Magic Explained Away
The End of Magic May 15, 1997 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195108798.003.0002 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that magic should be understood through subjective experience rather than dismissed by skeptics or reduced to ordinary science by sympathizers, proposing that magical experience rests on sensory perception of natural interrelations among the world's elements and can be conceived as the nonverbal power of sound or the eloquence of touch. |
Abstract
Abstract: Westerners who arrive in Banaras, a city in India, to conduct research, study music, or just live among Indians, waste no time in shedding the outer signs of their Western identity in favor of kurtas and pajamas. During the past century, the phenomenon of magic, which is dispersed more widely than even religion, has been attacked from various quarters. On the one side have been the detractors who deny the very experience that practitioners claim to undergo. On the other side are the sympathizers who accept some magical claims but have found scientific reasons to make magic unexceptional. The experience of magical events rests first and foremost on the sensory perception that all elements in the world are interrelated, not in a mystical union, but in a tapestry of natural interactions. The subjective attitude is the only valid way of considering magic; it is called the “magical experience,” or “consciousness.” Magic should be thought of as the nonverbal power of sound or as the eloquence of touch.