Art of Magic Part 1 by College Girl. What is Real Magic?

So, we decided to do a video on magic and after thinking it through a little bit more, we decided that a series of videos would be much more helpful than just this one video that will cram everything and magic is so complex that we’re going to do more than video. Today in this video, we’re going to focus on the definition of magic. So magic has everything to do with sociology and anthropology. As a matter of fact, all cultures in the entire world have had some sort of basis in magical thought. Now some forms of magic are pretty obvious and straight forward but at other times they can be not so obvious. As a matter of fact, you, yourself have probably done some kind of magical practice and not even knowing it. So today, we’re going to define exactly what magic is. Now first of all, let me ask you to do one thing. Forget everything you think you know about magic. It is not Harry Potter flying off on his broom stick. It’s not people wearing black robes and worshiping the devil or witches and ghost on Halloween. The anthropological study of magic is quite different than the pop media version that we see in the Harry Potter movies. So to jump right into it, I’m going to give you several definitions of what magic is. Now first of all, you have to understand that these definitions are very similar. They’re going to be kind of redundant but it is important to grasp exactly what magic is right from the get-go because in order to be able to understand the rest of the video series or to even talk about magic at all is [Foreign Language] that you understand what magic is right from the first. So first of all we’re going to look at Aleister Crowley’s definition of magic. He defines magic as the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will. So let’s break that down a little bit. Crowley says that magic is the art of causing change to occur. So we are causing something and we have this word “occur”, we are making something happened. What are we causing? We are causing change. Implicit in the definition of magic is that the person practicing magic isn’t satisfied with the way things are. He is therefore seeking to change something. Now we aren’t just causing anything to happen. We’re not making something random occur. Magic is causing change in conformity with will. So magic isn’t just making anything happen, it’s making what you want to have happen, happen. So if it doesn’t conform to ones will then it isn’t magic. So Crowley gives an example of this definition of magic and I’m going to read that to you. It is my will to inform the world of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magical weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations" — these sentences — in the "magical language" ie. that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, booksellers and so forth and constrain them to convey my message to the people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of magic by which I cause change to take place in conformity with my will. So wait, let me get this straight. His original intention was to distribute ideas to the people and the way that he did this was to write down a few sentences and then to a publisher and distribute the book. Now that doesn’t seem to be anything supernatural about that but let me just point out that his original intention—what he originally willed was to distribute his knowledge to the people. So the fact that you’re watching this video, 120 years after those words were written is changed occurring in accordance to his original will. So in a sense, his spell is still working. So let’s try to make this a little bit more simple. There is this philosophy of metaphysics. Now we can get real complicated going to depth but in essence, it’s just the philosophy that is trying to understand the relationship between what is in the mind and what is in the real universe. In other words, mind versus matter—does the mind influence the matter or thus matter influence the mind and which of the two is more powerful, mind or matter? So in a sense, magic is making what is in your mind a reality. For example, say you don’t have a girlfriend but you do have a girlfriend in your mind but not in reality. So magic would be turning that mental picture of you having a girlfriend in your mind into a reality. So you could say that magic is applied metaphysics. So let’s turn the clocks back say 3000 years. You are a hunter gatherer on the edge of the world somewhere and you are hungry. You’re sitting there and you see some antelope grazing on the hill side and you want that antelope in your tummy but you don’t have that antelope in your tummy but you want it. So how do you go about that? How do you make that happen? How do you make the universe conform to your will? That is the question of the basis of the subject of magic. So primitive man asks this question a lot, how do I get that antelope? Some of the answers were a little better than others; some answers didn’t make a whole lot of sense. For example, one man says, maybe if I pray. Maybe if I pray to the nature god, he will deliver that antelope to me. Another guy said, maybe I can draw the antelope on the inside of my cave and the antelope will appreciate it and come to me and another guy said, well, maybe if I just sharpen a stick and stick him right in there, I can just eat the antelope and everything will be fine. But there is a point here that I’m trying to make. Just drop the idea that magic has to be supernatural. Just drop that idea altogether, forgets it and throw it away. The idea of magic is making something in your mind a reality. The most important thing to understand is that the person that is trying to make his mind matter a reality isn’t going to care as it’s supernatural or not. The most important thing is making what you want to have happen, happen. So let’s make this even more simple. Let’s take Michael Angelo for instance, the great painter and sculptor. He has a vision. In his mind, he has this beautiful form that is mostly unimaginable by most of the people in this world and he wants to make this vision a reality. So he takes his matter. He takes his clay and he takes his rock and he starts to sculpt and build and mold this vision into a reality. And when he is finished, he has this beautiful sculpture. A beautiful image in reality. He has taken his mind matter and place it in the real universe, that’s magic. So magic is the mind’s influence on reality, on the universe. If you look around you, you will see this influence everywhere. For example, my dress. Somebody thought of it, conceive it and put it into reality. Before there was ever a car, Henry Ford got of the idea, put it in his mind and made it a reality and placed it in a real universe. The building that you are in right now was conceived by an architect and made them to reality. So basically, if you were to look around, I think you would have a pretty hard time finding something that wasn’t influenced with the mind first and then put into a real universe. So that is basically what magic is, taking what is in the mind and making it a reality. That is something that is very important to grasp to understand the next video in the series. In the next video on this series, we’re going to be talking about the elements of magic. What do all magical systems have in common? It doesn’t matter if it’s a tribal shaman or a witch sacrificing a virgin or a motivational speaker. All systems have common elements and we’re going to find out what those are. Thank you so much for watching and again, if you have any request, any comments, please throw them underneath and we will see what we can do about that. Please rate my video and I’ll see you next time. If you like this video, we have hundreds of more alternative videos ranging from sexual health, to psychology, to mind control. So if you liked it, go ahead and click on me or enter the psyche truth channel.