Magic: A Theoretical Reassessment [and Comments and Replies]

Abstract

Comparison of aspects of magical belief and practice with elements identified in experimental parapsychology suggests that some magical phenomena may have their basis in what parapsychology in call psi. Similarities are found between magic and parapsychology in (1) conditions that facilitate the manifestation of magical and psi phenomena, (2) the mental processes implicated as effective in producing magical and psi phenomena, (3) the basic principles underlying the phenomena of magic and psi, (4) the characteristics of the phenomena likely affected by magical action and psi, and (5) the characteristics of the origin of magic suggested by Malinowski and the characteristics of the basis of psi. These congruences are used to distinguish which aspects of magic are likely to be psi-related. Previous theories of magic are integrated in a perspective that places psi and other universal psychological processes at the basis of magic and explains the integration of many types of magical, social, cosmological, and religious phenomena as a product of metaphoric predication and analogical modeling.