Newly declassified CIA reports studying the Soviet Union's use of “black magic”

Hypothetically speaking, if there existed individuals who appeared to be able to achieve acts of magic, sorcery, or witchcraft -- choose your preferred term -- then there could be entirely rational scientific explanations.

It could be that the accused individuals have no special innate abilities themselves, but that for some reason there are people around them who wish to make them feel (or appear) as if they do, by altering their surroundings and experience.

That could be for kind reasons; for example, to provide respite and entertainment to people who had experienced trauma in the past. Or it could be for nefarious reasons; for example, to lead someone to make unusual and/or risky decisions. Either approach could, over time, result in psychological effects that could probably be measured and quantified by professionals.

If that's a reasonable hypothesis to start from, then even if you do not fundementally believe in paranormal abilities, you could still argue that there's benefit in researching reports of paranormal actions - it could help you discover targeted individuals and the groups who protect or attack them, and potentially turn those individuals and/or groups to your own benefit.