When I was a lot younger, I went through an atheistic phase. This was a really lame time in my life. Not because there’s anything wrong with being an atheist. I just made being an atheist my whole personality. I argued with my parents about everything and avoided going to church all the time. I believed in science and figured that economics offered good explanations for how the modern world functioned.
At some point in high school, I met a girl who told me she knew Tarot. At the time I knew nothing about witchcraft or tarot cards, but I was a good sport. She got me to pick some cards and told me my fortune. I don’t remember what she said exactly, but my fortune was bad. Really, bad actually. But she did say that things would get better in the future. I didn’t freak out or take the fortune too seriously, but it turned out to be spot on. My life went to shit fast. I got depressed, my grades dropped, and I went through years of unfair and traumatic experiences, while also making my own fair share of mistakes. I went through years of misfortune, and I forgot about God. The less grateful and conscientious I became, the more I suffered.
Life is good now. I live with family, but I’m getting ahead. My blog is getting search traffic, and I’ve produced enough articles to begin growing a decent portfolio. I have to keep pushing forward, and every day I pray that my dreams come true. It’s working. The way things are looking, I will be worth about $12,000 USD by the age of 26. This may not sound like a lot to many, but I’m from a 3rd world country. I am entering the upper middle class, and will be solidly there by the time I’m 27.
I attribute the success of my efforts to good karma and prayer. When I first decided to set about the goal of becoming a digital nomad, I did so without making a plan. I just knew that I needed to inch forward and make steady progress towards a high net worth. I’m determined to reach the top 1% in my country. This isn’t because I’m greedy, but rather because I want to be free and to help people. This is why I write articles. Building a blog gives me the potential to help others while working for myself. The fact that I am seeing progress and results already means that I’m blessed and that the magic of the Lord is working.
So how does this all relate to whether magic is real or not? Most of the time, when people refer to magic, they mean witchcraft. Harry Potter is the main piece of content that comes to mind when discussing the mystical, at least for members of my generation. I’ve heard stories of people able to perform Harry Potter-style magic. A friend of mine claimed she knew people who could make rocks and apples materialize in her hands. My grandma used to tell stories of the day a ton of smooth rocks fell from the ceiling in her house all at once when she was about 8 years old. But these are just stories. Right now, we have no clue if that kind of magic exists, because it simply hasn’t been verified. Nobody has ever been proven to have cast a spell, in all of human history. What we do have are softer forms of magic, which I think can be split into 3 groups: supernatural feats, unexplained events, and serendipitous moments of luck.
People are always amazing each other. In sports like running and swimming, people continue to break world record after world record, across all distances. Outside of sports, many of us might hear anecdotes of random people being able to outrun the police, or others yet being able to win fights in which they are hopelessly outmatched. Some of these amazing moments might be classified as supernatural feats. These are moments in which the human body exceeds its limits and something special happens. These moments could be considered magical, as many people have no idea what caused them.
Unexplained events are the most common and commonly understood form of magic. Anything can be an unexplained event, and the most common form of them are near-death experiences. Many people recount having strange visions during moments in which they nearly met death. Other unexplainable events might include random meetings, sudden health transformations, or any event that couldn’t have otherwise been predicted by science. Unexplainable events are the most common form of magic. This is the “Harry Potter” type magic that people always say isn’t real. While I would agree that there aren’t any provable examples of Harry Potter-type events, there are some miracles. ALS reversals come to mind.
Sometimes, lucky things just happen. It might be that we’re at the right place at the right time, and opportunity just falls into our lap. Other times we might have a narrow miss, a moment where something almost harms us and we get away Scott-free. Moments like these can also be considered magical, as they couldn’t have been created on purpose by anything other than a supernatural entity. People who are more scientifically oriented attribute these events to “randomness”. The very learned ones might discuss physics and the random movement of electrons. My only response would be “What causes this randomness?”.
Almost everyone, even the most ardent skeptics, can admit that scenarios such as what I described in the previous texts occasionally occur in real life. Given this, I think magic exists. Whether they’re simply caused by the random movement of particles, spirits, or some God, supernatural events do occur. Despite it being clear that there are a lot of different types of magic in the world, it’s probably not a good idea to try and do magic. Most major religious texts warn against doing magic, and those that don’t warn against making a concerted effort to “do stuff”. Outside of religion, the old adage “be careful what you wish for” should be ringing in people’s ears. Even intentional and concerted action can have disastrous effects on the world around you. In religious texts, magic is associated with witches, demons, evil actions, and drug use. I think there’s a reason for this, and that it can be safely assumed that the ancients found reasons to believe that magic is dangerous, whether or not any given God is real. Keep this in mind before exploring the occult and the mystical.
