Review of Illusions and Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult.

Reviews the book, Illusions and Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult by D. H. Rawcliffe. The author describes in some detail different kinds of better known occult, spiritualistic, and psychic practices and phenomena, and then proceeds to demonstrate that most of these, if not all, can be understood in terms of “psychological automatism, suggestion, hypnosis, hallucination, neurosis, hysteria, functional malady, sensory hyperacuity, delusion, fraud, prestidigitation, and Limitless credulity.” On the whole, the author has done a creditable job in illuminating the vast and dark field of the occult and in so doing has provided his reader with a bill that is both entertaining and edifying.