Reading Einstein’s biography by Walter Isaacson, and I’m struck by many things about his life and work. For one, he had an engineering degree, and was working in part time as a distraction from his day job. He had no lab, no funding, nothing more than his brain and what he could remember, plus all the books and paper he had. His contributions are the dream of every hipster and hobbyist – to do something real and important while keeping their day job. Which is certainly true for me.

Second, what he did in terms of disproving the aether theory and upending Newton’s conceptions of a static universe would be the equivalent of discovering magic to be real, or proving God’s existence (in reverse, kind of). These are audacious claims, and he proved them to be correct, through the observations of a solar eclipse by Sir Arthur Eddington in 1919.

In a stunning display of hubris, I’ll be attempting similar feats in this article. First, to demonstrate the existence of magic, by breaking it down into its component parts, and generating a testable hypothesis for each part.

If I’m successful in this venture, I’ll go ahead and prove the existence of God, and that we are, in fact, living in a simulation (simulation theory). As I elaborate these individual forces, it will become clear that the components overlap.

As disparate and fanciful as these ideas sound, they’re united in a firm intuition that I’ve had since my youth, that such stories as are compelling enough to imprint themselves in my consciousness, and of course, the Bible, cannot be without reference in the material world.

And, if you tell  me, Vaughn, you’re no Einstein, you’ll be in the company of all my teachers and supervisors. However, Einstein himself would never have accepted such a putdown, and neither will I. The limits of our world and what we can accomplish are defined entirely by our own imagination. I hope to demonstrate that in this post.

Component parts of magic:

• Ability of one object to exert its will on another through non-local effects, which are not detected by conventional instrumentation (magnetic, electrical, etc.) The objects themselves have resonance with one another, perhaps by sharing properties in common, or having a history.
• Minds have non-local properties. One mind may influence another from a distance.
• There is life after death. The dead influence the present world. They may be contacted.
• The objects which humans create have significance in more realms than just the physical. That which is destroyed by humans also has significance in more realms than the physical.
• Some magical systems posit a force which unites the universe which is only known to adepts. For example, Kabbalah suggests a source code for the world, which, when known and utilized, may alter the functions of that object.
  • The RPG Mage: The Ascension describes a mechanism in which each person can create their own reality, but most are not aware of it. When a magician is awakened, they may influence the world through beliefs, willpower, and actions.
    • Because most individuals are not aware of these capabilities, those who are aware must restrict themselves to acting in ways consistent with the dominant paradigm, or face punishment.
• There are realms beneath modern human detection, which some initiates may communicate with. Examples include elves, fairies, trolls, lost civilizations (Atlantis, etc.). Plants have their own properties, which may lead to powerful changes in humans and their circumstances, and materials such as metals have innate properties which may be exploited by initiates.
  • Fields such as ethnobotany explore relationships between humans and plants.
  • Alchemy was a field exploring these ideas regarding physical materials, with such proponents as Isaac Newton. Many of the experimental methods contributed to the development of modern chemistry and physics.

Components of God (Judeo-Christian):

• A non-local being who influences events without direct contact, or knowledge of those acted upon.
• Influence is unrestricted.
• There is a user’s guide to the universe, which was knit together over the course of hundreds of years from multiple sources.
  • There are conflicting accounts of the creation of the universe within this manual.
• Morality is defined by the correspondence of one’s actions to the instructions offered in the manual for the universe.
  • These instructions are often ambiguous, and have been variously interpreted as “Invade country A so that we can convert the participants to the knowledge of God” and “give away all your possessions and care for lepers.” Followers of either set of instructions are held up as examples of adherence to the instructions.
• God is defined as telepathic
  • Is capable of influencing minds from a distance, e.g., “and God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.”
  • Knows the content of every person’s mind
    • This concept pre-supposes a non-local human consciousness, one which goes beyond an emergent property of the biological system in which it’s hosted.
    • The content, which is known, will form the basis for the person’s ultimate destination, for torture and isolation unending, or reward and community unending.
      • The reward is usually the inverse of the circumstances of the person’s life; likewise, the punishment.
      • Although reward and punishment figure prominently in the teachings regarding the instruction manual, the torture is at times described as no longer an option for those who adhere to the example of the creator.
• The dead continue to live on, in a realm which may be accessed occasionally.
• God had a son, and his teachings and life led to him being tortured and brutally murdered, but he is to be emulated.
  • However, the emulation should not be a direct imitation, as this is seen as insane. Also, telling those in authority what they’re really worth is not well regarded by establishment, and actively discouraged by church practice.
• Each person is an eternal being. This existence is a trial to determine the ultimate worth of that being. There is an immediate aspect to the individual, and an eternal aspect.
• The instruction manual describes multiple episodes of magic: multiplication of food, healing of the blind, raising of the dead, teleportation, transmutation of substances, etc.
  • The faith itself may be assumed to be an initiation into an esoteric discipline, in which magical powers are the demonstration of internal devotion to the creator.
  • These powers are only embraced by a minority of the adherents to the religion.
• A paradox exists, in which an all powerful, all benevolent deity allows great evil to take place, and intervenes only at the periphery, and only at distant points in history. Many have asked, “hey man, what the hell?”

Components of Simulation Theory

• As computers become increasingly sophisticated, simulations may be run.
• If this current existence is listed as one reality among countless simulations, then it is most likely that this reality is not the parent reality, but is in fact, one simulation among many.
• As simulations generate simulations, the computing processes required to maintain these simulations will exceed the yield that such simulations offer, and this reality will be terminated.
• The judeo-christian conception of a temporal life which will indicate the true worth of the individual program is entirely consistent with simulation theory.
  • God as a concept only becomes plausible in the greater context of simulation theory.

These ideas are intermeshed, as mentioned previously.

A world which is a simulation may have its laws bent at random, to suit the overall purpose of the simulation.

A world wholly created by a single individual, and which is conducted with the sole purpose of testing hypotheses, would allow individuals to ascend to the highest level and create the maximum amount of damage, to thus test the worth of the individuals in the throng.

So, in a nesting-doll type arrangement, I have constructed a series of scenarios which encapsulate each other. Magic and religion may be demonstrated through a single series of experiments, or conjectures. If simulation theory is demonstrable, then both magic and religion are possible within their confines; the simulation should allow any programmable behavior within its confines.

Evidence for simulation: Vaughn may have been down a k-hole once, and the experience was impressive, to say the least.