Magical thinking is a term used in anthropology and psychology, denoting the causal relationships between actions and events. There are subtle differences in meaning between individual theorists as well as amongst fields of study. In anthropology, it denotes the attribution of causality between entities grouped with one another or similar to one another. In psychology, the entities between which a causal relation has to be posited are more delineated. In both cases, the belief can cause a person to experience fear not rationally justifiable to an observer outside the belief system, of performing certain acts or having certain thoughts because of an assumed correlation between doing so and threatening calamities. In psychiatry, magical thinking is a disorder of thought content. In religion, folk religion, superstitious beliefs, the posited causality is between religious ritual, sacrifice, or the observance of a taboo, an expected benefit or recompense; the use of a lucky item or ritual, for example, is assumed to increase the probability that one will perform at a level so that one can achieve a desired goal or outcome.

Researchers have identified two possible principles as the formal causes of the attribution of false causal relationships: the temporal contiguity of two events "associative thinking", the association of entities based upon their semblance to one anotherProminent Victorian theorists identified associative thinking as a characteristic form of irrationality. As with all forms of magical thinking, association-based and similarities-based notions of causality are not always said to be the practice of magic by a magician. For example, the doctrine of signatures held that similarities between plant parts and body parts indicated their efficacy in treating diseases of those body parts, was a part of Western medicine during the Middle Ages; this association-based thinking is a vivid example of the general human application of the representativeness heuristic. Edward Burnett Tylor coined the term "associative thinking", characterizing it as pre-logical, in which the "magician's folly" is in mistaking an imagined connection with a real one.

The magician believes that thematically linked items can influence one another by virtue of their similarity. For example, in E. E. Evans-Pritchard's account, members of the Azande tribe believe that rubbing crocodile teeth on banana plants can invoke a fruitful crop; because crocodile teeth are curved and grow back if they fall out, the Azande observe this similarity and want to impart this capacity of regeneration to their bananas. To them, the rubbing constitutes a means of transference. Sir James Frazer elaborated upon Tylor's principle by dividing magic into the categories of sympathetic and contagious magic; the latter is based upon the law of contagion or contact, in which two things that were once connected retain this link and have the ability to affect their related objects, such as harming a person by harming a lock of his hair. Sympathetic magic and homeopathy operate upon the premise that "like affects like", or that one can impart characteristics of one object to a similar object.

Frazer believed that some individuals think the entire world functions according to these mimetic, or homeopathic, principles. In How Natives Think, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl describes a similar notion of mystical, "collective representations", he too sees magical thinking as fundamentally different from a Western style of thought. He asserts that in these representations, "primitive" people's "mental activity is too little differentiated for it to be possible to consider ideas or images of objects by themselves apart from the emotions and passions which evoke those ideas or are evoked by them". Lévy-Bruhl explains that natives commit the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy, in which people observe that x is followed by y, conclude that x has caused y, he believes that this fallacy is institutionalized in native culture and is committed and repeatedly. Despite the view that magic is less than rational and entails an inferior concept of causality, in The Savage Mind, Claude Lévi-Strauss suggested that magical procedures are effective in exerting control over the environment.

This outlook has generated alternative theories of magical thinking, such as the symbolic and psychological approaches, softened the contrast between "educated" and "primitive" thinking: "Magical thinking is no less characteristic of our own mundane intellectual activity than it is of Zande curing practices." Bronisław Malinowski's Magic and Religion discusses another type of magical thinking, in which words and sounds are thought to have the ability to directly affect the world. This type of wish fulfillment thinking can result in the avoidance of talking about certain subjects, the use of euphemisms instead of certain words, or the belief that to know the "true name" of something gives one power over it, or that certain chants, prayers, or mystical phrases will bring about physical changes in the world. More it is magical thinking to take a symbol to be its referent or an analogy to represent an identity. Sigmund Freud believed, he described practitioners of magic as projecting their mental states onto the world around them, similar to a common

Gopal Menon is an Indian documentary film director and cinematographer known for his activism through social action documentaries. He has made films on violence, religious fundamentalism, nationality question, state repression, human rights, caste and sexuality. Gopal Menon's notable works include "Hey Ram: Genocide in the Land of Gandhi", "Naga Story: The Other Side of Silence", "PAPA 2", "Resilient Rhythms", "Marching Towards Freedom" and "The Unholy War", he completed his BA in English from University of Calicut and holds a Master’s in Business Administration from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore. He hasn't received any formal training in Film making Gopal started his film career with a documentary on the destruction of tropical evergreen forests in the Nilgiri biosphere. While still a student of Business Administration, he started working with the People's Union for Civil Liberties on the organized violence on Muslims in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, the subsequent bomb blasts in the city.

Gopal Menon is known for fast responses to religious fundamentalism and communal riots. His film Hey Ram: Genocide in the Land of Gandhi, on the 2002 Gujarat riots, was the first on the subject within three weeks after the riots, was screened across the world including 16 cities in the U. S. and across Europe and South Asia. Gopal's 2014 films "The Killing Fields of Muzzaffarnagar", "The Unholy War - Part 1: In the Name of Development" and "The Unholy War - Part 2: In Search of Justice" Addresses communalism and religious fundamentalism deeper and its links with nationality questions and development; the Killing Fields of Muzzaffarnagar is about 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, described as"the worst violence in Uttar Pradesh in recent history" resulted in at least 62 deaths, injured 93 and left more than 50,000 displaced. This film captures narratives of the survivors plight, anguish and helplessness of riots victims and investigates into the ploy of the hate politics played out by the Hindu right wing organizations in Western UP to tear apart the social fabric for electoral games.

The film has footage of live riots, people with guns and swords on the road and shops burning and provocative speeches in the maha panchayat. The 2 part film "The Unholy War" is in the context of Narendra Modi's campaign in 2014 elections in India highlighting Gujarat's development under Modi. "The Unholy War - Part 1: In the Name of Development" film follows and exposes Narendra Modi's claims of Gujarat Development through a collage of individual testimonies around the issues of farmer suicides, water and land grab. "The Unholy War - Part 2: In Search of Justice" goes on to document the encounter killings in post 2002 Gujarat riots and complicity of the state in perpetrating a reign of terror by following cases running in various courts and tribunals. Film Screening got disrupted by police in, Five jeep-loads of police officers prevented his screening in Ahmadabad and many times he denied a venue He has been video documenting the Naga and Kashmiri political movements since 1998, he has directed Naga Story: The Other Side of Silence on the Naga struggle in 2003 and PAPA 2 on enforced disappearances in Kashmir in 2000 from this documentation.

The film Naga Story: The Other Side of Silence provides an introduction to the history of the Struggle by Naga people in North- East frontier of Indian subcontinent, documents the human rights abuses suffered by the Naga people in more than 50 years of the existence of Independent India. The Naga political struggle is one of the oldest nationality movements in South Asia, continuing till present times; this film, which took five years to complete, is the first comprehensive film about the Naga struggle for identity, self-determination and justice."Papa 2" is a film about the notorious interrogation centre, Papa 2. This interrogation center was run by the Indian Armed Forces in Kashmir till 1996; the film, PAPA 2, documents the struggle of the mothers and wives of disappeared persons to trace their loved ones. It features interviews with the families of the affected people and members of the Association of Parents of Disappeared People. Gopal has directed several films on the issues affecting dalit.

Resilient Rhythms documents a range of responses to the marginalization of Dalits, from armed struggle to electoral politics."Resilient Rhythms - Film South Asia". 2002. Retrieved 8 July 2014.. His 2005 film Of Inhuman Bondage on manual scavenging, showed women and children cleaning up the shit of'Shining India', determined to salvage their soiled pride His more detailed 2010 film on manual scavengers is titled Marching Towards Freedom; this film shot across 18 states in India captures the lives of people engaged in manual scavenging, their quest for justice, the denial of authorities to grant them a life of dignity and the effect of the Safai Karamchari Andolan on their lives. His film Your Slaves No Longer is on the land struggles of Musahars a Dalit community in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in India, he has worked as Location Director for a Channel 4 News report on the funding of Hindu Extremist organizations and shot the film in UK and India. This film – Hindu Nationalism in Britain – was telecast in UK on the day of the Gujarat elections and was reported in the Indian media as well.

The report has subsequently been tabled in the British Parliament. His campaign films Twice Evicted and Caste Out have been on the tsunami and its aftermath. Gopal's films have been screened at several film festivals, his film "Naga Story: The Other Side of Silence" was presented the'Spirit of the Himalayas' First Prize at The Netherlands Himalayas Film Fest

The Mysterious Rider is a 1942 American film directed by Sam Newfield. It was part of the Billy the Kid film series; the film is known as Panhandle Trail. Buster Crabbe as Billy the Kid / Bill Andrews Al St. John as Fuzzy Q. Jones Caroline Burke as Martha Kincaid John Merton as Dalton Sykes Edwin Brian as Johnny Kincaid Jack Ingram as Henchman Trigger Larson Slim Whitaker as Henchman Rufe Kermit Maynard as Henchman Joe Ted Adams as Replaced by Karl Hackett The "Billy the Kid" films starring Buster Crabbe: Billy the Kid Wanted Billy the Kid's Round-Up Billy the Kid Trapped Billy the Kid's Smoking Guns Law and Order Sheriff of Sage Valley The Mysterious Rider The Kid Rides Again Fugitive of the Plains Western Cyclone Cattle Stampede The Renegade Blazing Frontier Devil Riders Frontier Outlaws Valley of Vengeance The Drifter Fuzzy Settles Down Rustlers' Hideout Wild Horse Phantom Oath of Vengeance His Brother's Ghost Thundering Gunslingers Shadows of Death Gangster's Den Stagecoach Outlaws Border Badmen Fighting Bill Carson Prairie Rustlers Lightning Raiders Terrors on Horseback Gentlemen with Guns Ghost of Hidden Valley Prairie Badmen Overland Riders Outlaws of the Plains The Mysterious Rider on IMDb The Mysterious Rider is available for free download at the Internet Archive