I just answered a question on a friends blog about the Holy Spirit and Acts 8:14-16. It might seem that it contradicts Acts 2:38. It doesn't of course. When you study the scriptures, there is always an interpretation that is consistent with all of the scriptures. Here's my answer. Take it with a grain of salt.

There is the gift of the Holy Spirit that everyone who repents and is baptized in name of Jesus for the remission of sins. The Holy Spirit can also fall on someone as it did with the apostles at Pentecost. This was accompanied by a mighty wind and tounges of flame. The apostles had the ability to do miricles to prove that God was behind the Gospel and to get the church off to a good start. This miraculous power was transferred to some of them in Samaria by the laying on of hands. They had probably already received the gift of the Holy Spirit. I think something more was evidently needed there in Samaria. Simon, who obviously was a baptized Christian and had the ordinary gift of the Holy Spirit was envious and wanted the miraculous powers that the coming on or falling on of the Holy Spirit conveys. At some point the miraculous power to do miricles was no longer needed and was no longer conveyed by the laying on of hands. Todays Christians get the gift of the Holy Spirit. We do not see or hear and yet we believe.