Why People Believe in Spirits, Gods and Magic

by Jack Hunter

This e-book attempts to explore the question of why and how people come to believe in spirits, gods and magic from a social anthropological perspective. Covering topics such as Shamanism & Spirit Possession, Witchcraft & Magic, Ghosts, Spirits, Gods & Demons, Ethnography & the Paranormal and Anthropology & Parapsychology, this ebook provides an overview of supernatural traditions and practices around the world. The author also explores anthropological interpretations of supernatural and spiritual experiences, including the paranormal experiences of anthropologists themselves, while engaged in fieldwork

127 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Dr. Jack Hunter is an anthropologist exploring the borderlands of consciousness, religion and the paranormal, living in the hills of Mid-Wales. His doctoral research with the University of Bristol examined the experiences of spirit mediums and their influence on the development of self-concepts and models of consciousness, and is an effort towards a non-reductive anthropology of the paranormal. He is the founder and editor of Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal. He is the author of Why People Believe in Spirits, Gods and Magic (2012) and Engaging the Anomalous (2018), editor of Strange Dimensions: A Paranthropology Anthology (2015), Damned Facts: Fortean Essays on Religion, Folklore and the Paranormal (2016), and co-editor with Dr. David Luke of Talking With the Spirits: Ethnographies from Between the Worlds (2014).

To find out more about his research and publications visit http://www.jack-hunter.webstarts.com

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting read. It's quite rudimentary - I would of liked more anecdotes and more detail of the studies cited.