WITNESS TO WITCHCRAFT; Harry Wright, 1st/1st 1957 — MAGIC WITCHCRAFT VOODOO
Witness to Witchcraft by Harry B. Wright — 1st Edition / 1st Printing, 1957 — Magic, Shamans, Voodoo, Witchcraft, Head Hunters
Publisher: Funk and Wagnalls, New York (1957)
The boards and binding are solid and tight save for slight shelf-wear and light fading to the boards. The pages are crisp and clean, and free of interior markings. 246 pages, with black-and-white photographs. “Dr. Wright, a Philadelphia orthodontist with a flair for exploring and adventure, traversed the jungles of South America, Africa and Oceanic to investigate ‘primitive’ modes of healing and witchcraft. Surprisingly, many techniques considered pre-scientific are validated by sound principles of western psychology. Successful healing for both mind and body ailments is largely based upon an implicit faith in the technician. The amazing and horrifying events which one may witness in New Guinea or Brazil may be explained by the absolute and complete character of the faith conferred by the subjects upon their technicians. It is not unusual to see death initiated by a command or group pressure, love aroused by suggestion, and sickness cured and induced by verbal trickery. Dr. White narrates as an observer and doesn’t profess to a scientific grasp of all the mysteries which confront him: a curious type of inter village communication issued not by drums but faster than man can travel (extra- perception?); strange things in connection with the death of a Dutch colonial and colloquial ideas about snakes; the Society of Leopards – these irregularities compel him to agree that ‘there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy'”.
