Magic is an illusion

I practice magic for a long time by now. And all this time I try to find some working magical system. When I say working, I mean result oriented and based upon something more valuable than visualization and imagination. The best of what I saw up to now are different kinds of personal achievements which I can’t call system or NLP-like systems which are definitely not magic. I assume that different altered states of consciousness used in voodoo or shamanism can produce some valuable results but again it’s not a system. Here’s quote from Hyatt’s and Black’s “Urban Voodoo” … Wiccans, ceremonial magicians, or followers of Aleister Crowley. These are all groups who claim to practice “magic” including the evocation of invisible intelligences. After decades of experience with these groups we can state that, for the most part, they do absolutely nothing of the sort. … For anyone raised in a culture that suppresses psychic phenomena, and reduces serious discussion of non-human intelligences to “bible stories” (as Christian, Jewish, and Islamic cultures do), coming face to face with actual phenomena can be a catastrophic shock. The way such things are dealt with in most esoteric groups is no different, for the most part, than in a church. For such people, a single encounter with a “ghost”, or with a UFO, can be the most devastating experience of a lifetime, because it changes everything. So what is the “everything” that can but shouldn’t be changed? Why do people love action or horror movies? Because it gives them what they can’t get any other way: intense emotions and distraction from everyday concerns. This is well known fact. “Contemporary magic” does the same but instead of emotions it gives feeling of power or freedom and usually both. This illusion is what “magicians” try to keep. And it’s what can be ruined by facing the truth whatever this truth is.