[Zuvuya42]

Yeah, Crowley was actually quite brilliant and very profound, but he was also a total dick (check out "the law is for all", a deciphered version of the "book of the law"). Thats life, isnt it?

Like many have said, magical ritual is just a tool to access energy or manifest will into being. Its useful for some, but others find it a distraction. I think its fascinating and find it fun, but i dont take it too seriously after the fact. I kind of like the dramatic and mysterious. Ritual also aids in "intellectual decompression" and can make being in the right space to manifest easier.

As per LoneWolfs theory of magic: Couldnt modern scientific viewpoints merely be a physical representation of things we cannot fully perceive via science? If demonic possession and soul woundedness is juts mental illness and psychological/emotional trauma, why does shamanic and other types of exorcism/healing work so well (case in point - there are clinics in south america that provide rehabilitation for crack and/or heroin addiction using shamanic rituals. Said have the lowest recidivism rate of all rehab programs)?
Maybe trauma (often the cause or trigger of mental illness) also occurs energetically and allows so called demonic possession to take place due to the souls flight from the body, which we have simply called mental illness and dissociation since science currently lacks the ability to measure things spiritual?
Why does science always need to conflict with the spiritual? Cant the two be perceiving the same thing, from different perspectives - and if so, arent they both correct? A good example is the scientific big bang at the creation of the universe, this bears striking resemblance to Brahma chanting Ohm and vibrating the universe into being in hinduism. Perhaps in this instance a "big bang" was the physical manifestation of Brahma chanting Ohm? If this were a purely scientific event and there were humans when it happened, we could say that they witnessed the event and interpreted it as god chanting, but that could not have been the case - so where did that knowledge come from if not a genuinely mystical awareness? It seems important to treat all aspects of a person in healing, and to interact with all levels of reality when altering or creating it.

I digress a bit, but i think it helps the idea that the mystical, be it LOA or Magic Ritual, is a valid way of accessing reality, and may be even more effective than scientific methods as it effects the under-workings or gears of reality, which then become physical. So to can physical actions effect the "gears" that turn existence, as such, physically performed magical rituals may actually have validity in creating reality. Study sanskrit and the Rig Veda for a take on language, vibration, and the act of creation.