Magick Matters

16.06.2023

“Trance Mediums and New Media: Spirit Possession in the Age of Technical Reproduction” edited by Heike Behrend, Anja Dreschke and Martin Zillinger

Magick Matters

"Ongoing debates about the "return of religion" have paid little attention to the orgiastic and enthusiastic qualities of religiosity, despite a significant increase in the use of techniques of trance and possession around the globe. Likewise, research on religion and media has neglected the fact that historically the rise of mediumship and spirit possession was closely linked to the development of new media of communication. This innovative volume brings together a wide range of ethnographic studies on local spiritual and media practices. Recognizing that processes of globalization are shaped by mass mediation, the volume raises questions such as: How are media like photography, cinema, video, the telephone, or television integrated in seances and healing rituals?...>>

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16.06.2023

“Cinema, Trance and Cybernetics” by Ute Holl

Magick Matters

"We've all had the experience of watching a film and feeling like we've been in a trance. This book takes that experience seriously, explaining cinema as a cultural technique of trance, one that unconsciously transforms our perceptions. Ute Holl moves from anthropological and experimental cinema through nineteenth-century psychological laboratories, which she shows developed techniques for testing, measuring, and classifying the mind that can be seen as a prehistory of cinema, one that allows us to see the links among cinema, anthropology, psychology, and cybernetics."...>>

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16.06.2023

“The Creative Trance: Altered States of Consciousness and the Creative Process” by Tobi Zausner (full book)

Magick Matters

"In those moments when focus on creative work overrides input from the outside world, we are in a creative trance. This psychologically significant altered state of consciousness is inherent in everyone. It can take the form of daydreams generating scientific or creative ideas, hyperfocus in sports, visualizations that impact entire civilizations, life-changing audience experiences, or meditations for self-transformation that may access states beyond trance, becoming gateways to transcendence. Artist and psychologist Tobi Zausner shows how creative trance not only operates in scientific inventions and works of art in all media, but is also important in creating and recreating the self. Drawing on insights from cognitive neuroscience, clinical psychology and post-materialist psychology, this book investigates...>>

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16.06.2023

“Neti-Neti Meditation” by Andre Doshim Halaw

Magick Matters

"Neti-Neti is one of the oldest meditation techniques in the world. Through this process of intense introspection, we discover that we are not limited to our bodies, emotions, or minds, for our true nature is actually boundless and numinous. Historically, these two simple words, Neti-Neti, have pointed the way for generations of seekers and contemplatives to free themselves from the constriction of the ego and suffering. Fortunately, you no longer have to be an expert meditator to practice or even benefit from the wisdom of Neti-Neti. It is now available for anyone seeking freedom in the knowledge of their true nature. Drawing upon his experiences as a Buddhist monk, Zen teacher, and meditation instructor, Andre Doshim...>>

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15.06.2023

“The Last Witch of Scotland: A Bewitching Story Based on True Events” by Philip Paris

Magick Matters

"Scottish Highlands, 1727. In the aftermath of a tragic fire that kills her father, Aila and her mother, Janet, move to the remote parish of Loth, north-west of Inverness. Blending in does not come easily to the women: Aila was badly burned in the fire and left with visible injuries, while her mother struggles to maintain her grip on reality. When a temporary minister is appointed in the area, rather than welcome the two women, he develops a strange curiosity for them that sets them even further apart from the community. Then arrives a motley troupe of travelling entertainers from Edinburgh, led by the charismatic but mysterious Jack. It is just the distraction Janet, and...>>

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