A fundamental study of magical beliefs from ancient times to the beginning of the last century, a pearl of the world literary heritage, a brilliant example of the pinnacle of human thought. Dr. Alfred Georg Lehmann (1858-1921), the famous Danish physiologist and psychologist, director of the psychophysical laboratory in Copenhagen, one of the pioneers of the scientific study of the psychological nature of superstitions, reveals the connections between magic, religion and science, talking about the ancient ways of understanding the world, common among the Chaldeans , Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Vikings, about astrology, alchemy, palmistry, arithmomancy, Hermeticism and Kabbalah. Dwelling in detail on the history of spiritualism, he highlights the main stages of its development and analyzes the reasons for the popularity of belief in spirits, prophetic dreams, telepathy and clairvoyance, and also presents in detail the teachings of such famous mystics and occultists as Emmanuel Swedenborg, Andrew Davis, Alfred Russell Wallace, William Crookes, Friedrich Zöllner, Helena Blavatsky and others. The multifaceted historical narrative is accompanied by numerous drawings and illustrations.