Saturday 31 July 2010

[U176.Ebook] PDF Ebook Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization, by Danny Ethus Burton, David A. Grandy

PDF Ebook Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization, by Danny Ethus Burton, David A. Grandy

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Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization, by Danny Ethus Burton, David A. Grandy

Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization, by Danny Ethus Burton, David A. Grandy



Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization, by Danny Ethus Burton, David A. Grandy

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Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization, by Danny Ethus Burton, David A. Grandy

"[P.D. Ouspensky’s] yearning for a transcendent, timeless reality―one that cancels out physical disintegration and death―figures into science at some fundamental level.

Einstein found solace in his theory of relativity, which suggested to him that events are ever-present in the space-time continuum. When his friend Michele Besso passed on shortly before his own death, he wrote: 'For us believing physicists the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, even if a stubborn one.'" ―from Magic, Mystery, and Science

The triumph of science would appear to have routed all other explanations of reality. No longer does astrology or alchemy or magic have the power to explain the world to us. Yet at one time each of these systems of belief, like religion, helped shed light on what was dark to our understanding. Nor have the occult arts disappeared. We humans have a need for mystery and a sense of the infinite.

Magic, Mystery, and Science presents the occult as a "third stream" of belief, as important to the shaping of Western civilization as Greek rationalism or Judeo-Christianity. The occult seeks explanations in a world that is living and intelligent―quite unlike the one supposed by science. By taking these beliefs seriously, while keeping an eye on science, this book aims to capture some of the power of the occult. Readers will discover that the occult has a long history that reaches back to Babylonia and ancient Egypt. It proceeds alongside, and frequently mingles with, religion and science. From the Egyptian Book of the Dead to New Age beliefs, from Plato to Adolf Hitler, occult ways of knowing have been used―and hideously abused―to explain a world that still tempts us with the knowledge of its dark secrets.

  • Sales Rank: #978959 in Books
  • Published on: 2003-12-04
  • Released on: 2003-12-04
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 9.25" h x 1.09" w x 6.12" l, 1.20 pounds
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 390 pages

About the Author

Dan Burton is Assistant Professor of History and Political Science at the University of North Alabama. He lives in Florence, Alabama.

David Grandy is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Brigham Young University. He earned a Ph.D. in history and philosophy of science at Indiana University. He resides in Orem, Utah.

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
I do not recommend it.
By bounzer
This book is not what I thought it would be. It seems to be written by a couple of authors who have little practical experience with the systems they are writing about. It's as if the book was written by the proverbial armchair philosopher. One who merely reads, compares, and criticizes the various philosophical systems. I do not recommend it.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Nice balance between science, occult, religion
By Sherwin Homer
This book aims to show that science and the occult are not discrete, mutually exclusive categories of human understanding. Historically speaking, each has borrowed from the other, and so the view that science systematically dispels or discredits occult practices and attitudes is flawed, or at least less defensible than commonly assumed. Religion and/or spirituality inevitably plays into the mix as well. Perhaps the biggest point the authors make is that modern science is, in many ways, inhospitable to religious and occult belief. Not so much because of its skepticism, but because of its bleak characterization of physical reality. Of course this characterization has, in the 20th century, been challenged by science (primarily physics) itself, at least insofar as some people choose to interpret the science. But that brings us back to the earlier point that science, the occult, and spirituality never settle down into discrete, self-contained states. As Empedocles said long ago regarding the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), they continually "run through" each other.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
Truth=Revelation + Reason + Tradition
By R. W. Rasband
"Magic, Mystery, and Science" is a historical survey of the "occult" in Western culture. That includes things like numerology, astrology, cabala (of Madonna fame), alchemy, witches and witch-hunts, New Age, hypnosis, ESP, UFO's and alien abductions, Gnosticism, near-death experiences, Satan and demons, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The authors attempt as neutral an approach as possible to these ideas. They aren't debunking skeptics or gullible suckers. This book reminds me of Jeffrey Burton Russell's magnificent series of volumes on the devil. Those books were objective, informed, and thorough in intellectual, historical, and literary approaches. Like this book, they are also a lot of fun to read because the subject is so fascinating. "Magic, Mystery, and Science" is unusually accessible for a university press offering, and at 390 pages it doesn't feel rushed or incomplete although it covers hundreds of years of history.

The art on the cover neatly depicts the theme of the book. It's an old painting that depicts an alchemist in search of the "Philosopher's Stone" (a stone that heals, purifies and perfects anything it touches.) Instead, the alchemist accidentally discovers phosporus. Burton and Grandy perceive the occult as a "third stream" of knowledge in Western Culture, along with Greek rationalism and orthodox Judeo-Christianity. Science, religious faith and "magic" (some would use the word "intuition" instead) are three ways of apprehending the truth that are designed to be used in conjuction with each other. The authors spend a lot of time debunking the rigid naturalism that emerged out of the Enlightenment that reduced human beings in essence to biological robots helpless in the grip of natural forces. Practitioners of the occult were grasping for a way out of this trap. Burton and Grandy point out that in the Renaissance science and magic often went hand in hand together. Isaac Newton not only discovered gravity but was a determined if unsuccessful alchemist. Many thinkers considered reality as all of one piece and made no distinction between the natural and what was called (incorrectly) the supernatural. Thus the cover image of the alchemist who becomes a scientist almost in spite of himself.

The authors aren't propogandists for the occult. They include an absorbing chapter on Nazism and the occult and show how Hitler as a young man became obsessed with a mystical, sexually charged form of anti-Semitism that he transmitted like a virus to the whole German nation. They also painfully depict the stupid atrocites of the European witch-hunts. There's also some rather funny descriptions of the fakeries and con-artistry of 19th century American Spiritualists, all of whom turned out to be frauds. The authors can see clearly how such figures as Gurdjieff and Blavatsky could seem at once impressive and silly. The UFO phenomenon and Whitley Strieber also take a big hit from these guys.

But on the whole Burton and Grandy seem determined to clear some room in Western culture for revelation, for epiphany, for the possibility that humans can come to know some things about the natural order that science alone is too earthbound and clumsy to grasp. Late in the book the authors discuss quantum physics and how it has replaced stultifying "classical" materialism:

"So the hope of producing a comprehensive theory of the universe founders on the realization that we inevitably participate in nature: nature is a game that allows no spectators. We cannot sit in the audience and blithely take in the play; we are on the stage, deeply involved and unpredictably ratcheting up the world's complexity while attempting to understand it...it would appear that the smallest parts of nature are capable of timelessly registering faraway changes. Space and time, the great separating modalities of classical science, no longer seem so absolute." (page 326)

This is a good, interesting book.

See all 9 customer reviews...

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