David Abram

Abram, author of the book, includes his own experiences within the philosophical inquiry he has penned. A slight-of-hand-magician, Abram helped pay his college tuition bills by performing in clubs and restaurants. He spent months in London, England using sleight-of-hand magic in psychotherapy, working with patients unable to communicate by usual clinical methods. This work propelled his inquiry into magic, traditional medicine and the animate natural world. He includes experiences witnessed while living in Bali and Asia to highlight communities and individuals living with connections to the natural world.

Returning to the United States, Abram finds he quickly loses his ability to communicate with the natural world, and this sets up his quest—both intellectual and sensual—of how to understand human disengagement from the natural world and their circuitous journey within themselves. Spell of the Sensuous chronicles his inquiry, thesis, goals, thought processes and yearning to...