Magic uses similar techniques but aims to provoke material effects in the outside world. Both are based on physiologial methods which bring about an hysterical narrowing and concentration of mental focus by ecstatic or meditative means. The quality of mysticism can only be measured by how much fun you get out of it or by how much people are prepared to pay to listen to you. Otherwise magical power provides the only objective measure of spiritual progress in Chaoist terms. Implicit in this view is the principle that all acts are basically magical, and that power equals freedom.
Direct magic is the short and dangerous path to certain freedoms and amusements.
No path ultimately leads anywhere for there is nowhere to go and that which thinks it is going is an illusion anyway. Nevertheless, in a spirit of self sufficiency one sets out for the pleasure and the pain of the going. You are the totality of what you do and can therefore change yourself by doing otherwise. Magic is the art of deliberately believing and pretending very hard and finding that it works. Highly improbable things can be done by those who are prepared to experiment with the belief that they are not quite so improbable.