>>546
There isn't a systematized explanation for "magic" as one thing, many have claimed to be magical for many reasons.
Here are the broad categories where people trying to practice magic typically fall under:
>Magic is derived from a being outside the grasp of corporal reality, in short, religion. Alien but known beings that transcend what we understand to be possible intercede directly (with intent). When you are lucid dreaming, and you begin to fly, what motive, quantum-compliant force is allowing that act? In the same way that you can 'ignore' limitations in a dream, these beings are said to be able to do so with reality. Some forms of supernatural belief fall under this when you wouldn't expect them to; long before Crowley, the nigromancy many of his beliefs are derived from were first practiced by, and developed by, the 11th and 12th century Catholic church. Notably, the magic is always attributed DIRECTLY to the entities summoned/bargained with, all you have is your own knowledge of corporeal reality, and favors over them. Humans may transcend humanity and collect some of these powers, but this is dependent on their conversion into being an inhuman being that meets the prior criteria, not something they can do "naturally," and it's never that they have power over some science fact, but that they can simply ignore fact entirely in exerting their will within whatever domains they've gained control over. Ex: "to make fires that burn from nothing, fueled with nothing" (magic) vs making "to make fires creating and heating oxygen from nothing" (still ultimately bound to the mechanistic nature of reality)
>Magic is derived from some presently unknown facet of human ability, usually with nonsense of something about psy-energy, electricity, magnetism, and holograms. Reality is susceptible to human perception, and therefore certain elements of reality, and ritual or belief is just a lens by which to focus this energy. Magic is, in the end, 100% compliant with real science, we just don't know how yet. If someone thinks real hard and starts a fire with their mind, is it 'spontaneous,' or fed by a fuel source we simply don't understand? Some powers that feel like people are ascribing to an outer entity wind up being a thinly veiled version of this type, as well. For example, someone who insists they have blessed luck may in fact ascribe that blessing to some spiritual practice they perform- not the entity that they dedicate that practice *to*. Another example is how certain new-age forms of Christianity say that blessed people with good attitudes somehow repel demons, win in fact doctrine has always asserted it's because blessed people keep the presence and favor of God, which falls under the last category. Also includes people insisting that humanity in general collectively causes phenomenons, and most consciousness wogging.
>Magic is derived from a third party non-entity that envelops our surroundings, like gravity, but it isn't conscious. Mostly the same as the above, but it does not originate from humans, and it isn't something you can worship. Posits that there are repeatable patterns of behavior that trigger supernatural phenomenon, but that the ways and reasons are complex and not well understood. By far the most cult-y of the three, ironically enough, and may invade and insert itself underneath legitimate religion or humanist beliefs. Karma, Feng Shui, number cults, even the 'holy spirit' in many new age Christian practices, and astronomy in general, these are secularized under the nose of adherents. When was the last time an astronomer actually explained why it works, rather than asserting that it simply does, or that some form of 'energy' or 'fate' is powering it? Feng Shui, as another example, originated from a complex set of beliefs regarding dragons, their preferences, and supposed final resting place, that is before dragon worship was gutted from Chinese doctrine- now, many practitioners are deriving their beliefs from pure trial and error and hearsay.
For your specific question, let's say we have a toy boat and a deep plastic bin. You have a great obsession with making the boat float in the bin, but you don't have any water on hand. Regardless, you drop the boat. Suddenly, the boat is suspended in mid-air, because:
>Your fervor was felt by the spirits of dead plants and animals processed to synthesize the plastic, and as you have opened your body to them through the rituals of the tribes of the Amazon, they can work now through you, mystically catching the boat in the air. If anyone were to test this phenomenon, it would be as though the boat simply stopped without cause. Gravity never even factors in.
>Your fervor is the thing that caught the boat in the air. You are exerting a typically imperceptible psychic force on the boat sufficient to hold it in the air. Maybe your power is heightened by the environment's attunement to psychic energy, or your fully charged JO crystal. Gravity works, but it is beaten by raw human power.
>You have tried this experiment several thousand times in places that had urban legends of boats floating when they should not, whether they're flipped over, sunk in battle, or just shoddily made. As was fated, you have finally located a place here boats can float without needing water, at least under these precise conditions- and who knows what they are. The time of day? Alignment of planets? The precise angle of the Earth's magnetic pole? Gravity works, but it is beaten by the destiny of this place, whatever causes it.