Magic: Who thinks they can do it, and why otherwise intelligent people buy it.

[BabylonHoruv]

why do you need to trick yourself if you already know it's a trick?

how is that even possible without some serious cognitive dissonance?

Need?  So that I can achieve magical results.

you dont.

Seems like I do to me.  Which is the important part for me.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

why do you need to trick yourself if you already know it's a trick?

how is that even possible without some serious cognitive dissonance?

Need?  So that I can achieve magical results.

you dont.

Seems like I do to me.  Which is the important part for me.

<insert Harry Potter pic here>

[Faust]

why do you need to trick yourself if you already know it's a trick?

how is that even possible without some serious cognitive dissonance?

Need?  So that I can achieve magical results.

you dont.

Seems like I do to me.  Which is the important part for me.

Delude yourself with as many simulacra as you want. What you are doing isn't magic and the importance you are placing on it is on the part that doesn't do anything.
The effect has different roots and just because you say "well I don't want to think about it" makes it the exact same as religious delusion.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

why do you need to trick yourself if you already know it's a trick?

how is that even possible without some serious cognitive dissonance?

Need?  So that I can achieve magical results.

you dont.

Seems like I do to me.  Which is the important part for me.

Delude yourself with as many simulacra as you want. What you are doing isn't magic and the importance you are placing on it is on the part that doesn't do anything.
The effect has different roots and just because you say "well I don't want to think about it" makes it the exact same as religious delusion.

Precisely.  When all the sigils are drawn and the all the "love under will"s have been uttered, reality has not changed.  It's still there.

Kipling wrote a funny poem about something like this once.

[NotPublished]

Damn it goes on doesn't it 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Damn it goes on doesn't it 

I blame you for this shit.

[NotPublished]

I blame you for this shit.

Least the other one is about Quantum

[Faust]

I blame you for this shit.

Least the other one is about Quantum

I'm not reading that, every time I see someone misunderstanding QM or warping to their own needs I feel horrible dismay.

[NotPublished]

I am avoiding it to, the whole thing pains me.

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

Has anybody added argumentative smart-ass hairsplitters and nitpickers to the list of people who believe in magic (or at any rate believe in a certain specific and limited sense provided that there's an argument to be had by doing so)? Because i fall into that category.

Many practices which are commonly labeled as "magic" actually DO work, albeit not necessarily by the supernatural means that the sorceror claims them to work by. For example, it is a widely accepted fact that a Voodoo Curse CAN indeed kill you (provided that you sincerely believe that it can kill you). The actual mechanism by which death is caused, however, is not the intervention of vengeful spirits, but rather through psychological manipulation of the victim, resulting a combination of illness induced by the physiological symptoms of extreme stress and potentially self-destructive changes in emotion and behavior.
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_death and http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/full/92/10/1593)

[The Johnny]

Has anybody added argumentative smart-ass hairsplitters and nitpickers to the list of people who believe in magic (or at any rate believe in a certain specific and limited sense provided that there's an argument to be had by doing so)? Because i fall into that category.

Many practices which are commonly labeled as "magic" actually DO work, albeit not necessarily by the supernatural means that the sorceror claims them to work by. For example, it is a widely accepted fact that a Voodoo Curse CAN indeed kill you (provided that you sincerely believe that it can kill you). The actual mechanism by which death is caused, however, is not the intervention of vengeful spirits, but rather through psychological manipulation of the victim, resulting a combination of illness induced by the physiological symptoms of extreme stress and potentially self-destructive changes in emotion and behavior.
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_death and http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/full/92/10/1593)

THAT IS NOT MAGIC

THAT IS BEING A GULLIBLE NOOB

AND IF BEING A GULLIBLE NOOB MAKES YOU A DEAD NOOB

GOOD

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Has anybody added argumentative smart-ass hairsplitters and nitpickers to the list of people who believe in magic (or at any rate believe in a certain specific and limited sense provided that there's an argument to be had by doing so)? Because i fall into that category.

Many practices which are commonly labeled as "magic" actually DO work, albeit not necessarily by the supernatural means that the sorceror claims them to work by. For example, it is a widely accepted fact that a Voodoo Curse CAN indeed kill you (provided that you sincerely believe that it can kill you). The actual mechanism by which death is caused, however, is not the intervention of vengeful spirits, but rather through psychological manipulation of the victim, resulting a combination of illness induced by the physiological symptoms of extreme stress and potentially self-destructive changes in emotion and behavior.
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_death and http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/full/92/10/1593)

THAT IS NOT MAGIC

THAT IS BEING A GULLIBLE NOOB

AND IF BEING A GULLIBLE NOOB MAKES YOU A DEAD NOOB

GOOD

I think JohNyx may be my favorite new poster of 2009.

[The Johnny]

Has anybody added argumentative smart-ass hairsplitters and nitpickers to the list of people who believe in magic (or at any rate believe in a certain specific and limited sense provided that there's an argument to be had by doing so)? Because i fall into that category.

Many practices which are commonly labeled as "magic" actually DO work, albeit not necessarily by the supernatural means that the sorceror claims them to work by. For example, it is a widely accepted fact that a Voodoo Curse CAN indeed kill you (provided that you sincerely believe that it can kill you). The actual mechanism by which death is caused, however, is not the intervention of vengeful spirits, but rather through psychological manipulation of the victim, resulting a combination of illness induced by the physiological symptoms of extreme stress and potentially self-destructive changes in emotion and behavior.
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_death and http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/full/92/10/1593)

THAT IS NOT MAGIC

THAT IS BEING A GULLIBLE NOOB

AND IF BEING A GULLIBLE NOOB MAKES YOU A DEAD NOOB

GOOD

I think JohNyx may be my favorite new poster of 2009.

Ive learned to appreciate you too.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Has anybody added argumentative smart-ass hairsplitters and nitpickers to the list of people who believe in magic (or at any rate believe in a certain specific and limited sense provided that there's an argument to be had by doing so)? Because i fall into that category.

Many practices which are commonly labeled as "magic" actually DO work, albeit not necessarily by the supernatural means that the sorceror claims them to work by. For example, it is a widely accepted fact that a Voodoo Curse CAN indeed kill you (provided that you sincerely believe that it can kill you). The actual mechanism by which death is caused, however, is not the intervention of vengeful spirits, but rather through psychological manipulation of the victim, resulting a combination of illness induced by the physiological symptoms of extreme stress and potentially self-destructive changes in emotion and behavior.
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_death and http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/full/92/10/1593)

THAT IS NOT MAGIC

THAT IS BEING A GULLIBLE NOOB

AND IF BEING A GULLIBLE NOOB MAKES YOU A DEAD NOOB

GOOD

I think JohNyx may be my favorite new poster of 2009.

Ive learned to appreciate you too.

Not that I don't hate you or anything, it's just that I hate all the other new users so much more.

[Salty]

Has anybody added argumentative smart-ass hairsplitters and nitpickers to the list of people who believe in magic (or at any rate believe in a certain specific and limited sense provided that there's an argument to be had by doing so)? Because i fall into that category.

Many practices which are commonly labeled as "magic" actually DO work, albeit not necessarily by the supernatural means that the sorceror claims them to work by. For example, it is a widely accepted fact that a Voodoo Curse CAN indeed kill you (provided that you sincerely believe that it can kill you). The actual mechanism by which death is caused, however, is not the intervention of vengeful spirits, but rather through psychological manipulation of the victim, resulting a combination of illness induced by the physiological symptoms of extreme stress and potentially self-destructive changes in emotion and behavior.
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_death and http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/full/92/10/1593)

No.
Just no.

Psychology does not kill people. Ever.  

Don't you think that if it were Fact people would be using this stiff to, oh I dunno, cure fucking cancer. Or MS? Or AIDS?