  A many body Hamiltonian comprising pairing, quadrupole-quadrupole and
spin-spin interaction is treated within a projected spherical basis with the
aim of describing the detailed structure of the magnetic states of orbital and
spin-flip nature in $^{144, 148-154}$Sm. The mean field for the single particle
motion takes care of the volume conservation of a phenomenological core which
results in having a complex dependence on deformation for single particle
energies. Several experimental features like the total orbital and total spin
strengths, the shape of the orbital strength distribution, the hump structure
of the spin strength distribution, the quadratic dependence of the orbital
strength on nuclear deformation, the saturation effect of the orbital strength
with respect to the Casten's factor P are very well described within a
quasiparticle random phase approximation formalism. Comparison of present
results with those obtained in some previous treatments are also given.
