Witchcraft.' Current Anthropology 36 (1985).

Waardt, Hans de, 'From Cunning Man to Natural Healer.' In J.M.W. Binneveld and Rudolf Decker, eds., Curing and Insuring. Essays on Illness in Past Times: The Netherlands, Belgium, England and Italy, 16th-20th Centuries (Hilversum, the Netherlands: Verloren, 1992).

Harley, David. 'Historians as Demonologists: The Myth of the Midwife Witch.' Social History of Medicine 3 (1990).

Rubinger, Catherine. 'Witch or Saint: Absolutes in the French 18th Century Novel.' Atlantis 11 (1986).

Contents:
Barstow, Anne Llewellyn. 'On Studying Witchcraft as Women's History. A Historiography of the European Witch Persecutions.' Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 4 (1988).

Purkiss, Diane. 'Women's Stories of Witchcraft in Early Modern England: the House, the Body, the Child.' Gender and History 7 (1995).

Jackson Louise. 'Witches, Wives and Mothers: Witchcraft Persecutions and Women's Confessions in Seventeenth-Century England.' Women's History Review 4 (1995).

Maluf, Sônia Weidner. 'Witches and Witchcraft: A Study About Representations of Female Power on Santa Catarina Island.' International Sociology 7 (1992).

Roper, Lyndal. 'Stealing Manhood: Capitalism and Magic in Early Modern Germany.' Gender and History 3 (1991).

Roper, Lyndal. 'Witchcraft and Fantasy in Early Modern Germany.' History Workshop 32 (1991).

Briggs, Robin. 'Women as Victims? Witches, Judges and the Community.' French History 5 (1991).

Clark, Stuart. 'The 'Gendering' of Witchcraft in French Demonology: Misogyny or Polarity?' French Studies 5 (1991).

Holmes, Clive. 'Women: Witnesses and Witches.' Past and Present 140 (1993).

Whitney, Elspeth. 'The Witch 'She' / The Historian 'He': Gender and the Historiography of the European Witch-Hunts.' Journal of Women's History 7 (1995).

Ross, Eric B. 'Syphilis, Misogyny, and Witchcraft in 16th-century Europe.' Current Anthropology 36 (1995).

Horsley, Ritta and Richard. 'On the Trail of the Witches: Wise Women, Midwives and the European Witch-Hunts.' Women in Germany Yearbook 3 (1986).

Gaskill, Malcolm. 'The Devil in the Shape of a Man: Witchcraft, Conflict and Belief in Jacobean England.' Historical Reseach 71 (1998).

Behar, Ruth. 'Sexual Witchcraft, Colonialism, and Women's Powers: Views from the Mexican Inquisition.' In Asunción Lavrin ed., Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin America (Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press: 1989).

Zika, Charles. 'Fears of Flying: Representations of Witchcraft and Sexuality in Early Sixteenth-Century Germany.' Australian Journal of Art 8 (1989-90).

Scully, Sally. 'Marriage or a Career? Witchcraft as an Alternative in Seventeenth-Century Venice.' Journal of Social History 28 (1995).

Accati, Louisa. 'The Spirit of Fornication: Virtue of the Soul and Virtue of the Body in Friuli, 1600-1800.' In Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero, eds., Sex and Gender in Historical Perspective (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990).

Dresen-Coenders, Lène. 'Witches as Devils' Concubines: On the Origin of Fear of Witches and Protection against Witches.' In Lène Dresen-Coenders and Petty Bange, eds., Saints and She-Devils: Images of Women in the 15th and 16th Centuries (London, UK: Rubicon Press, 1987).

Sharpe, J.A. 'Witchcraft and Women in Seventeenth-Century England: Some Northern Evidence.' Continuity and Change 6 (1991).

Kamensky, Jane. 'Words, Witches and Women Trouble: Witchcraft, Disorderly Speech, and Gender Boundaries in Puritan New England.' Essex Institute Historical Collections 128 (1992).

Kivelson, Valerie A. 'Through the Prism of Witchcraft: Gender and Social Change in Seventeenth-Century Muscovy.' In B.E. Evans, B.A. Egnel, and C.D. Worobec, eds., Russia's Women: Accommodation, Resistance, Transformation (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991).

Griffin, Wendy. 'The Embodied Goddess: Feminist Witchcraft and Female Divinity.' Sociology and Religion 56 (1995).

This study is the first to assemble the evidence for the existence of sorcerors in the ancient world; it also addresses the question of their identity and social origins. The resulting investigation takes us to the underside of Greek and Roman society, into a world of wandering holy men and women, conjurors and wonder-workers, and into the lives of prostitutes, procuresses, charioteers and theatrical performers.
This fascinating reconstruction of the careers of witches and sorcerors allows us to see into previously inaccessible areas of Greco-Roman life. Compelling for both its detail and clarity, and with an extraordinarily revealing breadth of evidence employed, it will be an essential resource for anyone studying ancient magic.

Parting company with the trend in recent scholarship to treat the subject in abstract, highly theoretical terms, Magic in Ancient Greece and Rome proposes that the magic-working of antiquity was in reality a highly pragmatic business, with very clearly formulated aims - often of an exceedingly malignant kind. In seven chapters, each addressed to an important arm of Greco-Roman magic, the volume discusses the history of the rediscovery and publication of the so-called Greek Magical Papyri, a key source for our understanding of ancient magic; the startling violence of ancient erotic spells and the use of these by women as well as men; the alteration in the landscape of defixio (curse tablet) studies by major new finds and the confirmation these provide that the frequently lethal intent of such tablets must not be downplayed; the use of herbs in magic, considered from numerous perspectives but with an especial focus on the bizarre-seeming rituals and protocols attendant upon their collection; the employment of animals in magic, the factors determining the choice of animal, the uses to which they were put, and the procuring and storage of animal parts, conceivably in a sorcerer's workshop; the witch as a literary construct, the clear homologies between the magical procedures of fictional witches and those documented for real spells, the gendering of the witch-figure and the reductive presentation of sorceresses as old, risible and ineffectual; the issue of whether ancient magicians practised human sacrifice and the illuminating parallels between such accusations and late 20th century accounts of child-murder in the context of perverted Satanic rituals. By challenging a number of orthodoxies and opening up some underexamined aspects of the subject, this wide-ranging study stakes out important new territory in the field of magical studies.

'Magical Interpretations, Material Realities brings together many of today's best scholars of contemporary Africa. The theme of "witchcraft" has long been associated with exoticizing portraits of a "traditional" Africa, but this volume takes the question of occult as a point of entry into the moral politics of some very modern African realities.' - James Ferguson, University of California, USA

'These essays bear eloquent testimony to the ongoing presence and power of the occult imaginary, and of the intimate connection between global capitalism and local cosmology, in postcolonial Africa. A major contribution to scholarship that aims to rework the divide between modernity and tradition.' - Charles Piot, Duke University, USA

This volume sets out recent thinking on witchcraft in Africa, paying particular attention to variations in meanings and practices. It examines the way different people in different contexts are making sense of what 'witchcraft' is and what it might mean.
Using recent ethnographic materials from across the continent, the volume explores how witchcraft articulates with particular modern settings for example: the State in Cameroon; Pentecostalism in Malawi; the university system in Nigeria and the IMF in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. The editors provide a timely overview and reconsideration of long-standing anthropological debates about 'African witchcraft', while simultaneously raising broader concerns about the theories of the western social sciences.

Gathering together the vast literature on witchcraft related issues published in the last decade, this six-volume set focuses on issues such as gender, government and law, the culture of religion and the occult. Using approaches from several disciplines, including anthropology and sociology, this source provides a sweeping overview of the occult.

Using in-depth examples of 'magical' practice such as exorcisms, love rites, alchemy and the transformation of humans into divine beings, this lively volume demonstrates that the word 'magic' was used widely in late antique texts as part of polemics against enemies and sometimes merely as a term for other people's rituals. Professor Janowitz shows that 'magical' activities were integral to late antique religious practice, and that they must be understood from the perspective of those who employed them.