Recently, a group of self-styled skeptics (that is, they're actually debunkers) in New Zealand needed to do something to get some attention so they made a very public display of devouring "overdoses" of homeopathic remedies. According to this report, the result of this action "forced the New Zealand Council of Homeopaths to admit openly that their products do not contain any 'material substances.' Council spokeswoman Mary Glaisyer admitted publicly that 'there's not one molecule of the original substance remaining' in the diluted remedies that form the basis of this multi-million-dollar industry." For their decisive action and valuable revelation, I give the  NZ Skeptics and others who

One of the reasons magick is unsuccessful for many people is because they fail to understand something I've described many times: "Magick isn't something you do. Magick is something you are." Part of this—the important part for this discussion—is understanding that magick is going on 24/7. We're all doing magick all the time. It is because our thoughts and practices are not focused on our goals that we send contradictory signals onto the astral plane, the level of reality where things manifest spiritually in ways that must inevitably result in their physical manifestation. The example I like to give is that of a person who spends five minutes a day doing a ritual for increased

One of the things I talked about as the keynote speaker for the 6th annual Conference on Pagan Studies at the Claremont Graduate College is the need for community. I wrote that simply writing to people through the internet is valuable, but not enough. We need to have in-person communication in order for the community to survive and thrive. I wrote: "The methodology for creating safe Neopagan community, however, is in place. In 1971, Carl Llewellyn Weschcke organized what may be the first modern U.S. occult festival in Minnesota, called Gnosticon. By 1974 he was holding the Witchmeet, perhaps the first modern U.S. Pagan festival. Over the next 35 years, the number of Pagan festivals has

When I was in high school I took several science classes that included performing experiments. It's a basic premise of science that under the same conditions, your experiments should show the same results. For example, if you fill a test tube with oxygen, then insert a lit match into the test tube, the flame should become brighter. If you perform the experiment and the flame goes out, it's assumed that you, the scientist, did something wrong. I believe that magick is (or should be considered) an experimental science. Curiously, most people look at a magickian, and if his or her magick didn't work, rather than assume that the magickian/scientist did something wrong, they automatically