Magical Consciousness

Author : Susan Greenwood
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317517202
Total Pages : 309 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Magical Consciousness written by Susan Greenwood and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-08-20 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
ISBN 13 : 1000189821
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Nature of Magic written by Susan Greenwood and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-06-03 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 : Susan Greenwood
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317517210
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.14/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Magical Consciousness written by Susan Greenwood and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-08-20 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
ISBN 13 : 1351628011
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Developing Magical Consciousness written by Susan Greenwood and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-09-30 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 : Melita Denning
Publisher : Llewellyn Worldwide Limited
ISBN 13 : 9780875421940
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Magical States of Consciousness written by Melita Denning and published by Llewellyn Worldwide Limited. This book was released on 1985 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Nicholas Humphrey
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691156379
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Soul Dust written by Nicholas Humphrey and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-11 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 : Susan Greenwood
Publisher : Berg
ISBN 13 : 1847886418
Total Pages : 172 pages
Book Rating : 4.15/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Anthropology of Magic written by Susan Greenwood and published by Berg. This book was released on 2009-11-01 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 : Bill Harvey
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780918538000
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mind Magic written by Bill Harvey and published by . This book was released on 2012-12 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harvey explains how to effortlessly rechannel energies to clarify one's life's mission and achieve it.

Author : Robin Hobb
Publisher : Spectra
ISBN 13 : 0553900250
Total Pages : 834 pages
Book Rating : 4.55/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Ship of Magic written by Robin Hobb and published by Spectra. This book was released on 2003-12-30 with total page 834 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book in a seafaring fantasy trilogy that George R. R. Martin has described as “even better than the Farseer Trilogy—I didn’t think that was possible.” Bingtown is a hub of exotic trade and home to a merchant nobility famed for its liveships—rare vessels carved from wizardwood, which ripens magically into sentient awareness. Now the fortunes of one of Bingtown’s oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia. For Althea Vestrit, the ship is her rightful legacy. For Althea’s young nephew, wrenched from his religious studies and forced to serve aboard the Vivacia, the ship is a life sentence. But the fate of the ship—and the Vestrits—may ultimately lie in the hands of an outsider: the ruthless buccaneer captain Kennit, who plans to seize power over the Pirate Isles by capturing a liveship and bending it to his will. Don’t miss the magic of the Liveship Traders Trilogy: SHIP OF MAGIC • MAD SHIP • SHIP OF DESTINY

Author : Philip H. Farber
Publisher : Weiser Books
ISBN 13 : 1609250192
Total Pages : 178 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Meta-Magick: The Book of ATEM written by Philip H. Farber and published by Weiser Books. This book was released on 2008-07-01 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.