I have gone through a touch of metamorphosis in the past few months. I have begun to understand, and develop an action plan for uniting the various belief systems which hold the concept of magick together. But first, I must solidify the concept thoroughly. Let us dissect.
According to many wonderful and undoubtably powerful magicians, the mystery is in the mind. The rituals we all use are essentially training wheels, and representative focal points for our attention. They also allow the primal part of us to “buy in” to the act being done, due to the concept cause and effect.
From a psychological viewpoint (my background), belief is the anchor point which allows us to beat down the left (logical, empirical-evidence based) brain enough to impress a notion upon our subconscious minds. Once this is done, things get a bit… tricky however.
Many start seeing “signs” or “spirits” in their daily lives, but due to their obsession and fascination with said signs, they are then followed by few to no results. This, or, they simply continue to fixate on the problem at hand, which overrides their initial belief entirely. We can call this “lust for results,” but in mechanical terms, the left brain begins working on the situation again, taking the control away from the more powerful subconscious, and imprinting new (uncertain) information where the initial imprint was left. Which is dissatisfying, as these signs, or “issues” which arise are little more than cognitive bias which simply implies a successful “self-hypnosis” of sorts, or proper implantation of the given idea.
Keep with me. I have a point.
From a spiritual perspective, some may call upon angels, demons, or gods. But as the chaos magicians quickly grasp, the belief itself is the powerhouse of the operation. Thus implying the need for subconscious recognition of the desired goal having been reached, regardless of the means or tools being used. Whether through ritual, prayer, whatever. However, for those of us who are more analytical and skeptical be it due to our education, experiences of powerlessness, or just plain lack of whimsical/imaginative tendencies; this can be incredibly difficult to overlook. Be that mainstream psychology only offers support in the sense of altering ones own behavioral patterns through such methodology ( but not effecting remote circumstances, which is what we are generally after on forums such as these). Which implies that we are simply fooling ourselves into seeing things, and altering our subconscious behavior to effect our approaches to people and situations in our immediate surroundings. Nothing more.
And so, to me, this where the line is drawn.
Those who choose to cease to pursue past the point of “fooling” themselves find themselves in the group aforementioned, achieving no results, and walking away feeling stupid for being so reckless with their beliefs.
However the other group are the ones I choose to focus on. The master magicians, whom are identified not by their practices, but by their results. Notably, results which confound and are very much outside of an “average” scope of influence or probability. There is some parapsychology notably focused on the connection of our subconscious minds to the whole of creation (meaning shared awareness between each of us, or the ability to communicate/influence others), as well as astral travel which implies energy/consciousness transference remotely. And many theories within LOA which imply that our subconscious literally manufactures our reality and the events/people in it. Don’t even get me started on how basically every world religion implies a variation of this, as it’s simply too much information to shift through in one post.
Regardless, putting the notion of a master magician together with masters of these other schools of thought, they must be capable of reliably and successfully imprinting belief into their minds, not just suggesting it in a shaky manner, and tapping into the collective unconscious to send it into existence. Then, they must also possess the patience, fortitude, and awareness necessary to leave the thought alone in pure belief. Which explains why many of the greatest magicians in lore lived lives of isolation. They simply wanted no cluttering stimuli or contradicting evidence to enter their minds while their desires were brought to fruition. But again, that is a topic for later.
My point:
Perhaps it is best not to fixate so much on the imaginative immersion/delusion of interacting with spirits (this is the only true fallacy I’ve been able to detect), and more on the mind which is unable to accept the belief of results being given. Not to say EVERY interaction with spirits is false by any means. I know that. I have spoken with them too. But there is a clear oversaturation of ridiculous ramblings which can only be reconciled with the nearing onset of mental illness.
On forums like this, I have found VERY few who produce the types of verifiable results which indicate more than simple changes in others reactions to them were at play (which while useful is not quite that interesting to me, feel free to disagree). The only reason I mention this is to caution newcomers from taking techniques from those without results to show for them, as this shows their method of imprinting to be flawed, or subjective.
I also intend this post as a beacon for those who DO produce such results to make themselves known, share their thoughts, and help me break some illusions in both myself and this forum. Keep in mind, I do not wish to attack anyones personal beliefs, I am simply offering some meta analysis for what I’ve learned in the past few months.
So,
What do you think?