Magick Matters

“The Imagination Gap: Stop Thinking the Way You Should and Start Making Extraordinary Things Happen” by Brian Reich

"Everyone has imagination. Imagination helps us see new possibilities for the future, navigate in times of uncertainty, and spark new ideas. But most of us do not know how to use imagination to its fullest potential or how to harness the power of imagination to overcome obstacles. The result: our most important ideas and biggest ambitions never turn in to reality. This is The Imagination Gap. In this timely new book, Brian Reich shows us that imagination is the greatest natural resource available to humans and one of the most powerful forces in shaping behavior to make real change. He explains how the most creative thinkers, forward-looking entrepreneurs, and influential change agents, in every sector of...>>

“The ESP Enigma: The Scientific Case for Psychic Phenomena” by Diane Hennacy Powell

"Dr. Diane Powell, a nationally prominent Johns Hopkins-trained neuropsychiatrist and former clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, examines the evidence for many types of psychic phenomena, from telepathy and precognition to psychokinesis, and finds several well-designed and rigorously supervised studies that prove the existence of some psychic phenomena. This raises the important question: how is this possible? Proven psychic phenomena don't fit into science's old model for the brain. Dr. Powell proposes a revolutionary model of the brain and the mind. Consciousness may have properties similar to those of an energy field in physics. A field is defined as "a disturbance or condition in space that has the potential of producing a force,"...>>

“The Healing Power of African-American Spirituality: A Celebration of Ancestor Worship, Herbs and Hoodoo, Ritual and Conjure” by Stephanie Rose Bird

"The essential resource and guide to African American spirituality and traditions, this book is a fabulous resource for anyone who wants to understand African American spirituality, shamanism, and indigenous spiritual practices and beliefs. It is designed to be informative while providing hands-on recipes, rituals, projects, and resources to help you become an active participant in its wonderfully soulful traditions. Inside you will find: 1. A celebration of healing, magic, and the divination traditions of ancient African earth-based spirituality 2. An explanation of how these practices have evolved in contemporary African American culture 3. A potpourri of recipes, rituals, and resources that you can use to heal your life Among the topics covered: African spiritual practices of...>>

“Parables of the Posthuman: Digital Realities, Gaming, and the Player Experience” by Jonathan Boulter

"In its intimate joining of self and machine, video gaming works to extend the body into a fluid, dynamic, unstable, and discontinuous entity. While digital gaming and culture has become a popular field of academic study, there has been a lack of sustained philosophical analysis of this direct gaming experience. In Parables of the Posthuman: Digital Realities, Gaming, and the Player Experience, author Jonathan Boulter addresses this gap by analyzing video games and the player experience philosophically. Finding points of departure in phenomenology and psychoanalysis, Boulter argues that we need to think seriously about what it means to enter into a relationship with the game machine and to assume (or to have conferred upon...>>

“The Besht: Magician, Mystic, and Leader” by Immanuel Etkes

"Founded in Eastern Europe in the eighteenth century, the Hasidic movement and its religious thinking have dramatically transformed modern Judaism. The figure of the Ba’al Shem Tov (known in acronym form as the BeSHT)―the purported founder of the Hasidic movement―has fascinated scholars, Jewish philosophers, and laypeople interested in popular Jewish mysticism in general and the contemporary Hasidic movement in all its variety. In this volume, Etkes enters a rich and heated debate over the origins of the movement, as well as the historicity of its mythic founder, Rabbi Israel Ba’al Shem Tov, who lived much of his life as a miracle worker. The eighteenth century, as Etkes vividly portrays, was the heyday of the...>>