You've probably been told by many people that messing with the occult is extremely dangerous and potentially even life-threatening, but how much attention should we really pay to these stark warnings about experimenting with the supernatural?

Is dabbling with the occult really that dangerous, and what happens if we compare it with the slightly risky sport of skiing? Let's start with skiing, because we have some definite numbers we can work off in this case. It's a known fact that, on average, 40 people die as a result of a skiing or snowboarding accident each year.

So, in comparison, the average number of people who die as a result of occult-related activities each year is zero. There could be some deaths that are a result of the occult but aren't identified or recorded as such, but we'll come back to that.

There are also some deaths that are very loosely linked to the...