cover image Life Magic: The Renowned Psychic Healer Shares Her 7 Keys to Finding Your Power and Living Your Purpose

Life Magic: The Renowned Psychic Healer Shares Her 7 Keys to Finding Your Power and Living Your Purpose

Laura Bushnell. Miramax Books, $22.95 (260pp) ISBN 978-1-4013-5227-1

For middle-aged Harry Potter wannabes, Bushnell's concept of life magic-a kind of personal wisdom or enlightenment-comes complete with a ""symbolic"" wand to assist in the wizardry of fixing life. Bushnell, a lifelong clairvoyant and psychic who has been dubbed ""the magic lady"" by children, outlines seven keys to unlocking one's magical self. With unending enthusiasm made obvious by the profusion of exclamation points, she draws from a range of religious resources and practices, including the chakras, Kabbalah, and the Catholic notion of angels. But despite Bushnell's dips into a range of spiritual traditions, she lacks rigorous knowledge about spirituality. This is especially evident when she reveals her belief that ""spirituality"" and ""the supernatural"" are one and the same: ""Fifty years ago, a magical life would have been called supernatural. Now it is called spiritual."" One of her spiritual exercises requires readers to look at themselves in the mirror and say, ""you are an angel; it is so plain to see; you are an angel; yes, the angel is me!"" Bushnell may be the next ""psychic to the stars,"" but readers looking for new forms of spiritual enlightenment might best look elsewhere.