Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Tanzanian Soccer Magick

The world of sports may be more ripe for operant magical influence than the world of politics. In professional athletics often the difference between winning and losing is so tiny that small influences like those observed by the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Laboratory could possibly carry the day. The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) is certainly taking no chances - two teams have been fined for using magick against their opponents. In fact, this is the second time that these teams have been punished over the use of magical practices.

So does it work? I can only speak from very limited experience. I have only cast one spell with the intent of influencing a sporting event in my life, for the Minnesota Vikings in 1997. I cast the spell in the middle of the game (as I recall, against Arizona) in which they were trailing, and they wound up turning it around and winning by one point. They went on to win the next four games, but hit a losing streak after that and only managed to finish the season at 9-7. In recent years I haven't been interested enough in (American) football to bother with that sort of thing, so I only have the one data point. They might have won anyway - but I do seem to recall that the win was pretty remarkable and a lot of breaks went their way after I cast the spell.

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