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BOOK REVIEW Not in Kansas Anymore: Dark Arts, Sex Spells, Money Magic, and Other Things Your Neighbors Aren't Telling You by Christine Wicker HarperSanFrancisco - September 2006
Reviewed by Dr. Jonathan Dolhenty Well, before the regular readers of my online reviews think I have gone bananas for even considering a reading and review of a book about this sort of subject, please allow me to explain and attempt to justify my decision to take on this project. I have spent my entire intellectual life studying human beings and their behavior both as individuals and within a social context. This study has been personal, of course, in the sense that I have always been intellectually attracted to individuals who seem to live outside what would ordinarily be considered the "norm" or the "ordinary." I find such people very interesting as well as challenging and such individuals have always appeared to be rather comfortable around me because, I guess, I tend not to judge them or try to force them into arbitrary categories. I have argued this matter over the years in a series of essays called "The Psychiatric Game." On the other hand, a great deal of my study has been traditionally academic. My college studies were primarily in philosophy and the social sciences, from politics to psychology to human history. Generally speaking, I doubt there is much out there in the "real" world that I have not seen, read about, or heard about sometime during the past sixty-plus years. This does not mean, however, that there is nothing new to learn about, particularly when it comes to the details about some aspects of what many of us refer to as the "human condition." That's why, I have always argued, the study of human beings is far more complex that the study of nuclear physics, molecular chemistry, or microbiology. While the social sciences have often been considered the so-called "soft" sciences, this is not true; indeed, the complexities involved in the study of human beings far exceed that of the so-called "hard" sciences, such as physics, chemistry, and biology. And so we come (finally!) to my brief review of Christine Wicker's Not in Kansas Anymore, a book about the dark arts, sex spells, money magic, voodoo, vampires, and a lot more "sinister" things. Wicker is a journalist and former religion reporter and not an "academic." Her book is about her own "personal" investigation into the subject and does not pretend to be an academic inquiry into the "darker sides" of human experience. Wicker is not just writing about some arcane subject from an "objective" point of view; she actually "lived" within the subject and reports what she saw, felt, heard, tasted, smelled, and thought. Take what one will from her experiences with witches, voodoo priests, self-proclaimed vampires, and so forth, one can't deny her "subjective" analyses of the encounters she experienced. One can, of course, choose to ignore what she reports or claim that it doesn't really matter or that it is simply a narrative about a "fringe" element which exists in our society but doesn't have any real influence. You'd be dead wrong on the latter two points. Let's consider a few statistics that Wicker gives us in an appendix: Number of doctors who've had what they consider miracle cures - 55%; Number of Americans who report otherworldly experiences while near death - 34 to 40%; Number of eighteen- to twenty-year-olds who believe in ghosts - 54%; Number of American adults who believe in angels - 75%; Number who believe in psychic and spiritual healing - 54%. She also provides statistics regarding belief in witches, haunted houses, and astrology. The numbers are too impressive to simply dismiss as some aberration. So the subject Wicker takes on in her book does matter to a lot of people and they are obviously not a "fringe" group in our society. According to the author, "magic" has been part of the American story since the early settlers first came to the continent. Furthermore, "magic" is still here and is around us all the time. Most of us just don't think about our own "magical" thoughts and ideas; we are too familiar with them; they are too much a common property of our lives; we tend to accept them as "normal." For instance, virtually all religions -- and that includes Evangelical Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism, and other major denominations, as well as religions considered by the mainstream to be more "cultic" -- have some element of what can be considered "magic" within their belief system. This statement, of course, may elicit a resounding denial from practitioners of mainstream American religions, but that is only because they won't use the term "magical" to refer to any of their beliefs. Wicker forces us, however, to confront this issue. Consider this from the author: "Some Pentecostal preachers are so familiar with evil spirits that they have names for them and a hierarchy of rankings. Sightings of the Holy Mother Mary are rising all over the world." Christianity is founded upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; Catholics believe that the wafer of bread and the wine at the communion service are "actually" turned into the body and blood of Christ. Now to be sure, they don't call these events "magical." As well, the "coming-in of the Holy Spirit" and the "speaking in tongues" of some forms of Christianity are not considered "magical" by those believers in them, yet it is hard to tell the difference between those types of activities and the "magic" allegedly performed by practitioners of Wicca or some other "occult" belief. Jewish and Islamic "mysticism" also provides many examples of this phenomenon. One person's "magic" appears to be another person's "miracle" or "mystical experience." Basically, what Wicker provides for us in Not in Kansas Anymore is a personal tour of some "underground" systems of religious or spiritual beliefs existing right now in our "enlightened" country. From seemingly ordinary people who consider themselves to be elves or vampires (and attend conventions!) to voodoo temples, witches' covens, and pagan rituals in urban America, this is an investigation into a part of our society which apparently is much larger than generally assumed. But there is more here than merely that. The reader will also learn some of the history behind these modern-day practices. And, believe me, there is a rich history here to be told. While I do recommend this book to all readers, especially those interested in religious, spiritual, and philosophical matters, I do want to issue this warning. Some of what Wicker writes about will upset certain people. Parts of her narrative will strike a lot of people as being "odd" or "quirky." Many people, I am sure, will simply dismiss some of what she relates as being "irrelevant." But there is one thing I can say for sure: Wicker's book will force all readers to do some "rethinking" of their own beliefs about the world we live in and possible worlds in which we could live. Moreover, the serious reader may have to decide his or her own status in either place. "Magic" has always been a part of the human story; it's just that we humans have not always called it "magic."
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Enrich your life with a book about politics and current events... Enrich your political & social life with a politics or news magazine... |
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