Psychic Self-Defense
I recently read Dion Fortune’s Psychic Self Defense: The Classic Instruction Manual for Protecting Yourself Against Paranormal Attack. I have a bit mixed emotions on this book. On the one hand it was a very fascinating read. This is pretty much a re-telling of her personal experiences with psychic attacks which are usually really fascinating reads regardless of who it is. On the other hand the book is slow and ominous. Slow moving reads tend to bore the snot out of me and so I felt like I was trudging through mud. Not to mention that Dion Fortune tends to be very wordy. Perhaps that is more related to when it was written and the influence of Crowley? The ominous feeling was pretty harsh in the beginning but eased up towards the end. I am not of the mindset that those with mental disorders can unknowingly psychically attack someone and that someone are unaware of such things happening. I have issues with that because given the fact that the majority of our current society has some sort of mental disorder (and I am including the un-diagnosed in that) everyone would be a victim every night. I also feel that by claiming people do it unknowingly seems to take away personal responsibility. And the “victims” aren’t aware means they aren’t able to protect themselves. Which then causes people to assume they have to protect themselves all the time with some sort of psychic saran wrap. So now we have people, most likely with mental disorders, without any personal responsibility and the rest of us paranoid to go to sleep at night just in case someone might accidentally psychically attack. WHEW! Who wants to live like that? Does that mean someone can’t accidentally psychically attack? No, I don’t think so. But it’s reserved for the few who are talented enough as well as with an extreme mental disorder. And it would have to be severely extreme.
It’s important for me to note that despite the title including “The Classic Instruction Manual”, it is not an instruction manual by far. There are some tidbits if you can read between the lines. But you are not getting step by step instruction as you would if you bought a brand new Blu-Ray player. Considering that this is a re-release of her book Psychic Self Defense that never included the words “classic instruction manual”, I feel that the publisher did a dis-service to what she is truly offering by including those words.
Overall this was an okay read. If you are a big fan of Dion Fortune you will probably enjoy wading through the thicket of verbage. If you are new to her, it’s not one I recommend. You would do best to prepare yourself for her writing style by reading some of her fictional works.
** Links to Weiser Books listing will be up as soon as Weiser Books website is up and running**
**Weiser Books sent me a copy for review. All opinions above are my own and are not swayed by Weiser Books in any way**
