“…I must therefore suggest that the ideas we now refer to with the specific denotation of Magic whereby we indicate the supernatural — may be more accurately understood as peculiar side effects of various forms of more or less direct, intimate relation. That is to say forms that, while they may include verbal aspects, come fundamentally and irrevocably before language. These precursors to language were our common experience when immersed in living places with living beings. As we became more, and more isolated from them, these features of our minds died out and were inhibited, or replaced by formal methods. That process damaged one vast aspect of our intelligence in favor of another, relatively minor aspect: representation. Originally, however, these matters were understood to be associated with profound relational intimacy, and had nothing to do with the manipulations of spectators or forces.”

— an anonymous informant