Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe

by Dean Radin

Real magic falls into three categories: mental influence of the physical world, perception of events distant in space or time, and interactions with nonphysical entities. The first type I’ll call force of will; it’s associated with spell-casting and other techniques meant to intentionally influence events or actions. The second is divination; it’s associated with practices such as reading Tarot cards and mirror-gazing. The third is theurgy, from the Greek meaning “god-work”; it involves methods for evoking and communicating with spirits.

But second, reality viewed through the lens of science is an exceedingly thin slice of the whole shebang. Science is tightly focused on the objective, measurable, physical world. That focus excludes the one and only thing you can ever know for sure—your consciousness, that inner spark of sentience that you call “me.”

The new discipline will be the study of the psychophysical nature of reality, that mysterious, interstitial space shimmering between mind and matter.

Prayer is a form of intentional magic, a mental act intended to affect the world in some way. Wearing a sacred symbol is a form of sympathetic magic, a symbolic correspondence said to transcend time and space. Many religious rituals are forms of ancient ceremonial magic. The abundance of popular books on the power of affirmations and positive thinking are all based on age-old magical principles.

The word magic comes from the Greek word magos, referring to a member of a learned and priestly class, which in turn derives from the Old Persian word magush, meaning to “be able” or “to have power.” In the early nineteenth century, the word magic also took on the connotation of entertainment, delight, or attraction.

To believe that magic will eventually disappear is mere wishful thinking. —OWEN DAVIES

What we do know is that without consciousness there’d be no “you” to experience the act of reading this sentence.

Looking for a scientific explanation for magic is like trying to find a scientific explanation for poetry. Science simply does not and cannot study magic any more than it can study the phenomenon of “art.”13

Every time you find in our books a tale the reality of which seems impossible, a story which is repugnant both to reason and common sense, then be sure that tale contains a profound allegory veiling a deeply mysterious truth…and the greater the absurdity of the letter the deeper the wisdom of the spirit.16

The first stage is when you totally believe in witchcraft. The second is when you realize that it’s a complete lot of rubbish. The third is when you realize that it’s a complete lot of rubbish; but somehow it also seems to work. —RONALD HUTTON

Real magic is at once terrific and terrifying, awesome and awful.

I think back in the caveman days, our ancestors would huddle around the fire at night and wolves would be howling in the dark, just beyond the light. And one person would start talking. And he would tell a story so we wouldn’t be so scared in the dark. —JOHN LOGAN, from the 2016 movie Genius

History lesson: it is advisable to think twice about annoying those in power.

Paracelsus stressed that exercise of the imagination was the beginning of all magical operations.

Mesmer’s idea was similar to Paracelsus’s “cosmic fluid” or archaeus, the yogic concept of prana, the Chinese chi or qi, the Lakota tribe’s wakan, Greek philosopher Pythagoras’s pneuma, Austrian psychotherapist Wilhelm Reich’s orgone, and so on. The concept of a living or “vital force” permeates the esoteric traditions.

Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine. —LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

The essence of magic boils down to the application of two ordinary mental skills: attention and intention. The strength of the magical outcome is modulated by four factors: belief, imagination, emotion, and clarity.

The single most important aide to developing magical skills is to learn how to enter the state of consciousness known as gnosis. The time-honored and safest way to do this is through meditation.

The Science of Enlightenment: How Meditation Works, by Shinzen Young, published in 2016.

The bottom line: If you want to perform magic effectively, maintain a disciplined meditation practice. Learn to quiet your mind. See the world as it is, not as it appears to be when viewed through multiple layers of cultural conditioning.

Know what you want.

Review what you want.

Maintain secrecy.

strengthen your belief.

Why is it when we talk to God it’s called praying, but if God talks back it’s called schizophrenia? —JANE WAGNER

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. —ARTHUR C. CLARKE

We only see what we want to see; we only hear what we want to hear. Our belief system is just like a mirror that only shows us what we believe.

The people who demand that the oracle predict for them really want to know next year’s price on whalefur or something equally mundane. None of them wants an instant-by-instant prediction of his personal life.

In a way, we are magicians. We are alchemists, sorcerers and wizards. We are a very strange bunch. But there is great fun in being a wizard.

I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.