31 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Welding psychic secrets to that American can-do spirit!, December 13, 1999
This review is from: Doors to Other Worlds: A Practical Guide to Communicating with Spirits (Paperback)
There is something wonderfully American about LlewellynPublications. All their books that I have seen so far have this maniccrackpot optimism, and the unshakable conviction that psychic powers are as easy to come by as a knack for macrame. Psychic exploration, in their view, is no more hazardous than woodburning, which of course can be painful until you learn which end of the iron to grab.
In practice things haven't proven quite so simple, for me at least. I turned on the TV, put a pen in my hand and a pad of paper under the pen, then turned aside and began watching *Frasier* in the hope that my hand would begin writing automatically. That would be serously cool; receive insights from Dead Guys and watch TV at the same time!
Sigh. Once the closing "Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs" theme ran its course, I looked down to find that my hand had twitched a couple of times, doubtless when I was laughing, but otherwise hadn't budged. Heck, I had done everything *exactly* as Ray had advised in Chapter XIII--and come up completely empty.
All of you Fifteenth Order Magicians, Wiccan priestesses, professional channelers and other enlightened folks are probably peeing your pants by now, at the naivete of this silly middle-aged white boy who dared to think he could just sit down jack green in the rumpus room and *do* this stuff.
But that's the impression one gets from many Llewellyn books, most pointedly including this one. Buckland begins by presenting a survey history of Spiritualism, from the Fox sisters up through Seth, Mrs. Piper, and the New Age channelers of the present day. This takes up the first fifty pages of the book, and while well-written, was nothing I hadn't seen a dozen times before. The beef of the book begins on page 51, with an intriguing chapter on preparing for mediumship.
A lot of this is simply convincing yourself that it is possible, by repeating any of several affirmations to that effect: "My natural psychic abilities are opening up and flowing," or (my favorite) "Every day, in every way, my mediumship develops and progresses." (I'm sure I was demonstrating my own unworthiness when I couldn't stop picturing the Cowardly Lion wringing his tail and chanting, "I do believe in spooks. I do I do I do I do I do I do believe in spooks...")
Ok, ok, so I'm being snotty. I understand the psychology involved here, and until you do indeed believe in spooks (and talking to them) right down to the subconscious level, the spooks will be nowhere to be found. I had the same problem with calculus, and still have it with ballroom dancing. Much of the machinery by which mediumship happens lies in the subconscious. Until you convince the subconscious that something can in fact happen, you might as well just put the pen down and watch Frasier.
With that out of the way, the book continues in machine-gun fashion through the matters of meditation, symbolism, psychometry, clairvoyance, clairaudience, scrying, table tipping, levitation, ouija boards, automatic writing, spirit photography, psychic healing, and numerous other things, all with that same irrepressible can-do spirit, even when the subject in question occupies perhaps four pages max. It was all very interesting, and in nearly every case I simply wanted *more*.
One unique and beautifully accomplished element of the book is a sizeable chapter describing how fraudulent mediums do their deceptive thing, given in the way of warning to readers who (like me) might fail in developing their own talents and might wish to retain the talents of an accomplished psychic. (I was also pleased to see that Buckland isn't quite as convinced as some of the genuineness of J. Z. Knight's testosterone-addled spook Ramtha.) The chapter on development circles presented an intriguing plan for the group development of mediumistic abilities, and I had to wonder why this wasn't in the first third of the book, rather than in the final 50 pages. Group dynamics seemed to play an underappreciated role in the success of Spiritualism in the United States, and seems to be emerging as a major consideration in matters psychic of all sorts. I'm getting the impression that it's just not a lone man's game.
So, does my inability to succeed at mediumship mean this is a bad book? Not hardly. At most I would call the book a trifle dishonest, for not putting forth the possibility that some of us just don't have it in us to be Eusepia Palladino or George Anderson, no matter how hard or how long we practice.
A worse flaw, perhaps, is that there's just not enough book here to do justice to the whole subject. Buckland devotes a couple of pages to the topic of psychic safeguards, and somehow manages to make it sound like a minor option useful mostly to mollify the paranoid. Llewelyn has an entire book devoted to psychic self-protection in which the subject is shown to be *much* more complex and subtle than that.
As with a lot of what we in the trade call "popularizations," *Doors to Other Worlds* is more of an orientation piece; something to read to get that essential view from a height and perhaps a sense for just how much there is to the matter at hand. With this book under your belt, you can approach any of the more focused and detailed how-to-do-it books that are out there. Llewellyn can offer you a barrel full. It's the American way.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A little thin on practical guidance, June 13, 2005
This review is from: Doors to Other Worlds: A Practical Guide to Communicating with Spirits (Paperback)
I would call it more of a survey of the history of spiritual mediums, real and fake, rather than a practical guide. To me, a practical guide is something you can use step by step to accomplish something. Doors to Other Worlds does give a pretty good survey of various kinds of "mediums," table lifters, channelers, floor bangers, christian revival chit readers, healers, and Oija boards. Some of the 19th century table lifters might have made the Las Vegas "magic" show circuit if they had lived today. Buckland says that there aren't any left because entertainment has moved on to electronic media.
I'm not sure who is being served by this book. Experienced mediums, witches and psychics might enjoy reading the history of mediumship, complete with pictures of many 19th century spiritualists. But for experienced mediums most of the "practical guide" instructions seem inane and useless. Also left out are many of the usual cautions that teachers of such arts generally include. For example students of talking boards such as the Oija are usually cautioned that you have no idea what spirit is guiding the message nor whether they are benevolent or malevolent. Likewise channeling students are often cautioned, "Just because someone is dead it doesn't mean that they are smart." Buckland seems to assume that every message received from spirits is valuable and somehow worthwhile.
As a practical guide for beginners it's overly simplistic and glosses over much of the detailed practice, study, and training that one has to go through before someone can do the kind of things described. Unless someone is born with a special gift, say for levitating tables, and who among us are, this "practical guide" contains little or nothing by way or guidance in how to really go about it. Likewise automatic writing doesn't just happen by holding a pen while not paying attention. I found very little of practical value or guidance that could be used as a "practical guide" if the subtitle suggests step by step instruction on how to accomplish any of the things described. If anything was given it was the description of how some of these "readings" might be faked. I was left more with skepticism of the mediums than convinced in their authenticity.
I did find the history of mediumship interesting and the survey of many psychic techniques worth the time spent reading the book.
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