What do you think?
Rate this book
Exploring the World of Psychic Powers: How Hypnotism and Spiritualism can Affect your Life
"We live in a sick world," Dr Fernando Chaij writes. "Every day more and more illness afflicts mankind. But the alarming fact is that the greater number of the diseases oppressing humanity do not have an exclusively or fundamentally organic origin. Instead, they are functional. Having no known physical cause, they result from emotional problems or from the tensions of modern life." Some men and women cease struggling with today's tensions. They use suicide as a final escape. But others seek relief in forces that some of us may be only dimly aware of.
Dr Chaij explores the strange story of two of these forces: hypnotism and psychic phenomena. Many have promoted hypnotism as a therapeutic aid for emotional illnesses and as a remarkable substitute for anesthetics in surgery and dentistry. But is it really a medical miracle tool? Does it actually work? And does it have dangers more threatening than the problem it seeks to cure or relieve?
Since the unusual experiences of the late Bishop James A Pike and his wife, both before and after his death in an Israeli desert, the world has increasingly become aware of psychic phenomena. Are they real or just hoaxes? What are the forces that lurk just beyond our senses? Are they friendly or hostile?
In this book Dr Chaij reveals the answers to these questions and lets the reader see the true nature of forces that many have considered as only folklore or superstition.
Dr Chaij explores the strange story of two of these forces: hypnotism and psychic phenomena. Many have promoted hypnotism as a therapeutic aid for emotional illnesses and as a remarkable substitute for anesthetics in surgery and dentistry. But is it really a medical miracle tool? Does it actually work? And does it have dangers more threatening than the problem it seeks to cure or relieve?
Since the unusual experiences of the late Bishop James A Pike and his wife, both before and after his death in an Israeli desert, the world has increasingly become aware of psychic phenomena. Are they real or just hoaxes? What are the forces that lurk just beyond our senses? Are they friendly or hostile?
In this book Dr Chaij reveals the answers to these questions and lets the reader see the true nature of forces that many have considered as only folklore or superstition.
223 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 2, 2019
I wasn't expecting much from this book when I picked it up, but it peaked my curiosity as it described the details of hypnosis and spiritualism. The numerous experiments and cases cited encourages the imagination to go wild with possibilities and interpretations.
It was all enticingly mysterious until I saw that he quotes Ellen G. White; I then Googled his name to discover that he was a Seventh-day Adventist author (I, myself, am a Seventh-day Adventist). From that point (at around chapter 10), my stereotypical prejudice kicked in against him.
In chapter 10, the book takes on a highly religious tone instead of a scientific one. It emphatically uses the Bible as a source of incontestable truth, it becomes more exclusively contentious against spiritualism and hypnosis, and begins prioritizing the message of the Gospel in each chapter.
It begins to sound more like a Christian book rather than an objective analysis. Not that there's anything wrong with it, it all depends on what you are looking for.
Overall the book achieved both pretty well, though the shift was defintely abrupt (it's in chapter ten).
Other than that, I gave a low rating because in some parts it reads as if it was written hastily for a doctoral dissertation or something; repeating quotes too often and (I'm pretty sure he was) referring to himself as "the author".
Despite any of it, it was a book I truly enjoyed and, though I may be skeptical of his sources, I can honestly say I learned some very valuable things from it.
It was all enticingly mysterious until I saw that he quotes Ellen G. White; I then Googled his name to discover that he was a Seventh-day Adventist author (I, myself, am a Seventh-day Adventist). From that point (at around chapter 10), my stereotypical prejudice kicked in against him.
In chapter 10, the book takes on a highly religious tone instead of a scientific one. It emphatically uses the Bible as a source of incontestable truth, it becomes more exclusively contentious against spiritualism and hypnosis, and begins prioritizing the message of the Gospel in each chapter.
It begins to sound more like a Christian book rather than an objective analysis. Not that there's anything wrong with it, it all depends on what you are looking for.
Overall the book achieved both pretty well, though the shift was defintely abrupt (it's in chapter ten).
Other than that, I gave a low rating because in some parts it reads as if it was written hastily for a doctoral dissertation or something; repeating quotes too often and (I'm pretty sure he was) referring to himself as "the author".
Despite any of it, it was a book I truly enjoyed and, though I may be skeptical of his sources, I can honestly say I learned some very valuable things from it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review