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On Magick and the forces of will | |
June 05th, 2018 | |
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christyotwisty [0] asked a question on Mastodon tonight: | |
[0] christyotwisty | |
Those who use #magick to #manifest a material desire: what is it | |
about the manifestation that tells you it's magick and not | |
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon? | |
There's a lot to unpack in her request and I want to do it | |
justice, hence why the answer is happening here on gopher rather | |
than in a 500 character toot. | |
I want to proceed logically. Taking to heart what Voltaire said, | |
"If you want to converse with me, first define your terms," I'll | |
attempt to do that now. | |
---------- Defining Terms ---------- | |
[1] Magick | |
The addition of the k to the end of magic has long been credited | |
to Aleister Crowley's Thelema to differentiate the occult practice | |
from stage magic and illusion. Since he coined the term I'll use | |
his definition here: "the Science and Art of causing Change to | |
occur in conformity with Will". | |
His definition was quite loose, and if you read his works you'll | |
see he uses the term interchangably to describe mundane acts, such | |
as like reaching out and picking up a pencil, along side ritual | |
magic which normally springs to mind. The idea that will can cause | |
any change in an object that it would be normally capable of in | |
nature is not surprising, then. With the right effort, anything | |
can be achieved. This line of thinking conflates and contrasts the | |
concepts of free will with destiny and leads to some... creative | |
conclusions. | |
For the purposes of this post I'm going to narrow Crowley's focus | |
into just his later category of occult action of will to affect | |
change. I suspect this is where christyotwisty was going with her | |
question. As we proceed I'll try to further narrow this definition | |
and cross-reference it with other, similar concepts. | |
Frequency illusion | |
As defined on Wikipedia's list of cognative biases: "The illusion | |
in which a word, a name, or other thing that has recently come to | |
one's attention suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency | |
shortly afterwards (not to be confused with the recency illusion | |
or selection bias). This illusion is sometimes referred to as the | |
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon." | |
In addition to this specific illusion bias, I'll also try to | |
address synchronicity and confirmation bias. There's really a host | |
of mental phenomena which are all interrelated in the context of | |
the question. | |
---------- Subject-matter clarification ---------- | |
Before addressing the question directly I think I should say | |
a word or two about the subject of magick itself. There is | |
a strong divide between groups of people who entertain the idea of | |
magick as a serious phenomenon and those who dismiss it as | |
childish delusion. All too often, the former group is then | |
stigmatized and preconceived prejudices run wild, which | |
unfortunately make serious discussion all but impossible. | |
I want to disuade that behavior by stretching the concept of | |
magick to include similar practices that fall under more widely | |
acceptable terminology. Remembering our core definition of | |
magick--the use of will via occult (or paranormal) means to affect | |
change--we can find many common practices that fit the mold. | |
From the East: | |
[2] Qigong | |
[3] Tai Chi | |
The entire system of Chinese medicine falls into this category, | |
manipulating unseen energies through will and the use of natural | |
actions, herbs, and meditation. Falun Gong, Prana, Tao Yin and so | |
on also fit. | |
From the West: | |
[4] Laying on of hands | |
[5] Exercism | |
[6] Hypnosis | |
In the west there are many religious practices deeply rooted in | |
Christianity which clearly fit the definition of magick we're | |
using. Between the extremes of popular religious rites and the | |
ridiculed parlor ritual there is a whole range of activity. Yoga, | |
reiki, mindfullness medititation, and good old basic prayer all | |
seek to affect some sort of change through the focus of primarily | |
mental expressions of will. | |
As you can see, the question here is not limited to casting spells | |
in a circle under a full moon. You could reasonably reword | |
christyotwisty's question: | |
Those who pray for change: what tells you it's working and not | |
just your mind playing a trick on you? | |
---------- Efficacy of Magick ---------- | |
[7] Efficacy of Prayer | |
Using the framework we've established, we can use the more | |
mainstream magickal practices to explore the scientific | |
investigations of occult phenomena. In the link above, there is | |
a wealth of information about the difficulties in statistical | |
inference and falsifiablity, measurability in general, and | |
a survey of the types of studies that have been done. I'd strongly | |
recommend reading that page cover-to-cover with an open mind. | |
The most striking thing to me about the challenges of study and | |
the measurability of outcomes is that we must take a sacred | |
activity and measure it by elements that are profane (to use the | |
terms of Mircea Elliade). Ultimately the change that should occur | |
is a profane one, though. It must be concerned with the material | |
world or else we're using our mind to change our mind, which | |
doesn't seem to fit our narrow definition of magick. Perhaps using | |
your mind to change the mind of another could fit, but the method | |
would be the key deliniation (batting your eyes and winking can | |
certainly create new thoughts in someone else but is that | |
magick?). | |
If our outcomes are limited to the physical then they are | |
measurable. What comes next is to determine what action of will | |
can create these effects at a significant rate above a control. | |
This is a very rigorous way to avoid issues of the Baader-Meinhof | |
phenomenon or other cognative biases. | |
So what do studies of that have to say? From the article above, | |
a "systemic review of intercessory prayer reported inconclusive | |
results, noting that 7 of 17 studies had 'small, but significant, | |
effect sizes' but the review noted that the three most | |
methodologically rigorous studies failed to produce significant | |
findings". Overall, there's just not a lot of rigorous research | |
being done. Even if we did have reliable results, prayer | |
represents only a small fraction of the occult magickal practices | |
in the world, and prayer itself has thousands of forms and formats | |
to consider. | |
So where do we go from there? Let me start by pointing out that | |
after thousands of years of advancement and the advent of western | |
medicine, the Chinese still widely practice their traditional | |
medicine. That alone speaks to its efficacy. The west is bringing | |
over learnings from China every day. | |
And that brings me to my next point: occult practices are occult | |
because they are unknown. The paranormal describes things outside | |
of normal experience. Occult practices once included metalurgy. | |
What we don't fully understand is often ignored and denegrated | |
rather than explored and investigated. There is a staggering | |
amount of knowledge we have confirmed through science only | |
hundreds of years of casual practice. As an example, the entire | |
field of optics existed and flourished for centuries before we | |
understood the science of shaping glass. | |
Our understanding of the effects may be limited, but out | |
understanding of the method is almost completely absent. In one of | |
the prayer studies there was no significance in those prayed for | |
vs those not, but there was a lift in those that knew they were | |
being prayed for. Perhaps when it comes to immune responses we | |
have a greater power to manipulate the physical in ourselves than | |
in others through will alone. Perhaps this one of the infinite | |
varieties of action wasn't the specific one needed. | |
---------- Narrowing the Scope ---------- | |
Has any of this answered christyotwisty's pertenant question? Not | |
quite yet. Let's reiterate in case you've forgotten where we're | |
aiming with all this: | |
Those who use #magick to #manifest a material desire: what is it | |
about the manifestation that tells you it's magick and not | |
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon? | |
The question does not question that a manifestation has taken | |
place, but instead seeks to understand how you can confidently | |
credit it to the magickal act rather than any number of cognative | |
biases or coincidence. To properly answer this I have to point to | |
three seminal works in religious study: | |
The Idea of the Holy (Das Heilige) by Rudolf Otto published in the | |
early 20th century. It has never gone out of print and it has been | |
absolutely instrumental in the development of comparative religion | |
as a field of scholarly study. | |
The Sacred and the Profane by Mircea Elliade, who I referenced | |
earlier. Elliade takes up the mantle that Otto laid down and takes | |
it to the next level. Notably, he discusses how the myths and | |
stories of a people lead to the creation of their symbols. Those | |
symbols lead to an experience of hierophany, or a breaking through | |
of the profane world to glimpse the Sacred and its Mysterium | |
Tremendum, to feel fascinated, terrified, and infinitely the | |
"creature" in the midst of creation. This relationship through | |
culture and symbols to find a common experience of the Sacred | |
crosses all known boundaries and shares almost identical patterns | |
in the Eastern Orthodox Church as it does in Aboriginal tribes of | |
Australia or the Lenape Indians in America. | |
The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James. This was | |
a book written from James' lectures in Scotland on the various | |
types of personal expressions of religious understanding. There | |
are many, many ways that people relate to the divine or the | |
Sacred, even if they consider that Sacred an unconscious power and | |
not a diety. Those experiences have many things in common and fit | |
into categories that allow for discussion of the experience | |
without having to dwell on the truth of that experience. | |
Taken together these books tell a story without a narrative. It is | |
the story of a people, of all people, and our relationship to | |
powers beyond our conceptualization that we yearn for in a million | |
ways and experience in glimpses between breaths. The truth of the | |
stories that lead to these experiences is not as important as the | |
fact that we all reach the same experiences once we get there. The | |
symbols change, but that moment of connection with the divine is | |
a spark of Truth that rings inside us and overwhelms doubt. | |
Christy, you ask how you know whether your manifestation comes | |
from magick. The science is still out, but the experience is | |
redily accessible. Choose your own pathway and look for the Truth | |
that resonates deep inside your spirit. Ultimately the confidence | |
that something comes from a magickal place will come from an | |
understanding that something has happened that is beyond the | |
normal world and has pierced that layer separatating the Sacred. | |
There is a feeling in it that can be communicated and shared. | |
Ask a priest how they heard the call and watch for that smile. | |
That's how you know. |