| The first thing to say is that no one knows how anything works in enough detail to definitely claim if you have 100 Karma points, you can cash it in at the Dharma Store for an A&P experience (65 Karma points), getting laid (45 Karma points), avoiding rush hour (12 Karma points).
The second thing to say is, using Daniel's heuristic which I think gets to the heart of the issue, is like attracts like. (For the record, I don't really do much magic in the sense of 'worldly things'. I'm on the conservative side for temperamant and aesthetic reasons.)
Let's take a classic example of something people get interested in magic for: getting laid, romance, sex, whatever. I think there is a negative and positive, a black or a white magical spell to get laid. A black magical spell to get laid would be something like, "Oh, I have a crush on this person. She sees me as a friend despite my confessing of my feelings for her, so maybe I can use magic to change her mind." Then you do some magical intent to manifest this. It's black because it's imposing on someone's wishes. It's forcing a relationship that probably is best not happening if she is clearly not interested.
But it a white magical spell to get laid might be something like, "I will cast this spell to get laid/get a relationship with a person who is appropriate for me." Or something like that. In this latter case, no particular people's wills are being imposed on against their knowledge or will. Furthermore, you are intenting, or putting yourself in the line of fire of something sustainable. If this latter spells works, you'll find someone who is compatible with you, who likes you, you could say the spell merely increased the odds two fitting people walk down the same street to the same coffeeshop, whereas the former spell attempts imposing a relationship that isn't mutual. It takes little imagination to suppose that even if it did work, it would probably be a lot more miserable than the latter. So the first one works and makes both parties miserable and the second one works and makes both parties happy, at least for a little while!
Reality is boundlessly more complex, but I think this example shows that one can magically wish for something most wish for, but in two totally different ways, one that tends to be conflicting and one that tends to be harmonizing. |