The question...
Jul. 21st, 2004 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnpalmerSo, some of you have seen me pondering whether or not magic is "real", and I realized, maybe that was the wrong question....
See, magic is a funny kind of thing. There are four categories it could be put into.
It could be a meaningless game. Get out the polyhedral dice instead of bell, book and candle, folks, it's more entertaining that way.
It could be a useful set of self-affecting games. If envisioning yourself drinking from a cold, clear stream of vitality energizes you, it does, but it's only because meditation, visualization, etc., are all useful methods of affecting your body.
It could affect the self, possibly in 'magical' ways, but all that you can or will change is yourself. If you cast a "love spell", you might charge yourself with erotic energy, which might be noticed by another, but you *won't* affect another person in any direct way, and you certainly won't cause a direct physical change in the outside world. (Note that you affect a great many things indirectly, so saying that there is no "direct" affect doesn't necessarily impose as large a limitation as it might seem.)
Finally, it could be "more". Maybe you can affect other living creatures; maybe you can affect the physical world; maybe you can affect anything at all.
As far as I'm concerned, the first is simply too weak, and the second is self-evident as a lower bound. Meditation and visualization and such all *do* affect the body, we know this, it's easy to show, though *specific* effects might be hard to show. Still, we have as much evidence for these things working as we do for some drug trials. They don't work every time for every person, but they work so often that it seems impossible to ignore.
The third... the third I've recently felt required to accept, at least provisionally, for a variety of reasons.
The notion that light doesn't move faster when you're travelling towards it, or slower when you're moving away from it, doesn't make intuitive sense, but if you assume that it's, essentially, a law of nature that light always moves the same speed in a vacuum, regardless of your motion relative to the source, you can do things that you can't do otherwise.
Assuming that there's some kind of energy that I can sense and manipulate in how it affects me has let me do things that I couldn't do. And, it explained certain things better the second magical type, where "pretending" to work magic affected the body.
At the very least, it meant that I couldn't keep thinking of it as a pretense. I'd reached the limits of what "pretending" could do.
So, now, when I feel buffetted by emotional energy, I shield; when I feel too 'full' of 'stuff', I ground, and let it drain; when I'm feeling tired, I channel the energy of the elements, the strength of the lord, and the love of the lady, into my body. When I "pretended", these things didn't work, or, at least, not as well. Now that I'm not pretending, they work well.
So, what does that mean? Is magic real?
Well...
Magic is the attempt to affect something by the focused use of one's will.
If you're an average person, and you want a beer, and have one in your kitchen, you go out to your kitchen and get the beer. If you're not willing to go to the kitchen and get a beer, have you really focused your will on having that beer?
If you ask Mother Earth to bring forth her bounty, but don't weed or water your garden, have you really focused your will on making your garden grow?
If you send healing energy to a sick friend, but won't check to make sure there's plenty of nutritious food, and no urgent chores left undone in their home, have you really focused your will on your friend's recovery?
See, I don't know how magic works, but it doesn't seem to be big, loud, and blatant. It seems to be subtle. And, maybe if a spell to do something works, maybe it just means that an opportunity to get that something done will occur.
I'm sure some of you heard the story of the old church lady who hears of the flood, and her neighbor says "there's room in my pickup truck; let me take you to higher ground!" and she says "No, I have prayed to the Lord, and the Lord will protect me", and the waters rise, and a person in a rowboat comes by and offers her a ride to higher ground, but no, she says, the Lord will protect her, and then a motorboat comes by, and then, when she's on the roof of her house, and the water is still rising, a helicopter comes by, and to both of them, she says, "No, I have prayed to the Lord, and the Lord will protect me". She drowns, of course, and when she meets the Lord in heaven, demands to know why he didn't protect her... and the answer is "I *TRIED*; I sent a truck, a rowboat, a motorboat, and a helicopter!"
If magic works, I reckon it's more likely to get you a ride in a pickup truck (or rowboat, or whichever other you end up taking) than creating some magical forcefield to keep the flood waters at bay.
Magic might create nothing but opportunity. It might do nothing more than enhance probability. No matter how much will you focus, you may have to seize that opportunity.
And that's when I realized I was asking the wrong question.
Rather than asking "Is magic real? Will it actually do X?", I should ask "what, precisely, would I do differently, whether it was, or wasn't, real?"
See, if something is important enough to focus my will on it, to work magic on it, then I'm going to be doing what I can to have things come out right. If I'm not, my will isn't really focused on the end I'm trying to bring about.
If magic is a pretense I use to work with myself, I'll need to work towards whatever end I try to bring about magically. Otherwise, nothing will happen.
If magic can affect *me*, but not the physical world, I'll need to work towards whatever end I try to bring about magically. Otherwise, even if magic works, it'll be wasted, because its effects are limited to me, and not the outside world.
If magic *can* affect the physical world, but I don't do everything I can to bring about the end I desire, then my will is not really focused. I only "kinda-want" things to turn out a certain way; I don't have enough will to do real, honest-to-goodness *work* for things to turn out a certain way. I can pretend that I "exerted my will to influence the universe" all I wanted, but I'm fooling myself, because I obviously don't desire things to turn out a certain way all that much.
If magic is a game, I have to act to bring things about.
If magic affects me, I have to act to bring things about.
If magic affects the universe, and I am truly exerting my will, I am going to act to bring things about.
If magic is "real", I do the same thing; if magic is more, or less powerful, I do the same thing. What it is, what it does, doesn't change anything.
So, instead of "is magic real?" the proper question is "what would you do differently if it is, or isn't?"
And rather than asking myself "could magic help this?" I should ask "can *I* help this?"
See, magic is a funny kind of thing. There are four categories it could be put into.
It could be a meaningless game. Get out the polyhedral dice instead of bell, book and candle, folks, it's more entertaining that way.
It could be a useful set of self-affecting games. If envisioning yourself drinking from a cold, clear stream of vitality energizes you, it does, but it's only because meditation, visualization, etc., are all useful methods of affecting your body.
It could affect the self, possibly in 'magical' ways, but all that you can or will change is yourself. If you cast a "love spell", you might charge yourself with erotic energy, which might be noticed by another, but you *won't* affect another person in any direct way, and you certainly won't cause a direct physical change in the outside world. (Note that you affect a great many things indirectly, so saying that there is no "direct" affect doesn't necessarily impose as large a limitation as it might seem.)
Finally, it could be "more". Maybe you can affect other living creatures; maybe you can affect the physical world; maybe you can affect anything at all.
As far as I'm concerned, the first is simply too weak, and the second is self-evident as a lower bound. Meditation and visualization and such all *do* affect the body, we know this, it's easy to show, though *specific* effects might be hard to show. Still, we have as much evidence for these things working as we do for some drug trials. They don't work every time for every person, but they work so often that it seems impossible to ignore.
The third... the third I've recently felt required to accept, at least provisionally, for a variety of reasons.
The notion that light doesn't move faster when you're travelling towards it, or slower when you're moving away from it, doesn't make intuitive sense, but if you assume that it's, essentially, a law of nature that light always moves the same speed in a vacuum, regardless of your motion relative to the source, you can do things that you can't do otherwise.
Assuming that there's some kind of energy that I can sense and manipulate in how it affects me has let me do things that I couldn't do. And, it explained certain things better the second magical type, where "pretending" to work magic affected the body.
At the very least, it meant that I couldn't keep thinking of it as a pretense. I'd reached the limits of what "pretending" could do.
So, now, when I feel buffetted by emotional energy, I shield; when I feel too 'full' of 'stuff', I ground, and let it drain; when I'm feeling tired, I channel the energy of the elements, the strength of the lord, and the love of the lady, into my body. When I "pretended", these things didn't work, or, at least, not as well. Now that I'm not pretending, they work well.
So, what does that mean? Is magic real?
Well...
Magic is the attempt to affect something by the focused use of one's will.
If you're an average person, and you want a beer, and have one in your kitchen, you go out to your kitchen and get the beer. If you're not willing to go to the kitchen and get a beer, have you really focused your will on having that beer?
If you ask Mother Earth to bring forth her bounty, but don't weed or water your garden, have you really focused your will on making your garden grow?
If you send healing energy to a sick friend, but won't check to make sure there's plenty of nutritious food, and no urgent chores left undone in their home, have you really focused your will on your friend's recovery?
See, I don't know how magic works, but it doesn't seem to be big, loud, and blatant. It seems to be subtle. And, maybe if a spell to do something works, maybe it just means that an opportunity to get that something done will occur.
I'm sure some of you heard the story of the old church lady who hears of the flood, and her neighbor says "there's room in my pickup truck; let me take you to higher ground!" and she says "No, I have prayed to the Lord, and the Lord will protect me", and the waters rise, and a person in a rowboat comes by and offers her a ride to higher ground, but no, she says, the Lord will protect her, and then a motorboat comes by, and then, when she's on the roof of her house, and the water is still rising, a helicopter comes by, and to both of them, she says, "No, I have prayed to the Lord, and the Lord will protect me". She drowns, of course, and when she meets the Lord in heaven, demands to know why he didn't protect her... and the answer is "I *TRIED*; I sent a truck, a rowboat, a motorboat, and a helicopter!"
If magic works, I reckon it's more likely to get you a ride in a pickup truck (or rowboat, or whichever other you end up taking) than creating some magical forcefield to keep the flood waters at bay.
Magic might create nothing but opportunity. It might do nothing more than enhance probability. No matter how much will you focus, you may have to seize that opportunity.
And that's when I realized I was asking the wrong question.
Rather than asking "Is magic real? Will it actually do X?", I should ask "what, precisely, would I do differently, whether it was, or wasn't, real?"
See, if something is important enough to focus my will on it, to work magic on it, then I'm going to be doing what I can to have things come out right. If I'm not, my will isn't really focused on the end I'm trying to bring about.
If magic is a pretense I use to work with myself, I'll need to work towards whatever end I try to bring about magically. Otherwise, nothing will happen.
If magic can affect *me*, but not the physical world, I'll need to work towards whatever end I try to bring about magically. Otherwise, even if magic works, it'll be wasted, because its effects are limited to me, and not the outside world.
If magic *can* affect the physical world, but I don't do everything I can to bring about the end I desire, then my will is not really focused. I only "kinda-want" things to turn out a certain way; I don't have enough will to do real, honest-to-goodness *work* for things to turn out a certain way. I can pretend that I "exerted my will to influence the universe" all I wanted, but I'm fooling myself, because I obviously don't desire things to turn out a certain way all that much.
If magic is a game, I have to act to bring things about.
If magic affects me, I have to act to bring things about.
If magic affects the universe, and I am truly exerting my will, I am going to act to bring things about.
If magic is "real", I do the same thing; if magic is more, or less powerful, I do the same thing. What it is, what it does, doesn't change anything.
So, instead of "is magic real?" the proper question is "what would you do differently if it is, or isn't?"
And rather than asking myself "could magic help this?" I should ask "can *I* help this?"
