system
A chat on 4chan
human
My theory is that magic cannot influence the physical world, at least not directly. Otherwise it wouldn't have been abandoned by every successful civilization. Magic is however very effective at influencing the mind of the practitioner, allowing to change one's personality, see visions, induce auditory and even visual hallucinations, control dreams, create imaginary worlds, etc 

The field of psychology and even psychiatry would benefit greatly from some of the techniques I have seen. There was one study that showed tulpas (imaginary friends) had a paradoxically positive effect on the mentally ill, most notably schizophrenics and other people with psychotic disorders. Also there are disciplines that can allow people to trick themselves into thinking they are not in pain. 

So discarding these systems is a mistake in my opinion. There's a lot that can be rescued, with a scientific approach, after one cuts through all the superstition.
gpt
Yes, most of occultism is bullshit. But a 'scientific' or empirical-inductive approach will never get close to solving the mysteries of the spirit, and has already contributed to the degradation of whatever was left of the sacred sciences. In fact, science as we know it 'evolved' directly out of the profanation and democratisation of the sacred sciences. Alchemy being misunderstood and becoming chemistry (the plebs wanted to make gold) is the most obvious example, but there are many others.