ABOUT THIS EPISODE
What if the biggest problem with explaining magic is the question we keep asking: “How does it work?”
In this episode, I explore Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy and what happens when we stop imagining reality as a collection of separate objects and instead understand it as a web of events, relations and processes of becoming.
We examine actual occasions, prehension, causal efficacy and the “fallacy of misplaced concreteness”, asking what these concepts might contribute to the philosophy of magic. Along the way, I consider ritual perception, participatory thinking, egregores and spirits, Tanya Luhrmann’s anthropology of presence, Stanley Tambiah’s theory of participation, and the important differences between Whiteheadian process theology and Iamblichus’ theurgy.
Does process philosophy prove that magic works? No. But it may expose some of the hidden metaphysical assumptions that make magic appear impossible before the evidence is even considered.
If you are interested in magic, Western esotericism, occult philosophy, ritual theory and the academic study of religion, this episode offers a rigorous alternative to both pseudo-quantum explanations and simplistic psychological reductionism.
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