I hope this is not political.
I’m disturbed by the video of a doctor that was promoted before Facebook et. al. took it down, in which a medically-licensed lady espouses similar beliefs that are talked about on this and other forums.
Well they are probably more crazy but still … she talks about witches, demons, astral sex, etc. With the exception of the medical claims, it all sounded way too familiar and I became really uncomfortable, like is that how we seem to other people? Are we just espousing backwards folklore as fact instead of living in the scientific reality of the 21st century?
We know that sleep paralysis isn’t caused by demons and dreams don’t cause gynecological problems. But how do we reconcile a pagan/witchy life with known science and medicine? We may talk about magick and spirits here, but I dare say no one would ever go to a medical professional who blamed our problems on aliens and witches. Suddenly I’m questioning everything and feeling really bummed.
Why can’t both exist together? I don’t really understand the idea that there can only be one or the other.
I use to want to be a child psychologist or a general psychologist, wanted to mix in my practice. However, I wouldnt say we, mainly because anyone can talk about angels, demons, and so forth but doesn’t quite mean they’re sane. In today’s age general occultists/practitioners get blended in with wackjobs, not to say this person is one.
Yeah, I’m just having a spiritual crisis today. I found her beliefs to be very unbecoming a professional, then I was like, oh dear, here I am wanting to follow a witchy path or whatever you want to call it.
The historian in me is like, okay she comes from Cameroon, and her beliefs seem to be a mix of African and Christian. Then I remember the discussion we’ve been having here about whether ubi and demons in general are like medieval monsters or hot anime characters, and that just takes me down more historical rabbit-holes.
I’m not worried that “oooh everything is evil and magic 8-balls are teaching witchcraft to children,” but instead continuing to question if I’m being silly to talk to gods and spirits.
You don’t need to reconcile them, they’re the same thing. Modern science is a very strict field that is restricted to only physically observable phenomena, a very small subset of reality with very strong assumptions an rules that set most magickal work as outside the frame of reference to even talk about, but doesn’t contradict magick.
I read a book by Laurie Cabot I believe. She stated that magick is something that at this time cannot be measured by science. However, science does seem to be discovering things about how things work that witches have known for centuries.