Aleister Crowley, magician and author of the book "Magick in Theory
and Practice" defined magick as "The science and art of causing
change to occur in conformity with will".
Some see magick as a method of channeling forces that exist around
us and focusing them toward a desired goal. Others think of these
forces as the power that exists within the individual, housed in
the part of the brain that mainstream science is still curious
about, the part called the "mind" or by some the "soul".
It has been shown that certain people can possess abilities
currently described as "paranormal" and extensive scientific
research has been done into the validity of this new form of energy.
Surprisingly, although the methods of experimentation used are far
more flawless than those used by other branches of science and
despite the fact that some very convincing evidence has been put
forward by Scientists to support such a phenomenon, The main
scientific community still chooses to disregard this area as
something unworthy of study.
Their reasons for this are, I suspect, more politically than
scientifically based. After all, who would like to admit that many
of the scientific "certainties" that we hold dear are actually
flawed in some way? It's a similar principle to the problems faced
by Darwin when he first mentioned his theory of evolution. The
churches saw it as a threat to both their own beliefs and their
power and did everything they could to discredit him.
Some would make a distinction between magick and other paranormal
phenomenon such as Extra Sensory Perception and Psychokinesis but
I believe magick is merely a combination of the two powers, focused
on by the mind of the individual and amplified by the use of spell
or ritual.
Extra sensory perception or ESP is the scientific term given to a
range of abilities involving some form of information exchange
that is not carried out by normal means. This would cover
telepathy (mind to mind communication), empathy or intuition
(which we all possess to some degree), precognition (awareness
of future events) and necromancy (communication with "dead" people
or "spirits").
Psychokinesis or PK is the scientific term given to a range of abilities
involving the manipulation of external forces by methods not yet
scientifically recognized. This would cover such things as
telekinesis (moving objects by force of will alone), pyrokinesis
(manipulation of fire by force of will alone), and polterguiest
activity (the word polterguiest is a combination of words meant
to mean "noisy ghost", but there is a lot of scientific evidence
to support the fact that this phenomena is actually a form of
uncontrolled psychokinetic power formed in individuals undergoing
periods of emotional stress).
Still further study is providing evidence that the forces that give
rise to psychic phenomenon are actually related in some way to
electro magnetism, a natural and very valid form of energy. This
seems to make sense since it has been proven that the brain is
capable of generating quite large amounts of electro magnetic
energy and the hard line scientists amongst us will not need to
worry about the phenomena conflicting with their tried and tested
theories.
Magick as practiced by the majority of the occult community often
takes the form of a set of instructions to follow, a spell or
ritual. The purpose of this is an attempt to both communicate with
the psychic areas of the magician's mind and to amplify the
effectiveness of the mind. Once the necessary energy has been
generated it is then focused at a particular desired goal in the
hope of bringing about the desired affect.
A spell is merely a set of instructions that the magician follows in
order to focus his or her psychic energy to reach the desired goal.
since the spell components are symbolic in nature, the best spells
are those created by the person who casts them. The more personal
the ritual is, the more effective it will be in focusing the
magician's power.
There are hundreds of ideas on what makes a good spell and what makes
a bad spell and the only way to assess the effectiveness of any spell
is to try it and record what happens before, during and after the
spell is cast. Most witches keep a "Book of Shadows" in which they
record the spells they create and their effectiveness.