"Reasonable men adapt themselves to their environment; unreasonable men try to adapt their environment to themselves. Thus all progress is the result of the efforts of unreasonable men." - George Bernard Shaw

**

One of the biggest things that concerns me about a lot of practitioners of any sort of magical path - the idea that somehow you have to throw out the scientific rational mind to do so.
There is no reason whatsoever that they need to be mutually exclusive. Once science has proven something to be true, we don't need to worry about that anymore. That's a given. I don't cry out to Zeus during an electrical storm. I understand that lightning is caused by ionic differentials between the ground and sky. I know how to not get zapped.

The mind is in many ways the final frontier for the sciences. As a science, psychology is barely 100 years old. Neurology is far younger. There is so much that we don't know, but so much we could know. This is, in many ways, the realm of the magician.

I have a friend who built an EEG machine once, and we experimented with it. I'm adept at meditation, and she wired me up. Looking at the output during meditation, I was able to see on the graphical output through the computer the brain shifting into alpha frequencies primarily, out of its normal beta-frequency state. Trying different techniques, I was able to further shift frequencies at will.

Hmmm...

"Magick is the art of causing changes in consciousness in conformity with the Will." - Dion Fortune

"Sorcery: the systematic cultivation of enhanced consciousness or non-ordinary awareness & its deployment in the world of deeds & objects to bring about desired results." - Hakim Bey, T.A.Z.

"Real magick is not merely an assortment of skills and techniques. It's more like an open minded attitude, a blend of interest and dedication, which allows each honest mage to observe, to learn, to adapt, and to invent unique ways of changing idenrity and reality from within." - Jan Fries, Visual Magick

"Magic is the socially unauthorized use of the will and imagination to partake in the powers of the universe." - S. Jason Black & Christopher S. Hyatt, Pacts With The Devil

"Magic is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine Knowledge of Natural Philosophy, advanced in its works and wonderful operations by a right understanding of the inward and occult virtue of things; so that true Agents being applied to proper Patients, strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced. Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature; they, because of their skill, know how to anticipate an effect, the which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle." - The Goetia of the Lemegeton of King Solomon.

Nothing here falls too far outside of the realm of the scientific. Nothing here is incompatible with science. The problem lies where we believe that there is /nothing/ that is currently unexplainable by science. There is still plenty. That is why researchers at universities have jobs. Most fall comfortably into the paradigm of, "If it isn't explainable, then it's false," or "If it isn't explainable, then it is the will of (Insert preferred deity here)." Still a handful more fall into the category of, "If it isn't explainable, then it is caused by this other reason, which I have no idea why they are linked, but someone told me that was how it is."

(Let me start bitching about ghost hunters for a moment here, please. Ghost Hunters have these little gizmos that measure electrical fields and ambient temperatures. They're constantly waving them around and looking impressive with them. As soon as one goes out of expected range, they take it to indicate the presence of a ghost. Not only do they fail to take in all the /other/ rational reasons why one could go out of range - say a tiny fray in the wiring of the house that they are in, causing the fields created by electricity in the house to fluctuate - but they then attribute said reading to automatically mean a ghost is nearby. Why? How? Where did they get their facts? Furthermore, I've seen ghost pictures on the internet, where they claim that hazy-looking clouds or blurry lights indicate a ghostly presence. I've gotten smoke from a cigarette in the way of photos I've taken at night before and gotten the exact same effect. Given that a camera's shutter is usually only open for a split second, a glint of light off someone's watch, belt buckle, whatever, can appear as an "orb" in a photo. More automatic attribution of things that sound pretty cool, but have no rational basis.)

A magician is different than all three of the above because she accepts the idea that there are things that cannot be explained, and rather than outright denying it, or attributing it blindly and blithely to some external force, she seeks answers. This is where the concept of personal truths becomes important. Truth is sought, but truth is understood to be a matter of personal perception until said truth has been shown to be consistent under many different circumstances and still hold true.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick.

So please, all you like, disbelieve in gravity. After all, there is no such thing as science. There is no such thing as objective reality. Disbelieve all the way down as you take a leap of faith. Newton, Darwin and I will have a good laugh when you crash into the ground floor of your subjective reality.