P. D. Ouspensky on Magick and Psychology

"When I began to write A New Model of the Universe in 1907, 1 formulated to myself, as many other people have done before and since, that behind the surface of the life which we know lies something much bigger and more important. And I said to myself then that until we know more about what lies behind, all our knowledge of life and of ourselves is really negligible. I remember one conversation at that time, when I said, 'If it were possible to accept as proven that consciousness (or, as I should call it now, intelligence) can manifest itself apart from the physical body, many other things could be proved. Only it cannot be taken as proved.' I realized that manifestations of supernormal psychology such as thought transference, clairvoyance, the possibility of knowing the future, of looking back into the past, and so on, have not been proved. So I tried to find a method of studying these things, and worked on that line for several years. I found some interesting things in that way, but the results were very elusive; and though several experiments were successful, it was almost impossible to repeat them.

I came to two conclusions in the course of these experiments: first, that we do not know enough about ordinary psychology; We cannot study supernormal psychology, because we do not know normal psychology. Secondly I came to the conclusion that certain real knowledge exists; that there may be schools which know exactly what we want to know, but that for some reason they are hidden and this knowledge is hidden. So I began to look for these schools. I travelled in Europe, Egypt, India, Ceylon, Turkey and the Near East; but it was really later, when I had already finished these travels, that I met in Russia during the war a group of people who were studying a certain system which came originally from Eastern schools. This system began with the study of psychology, exactly as I had realized it must begin.

The chief idea of this system was that we do not use even a small part of our powers and our forces. We have in us, so to speak, a very big and very fine organization, only we do not know how to use it. "

--P.D. Ouspensky, The Fourth Way, Chapter 1

The Terrifying Truth Occultists Avoid at All Costs (As Sung By David Byrne)

When Blogs Attack

I couldn't get this to post as a comment at Mystic Journal (  https://mysticjournal.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/my-new-ish-way-of-thinking-about-magick/ ) so I slapped it down here.

j-man say: "You said you wanted to compare notes. What are your notes? Do you have them somewhere? I'd like to see what your experiences were and are.

Shawn (Me!) say:

 EXPERIENCES AND OTHER ERRATA

The latest experience that you might find interesting happened few months ago: I accidently put Padowan into a full-on state of catalepsy. If you didn't know, it's also called "waxy flexibility" because your willing victim turns into pretty much an frozen, posable flesh statue for the duration of the state.

Three Things You Can Say to Instantly Prove Yer A Complete Idiot

Intro!

I'm always willing to give anyone a chance -- until they open their mouths and prove they're a complete idiot. Here's three things fairly common in the "wizarding world" people say which prove them to be stupendiously stupid.

I. Speaketh tha word "quantum"

If you're one of those people who pepper mask your blatant ignorance with the word "quantum" (in other words, have never stepped in a lab and use the word frequently) -- I gots a challenge for ya.

Double Intermission

The first person who tells me how this relates to the occult gets a prize. How? Comments are below.

Intermission

Sup the wizdom, biatches!

Occultism: Perspectives

Down to Earth Existential Nihilism

The Supernatural: Quick and Dirty

The supernatural is a conceptual space of cause and effect where one's thinking isn't bound to ANY limitations of their own current paradigm.

Consciously choosing to think or observe supernaturally is equivalent to is practically equivalent to as brainstorming/thinking outside of the box and uncritical observation (ala early buddher practice) respectively.

The upshot of this that you are able to think and examine beyond your beliefs without cognitive dissonance or confirmation bias. (In fact, any and all supernatural explanations don't have to make sense.)

A problem with the supernatural that it can sometimes be taken literally. Solution: Don't.

Another problem is that it can be taken as the basis for a default mindset which no longer uses the conceptual space as a tool of cognition. Solution: Don't.

Yet another problem is that people given to think and observe supernaturally typically lack the necessary skepticism to pan out new and useful thoughts from those that are otherwise not. Solution: Do.

Why I Don't Believe The Earth is Round

I don't believe the Earth is round.

Why? Well, here's what I know:

I know I was told that the Earth was round by multiple teachers throughout my attendance of public schools, starting with elementary science teachers and continuing with every science teacher afterwards until the time I left.

I know that the Science channel has claimed that it was and generally backs it up with computer generated animations.

The Closest I've Ever Gotten to Having a Plan

I only want what I can take with me wherever I go —my knowledge, my skills, my wits, my drive to discover, explore, and create — to learn, grow and share — to roll the dice by living on the edge of my abilities, to put it on the line by challenging myself relentlessly.

This is the good life.
— me,  Oct, 25th, 2008

Commandments Were Made to Be Broken

The following laws are universal commandments which we must comprehend and accept… for now. Acceptance must be established before trying to overcome these laws on an individual basis. Every prison has rules and these are ours. Know them. A Cultist’s cold, rational study of these laws will lead to circumventing each and every one of them

The first law is the law of suffering. We suffer for many reasons. Chief among them is that our suffering provides energy for the universe. We also suffer in order to distract us from our purpose on this earth. Also, I have little doubt that our suffering amuses whatever sick sense of humor the universe has.

Wizardry: Batshit Jiggly Ballhs Insane

I often say that I'm a wizard. What that means -- to be bluntly honest -- is that I'm way beyond batshit crazy. Waaaay beyond. Like, out there. Buttnuggets insane, a few sandwiches short of a brick house and not the least flammable whatchacall it in that tool shed over there -- on Pluto -- the dog. (It's kinda tiny. Now you know.)

Well, I'm totally batshit by most people's standards. Fuck 'em. Their favorite band sucks. (And their mother's a total whore.)

Now, I'm about to tell you some serious motherfucking sheep shit so let's get on with it.

If you're not sitting down, go ahead and try it. It might help. Or not. People say it helps to brace themselves before receiving a significant shock -- but I've found it wise to ground thyself 'cause y'know -- electricity kills, sometimes. But enough about that. Sit down if you like. And on with the show.

Complete Nonsense

Seek the authentic,
Discard the synthetic.

Think for yourself by questioning yourself.
The only side to join is your own.

Challenge yourself to value yourself.
The only control is self-control.

You are your own God.
You are your own Adversary.

And always remember, it's all in your head.

Ghenja or Die!

Steps for entering primary ghenja. (Yes, I made up the name.)

1. Relax.
2. Give up anything you're trying to be or trying to do.
3. Accept failure in anything you're about to do. And you might as well accept immediate death as well.
4. Run straight towards something dangerous. Preferably explosive

Until I can do this again, everything I do is pointless.Edit: Hahahahaha! Including posting this. Lol

---

There will be splainin' later. Especially when I get to writinf about states. That's right -- ghenja is a state.

Materialism: The 2,800 Year Old Virgin

First, there is the Thesis. 

Then, there is the Anti-Thesis. 

The Thesis takes a long look at the Anti-Thesis. She blushes. They make fuck all night long and 9 months later a Synthesis is born.

This is the birds and bees of Dialectics and a general sketch of how paradigms advance by transforming into new, sleeker, sexier paradigms.

And I know, what does this have to do with materialism?  Well, the main problem with materialism is that it's an anti-thesis that can't seem to get it on with the thesis and produce a synthesis. In fact, materialism's inability to get it on with any thesis is so bad that most women would consider it "one of those creepy guys" and personally, I'd say that it hates women and is a downright mysognist.

Hold on. There's a point to this. Promise. :)

I'm a Bit Behind Schedule...

The posts about the double slit experiment and materialism are still on their way. Stay tuned! Don't touch that dial! Wait, what are you doing? GAaHhh!

Music For Satanists

You didn't know I was a Satanist? Oh well. With that said:

Good music which grooves with Satanism is hard to find. It's a lot like Christian music -- the greater, almost total majority of satanic bands who outwardly display their "horns" are mediocre bands who are selling crap in a niche market where that they believe will buy anything with horns on it. Satanic music was so bad that I considered it a bad sign if the band displayed as much as a pentagram.

Then I discovered Pop Evil. Enjoy.

On Life, The Universe, Everything

This is the most accurate thing I can say about myself: I dunno.

This is the most accurate thing about the universe: I dunno.

It's not that there aren't any easy answers (as I'm likely to point out for a different reason) but that there are NO answers whatsoever.

Q. What is Nothing?

A: To understand what nothing is, you first have to know a little about sets and how the function of about half of all language deals with sets.

The primary structure of language is the 'thing', not the noun as commonly taught in public schools. You English teacher probably defined a noun this way:

A noun is a person, place, idea, or thing.

Actually, all of those are things and since the noun is an idea it is a thing.

Way of the Peaceful Warrior Quotes

"Along with the office door, I had felt another door opening to another dimension. I collasped onto an old couch, and shivered, wondering what might come screaming through that door into my orderly world. My dread was mixed with strange fascination that I couldn't fathom. I sat, breathing shallowly, trying to regain my previous hold on the ordinary world."

---

That doorway, where reality dissolved into dreams, cracked open again.

---

"So I'm a fool, huh?" I said, sounding even more belligerent than I'd intended.

"We're all fools together," he replied. "It's just that a few people know it; others don't. You seem to be one of the latter types..."

Better Never Begin; Once Begun, Better Finish

Padowan asked me to create a book list and immediately one book came to mind above all others: Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman, Why? Because it includes a valid and fairly complete initiatory path: even though the book is fiction (like say, possibly the Gospel of Matthew), the narrative exists to deliver the important stuff that a noob needs to know.

Looking back, I think there's some literary puppetry going on -- Dan most likely invented Socrates for two reasons: 1. It allowed Dan to write the book from the point of veiw of the student, even though he's the teacher. This is wholly missing from a lot of books, being the student he describes his reactions to what's presented in the book. I'd say his depiction is fairly normal. 2. The worthwhile information in the book sounds better coming from a mysterious teacher with a name that's never revealed. Yes, the dude is referred to throughout the book as "Socrates" but that's a nickname. No other name for the character is given. (That I remember. Maybe in the sequel. Been a long time.)

At any rate, expect quite a few other posts inspired by my re-reading of das classic.

Intermission

Sup the wizdom, bitches.

Like a Prayer

What happens when your external reality is incongruent with your internal desire? When everything that can go wrong will go wrong. When relationships are full of strife and you experience setback after setback. Your perception of life becomes anxious. You watch your reality slip through your hands unaffected by your attempts to mold it. Your life 'happens.' Problems happen to you. Accidents 'happen.' Life is perceived to be directed by fate, by God, by the external. Your reality becomes shaped by your belief in an extrinsic design.

Magick counteracts happenstance by using a psychological spectrum to shape reality. Using the spectral shades of perception, belief, state, attention, and expectation an individual can affect his reality. Normally, the common reality bending magickal procedure used is Gnosis, but Prayer has an ability to utilize the same exact mechanisms.

Jesus Say, Monkey Do

Religion causes behavior. You have the religion, it tells you to to do things, and so you go out and do them. Jesus say, monkey do, or, that's the theory at least.

I don't buy it, simply because there's a difference between a cult leader demanding such sacrifice and sitting alone in a candle-lit basement believing that a stack of thin, leather bound sheafs of paper is demanding it. In one case, there's an actual cult leader, and in the second, well, that guy is batshit crazy and it wouldn't matter the focus of his insanity was a bible, 'religion', or a plastic bear filled with honey.

Should Iza Four Letter Word

There is one, and only one use of the word 'should' I accept as valid: where it's predicting the result of a cause and effect relationship based on careful observation. Even in this use, it denotes less than a 100% chance of the effect happening.

If you light the fuse, then the dynamite should explode.

Systems Be All Like...

Keep watching...

(most of post behind the cut)

Occultism 101

(This is an older article. I've decided to publish it as is and work on something better. Feel free to enjoy it as is.)

Occultism

Hmmm. That's a very mysterous word. So, what do you say kiddos? Poke it with a stick? Well, I've already tried and that particular act of wizardry accomplished exactly dick and shit.

How about we makes some shit up? Occultism: the ..uh.. hmm... Tarot cards and magick and shiiit!

Let's Destroy Magick: Then We Be Free!

It's a lot easier to understand the wider implications of this occult / magick psychobabble nonsense of which I ramble (for eternities on end) if you first understand some basic things like, for example : causality is near-total horseshit.

What I mean by 'wider implications' is the expectation that it's possible use magick to detonate someone's skull from the other side of the globe. Or set them on fire, their mother's hair on fire, or win the lottery, fuck a beauty princess with power madness, get reeeevenge!!!! and ... etc. All these noob expectations are based on one thing: that magick somehow allows you to transcend the 'law of cause and effect' (or just 'causality' to it's friends). The way it's ordinarily droned is thusly or similar:
 
"Magick allows you to accomplish what would be impossible using ordinary means."  [1]

Reverse Engineering: Black Boxes 101

All scientific research taken as a whole is an attempt to reverse engineer the universe.

Reverse engineering, as you might suspect, is the reverse of engineering.

Engineering is the art and science of creating something which performs a function: you need to hold up the weight of a bridge so you engineer a column with the right width and depth to hold the weight you need at the proper height.

Reverse engineering is the art and science of determining the structure which performs a function: you see the the bridge, know that something needs to hold it up, then look below and lo and behold there's a column. ( If you were monkey-wrenching, you'd then proceed to blow it up and see if the bridge comes down, but that's another post. )

Mad Science 101

Or, some things I consider the core skills and knowledge of that thing I sometimes refer to as 'mad science'.

Reverse Engineering

Reverse Engineering is a way of learning from experience. It's an application of the core scientific method to whatever thing you want to reverse engineer.

This isn't as amazing as it sounds. Just about everything scientists do under the name of "research" is an act of reverse engineering and anyone who learns primarily by "trial and error" uses the scientific method by virtue of their experimental approach ( contrasted by the method of repeatedly banging one's head against a wall ).

Hypnosis in a Nutshell

The definition of hypnosis is different depending on who you ask, even among skilled hypnotists. The reasons for this is legion, but I think I've found a way to explain hypnosis in a way that anyone can understand.

The main problem with hypnosis is the confusion between the hypnotic process and what is generally thought of as the 'hypnotic state.'

Psychology of Satanism: Nature and Nurture I

Everything within Satanism revolves around a simple psychological concept : "Nature / Nurture." In this post (one of two!), I explain WTF that means. The next part will relate it to Satanism.

"Nature" refers to everything we are born with. In other words, Nature is everything we have and can do at the moment we're shipped brand new from the factory. It's all the base mechanisms we need to survive as individuals as well as a species as a whole. On the individual scale there's critical mechanisms which sustain an individual organism's life --, like the ability to breathe. On the species scale, there's things like individual variations from height to temperment.

How to Completely Fuck Up Yer Magick Mojo

Every 2 out of 3 people I meet who's into magick or ye ol occult is stuck on some kind of unnecessary hang up or another. Most often, it all boils down to the fact that they've stalled during their initiation due to something they're missed, or else they've never encountered some basic, but vital bit of knowledge.

 I've written this short guide in hopes that a few of those stuck will find what that need to unstick themselves.

Self and Not Self

Try this simple experiment before reading the following explanaton. Thar be spoliers there.

Step 1: Get a pen or pencil. Or anything else spear or rod-like you can poke things with.

Step 2: Hold this pen (or whatever you have) like you're going to poke something with it.

Step 3: Poke a lot of shit with it. Poke a pillow, then poke a wall.

Step 4: Notice how when you poke shit with your pen, you sort of have a feeling for the end you're poking shit with and not so much where you're actually touching it.

Step 5: Note how totally weird that is now that you've taken the time to think about it. I mean, it's just the tip of a  pen, and not an extension of yourself you should be able to feel despite the lack of nerves extending into it right? Well...

Karma in Hinduism and Buddhism

When you hit yourself in the eye,
And it occurs through time,
That's a Karma!

This post is a response to the request to clarify a statement I had made -- that the concept of karma isn't the same in Hinduism and Buddhism. I also was giving an example of how metaphors used within some belief systems are meant to be taken in an esoteric sense (in other words, a psychological sense) and not within the frame of the literal supernatural. With that said, enjoy.

First, I found this definition which is a good sketch of karma in both Hinduism and Buddhism:

"the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences"