One of my own weird beliefs is very close to this one: Huge amounts of everything accepted by modern western medicine and psychology today was used by people in some way before being “scientifically” explained. Whether we’re talking about using compounds from particular plants to treat particular ailments, or using particular psychological tricks to alter peoples’ thoughts and behavior, science is literally eating magic’s lunch because “magic” is often where science looks to get ideas for hypotheses to test.
Because of this history, and the history of science being very confidently wrong about many things in the past, I don’t find it problematic to use personally pieces of “magic” or “superstition” as lifestyle or cognitive building blocks when they suit a particular purpose better than the available scientific ones.
Then again, I think that what “most people” need to learn from a foray into the occult is the ability to build their own systems to meet their needs, rather than just raw weirdness.
One of my own weird beliefs is very close to this one: Huge amounts of everything accepted by modern western medicine and psychology today was used by people in some way before being “scientifically” explained. Whether we’re talking about using compounds from particular plants to treat particular ailments, or using particular psychological tricks to alter peoples’ thoughts and behavior, science is literally eating magic’s lunch because “magic” is often where science looks to get ideas for hypotheses to test.
Because of this history, and the history of science being very confidently wrong about many things in the past, I don’t find it problematic to use personally pieces of “magic” or “superstition” as lifestyle or cognitive building blocks when they suit a particular purpose better than the available scientific ones.
Then again, I think that what “most people” need to learn from a foray into the occult is the ability to build their own systems to meet their needs, rather than just raw weirdness.