Discussion Forum

(Trying very hard and failing to remember what I wrote down on my note card)

Magic is a practice found in many cultures, folklore, and theology, involving the casting of spells and the recitation of incantations to gain control over something or someone, or to influence outcomes.

I think of magic as a facet of religion and superstition - the belief that some kind of unseen force can influence our reality in some kind of tangible way. I personally would define that unseen force as some for of the supernatural, but people practicing or studying magic may not always consciously conceptualize of it as such. I also believe that some kind of unexplainable or "unorthodox" quality is part of what makes something feel magical.

In class on Monday, we briefly spoke about rituals, and I thought about mental illnesses like OCD that often cause people to perform rituals. There is a type of OCD that is commonly called "magical thinking OCD," where the affected individual believes that a ritual will cause something to happen or stop something from happening. Are psychotic beliefs with a "high coefficient of weirdness" are on the spectrum of magic? For example, if someone says that they need to turn the door handle three times or else the building will burn down, and then they do so, is it magic to them or to anyone else if the building doesn't burn down? I'm sort of leaning yes for them and case-by-case for anyone else.

I believe magic (as we've discussed) is a very vague term and difficult to confine to a singular standard. Because of that wide scope, I believe that magic is anything that influences or results in an experience (be it actualized, simply believed/perceived, or illusory) that is outside of the norm. Something that exists in the natural world (things that are more or less regular/explainable) can be magical because responses, emotions, and senses can be triggered that are outliers to a more common range. Things that are supernatural are in my eyes magical because they often elicit those feelings. Basically, I believe magic is less about the factual nature of something or the actions, but more the effect they have on people. That's why I'd consider simple manifestations you say in the mirror or before a test to be magical. This is probably a bit strung out and it may not make sense so I apologize for that!

Magic is a blend of science and religion that seeks to cause change through supernatural means, with the definition of "supernatural" varying between cultures and across time. The distinction between magic against science and religion is largely subjectivity, being based on the cultural context of the individual labelling the practice or object in question.

I believe anything that cannot currently be explained by known facts or logical reasoning can be considered magic.

I believe what I wrote on my index card was along the lines of: Magic is the application or experience of something that cannot be explained by an established social or intellectual sphere (e.g., science). Usually having to do with the "supernatural" or the mysterious.
I'm not sure how much I still agree with this definition, though.

The definition of magic seems to vary not only culturally but contextually, but I found that the definition provided in class that described it as attempting to create a change through will was a helpful frame for understanding what magic might mean within the class. I had originally defined magic as a term applied to things that are not easily explained with the current knowledge available, but I found that not as applicable in the class' context. I think magic is still the term applied to things that may not be easily understood within a present culture, but that it also incorporates any sort of action, belief, or ritual that falls outside of a culture's norms.

I believe magic to be an action, or set of actions, which is intended to elicit a result which is outside of either possibility or expectation.

Magic is the art of sleight of hand and misdirection to confuse or "trick" an audience. It can also be about using "supernatural" forces to persuade others into performing tasks you want them to.

Magic is a scaffolding used to understand the otherwise unexplainable, in which your belief in it propagates itself.

From my point of view, magic is a power that cannot be fully controlled by anyone, but still has its own laws, even though they may greatly differ from the laws of nature that we know. It's a power over nature, time, and physics.

Magic is a way people explain the inexplicable, as well as a collection of cultural traditions and practices through which people seek to harness the unseen forces of the world around them.

I think that "magic" is a term used to describe unorthodox practices made to influence the world around a person. These practices can appear religious or scientific, and include thought processes or procedures that seem strange from an outside perspective. I think that when a practice becomes orthodox, it stops being seen as magic -- I feel like when we classify things just on instinct of magic or not-magic, we usually gravitate towards abnormal things being "magical." (but also it isn't necessarily helpful to define something by what it isn't. Saying magic is practice that is unorthodox doesn't really get you anywhere, and it means that it's a definition that can change, which ideally definitions wouldn't do.)