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Now if I wanted to carry out an experiment to prove to myself that magic is real, what would you say the best way to do so is
I think that's a pretty loaded question in itself. What is it that you want to prove to yourself? What do you think magic is? What would you actually need to witness happening before your very eyes to adopt the belief that "magic" is "real"? What happens then?
The thing with magic is that you have to engage fully with it to get something going on, otherwise you're just going though the motions and nothing will happen. Take the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, for instance. You can read how to do it online, then perform it in your room, maintaining a slightly snide and sceptical frame of mind as to its efficacy - and not much will really happen. However, if you do it everyday and learn how to perform it like a beautiful art, then every gesture and vibration will have an impact on your consciousness, and by extension your subsequent experience of the world.
You can't really practice magic without getting very, very close to it - and it's difficult to do that if your main motivation is just to see if it works. It's a slippery beast, and it tends to come out and startle you when you're looking the other way and not expecting it. It resists attempts to pin it down in the cold light of day. Indeed, you can never really be 100% sure that even the most audacious results you have seen with your own eyes were not perhaps a strange confluence of self-hypnosis, auto-suggestion or coincidence. This is a good thing, as without the constant sceptic on your shoulder, you can quickly become an insufferable, deluded twat.
Scepticism is an essential tool in magical practice. Being a magician is not about suddenly "believing magic is real" - but experimenting with various processes and technologies and keeping a record of whether you personally find them valuable and worth continuing. I'd suggest you select something that appeals to you and work with it on a regular daily basis and see what happens. Try a few things and see how you get on. Start keeping a journal to record what happens. If you can see the value or potential value of a practice, continue it. If you can't, then don't. By approaching it in this sort of way, you gradually - and often imperceptibly - end up widening your sense of what is possible and what is "real". You might surprise yourself.
Don't expect to be able to dip your tow in the water and get miracles though. It takes a bit of time, commitment and personal investment before it starts to come alive, much like any other practice you might take up. |
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