I find it quite interesting how pervasive this idea of the universe remodelling iteself around your personal requirements has been.
Call it magick, cosmic ordering or.... prayer, they're all just names for the same basic idea.
Here's a strange story.
When I was about 19, I was returning to college after the summer break, and feeling pretty bad about. I was stopped in the street by this old tramp, who asked me if I could spare any change. He was wearing several layers of old clothes and a hat. I could just see his eyes through his matted beard and dirty face. I rummaged through my pockets and came out with a shiny pound coin - more, frankly, than I'd wanted to give.
Reluctantly, I handed him the coin and he grabbed it quickly. I started to walk away, but as I did so, he callled me - "Laddie...". I turned, to find him pointing at me. "Laddie, you'll hae a lot'a luck, today. You'll hae a lot'a luck". And with that, he was off.
"Weird", I thought, but walked on, wishing that college could be cancelled. Anyway, a few minutes I get there to find that staff strike has been called and I have an extra WEEK off! I was so pleased, but didn't think about the tramp. Home I went. Shortly after I arrived, my father poked his head around the door to tell me that the bank had called - there'd been a mistake on my account and they owed me £50. They were putting the cash back in immediately. Amazing! Literally a few minutes later, my mum appeared. She'd been visiting my grandparents, and wanted to ask me a question; "had they given me a birthday card last year?". I couldn't remember. "Well," my mother explained, "they just found your card - forgot to send it, apparently. It's nearly a year old, of course, so there's no point in sending the card, but they gave me the cash inside for you." Cha-ching! I'm now £80 up on the day and got an extra week off.
Still didn't think about the tramp.
Anyway, I'll truncate the rest, except to say that my luck continued - a legal situation resolved itself neatly, and a chance meeting led to a great night out.
And finally, I remembered what the old man had said to me earlier that day and for a second - just for a second, I ruminated on whether he'd blessed me in some way. And then I dismissed it all as the minor coincidence it truly was.
I recounted this story to my girlfriend, a Christian, and she said; "Ahh, the old man was an Angel. You were being tested and you passed. He granted your wishes.". I also told a friend - not religious, but a bit New-Agey. "Ahh," he said. "He was a wizard. He cast a good luck spell."
For either of those circumstances to be true, the world would have to have been manipulated around me in the most amazing way, without regard for such trivial things as the linear progression of time.
*For my week off college, the Universe would have to provide unsatisfactory pay to thousands of college staff leading to a union ballot and strike decision. The decision on the strike would have been made before I met the old man.
* For the bank's accounting error, the Universe would have to remake the past to debit £50 unnoticed from my account the month before that day, and then manipulate the company to discover the decision so that it could be resolved and reported back to me at just the right time.
* For my birthday card cash to come just then required that no card was sent the year before and that I not notice this. It then required my gran to happen across the card and hand the money to my mother, manipulated into visiting her that very day. And my gran located the card in a skip (left that detail out). What was she doing in a skip?!
...and so on.
Now I don't mind the Universe remaking all of reality and time just to give me a good day, even if the ripple-effect from this affects the lives of thousands of people. Cool. One problem, though; isn't everyone else's reality being manipulated in the same way, and don't those competing realities clash?
I guess that's why they don't call people who believe in this stuff rational.
