>>46076
If you would like a highly conservative account of magic, then you could say while adhering to current models of physics that magic is a socio-cultural means of utilizing natural psi effects found in organisms, such as humans. Currently, the parapsychological data mainly indicates that human psi functioning is limited to extrasensory perception, including clairvoyance, telepathy, and precognition, but there is reason to believe that we should take accounts of macro-PK from history seriously, such as the table-tipping of the late 19th century and the early 20th century, as well as the countless tales of individuals performing miraculous feats throughout recorded history. Personally, I have attained gnosis, and as such I do not solely need the evidence gathered by the scientific method in order to acknowledge the reality of the supernatural, but I can see how one who has not yet attained various mystical states might find the standard research helpful. In terms of standard psi research, I cannot say that I have found any data supporting ideas of body transformation, apart from the application of psychokinesis to the cells of one's own body, such as in healing, but I generally think that dramatic magical effects are possible, including resurrection, transformation, and the like. I am an apeirotheist, and thus I acknowledge the existence of the divine attributes within every monad, including omnipotence, which naturally entails being capable of such things, even if they are not very important in the grand scheme of things. Chaos magic actually adheres more to late 20th century British counter-culture than it does to the kind of thought that you described; it actually sounds like you were describing lodge magic more than chaos magic. Chaos magic was originally intended to be a pragmatic approach to magic, focusing on what parts of rituals were necessary for actually manifesting effects. Traditionally, magic has had a lot of gatekeeping, and chaotes wanted to see how much of it was actually necessary and how much of it was essentially just reified traditions disguised as mystic wisdom. The idea behind chaos magic was to see how much one could alter the form of workings while still getting the same effects, hence why you saw stuff like rituals for Apollo having Superman utilized instead (incidentally, it turned out that using popular culture stuff like that was less effective, as on a psychological level, it felt less legitimate to the practitioners). As for books, it is really difficult to figure out which ones to recommend, as half of the value in magical books is in learning new modes of thought rather than in their content, but I would personally recommend Liber 777, LTC's The Great Work of Self-Transformation, Regardie's classic Golden Dawn compilation, and The Tree of Life. If you want more background regarding the reality and measurability of psi phenomena rather than instructions on magical practice, I would recommend Evidence for Psi: Thirteen Empirical Research Reports. Wishing you well.