Witchcraft: Its Power in the World Today

by William B. Seabrook

This book details the author's views on psychology, parapsychology and the occult, and contains information about the author's meetings with a number of famous people.

Genres: Occult, Nonfiction

387 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

William Buehler Seabrook was a journalist and explorer whose interest in the occult lead him across the globe where he studied magic rituals, trained as a witch doctor, and famously ate human flesh, likening it to veal. Despite his studious accounts of magical practices, he insisted he had never seen anything which could not be explained rationally.

His book on witchcraft is notable for its thoughtful focus on arch-occultist Aleister Crowley, who stayed at Seabrook's home for a short time.

Reviews

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Willie Seabrook, Lost Generation raconteur, friend of Aleister Crowley and Gurdjieff, world traveler and a storyteller with the soul of a carnival barker, collects here some of the strangest incidents encountered in his strange life. Seabrook presents himself as a rationalist, so when he's talking about voodoo hexes, werewolves, vampires, or experiments in ESP, his premise is always that the power of suggestion and the infinite human capacity for self-deception are at the heart of the phenomenon. This approach does not keep the stories from being terrific yarns. Since Seabrook apparently knew many of the luminaries of the years between the wars, there are also guest appearances by people like Upton Sinclair and Aldous Huxley. Perhaps the most provocative chapters focus on Seabrook's experiments with his submissive mistress "Justine" in bondage and sensory deprivation intended to produce mystical states of mind. I won't spoil the story about the best evidence Seabrook finds for the reality of the supernatural, but it's huge fun.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting memoirs from an interesting life. Although the book title seems rather sensational and overly dramatic; the content actually taught me a lot about the power of the mind. In almost all the examples given the consensus was that if the perpetrator and victim both believe that what is happening is supernatural; what happens can sometimes seem supernatural. Seabrook claims he is taking an objective view on the findings in the book. Although this is true at times, there are instances where he most likely over exaggerated circumstances in the name of a good story. Regardless this book did have some good takeaways, particularly in the Appendix where many of the themes and stories are explained more objectively. The section about Alistair Crowley offered interesting insight into the world of the occult.

[David Kuhnlein · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Seabrook’s Witchcraft is an un-superstitious look at the power of witchcraft, dolls, vampires, shape-shifters, and more, albeit redundant in his plethora of examples of witnessed phenomena (or, more often, a lack of it). Seabrook recounting his meeting with a “panther-man” was especially enjoyable, who claimed he turned into a bloodthirsty panther after doing a particular dance. The village gathered to see the convicted panther-man executed by firing squad, since the lore claimed that at the moment of death he’d turn into a panther, but of course, to the surprise of everyone but Seabrook, after the rifle smoke had cleared there was nothing collapsed in the mud but the corpse of a tiny man.

Also included are juicy details of the famous murderess Elizabeth Bathory (a Hungarian accompanied Seabrook to translate original court documents), such as the prosecution keeping all mention of occult crimes out of the trial, focusing solely on the eighty-some girls that they could prove that the Countess and her associates had tortured and killed. In the final section of the book, Seabrook humanizes the mythical figures of Gurdjieff and Crowley with a tale or two. A must-read for anyone interested in any or all of the above.