Stolen Lightning: The Social Theory of Magic

This book is the closest thing I've found yet to a coherent history of human mysticism. While it certainly isn't an easy read for the layman (at least not this layman), the citations alone are worth owning this book. A good attempt to set out a theory and history without getting too bogged down in mumbo-jumbo, although there is indeed jargon aplenty. Bring your thesaurus.

I haven't finished reading this book yet, but I have to agree with the previous reviewer, this is a great book, but it gets a bit too technical for me. This is one book that I would love to have in an electronic format, just so I could easily look up words as I go, and I pride myself on having a pretty good vocabulary!

Worse (for me) than the obscure words though is the obfuscating language - I'm including a sentence from the first chapter that struck me as particularly hard to understand exactly what the author was trying to get across.

"In addition, insofar as certain sciences are constructivist, insofar as they consist in a continuous agreement to agree that we have agreed in the Wittgenstein sense and insofar as they constitute a show more "technique" in the Ellul sense which has a "self-fulfilling" effect, the gulf between magic and science and hence between magical and praxis action is not always that great."

Of course, it also has many more sentences that make perfect sense when read through the first time, so don't let this one scare you off. show less

Did not review when first read.