Nevertheless, this approach, which reduced the supernatural to the natural, was not always coupled with Aristotelianism. On the contrary, it was often directed against Peripatetic doctrines, particularly when it relied on experimental and empirical observations. The search for the occult causes of things, which was often related to magical beliefs and practices, also stimulated new empirical and experimental approaches: Giovanbattista della Porta (1535–1615) was among those who offered natural explanations for exceptional events while discarding the Aristotelian paradigm in favor of direct experience, in works such as the Magiae naturalis sive de miraculis rerum naturalium. Della Porta insisted on the sympathy and the antipathy of things, which are influenced by celestial virtues, when dealing with topics like optics and magnetism. And the De magnete of the anti-Aristotelian William Gilbert (1544–1603) mixed experimentation (aimed at the demonstration of the rotation and the magnetism of earth) with the belief in the existence of a soul belonging to the earth. The occult properties of things were also explored by other disciplines, such as medicine. Jean Fernel (1497–1558) and Girolamo Fracastoro argued that occult properties could be used to explain diseases and contagions.