So,I'm technically a beginner to magick and spell casting, but numerous times on this site ,more experienced members have mentioned that its generally impossible to make transformations to your body and likewise due to the limitations of nature that we have on the physical plane. But, I was reading about the work done by a Dr. Joe Dispenza, where he showcases that thoughts can affect and make the body undergo transformations. Also , thoughts basically are just a form of intent, which we usually use to fuel our magick spells, so does't that mean that with thoughts and therefore, intent , we can alter our bodies to some degree or have I possibly misunderstood something?
Thoughts can cause alterations in your body to some degree. However, you cannot transform your body with only thoughts.
Example: If you are wanting to lose 100 pounds, you have to move your body and make certain changes to your food intake. If you simply think to yourself "I'm going to lose 100 pounds" and do not make any changes in you life, it won't happen. No matter how much you think it or how much you want it, it won't work without increased activity and positive food changes.
You cannot change hereditary conditions, genetic issues, or severe illness (diabetes, cancer, depression, and so on) with only thought. They require additional assistance from trained medical professionals.
I think the term “transformation” is a bit vague, and there is a spectrum of things that transformation can fall under. For instance, there are some people who look for spells to change their eye color instantly or even to shapeshift. Physical shapeshifting is unrealistic, but may exist on the astral plane.
I’ve heard people who claim to quantum shift say that people point out to them that they look different after they shift. Also, glamour magick can be effective if done correctly. Instead of providing concrete physical changes, glamours mainly effect the way that people perceive you.
Wall of text incoming! Apologies in advance, this is the sort of stuff I spend hours and hours happily contemplating. I tried to manage the rambling, honest!
-----
Thought and attitude can have direct effect on the body, specifically with health. But it isn't quite how some people like to think. One doesn't remove disease by thinking happy thoughts. But instead by using will and effort (which begin as thoughts and choices) to change and improve one's attitudes and habits.
Changing one's diet, cutting out unnatural sugars, increasing the use of whole and unprocessed foods, generating a habit of regular activity, developing tools to observe and respond to stress in healthy ways, caring for one's self both physically and mentally. Thoughts manifest in action which then offer transformation of attitude and habits which then transforms life.
You are not changing your body, you are changing your actions in order to create an environment for the body to become what it should be. The body is a machine designed to repair itself, to seek internal harmonious function for as long as it can.
It is an odd modern perspective, this idea of 'creating health'. Health is already what the body is after. We are not creating anything by eating healthier, removing toxins, and increasing activity. We are removing things that have been interfering with our body's homeostasis so it no longer needs to waste energy and effort compensating.
I may have gone on a bit of a tangent there... but the point is that the body is designed to be a certain way, and it works to be that way. It is a physical thing that needs physical means to affect it.
Magic, on the other hand, is a non-physical thing. It is spiritual, vibratory, energetic, emotional, mental. You can change your weight over time because Changing the mind changes one's physical actions. And Changing one's physical actions has physical results on muscles, fat, energy, etc. Weight is a function of a change the body is already designed to do. We have cells whose job is specifically to store energy. They grow, become lipids, become fat. It is a functioning mechanism that is designed to respond to circumstances. Change the circumstances, change their behavior.
But even something seemingly small, like Changing one's eye color, can not be done through magic. Eye color isn't affected by activity or emotion. There is no gland to change or nutrition to consume that affects it. It is not an effect of our circumstances. It is an expression of our genes; our blueprint and construction. A part of ourselves that is much more rigid. It can't be changed because it doesn't change. Eyes are not designed to change.
Likewise, one can not sprout wings or manifest fur. The body has no function for it. There is no underlying process within the operation of the body to allow it to change it's fundamental structure. Insects can, and do, because they have mechanisms for it. Processes that trigger, like human puberty does. Generating a state of hibernation. Setting mechanics into motion for the body to consume itself and re-enter an embryonic state. A self-contained self induced pregnancy where a new form can grow all over again. We don't do that.
Now healing, that is something the body is designed -to- do. It is very good at it. And it is very strongly influenced by mental state along with physical actions. When the structure is damaged it has a multitude of mechanisms to restore the damage and return itself to the way it was, or to adapt and continue functioning around the damage. In all honesty if ever the animal kingdom wanted to tell a monster-horror story we would be the unstoppable stars. We can lose limbs, we can lose organs, we can be punctured, bitten, broken, poisoned, opened up for surgery and get our internal bits sat on our chest for an hour, then get it all shoved back in again and still be fine. The only things that can stop a person quickly is catastrophic damage to the brain, heart, or lungs. Sudden immense loss of blood, shock from extreme pain, or overwhelming infection. And the more determined a person is to survive, the harder they are to overwhelm. In desperate moments a person can be clinically unconscious, at the verge of death, and still physically fighting to survive.
To me this is one of the key places (and purposes) for the presence of magic. ...And spirituality in general. It creates an environment of Self awareness, Self determination, and release of negative thoughts and stresses. It allows us to mentally attack our diseases, to contemplate their roots, and to be aware of how we are contributing to our own ill health so we can transform ourselves mentally and emotionally. And in so doing we compliment and reinforce our Self-care physically.
To me this is where actual value of effort lies. Even if there were some way discovered to do these impossible things. Growing wings, Changing colors of eyes and hair... what purpose would it even serve. How would it improve one's life, make it easier or better. How exactly would it bring enrichment or personal growth? If in the end it wouldn't help you be a better person... then what's the point?
Even being one of those wacky people who considers himself an Otherkin, I wouldn't want to manifest my imaginings even if I found I could. I might gain a bit of comfort, sure. But I'd lose the human experience I came here to learn from.
Which is another can of worms topic when it comes to the desire for transformation. In a nutshell, I have a perspective that we exist and live in order to have both good and bad experiences we can learn from. We set ourselves up for specific challenges and hardships to teach ourselves lessons we want to achieve. It is like school in a roundabout way. If we spend all of our time in math classes dreaming about art, we won't learn any math. And then later when we find out math is within the art we want to make, we lose out on both. But if we observe and learn math as an artist we may suddenly find we are doing both. Each expressed within the other.
