Magic & Witchcraft
Last updated: October 20, 2024
Welcome to the Five Books recommendations on Magic & Witchcraft.
What is a grimoire? Can you tell Shamanism from Wicca?
Beliefs in magic and witchcraft have an expansive pedigree, dating back to the earliest form of writing in Ancient Babylonian stone tablets. And yet, in India and Sub-Saharan Africa, witch-hunts and killings continue to the present day.
Social historians, anthropologists, and illusionists recommend their best books on magic, examining the cultural practices from a range of different contexts.
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1
Belief: What It Means to Believe and Why Our Convictions Are So Compelling
by James Alcock -
2
Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition
by Stuart Vyse -
3
Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There
by Richard Wiseman -
4
The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths
by Michael Shermer -
5
Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable
by Bruce Hood
The best books on Paranormal Beliefs, recommended by Christopher French
The best books on Paranormal Beliefs, recommended by Christopher French
Far from being outlandish, a belief in the paranormal appears to be a trait that many human beings share. Christopher French, Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit in the Psychology Department at Goldsmiths and author of The Science of Weird Shit, recommends five books that explore the paranormal—from a skeptical point of view.
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1
Red Shift
by Alan Garner -
2
The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia
by Neil Price -
3
Soul Hunters: Hunting, Animism, and Personhood among the Siberian Yukaghirs
by Rane Willerslev -
4
The Annotated Collected Poems
Edward Thomas (ed. by Edna Longley) -
5
The Poems of Emily Brontë
Emily Brontë (ed. by Derek Roper)
The best books on Witches and Witchcraft, recommended by Diane Purkiss
The best books on Witches and Witchcraft, recommended by Diane Purkiss
For centuries, the witch has been an index not only of what we fear most in others, but also what we cannot cope with—the powerfully abnormal, strange and often irrational elements—in ourselves. And the best way to understand the history of witches and witchcraft is to first understand the supernatural, according to Diane Purkiss, Professor at Keble College, Oxford and author of the lauded book The Witch in History.
The best books on Being Sceptical, recommended by James Randi
Former magician and internationally renowned debunker of paranormal claims James Randi sharpens his knives against proponents of flim-flam, pseudoscience and the so-called paranormal – and tells us where the creator of Sherlock Holmes went badly wrong. He selects the best books on scepticism for Five Books.
The best books on Magic, recommended by Richard Heygate
Steeped in the pre-Christian traditions of English magic, Richard Heygate, the author of the bestselling The Book of English Magic, warns readers not to dabble unless they are prepared to end up in a padded cell.
The best books on Premonitions, recommended by Larry Dossey
The former Chief of Staff of Medical City Hospital, Dallas discusses the weird and wonderful world of Premonitions. Semi-scientific and light hearted
The best books on Magic, recommended by Owen Davies
The Professor of Social History at the University of Hertfordshire takes us on a tour of the history of magic and ritual.
The best books on African Religion and Witchcraft, recommended by Jean Fontaine
The emeritus professor of social anthropology at the London School of Economics and author of Speak of the Devil says the Dinka and the Nuer are famous in anthropology for not being preoccupied with misfortune