What does it mean when you tell a spirit “Can you unlock the part of my brain you are associated with?”
Does it mean you gain their power?
or does it mean you will strengthen your connection with them
It’s more when people believe entities are just aspects of their mind, or how Belial is often linked to the primal side of things, people ask him to unlock that aspect of their mind, or lucifer in terms of the metaphorical light bringer unlock the aspect where he’s associated with hidden knowledge.
Honestly it’s more metaphorical then literal on parts of the brain associations.
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In the Mathers-Crowley translation of the Lesser Key of Solomon, the authors state in their introduction to the text that the spirits of the Goetia are “portions of the human brain.”
So, working with that hypothesis, magicians can ask the “spirits” to stimulate those parts of their brain, thus opening them up to greater perception.
Now, whether you believe the hypothesis is true or not doesn’t matter one bit. When it comes to magick, belief only matters in the moment of ritual, and as the experience of those who have done the 72 Challenge can attest, having the aspects of the brain the spirits represent opened up has a very real effect that can unlock latent abilities.
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So he believes its basically self hypnosis hmm, ok thanks for answering 
When you get down to it, all magick is hypnosis because nothing can truly exist outside of the mind that perceives it. If you cannot perceive a spirit, then for all intents and purposes, it does not exist for you.
Evocation is basically hypnotising yourself to see an illusion.
However, Crowley made the statement more as a basis to help the student of magick who cannot reconcile the apparent physical/spiritual dichotomy fostered by materialistic science, than anything else. He was a believer.
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So it was a statement more then that he felt that they were parts of us?
I’m confused, he did or didn’t believe they were external from us?
Cowley waffled and sometimes he believed they were external, and sometimes he believed they were all in his head.
He finally came to the conclusion that it didn’t really matter and said students should not waste their time worrying about it. Regardless of whether they are external or an internal part of us, the magick still works.
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I personally believe they are both. Some external, some internal.
Just like how our reality is external and internal as well. (With how our brain interprets the 5 senses and reality).
I mean our eyes just send our brain information, which then our brain creates a “picture” which is what we see. So then in that instance, people/humans and stuff might as well have the same argument to. Also our brain filters out information that it seems unnecessary/unimportant so even then things are limited (including how much of the light spectrum we can see/etc).
So it’s what we tune into really, if you lead a mudane life/ don’t practice magick etc…then that’s your reality and what you percieve and vice versa if you do practice magick/spirituality/etc and that affects things to. So in my opinion saying one is external/real over the other doesn’t match up.
Although I do believe they can stimulate parts of our Brain that they are associated with. Or reflect back to us.
Which even people reflect ourselves back to us, like I’ve had times when I’m thinking about things and my family will briefly later on bring up the topic I was thinking about (which has surprised me because I don’t have a spiritual family, or they definitely don’t talk about these types of things).
I thinks its more so on how everything is probably connected (quantum/etc). And how spirits/entities interact with us.
Even my world/universe/reality reflects parts of me to myself. So then how external vs internal is that?
I personally think it is something people worry far too much about. Who cares if they exist separate from us, or if they are just all in our heads? The magical results are still the same.
As Crowley said in Liber O: “In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths; of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things, certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophical validity to any of them.”
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I think it’s something about that if spirits/entities exist then an “afterlife” exists and that this life isn’t all we have. If it’s all subconscious then the probability of anything beyond this life is improbable. Since all our experiences would be our brains/internal.
So basic human nature = fear of death and the unknown.
Also for me personally I think it’s egotistical to think humans are the only beings (Physically or spiritually) out there, and a limited human way of thinking to want something to be “human” or part of “us”.
Sorry about the rant, I wrote a whole journal thread on this…I’m very passionate about the internal vs external and kinda about humans being a bit egotistical in terms of how we understand our reality
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That’s a valid supposition, though I’m not sure how exactly the objective reality of a demon would lead to the conclusion of an afterlife because it would simply mean that demons exist, not that the human spirit is eternal. One does not automatically lead to the other
We have to be. It’s how we derive meaning from the meaninglessness of existence.
Magick is %90 psychological.Just think about it.
Well not just demons, but anything on “the other side” that isn’t a physical incarnated being.
I agree that it doesn’t verify the survival of consciousness/exscitence of a soul, but it does give it a much more probable chance if we knew we weren’t alone, or spirits/entities are external.
Technically as is our lives/reality and senses. So then how we see (visually), smell, hear, etc is all byproducts of our brains.
Since I can’t prove anyone else besides me is external. (I don’t believe this but am using it to provoke some thinking on the matter). Since I cant see from anyone elses eyes/mind, then I cant prove I’m not the only who is “real”.
I mean even pain is a byproduct of our bodies, and that FEELS real.
Oh yes, are we the only being alone in existence question.I dont want to dive into that because proving it is impossible.
The way I look at this psycho-spiritual balance is, I consider something spiritual only if something I don’t expect occurs.Have been practicing more than a year and probably cant count five of such instances.As long as it works I will be fine with it.
Well things I dont expect occur to me.
Before I even knew about spiritual things, I’ve had paranormal activity. Loud noises, knocks on the walls of my closet, rarely seeing orb like light, etc.
Then on a more mudane level, it to me seems like things are more connected (subconsciously) then I thought possible. With people often reflecting my own thoughts and feelings back to me, in unexpected ways (acting out of character for some of them). Or things coming up externally in life that I didn’t expect.
So I would disagree.
Does this mean all my hard work of love spells didnt work? or the spirit evocation and the energy i feel and my cabinet door opening itself was psychological?