In this episode, I speak with historian Sándor Chardonnens, specialist in medieval and early modern magic, spirit communication, and ritual practices. Together, we explore a world that once seemed entirely normal, but which modern society has largely dismissed. Sándor points out that a medieval person dropped into our world might find Bluetooth perfectly familiar, since invisible signals connecting things across distance make total sense to them, while something as mundane as a traffic jam could seem far stranger than any flying horse.
We explore what it meant to live in an enchanted cosmos where spirits, angels, rituals, and invisible forces formed part of everyday life. Rather than portraying medieval people as irrational or superstitious, Sándor shows how their worldview was remarkably coherent and integrated. We discuss why modern society separates knowledge from belief, science from religion, and why magic has become something we consume as entertainment rather than as a serious way of understanding reality. Along the way, we uncover surprising parallels between historical spirit communication and modern technologies such as artificial intelligence, including recent research comparing how people address a séance glass and how they talk to an AI assistant.
The conversation ultimately raises a deeper philosophical question: what do we mean when we call something real? If thoughts, consciousness, and emotions cannot be weighed or measured, why do we so easily dismiss other immaterial dimensions of human experience? Rather than asking whether magic is true, Sándor invites us to examine the assumptions that shape our own worldview, and to recognize that every age sees reality through its own set of glasses.
This conversation embodies the mission of MarcoToday. For centuries, ideas such as magic, alchemy, and astrology were part of mainstream intellectual life before they were pushed to the margins of serious inquiry. MarcoToday seeks to bring these forgotten traditions back into public conversation, not as unquestionable truths, but as valuable conversation partners that challenge the assumptions of science, philosophy, and religion alike — whether or not we believe in magic matters less than asking why it became impossible to take it seriously in the first place.
#magic #medievalhistory #enchantedworld #worldview #spirits #SándorChardonnens #esotericism
Explore Sándor’s work: ru.nl/personen/chardonnens-l
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