Survey Time

[Gregory Paul Stolze]

At 04:02 AM 2/19/99 +0000, James Palmer wrote:
>What kind of experience of/opinions on 'the occult' in Real Life do you
>all have?  I'm interested to see whether there's a higher proportion of
>'believers' here than elsewhere in RPG's. 

It's 9:22 AM on a fairly sunny day, so I don't believe in magick at this
moment.  Ask me at midnight in a graveyard on Halloween and you might get a
different answer.  

But seriously: I'm very skeptical about magick claims.  Exceptional claims
require exceptional proofs, etc.  On the other hand, a knee-jerk
disbeliever is just as foolish as a knee-jerk believer: I've spoken to a
number of athiests who are just as passionate and irrational in their
disbelief as any number of truly religious people.  Paranormal claims are
impossible to COMPLETELY disprove, just as you can never PROVE there's no
such thing as an all-white crow.

That said, I have had a "mystic experience" in the strictest sense - that
is, an overpowering sense of the immanence of God.  But I guess I wouldn't
consider it occult or supernatural: indeed, to me it seemed more natural
than anything else I've ever experienced.

-G.
1899 Phrenologist: Your son has the sloping forehead of a sexual deviant:
better put him in an asylum.
1999 Gene Therapist: Your fetus has the "date rape" gene.  Better abort.