The Complete Illustrated Book of the Psychic Sciences

by Walter B. Gibson, Litzka R. Gibson

A history, modern survey, and how-to instruction with over 100 illustrations.
A comprehensive history and modern survey of the psychic and mystic sciences from star-gazing to ESP and Yoga.

[Description from Dust Jacket]:
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The authors of dozens of books and many articles on the occult have now written the most complete and up to date treatment of mystic science and divination to appear in many years. Each subject is fully developed, both historically and in the light of modern knowledge and interest. Descriptions and nearly one hundred illustrations enabled the interested reader to practice these sciences for his own entertainment and enjoyment.
The survey is begun with an A-to-Z index of every conceivable ancient and modern mystic science--from ceroscopy, where melted wax is poured on cold water, forming bubbles which are duly interpreted, to onychomancy, the study of fingernails in the sunlight, tracing any significant symbols on their surface.
Full chapters, devoted to the more popular forms of divination and prediction (among them, dream interpretation and colorology), contain detailed analyses of such intriguing ideas as the numerical significance of dreams and the role of blue as the color of devotion. Other chapters discuss fortune-telling by dice, handwriting analysis, superstitions, telepathy, and modern concept of ESP.
THE COMPLETE ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF PSYCHIC SCIENCES is a thorough, comprehensive volume by a knowledgeable and experience team of authors.
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THE COMPLETE ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF PSYCHIC SCIENCES including....
ASTROLOGY
CARTOMANCY
COLOROLOGY
DICE DIVINATION
DOMINO DIVINATION
DREAMS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION
GRAPHOLOGY
NUMEROLOGY
MOLEOSOPHY
PALMISTRY
PHRENOLOGY
PHYSIOGNOMY
RADIESTHESIA
SUPERSTITIONS, OMENS AND LUCKY SIGNS
TASSEOGRAPHY
TELEPATHY
YOGA
...and many others

ASIN: B000NSDINK or B003ZNU1OO according to Amazon.com

Genres: Occult, New Age

403 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1966

About the author

Walter Brown Gibson (September 12, 1897-December 6, 1985) was an American author and professional magician best known for his work on the pulp fiction character The Shadow. Gibson, under the pen-name Maxwell Grant, wrote "more than 300 novel-length" Shadow stories, writing up to "10,000 words a day" to satisfy public demand during the character's golden age in the 1930s and 1940s.

Reviews

[Clifford Onehundredd · Rating 5 out of 5]

A RELIABLE REFERENCE IF YOU READ THOROUGHLY

Before I give you a review on this book The Complete Illustrated Book Of The Psychic Sciences,there's a few things I would like everyone to know. First, I picked up this book because I found out this was one of the books Tupac Shakur read and is on his official reading list. It wasn't a secret that Tupac studied spiritual phenomenon especially Telepathy and Clairvoyance. The other reason I picked this book up is due to my curiosity of wanting to know if some of this stuff was real or b.s. I've come to the conclusion that there is overwhelming evidence that 'psychic ability' and the like are indeed real and have been studied throughout history even after admiration of notable people such as: Nina Kulagina,Edgar Cayce,Nostradamus,Grandmother Baba Vanga, etc. People will vehemently deny this phenomenon because it's considered by the critics 'pseudoscience.'

As you know, psychic ability deals with the mind--visualization and the effective use of your subconscious mind. Since we all can visualize both consciously/subconsciously it would seem logical that the ability to forsee things before they happen is indeed possible--dreaming so to speak. ESP Extrasensory Perception, is something that skeptics have long criticized.

Think about this logically, your five senses: taste, smell, see, hear, and touch can all be enhanced. As crazy as it sounds, it has been proved a fact that marijuana enhances not just one but all of these senses when you're in a state of euphoria. (This is not counting the drugs/alcohol that can potentially enhance or impair one or all of your senses as well.) Your brain naturally activates this state of euphoria and visualizations as well as sometimes creativity--peak when you're in this mindstate--due to the effect of the marijuana. Some have even combined meditation with the use of marijuana and had an enhanced experience that can be argued as a spiritual gateway experience. So if we know that ESP is: 'the act of being aware something outside your natural senses'--an enhanced sense--"sixth sense", and that something simple as marijuana enhances your 5 natural senses when you're eurphoric--why would one believe that ESP isn't possible sober or not? Scientists have actually conducted studies on ESP, Telepathy, Psychic phenomenon etc.

Some have even wrote great books on these things. In order for one to achieve the great feats of the mind it would be wise for one to consider studying Meditation and/or Yoga---particularly Hatha Yoga or Raja Yoga..."AUM" "OM". It's been said that once you've reached a certain level of consciousness and awaken the kundalini energy or your Third Eye is open, your 'psychic potential' is pretty much actualized. Many books have been written on how to go about doing this, but it's a matter of aligning yourself correctly in a mental-spirtual sense. Since you can never really supress someone from using their mental potential to the fullest from these studies, it is ironic that people would instead cast the idea of 'psychic ability' as impossible or not believable to keep people ignorant to their own potential and to keep a select group of people at an advantage with this knowledge. "Plausible Deniability". Our brain is capable of many things depending on how effective
our consciousness is being used in our daily lives.

Now...As far as my review of The Complete Illustrated Book Of The Psychic Sciences; I would say that this is a book you'd buy to familiarize yourself with the basics of psychic sciences if you're a beginner. Some material in the book is questionable but it's still a great reference book and you'll get a history lesson on each chapter. The most helpful chapters I found in the book were: 1:Astrology, 6:Dreams And Their Interpretation, 16:Telepathy/ESP, 8:Numerology, and 17:Yoga and Its Powers. Chapter 6's elaboration on Dreams is a good immediate reference, but this book is pretty old so you might want to consider looking in other places for additional dream references when reading this chapter. Chapter 17's Yoga And Its Powers will be most helpful to you despite that it's a very short chapter and pretty much the last one in the book. You'll find that the information explained there will be crucial to understanding how to apply the techniques (including the 8 limbs) needed in Yoga to realize your psychic potential. You have some books who seemingly forget to break down what the steps are so be grateful for that. Like I said this is a good reference book. You should pick up more books to learn more and reach the next level. "The Psychic Realm What Can You Believe?" by Naomi A. Hintze (gives you a historical reference). If you wish to try actual practices some of Carl Llewellyn Weschcke's books are helpful preferably "The Llewellyn Practical Guide to The Development Of Psychic Powers" by Denning & Phillips (1993 version is recommended)"Awakening The Third Eye" by Samuel Sagan (third edition) is also recommended. YouTube would be a good source for learning meditation. Yoga and meditation books would also be helpful as well. If you can, study "Raja Yoga" by Swami Vivekananda and "The Chakra Handbook" by Shalila Sharamon & Bodo J. Baginski (in getting the Chakra book you'll need it to be familiar with CHAKRAS because the Psychic Sciences book in the Chapter on Yoga and Its Powers briefly elaborates on Chakras, Raja Yoga is also cited in the Chapter so hence why you'll need that book as well.)

Be sure to pay attention to the feedback people had on the books you're selecting so that you get something that actually works in your favor. "Initiation" by Elisabeth Haich is my most recommended read above all other titles I could mention as her book will be the most beneficial to you. Once you found the hidden jewels in her book you can refer back to Psychic Sciences book in the Yoga Chapter and combine the knowledge there. The edition I have of The Complete Book Of The Psychic Sciences is the first edition 1966, it could be possible that the later editions may have updated information. All in all it's a good book to reference.

[Jean-Pierre Vidrine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am open to the possibility of psychic abilities, but it is not a big interest of mine. I do not collect many books on the subject. So, why did I pick up this book? One of the authors.
Walter Gibson is known best to me and others as the creator of that great character, The Shadow. Seeing as how he penned so many wonderful stories featuring this character, and was at one time a stage magician, I thought this collaboration with his wife might have some interesting insights into this controversial topic.
I was wrong.
After the lengthy introduction which gives a run-down of various terms (mostly different forms of divination), the first chapter deals with astrology. I am not wholly dismissive nor entirely sold on astrology. To be honest, most of it simply baffles me. If I had a greater interest in it, I might have enjoyed this chapter more.
The second chapter is about cartomancy, divination through cards. I thought I would like this chapter until I came upon the first of three statements that I took serious issue with. Despite having nice illustrations of Tarot cards in the chapter, the Gibsons here are entirely dismissive of Tarot saying, "Devotees of the tarot pack still regard it with a sentiment akin to awe, but it is hard to share their view." They go on to promote the superior skill of those who do divination readings with ordinary playing cards. Even if I were not someone who reads Tarot cards, I would have a problem with this. For a book dealing with the topic of divination, something that some people openly and easily dismiss outright, to be dismissive of a time-honored tradition of divination just does not make sense.
In spite of myself, I kept reading until I got part of the way through the "Table of Card Signification." Basically this is a dictionary defining the meanings of each card in the deck. The authors fail entirely to provide any explanations to back up their definitions. Why is the 8 of hearts the "party card?" The 9 of clubs a "real trouble card?" All I can see are numbers and shapes. With my Tarot cards I can see pictures that have meaning for me.
Here I decided that I did not need to bother with reading every word in the book, but would skip through and only read those chapters that interested me. The rest of the cartomancy chapter went unread, and I skipped right over the chapters dealing with colorology, dice divination, and domino divination.
Chapter 6 deals with dream interpretation. There is a little history here of dream interpretation and we are given categories to put our dreams in and we are told to beware of reading too much into dreams influenced by physical impulses or other real world stimuli. Then we get a dream dictionary. As with the card dictionary, the definitions lack explanations. Some are obvious. Some might be traced to dated ideas and concepts not relevant or well-known today. But others just made me shrug. Why does dreaming of ballet mean "Infidelity, jealousy, and possible quarrels?" I abandoned the dream dictionary about halfway through.
The graphology (or handwriting analysis) chapter starts out surprisingly interesting, but it is hard to see how it counts as a "psychic science." It seemed more like personality profiling. Then the chapter got into analyzing "Special Letter Variations." Here we have the same problem we had with the other two "dictionaries." Yes, I left this chapter right about here.
Skipping right over chapters dealing numerology and other things that I do not care to name, I came to the chapter on radiesthisia, the use of pendulums. The chapter was interesting enough, and it also dealt things like Ouija and automatic writing. But, it was not very in-depth nor very illuminating.
Next was the chapter on superstitions. This chapter was good about giving possible explanations for the origins of superstitions and the ideas of good and bad omens. It also included a listing of various superstitions and omens that included so many things that were contradictory and ludicrous I do not see why the authors felt they needed to put them in print. They were quick enough to dismiss Tarot; why include the idea that walking in the rain brings luck?
Skipping over teacup reading, I came to the chapter on telepathy. This was the chapter that I was looking forward to from the moment I bought this book. I am sure there are times in my life where I was let down even more than when I started to read this chapter, but not many.
Early in this chapter is the second of the three aforementioned statements that I took serious issue with. On the subjects of clairvoyance and precognitions, the Gibsons say, " . . . many skeptics who doubted the methods used in certain psychic sciences have been impressed by the results." I do not believe that was true when this book was published in 1966, and I am sure it is not true now.
When the chapter got onto the subject of "contact telepathy," the third of those statements that that upset me came up. The skeptical idea that contact telepathy is no more than "muscle reading" is brought up. Then it is dismissed with," . . . today skilled demonstrators of 'contact telepathy' present experiments so complex that merely to term them as 'muscle reading' would be ridiculous." This is where I started to wonder just how much of the writing was done by which Gibson. I find it very hard to believe that Walter Gibson, a one-time stage magician, was totally unaware of the art of Hellstromism. This is just what the book dismisses, the art of "muscle reading." I watched another professional magician, Criss Angel, demonstrate Hellstromism on television. He was blindfolded and tied to a subject (a car salesman) by a scarf and, most importantly, claiming no psychic ability. Through reading the man's muscle movements, he found a hidden check in the car lot. Seeing that definitely made an impression on me regarding so many "psychics." Even if I had not seen that spectacle, I think I would still wonder at that dismissive statement.
The last chapter was about Yoga. Yoga is a time-honored institution that I know has helped a lot of people in different ways. I respect it, but I do not have a strong interest in it. Considering how badly this book handled topics that I was interested in, I did not even bother to start into the chapter.
This book could have been a handy little reference for a variety of topics under the "psychic" umbrella. But it is not much more than a boost for those who already believe, and irresponsibly tries to deny the very existence of plausible alternative explanations. I never thought I would hate a book with the author byline "Walter B. Gibson."

[Kat_Stratford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very thorough all-around book if you’re going to have one main metaphysical reference guide to refer to.

[James Swenson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not only a 48-page chapter on palmistry, but 6 pages of molesophy: "the study of moles and their meaning."

If you're thinking of picking this up, you should probably get The Assault on Reason instead.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Technically I've only read from page 151. I have my grandmas edition from the 1960's and the first one hundred fifty pages are missing. I'd really give it 2.5, but I'll round up. I like the numerology part. And the Superstitions, Omens, and Lucky Signs chapter was interesting.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though somewhat hokey in parts, this is still a classic and extremely useful book to me.

[J. Joseph Wright]

Reading it cover to cover instead of just piecemeal. Highly recommend to any writer who dabbles in the supernatural or occult.