Magic and the Supernatural - Lancaster University

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Preface
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In the end, the 1 st Global Conference on Magic and the Supernatural held by
Inter-Disciplinary.Net may have provided few absolute answers. That, however, is
a good thing, because once people see an issue as definitively answered, they also
see it as definitively closed off to scrutiny. That would be a mistake, for as the
breadth of scholarship brought to bear on this subject demonstrates, the issues in
question are far too complex to yield simple answers. This conference was highly
fruitful though in spite of – or perhaps because of – that lack of definitive answers.
The chapters contained in this eBook and the chapters included in the print volume
born out of the same conference 2 demonstrate the complexity of the problem while
laying the groundwork for critical inquiry in the future.
Notes
1
S.J. Tambiah, ‘Form and Meaning of Magical Acts’, Culture, Thought, and
Social Action, S.J. Tambiah (ed), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1985,
pp. 60-86.
2
S.E. Hendrix and B. Feltham (eds), Rational Magic, Inter-Disciplinary Press,
Oxford, 2010.
Bibliography
Hendrix, S.E. and Feltham, B. (eds), Rational Magic. Inter-Disciplinary Press,
Oxford, 2010.
Tambiah, S.J., ‘Form and Meaning of Magical Acts’. Culture, Thought, and Social
Action, Tambiah, S.J. (ed), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1985.