From the dust cover:
A sorcerer mumbles a spell over a photograph of a seriously ill girl, and she is cured. Another sorcerer sticks pins in a wax doll, and his distant victim screams. Preposterous? Certainly that's what we were taught, but a mass of evidence has accumulated suggesting that we were wrong, that these things may occur, and occur in accordance with rationally determined principles. In this persuasively argued book, J. Finley Hurley gives serious consideration to the possibility that old-fashioned strike-dead-and-blind sorcery is a reality.

The power to influence the thoughts, dreams and actions of others at great distance is one of the oldest 'facts of nature' known to man, and this book gives a clear exposition of why we should regard sorcery as a very real phenomenon. It shows that old-fashioned sorcery, the casting of spells that heal or kill, can be a rational and effective procedure in harmony with the modern, scientific world-view. A few scientists have recognized this, but their evidence has never been treated in detail--until this book.

It draws from scientific studies in many areas--perception, creativity, biofeedback, dreams, telepathy, psychosomatic reactions--to marshal the fascinating case histories and experiments that put sorcery in a surprisingly modern perspective. Without abandoning rationality, the reader can understand how a spell is cast and why it works: the implications are absorbing and perhaps frightening.