Oh my god dude, his swol pre-reincarnation life ahahaha. On that note, THERE IS actually a 'modern methodology' for magic, colloquially referred to as "chaos magic" developed in the early decades of the last century. I know this as I researched it for a book (fiction) I'm working on. 'Chaos magic' involves imparting one's will to the akashic records so as to instigate a change in one's surroundings. Does it actually work? Probably not, but it sounds neat so I rolled with it.