I have explained before that I am not usually a believer of the explanations that are made for the "Unexplainable". People seem to have the tendency to come up with strange and unusual idea's to explain the things they are afraid of, or, in their ignorance, have no explanation for.
Today, I'm being a sceptic about magic and the paranormal. Well, not just today, all of the time in fact.
Or at least, I try to be.
A recent conversation about the matter with a friend led onto the subject of paranormal activity, as in the films. Now, I have seen the first 3 films, and they do scare me, I'm almost not ashamed to admit. When I said this, my friend started talking about how freaked out she was that they were based on true stories. I had to interrupt her, and tell that they weren't really, and that statement was just added for the pure affect.
But I continued from there.... Even if they had said that with the honest intent of basing the events on an first hand account of what had happened, it's still not true. Paranormal happenings are events created and fabricated to help explain strange occurrences which people would usually have doubted, or haven't the knowledge to attempt to explain.
Paranormal investigators, in nearly all circumstances, turn out to be fakes, frauds, delusional or downright liars. It is strange to think we live in a society, where this kind of forgery, is openly used and commonly acceptable.
Mediums and the like, for example, who claim to channel "mystic energies" in order to communicate with the deceased, are most commonly visited by grieving members of the public, looking to seem commune or closure with their deceased husbands, parents, children etc. I fail to see how allowing a woman who claims to be "in touch with the other side" to lie to people in order to benefit for themselves.
The same goes for people who claim to have "magic healing hands", and seem to benefit generously from supposedly healing the sick and feeble, whether through god or through magic it doesn't matter - neither has any realistic affect. For those who are miraculously healed, there is a rational, logical explanation for everything (which does not involve divine intervention or mystical energies). Just because you cannot understand or concoct this explanation, does not mean it simply fails to exist.
Magic is also guilty of this failing. All forms of magic, which claim to be able to control people, create money, love, happiness and health, simply prays on the desperate and despairing, in order to try and soothe them, and in some cases, to benefit financially. Magic itself was invented in a time where science was sorely lacking, and people were desperate for a way to explain the good and evil that occurred in their world. Some people claim that magic is simply science which is unexplained, in which case, you are still merely fabricating a false pretence of something logical, in order to explain something you don't understand. Just admit that you don't understand that. People ask me why I enjoy watching Magicians such as Darren Brown, if I don't believe in magic. The answer is Darren Brown and his affiliates are Illusionists - they do not claim to do magic, and In a lot of cases, they explain how they did what they did. Those who don't, you can still understand that they did it in a normal, realistic fashion.
Books on magic, available for the public to buy -those that contain spells for them to use - are a very public homage to fraud. These books nearly always insist that the spell will not simply be enough - for instance, you cannot cast a spell that will make you thin, and simply sit on your arse eating chocolate all day, you must eat well and do some exercise. You must have willpower, and sometimes "the timing of your spell may not be right, in which case you should try again."
Do you know why they say this? BECAUSE THEY DON'T WORK AT ALL! IT'S ALL LIES!
They are giving you the spell as incentive - because you probably wont do something on your own, if you believe in spells, but if a spell tells you that you have to do something for it to work, then you would probably walk around with shards of "lucky glass" in your shoe if you thought it would help!
Spells do nothing special whatsoever, they simply attempt to harness and kick start your own personal willpower.
So my friend asks me why I wear crucifixes, or pentagrams, or collect stones, or feathers or crystals.
"Because they are pretty - it's a stylistic choice... I simply like how they look. Precious stones and gems are very pretty, and decorative, that's why I have them."
The reason I buy stones that claim to have special qualities or powers is because of the sentiment. I don't believe they are really going to work - I don't think they will actually heal you or make you happier, but it's the thought behind it that I want. It's just a physical way of me representing my wishes and hopes for someone. If someone believes that what are essentially glammed up rocks have these magic powers, then good for them, I hope it helps. But I don't believe it myself.
So my friend asks me why I watch films about fantasy and paranormal happenings, or horror films like paranormal activity, or even the show Supernatural, and still get affected.
It's because those shows tap into the part of your psyche that makes you doubt what you believe - I'm fully aware they aren't real, and that everything is still fiction, but it taps into the part of me that doubts my own self-assurance. In fact, my favourite horror films, are ones that I know, that if someone was crazy and messed up enough, could actually happen, whereas that's not the case for paranormal activity. But it still creeps me out, because it's a well made film, with good builds of suspense.
And even so, just because I don't believe in the supernatural, does not mean I am not allowed to for the sake of pretence and entertainment. Films, books and TV shows are a form of escapism and fantasy, to distract us from the harsh reality of everyday life. It still doesn't mean I believe in them when the credits roll.
Again, believe in whatever makes you happy, this is by no means a campaign to change people's view of the world, it's just a vent for my opinion, to help you get to know me, a little better.
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