Magic Forums
When it comes to spells I do not believe that all of them are possible or physically achievable, at least at the current time being or in our present physical state. Spells such as: flying, moving forward or backwards in time (and I don't mean scrying, I am referring to spells concerning physical time travel of the physical body, not subjective experiences), transforming, gender switching, gaining immortality, shooting fireballs out of your hands, etc, etc.
I propose several explanations for the previous claim I made. While it is nice to say motivational things such as " there are no limits but what you put on yourself" I do not think that is always practical or rational. We, as humans, have set limitations. And so when it comes to magick, we have limitations there as well. (And I am not referring to magick's limitations: I believe magick has a potential far above our own). People argue that belief and willpower can alter this. " If you just believe it will work, it will! " or " Well, you just didn't put enough will power into it... are statements I've heard frequently.
Self limitation is not the only type of limitation. Because we are human and we do live in this plane and we do live on Earth: the laws of physics, quantum mechanics and other laws apply to us. Would you deny that gravity is an active force, capable of being seen in our day to day life? Pick up an apple and drop it. Did it fall to the ground or float off? A good deal of these laws and applied theorems are observable in everyday life. And while people like to try and separate science and magick: the two can go together. You do not have to pick either or. And while either can be taken to an extreme, if you hold a sensible view of both it does not necessarily conflict. A quote from someone on the site, today actually, said: " Science and Magick are the same thing, though one is physical and the other not... Science is the physical aspect of Magick and the latter being an etheric form of the former ."
Perhaps some of these things *could* be possible one day, but currently we do not necessarily posses whatever it is that would make them so. We tend to be quick to jump into something and say "that's impossible" without providing reasons why and that in and of itself is not the right thing to do either. I think it would be sensible to be scientific about this. Teleportation, transformation, etc are all things which heavily involve science and magick. To even begin to comprehend this you would have to understand the makeup of the human body: compounds, molecules, DNA, functionality. You would have to understand how the universe works, physics, quantum mechanics. And that's just starting the long list of things you would have to know, and be able to alter and control. That's the key part. No human can change things like that. It is a limitation. Now, it's been debated that there are ways around this and some I think are plausible. For instance, while you cannot *physically* transform or shape shift your body on this plane, people have said it is entirely possible to alter yourself in such a manner on the AP or spiritually: and that's a whole different scenario. Under those conditions, it may be achievable.
I wrote an article awhile back on Transhumanism, which is roughly defined as a philosophy of life that encourages humans to seek development of higher selfs, to pursue evolution of intelligent life beyond the limitations it currently stands at using rational thinking, technology and science. They believe in taking baby steps to achieve what we call human limitation. The key to this is that even those scientists working towards these things will openly admit that at our current stage and knowing what we know about the universe, these things are not achievable *currently* .
And I do not mean to be discouraging! I think through study and observation we can understand the way things function better and grasp an awareness of the world around us. I truly believe humans to be capable of amazing feats. I believe magick to be potentially limitless, though our use of it may not be so. I believe magick to do wonders as well. I am also not saying that belief is not important. It is! Belief does hold its place in both science and (especially in) magick. Belief can be a good thing.
I want to know what people really and truly think about belief and limitation: what they would think is achievable vs. things that are still "impossible" and not capable of being reached as of yet.
*Note: this is a personal opinion and viewpoint on the matter. I do not claim everything to be set in stone or undeniably accurate. The sources are below, and you can check them if you wish. You have every right to your own belief, and are welcome to share it.*
Sources(remove spaces in links):
http://www.freebookspot.es/Comments.aspx?Element_ID=14896
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/laws-of-nature/
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm/
http://bioweb.wku.edu/courses/biol280/280mat.html
http://staff.jccc.net/pdecell/metabolism/thermodyn.html
http://www.alcyone.com/max/physics/laws/
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