By Andrew Boyd
Marshall Pickering. 250 pages. £7.99
ISBN 0 00 627811 6
This disconcerting and haunting book is not a compulsive read - the information it offers is too unpleasant for that. The stories in it, offered as anecdotal evidence for the heavy involvement of the new generation in all forms of the occult, could I suppose be found elsewhere. However, the setting of this information is unusual. Although the writer professes holding to conventional, standard Christian teaching, he expresses opinions held by teachers, parents and social workers from a broad belief base. This is, in my opinion, a strength of the book.
Dangerous Obsessions sets its own demanding agenda. It says: 'No book could provide definitive proof that occult practices do or do not work. What matters to us is whether the attempt to find out can be harmful to young, impressionable people.' It then sets this list of questions:
* Is the so-called power of the occult simply the power of personal conviction?
* Does the ability to effect change go beyond the power of personal conviction?
* Where is the seat of that power?
* What is its source?
* Is it a psychological, scientific, or a spiritual reality?
To answer these questions, Andrew Boyd, with great expertise, explains the occult fascination and goes into each official explanation for it; rational, quasi-scientific, quasi-religious. He then looks at the religious dimension and at the warnings against occult dabbling from doctors and from occultists themselves.
The rest of the book takes, chapter by chapter, the various coats which the occult wears from astrology to ritual abuse, from the ouija boards to the New Age movement - and many more besides. In each chapter, the occult activity is described, narrative illustrates the dangers and comment is made by professional people involved in rehabilitation.
Boyd makes it very clear when he is speaking from a clear Christian perspective and when he is giving evidence from a secular source.
For me, the appendices were the clinching argument. Not only were the questionnaires as thorough as we would expect from Dr. Leslie Francis, but their analysis which follows is careful, methodical and does not set out simply to prove an argument. Altogether a harrowing book, whatever your experience and probably one which should become required reading for today's youth and children's leaders.
