1. Short lessons on occultism and presumed psychic phenomena.
2. Learning simple conjuring tricks whose principles are similar to those used by   occult and psychic charlatans--individuals falsely claiming supernatural help for their "miraculous" demonstrations.
3. Having students--individually or in groups--research one or more occult art or   "psychic" happening using a naturalistic (non-mysterious) perspective.
4. Evaluating the reliability of sources and data used.

Thinking About the "Mysterious" includes a 32 page Student Text, a 43 page Teacher's Manual and a 75 page paperback called Skeptoon: An Illustrated Look at Some New Age Beliefs.

The Student Text has three main parts; "The Occult," "The Psychics," and a third devoted to calendar study. The last is a history lesson on how our calendar came into being.   "Cosmic significance" that students may associate with 2000 A.D., for instance, drains away as they learn of the many human decisions that, over the centuries, have caused our calendar to be as it is. (See Note below.)

The Teachers' Manual includes a dozen simple conjuring demonstrations along with recommended unit procedures, evaluation instruments, single-page readings and procedures whereby students can evaluate the information they secure from printed and computer sources.

Skeptoon is a 75 page illustrated paperback with short statements on 21 topics such as "Astral Travel" "Channeling," "Crystals," "Firewalking," "Numerology," "Palmistry" and "Ouija." The entries are a starting point for student research. The author, Harry Edwards, points students toward intellectual understanding without dictating answers.   Providing rational explanations is a student's task.