Dear Goanetters and Goa Book Club members As some of you may know, Prof Lee Siegel, Professor of Religion at the University of Hawaii, wrote a book on Indian hypnosis including Abbe Faria,, which has just been published by the prestigious University of Chicago Press and is available in paperback from Amazon India for Rs. 761.00.
Prof Siegel was in Goa a while back to do research for the book and imagined Abbe Faria as a child in the late 18th century. He read up on everything written by the Abbe and on him. He met everyone who had done any work on him and even pretended to be a hypnotist himself giving two bogus performances at the Casa da Moeda and at the Internationa Centre. with the help of a co-conspirator. The result is an intriguing, informative and hilarious account that if nothing else, will make the Abbe better known among those who had never heard of him. Most of the section on the Abbe can be read online through the link below Luis http://books.google.co.in/books?id=nC-OBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq#v= onepage&q&f=false