4 out of 5 stars.

I will admit, this took me a "longer than usual" time to finish this book. I am not normally a fast reader however this book had a lot of information, and went in to a lot of detail and describing research and subsequent results, that I really wanted to take my time, to truly read and digest and understand. As someone who follows a pagan belief system, magic is an integral part of my path, so it is interesting to come upon a book that tackles it from a scientific viewpoint, and does so by not only the author's own exhaustive study however also turning to works by other respected individuals. There were times when tbe information on certain aspects were intensive, and I had to go back and re-read something, to really get a strong grasp of what he was trying to explain.

Overall this book is well written and I would recommend it to those who would lime to expand their understanding of magic - and other esoteric "practices" - with a more scientific backing. I will state this, especially for those who may be looking at it as a reference for their pagan/magic reading list: while I would strongly recommend this, I would state that the reader already have a very solid understanding of magic (i.e. cause and effect, fundamentals of how it works, etc ) before reading this. This - in my honest opinion - is not a beginner's level book.

In closing I wish to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley the opportunity of allowing me to read this book! I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Interesting premise but too much description. I guess I didn't really want that much in-depth information in this book.. I felt it was well written and researched and gives a lot of information.

Dean Radin wants to take the "woo woo" away from discussions of magic. He does this very handily in Real Magic. Using the language of science and mathematics, he shows how the principles of magic are being legitimately studied.
His overview of esoteric ideas and famous practitioners was very helpful for putting his ideas into context. The wide variety of sources he drew from, particularly in the sections regarding a larger consciousness, were compelling.
I wasn't sure what to expect from Real Magic. I am delighted that it was an intellectually stimulating, well reasoned argument about what magic is, and what it could be in the future.

Some really interesting ideas here, and new ways of looking at old ideas, too. Not sure that I am able to swallow everything without some further thought, but definitely some things to think about here.

Real Magic gives us a scientific look at how magic happens and the studies of its reality.

I loved this book. I found myself highlighting so many portions and sharing what I'd learned with friends who share an interest in this stuff. The author explains the history of magic and people who have claimed to practice it, people who were just doing what they felt right and were accused of practicing it, and everything in between. The author discusses the scientific findings to support what we call magic, while also debunking the MANY who claim to practice it. It was just a really balanced book. I think in a way, the title misleads people to think this is solely a metaphysical "self-help" book, which it is so much more. In fact, I didn't even read it for that part. I read it, and enjoyed it, for the history lesson. If you're into peeking behind the curtain in all things magical, I highly suggest you read this book.

A well written overview and history of magic. There were times were the author felt less than objective, but all in all he seemed to approach his study in a scientific way.

Radin is a PSI scientist. He runs experiments testing whether different aspects of PSI are legit.
This book mostly answers the question of "How Much of Magic is Real", both using his research and that of his peers. Although the title promises otherwise, their isn't much how-to do magic content here. While there are exercises scattered about (this book encouraged me to try a sigil), they didn't feel like the focus of the book

An interesting book about magic. This book begins with anecdotal evidence of magic, moves on to give pointers in manifestation and supports the idea of magic through experimentation. There were some fascinating tidbits in here. But, overall, too much reliance on the scientific method which I didn’t find personally compelling.

Not my cup of tea. Wasn't expecting (from blurb and cover) the academic jargon. By refusing to use magic with a k without giving enough context. A man telling me to go through all my trauma from the start and re-live it bit by bit (painfully) was incredibly terrifying. Didn't even acknowledge that there are OTHER ways to energy clear where you don't have to re-live your trauma. Just bad all around!

There are few books this well grounded upon the solid world of science while giving proper consideration to the world of magic. Dean Radin PHD has written an incredible and insightful work that every practitioner of magic should read.

If we go back in time far enough most of what we consider everyday technology and scientific fact would have been seen as fantasy or the supernatural. "Real Magic" gives us a glimpse into what well may be a future when our understanding of the universe becomes common science. By looking at the evidence from a practical no nonsense perspective Dr. Radin provides us with reason to see beyond belief into a future where proof may well become common fact.

As a practicing traditional witch I have experienced the truth of magic, intention and the human natural ability to do far more than our mundane 21st century definitions of "real" provide for. As a strong advocate of fact and science, "Real Magic" helped demonstrate how far we have already come towards demonstrating empirical proof of the existence and veracity of magic as a natural part of the human experience.

For most practitioners of magic, we are not looking for validation of what we already know to be true, but it is incredibly refreshing to see validation put into print and so eloquently and academically demonstrated as Dr. Radin has done here.

I will be including this book as required reading for my witchcraft courses. It will challenge students to look not only to their belief in magic, but to explore the supporting evidence for magic.

This book is very well written, engaging and inspires the reader to look beyond the available books on our traditions to open and explore books and information from the scientific community.

I hope to see more from Dr. Radin and a great deal more books exploring the intersection of magic where belief and science become one and we begin to understand the nature of being human even more.

Real Magic contends that a variety of psychic phenomenons are real magic. The book shows there is truth in this statement and in the phenomenons themselves.
The book details a variety of studies that show quantifiable evidences of esp, clairvoyance, etc. Coming from a background of scientific method, most are sound as a beginning experiment and the experiments continue to grow to removing some of the complaints from the earlier experiments. These experiments show the merit of these phenomeons and the study of them. In fact, the book shows experiment that prove already determined psychological variables. The "sheep-goat" hypothesis is that believers will see more psi response and those who don't won't. This has been proved many times over in all areas of belief in psychological study and is referred to as biases. This shows that the researchers are well aware of such an important biases in their experiments.
I have two issues with the book as a whole. The first is that the first two-thirds of the book spends its time trying to make the argument that these experiences ae real and quantifiable. While the descriptions of this can be called magic, using the terms lessens the scientific side of it. There is aa discussion that woo-woo is not widely accepted. While I believe it can be scientific and respected calling it magic doesn't really help in the scientific world. The second is that the last third of the book gets more philosophical and light leaving behind the scientific side. Which like my first issues, confuses me of the intent. Does Radin want this as science or not? Or is he trying to bring in the "woo-woo" side into the scientific view.
FYI: I looked up the research article mentioned in the book that was retracted. Radin and a team created an experiment to see if psychics could tell if someone was alive or dead. A variety of ages, genders, and races were converted into black and white photos and shown to the psychics. Half of the pool of pictures were alive and the other half dead. Psychics were able say the outcome at only slightly better than chance. From reading about it, it seemed like a start for a further rigorous study. It was published in a journal but was later retracted with out the authors given concise answers on the reasons why. After reading the article, the only thing I found objectionable is that it did not meet the hypothesis of the paper: it claimed that there was a facial characteristic that would predict morality. The experiments does not do this at all. I am assuming this was a scientific "beard" because they were worried they would not be published if they centered too much on the clairvoyance part.
Psi activities are always of interest to me. I believe there is something we don't know yet and many of these experiences are real (though I don't believe they are anything like you see in the movies).

Just fascinating! This was such a great scientific explanation of things we usually think of as supernatural. Radin does a great job of explaining how thinks like clairvoyance, ghosts and telekinesis exist and can be proven scientifically, not just anecdotally. It will arm any believers with persuasive arguments to make to those scoffers and skeptics.