Having read I believe extensive occult literature I have serious doubt on is validity. Most of the books published contain religious and compromised histories and validity.
Confident that any readings of me or curses would be completely inane.
I can’t help but think it’s all fantasy and effectiveness a result of the subjects Pareidolia effect.
[quote=“Black hat, post:1, topic:5233”]Having read I believe extensive occult literature I have serious doubt on is validity. Most of the books published contain religious and compromised histories and validity.
Confident that any readings of me or curses would be completely inane.
I can’t help but think it’s all fantasy and effectiveness a result of the subjects Pareidolia effect.[/quote]
It seems to be the opinion and experience - based on results - of most people on this forum that magick is a real thing, that spirits are real and that spells, divination, etc., do work, and I know it’s certainly my own experience.
If you’re genuinely curious about whether magick is real, then there are plenty of experiences logged on here that may change or at least open your mind, provided you haven’t locked it down into confirmation bias.
But if you’re simply here to have a laugh then you’re wasting your time, we’ve heard it all before. 
Either way, if you plan to remain with the forum and post a little longer, please take a moment to post an introduction here - it’s one of the Rules of this forum - Rules you’d be well advised to read.
Hey there Black Hat, I urge you to give it a try yourself rather than just reading on the topic to form an opinion. We all have of course differences in natural talent, but your dogged pursuit of the topic gives me cause to believe you have some innate ability in the field otherwise I wonder why you would continue to waste your time with ‘fantasy’. Bear in mind that you need to have confidence in yourself whilst attempting practical magick otherwise your fears that it just won’t work will be realized. Best of luck to you.
I tend to question everything too, sometimes second guessing maybe a little to much. “Is this really possible?” “Did I really just do that?” “Am I imaging this whole thing?” Personally I think that to approach this with some degree of skepticism is not a bad thing. Be open minded yes, but not so open minded your brain falls right out. I’m still very new at this, but recently I’ve started to have my own confirmations and been left admittedly still a bit shocked. Of course from that point the only thing to do is keep going. Question, push the limits of possible, find out what’s real and whAts not. The general thinking around here seems to basically be that we shouldn’t just take someone else’s word for it lol