Shaman - Rain Dance
If insufficient rain is causing crop failure then a Shaman is asked to do a rain dance, sacrifice a goat, or perform other rituals to appease the gods. The Shaman will wear a specific costume, sing or chant, dance, tell stories, etc. Local villagers will gather and perform related rituals. During these gatherings farmers will discuss strategies from previous droughts, what has worked before, and new ideas.
People will form bonds, work together, love together. Family and professional ties are created or reinforced. Resources are shared.
Some of the communal bonds will foster opportunities for cooperation in planting crops, harvests, or other actions that will improve crop yields in ways that are unrelated to actual alteration of rainfall.
If the Shaman’s magical effectiveness is determined by measuring the amount of rainfall after the ritual it might not be impressive. If the criteria were linked to what really matters ( crop yields ) then I would expect impressive results.
The Shaman’s dance ritual has actually and factually improved the community’s probable outcome during the drought.
The results of this magic are real and quantifiable.
Mystical crystals
There is a belief that certain minerals or stones have power to focus or alter life energy in ways that are beneficial. It would be easy to ascribe the perceived benefits as being caused entirely by a type of “placebo effect”.
For this discussion the placebo effect is measured by splitting a group of subjects into three groups for a double blind study. Group one receives no treatment, Group two receives pills with inert (inactive) ingredients, group three receives pills with the target active ingredients.
If the study reveals that group two and three improved equally but more than group one then all of the effectiveness is ascribed to the placebo effect. If group three improves more than one or two than at least some of the improvement is credited to the drug’s active ingredient.
Mystical crystals might activate the placebo effect for people who expect them to have power, but there is much more happening that is even more important to their potency.
Mystical crystals are part of a sub-culture. There is a self selecting type of people who gravitate to crystal shops, crystal displays, sharing crystal lore, etc. They often wear a certain type of cloths that signal to like-minded mystics that they are safe with their tribe. They perform rituals with the crystals and with other crystal people.
This is the real source of Magic in crystals.
I do not believe that most the powers ascribed to crystals are “real”. Nevertheless my sense of well-being is improved in places that value mystical crystals and with the sort of people who are likely to feel a similar impact. It would be entirely fair to say that the crystals benefited me just as a religious person might say that a church ritual benefited them.
