Ironically, what the world calls “science” is actually magical thinking. And what the world calls “magical thinking” is, or rather can be, closer to the true science.
Magical thinking is believing that some material external thing has objective reality and objective power - medicine, vaccines, germ theory is why we get diseases, that diseases such as cancer just happen randomly and without an inner cause, etc….
The belief in the power of medicine is magic, believing we can do anything as a separate will is magic. Believing in any power other than god is magic
Magic, in the colloquial meaning, is an action or power that cannot really accomplish the effect it claims.
A Course in Miracle’s Definition of “Magic”
“The belief that something has the power to heal us, save us, or make us safe when, according to the laws of God, it has no such power. The actions of something invested with this false power. We primarily invest false power in two classes of things: first, external things like bodies, “pills, money, ‘protective’ clothing, influence, prestige, being liked, knowing the ‘right’ people,” etc. (W-50.1:3), and second, our own separate will, which we wrongly see as having the power to keep us safe and solve our problems.” - [CE Glossary-27]
“There is no will but God’s. His teachers know that this is so, and have learned that everything but this is magic. All belief in magic is maintained by just one simple-minded illusion: that it works. All through their training, every day and hour, and even every minute and second, must God’s teachers learn to recognize the forms of magic and perceive their meaninglessness. Fear is withdrawn from them and so they go. And thus the gate of Heaven is reopened, and its light can shine again on an untroubled mind.” - [CE M-16.11:5-11]
All physical illness represents a belief in magic. The whole distortion which made magic rested on the belief that there is a creative ability in matter, which can control the mind. This fallacy can work either way; that is, it can be believed either that the mind can miscreate in the body or that the body can miscreate in the mind. If it can be made clear that the mind, which is the only level of causation, cannot generate effects beyond itself, then neither confusion need occur. …. All material means which you accept as remedies for bodily ills are simply restatements of magic principles. It was the first level of the error to believe that the body created its own illness. Thereafter, it is a second misstep to attempt to heal it through noncreative agents. - ACIM
“Your faith is placed in the most trivial and insane symbols; pills, money…and an endless list of forms of nothingness that you endow with magical powers.” - (W-pI.50.1:3)
“You really think a small round pellet or some fluid pushed into your veins through a sharpened needle will ward off disease and death.” - (W-pI.76.3:3)
“‘Cure’ is a word that cannot be applied to any remedy the world accepts as beneficial. What the world perceives as therapeutic is but what will make the body ‘better.’ When it tries to heal the mind, it sees no separation from the body, where it thinks the mind exists. Its forms of healing thus must substitute illusion for illusion. One belief in sickness takes another form, and so the patient now perceives himself as well. He is not healed. He merely had a dream that he was sick, and in the dream he found a magic formula to make him well. Yet he has not awakened from the dream, and so his mind remains exactly as it was before. He has not seen the light that would awaken him and end the dream. What difference does the content of a dream make in reality? One either sleeps or wakens. There is nothing in between.” - (W-pI.40.1:1-2:7)
“Magic is the mindless or the miscreative use of mind. Physical medications are forms of ‘spells,’ but if you are afraid to use the mind to heal, you should not attempt to do so. The very fact that you are afraid makes your mind vulnerable to miscreation. You are therefore likely to misunderstand any healing that might occur, and because egocentricity and fear usually occur together, you may be unable to accept the real Source of the healing. Under these conditions, it is safer for you to rely temporarily on physical healing devices, because you cannot misperceive them as your own creations. As long as your sense of vulnerability persists, you should not attempt to perform miracles.” (T-2.V.2:1-6)
“The acceptance of sickness as a decision of the mind, for a purpose for which it would use the body, is the basis of healing. And this is so for healing in all forms. A patient decides that this is so, and he recovers. If he decides against recovery, he will not be healed. Who is the physician? Only the mind of the patient himself. The outcome is what he decides that it is. Special agents seem to be ministering to him, yet they but give form to his own choice. He chooses them in order to bring tangible form to his desires. And it is this they do, and nothing else. They are not actually needed at all.” (M-5.II.2:1-11)