Someone once asked me if I believed in magic. I looked at her in shock. I wondered why she even felt the need to ask.
“That’s like asking me if I believe in the earth and sky. How else do you explain life? The air we breathe? The ground we walk on? Life itself is magic. Every moment, every breath, every step we take is magic! What is the difference between you and I, really? Absolutely nothing, and yet we are as different as night and day. That is magic.
“How else can you explain how birds fly, when gravity decrees they should fall flat on their faces? There is no scientific explanation for it! Yet birds fly above and around us every single day. That is magic.
“From the ground we walk on to the air we breathe, everything is magic! Can’t you see it? Can’t you feel it?”
She looked at me like I was crazy and said, “You’re talking like a foolish child!”
I replied: “The greatest wisdom in this world is that of a child! When you are not jaded by the evils of man, you can see wonders beyond the imaginations of the greatest scientific minds of all times!
"You asked me if I believe in magic. The answer is ‘yes, I do.’ I believe in the magic of life, the magic of love, the magic of happiness and kindness, and the magic of friendship. I believe that a kind word can save a life, that a gentle hand stretched out in kindness can move a person to tears, that love and happiness have the power to remove doubt in all things.”
Then I stopped and whispered, “Yes, I believe in magic. Do you?”
She looked at me with a tear in her eye and said, “Yes. Thank you.”
So the next time someone asks you if you believe in magic, think about it and be certain that what you say comes from the heart. You never know, you might just change that person’s life forever. Now I’m asking you.
Do you believe in magic?
I just wish i had gotten my hogwarts acceptance letter. that would have me happier than i've ever been. i think there is something that works in the background to make this bittersweet world tick.
Heheh...nice. Thank you for not automatically shoving science down my throat. It was getting VERY annoying to read all of the other comments.
lol. naw, i fully believe that there is a wonderment to everything, especially science. i love science. it's beautiful the way the body works, and the way elements of the earth and atmosphere work together. ecological processes, the weather, you name it, i'm inspired by it. the fact that there is a scientific explanation doesn't lesson that for me at all. i mean there's a reason that science is the way it is, and that it's so beautiful and complex. that's what i think, anyway. so shove that down their throats!!!
down with you, you unimaginative science geeks!!!! lol...
But there is no such thing as magic
No scientifcally invalid events occur.
None that have been sighted so far at least.
There is only the explained, and the yet to be explained
Logical forces rule the universe, and there's no magic involved
Even down to the smallest step the universe acts predictably.
Your thought and reactions are decided by chemicals. Manipulation of what chemicals are at play directly effect the outcome of what you percieve and do.
For example, you take a mind altering drug, illegal or legal, it changes the chemical levels in the machine and the machine runs different. Its all logical and predisposed, you will never be capable of doing or not doing something you were meant to. Its all decided by the chemicals within you at the time and the environment those chemical are in, and those chemicals and environment were decided at the expansion of the universe. Life is an unwinding clock, predictable and constant.
Triggers like a computer
Zeros and Ones(to fire or not to fire)
A combination of fire/non-firings decide what you do and that is decided by what fires them, the chemicals you bare..
I am AWARE of science, okay? I was JUST TRYING TO GET A POINT ACROSS. It's called "poetic license."
"those chemicals and environment were decided at the expansion of the universe"
Which, I would just like to add, is still occurring.
As it will be, until it(if it) collapses.
Do I believe in magic? Yeah. It's a fun card game.
"Don't blame me. I voted for Kodos."
Homer Simpson
I got cards from the year I played in my closet, if you wanna buy um let me know lol
Everything, you have done, and will do, is chemically predisposed by matter, even the fact you are reading this message. You make no choices, only perceive a given reality.
Anything with that slogan is bad for ya
Whethers its religion or McDonalds.
Everything, you have done, and will do, is chemically predisposed by matter, even the fact you are reading this message. You make no choices, only perceive a given reality.
Actually, this started because I couldn't get the stupid song out of my head.
hmm..have to think about that one. I definately believe in God. I believe in the supernatural.
-Amanda-
Check out my blog
THANK YOU. Yours is the first comment I've read that hasn't been written specifically to tell me to crack open a textbook and look at the pretty pictures.
I believe in God and that miracles can occur. He has given us some great gifts (love, laughter, happiness)
I believe that was natures gifts.....
YAY! Somebody got my point!
“How else can you explain how birds fly, when gravity decrees they should fall flat on their faces? There is no scientific explanation for it! Yet birds fly above and around us every single day. That is magic.
...what?
Go study biology and find out the scientific explanations for how birds fly.
Sames with bees, but we're just not aware how they push off air so well with their wing mass and speed.
The reasoning is that its like swimming to us, we grip the water to push off it, the sames with birds whom flap and push off the air.. just because something is not yet proved does not make it magic.
You sound like a person that would have worshipped the wind god because they didn't understand the forces of nature..
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Everything, you have done, and will do, is chemically predisposed by matter, even the fact you are reading this message. You make no choices, only perceive a given reality.
Both of you: read the disclaimer I have had to put up because of people treating me like I'm an idiot. I am aware of the stuff you point out. I was aware of it when I wrote the thing. Please, just read the disclaimer and stop thinking I'm a moron. I am WELL AWARE that birds can fly because of the structure of their hollow-boned wings. I know these things, but I CHOSE to disregard them for the purpose of this one little "cutesy" post.
Heck, even my Honors Chem II teacher GOT IT.
If you're well-aware of that, why do you clearly say that there is NO scientific explanation for it and it "must be magic"?
Because that makes you sound like an idiot. Why are you stating incorrect facts that you know are incorrect?
...Think of it as poetry. Just because it's WRITTEN in first person doesn't mean it is me. I'm actually the one who's saying the speaker is talking "like a foolish child." I'm sorry you don't like this, but it's written as though a child's mentality were guiding the first half of the conversation, while the second half holds the true message.
People don't "worship" gods just because they "don't understand the forces of nature". "Worshiping wind as a god" can be a deep a spiritual experience. It can mean to meditate on the beauty of wind, to feel its raw presence. When the wind blows on your face, you find the moment empty... it's already explained, it's mere science. When the wind blows on the face of a "wind worshiper", they tinge with its sensual touch, they experience a rush through the veins, they feel ALIVE in their body. I can tell you from firsthand experience that you can "worship the wind god" without using it as an rational explanation for the way things work.
I enjoy the feeling of wind blowing on my face. I know what causes it and don't believe in any sort of god, but that doesn't make an experience empty.
"Don't blame me. I voted for Kodos."
Homer Simpson
Your knowing and (dis)believing do not make your experience any fuller, either...
(To accomplish that task, one needs to move beyond intellect, beyond knowledge. You do not enjoy the feeling because of dry science, but in spite of it.)
That is not a claim for you to make. I am of the opinion (and I'm pretty qualified to judge the situation) that I have a very full life. I don't know whether or not this has to do with my beliefs, or rather lack thereof. What I do know is that when I did believe, my life was no fuller than it is now.
"Don't blame me. I voted for Kodos."
Homer Simpson
You're confusing "belief" (knowledge) with "worship". "Worshiping" something has nothing to do with "believing" in it (or "knowing" it to be "real" or "true"). When you worship, you partake in an inner experience, something is FELT.
I can feel/ experience a strong burning sensation without ever "knowing" anything about it (it's cause, how it worked, the mechanics, whether its a fire, whether its spicy food, etc.), or even caring to know whatsoever. I have one consciousness: I can spend this conscious energy either on feeling something or "knowing" it- not both (a mind can wander to (put its primary focus on) a thought, OR a sensation). Thus, when I spend this consciousness on knowing, my feeling is necessarily lessened and depleted. You cannot do both to the same degree within the same moment. Therefore you have a choice to make: you are allotted a certain amount of time to spend, a certain amount of moments- how will you spend them? Feeling something? or being numb to feeling (knowing it)?
"Worship" is an affective, "felt" experience. Knowledge and "belief" only comes second (gets put on the backburner) IF AT ALL. People who worship are getting in touch with something that "knowledge" does not provide (and even deprives them of).
The belief that DOES come into play in true, authentic "worship" is completely subordinate to the felt experience. (Belief is only implemented to the end that it enhances felt experience.) Felt experience is what matters; belief does not.
(By the way: please note that this conversation has nothing to do with your belief in some sort of Christian dogma (or any other religion that you may have been referring to when you spoke of your past (now extinct) "beliefs". We were talking about worshipping (-the felt experience of-) WIND.)
I am aware that a person can be content, and even satisfied, by the mysterious, especially when it involves some sort of involvment. However, that does not mean that a person who does know and who does not worship cannot get the same feeling.
"Don't blame me. I voted for Kodos."
Homer Simpson
(Again, as i said just above) "Knowing" and "feeling" cannot go hand-in-hand. To the extent that anyone truly "feels" something, they do not know it. ***If someone holds a flame against my skin, all knowledge of fire ceases to exist (in my consciousness). I am overcome by FEELING, and feeling alone. Knowledge is obliterated by feeling.*** When you exit a state of "feeling" then by all means it is possible to enter back into a state of knowledge, and one DOES (necessarily) do so. However, to claim anything less than an complete opposition between knowledge and feeling, anything less than heterogeneity through and through, is complete misunderstanding of reality. Knowledge and felt experience (like worship) cannot be reconciled, simultaneously, in the way you wish to believe.
"(Again, as i said just above) "Knowing" and "feeling" cannot go hand-in-hand."
You can repeat that all you like, but that does not change the fact that it isn't true. Maybe for you, it is. Don't make the assumption that everyone's brain works the same way.
If a flame is held up gainst my skin, I won't forget all I know about fire. Depending on my state of mind, I might be rushing through all that knowledge. But that doesn't stop me from feeling the flame.
I do agree with you on one thing and that one thing is worship. Once you know the meaning behind something, it requires a rejection of knowledge to continue worshipping. While I may feel the mystique of the wind, I won't attribute its blowing to the wind god.
"Don't blame me. I voted for Kodos."
Homer Simpson
"If a flame is held up against my skin, I won't forget all I know about fire. Depending on my state of mind, I might be rushing through all that knowledge"
Yes, yes, of course; I'm sure if I found myself lit up in scalding flames, my attention would just rush through all my conceptual knowledge about fire. I'm sure I would be deeply focused on fire's mechanics, on how oxygen chemically reacts as its molecular structure is altered. I would probably not be able to get my mind off the quantitative amounts of energy being consumed or the numerical degree the temperature has reached. All this perfectly describes the "state of mind" (the consciousness) of a burn victim, right? PLEASE
____________________________________
"While I may feel the mystique of the wind, I won't attribute its blowing to the wind god."
Whether "attributing" or "refusing to attribute" the cause of wind (to anything), you are still caught up in a experiential realm of conceptual knowledge (in your concern with causality) which is unconnected from felt experience altogether. If, in a real moment of time/ experience, you are truly caught up in "feeling the mystique of the wind", the mechanics of that wind are of (absolutely) no concern.
I would think about what I knew to stop the fire. What to do about fire counts as knowing something. I don't most of the stuff you were talking about. I know it exists, but not about it. But I do know, for instance, that water puts it out. That's knowledge. It's basic knowledge, but it is still knowledge. And that I would be thinking about unless I was really panicked.
And, yes, if I was really enjoying a summer breeze, I wouldn't be thinking about air pressure or the like, but that doesn't mean I don't know about it and it doesn't mean that the fact that I do know about it makes me enjoy the breeze less.
"Don't blame me. I voted for Kodos."
Homer Simpson
And it is for people like you that I wrote this blog. :D
Sorry I just wanted to make sure I got your attention. I loved the post, it was wonderfull. But dear god how you ruined it with the response to the people who missed the point you were trying to make. Who cares what they say, don't ruin that wonderful message with the anger filled non-sense that came after.
I'm sorry, but I had to include the disclaimer message, or there would be FAR too many hateful responses. I was getting so tired of having to explain myself to them, so I made a blanket reply to their initial responses.
and it's not nessicarily in a good sense either...check out Criss Angel on youtube...it's scary actually.
-Amanda-
please vote for me on brickfish
I would really appreciate it!
Criss Angel? He's awesome, but that's not the type of magic I'm refering to...
Thats all done with camera angles props and strings, there no changing of the properties of matter, just special effects on a tv show and a guy whos full of himself to the point some people actually believe it.
Lameness...
Yes, but it LOOKS cool. We don't need it to be real to enjoy watching it.
How can camera angles explain separating a woman's body and her upper half running away, or him swallowing a coin and bringing it to his wrist, cutting his wrist to get it out?
I really believe that his stuff is real.
-Amanda-
please vote for me on brickfish
I would really appreciate it!
I love the way you were able to bring into words that sense of excitement in life. The juxtaposition against science and "maturity" really sets off how misplaced the values of our society actually are. How empty would life be were it just mechanical procession void of the little glimpses of wonder (at the irrational aspect of reality). It's a shame that some of those who responded could not engage with the spirit, tempo, and emotion of the writing. Their comments merely reinforce our culture's brainwashed attitude of viewing life objectively.
I really want to just hug you right now. You are awesome! :dances:
Sorry...I've been in one of my "moods" today. (For some people being moody is the same as being "a bitch." For me, being moody is being happy, perky, goofy, and just plain SCARY unlike me...in other words...When I'm in a good moods, my friends ask if I'm ill.)
Thank goodness someone finally understood why I wrote this the way I did and what effect I was trying to attain.
Some of those people didn't get the message you sent out; Which is ashame, because they may never find the true magic in life. Science is just another way to explain the magic to those; "less open minded" people.
I love what you wrote. And do believe in magic
(in a young girls heart, how the music can free her whenever it starts)
:D
I suppose that anything that can't yet be explained, has a magical quality to it. Obviously those things have an explanation, we just don't know it yet, but not understanding it makes it beautiful and mystical. Things like why we love and laugh, even though it doesn't keep us alive. Anyways, I think I get what the author of this post is getting at.
On a slightly related note, I love magicians. Even though they aren't perfoming magic, there is an art to fooling the audience and illusions. Its pretty much a type of acting.
Like what you've read? Well, then here's more:
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tricia0711