It is interesting that sorcery is attached to manipulation, and in a certain way controlling others and things.
Then one talks about "secret societies" that use "hidden knowledge" ( including psychology).
One thing I wonder: does sorcery, witchcraft work?
Why is it, it is usually said that the richest people in the world are quasi ALL in the "occult"?
There's a book out there, "Think and Grow Rich".
There's even a video called "The Secret".
Beyond that, the accumulation of wealth is probably more related to connections/network/family and aptitude/IQ.
However, it's also been shown that given a bit of mind training, one can get a step ahead of games, even games like roulette, by visualizing the next number(s).
In Think and Grow Rich, the author makes the interesting correlation between repeated autosuggestion and FAITH.
Couple that with the biblical suggestion, in the occult book of Hebrews, that faith is the "substance of all things seen".
It also suggests man is like man's maker...in it's "image".
I suggest that man's maker used faith to make man.
Likewise, man uses faith to make some circumstances seem to work.
I'm saying, man's maker is a sorcerer, and men mimic the sorcerers process, daily, like breathing.
That is, to some extent, everybody is already applying the principles in such books as Think And Grow Rich, and in the documentary The Secret.
Does it work? Depends on what one's purpose/INTENT is.
But given so many problems in the world, i would have to say it does not work.
The main reason it does not work is a deep seeded tendency toward self-sabotage buried within the so-called "subconscious mind".
The fact there is even a mind that is "subconscious", strong, perhaps stronger than anything any other mind is aware of...is problematic.
As a rule of thumb, yes, it appears man can manipulate his environment.
Notice, the influence is quite limited.
Likewise, man's maker was able to manipulate what was reality, and make it's own reality, calling it, "the world".
Even there, and especially there, the self-sabotage principle was at work, since, to change reality is basically an act of self-sabotage.
The power to destroy oneself...the power to destroy reality...by changing it beyond recognition...is ultimately limited.
What you see is what you get. What you see shows how effective sorcery can be.
But try to change it even more, by more imposition of will...it's not so easy.
I suggest the power to change reality has been SQUANDERED/DISSIPATED.
I would borrow from the parable of the prodigal son which squandered his inherited wealth on things that don't matter.
Still, given man's apparent ability to conjure up change, i still suggest that everything man thinks and does and experiences...is still well within the imagination of the original sorcerer, man's maker.
It would seem that man breaks laws and is unpredictable. I really don't think so.
It's still the manifestation of everything the original sorcerer ever conjured up, to impose it's will.