Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
Real Magic: The Scientific Evidence for the Reality of Magic

Real Magic: The Scientific Evidence for the Reality of Magic

Last updated on: September 9, 2018 at 3:00 am by John Beckett

Real Magic: The Scientific Evidence for the Reality of Magic 2018-09-03T17:06:07-06:00 John Beckett

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe

by Dean Radin, PhD
trade paperback: $12.80, kindle: $11.99
published by Harmony, April 2018
272 pages

Read some of the popular books on magic and witchcraft from the 1960s and 1970s and you’ll see an attitude of optimism. The authors were sure that science was just a few years away from proving the reality of magic – all we needed was a little more research.

What research we got was denied, ridiculed, and suppressed. Part of this was because the whole idea of magic is heresy to institutional science, with its strong materialist worldview. But part was because the research results couldn’t easily be monetized or weaponized.

Still, research has consistently shown that there’s something there.

Real Magic

Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe is a new book by Dean Radin, PhD. It presents case after case of experimental evidence that magic is real. The fact that it is not turning the scientific establishment upside down isn’t because it’s fraudulent or lacks scientific rigor, but because what it proves can’t be easily exploited for profit.

Dean Radin’s biography is impressive. He has bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts and a PhD in psychology from the University of Illinois. Those are top-notch degrees from top-notch schools. He’s worked at AT&T Bell Labs, Princeton University, and the University of Edinburgh. He is currently the Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), where he conducts the research that forms the foundation for his books The Conscious Universe (1997), Entangled Minds (2006), Supernormal (2013), and now Real Magic (2018).

Radin says real magic falls into three categories: “mental influence of the physical world, perception of events distant in space or time, and interactions with nonphysical entities.” He calls these “force of will” “divination” and “theurgy” – even though he approaches them from a strictly non-religious viewpoint.

Consciousness is fundamental

At the core of Radin’s exploration of magic is the question of consciousness – how is it that we and many (most? all?) other creatures are aware of our surroundings and our lives?

What is consciousness, where does it come from, and what’s its purpose?

No one knows.

Materialism says that consciousness is simply a product of the brain. But this remains an assumption, not a scientific finding – and one that evidence indicates is not a particularly solid assumption.

Radin makes a very different proposition: it is consciousness, not matter, that is fundamental to the universe. He quotes neuroscientist Christof Koch: “Consciousness is really physics from the inside. Seen from the inside, it’s experience. Seen from the outside, it’s what we know as physics, chemistry, and biology.”

Radin lists seven common ways to understand the relationship between consciousness and physical reality. Three of them say magic is impossible or unlikely. Three say magic is highly possible. One says magic must exist. Which one is right? We don’t know.

Yet.

Scientific evidence

The greatest value of this book is Chapter 6 “Scientific Evidence.” It’s a detailed but still readable description of some (though far from all) of Dr. Radin’s experiments and their results. He divides his experiments into six categories: telepathy, remote viewing, presentiment (reaction to future events), precognition, random number generators, and the Global Consciousness Project (which compares the output of random number generators during events of global interest, like terrorist attacks).

One of my favorites is the “blessed chocolate” experiment, where people were given chocolate that may or may not have been blessed by Buddhist monks, in a controlled double-blind setting. The results showed that eating the blessed chocolate instead of the ordinary chocolate improved the subjects’ mood, with the odds against chance of 24 to 1. Proof? No. Evidence? Yes.

A similar experiment compared plant growth using blessed and non-blessed water. This time the results were far stronger – the odds against chance were 38 trillion to one. That’s almost certainty.

Professional scientists should understand that. Unfortunately – but not unsurprisingly – Dr. Radin has had trouble getting his research published in major scientific journals. This is a problem with the scientific establishment.

When a scientist or journal editor declares that something is impossible and must be stopped, even in the face of supporting experimental evidence, then we’re no longer dealing with science.

Like history, science often advances one funeral at a time.

Belief matters

I can’t remember how many times I’ve said that magic doesn’t depend on belief, it depends on action. Dr. Radin’s research says I’m wrong, at least to a certain extent. “Poorer remote viewing performance was associated with lower levels of belief, and better performance with higher levels of belief.” This correlates with anecdotal evidence Gordon White talks about occasionally on his Rune Soup podcast: cultures where magic was never “explained away” have more and better magical and spiritual encounters than those of us in the West.

Still, while a lack of belief will hinder your magic, it won’t completely drown it. And it may very well be that simply beginning that first spell is belief enough to get you started.

If you need more belief, read this book and follow where the evidence leads.

Practical applications

The evidence is overwhelming that there’s something to magic. The problem is that what that something is seems to be rather weak.

Another experiment asked 12 professional mediums to look at pictures and determine if the person was dead or alive, again in a very controlled setting. Their accuracy was 53.8% – 50% is what you’d expect from guessing. That’s not much, until you look at the statistics, which show that the odds against chance were 250 to 1. The professional mediums were definitely better than chance, but not a lot better.

Magic is real but it’s weak, so it can’t be monetized or weaponized on a large scale. That’s a good thing. The Army got some interesting results from their remote viewing program, but it wasn’t detailed enough or consistent enough to help them defeat the Russians, so the program was abandoned.

That’s understandable – if something has no great practical applications why would anyone invest time and energy in studying it? Except, we’re dumping billions and billions of dollars into projects like CERN with no expected payoff except an increase in knowledge. So why not put a few million into researching magic and consciousness?

Because confirming obscure theories of physics supports a materialistic worldview, and confirming the reality of magic and the primacy of consciousness challenges it. And the gatekeepers are strict materialists.

[Lest there be any misunderstanding: I support funding CERN and other scientific research with little opportunity for practical applications. I just want non-materialistic science research funded too.]

Implications for Pagans

While my religion is a magical religion, it remains first and foremost a religion: a set of beliefs and practices designed to build and maintain relationships with my highest virtues and values, and with many other persons, some of whom are human and some of whom are not.

This book changes none of that. Radin touches on angels, demons, fae, and other spiritual beings, but then says “the jury is still out.”

My hesitation doesn’t mean that such entities don’t exist. It just means that we don’t have methods yet that can strictly discriminate between psi effects in the living and independent, disembodied intelligences.

Nothing in the evidence he presents or the theories he proposes rule out the possibility of the many Gods, so I see no conflict between my Paganism and his science of magic.

And I see plenty of evidence that continuing my magical studies and practice is a worthwhile endeavor.

Dean Radin on podcasts

Want to hear Dr. Radin discuss his book and the research behind it? Here are three interviews he did earlier this year. I’ve heard them all and I recommend them.

Rune Soup

Skeptiko

The Higherside Chats

Addendums

1) For those who care about such things, I bought my copy of Real Magic. I don’t know Dean Radin at all and while after reading his book I wish him great success with it, if I thought it wasn’t worth reading, I’d say so.

2) One of Isaac Bonewits’ early books (1971) is also titled Real Magic. Isaac was one of the magicians who expected scientists to eventually confirm his beliefs about magic, if they’d ever get past their materialistic biases. Dr. Radin mentions Isaac’s book as an example of how some practicing magicians have addressed the connections between psi and magic.

3) Note to commenters: I do not insist you read the book before commenting, though I recommend it. I do insist that you engage the material presented in this review. Comments that dismiss Dr. Radin’s research out of hand will be dismissed from this blog without warning.

Previous Post

September 6, 2018

Preparing For Pilgrimage

Next Post

September 11, 2018 Enough With the Mabon Hate!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Books Community CUUPS Druidry Foundations and Context Gods and Goddesses Magic Myth Nature Ritual Spiritual Practice Theology Travel Uncategorized Videos

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In the Lord's Prayer, what do Christians ask for daily?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Riches Fame Long life Daily bread