Learning: The forum Vs. Books and other forms of paid knowledge

I wanted to start this discussion because I wanted to know how many learn from books and e-books vs. just learning from the forum. To gauge whether buying a book is worth it when you have a wealth of knowledge on the forum.

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Buying a book is always worth it and I say that whilst having no books in my library.

Knowledge takes many forms and as a seeker, knowledge finds you wherever you are.

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I think it depends for me, I learn from experience first then I go to forums and google pdfs to see what I experienced aligned with anything and if so what is it and what differs, etc.

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Books goes way more deeper than anything you get from forums.

Forums are very important for learning as well, as forums are often experimental grounds for ideas.

There have been a lot of dumb fucking shit posted even on this forum, but that is a cheap price to pay, and it fosters your ability of critical thinking.

Books are more like safe havens, unraveling specific topics in a “safe” environment, so you can truly explore the depths of certain ideas without outside noise interrupting.

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When it comes to learning from outside (physical) sources, 80% books, 10% forums, 10% other (blogs and such)

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There are no substitutes for books. The forum can be great, but can also be a serious source of distraction…

So go to the books, go to your practice, go to (good) videos, and take a look around here from time to time, but don’t let it absorb you.

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I learn more from books, 90,/percent, since i. Look for old ones, how many u see spells,tat are esay to do but wen u buy a old book the spells u learn bfre buy book, is only half of tat supost to be, also i knw its expensive buy books or bxse same release, its why u need reviews, /recommendations, and a full understanding of u tipe of magick. Not all are fit one, i own a lot, and most are good books

I’ve had several great mentors. Workshops, discussions, lectures and books are things to gain knowledge from.
Forums can be useful as places where you can be pointed out to a certain direction.

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I have learned literally most from books. Outside of the universal esoteric knowledge, I have a mentor(mostly Uncles) who have taught me Medicine from our tribal Dawn society for as long as I can remember.

This is no offense to anyone here personally or directly, but I take most posts here as utter tripe. Look at things from this perspective: a)The Title is Become a Living God b) This site deals with Demons, Devils, Self-Deification, Magic, Evocation, and everything in-between c) The majority of the world is or claims belief in a monotheistic deity who hates/abhors everything on this site d) Internet trolls abound since the old BBS forums e) The Internet is full of attention whores. Taking this all into consideration, most here are either running from their upbringing, attention whoring, a troll or all three or a combination of all three.

I have personally received messages from people who have never or barely dabbled in evocation and are stuck in conundrums because they have made ridiculous pacts with these entities, literally worshiping them, all for power. In any case I am skeptical of most postings here for these reasons. So I recommend, highly, to study books and sources on internet pages dealing with authors and trusted magicians.

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I tend to think books should come after experience, mainly because often times than not going off what a book tells you(when dealing with entities or anything external rather than internal) can be biased of front loaded due to what you have read. Of course if it deals with things such a herbs and other things that would obviously require you to read books on first than yes that’s an exception.

Though I also agree with Sabbatius on a few points in regards to the internet myself.

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@Sabbatius Duly noted thank you for your reply

I imagine the majority of us learn primarily from our own work and use the forum for looking up the odd thing here and there. I know quite a few people really rate books, but I’d say they’re mostly overpriced and you don’t actually get better or truly learn magic from them.
Books can teach you rituals and give you inspiration, but you’ve got to take that information and adapt it to your own work to actually get anything out if it. Even then, a magician can gain a bit of trust by publishing some rituals that work, but that doesn’t mean his information on spirits is good and unbiased. Approach everything that you haven’t found out yourself very critically.

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Both the forum and books are a mixed bag of good and not so good. Most of my learning was from books but many of those books actually set me back more than anything as the principles underlying the material were dodgy in the first place.

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