Magick Matters

09.06.2022

“The Genius Within: Unlocking Your Brain’s Potential” by David Adam

Magick Matters
"The Genius Within: Unlocking Your Brain's Potential" by David Adam
"What if you have more intelligence than you realize? What if there is a genius inside you, just waiting to be released? And what if the route to better brain power is not hard work or thousands of hours of practice but to simply swallow a pill? In The Genius Within, David Adam explores the groundbreaking neuroscience of cognitive enhancement that is changing the way the brain and the mind works—to make it better, sharper, more focused and, yes, more intelligent. He considers how we measure and judge intelligence, taking us on a fascinating tour of the history of brain science and medicine, from gentlemen scientist brain autopsy clubs to case studies of mental health...>>
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08.06.2022

“Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley” by Carolyn Chen

Magick Matters
"Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley" by Carolyn Chen
"How tech giants are reshaping spirituality to serve their religion of peak productivity Silicon Valley is known for its lavish perks, intense work culture, and spiritual gurus. Work Pray Code explores how tech companies are bringing religion into the workplace in ways that are replacing traditional places of worship, blurring the line between work and religion and transforming the very nature of spiritual experience in modern life. Over the past forty years, highly skilled workers have been devoting more time and energy to their jobs than ever before. They are also leaving churches, synagogues, and temples in droves―but they have not abandoned religion. Carolyn Chen spent more than five years in Silicon Valley, conducting a wealth...>>
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08.06.2022

“The Illusionist Brain: The Neuroscience of Magic” by Jordi Cami and Luis M. Martinez

Magick Matters
"The Illusionist Brain: The Neuroscience of Magic" by Jordi Cami and Luis M. Martinez
"How magicians exploit the natural functioning of our brains to astonish and amaze us How do magicians make us see the impossible? The Illusionist Brain takes you on an unforgettable journey through the inner workings of the human mind, revealing how magicians achieve their spectacular and seemingly impossible effects by interfering with your cognitive processes. Along the way, this lively and informative book provides a guided tour of modern neuroscience, using magic as a lens for understanding the unconscious and automatic functioning of our brains. We construct reality from the information stored in our memories and received through our senses, and our brains are remarkably adept at tricking us into believing that our experience is continuous....>>
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08.06.2022

“Death, Burial, and the Afterlife: Dublin Death Studies” edited by Philip Cottrell and Wolfgang Marx

Magick Matters
"Death, Burial, and the Afterlife: Dublin Death Studies" edited by Philip Cottrell and Wolfgang Marx
"The essays incorporated into this volume share an ambitious interest in investigating death as an individual, social and metaphorical phenomenon that may be exemplified by themes involving burial rituals, identity, and commemoration. The disciplines represented are as diverse as art history, classics, history, music, languages and literatures, and the approaches taken reflect various aspects of contemporary death studies. These include the fear of death, the role of death in shaping human identity, the ‘taming’ of death through ritual or aesthetic sublimation, and the utilization of death — particularly dead bodies — to manipulate social and political ends. The topics covered include the exhumation and reburial of Cardinal John Henry Newman;the funerary monument of John Donne...>>
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08.06.2022

“Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years” by Philip Jenkins

Magick Matters
"Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years" by Philip Jenkins
"The Fifth-Century Political Battles That Forever Changed the Church In this fascinating account of the surprisingly violent fifth-century church, Philip Jenkins describes how political maneuvers by a handful of powerful characters shaped Christian doctrine. Were it not for these battles, today’s church could be teaching something very different about the nature of Jesus, and the papacy as we know it would never have come into existence. Jesus Wars reveals the profound implications of what amounts to an accident of history: that one faction of Roman emperors and militia-wielding bishops defeated another."...>>
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