Mind Over Magick: Making Magick in Everyday Life

How do we know if magick is real?
 
Wherever you find people, there are stories about magick. Some are myth or folklore, others are tales meant to thrill and intrigue us, and others still are accounts of actual magick, real spirits, and the energetic properties of our natural world. The question is whether or not any of it is true. Mind Over Magick by Tracy Nicholas tackles this complicated―and often personal―inquiry by picking apart what we know, what we don’t know, and what we can’t possibly know, leaving us with an evidence-based case for the existence of magick in our world. She demonstrates many instances:

• How the placebo effect shows us that we can heal our bodies with no mechanical intervention
• How all living beings as well as the earth, stars, and planets have electromagnetic fields that interact on a regular basis and affect one another
• How multiple animals and insects, such as the platypus or bees, can detect the energy around them

Through a mix of philosophy, science, and common sense, Mind Over Magick examines what we can infer about magick from what we already know to be true. Nicholas identifies the psychological need to believe in a magick that supernaturally fixes all of our problems without discounting the reality that magick is accessible to us all.

Tracy Nicholas works at the intersection where folklore, mindful living, and creativity meet. As an animist, nature is central to her spiritual practice, and living in a way that reduces her impact on the planet’s resources is an ongoing focus for her. Folkloring, the podcast she hosts, explores practical folklore and ways to bring it off the page and into our day-to-day lives. She is the theatre and film correspondent for the top-ranking show The Folklore Podcast. She is a folklore researcher and a game designer who creates escape room–style games in a subscription-box format. Tracy has a degree in stage management from Columbia College and a master of science in learning and organizational change from Northwestern University. She lives in Chicagoland’s North Shore, where she rarely lives up to the exacting standards of her feline supervisor, Puck.