Crystal Gazing
Northcote W. Thomas · 1905
5.0 · 8 ratings
About the book
An anthropologist takes scrying seriously enough to study it: the history of the speculum from Egypt onward, the recorded cases, and instructions for experimenting yourself. Andrew Lang writes the introduction and hedges exactly as much as a Victorian gentleman should.
Try the short course
Part 1 · Two ways of refusing to look. The first six slides, free.
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A Welsh clergyman once told a visiting folklorist, with some pride, that his parishioners were not superstitious. There were no ghosts in his parish.
Half an hour later the guest asked the village schoolchildren where a bwggan, the local spook, could be seen. There was not a child in the school who couldn't put him on the track of one.
Thomas opens his book with this story for a reason. The clergyman had not looked; he had decided. Declaring a thing absent is not the same as finding out, and a whole educated class had taken exactly his position on crystal gazing: nothing there, because nothing could be there.
Inside the course
12 parts- Superstition and incredulity — two ways of not lookingFree above
- Vision and visions: what the eye contributes
- Crystal visions, catalogued like specimens
- The speculum, and the method of using it
Questions
Is Crystal Gazing free to read in Astra Trainer?
Yes. The full book opens free in the app’s reader, in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Russian.
What is the short course?
12 short parts that walk through the book’s key ideas in slides, each with a quick quiz. The first six slides are free to try on this page.
Where do I get the app?
Astra Trainer is free on the App Store and Google Play. Crystal Gazing is waiting in the app’s library.
