If This Be Magic

If This Be Magic centres on a 1951 medical case in which a young hospital doctor used hypnosis to treat a patient with a rare and debilitating skin disease. The apparent recovery was documented in the British Medical Journal and prompted debate about the relationship between mind and body.

Guy Lyon Playfair places the case within the longer history of hypnosis, including the healing work associated with Mesmer and the Marquis de Puységur. He examines research and medical literature on psychosomatic illness, while also considering claims of mind-to-mind communication and movement of matter without physical force. The book presents these subjects as contested areas of healing, evidence and medical understanding.