What is Magic: Understanding and Trying to Explain Magic (Essay Sample)

What is Magic?
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What is magic?
Abstract
This paper attempts to demystify magic. It draws a picture of ritual magic and contrasts it with stage magic. In this paper, the contemporary views of philosophers are explored in order to attempt to gain a better understanding of magic. The role of magic in connecting human beings to supernatural beings will be explored. The methods used by magicians, including altering people’s states of mind, in order to convince them will be questioned. At length, an attempt to offer a precise explanation to what magic is will be made.
Keywords: Magic.
What is Magic?
Introduction
Magic is a common term whose use often denotes the use of poorly understood methods to achieve extraordinary results. However, philosophical views of magic are much wider and intricate than this stereotypical view. Magic encompasses an entire realm of philosophical concepts that even the most thoughtful minds grapple with. Thought of simplistically as pseudo-science, magic is not something fixed and out there. According to Wilson (1988), magic is an active force in our own minds; a commanding, closed-circuit force, a formidable opponent of reasoning that functions in the realm of our strong feelings.
Trying to explain magic
Magic is a system that makes use of actions and rituals grounded on occult and paranormal knowledge in order to gain an understanding of the natural world. While some philosophers think that magic and religion are different others conflate the two. For example, Lerner (2013) believes that some interpretations of Peter Winch’s work require that magic and religion be viewed as concerned with human hopes, values and emotions rather than achievement of practical goals. In essence, philosophers holding this view believe that magic and religion are variants of a similar thing.
Ritual magic and stage magic have in common the fact that both are meant to achieve supernormal feats. Ritual magic holds to the belief that nature can literally bend to an individual’s will. This is in line with Thelemic teachings of Aleister Crowley who believed that every individual has their own will, which is the purpose of their existence. With this will, Crowley believed that every person is able to influence nature in order to achieve their destiny.
Magic is often understood to be only stage magic, where magicians create an impression of performing impossible feats for the amusement of audiences. Indeed, both stage and ritual magic share the fundamental principle of a belief in making impossible things possible. Indeed, as Chadwick (2012) asserts, magic is often intended to ‘control’ spiritual beings and supernatural forces and seek their assistance. For example, symbolic links between human remains and death, fertility and regeneration and crops and harvest were drawn through and explained by magic. This assertion augers well for the argument that magic is a practice that is aimed at influencing nature in order for it to grant the wishes of the will.
That said, one may be tempted to think of magic as a foreign, distant concept that is practiced by cults and detached people. The truth is that magic is perhaps ubiquitous. It appears to play a subtle role in each person’s life. This is the belief of Wilson (1988) who states that magic is an omnipresent, active force in human life. Examples are given of communities in some rural areas of the world where ill wishes are invested with the power to bring other people to harm. Furthermore, misfortune or illness, or any other unfortunate occurrence may be attributed to the envy of another person. While the manifestations of magic are patently clear in those parts of the world, it is difficult to deny the influence of the ‘supernatural’ even in the most ‘civilized’ societies. It is difficult to deny the subtle, yet distinct, feeling that destiny or fate is at play when bizarre things happen. One cannot help but wonder whether there is a supernatural hand in the ‘miraculous’ recovery of a sick relative, or the victory in an election ‘against all odds’. Expressions such as ‘miraculous’ and ‘against all odds’ are but a few examples of many phrases that lend credence to the almost universal belief that some supernatural forces are often at play in our daily lives.
Magic that is discussed in a lot of philosophical literature is discussed more from the standpoint of its effects on people’s thinking, than its effectiveness at its purpose. Klaassen (2012) gives an account of the subjective nature of the perceptions of believers in medieval magic. Drawing from a host of medieval literature, he concludes that achieving subjectively convincing results can be tricky. In other words, he believes that magic as a mani...