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Aveni, Anthony. "Behind the Crystal Ball. Magic, Science and the Occult from Antiquity through the New Age." University Press of Colorado, 2002. (rev edn) xvii, 361pp. Illus, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 0-87081-671-3.
£20.50. pbk.

This book is an American look at the history of ideas, focusing on the relationships and contexts between what we in Western societies call science, religion and magic. It is wide-ranging discussion of the issues, informed by a scientific background, which respects other worldviews. It is not an exercise in debunking per se, although it does accord plenty of space, correctly so I believe, to those wishing to expose fraudulence and trickery amongst certain practitioners of "magic". Aveni has spent his adult life teaching science to American teenagers and it is particularly to this market that the book is aimed. Those who live outside of North America may find the tone, style and cultural references off-putting if they are not familiar with them.

The book is arranged in neat bite-sized chapters, allowing for easy assimilation. It is not heavily referenced, and should not be thought of as a purely academic text. There is an adequate bibliography for those sufficiently interested to follow up some of the themes of the book, although I suspect that experts in any particular field will find plenty of omissions. The first chunk of the book looks at magic in antiquity, covering Greece, Egypt, Rome and Mesopotamia and provides an illuminating look at magical practices in those societies. He then movers on through the Middle Ages into the Enlightenment, covering topics such as the Kabbalah, Astrology, Witchcraft amongst others. These themes are taken up again in the Nineteenth century, together with the rise of Spiritualism and Phrenology with the final two sections of the book looking at contemporary manifestations of magical practices, among which he includes (for reasons which escape me) Ufology.

The book claims to be a revised edition (I couldn't find the date of the first publication), but I suspect it first came out in the mid 1990's. That's about as far as the bibliography goes. Given its audience, one would have expected that a properly revised edition would have taken a look at Remote Viewing and have dealt with the explosion of "magical" media productions, including the X-Files, Buffy, Charmed etc. He does discuss the resurgence of pagan witchcraft but I suspect even he would be surprised at how much further it has gone since this was first published.

Also for a revised edition I would have expected certain errors to have been corrected. For example : The Society for Psychical Research is given correctly on page 170 but as the Society for Psychic research in both the index and on 141. Aveni's grasp on history does not appear as strong as his grasp on history - he claims on page 118 that ""When we think of Tudor England (late fifteenth - sixteenth century), we are reminded of Shakespeare and Newton". Surely not as Sir Isaac Newton wasn't born until 1642, whereas the Tudor dynasty ended with the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603. Even more strange is his treatment of Franz Anton Mesmer. Apparently, according to Aveni, "Mesmer believed that Faraday's and Maxwell's magnetic fluid ... permeated all material things.." Helpfully Aveni gives all the following dates within a couple of paragraphs of each other: Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867), James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) and Mesmer (1734 - 1815.) Given that Faraday didn't perform a public demonstration of the production of " "electromotive force" by the principle of magnetic induction" until 1831, by Aveni's own admission, is he suggesting that Mesmer was also a clairvoyant ?

As I mentioned above, Aveni lumps Ufology with the realm of the magical. Now there is no doubt that some aspects of what Ufology attempts to explain, including alien abductions can be said to correspond to fairy abductions or possibly night terrors. Equally there may be some form of hallucination or mass hysteria at work over some sightings. However to treat the entire subject in this manner suggests either an unfamiliarity with it or at the least a very superficial knowledge. His take on Ufology will come as a bit of a shock to those seeking a more nuts-and-bolts explanation (where applicable) and also those trying to explain phenomena within known scientific parameters.

Having said all that the book is, generally speaking, an interesting romp through the history of magical thinking and how it has been situated with respect to both science and religion. At times it seems as though the "magical" is that which both science and religion wish to claim for themselves, to the extent that it is true, whilst maintain very effective border controls. It is, in a way, twice-damned, which of course why the "magical" is very much Fortean territory, although as Aveni correctly points out that the idea of what constitutes "magic" varies from one society to another and from one time to another. As to whether I would recommend anyone in the UK spending £20.50 on this paperback, it's more than I'd pay for a copy, but if you find a copy on the shelves of your local library there are worse ways of using your spare time than reading it if you want an introduction to the subject.

Richard Alexander

6/10