[HPforGrownups] Divination -- Cause or effect?

[Andrew MacIan]

No: HPFGUIDX 33875

Greetings from Andrew!

Perhaps another loop in this quantum universe...

And yes, it does potentially apply, as we'll see.

--- tex23236 <jbryson at richmond.infi.net> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., Katze <jdumas at k...>
> wrote:
> 
> > Divination...not sure...that seems much like a
> sleeper class, since
> > one can BS his/her way through the final.
> 
> I watched the Div class in PoA and began to wonder
> which way it was 
> working.  Trelewany tried to get Harry to "see"
> Beaky twitching 
> headles on the ground, but Harry tells her he sees
> him flying off. JKR
> does not say he BS'ed it; nor that anybody in the
> class did.  My 
> question is, did Harry "seeing" Beaky fly away,
> somehow _cause_ or 
> contribute to causing, Beaky's escape?

Predictive causation on the atomic scale was one of
the great problems in the early days of QM.  Consider
the famous photon experiment that illustrates that
which way the probability function collapses
determines which 'side' of the barrier the photon
'chooses'.  Your hypothesis above might be a nice
thought experiment in thaumaturgical theory. 
Rephrasing your notion slightly, if one predicts
something and has enough belief to See it occur, does
that Sight force the event?  If so, does this imply
that magic has both substance and force?

Given your well-chosen example, I would support this
as being true, at least within what we have been shown
in Rowling's universe. 

> Going out
> further on this limb,
> night this be how magic works, involving
> visualization of the desired
> effect?

You approach one of the major schools of Western
magic(k) with this, as I am sure you're aware.  One of
the bases of what is called Ceremonial Magick (and
this is the school that most closely resembles
Rowling's version of magic) is that if the thaumaturge
can visualize an object (or an effect; again the QM
duality) precisely enough at a fine enough level,
he/she will, in effect, create or transform the object
into whatever it is that he/she wills it to be.  (To
do what thou will shall be the whole of the law.)
 
> 
> Running, dodging, and ducking,
> 
> Tex

Stand  and deliver, sir!

{grin}

Cheers,

Drieux

PS For those interested....yes, OTO. 



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