Since the time of Galileo (1564—1642), Western civilization has increasingly fallen under the spell of science. Despite this fact, anthropological and psychological research has shown that magical beliefs are present in both children and adults in modern Western industrial cultures. How can a belief in magic coexist with a belief in science in the mind of a rational, educated adult? A possible explanation is that magical beliefs survive in the rational mind by going into the subconscious. Experiments examining this hypothesis will be reviewed; theoretical and practical implications of the existence of subconscious magical beliefs in modern rational adults will be analyzed.

In this article the authors, without setting a special aim of the comparative analysis of the history and current state of the Russian and English pre-school and primary education (in England schooling starts at 4 years age, in Russia – at 6-7 years age), describe the logic of the transition from pre-school to the school education system, analyzing how, by whom and by what professional organisations in England psychological problems of transition are solved.