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Behind the Crystal Ball: Magic, Science, and the Occult from Antiquity through the New Age » (REVISED)

Book cover image of Behind the Crystal Ball: Magic, Science, and the Occult from Antiquity through the New Age by Anthony F. Aveni

Authors: Anthony F. Aveni
ISBN-13: 9780870816710, ISBN-10: 0870816713
Format: Paperback
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Date Published: December 2002
Edition: REVISED

Author Biography: Anthony F. Aveni

Book Synopsis

Unveils the many ways people have used magic over the millennia in hopes of improving their lives.

	List of Illustrations
	Preface to the Revised Edition
	Preface to the First Edition
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction: Above the Ordinary	1
Pt. I	Magic in Antiquity: How Magic Works and why we Misunderstand it
1	Middle East Exotica: Ancient Egypt and Magical Mesopotamia	11
2	The Ancient Art of Hepatoscopy	16
3	The Greek Paradox: Magic Confronts Science	19
4	Magic in the Roman Empire	34
5	The New Outcasts: The Rise of Secret Doctrines	43
6	Knowledge Through Number and the Word	50
Pt. II	From Light to Light: Magic from the Dark Ages to the Enlightenment
7	Pathways to Knowledge	65
8	Resurrection of the Kabbalah	68
9	Music of the Spheres	79
10	Two Sides of the Coin of Alchemy	85
11	Rise of the Clear Seer	97
12	Medieval Astrology	101
13	The Devil and the Proliferation of Good and Evil	106
14	It's Witchcraft	115
15	Summary: Who Turned on the Lights?	122
Pt. III	Raising Spirits: Nineteenth-Century Occultism
16	Rochester Rap: The First Haunted House	131
17	Before Hydesville: Strange Forces, New Experiments	141
18	"Mr. Sludge"	154
19	DDH to HPB: Pipelines to the Past	164
20	After the Foxes: From Parlor to Stage	173
21	My Body, My Map: "Bumpology"	182
22	Summary: A Light That Failed?	193
Pt. IV	A Modern Kaleidoscope of Magic
23	Who's a Magician? The Houdini Legend	201
24	Who's a Magician? Trickster from Far Rockaway	207
25	Magic in the Twentieth Century: What the Pollsters Say	213
26	Different Time, Same Channel	219
27	PK Wars: Psychics vs. Physics	223
28	The Personalized Magic of Healing: Mending the Cartesian Split	230
29	You Are What You Eat	238
30	Come Fly with Me: UFO Abductions	242
31	Life After Life	250
32	Crystals: Who's Scrying Now?	253
33	Geomancy: From Saws to Sausages	257
34	Summary: On Shifting Ground	264
Pt. V	God, Dick, and Harry: Magic at the Millennium
35	Is Magic a Religion?	269
36	Magic and Science: J. Z. and the Ramsters Meet Arch Debunker	275
37	Anthropologists Encounter the Occult	284
38	Summary: Crossing Curves in an Age of Interconnectedness	297
	Epilogue: Of Bacon and Black Holes	305
	Notes	309
	Bibliography	333
	Index	347

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Category Books

Behind the Crystal Ball: Magic, Science, and the Occult from Antiquity through the New Age » (REVISED)

Author Biography: Anthony F. Aveni

Book Synopsis

Table of Contents

Subjects