do you believe in magic?

[oggbashan]

Most of the magic and witchcraft practised in the UK was invented in my lifetime, mainly in the 1960s.

It is a load of mumbo-jumbo... But it makes some people feel good about themselves.

 

[jarigi]

Dynamo

Witchcraft I think is just a leftover from ancient cultures and relies on 'belief' in order to have any effect. Magic, well, have you seen 'Dynamo' on TV? He freaks me out. I know his illusions are tricks but I'm fucked if I can work out how he does any of his tricks. Baffling. I get exasperated trying to understand.

 

[rae121452]

Witchcraft I think is just a leftover from ancient cultures and relies on 'belief' in order to have any effect. Magic, well, have you seen 'Dynamo' on TV? He freaks me out. I know his illusions are tricks but I'm fucked if I can work out how he does any of his tricks. Baffling. I get exasperated trying to understand.

that's exactly what i'm getting at, that there is a very ancient tradition which is still alive and practiced. something that has crossed all cultures and that it is reliant on the belief of the user.

as for stage magic, that's just calisthenics.

 

[rae121452]

:the World's Greatest Sorcerer: Nikola Tesla

yeah, but could he pull a rabbit out of a hat?

 

[rae121452]

Most of the magic and witchcraft practised in the UK was invented in my lifetime, mainly in the 1960s.

It is a load of mumbo-jumbo... But it makes some people feel good about themselves.

i agree.

 

[HisArpy]

yeah, but could he pull a rabbit out of a hat?

Bullwinkle couldn't so...


I believe that there are forces in the universe which we don't understand and for which we have no science or math through which to explain those forces.

If that's "magic" then I believe. If it's not, then fuck off and die you lousy cunt.

 

[hobbit.]

Paul Daniels was a fraud, simple as, gave magic a bad name.

I have seen the thing of making a coin appear from a childs ear - slight of hand. BUT i have also seen major banks make a ten pound note become £7.50 without moving.

Sawing a woman / person in half? mainly stage magic. BUT completely dismembering a body without leaving a trace at the site, managing to dispose of all the bits of body AND kit - thats magic. Especially if the police manage to get the CPS to take it too court and the jury acquit.

 

[jaF0]

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mCM3nE93Sek/TdvjhepRoxI/AAAAAAAAAW8/87g8GmTKv0Y/s1600/mimsg_bullwinklewronghatbear.jpg

Ooopps, wrong hat.

 

[Bray123]

I saw Paul Daniels live, he made no secret that it was all trickery and illusion with an amusing patter.

I've seen Dynamo live, there was interminable drivel about his childhood with a small number of tricks thrown in, all of which were fairly obvious. Nearly all of his YouTube stunts are obvious.

Yuri Geller is a total fraud, pretending that he has supernatural powers. He does a well-practiced spoon-bending trick which is impressive, but then he pretends that he has the power to influence who will win Olympic medals.

I used to work with a devout Jehovah Witness, who was strangely intelligent. I asked him once if he could explain the difference between religion and superstition; he couldn't.

 

[Champakian]

Paul Daniels was a fraud, simple as, gave magic a bad name.

I have seen the thing of making a coin appear from a childs ear - slight of hand. BUT i have also seen major banks make a ten pound note become £7.50 without moving.

Sawing a woman / person in half? mainly stage magic. BUT completely dismembering a body without leaving a trace at the site, managing to dispose of all the bits of body AND kit - thats magic. Especially if the police manage to get the CPS to take it too court and the jury acquit.

Lol. The mystical magic of that master magician, Fiat Money.

 

[oggbashan]

There is magic and there is conjuring (even if in US English they can be confused - eg conjure wife).

Conjuring s appearing to produce magical effects by deception.

Magic is a religion that attempts to exploit unknown forces for good (or evil). That sort of magic can appear to do things but does it? It might affect the impressionable like bone pointing by Aborigine magicians, but the person affected has to believe it works.

If used for healing, it can enforce a placebo effect because if the person being healed believes others are thinking positively about him/her that can improve the mental health and reduce stress.

But how far is it a real effect, and how far is all magic in the mind?

 

[Champakian]

Isn't Magic™ used to create bald pussy pics?

 

[trevorness]

"do you believe in magic?"

Sure. well I believe their is such a thing... mentions it in the Bible ya know... sorcery and stuff.

Says stay away from it.

Some of the Apostles and such butted heads with it.

Stay away from the bible? Done.

 

[oggbashan]

I have magic in some of my stories even if I don't believe in it.

But for some people, it can seem very real.

When I was young and in then Communist Yugoslavia, both in now Bosnia and Croatia, several people, mainly older women, avoided me because they said I had the evil eye. I don't know why, but they were independent of each other. All I could think of as an explanation was that I was much taller and heavier than most local men, almost a giant by their standards, tanned, with blond hair and an Australian accent so to them I was weird.

But I have never wished anyone ill, nor has anyone, as far as I know, experienced any ill effects as a result of my evil eye...

 

[jaF0]

^^^^ They just thought you wanted to lick their feet.

 

[TallMan69]

Being different from the accepted norm always seems to gets the masses rankled.

Witch hunt in Salem
McCarthyism
Being an Eisenhower Republican in the age of Trump

Everyone who doesn’t match the accepted prescribed look gets the evil eye , scarlet letter, and relegated to a lower caste.

 

[oneblueye]

yeah, but could he pull a rabbit out of a hat?

you are using the one of the end results of the 'rabbit' he yanked out...

 

[oneblueye]

i don't mean the harry potter bullshit, i mean real magic.

i just finished a book on the history of magic and then i found another one. the idea is that magic is older than organized religions and that people still practice vestigial magic today only now we call it superstition.

"religion and the decline of magic" quote: 'if magic is defined as the employment of ineffective techniques to allay anxiety when effective ones are not available, then we must recognize that no society will ever be free from it."

do you think we can bend reality to influence happenings? is there such a thing as practicing magic?

Alot of Ancient Astronaut peoples are fond of saying that "at a certain point, advanced technology and the magic of the past are indistinguishable." I believe that that is as true as the sun IS rising tomorrow.