Real Ultimate Power, A Magical Flowchart Options

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This is something I see repeated over and over.

I remember my first foray into the occult/paranormal was at PsiPog. I asked, and I observed many, many, many people ask, what sort of things were possible with psychic powers. Most of the responses dealt with intangibles, like psi-balls or manipulating coincidence or auras. I don't mean to denigrate any magical or psychic practice that's involved with these things; it's just not what a lot of people are looking for.

A lot of responses also mentioned that physical things were possible, but the poster did not have the talent or experience to do them. These posts often came with a referral to one of the few members who did claim to have produced results. These members were always inundated with requests for advice, and to their credit they usually gave it. But no one would ever come back and say "thanks - it worked!" Instead, there was usually a long list of people wondering why they couldn't get the same results. Peebrain had some sort of question-and-answer service at the time, and literally hundreds of questions were exactly the same: I did everything right, I've been trying for years, why won't it work?

Not to single out PsiPog. The same thing can be observed on any forum, Tomekeeper's Library of Knowledge being my other most disappointing example. If they say you can produce a physical result, then they are almost always referring to someone else's experience; and if they're not, then no one can duplicate it.

Even worse, the people who reply that no you can't do anything tangible... are always the ones who type correctly, write well, and appear most knowledgeable. To be successful in magic, it seems, you must resign yourself to abilities much less impressive than those you might have first hoped for. (I'm not hoping for fireballs here... just to move a bit of fluff with my mind would be enough.)

This isn't intended to be an attack of any sort. It's just frustration with the state of affairs as I see it. The reason I haven't given up is that if magic is a discipline that requires dedication and hard work to succeed at, then it's only natural that most people give up before they can accomplish anything. Still, the noticeable vacuum of well-spoken(-written) people who claim physical results is... disheartening. Imperial Arts has given me hope, if nothing else (although again - no one can duplicate it!).


Edit: I forgot to include something in my chart. If I see one more "wit" reply with something like "if you want to start a fire, use a match!" I may be forced to stuff their words right down their throat. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/13.gif)

This post has been edited by Vilhjalmr: Nov 26 2009, 07:23 PM