On The Existance of Magic

While most of the rational world dismisses magic as the work of tricksters and charlatans, the truth is much more nuanced than that. The majority of people will never gain the ability to use any sort of magic, and even more of they will never come to believe it exists. That being said, certain government agencies that shall remain nameless, believe nearly 1 in a 1000 people have the ability to use magic. Of those, only 1 in a hundred will manifest any powers worthy of note. Most will be minor abilities, such as generating a small amount of electricity at all time, making you shock people frequently, or great strength when under stress, similar to an adrenaline rush. Those same people, with more natural talent, or greater training, could have a touch that works like a taser, or the strength to punch straight through brick walls.
Though few people have studied the manifestation of magic, those that have have come to a few conclusions. First of all, magical abilities seem to run in families. Whether this is genetic, or encouraged by environment, or both, is unknown. Additionally, cultures that have a strong belief in magic and the supernatural tend to have higher numbers of people manifesting powers. No one is quite sure if this means certain believe is magic because magic is more frequent, or magic is more frequent because the people believe it.