Do You Believe in Magic?!

Just finished reading Michael Specter's article about "Placebos" in the New Yorker.  My take: if you believe that those little sugar pills are healing you, you may be healed.  If you believe that "Doctor" is a healer, you may be healed.  Maybe the pill, the doctor are just vehicles for "self-healing?!"


That sugar pill, that doctor can actually help trigger a change of your brain chemistry.  Sometimes it comes down to what you "believe!"  You believe you will be healed and Ipso Facto - Shaazzammm - you are healed, baby!


This comes after a conversation in the kitchen last night about "magic."  If someone decides that magic doesn't really exist in the universe, that everything is just a random collection of events, well, guess what?   The universe is just a random, unconnected, collection of events.


Alternatively if you decide that there is magic in the universe, that everything is somehow connected, well, guess what?  Magical shit (Loosely defined as unexplainable phenomena, or how about even if it's explained, it's spooky and non-rational and weird?) happens all the time, you see connections everywhere.


Is it all really that simple?  Yeah, probably.  I mean, is there some "objective" truth out there?  Not really, it's only "subjects" who are searching for that truth, so everything comes through that subjective filter.  So do I believe in magic?  Yeah, I guess so, because I can and do believe!