Magic

[AnimalRescue]

Do you guys believe people have the ability of magic, whatever kind. For a while i was watching sports picking a team to win and i was almost always right. I sat and watched the game and tested out control over fate. lets say for basketball i would just believe i could make the outcome of the play be more succesful, like offensive shooting and defensively stopping the other team from making it. I could feel when my energy was positive or negative. When it was negative i didnt work as well, but when i was positive and calm they would make high percantage of shots. A decent amount of buzzer beaters and always winning unless i get tired or unfocused from all the enrgy usage. You think magic like this exists?

[Annuvin]

I believe in Aleister Crowley's definition of magic as any act of will come into being. However, I don't believe you can outwardly influence a sporting event using the power of your mind alone, anymore than you could create men out of mushrooms. If you are interested in this topic, I suggest Crowley's "Magic: In Theory and Practice", Sir James George Frazer's "The Golden Bough" and Phil Hine's "Condensed Chaos".

[Chango]

I think the power really lies in belief.

Our whole personal reality is not actually objective reality, but a model of an assumed objective world that our brain has assembled from various sensory stimuli and past experience. If we can control/alter that model consciously, our reality is changed.


Ritual, meditation and ceremony helps put the mind into an altered mental state which allows us to alter that mental model (and therefore our very perception). Casting a "magical spell" or performing an occult ritual is really no different that participating in a religious ceremony or praying... or even unknowingly taking a placebo drug... and why they only "work" when the practicioner believes. So at first glace, it would be easy to say it's all in our heads, since by default everything we are is already "all in our heads".

Now to the big question... can we really change the "real" world with our minds? That depends on whether or not our world is truly "real".... a question science cannot yet answer. Even Stephen Hawking admits in The Grand Design that physics cannot determine objective reality truly exists, but since there is no other alternative, we must operate on the assumption that it is.

Anway, yes... sometimes "magic" works.

[reed067]

Yes I do. However I believe that magick is natural NOT supernatural & a byproduct of the natural universe. I also believe in the spark of intelligence/ consciousness & that the universe is alive & expanding. I furthermore believe that the universe is able to interact with us. With that said I think it's possible that we can work with our surroundings towards a common goal. One last thing just like anything else it takes faith to make it happen.

[OwlKaMyst]

I believe in 'magic' in the form of manifestation, some call it the Law of Attraction.
Part of doing a magic spell is forming the desire and focusing on it for a period of time.
Like prayer, meditation, etc. The power of though, when accompanied with the right feelings is quite powerful. Right now I'm watching a friends dream unfold in amazing ways and at a rate so fast he's trying to keep up. And as days go by, the deal just gets better and better.

[Icy Tea]

I think that the belief and practice of magic is the attempt to exert control or dominance over reality, or to find a lacking sense of empowerment. I basically write off 95% of it as just wishful thinking. Prayer might be like that but you're aiming for a higher power.