Magic Forums

Recently I have read the book "Before You Cast a Spell" by Carl McColman, and it caused me to realize the odd similarities in how he presents the effects of magic and how the Church teaches the effects of prayer. However, I was always under the impression that there would be more personal things possible with the use of magic because, from what I gather, you are amassing "personal power" (as McColman puts it).

Now this begs the question: what is really possible with magic? If I, say, write a spell that asks specifically "to become great at this video game" am I wording it wrong? And, if so, will this cause the spell to become invalid? Must I, instead, adopt some mindset which must be discovered for myself?

Or how about those "love spells." Not the black mind control ones, but the ones where you simply ask to find love from wherever and it brings that person to you. My question is, how long does this sort of thing take? Years? Decades? If so, it's difficult for me to see why I should do anything occult because that's the experience I already have in the Church.