1 Wonder and forms of reasoning: mind altering contexts

Interpreting spirituality within a constructivist framework is hampered by the varieties of meanings associated to "spirituality". Building on earlier work, I focus on recent work on emerging understandings of one subset of the spiritual domain- magical phenomena. Magic like spiritual phenomena enjoys multiple interpretations. Indeed, judging from the range of material available in bookshops, magic and spirituality each have a large following. In particular I examine forms of reasoning embodied in magical thinking. I hope that this emphasis on models of reasoning may help to facilitate conversations in domains where uncertainty reigns. A key element in my earlier papers was an individual’s relation to the uncertain or unknown: from our earliest moments a function of cognitive processing is to seek regularity. What counts as a legitimate cause seems a useful way to distinguish science, magic and religion because the criteria to decide this differ between the domains. Wonder arises when existing cognitive categories do not work on our experience. Key word