Developing Magical Consciousness
Developing Magical Consciousness

Author: Susan Greenwood

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-09-30

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 1351628011

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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.

Magical Consciousness
Magical Consciousness

Author: Susan Greenwood

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-08-20

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 1317517202

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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.

Magic and the Mind
Magic and the Mind

Author: Eugene Subbotsky

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2010-03-31

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 0190453117

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Magical thinking and behavior have traditionally been viewed as immature, misleading alternatives to scientific thought that in children inevitably diminish with age. In adults, these inclinations have been labeled by psychologists largely as superstitions that feed on frustration, uncertainty, and the unpredictable nature of certain human activities. In Magic and the Mind, Eugene Subbotsky provides an overview of the mechanisms and development of magical thinking and beliefs throughout the life span while arguing that the role of this type of thought in human development should be reconsidered. Rather than an impediment to scientific reasoning or a byproduct of cognitive development, in children magical thinking is an important and necessary complement to these processes, enhancing creativity at problem-solving and reinforcing coping strategies, among other benefits. In adults, magical thinking and beliefs perform important functions both for individuals (coping with unsolvable problems and stressful situations) and for society (enabling mass influence and promoting social harmony). Operating in realms not bound by physical causality, such as emotion, relationships, and suggestion, magical thinking is an ongoing, developing psychological mechanism that, Subbotsky argues, is integral in the contexts of politics, commercial advertising, and psychotherapy, and undergirds our construction and understanding of meaning in both mental and physical worlds. Magic and the Mind represents a unique contribution to our understanding of the importance of magical thinking, offering experimental evidence and conclusions never before collected in one source. It will be of interest to students and scholars of developmental psychology, as well as sociologists, anthropologists, and educators.

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Author: Julian Jaynes

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2000-08-15

Total Pages: 580

ISBN-13: 0547527543

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National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry

Real Magic
Real Magic

Author: Wayne W. Dyer

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2010-08-24

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0062013130

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BESTSELLING BOOK In this inspirational guide, Wayne Dyer, the author of the phenomenal bestsellers Wisdom of the Ages, Pulling Your Own Strings, and Your Erroneous Zones, reveals seven beliefs central to working miracles in our everyday lives. When most of us think of magic, we picture a man in a black cape sawing a woman in half, or a sleight-of-hand card trick. But there's another kind of magic – real magic – that can enrich your life. According to Dyer, real magic means creating miracles in everyday life. Quitting smoking or drinking, achieving new Job success, or finding a happy relationship – these are all miracles because they transcend our perceived limitations. From "creating a miracle mind-set" and achieving change in the areas of personal health, prosperity, and fulfilling love relationships to believing in the magic of miracles on a global scale, Dyer shows us that miracles within our reach and within our own minds. In Real Magic, Dyer teaches us how to achieve a higher level of consciousness. He asks us to imagine what would make us happy, then offers specific strategies for attaining these goals. In every aspect of our individual lives – physical health, finances, intimate relationships, and personal identity – there is always room for a miracle or two. And with Dyer's help, each and every one of us can be a miracle worker.

The Anthropology of Magic
The Anthropology of Magic

Author: Susan Greenwood

Publisher: Berg

Published: 2009-11-01

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 1847886418

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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.

Rattling Chains
Rattling Chains

Author: Louis G. Denti

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-02-11

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 9462091072

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Rattling Chains: Exploring Social Justice in Education, is the first book to provide an opportunity to intentionally and deeply grapple with the insights, perceptions, and provocations offered by a rich array of prominent and influential voices in the field of education. The first part of the title, Rattling Chains, signifies the importance of keeping the issue of social justice reverberating in the minds of readers, while also working to unchain thinking from entrenched beliefs and unchallenged assumptions. More specifically, this collection of essays “shakes and rattles” by providing a variety of vantage points from which to wallow in the complex, tangled, and simultaneously revered and contested notion of social justice. It is hoped that mucking around in the thinking, perspectives, and actions of a variety of educational scholars challenges entrenched beliefs while unearthing provocative insights. Exploring issues of social justice from various standpoints is intended to lead to a more complex understanding of justice that is social, as well as its possibilities, potency, and resultant tensions.

Regenerative-Adaptive Design for Sustainable Development
Regenerative-Adaptive Design for Sustainable Development

Author: Phillip B. Roös

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-09-15

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 3030532348

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In this book, the author tests a regenerative-adaptive pattern language theory towards investigating the possibilities of a holistic, integrated design and planning method for sustainable development that incorporates the principles of regenerative design, as well as an adaptive pattern language that re-establishes our wholeness with nature, and considers the vulnerabilities of a changing landscape. The book examines an integral approach to contemporary theories of planning and design that explores the human-nature relationship patterns in social and spatial interconnections, between people and their natural environments. The interconnectedness of human and natural systems is used to scaffold possible solutions to address key environmental and sustainability issues that specifically address the need for patterns of behaviour that acknowledge the duality of ‘man and nature’. In 12 chapters, the book presents a holistic, regenerative-adaptive pattern language that encapsulates how communities can better appreciate landscape change under future climate effects, and acknowledges the importance to adapt to patterns of change of place and the environment and therefore inform the communities’ responses for sustainable development. The application of the regenerative-adaptive pattern language was tested along the Great Ocean Road region of the Victorian coast in Australia. The concluding chapters argues that for human settlements and cities to be resilient and sustainable, we must understand the interconnected patterns of human-built environments and natural systems, and how we function in a social-spatial dimension with these. The book is intended for practitioners and academic scholars with interest in sustainable development, regenerative design, pattern languages, biophilia, settlement planning, and climate change adaptation.

Living the Life-Force
Living the Life-Force

Author: Nicholas Vesey

Publisher: Ozark Mountain Publishing

Published: 2019-04-11

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13:

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This book is a ‘primer’ on spirituality for those reluctant to join anything. Those who end up on yoga mats, in coffee bars or in airport lounges wondering what life is about, but not wanting to ‘get involved’. It confronts the question of whether there is or there is not a ‘Life-Force’ (and if so how to relate to it) in a ‘gonzo’ style that is irreligious and yet suggests at a latent spirituality, engaging the reader through appealing to their own experience, rather than the beliefs that they might hold. The first half of the book poses various questions about how one co-operates with that Life-Force: looking at evolution as a function of consciousness, highlighting the rise of global consciousness and suggesting how the individual can play a part in making a better world through empathy and compassion using ‘Emotional Photosynthesis’. The second half of the book takes the form of a memoir using the different stages of consciousness - Infant, Magical, Mythical, Rational, Visionary and Soul - to explore the practical reality of what it means to ‘Live the Life-Force’.