The work was launched with the encouragement of the anthropologist, Professor Louis Marin,[2][3] who in his preface to the book stressed its "scholarly accuracy" and "real contribution to knowledge".

There are also personal accounts of, for instance, Shah's training under a Ju-Ju witch doctor, a demonstration of Hindu levitation, and translations of what were considered secret alchemical and magical formulae.

The author tracks distortions from original sources, winnows fact from supposition, allows for alternative explanations of phenomena, such as physiological and psychological responses which are separate from the apparent "magic", and shows how much dross has accumulated around many of the practices he inspects.

Time & Tide, a general circulation weekly, said it was "a most interesting collection of facts concerning magical practices and their history", with "an admirable bibliography" and also ... "heaped with various jewels" ... [which] "should provide a rich source of data for psychologists, anthropologists and psychical research".

[4] In a review in the Journal of Bible and Religion (1958), Swami Akhilananda of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society in Boston, Massachusetts, wrote that Shah had been "the first to write on Oriental Magic as it is presented in this fascinating book.

"[5] He praised the breadth of the book's coverage, noting that it covered many different religious traditions, and commented on the fact that Shah had evidently travelled widely to collect his source material.