Magical thinking, as conceived by Jamie Wheal, is the cognitive tendency to ascribe causality to patterns, symbols, or rituals that lack empirical grounding, often serving as a psychological crutch for navigating uncertainty and complexity. In a world where the boundaries between the known and the unknown blur increasingly, magical thinking synthesizes myth, intuition, and subjective experience into beliefs that provide a semblance of control or destiny. While it may inject a sense of wonder and possibility, allowing individuals to tap into a more imaginative and less constrained reality, it also risks leading one into the pitfalls of cognitive bias and irrationality. As both a fascinating artifact of human consciousness and a cautionary tale of our predisposition towards the fantastical, magical thinking serves as a double-edged sword in our quest for meaning and direction.

See also: flow state, delta wave, altered state, peak experience, mystical experience