Daran wrote:
Lift is not an occult power in the sense that I use the term because how it works can be explained by the normal laws of physics. To really be occult, a power should not follow the rules of physics.
In that sense, there are no occult powers. Everything follows the laws of physics; not everything about physics is known. All of the historical magics operate by mechanisms that are now widely known, well documented, and no longer magic, totally mundane functions. It wasn't until fairly recently that people realized that fire was a rapid oxidation process, before which all sorts of theories about flame, matter, and heat persisted. Nothing is magic once it is understood; gunpowder remained magical for centuries, as none of the components had the same property.
Quote:
Walking through a wall, staying at the bottom of a river for weeks without any aids or appearing in two places at the same time are things that are done by using occult powers. Birds fly the same way that airoplanes do and there is nothing occult about it as any child can demonstrate with a piece of folded paper in the shape of a wing.
Yes, those three are really tough to explain by physics as it is currently understood, which is not to say that they could not be. Birds soar the way that gliders do, and fly by evolution of microsurfaced feathers in a complicated layering system determined by physics. If it had been that obvious, gliders would have been common in the ancient world. Airplanes fly by the large quantity of thrust produced by propellers or turbines. The knowledge of lift was very much occult in the time of DaVinci. Without going into such gross violations of the modern understanding of the universe:
Consider near-term precognition of phone calls as an occult power; my friends all joke about how we can "page" each other mentally even if we haven't spoken in weeks -- explain that with physics! Set aside the misunderstanding that if it isn't reproducible in a controlled setting, it isn't real (this is not good science; astrophysics relies on observation of pulsars and quasars). What is required is for scientists to observe this phenomenon, document it, formulate a hypothesis, and construct a test of the hypothesis. We concluded that it was precognition and not telepathy, although some of the wilder coincidences spook us. Now all that's needed is a way for it to happen!
_________________
q/p