[Tenoke]

>is a shame it has to come laden with bogus rationalisations via the occult or pop-quantum physics

I'm guessing those help them though. The more you believe in it the better it works so having plausible (to laymen) explanations and talking as if the characters are real people improves the experience.

[ineedasername]

Good point. Constructing pseudo-scientific justifications and explanations becomes part of a self reinforcing system.

Unfortunately it is a similar mechanism that underlies various pathological delusions like paranoia, so I'm not sure how healthy of an activity it would be. I suppose like anything else it comes down to a matter of degrees?