It’s a longstanding custom on this blog that whenever there are five Wednesdays in a month, the commentariat gets to nominate and vote on the subject I’ll discuss in the fifth Wednesday post. This month, by a large plurality, readers asked for an essay on psychic self-defense: the art of protecting yourself against hostile or harmful influences in the realms of thought and emotions.
It came as no surprise, at least to me, that this topic won as handily as it did. You don’t have to believe in magic to recognize that ideas and emotions pass from person to person via channels that have much more to do with subconscious processes than with conscious decisions, and that these can have potent effects on human life and happiness. (Actually, if you recognize this, you do believe in magic, you just don’t know it yet. We’ll get to that.) Given that obvious fact, finding ways to protect yourself against the negative effects is simple common sense.
With this in mind, we can start with a definition—no, I take that back. We can start with a law, which I’ve named Rowling’s Law, after a certain author whose wildly successful books for children have done quite a bit to muddy the issues we’ll be discussing. Rowling’s Law runs like this: if you read about it in a Harry Potter novel, it’s not real magic. I’ll let you speculate about why it is that we have an entire industry of kiddie lit dedicated to promoting utterly fake ideas about magic, when the reality of magic is something we encounter every day of our lives. What matters for our present purposes is that if you keep Rowling’s Law in mind, you’ll be spared some humiliating mistakes.
Got that? Good. Now we can proceed to the definition. The one I have in mind is a definition of magic: magic is the art and science of causing changes in consciousness in accordance with will. That definition isn’t something I invented, by the way. It was introduced by Violet Firth Evans, one of the leading magical theorists of the 20th century (and also a crackerjack practitioner), who published a flurry of influential books on magic under her pen name Dion Fortune. If “causing changes in consciousness in accordance with will” doesn’t sound like something the boy wizard and his chums know anything about, you’re getting the point.
(One of the most widely read and studied books published under the “Dion Fortune” byline, by the way, is Psychic Self-Defence: A Study in Occult Pathology and Criminality. Like all her work, it passed out of copyright some time ago and can be downloaded free of charge here. You could do much worse, dear reader, than to give it some serious study.)
The definition just cited, by the way, is more subtle than it seems. It doesn’t specify whose consciousness is being changed, nor does it specify whose will directs the changes. Among the common superstitions of our time are the beliefs that that each person’s consciousness is locked up entirely inside his or her skull, and can only be influenced by his or her own will. In practice, of course, most of us realize that neither of these notions is true; we’ve all seen fashions, moods, and other states of consciousness leap from person to person, with little if any participation of conscious mind and will. Yet most of us continue to kowtow to the superstitions just named, and pretend that all of the thoughts and feelings we experience are ours.
Competent occultists know better. They understand that the consciousness of the individual is always influenced by the thoughts and emotions of the others with which they interact. They know that most of these influences are unintended and unconscious, but they also know that those who have learned certain obscure teachings can take conscious control over the process. These knowledgeable people can deliberately influence other people for good or ill using the subtle connections that link mind to mind, and they can also take conscious control of their own minds, so that they are only affected by those influences they choose to admit.
How do they do this? Broadly speaking, there are two ways. One of them gets all the attention in recent occult literature; the other is the one with real power. The first consists of formal processes that direct the will and the imagination of the practitioner into a specific pattern of consciousness that then flows outward to affect others. You can call those formal processes “spells,” “charms,” “cantrips,” “incantations,” “enchantments,” or what have you; the standard term among serious occultists these days is “workings.” Under any name, a magical working is a symbolic drama working with emotionally and cognitively charged symbols to focus the mind intently on a single end, which then has effects on the practitioner’s mind and those of others as well.
Flashy and fascinating as they are, magical workings are weaker than the other option, which is the way of self-development. Meditation rather than ritual is central to this second option, and its goal is to strengthen and focus consciousness so that the practitioner doesn’t need ritual workings to interact with the web of connections linking mind to mind. It’s a commonplace of older occult literature that an adept—a genuinely skilled practitioner of magic—can accomplish his will with minimal rituals, or none at all. You don’t get to that level by doing rituals; you get there by the dull but essential discipline of daily practice.
One other factor has to be referenced at this point. I’ve discussed “other minds” as though this only referred to human beings. This isn’t even remotely true. People feel happier around thriving plants because healthy green plants enjoy the sunlight, soil, and water that nourish them, and radiate a vague and unfocused sense of happiness to every mind within range. Animals, being more complex, have as rich an emotional life as humans do, though their mental life is more limited than ours, and they can influence us just as they are influenced by us. Beyond that, there are centers of consciousness that don’t appear to have any material bodies at all, but can also influence human consciousness in striking ways.
Yes, I know, this is where all the superstitious materialists stuff their fingers in their ears and start bawling, “La, la, la, I can’t hear you.” The fact remains that when a Christian falls to his knees and calls to Jesus, something responds. The same thing is true if we’re talking about the gods of other religions, and it’s equally true of those entities called “saints” and “angels” in our language. Equally, it’s true when somebody gets hold of certain old books and uses them to evoke one of those malicious and harmful beings known as demons: something responds.
The fact that occultism is aware of this, by the way, doesn’t make occultism a religion. It’s a matter of simple fact that for the last fifteen hundred years, most occultists in the Western world have been Christians and went to church on Sundays. (That was true, for example, of Violet Firth Evans aka Dion Fortune—she was an Anglican Christian who attended church and wrote a book of devotions based on the Collects of the Anglican church year.) If human beings are composed of body, mind, and spirit, religion belongs to the spirit while occultism belongs to the mind. Keep the difference in mind and you’ll understand what follows more clearly.
All these points are necessary preliminaries to the study of psychic self-defense. If you’ve followed the discussion so far, you understand that your thoughts and your feelings are constantly influenced by the thoughts and feelings of all those around you; that these influences can be consciously directed, and that these influences, conscious or otherwise, can be helpful or harmful. There’s an obvious point, then, to being able to protect yourself against the harmful influences, whether those come unintentionally from the thoughts and feelings of the people around you, or all too intentionally from someone or something that knows how to use the interconnections of consciousness to influence you against your will.
These two categories aren’t quite as distinct as they seem. It’s possible, for example, to influence a group of people in such a way that their subconscious reactions reinforce the practitioner’s conscious efforts. This can be done in positive ways—for example, healing work is greatly strengthened if the people around the person to be healed participate in it, so that their subconscious conviction that the patient will get better strengthens the conscious intent of the healer. The same effect can of course be used just as easily for nastier reasons.
The most widely visible modern example is advertising. Yes, advertising is a form of magic—a grubby and debased form of magic, but magic nonetheless; it’s an attempt to cause change in consciousness in accordance with will. It’s specifically a form of evil magic, since it sets out to manipulate its victims into spending money they wouldn’t otherwise spend on products they wouldn’t otherwise buy. Much of its power comes from the way that it insinuates itself into the minds of most people, who then radiate its influence. That sort of artificially induced groupthink is lamentably common these days, and is responsible for a very large share of our collective miseries and absurdities.
The methods for protecting yourself against all of this are twofold, in exactly the same way as the rest of magic. There are workings, quite a few of them, that can be used to ward off hostile influences on your thoughts and feelings. These are worth knowing, and can be very useful in certain circumstances, but here again the slow path of self-development is the more powerful option. If you become more fully conscious of your own thoughts and feelings, it becomes easy to notice when someone or something is messing with them, and nearly as easy to counter the hostile influence before it can affect you enough to matter.
How do you do this? Daily meditation. I don’t recommend the kinds of meditation that work by silencing the mind or letting thoughts pass unconsidered, because the skills you need to develop are those of engaging with the mind without being caught up in the thinking process. The kind of meditation I teach, discursive meditation, is one of the best options, but it’s not the only one. Any form of meditation that involves concentrating on a single thought or a sequence of thoughts will do the job. Five minutes a day is enough; thirty minutes a day is too much for most people.
(And if, dear reader, you’re a Christian and are convinced that meditation was invented by the Devil, let me introduce you to the Rev. Joseph Hall. He was an Anglican bishop in the 17th century, famous in his lifetime for his personal devotion to Christ, and the author of one of the great textbooks of discursive meditation, The Art of Divine Meditation, which is still very much in print. Did you know that you can meditate on Bible verses? Bishop Hall will show you how.)
(Oh, and if you’re Catholic and aren’t yet praying the Rosary daily, get off your rump and on your knees. The Rosary is, among other things, a fine method of meditation.)
Daily meditation has plenty of gifts to offer, but one of the most important is the discovery that you are not your thoughts. Another, just as important, is the realization that you are not your feelings. Your thoughts and feelings are things that you experience, not parts of your identity. A bumper sticker I used to see fairly often a couple of decades ago—DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU THINK—communicates one of the great secrets of magic, but it needs to be accompanied by another, DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU FEEL. Once you can observe your thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them, you’re basically invulnerable from psychic attack.
It’s going to take you a few years of daily practice to get to that point, however. During the interval, you may need some additional help. There are broadly speaking two sources of help you can draw on. The first consists of technical devices to take the pressure off; the second consists of habits of mind you can cultivate to assist the growth of your ability to perceive and counter hostile influences on your thoughts and feelings.
Among the technical devices, the ones most useful for the beginner come from the branch of occultism known as natural magic. For at least the last five thousand years or so, students of magic have been busy tabulating the subtle influences that plants, stones, and other material substances have on human consciousness. (They were probably busy with the same project much further back, but written records only go back so far.) Herbs such as St. John’s-wort, angelica, and bay laurel have long been used to protect against hostile influences, and they do seem to work. Any decent book on natural magic will teach you everything you need to know about how to use these for protection; I have one in print, if that’s of interest.
Another, which pushes the boundaries of the acceptable in a different way, is ordinary salt. Occult tradition has it that the influences we’ve been discussing are carried by a subtle substance, too rarefied to be perceived by the senses or detected with ordinary instruments; the possibility that this may be the same as the “dark matter” physicists talk about has been discussed in occult circles. Subtle though it is, this substance can be caught in crystalline substances, and salt is the most convenient of these. Cultures around the world clear noxious influences from a place by scattering salt, which is left for a little while and then swept up.
Salt is also part, though only part, of what gives holy water its efficacy. Holy water is always made with a small quantity of salt. When you flick holy water from your fingers to bless something, the salt in it forms microcrystals as the droplets evaporate; this traps noxious energies and renders them harmless. Quite a few traditional religious practices of this sort embody a great deal of occult knowledge alongside their purely spiritual dimension.
Among the habits of mind, the most useful fall into two categories. The first is to limit your exposure to current groupthink. You can spare yourself an enormous amount of vulnerability by getting rid of your television and making sure you have a good ad blocker on your internet browser. If you enjoy visual media, consider watching movies and TV series from at least ten years back—you can borrow plenty of those on DVDs from your local public library if the modest cost is too high for you. The important thing is to get out of sync with the mass mind of the people you know. The habit of mental synchronization, which is powerfully fostered by television and the other mediated spectacles of our time, is one of the things that makes people most vulnerable to the influence of hostile magic and of subconscious mental influence.
The second is to cultivate a habit of thought that one of my teachers called “thinking in ternaries.” Most human thought consists of binaries: this or that, left or right, progress or regress, and so on endlessly. Most things in the real world aren’t anything like so simplistic; what’s more, thinking in binaries makes you vulnerable to influence by those who know how to use it. Flatten all the available choices into one that’s bad and one that’s even worse, and most people will go stampeding toward the bad option without ever stopping to think about whether there might be alternatives that haven’t been mentioned.
Thinking in ternaries is a way around that mental boobytrap. It’s quite simple: any time you’re presented with a choice between two alternatives, find a third. It can be somewhere in the middle between two extremes, it can be off beyond one of the extremes, or it can be at right angles to the entire binary—that doesn’t matter. Find one, or more than one. (You’ll discover that once you find one, very reliably, you’ll spot many more.) My teacher used to advise students to read the newspaper each morning (yes, we had newspapers made of real paper back in those distant times), find ten binaries, and identify a third option for each. I rarely failed to complete that before I finished the front page.
Learning to think in ternaries has the obvious advantage that it teaches you to detect false dichotomies and look for other options. Less obviously, it teaches you to think about your thoughts, rather than simply reacting to them. Most forms of psychic attack have a binary structure: there’s the thing the source of the attack wants you to do and then there’s one other alternative, freighted with as much negative force as possible. Break the binary and the attack dissolves around you.
Of course all this has another effect: people will think you’re weird. Like most social mammals, human beings normally hand their thinking over to the herd, and gauge your membership in the herd by the extent to which your thoughts and feelings are the same as everyone else’s. If you don’t play along, you get sidelong looks at best, and quite often you find yourself on the fringes of the herd or outside it altogether. That’s a lonely place to be.
Still, it can’t be helped. Maybe there are times and places where it really is safe and sensible to think the same thoughts and feel the same feelings as everyone else, but this is not one of them. An enormous share of the thoughts and feelings that surge through the collective consciousness of modern industrial society these days are horrifically negative, the sort of thing that drives masses of people into self-defeating and self-destructive patterns of behavior. If you want to have a happy and successful life in this dark and troubled age, some attention to psychic self-defense is essential.
*****
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Thanks for the point towards Bishop Hall’s book. I’d not heard of it before. By the way, Amazon has a cheap version of the book, with the most ridiculous front cover image I’ve ever seen on a theological/spiritual book.
First time commenting here JMG! Been a fan of your work for a long time
Can you expand a little more on why mindfulness (or Zen meditation) is inferior in this case to discursive meditation? Is Zen meditation to be avoided entirely, or is it useful as a supplement to discursive meditation>
5 minutes also seems an incredibly short amount of time to see any kind of long term improvement in physic powers. Perhaps I am thinking of discursive meditation wrong, but it seems quite similar to the mere act of deep concentration, which we can work up to doing for 4 hours a day.
I haven’t read the whole post yet, but I want to get a question out to the group and not sure when I’ll be able to come back:
Does anyone have suggestions for books (and other media) for children that offer/foster a good relationship/understanding of magic and our enchanted world?
Currently reading the likes of Little Witch Hazel by Phoebe Wahls to my 4yo and eager to find more to balance out the Disney princesses and Rowling books etc. that are also in our current and future media pile.
“Real magic doesn’t look like this. Sorry, Potter fans…” So, does this mean that I can’t work for the Ministry of Magik? Yer killin’ me…
Thanks for this.
I’m assuming that meditating on the rosary is different than reciting it?
Would meditating on the rosary involve meditation on specific phrases from the prayers of the rosary?
Thanks,
Jacques
Hello, JMG and commentariat. Thank you John for your advices about psychic self-defence, I’ll take into consideration your words. I’m surrounded (like everybody in today world) by the Spectacle of politics and advertisements, so I’ve been trying to reduce my exposure to TV and online videos, with certain success. In the personal relationships things, I’ve avoided in the recent past some toxic people. However, I can’t avoid every negative influence in my personal life. There are two or maybe three people near to my everyday life, who I can’t get rid easily of them. They’re very pessimist and cynical people, but for personal motives I can’t avoid them forever. I’m eager to practice your advices, especially I’m interested in discursive meditation, to not to be influenced by these negative people anymore.
By the way, your advice to not to see recent movies isn’t very difficult for accomplishing, at least IMHO: last years Hollywood and European imitators movies have been so wokeized and a lot of bad remakes, so they aren’t worth to see…
Been looking forward to this so much, thank you! And never before have I been so grateful to be the perpetual outsider, I guess like the majority here: we do seem to be a herd of cats in this forum, mostly. And by cats I mean wilful, won’t be herded, and take your pick of a position on the ‘spectrum’. Maybe our faulty wiring is our superpower in these times? Off to meditate on that 😉
Thank you. Having read Dion Fortune and having used salt before, not to mention that I do banishing rituals every day with two other meditations to boot, I would love if you had any info on regaining energy, not even as in psychic vampires, but for someone who has seemingly had their center/aura/essence ripped out of them by a misunderstood narcissistic type. Have you encountered any of that?
I like reading your writing because it usually provides that perfect mix of 60% stuff I agree with, 30% stuff I’m not sure about but is really fun to engage with, and 10% stuff I vehemently disagree with.
This is 100% pure gold. Pure salt 🙂
If anyone here is not doing any of this you need to start right away. Even some is better than nothing. More so than any number of people on any part of the political spectrum what we need are more people who can defend their own minds, get out of groupthink, and interact with each other and the world.
Thank you for this primer. I wonder if you might address specific ways in which some people seem to be prone to “flirting with danger “ physically and/or psychically. People who heedlessly run towards danger, apparently reflexively, seem more common than Darwinism would suggest is likely. I am thinking the Fool in tarot might symbolize some of that sort of energy?
Sir, are there any particular methods or caveats you’d emphasize for teaching the basics to teenagers? I have a couple regularly struggling with the emotions of social drama and the dissipating distractions of all the noise in the world. I’d like to offer something helpful to them, but I don’t want to overwhelm them with too much too soon, or with too much emphasis on my own particular ways of practice.
For context, I am a Christian, but unfortunately my rearing was adjacent to traditions which today focus more on creating curated para-societies for young people than they do teaching them to have a meaningful spiritual life. I’ve had to come to these things on my own, much later in life.
Chemically speaking sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is a salt. Does it also count as salt for occult purposes?
I’m thinking specifically of “clear noxious influences from a place by scattering salt, which is left for a little while and then swept up.” That is often how baking soda used. As an added benefit it’s also much less corrosive than table salt.
“Most human thought consists of binaries: this or that, left or right, progress or regress, and so on endlessly.”
It’s known simply as the “principle of false dichotomy.” Though you haven;t touched upon it, there are several such tools available to distinguish legitimate arguments from disingenuous (groupthink) reasoning. Perhaps you will write about this at some time.
It seems to me that flows of subtle energy in the body always have an emotional quality to them. Is that something hopefuls of obtaining psychological strength should unidentify themselves from? It’s slightly paradoxical because I’ve always thought subtle energy is something to cultivate..maybe it is and we just can’t identify with it.
Interesting post, JMG. I’ve certainly become more aware of the trap of binary thinking following your posts over the last couple of decades. The world is far more gray today versus the black and white of the past.
An example of the influence of other people’s ideas and emotions that I’ve experienced in the last ten years is when I met an empath and she explained why there were certain people and ideas that projected very negative influences on her. Up to that point I considered her view/experience more of a weakness – a lack of backbone. But as she described her emotions and correlated them with contact with certain individuals, I thought more about other people I’d met in my life similar to her, and the idea clicked how each of us is “wired” in ways which can promote positive or negative comfort zones depending on who we’re around.
The terms “empath” and “wired” may be more pop psychology than what you’re describing in your post, but if I understand you correctly, there are methods to adjust or tune one’s “wiring” as a means of defense and deeper understanding of thoughts and emotions and how they interact with others….
Hmmm. So the AI bully bots trying to get me to stop posting stories on AO3 by harassing me if I don’t comply are effectively practicing a crude form of magic? Or the people setting them to work are. Interesting. It does add to my stress level and reduce my enjoyment of writing on that site, even if I have every intention of keeping writing the series they’re currently bothering me about, which is wildly popular by my standards and which I’m enjoying writing.
I could stop the bully bot comments, unless they change tactics, by not allowing guest comments, but I get plenty of real comments from people not signed in I’d rather not lose. I’m also concerned that new writers who don’t realize its AI attacking many people and lack my close to twenty years worth of thickened skin from posting their writing online may be getting bullied off the site.
I think I’ll stick an author’s note on the next chapter telling readers what’s happening so the writers among them who are getting attacked realize it’s not just them, and how to recognize it.
Any other suggestions on what to do about this?
One thing I’ve been doing for getting on for a year is reading a passage in the bible every morning I possibly can, and thinking about it, and about the things that it brings up, and then praying about them. For maybe five to twenty minutes a day, more often on the shorter side than the long. Is this likely to be helpful in psychic defense as well as in getting to know God better? The latter being what I am primarily hoping for, but the former would be a useful bonus if it is the case.
How a tacky american evangelist with a broad south western accent would say: “Ameeeeeeen brother …. wa wa wa – the lord!”
A fine piece again and food for thought.
Not only me who notices these thousands little vile acts of people everyday in public nowadays. And those get caught and stick in your nervous system if you are unprotected;
Do broad and general questions as “why am I uptight” or “what should I do next” also qualify as focal points of meditation, even with all these chains of association it may trigger? While constantly returning focus to the original question, of course, not drifting away entirely.
Where does such a kind of meditation begin, where does mere mental rambling end?
My good friend the now systema practitioner, devoted follower (and to a degree also friend) to Vladimir Vasiliev shuns any kind of conscious thought, form or visualization in connection with therapy of a disturbed nervous system.
He does read up a lot on the research of trauma therapy and the practice of trauma therapy. When one’s development was disturbed very early, he argues, we must go back way behind any spoken words! Way behind any complex breathwork also….back to the primeval instincts we work with, when practicing self defense while keeping ourselves as soft and flexible as possible, in combination with burst breathing as a main practice.
Unfortunately I lack the vocabulary and writer’s gift right now to explain what he means by that, to be free of any attachment to thought, form and procedure, ultimately.
Which in the end is the same, as what this essay speaks of is.
Another friend constantly seeks “healing”, likewise many New Agers do, not that I’d insult him as being one, but “healing” is a very common word these days in poop spirituality. I meant to write “Pop Spirituality” but this one is good to.
So he always seeks out mushroom and ayahuasca ceremonies and other ceremonies with the intent of healing, as a participant, in the hopes of being relieved of his oneruos loads.
I on my behalf do not look for “healing” in this sense. Rather for opportunity, of deeper understanding, for favourable options to take, by my own initiative, to further my ethics, to embark on a better path.
At another point I must put forward this question: why, despite the many flaws and inner conflict I may still have, I have become in many ways more sovereign and stable, all without any kind of “therapy”?
Not mind you because life lacked its ugly experiences. But I remember being much more uptight and easy to tumble now.
If, as many like to say “Therapy” is the only way to restabilize a frightened nervous system, then why has mine improved, at least so much that I am more stable and confident, without ever seeking someone else’s therapeutic help?
(A bit off topic)
JMG has mocked with reason the Harry Potter fake magic. When I’ve reread those phrases, I’ve remembered there’s been opened not very time ago a shop in my town whose stuff to be sold is Potterian gadgets and suits for the local saga fans. Well, we’ll see if my town has enough Harry Potter fans to keep that shop alive in the future…
As one of my early spiritual influences wrote in response to certain practices “Mind is everywhere!”
An attitude which works is “I believe nothing.” I didn’t even understand what was being stated the first time a teacher said that to me, and it was years before I did.
I would say that any form of concentration meditation will have some benefit with respect to feelings and thoughts: you learn how to touch them and let them go.
Vipassana in its more commonly taught form is nothing but “there’s a sense object. Notice it and let it go.” An advanced practitioner can dismiss almost anything, two of my teachers can control their flinch reflex that way and both can simply touch fairly significant pain and it goes away.
Most spiritual traditions also have some form of discursive meditation. Vedanta’s about 50% discursive by weight, at least the traditional form is and was and there’s plenty in Buddhism. Most of spirituality is changing your world view, deep into your subconscious. Logic alone won’t do it, but trying to do it without working thru the logic is similar to rolling five six sided dice and expecting all of them to come up one.
One thing I will note is that occultism is always a bit dangerous. What comes isn’t always what you consciously asked for. And as one of my teachers once said, “spirits are people too. And a lot of people aren’t good people.” Ritual forms are a good way to reduce that risk, but a lot of Saints and Boddhisattvas were not nice people and the same is true of angels. A lot gets justified easily by higher spiritual entities.
Something not talked about much but which every moderately advanced spiritual practitioner knows is that at a certain point you definitely gain the ability to influence other people directly. Control of your own emotions turns out to be very close to control of other people’s emotions and while I don’t know it from my own experience, I’m sure the same is true of thoughts.
Nianfo is also a great method of meditation. I do it everyday.
Speaking as a Catholic, I can say without hesitation that the fastest-acting magic spell I ever did was a Rosary. Money was tight, jobs were scarce, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to feed my family. And so I did a Rosary with the intention “I’m not asking for a lot of money, just enough to pay the bills and keep food on the table.” Within a few hours after doing that, I got an Upwork job invitation that met all those expectations. Thank you again, Virgin Mother of God!
I’d also note that Marian venerations aren’t just for Catholics. Mary will turn away no person who comes to her for assistance. Here’s St. Bonaventure, recognized as a Doctor of the Church for his contributions to theology:
[i]But the grace of Mary was not only most useful to herself, but also to us, to the entire human race. For the grace of Mary gathers in the evil, nourishes and fattens the good, delivers all.[/i]
Many people complain that Catholicism is thinly-disguised Greco-Roman Paganism. I always respond, “I already told you I’m Catholic, you don’t have to sell me on it.” 😉
As an aside for the commentariat, my friend Ahnaf and I recently did a podcast with the esteemed Mr. Greer himself. If you want to listen, it’s available at https://www.notesfromtheendofti.me/p/eurabiamania-139-doom-despair-and
Thank you for this.
I feel the need for psychic defence every say
In the street, at the workplace, and online.
I don’t mean it in a negative way, just my experience
The problem with modern mainstream therapy is that it is based in a materialistic worldview and ignores completely the astral plane and the astral organs of the human body, which I think are pretty important if you want to improve your mental health.
Outside of specific methods of defence and practices to improve oneself and develop one’s Ideal, could the topic also encompass preparing for fear of the unknown – particularly in relation to death of the physical body? Preemptive defence if you will…
It seems to me that one of the greatest obstacles is actually ourselves particularly in relation to fear. You mentioned advertising (fear of missing out), and one of the biggest manipulations in recent years was the deliberately generated fear during 2020 – the thing with fear is that it’s intensity can damage thinking – quite important for someone trying to get people to do things they would normally question.
Manipulating people through fear often sets up a cascade of emotive thoughts and where you say: “the second consists of habits of mind you can cultivate to assist the growth of your ability to perceive and encounter hostile influences on your thoughts and feelings.” – that really gets to the heart of the matter – like a rawhide chew lined with spicy pepperoni.
A way to explore this which IIRC you discussed before is to look at fear of death.
Frank Herbert’s Litany against Fear gave me an idea for a variant/adaptation that I called The Litany to Balance Emotions. A couple of days ago it occurred to me to adapt the variant to work as an exercise of memento mori and the following is the result.
To quote from Terry Gilliam’s ‘The Adventures of Baron Munchausen’:
“And that was only one of the many occasions on which I met my death, an experience which I don’t hesitate strongly to recommend.”
If the phrase ‘Die before your death’ is emphasising the importance of preparing – e.g. practice now and save trouble later sort of thing… well, here’s a version of Memento Mori – exploring and overcoming fear; also called – Practising Death:
***
I see death
I pause and breathe
I face death and remain calm
My body dies but I rise above it like a glowing star
I see my body as my heart rises above and beyond
The body is dead but shining consciousness is calm and clear
Death swirls and I am released
I use the inner eye and watch the passage of death
Love abides
And through the inner eye
There is light
And I Am
***
If it is of use, enjoy or adapt to suit your own paths; if anyone sees inconsistencies or faults, please do say.
Bonaventure, you’re most welcome. As for the Big Slimy River, I wish I could say that surprises me…
Josh, my experience as a teacher of meditation and a leader of esoteric groups has been that people who train with mindfulness meditation or the mind-emptying forms of zazen too often end up responding passively to their own thoughts, which is the opposite of the state I’m encouraging. This is why Fortune 500 corporations are so eager to get their employees practicing mindfulness meditation — it keeps them passive, obedient, and calm. As for discursive meditation, no, it’s not just deep concentration. It requires reflective consciousness — not just being aware, but being aware that you’re aware, maintaining an inner distance from the contents of consciousness while still engaging with those contents.
Pedestrian, I’m not at all sure that they’re suitable to 4 year olds, but my Ariel Moravec occult detective novels are apparently picking up a fan base among children — I didn’t intend them as young-adult novels, but they have no age-inappropriate content and seem to speak to kids. What’s more, all the magic in them is real.
Gerry, why don’t you go ahead and put in your application, and see whether they get back to you. 😉
Jacques, not at all. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I understood that saying the Rosary involves contemplating a set of five mysteries, one on each of the decades. That’s very meditative.
Chuaquin, daily meditation is your friend! As for movies, well, there’s that…
Miow, “Autism Is My Superpower” is a phrase I’ve seen tolerably often in certain circles!
Arvo, the first requirement there is to process the trauma, and journaling is very helpful for that. The methods of the Order of Spiritual Alchemy are one good way to go about this, though of course there are others. Narcissists can’t actually take your essence — they just like to make you think that they can, so they can get you to build your ego around them. Journaling and regular meditation will help you find your balance again.
Allie, and it’s precisely that so many of my readers are willing to disagree with me when they feel I’m wrong that keeps blogging entertaining for me!
Ken, depends on how you interpret the Fool, of course. The point I’d make is that young people are genetically programmed to seek danger. That’s a normal mammalian adaptation to encourage evolution — get your young, and especially young males, to take lots of stupid risks, and Darwin will have a chance to select the most fit from each generation.
Josh, first, see if you can find some older Christian resources intended for teens and older children. Anything written before 1960 is likely to be worth considering. Second, go ahead and emphasize your ways of practice — not as a requirement, but as “this works for me.” Third, well, since I haven’t raised teens in this lifetime, I’ll be interested to see what others suggest.
Siliconguy, you’d have to experiment and find out.
AA, I’ll consider it.
Luke Z, no, just don’t identify with the emotions. Let emotions become something you experience, and when appropriate, something you experience at a distance.
Drhooves, exactly. Empaths are unusually sensitive to those interactions; autists like me are unusually insensitive to them. There are many variations, and yes, adjustments can be made.
Pygmycory, yes, the bully bots are magical instruments in the hands of unpleasant people. You should certainly discuss the matter publicly — a spell outed that way can lose all its power. As I’ll discuss in an upcoming post, mockery also helps. Your daily practice, btw, is excellent, and is a form of meditation that will give you the benefits I’m discussing alongside its other good points.
Curt, I don’t recommend questions that broad or that emotionally loaded. Your friend the systema practitioner is right when it comes to martial arts — you need to go back before thought to build the reflexes that will make you a good fighter — but that’s not the only game in town. As for therapy, it’s only one option; there are many other ways to do things, but of course therapists have bills to pay like the rest of us…
Chuaquin, we’ll just have to see!
Ian, occultism isn’t primarily about spirits — those practices that fixate on spirits are debased forms of the true occult tradition.
Seeking, systematic repetition of a prayer requires concentration and attentiveness, so yes, it counts.
Kenaz, I’ve heard the same thing from many Catholics.
Tony, good. Those who don’t feel that need aren’t paying attention.
Anon, well, that’s my take, too!
Earthworm, thank you for this!
1) Does regular, iodized or uniodized table salt work well for soaking up noxious influences?
2) Since crystals are developing etheric bodies, the energies are captured by them for some reason?
@Curt (#18):
What I have always done about traumas I have experienced is to turn them into stories of things thatb happened to me that I survived. and learned from. Like a coffee mug I have says, “Scars are tattoos with better stories.” This was the method my paternal grandmother used. She was a good storyteller, and ashe had many stories about her life and the lives of her ancestors. Story-making worked for her, and it works for me.
Terry Pratchett wrote, only half facetiously, that stories exist before a person’s experienced world, and shape how it is experienced by a person. I think that is one of the most profound truths I have ever met with. A person who has no stories is almost defenseless in the school of hard knocks that life is, and is supposed to be.
I just want to say a heartfelt thank you. I have read your writings on this topic for multiple years, yet this feels like the most cogent and clearest articulation so far.
Pygmycory # 17:
I do the same biblical lecture, especially the Gospels, near every day too. Since I read these holy words, I feel better to start the day. Thanks for your comment!
JMG # 26:
Thanks for your advice about meditation…I’ll try to meditate every day.
A few more notes.
The first job of all spiritual meditation is, imo, learning meta-awareness. Not just being aware but knowing what your consciousness is doing. That’s the hard part. The best instruction I’ve used is to have an object of concentration (that can be your discourse, it doesn’t really matter what it is), and make the intention “I will notice when I’m not engaged with the object of concentration and return to it.” When you do, congratulate yourself. Never berate yourself, you want to feel good about getting good at noticing what your consciousness is doing.
On another note, “I am everything” and “I am nothing” are both true, but pick one at the start and don’t do the other till later. For most westerners, “I am nothing” seems better. Ask yourself “did I choose to think/feel/do this?” If you’re doing meditation and you’ve lost the thread, the answer will be “no.” It’s startling for beginners to realize they have almost no control over themselves and there’s often an early intermediate “dark night of the soul” when people realize just how little free will they seem to have.
JMG wrote,
Jacques, not at all. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I understood that saying the Rosary involves contemplating a set of five mysteries, one on each of the decades. That’s very meditative.
Yes, that makes sense. I’m pretty new to the rosary and forgot about the mysteries.
Jacques
This is one of your best posts. For the first time I am “getting” magic and gaining some insight into occult thinking. Particularly useful is the portion on discursive meditation, which I have practiced for many years, but have never thought of it from this perspective. Fundamentally I am Taoist. Also useful is the ternaries. Not new to me but the perspective is. Not sure about the salt yet!!
I have long admired your work in Catabolic Collapse, terminal phase of industrial society, Druidism. Now I am starting to understand you better as an occult thinker. this piece clicked in ways others had not.
Thanks, Tom
That billboard (or “hoarding” — for the Brits and Canadians) for Corona Extra is an amazing example. The guy who designed it should get a raise! I recommend Edward Bernays’ book “Propaganda” (1928). Right up front in Chapter 1 he writes, ” Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet….It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.” So, don’t worry, the invisible governors often don’t even know each other; thus no conspiracy as they attempt to bind and guide the world.
The Pedestrian wrote, “Does anyone have suggestions for books (and other media) for children that offer/foster a good relationship/understanding of magic and our enchanted world?”
Yes, I heartily recommend four books that each delve deeply into the natural trajectory the conscious self inevitably follows as it awakens to the magical nature of the soul, the world, and the divine. The first is Margery Williams’ The Velveteen Rabbit, the story of an expendable doll who stumbles upon the secret of how to become real by simply caring more for the fate of the greater being who loves it than for its own fate. The second is Crockett Johnson’s Harold and the Purple Crayon, the story of a child who discovers he has the tools to create a world of wonder and magic so thrilling that he loses himself in it, and then has to discover how to find himself again (a there and back again story). The third is David Wiesner’s Flotsam, an extraordinary picture book depicting how the depths of the subconscious will reward any children paying close attention to the unknown world around them with unexpected secrets from magical realms beyond, and how, if they pay close enough attention, they will find that they are a part of an unfolding lineage of magical explorers. The fourth is Renata Bini’s A World Treasury of Myths, Legends, and Folktales: Stories form Six Continents, the most revealing collection of epic myths I have ever found when it comes to providing subtle insights into the architecture and mechanics of the various parts of the larger Self and how they relate.
Re: Harry Potter
I have realized that J.K. Rowling had an opportunity to popularize common methods of divination in Prisoner of Azkaban, astrology in Goblet of Fire, and mundane astrology in Order of the Phoenix. Instead, the divination class became material for jokes about the professor being a fraud who’ll fall for made up predictions on homework assignments as long as they’re doom-and-gloom.
She could have even taught readers a basic daily practice (i.e. LRP & discursive meditation) in an elective or NEWT (advanced) class that Harry signs up for. However, it’s probably a good thing for the occult community that she didn’t bring millions to tens of millions of young people to take up magical practice…
I can be sarcastic about some things when outing the bully bots. The whole thing definitely deserves mockery. And because that series popular, it should reach a couple of hundred people in the next couple of weeks, with more trickling in later. Some of whom I know are writers on AO3, and some of whom I know have been targeted themselves. I’ve already talked individually to the ones I saw being targeted when I saw it happening, but still. Figure it is useful.
Do you think spinning prayer wheels and praying to Guanshiyin Pusa are also good for Psychic Defense?
Spinning prayer wheels are also a good form of meditation
I’ve been thinking about the various planes and how malevolent influences work down them and through them. We’ve discussed in the past that protective natural magic and practices such as bathing in cold water work on the etheric level, but banishing rituals work on the astral. With banishing rituals and other ceremonial magic being something I can’t do for the foreseeable future, I periodically noodle on how to get around this. My latest thought is about working “upstream” (the mental) and “downstream” (the etheric) from the astral.
My hypothesis is that if you were able to control your mental plane environment of meaning and value sufficiently, things that try to affect you through the astral wouldn’t have much success. This seems to be part of what you are discussing in this post regarding self-development.
In addition, I speculate that if you are careful and consistent about etheric cleansing and strengthening, things coming down from the astral will be unable to “ground out” on the material plane and concretely affect your life, because they can’t get through your etheric protections. Maybe you would still be affected emotionally, but it wouldn’t go farther than that. So say someone curses you: they formulate their intent on the mental plane, act out the magical drama on the astral plane, which affects your consciousness on the astral plane. You become stressed or fearful, say, and that…what? Maybe depletes your etheric force and leads you to become sick, or inhibits your flows of etheric energy and causes you to get jerky and awkward in your movements and have a physical accident? So if you were strongly protected on the etheric level, you might still feel bad, but your etheric and therefore physical body would remain strong and healthy. Or can the influence “skip” the etheric and go straight from the astral to the material to mess you up?
really interesting piece– glad the community voted for this topic!
I just read something in a commentary to Buddhist Pure land practice that reminded me of your description of discursive meditation and finding separation from your thoughts and feelings, “…Just put your attention on the question, Who is the one reciting the buddha-name? This is the basic koan, the fundamental meditation point in reciting the buddha-name. Turn the light around and observe for yourself, until you know the ultimate locus of this mindfulness of buddha. Then delusion will spontaneously break up. When delusion breaks up, that which develops from it is obliterated in the same way.”
Also really enjoyed the advice avoiding groupthink (particularly in media) and finding ternaries.
Chuaquin @ 6, I have found that the best way for me to cope with toxic and negative persons to have on hand a repertoire of anodyne responses, such as Sure, I can see how someone might think that., or You don’t say., or Wow, that’s a new one on me., and the like. That lets Mr. toxic know you did listen but doesn’t give Ms. negative snarkist reason to think you agree with her. If, OTOH, you meant to refer to back-stabbing insinuating troublemakers, that’s a hard one. Being retired, I can easily avoid those; there are none in my immediate neighborhood, fortunately.
If I may respond to Michelle from last week, actually last night, @ 449, this year’s post season playoffs are and have been one for the ages. I have never before envied the wealthy–if you want money, do the work–but I sure would have liked to be at Chavez Ravine these past two days.
The Tarot can be useful for understanding ternarys. 0-1-2 Fool, Magician, High Priestess 3-4-5 Empress, Emperor, Hierophant; and so on.
1. Am I right in thinking that anything we do that causes changes in our own consciousness or that of others technically counts as magic (posting this comment, blandly greeting a stranger, washing the dishes…)?
2. And does the matter of artificial environments cut off from natural daylight radiate an unfocused sense of misery, which is why we all need to go out and touch grass to maintain our mental health?
3. Does a clear, dark night sky radiate positive emotional influences, too, since that seems to have a potent calming effect on the rare occassions I look up at the night sky?
“… often end up responding passively to their own thoughts, which is the opposite of the state I’m encouraging. … — it keeps them passive, obedient, and calm.”
A friend of mine came to such practices during his divorce. Two things can be said about this: First of all, it helped him tremendously handling the situation with grace and come out not only in one piece but maybe even more whole than he was before. Now some years have passed with my friend continuing his practice relentlessly. And yes, passive, obedient and calm very much nail it. I would not say that these qualities are without merit, though. He is a physician and among other things his practice allows him to endure a truly huge workload with ease, just to give an example. Maybe the Karma he is generating and the habits he is developing this way are exactly what he needs – on the other hand it’s difficult to predict how 10 or 15 more years of continued practice will transform him.
As for discursive meditation – on a MM a while back I asked you for ideas how a “holiday from discursive mediation without stopping discursive meditation” could be arranged, to which you could of course give no answer. I guess I found what I was looking for and it was right before my nose all the time: Just practice the SOP. I found that I really, truly needed a break from meditating on some occult text every evening. Allowing myself to just skip it led to spending much more time with the SOP and each and every element and the prayer at the end gives of course plenty of things to be aware of and think about. From what I read here, I guess it’s a valid approach?
Lastly some observation also related to the SOP: I use to do some stretching every evening. Not yoga, but slow, conscious and systematic anyway. I usually did this after the SOP but have almost accidentally switched to doing the stretching first. And, oh, what a difference this makes for the SOP!
Cheers,
Nachtgurke
I’m currently in the position of being the sole caregiver to a loved one who’s deep into advanced dementia. It’s a stressful situation, but until today’s post it hadn’t occurred to me that maybe I need to put up some psychic defenses for my own protection. Any suggestions on something I can do that wouldn’t put barriers on the connections between us that I believe are beneficial to us both?
Ken @ 10, I think human society needs those people just as it also needs lots of other kinds. If I may use a sports metaphor, the highly competitive, thrive under pressure types can win the World Series or the Superbowl for their team, but they can’t get a team to the Series or the Bowl because they are often too easily bored. For the regular season, you need the athletes who play for love of the game, who would be happy throwing, running and catching in a snowstorm.
My fundamental complaint about capitalism, as well as socialism, is its’ misuse of people’s talents which causes misery for individuals and their loved ones, and nationwide waste of time, money and resources.
“Seeking, systematic repetition of a prayer requires concentration and attentiveness, so yes, it counts.”
Hence why the rosary is such a powerful tool. You repeat the Our Father prayer 11 times and the Hail Mary prayer 53 times throughout a rosary.
Can meditations be (all or partly) sung? I recently set one of the Orphic Hymns to music. (That is, I read a few translations, combined and rearranged until I had something vaguely resembling classical hexameter, and then stole some snippets of tune from Bach.) Takes about 3.3 minutes to sing.
“I’d also note that Marian venerations aren’t just for Catholics. Mary will turn away no person who comes to her for assistance.”
Just curious, do Muslims, Alawites, Druze, Bahai, etc venerate Mary?
Jacques #5: As JMG (#26) said, the Rosary includes meditating on mysteries, one for each decade. There’s a book entitled “Scriptural Rosary” that includes quotations from the Bible relating to the mysteries for each decade, or you can go here: https://scripturalrosary.org/BeginningPrayers.html
JMG,
“If you enjoy visual media, consider watching movies and TV series from at least ten years back… The important thing is to get out of sync with the mass mind of the people you know.”
I had an interesting thought when reading this. We don’t consume much media but I know A LOT of folks who have totally checked out of the current media offerings and just watch old movies and tv shows to avoid the woke messaging. Perhaps the ruling elite made a phenomenal frack up by inadvertently decoupling a whole lot of minds from the current groupthink and now, around a decade after they really started heaping that on, we are entering into an elite replacement cycle.
HV
You know for all its fakeness. The way magic is portrayed is very cool. Who doesn’t want to cast Fireball from their hands or wand?
I have a theory. That ever since the discovery of quantum physics and how “observation” causes the probability wave of photons and electrons to collapse its wave into distinct patterns.
And how this is probably the mechanism by which our Spirits interface with our body as shown by this video series:
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1mr9ZTZb3TX_4LthrdGqACsqIWKd2gs-
Our brains being Quantum Computers that allow us to “observe” pathways in the microtubules of the Neurons that causes action.
I notice too that when “Ghosts” act. The area turns cold. Which gives me a hypothesis that even disembodied consciousness cannot but make use of what is available in matter and energy in physical reality in order to act just like we need energy and mass from our own bodies to act in this world.
In the case of Poltergeists. Heat energy into Kinetic energy.
What are your thoughts on this?
JMG,
How would a thorough study, contemplation and acceptance of the philosophy of stoicism compare as a way to accomplish psychic self defense with the occult methods? Or are the two ways complementary?
As usual – Ah-HA! And thank you for the help getting me there.
Fortune’s book has been on my mind for a couple of days, so here’s high time to dust it off.
Also, I’d hit burnout with my daily practice, so I took a break… and it restarted itself this week. Hmm…
Alright – back at it.
Viking, you’re most welcome!
Ian, the question of free will becomes much less perplexing when it’s recognized that we all have the capacity for free will, but most people never even begin to develop that capacity. Yes, meditation is a good way to learn just how little you have — and to start learning how to get some.
Jacques, actually, if you keep your attention on the prayers and don’t let your mind wander away from them, that in itself is good training for meditation. Once you add in the five mysteries, you’re off to the races and there’s quite literally no limit to how far you can go, given attentive and focused daily practice.
Tom, I’m delighted to hear this. Though the material I talk about may seem like a complete jumble, it really does all unfold from a single coherent worldview.
Pygmycory, go ye forth with the Sword of Mockery and smite!
Seeking, it depends on how you handle the prayer wheel work. So long as your mind and will are focused on what you’re doing, it’ll do at least some good for psychic self-defense. Prayer? Always, always, always a good idea.
Jennifer, excellent. Yes, and that’s one of the reasons why adepts don’t have to use rituals — their ability to work on the mental plane is such that astral influences get swamped by the descending current; in your example, the attempt to make you stressed and fearful fizzles out because you know how to make yourself relaxed and confident. If you don’t happen to be an adept, putting in an etheric “circuit breaker” is also a very good idea, because astral influences can’t reach the material plane without a bridge through the etheric.
CRJ, I’m delighted to hear the Pure Land tradition has taken this up! Koan meditation is a very good way to develop the skills I have in mind — unlike those forms of meditation that produce a passive response to mental phenomena, the practitioner wrestling with a koan is always active. “Who is the one reciting the Buddha-name?” isn’t one I’ve encountered before, but it’s good — it reminds me of one of my favorite Zen koans, “Show me the face you had before your mother and father were born.”
William, very true! I also find the Tree of Life a first-rate tool for learning to think in ternaries.
Nachtgurke, I hope your friend avoids the downside of that kind of practice. As for the rest, thanks for this! Yes, the SoP can be the basis for simple meditations, and gains power from that. As for stretching, interesting. I wonder if others will have similar experiences.
Tom, if you have the spare time to put a few minutes a day into meditation that might do you a great deal of good, without rupturing any connections at all.
Anon, yes, and then factor in contemplations on the five mysteries, and you’ve got a really elegant system of meditation.
Joan, that’s not really a meditation in the sense I have in mind, but it’s certainly worth doing.
HippieViking, that’s very good to hear. The more people who pull the plug on the media machine, the weaker the mass mind becomes and — at least until a new mass mind establishes itself — the easier it will be for individuals to take those desperately necessary first steps toward thinking for themselves.
Info, there’s a long tradition of trying to find scientific explanations of magical effects. I have no great faith that quantum mechanics will prove to be any more durable than the version of physics it replaced, so I don’t put a lot of effort into it. It’s curious, though, that ghostly activity seems to follow the laws of thermodynamics! Candles burn blue when ghosts are seen, by the way — I’m curious if you have an explanation for that.
Clay, what are you doing for Stoic practice? You can study, contemplate, and accept any philosophy you like until the cows come home, but until you take active control of your own state of consciousness, you’re still going to be a plaything of the mass mind.
Rhydlyd, in my experience, the best cure for “burnout” in daily practices is to keep at them. That feeling usually comes not long before a breakthrough that kicks things up a level or two of functioning.
Hey JMG
It’s interesting that you have made the unseen forces that influence our minds the subject of this essay, as I just finished meditating on the 12th part of the “Anima Mundi” section in Yeat’s “Per Amicae silentiae lunae” in which he suggests that what we call instinct is in fact the prompts that the souls of the dead give to the living in order to relive their memories.
It gives a grand and somewhat creepy vibe to the usually impersonal and abstract “collective unconscious” or “tracks in space” that most occultists would assume is the source of instinct. Though Yeats emphasises that the prompting of the dead is behind many good things, it occurred to me that many of the follies of humanity could be caused by these souls wanting to relive their mistakes and vices.
@Jennifer Kobernick #37–I find that praying with a group of at least 10 other adults with a strong, positive intention is a very effective astral banishing. I only get to do this once a week due to family constraints and religious norms for women in my community (I’m a Jewish mother), and it works pretty well. Group prayer seems to be very safe for children, we always have kids running around/being held during prayer on both the men’s and women’s side of the room and it’s nothing but beneficial for everyone. Perhaps you could find a similar group of the appropriate religious tradition for you? Best wishes and good luck,
–Ms. Krieger
Thank you for the article, JMG.
Unlike English, Spanish does have a ternary: este (this), ese (that), and the third one, aquel (that one over there). I wonder if the Spanish-speaking world is influenced by the obviousness of the ternary.
Is anyone willing to comment on this?
Thank you for this essay and for sharing your knowledge and experience with us. I have found your insight and practices incredibly helpful. Beginning in 2020/2021 I began to feel the stress of group think in earnest. The stress motivated me to quit my job and remove myself from unhealthy friendships, but the meditation practice that I started at that time gave me the strength to do this. I started with the Judson’s exercise and added in the healing breath meditation and healing hands.
I have continued to do this since then and I believe it has helped me develop boundaries in my relationships, which feels like it’s putting protective mechanisms into practice. This has to be continually practiced I notice as it’s easy to fall into old habits of people pleasing. The OSA work also helped clarify a lot of these habits as well as the sources of them.
Now when/if I let craziness of the world overwhelm me, my health takes an immediate hit, which still happens regularly enough, so I am focusing on
continuing my practice. Thank you again!
Reading through the comments so far, I am gratified to see how many suggestions seem to converge on little, sensible things. My own prayer rule is one section (kathisma) of the Psalms per day, interspersed with prayers for the living and the dead. I pray each Psalm slowly and with attention (very important!). We Orthodox have a saying “God grants true prayer to those who pray!” That is, if we get off our haunches, and pray attentively, God will respond in kind as He best knows how.
In the Orthodox church, there is a book (which I have) called the Prologue from Ohrid. It is a daily lectionary, consisting of one or more Lives of Saints for the day, as well as a brief homily and a “theme for reflection.”
As for TV, I binned mine back in 1999, and have never regretted it. I also refuse to get a “smartphone” for the same reason.
Another important aspect, which I have yet to see explicitly discussed, is “mental and spiritual hygiene.” I am very careful of the outside impressions I allow into my living space.
For instance, the only music I listen to is Western classical and Orthodox religious music. I am suspicious of any “pop” music produced in my lifetime. Perhaps I am being a bit too severe with this, but given the amount of subliminal “suggestions” out there, I say, better safe than sorry.
Keeping my place clear of clutter is also a part of this. The less “junk” you allow into your space, the less you have to clean up.
My experience with Iyengar yoga has also been extraordinarily helpful when combined with daily meditation in order to address the BODY part of the equation. Apparently we store imbalances in our physical vehicles in the form of illness and injury, and therefore if the mind has difficulty grasping the root of a certain complex we still have another mechanism for bringing issues to our attention in order to reduce the ability of hostile magic to exploit our weaknesses. On the other hand I’ve noticed that people who go 100% into body awareness path are still quite susceptible to mental manipulation so it definitely doesn’t replace the active mind approach, but when used in concert it is very powerful medicine.
“Bob” says that all propaganda is God-breathed, provided that we take it literally. So we ought to learn to love advertising! More seriously, philosophy departments usually offer a “critical reasoning” course that covers common fallacies, rhetorical tricks, and statistical slights-of-hand before proceeding to formal logic. This sort of training ought to affect one’s engagement with the propagandasphere.
“If human beings are composed of body, mind, and spirit, religion belongs to the spirit while occultism belongs to the mind. ”
Where are you getting the triad of “body, mind, and spirit” from? I thought your tradition recognized the septenary Theosophical system.
Also, religions like Buddhism and Catholicism have well-developed intellectual traditions (Madhyamaka, Thomism) as well as more purely devotional aspects. I wonder how an occultist bowing to Metatron or Apollo differs from a Buddhist bowing to Chenrezig.
“healing work is greatly strengthened if the people around the person to be healed participate in it, so that their subconscious conviction that the patient will get better strengthens the conscious intent of the healer”
Why doesn’t this effect show up in experiments testing the efficacy of prayer?
“Holy water is always made with a small quantity of salt.”
I don’t know how widespread this is, but the neighborhood Coptic priest blesses small plastic bottles of water and distributes them that way. Buddhists and Daoists temples also give away bottled water, which people may keep on the shelf rather than open and drink / sprinkle.
First of all, a heads up — I’ve just added a coda to the post announcing a new edition of one of my more popular books, Collapse Now and Avoid the Rush: The Best of the Archdruid Report. The publisher’s also offering a 25% discount on my fiction and many of my peak oil books; by all means check it out if you’re interested.
Okay, on to comments. J.L.Mc12, yeah, it does make things a little stranger and rather more creepy! You’re right, though, that the follies of the dead are echoed all too easily in those of the living. (And now I’m remembering a bit of business I extrapolated from Frank Belknap Long’s fine Cthulhu-mythos story “The Hounds of Tindalos,” and used in The Shoggoth Concerto: “They are the deeds of the dead, moving through dim angles in the recesses of time…”)
Inna, that’s an interesting point. Latin does the same thing, of course: hic (this), iste (that), and ille (the other) — and in Latin, curiously enough, you say iste of something you want to snub and ille of something you want to glorify!
Tamar, I’m delighted to hear this. Regular practice has done much the same thing for me, for that matter.
Michael, a very solid daily practice! As for mental and spiritual hygiene, that would require a whole post of its own, but I did talk about distancing oneself from the media.
KVD, that doesn’t surprise me at all. One of the reasons I recommend some form of body practice in my Golden Section Fellowship sequence of books is precisely that it adds this further dimension.
Ambrose, (1) logic is well worth learning but it never passes beyond the conscious level. You need magic to work with the subconscious. (2) The body/mind/spirit ternary is derived from the septenary system. The body belongs to the material plane; the mind embraces the three subtler planes — etheric, astral, and mental — that human beings are currently capable of perceiving; the spirit embraces the three further planes — spiritual, causal, and divine — that are beyond our reach at this stage of our spiritual evolution, and with which we can only interact via the intermediaries of religious practice and angelic/divine beings. (3) Yes, but not all religions fall into that category. Some religions also have extensive traditions that apply to the material plane — consider Jewish food taboos for an obvious example. (4) Has it been tested for in a controlled fashion? (5) I’m sorry to hear that the bottles are plastic. Glass does a much better job of holding in the charge.
Anonymous: “Just curious, do Muslims, Alawites, Druze, Bahai, etc venerate Mary?”
The Qur’an affirms the virgin birth of Jesus, and Mary is certainly considered among the holiest of women (Maryam is a common Muslima name), but if “veneration” means worshiping or bowing, then no. Sunnis would consider “associating” any such personage with God, to be idolatrous. Twelver Shiites and Nizari Isma’ilis (who are 7-ers) glorify the prophets and imams, in ways that approximate Christian views of Christ (or so it seems to their opponents), but Muhammad’s daughter Fatima is the main feminine focus, not Mary. I’d have to look up the Druze or Syrian Alawis. but suspect they’d be similar to other Shi’i-derived groups. The Baha;is grew out of 12-er Shiism and agree with its general perspective (the prophets or Manifestations are like mirrors reflecting the sun), but their main female figure would be tjhe Babi poetess and martyr Tahirih (Qurrat al-‘Ayn.
A response to Jacques on the Rosary (which has been part of my regular devotions for a decade plus), if I may.
As I learned it, meditating on the mysteries is something additional that you do while saying the prayers. There are several possible focuses for that mediation, but one of the most common is a picture of the mystery. (Think how many Catholic churches have windows for the Rosary mysteries: that’s why.) I also use a symbol for the mystery as an aid to memory and mediation. For example, the First Joyful Mystery – the Annunciation. I love Henry Ossawa Tanner’s picture of the Annunciation. So say “the first Joyful Mystery – the Annunciation” and fix the picture in your mind. Say the decade, concentrating on seeing the mystery. Or think about some related words, for example from what the angel said. Or look at the symbol (I use that because I can’t always visualize well enough) – for me, I use a white cross in a blue field, white for the Joyful Mysteries and blue for Mary.
My experience is that regularly praying the Rosary like this puts a gap between what is happening and how I respond: I have time to choose a response.
@Chuaquin, you’re welcome, and I’m glad to hear from someone else doing something similar. A couple of interesting benefits I’ve been noticing this time: a) I’ve spend a while studying history since the last time I went through the bible this way, and I find myself slotting historical events and peoples I learned about elsewhere in with the events and people spoken of in the bible. Context! Context is so useful in understanding the whys of the old testament. b) I think paying this much attention to God’s word in this way is going to make it harder for grifters and other questionable folks speaking ostensibly in Christ’s name to push me into anything. When Jesus says his sheep know his voice, and won’t come to others because they don’t recognize their voice… I think this is one way to start recognizing him from others better.
re: Feelings. It seems to me that one of the major problems in current culture is that we are being encouraged to accept and embrace our feelings without examining them. And indeed, to become angry if asked to examine them. Look at some of the interactions with people identifying as gender non-conforming. “I feel female.” “What do you mean when you say that you feel female?” “How dare you question my feelings, you bigot.” Or in politics: “I feel oppressed.” “What exactly makes you feel oppressed.?” ” How dare you . . .” No facts or definitions are required, merely feelings. Any presentation of contrary evidence or facts is met with aggression.
Ken and JMG–not only does foolish daring in young men weed out the gene pool it also serves the community directly. We needed the guy who tried to stand off the cave bear with a sharp stick or a torch while the other warriors got the women and children and elderly to a safe place. There was a cartoon from 9/11 that I recall. It showed panicked civilians running one direction while uniformed police and fire fighters ran the other direction. Not just uniformed or official rescuers needed either, and not just men. Recently in Sacramento a medical helicopter crashed in the middle of the freeway. Firefighters responded but were too few to move it. Civilians from the cars that had stopped joined to lift the copter enough for a victim to be pulled from under it. Pretty brave considering that TV and movies have “taught” us that all crashed vehicles explode in flames.
JMG==I recently read a book about the organisms that live in extreme environments: deep sea sediments, hot springs, volcanoes, ice. Most of them do not use oxygen to power their metabolisms. I won’t get into the variations–don’t have the chemistry knowledge to explain accurately. In addition, some of them appear to live for thousands, maybe millions of years. It is hard to imagine what sort of life that is, but could these life forms be contributing to the psychic atmosphere of some areas? And where might they fit in the cycle of incarnations? I realize that traditional occult teachings probably has little to say about things that science has been discovering in the last few decades. The book is _Intraterrestials_
Rita
JMG,
Could you please offer ideas for the types of things that one may do discursive meditation upon other than the Bible? I have eclectic interests in hermeticism, Jungian psychology, and Greek and Egyptian mythology.
Thanks,
Edward
Excellent post and very needed.
I would argue that the cell phone is the greatest instrument of psychic warfare ever created. People in my generation often call them “nightmare rectangles,” and for good reason. Nothing I know of is better at scrambling the mind, rending the will, and constantly tuning in to whatever the current herd obsession happens to be. The algorithms of social media are super-powered black magicians, nearly identical to the worst demons in the Goetia.
I went through great effort to strip everything out of my cell phone other than the ability to call, text, and take pictures. No internet, apps or games, thank you very much.
Serious question here. Ever since reading Cialdini’s _Influence_, which is about evil sales techniques, I find my self really grumpy when someone tries to use this low level magic on me. I suspect you would say to have my own crystal clear goals and not worry about the other guy, but I’d be interested in your take on it.
The book can be found here: https://ia800203.us.archive.org/33/items/ThePsychologyOfPersuasion/The%20Psychology%20of%20Persuasion.pdf
Thanks much. I’m still finding my way with discursive meditation, but that sounds like very good advice. I practiced mindfulness meditation (in one form or another) for so many years that I think I succeeded at last in lobotomizing myself. No regrets, that indifference is a good thing to know, but it’s a long way from useful magic.
Hey JMG
Yes, creepy and GRAND, as there is something awe-inspiring about the souls of the dead prompting people to make art or survive abuse.
That being said, I did realise a mild contradiction in Yeat’s model of the afterlife. He says that eventually the souls learn to understand their earthly life, its moral significance and possibilities, as well as developing an intellect unbound by time and space. If this is the case, then over time these developed souls would outnumber the fresh and deluded souls of the recently departed. So why would they still prompt people to relive their folly and vices, or let the younger souls do so?
“philosophy departments usually offer a “critical reasoning” course that covers common fallacies, rhetorical tricks, and statistical slights-of-hand before proceeding to formal logic. This sort of training ought to affect one’s engagement with the propagandasphere.”
Tenth grade Social Studies had a quarter that did that class. It stuck too, or I wouldn’t remember it. It saved a few minutes of reading time just a couple weeks ago. The Treasury Secretary said something and Paul Krugman penned a rebuttal. The first paragraph was an ad hominem attack on the Secretary. So Krugman clearly could not refute him and therefor there was no need to read further. 😊
Two remarks connected to your essay.
I first and most clearly realized that thoughts are (sometimes) a thing happening TO me by contrasting night-time anguished thoughts with day-time perspective on the same issue. I now know that I am simply unable to think clearly and impartially on emotionally fraught issues while it is night, so I have learned to interrupt them by focusing on something relatively mechanical. What has worked best for me is trying to recall and recite imperfectly learned poems – that seems to be the right degree of mental difficulty. Mentally trying to calculate as many digits as possible of the golden ratio has also worked on occasion. Of course this doesn’t mean ignoring the issues, but reserving them for re-thinking in daytime.
I have been following the same practice as pygmycory for many years. Reading verses in an unfamiliar language makes it easier to pierce through the veil of apparent understanding. However, sometimes no inspiration at all will come and I will simply close with a prayer, knowing (again) that the lack of connection is in part something happening TO me. Last year, on November 30th, I decided out of the blue, in less than a minute (which is unusual for me) that I would try out fasting from meat and sweets from December 1st until Christmas. What I hadn’t expected is that during the fast, my perception and connection to the daily reading grew incomparably stronger than before (or after). So fasting might be one more tool for spiritual or mental growth (I am not sure which of the two or both together). After all, praying and fasting used to be a time-honored recipe in times of danger.
I really appreciated ready this, thank you. It struck how ‘doom scrolling’ is a great example of indoctrination into an egregore. I hadn’t thought about it that way before, but it needs to be treated with an appropriate degree of caution.
It seems that you and the universe are trying to bully me into meditating. Years ago I took up magic in the hopes that it would improve my life and help me to have a nice successful artistic career. Instead I got boatloads of karmic culmination. So all right, I’ll meditate already! Give me a break! I never asked to be a spiritual aspirant seeking enlightenment. All I ever wanted was to paint nice pictures that people would buy. I never wanted to be a Marin County bliss ninny (even though I am in fact from Marin County – laugh as much as you want). Why’s it being forced on me?
I’m getting your book on natural magic. I’ve been wanting it for some time. I usually go with Thriftbooks. Do you make more money if I get it from Bookshop?
“2. And does the matter of artificial environments cut off from natural daylight radiate an unfocused sense of misery, which is why we all need to go out and touch grass to maintain our mental health?”
I never really noticed such an effect on the submarine. But there are specific design elements to the boat’s interior design specifically chosen for mental health reasons. Lots of fake wood grain in one I remember. Green linoleum where possible. The fluorescent lights had a specific temperature rating as well.
“3. Does a clear, dark night sky radiate positive emotional influences, too, since that seems to have a potent calming effect on the rare occassions I look up at the night sky?”
Reminding yourself that you an infinitesimal speck in the universe does keep things in perspective. However it might not be for everyone. Find a copy of Nightfall by Isaac Asimov.
@Inna re: #59 / @JMG re: #64 –
English used to have this ternary too: this, that, and yon(der) – but yon(der) has fallen out of general use and is only seen now in dialect. (You can still see its legacy, though, in the term beyond… as in “look beyond the binary.”)
“Of course all this has another effect: people will think you’re weird….If you don’t play along, you get sidelong looks at best, and quite often you find yourself on the fringes of the herd or outside it altogether.”
This hits home. I’ve always felt like an outsider. I’ve always wanted to fit in better but I never felt like I did. Most people don’t seem to have any interest in talking to me about anything despite my openness. and willingness to listen At social events I feel mostly ignored. I don’t think people dislike me and some evidence some people like me, but ignored and lonely I feel. On the other hand, I’ve always seen things differently and think about different things and saw holes in standard narratives, don’t find interest in anything remotely tribal and find most things other people are into boring. I concern myself with nuances and subtlety the masses dismiss.
The being ignored thing has always been a puzzle to me and the reality of it can have multiple interpretations given the facts above. It could simply be that I’m off putting in ways I’m not aware of or my personality is damaged in a way that makes me unrelatable. I try to be self aware, but who knows. The other possibility is that what I experience is the result of subtle, non-physical, psychic incompatibilities between me and other people. That others can sense I don’t jive with them and am therefore not worth getting to know. Your post has raised this question to me. Thank you for that. What do you think JMG? Is this possible or likely based on your experiences with the occult?
@KVD #62 and JMG,
“Apparently we store imbalances in our physical vehicles in the form of illness and injury, and therefore if the mind has difficulty grasping the root of a certain complex we still have another mechanism for bringing issues to our attention in order to reduce the ability of hostile magic to exploit our weaknesses.”
I couldn’t agree more. I would like to add an example. I dance tango. In addition to doing it socially, I also take a weekly private class with a great teacher. We dance, and then he gives me corrections. His corrections are meant to be literal, relating to the physical body only, but I always immediately trace them to the astral level, and then go one level up and reflect on the deficiency on the mental level. I see how my deficiencies manifest in my dance. I’m reflecting on corrections from yesterday’s class (“The crazier the dance gets, the calmer you should become.”, “Don’t trust me, trust the floor.”, “If your weight is not firmly on one foot, you are unleadable.”) and seeing them to be true on so many levels.
@Neophyte: “I went through great effort to strip everything out of my cell phone other than the ability to call, text, and take pictures. No internet, apps or games, thank you very much.”
I use a flip phone. Yes, they are still made. Nokia still puts one out, and there are other reputable brands too. As long as it works with you network, you can avoid the psychic hazards associated with “smartphones.”
Thank you for the excellent post, as usual. I’m Catholic; the practice of meditation is something that was taught to me by my Opus Dei friends. The way it’s done, you pick up the Bible or another spiritual book, read a few passages, and pray about what you just read. Preferably in a church or chapel, especially before the Blessed Sacrament, but any quiet place you can semi-concentrate works on a pinch – doing it is better than not doing it. Twice a day, morning and evening, for fifteen minutes each or thirty minutes if you can manage it. Occasionally, it’s done as a group, with a priest doing the reading and vocalizing his thoughts – you may engage with his reading and commentary or bring your own, but the focus is still praying. I later learned, from this blog, that this is called discursive meditation.
Opus Dei also taught me the Rosary and the Way of the Cross as meditative practices. I was taught both in Catholic school, but purely in a memorize-this-and-recite-it manner.
Once a year, I go to an Opus Dei-organized retreat where all these practices are done together in a more intense manner. After I come back from one, I find that I’m literally immune to the news – I pick up the papers of the past few days, see all the hyperbolic headlines proclaiming the end of the world, and say something like “Lord have mercy on us” and move on with my day.
If anyone’s curious about this and you live in a big city or a university town, there’s a good chance there’s a nearby Opus Dei center. Just look up the website for your country and ask. Opus Dei is very non-apologetically Catholic, but is one of the few Catholic organizations that admit non-Catholics (including non-Christians) as “cooperators”, so don’t be afraid to ask.
I’m not endorsing Opus Dei, per se, over other groups, it’s just that they are the ones that I have experience with.
As for advertising, one of the things I’ve always found weird/shocking/peculiar is how prescription drugs and lawyers are advertised via roadside billboards and TV commercials in the USA. Those things don’t exist in most the world, including in my country. Since entering university twenty years ago, I’ve not had a television, and for about ten years now, I’ve had network-wide adblock. Now, I find almost ALL ads weird/shocking/peculiar, like I was some alien from outer space curiously observing how Earth civilization operates.
My preferred electronic media is video games, and I’ve always been 2-3 years behind the curve. Back when I was in school, it’s because my family wasn’t particularly affluent, nowadays, it’s by choice. Once or twice a year, I’d pick up a current release if I thought it was worthwhile, but I always wait at least a couple of weeks and NEVER pre-order. New releases always have all sort of bugs, at the very least, and none of the pre-order bonuses are compelling anyway (if it’s anything worthwhile, it’s eventually released as part of a later ‘complete edition’ package). Often I’d find an older game, find it to be extremely fun, then discover that there was some massive controversy or other about the game when it came out due to some viral marketing stunt or a group being “offended” by the title or whatever, that seems strangely irrelevant 5-10 years on. Again, it’s all very weird seeing that. But hey, at least I get to have fun at a fraction of the price when the game came out.
Some of this reminds me of Viktor Frankl’s statement that “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
At this page is the full list of all of the requests for prayer that have recently appeared at ecosophia.net and ecosophia.dreamwidth.org, as well as in the comments of the prayer list posts (printable version here, current to 10/20). Please feel free to add any or all of the requests to your own prayers.
If I missed anybody, or if you would like to add a prayer request for yourself or anyone who has given you consent (or for whom a relevant person holds power of consent) to the list, please feel free to leave a comment below.
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This week I would like to bring special attention to the following prayer requests, selected from the fuller list.
May both Monika and the child she is pregnant with both be blessed with good health and a safe delivery.
May Mary’s sister have her auto-immune conditions sent into remission, may her eyes remain healthy, and may she heal in body, mind, and spirit.
May Marko have the awareness and strength to constructively deal with the situation.
May 5 year old Max be blessed and protected during his parents’ contentious divorce; may events work out in a manner most conducive to Max’s healthy development over the long term.
May the abcess in JRuss’s left armpit heal quickly.
May Brother Kornhoer’s son Travis’s left ureter be restored to full function, may his body have the strength to fight off infections, may his kidneys strengthen, and may his empty nose syndrome abate, so that he may have a full and healthy life ahead of him.
May Corey Benton, whose throat tumor has grown around an artery and won’t be treated surgically, and who is now able to be at home from the hospital, be healed of throat cancer.
(Healing work is also welcome. Note: Healing Hands should be fine, but if offering energy work which could potentially conflict with another, please first leave a note in comments or write to randomactsofkarmasc to double check that it’s safe)
May HippieVikings’s baby HV, who was born safely but has had some breathing concerns, be filled with good health and strength.
May Trubujah’s best friend Pat’s teenage daughter Devin, who has a mysterious condition which doctors are so far baffled by necessitating that she remain in a wheelchair, be healed of her condition; may the underlying cause come to light so that treatment may begin.
May J Guadalupe Villarruel Zúñiga, father of CRPatiño’s friend Jair, who suffers from terminal kidney and liver damage, continue to respond favorably to treatment; may he also remain in as good health as possible, beat doctors’ prognosis, and enjoy with his wife and children plenty of love, good times and a future full of blessings.
May DJ’s newborn granddaughter Marishka and daughter Taylor be blessed, healed, and protected from danger, and may their situation work out in the best way possible for both of them.
May Kevin’s sister Cynthia be cured of the hallucinations and delusions that have afflicted her, and freed from emotional distress. May she be safely healed of the physical condition that has provoked her emotions; and may she be healed of the spiritual condition that brings her to be so unsettled by it. May she come to feel calm and secure in her physical body, regardless of its level of health.
May Pierre and Julie conceive a healthy baby together. May the conception, pregnancy, birth, and recovery all be healthy and smooth for baby and for Julie.
May Frank R. Hartman, who lost his house in the Altadena fire, and all who have been affected by the larger conflagration be blessed and healed.
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Guidelines for how long prayer requests stay on the list, how to word requests, how to be added to the weekly email list, how to improve the chances of your prayer being answered, and several other common questions and issues, are to be found at the Ecosophia Prayer List FAQ.
If there are any among you who might wish to join me in a bit of astrological timing, I pray each week for the health of all those with health problems on the list on the astrological hour of the Sun on Sundays, bearing in mind the Sun’s rulerships of heart, brain, and vital energies. If this appeals to you, I invite you to join me.
JMG,
Your essay this week brought something to the forefront of my mind again. Namely advertising; I find myself wondering, did marketing firms just blunder into magical techniques by accident through psychoanalysis in the early 20th century without realizing what exactly they were doing or was it more intentional?
Do the advertising and media consulting firms quietly have well paid left hand path mages and thaumaturgists on staff to help design rituals (marketing campaigns) and the like?
In either case I’ll keep meditating and practicing my sphere of protection to keep those marketing bullies at bay!
Cheers,
JZ
“My experience as a teacher of meditation and a leader of esoteric groups has been that people who train with mindfulness meditation or the mind-emptying forms of zazen too often end up responding passively to their own thoughts, which is the opposite of the state I’m encouraging. This is why Fortune 500 corporations are so eager to get their employees practicing mindfulness meditation — it keeps them passive, obedient, and calm.”
The dangerous thing about mindfulness meditation and zazen, in my experience, is the way it’s presented to the public. It’s become a marketing product, associated with completely unrealistic expectations. The market is full of books, seminars, and apps promising you can give your psyche a thorough cleansing by next Wednesday. If you’re lucky, you’ll be disappointed after a few days or weeks. If you’re unlucky, this type of meditation actually works, and you use it as a tranquilizer. If you’re really unlucky—and this happened to me, and I’ve been struggling with the consequences for about seven years—you stubbornly keep trying without success until you develop mental health problems.
In some cases, there aren’t even malicious intentions involved. In my opinion, mindfulness teachers have a natural talent for mindfulness meditation or have undergone extensive traditional training. However, they can’t understand the problems ordinary people have, which often stem from trauma that blocks any meditation experience. Only when these are resolved can the mind develop space. Unfortunately, this is never addressed. I don’t know any mindfulness teacher who is honest enough to say, “Mindfulness meditation won’t do you any good until you’ve resolved your fundamental inner blockages.”
@Inna #59
Some versions of English include a word for a third place that is neither here (by me) nor there (by you). The word is “yonder.” There is also the demonstrative adjective “yon.”
Granted, these aren’t very common these days. In practice, though, “over there” is equivalent to yonder and distinct from plain “there.”
Mary Bennet # 42:
Thanks for your advice, because toxic people can be very upsetting, especially when you have to deal with them within the neighbourhood and even the family…so I can’t avoid talking with them.
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JMG # 56:
It’s a sad reality what you wrote about free will. I agree: everybody is capable of having a free will, but only some people can develop it…Sad but true.
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Inna #59:
Of course, spanish language has a ternary division (este/ese/aquel) indeed a binary one, you’ve pointed an interesting topic here. In spite of being a spanish native speaker, I nearly haven’t noticed this difference with for example english language. Well, we need examples of ternaries to not fall in easy binary traps, so thank you for showing this to us…
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Pygmycory # 67:
Thank you for your comment about the biblical topic!
Morning John,
I think a useful example of binary thinking in the UK is the message being put out by the Reform party, “all immigrants are bad people and should be sent home”, the alternative being, “all immigrants are refugees and inherently good people”. The truth is some are good, and some are bad, and the country needs at least some of them to prevent population decline.
Kind regards Averagejoe
Thanks JMG for the much awaited post!
I live by the sea in Cornwall, for some impulsive reason I decided to purchase a £20 tub of Cornish Sea Salt last year, its probably enough salt to last me 5 years of cooking (my original intention). Now it might fair a shorter life if I use it for some protective measures too. Would Sea Salt work for the type of things you describe? somewhere you wrote about using Kosher salt I believe…
I’m a massive newbie to this, but given that I’ve had a smartphone since I was 14 and I’m definitely the type that gets affected by the moods around me, my mind is pretty darn scattered a lot of the time, somehow I’ve scraped through to the other side of Covid/Trump/Gender/Brexit/Ukraine era with a desire to see a third way, I think I need discursive meditation.
I’ve had periods of meditation in my life, TM in particular, which is repeating a mantra over and over again, drawing your attention back to it and so on, I’m interested in where Transcendental Meditation falls in the categories you describe, I have a feeling from the people I met doing it that it isn’t too dissimilar to Mindfulness, but I may be wrong there.
All this to ask, where does one start who hasn’t much of a solid background in anything like this before. I’m enjoying your Druidry handbook. As we approach Samhuinn, would it be appropriate to meditate on certain texts in accordance with this season? I’m a bit lost as to where to start, apologies!
All the best and thanks for the time and effort you put into these posts.
Some years ago I read a book written by a psychologist who depicted “psychic vampires” and adviced how to defend you against them. The term seemed to me more a meraphor in the writer own mind than a real vampirism, because the author was with no doubt, a psychologist trained in cognitive therapies or simillar materialist school of Psychology. However, I wonder if he (without proposing it consciounsly) described real psychic vampires, who suck not real blood, but life energy from other people. So the term was beyond his author intention, me think. What do you think about this topic, John and commentariat? Do you have lived experiences with supposed psychic vampires?Do you think it is an accurate description of toxic people or it is a sensationalist expression?
IMHO, I’ve met some people (by luck only a few) who could fit in that cathegory.
IMHO, one of your absolute best articles on Magic, John. I am genuinely super impressed by how you so clearly and succinctly summarized huge swathes of magical theory in such a short article. Thank you so much for helping me clarify my own ideas.
The Tagalog language also has the same ternary as Spanish:
ito/eto – this (‘este’ in Spanish)
iyan/ayan – that thing (‘ese’ in Spanish)
iyun/ayun – that other thing (‘aquel’ in Spanish )
“here” and “there” are also ternary:
dito: here
diyan: there (located at/near person(s) spoken to)
duon: there (a place remote to everyone)
As with Latin, you can use iyan/iyun (and diyan/duon) as a way to specify the conversational focus of the object as opposed to just referring to the literal physical location – iyan(diyan) to make it in focus or important, iyun/duon to do the opposite and dismiss it.
I’ve always noticed that Anglophones tended to be especially prone to binary thinking, but always thought that it was more of English speakers tending to be monolingual as opposed to being a feature of the language itself. Or, it could well be a bit of both (hey, a ternary)!
Another thought that I feel is related to the post but not sure how to classify. People will ask questions regarding hot-button topics du jour, not in order to gather information but to validate themselves (and you). To which I would say: “I reserve my right not to have an opinion.” And to which I’d often get pushback: “I want to know what you REALLY think!!!” And then I’d just say “I really don’t know what to make of it/haven’t looked into it/etc.”
And even if I do have an opinion about the topic, often I just don’t have that kind of relationship with this kind of audience that I’d like to share it with them. Not sure that such people realize that opinions are like clothes: you display what is appropriate to the occasion and the company you’re with. Some people seem to prefer to just do the verbal equivalent of flashing everyone, as if what is to see is all that impressive.
Is there any meaningful difference between meditation and contemplation within the occult schools you’ve studied? I know within Catholicism they make distinctions(though I can’t recall what exactly those are). I ask because I often find reading leads me to contemplation, and I feel that the two acts have contributed to a growth of consciousness that I otherwise never would have underwent. I’d also like to ask if reading is considered a magical act; and also, if for instance, I read the work “confessions” by St. Agustine, is there in some way a link developed with his spirit/soul/consciousness?
Sorry if my questions are unclear. I would also like to thank you for your tweet about egoism and deflated egos. I’m undergoing group therapy at the moment, and I had begun to form sentiments to the effect that you expressed, but it wasn’t until I read that tweet that everything clicked. In fact, oddly enough, it seemed that I felt something snap or shatter within my psyche after reading that tweet.
there’s a long tradition of trying to find scientific explanations of magical effects. I have no great faith that quantum mechanics will prove to be any more durable than the version of physics it replaced, so I don’t put a lot of effort into it. It’s curious, though, that ghostly activity seems to follow the laws of thermodynamics! Candles burn blue when ghosts are seen, by the way — I’m curious if you have an explanation for that.
Btw is there any way I can put the quote in italics? (Put the i and /i in angle brackets instead of square brackets. — Ed.)
But as for the blue flames one of the explanations is that it is an indication of complete combustion where fuel and oxygen mix optimally. Yellow flames is when combustion isn’t complete. So ghosts affecting thermodynamics this way is quite believable.
Unless they are likewise responsible for creating matter ex nihilo or out of nothing with which to produce the blue flame. Then things get really interesting.
As for the failed Scientific explanations. It is what it is. Keep trying until the right hypothesis fits the data. And experimentation can be replicated.
This article was very helpful for me. Recently, I’ve been forced to be around someone who just projects negativity all the time and it does affect my mood, thinking and behavior. As for practices, I found that two expressions that we might brush off as platitudes actually help. One, “Prayer works” and two, “Pray for your enemies.”
This month I re-read Dion Fortune’s Psychic Self Defence and The Secrets of Dr Taverner, and I appreciate her emphasis on the need for occultists to learn how psychology works. Manly Hall makes the same point in his pamphlet Visions and Metaphysical Experiences.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading, and work, in this regard over the past two years in particular (I still have a lot of work to do!). It’s been very useful to connect the vocabularies from occultism and psychology to get a more complete picture. For example, the psychological concept of projection is fairly well known, and the task of withdrawing projections is assumed to be something that one should do purely for one’s own psychological health.
But, as Fortune points out, and as you do in different words in this essay, if ‘thoughts are things’, then you hurl (literally project) your thoughts on to other people, and if they are nasty thoughts, then they also have an effect on whoever you are projecting on. Thus, the withdrawal of projections isn’t just a task for one’s own self-development, it’s also a public service.
@Nachtgurke: I do my daily practices in the mornings, including until recently the SOP, and because I have lower back issues, I do about 5-15 minutes of stretches before my practices. It really does make a difference, which I notice if I don’t stretch (I end up foggier and more muddled). Just echoing your own findings!
@Bradley
I made my living as a salesperson for many years with a break to homeschool my children between careers. I have been trained in every form of manipulation du jour you can imagine. Now, at the ripe old age of 57, I have no patience or interest in Spinning (SPIN technique) someone around to bend them to my will. I am constantly in trouble with my boss for speaking in plain truths. As an example I often say, “our software has won ZERO awards for its user interface, but it is reliable and predictable.” I try to set clear expectations with customers and prospects about what it will be like to buy and use what I sell. I also use basic language to describe my product rather than using words that make no sense to the common man.
I have sometimes been rejected by people who wanted a spell cast upon them. I have also been rejected by people who simply aren’t interested in speaking to me, which is what sales people expect. Selling is a difficult job because you have to look for work when things are slow, which requires reaching out to people who mostly do not want to speak to you.
When I receive a sales call I usually gauge someone’s sincerity. If they do not seem sincere or are reading a prepared script without asking about my needs or interests, I politely wish them well and move on.
There is an easy way to handle this low level magic and that is to end the conversation and wish the caller or presenter well on his or her journey and to have a nice day. If you are stuck in a presentation with people trying to SPIN or cajole, this is an excellent time to visualize a shield around yourself (in-person) or check email (if online).
I also pray every morning to bring love and light and to be a good wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend and person. The person part covers my work interactions.
Rooby
This is fascinating. I haven’t been reading your blog for long, and I’ve never come across this kind of thinking before. When I’ve considered magic at all, which is rarely, it’s only ever been in terms of fiction or superstition.
However, a few years ago, for several months, I became _obsessed_ with a particular culture wars talking point. It was literally all I could think about, and I spent many pointless hours testily arguing about it with anyone who’d listen.
It passed eventually, and many times since then I’ve looked back on that period with real puzzlement. It wasn’t me, and I really came to believe, well before reading what you’ve written here, that my mind had somehow been infected. It was a very odd feeling. Much more than just trying out a new position on something, but that these thoughts, and specifically my out-of-character reaction to them, had been put in my head somehow.
“We’ve all seen fashions, moods, and other states of consciousness leap from person to person, with little if any participation of conscious mind and will. Yet most of us continue to kowtow to the superstitions just named, and pretend that all of the thoughts and feelings we experience are ours.”
Even though I (like most people I suppose) like to regard myself as a free thinker, rational and resistant to harmful ideas, it’s a trap isn’t it? The idea of moving from this to an understanding that a particular belief may not actually be mine, no matter how much I might think it is, feels like something I need to know more about.
More than once, I’ve flirted with the idea of taking the Dale Carnegie course. Before I retired I worked with several people who swore by it. At the encouragement of one of them, I did actually take the free intro course. I didn’t like the idea of manipulating other people, but I would have been willing to take the course as a defensive measure. The first thing they emphasize, as I recall, is remembering people’s names. There’s nothing sinister, or manipulative about that, and I admit that I’m terrible with names and faces. Just the same, each time I flirt with the possibility of taking it seriously, I back away. As strictly defensive measures, I think there are better options.
Enjoyed this essay.
I wanted to add something that may hearten any readers that working on yourself as JMG advises is actually making changes in your interior even if you don’t notice your outer circumstances changing much if at all.
Here’s one method to tell.
Before taking on a spiritual practice take ink prints of both your palms. File that paper away for 12 months. At the end of the twelfth month take it back out and once again do an ink print of both palms.
Now look at the difference between the two. There’s the proof that your spiritual practices were/are working even though nothing may have changed about your circumstances around you for a whole year.
Sadhguru says one’s energy never lies. One’s mind can fool you up to the very end right before Enlightenment. Ditto for one’s emotions. But one’s energy will never, ever lie. The palms, the soles of one’s feet, indeed one’s face all map out the trajectory one’s energy is every day.
To drive home just how much a difference spiritual practice makes I give the following example of what the lack of such practices can leave as “tracks in space” (to use Dion Fortune’s Cosmic Doctrine term).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJlXMaHKKvU
my comment: The woman above is not as innocent as she likes to believe she is despite her emotions telling her she’s being wronged. The way the prana has shaped her face from her life choices over the decades is the tell.
Wonderful post JMG, it is one I will be marking for the future. To build upon the positive, you need to have gratitude for it, and this is much easier said than done, especially in this materialistic age that trains us to see all matter as dead. When we are looking for shortcuts to a state of magical protection, gratitude erects a formidable net of spells. That is what my upcoming book, Sacred Homemaking: A Magical Approach to Tidying, tries to convey. But nobody needs to buy my book in order to practice the kinds of tiny gratitudes that weave the net of spells. Basically, if you want to try this kind of natural magic for yourself, all you have to do is constantly thank your bed, your toaster, countertop, door, chair, toilet, and even your computer device, because didn’t that machine bring you a JMG article that you could use? Yeah. Gratitude is the ternary. It’s the thing that no modern person considers doing anymore. To bastardize a Madonna song, it’s like a prayer.
“If you don’t happen to be an adept, putting in an etheric “circuit breaker” is also a very good idea, because astral influences can’t reach the material plane without a bridge through the etheric.” Says JMG. Gratitude for physical objects and spaces is a form of animism that recognizes the spirit of place and the objects within it. It’s easy to do, for even a child can clean and thank the toilet. It just takes a lot of humility and daily discipline. The reason why it is powerful is because it reaches through to the astral and the spiritual and trickles back again, creating the net of spells I’m talking about..
As an Orthodox Christian i should mention the Jesus prayer “lord Jesus Christ son of GOD have mercy on me a sinner” repeated and thought about while counting out knots on a prayer rope…
Works for me…
Catholics also have the Divine Mercy chaplet which uses the same structure of prayers as the rosary:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaplet_of_the_Divine_Mercy
It’s interesting, the contrast between discursive meditation and meditation (I don’t know what other names it has) that tries to quiet the mind. Is one superior to the other, and for what purpose? As far as I know theoretically, the goal of meditation is to detach yourself from the mind (and from this physical existence in general), and achieve things like those in the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxrBik16Hzg&rco=1
The video is of a monk burning himself alive, The important thing there is not that he burned alive, the important thing is the spiritual realization that the monk possesses,I don’t know if the monk used meditation or discursive meditation, mentioning that discursive meditation in my opinion is meditation using a specific type of mantra
If people use meditation only to end up trapped in their own thoughts or in external thoughts very different from the meditation’s objective, something has gone wrong. Perhaps the question is, meditation and discursive meditation are suitable for what kind of people? For some, the first option is useful; for others, the second.
I want to make a small disclaimer: I use discursive meditation (prayer). I don’t know if I’ve ever truly meditated. But I trust that one day, in a future reincarnation, I’ll achieve a spiritual realization like the monk in the video. These days, my mind is often useful, but there are days when it makes my life quite miserable, and all that’s left is to suffer in silence. That’s why I say it’s theoretical knowledge, because I should have practiced both forms of meditation. But with this kind of existence I’m living (where I don’t even know if I’ve ever truly meditated), this could be considered an opinion formed from books, which is useful for informing, but without practice, it’s useless knowledge.
Brendhelm # 79:
Thank you for discovering to me the missing third term in English. As a non native speaker, I wasn’t told in my English classes about that lost or near lost word…
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Michael M. #82:
Indeed, I have a friend older than me who owns one of those “primitive” cell phones without internet or whassap. And he lives in relative peace…
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Kimberly S # 103:
OK, the key is gratitude, so thank you for your advice!
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Stephen A. # 104:
Thank you for reminding us that short Orthodox prayer, within your own spiritual tradition. Oh, I mustn’t to forget to thank people who have written before my comment about Catholic tradition about the Rosary prayers.
@78 Siliconguy
I am not sure if the calming effect really stems from contemplating scientific notions of how big the universe is. I don’t get the calmness from reading a book about astronomy or astrology. I get it when I look up at at the stars.
@ Earthworm #25
That is lovely, and the line that particularly strikes me, is the shortest one – “Love abides”.
I practiced mindfulness meditation extensively in my late teens / early 20s and it killed my empathy. That’s probably another reason why corporations encourage it. Mindfulness meditation trains you to view all of thoughts that come into your head (yours or not) in a detached manner that can easily make you cold. I think that’s why it needs to be paired with an ethical system and works better in places with lots of rules like Japan.
I’m not convinced that learning about fallacies is useful once you’ve gone over a few ubiquitous ones (ex: including the motte-and-bailey fallacy, which has become the defining fallacy of our age) and really gotten the idea that just because an argument looks persuasive doesn’t mean it is correct. After that point, memorizing lists of fallacies tends to lead to obnoxious points-scoring game played for no stakes.
Deductive reasoning is great in math but almost any time you’re talking about anything anyone really cares about, you’ll be engaged in some form of defeasible reasoning: trying to establish that your position is the more probable or more plausible one, but in a way that doesn’t establish its certainty. And deductive fallacies are often valid defeasible arguments, including the dreaded ad hominem (ex: “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” is an invalid deductive argument but is often a strong defeasible argument if it happens to be true).
Rita, yes, the fetish for treating emotions as non-negotiable and unquestionable absolutes is a major source of dysfunction these days; that habit was deliberately encouraged by advertising and other media, and by corrupt psychology, though it doubtless has other sources as well. As for the intraterrestrial world, that’s a fascinating question to which I don’t yet know enough to have an answer. I’ll see if I can find that book.
Edward, how about every single book ever printed on any of the subjects you’ve listed? Take each paragraph or, if its densely written, each sentence as a theme for meditation.
Nephite, I’m not in a position to judge — I’ve never owned or used one. Have you considered simply going with a land line?
Bradley, I don’t exactly have the spare time to read an entire book to respond to a single comment on this blog, you know! I will say that if you know the techniques in question you can have fun monkeywrenching them. Simply calling them out can be very entertaining: “Oh, that one!” (Give its name or a brief description.) “Did you get it from Cialdini?”
Tom, it’s nearly the opposite of useful magic; glad to hear you’re in recovery.
J.L.Mc12, Yeats doesn’t get into the broader destiny of the soul. In the occult traditions he studied, though, souls that have developed wisdom in that way move on to other and more interesting modes of being, leaving the young souls to keep the tracks in space established.
Aldarion, thank you for both of these. You’re certainly right that carefully chosen fasts can increase the intensity of many spiritual practices — though this can also be overdone.
Raen, yes, and it can also become a means of self-inflicted brainwashing. This is one reason I make a point of avoiding doomscrolling, and also of regularly reading sources I disagree with.
Kevin, hey, it isn’t me. I’m autistic, remember, so I don’t feel your pain — or your bliss! 😉 As for bookstores, yes, if you buy from my Bookshop store, I get a kickback from the store in addition to the usual royalty from the publisher.
Moose, the simple fact that you see holes in the standard narratives and are bored by the things that interest most people will almost automatically put you on the outside looking in, in most social interactions. All those narratives and habits are ways that people signal to each other “Hi, I belong to the same tribe as you.” Communication scientists call this “phatic communication,” and it accounts for the great majority of human interaction. As an autistic person, I’ve always had trouble with phatic communication, so I know where you’re coming from here!
Inna, that’s fascinating in more ways than one. In particular, did you know that keeping the weight firmly on one foot at a time is also essential in tai chi?
Carlos, it’s good to know that those are still being taught and practiced as meditation methods. As for ads, I know — having no television and a good ad blocker, I don’t see them very often, and when I do, it’s a decidedly weird experience.
Bradley, good. Frankl knew his stuff.
Quin, thanks as always for this.
John, I haven’t yet seen any reason to think that the advertising industry drew directly on occult sources. The sheer Darwinian pressure to outsell the other guy, once fossil-fueled mass production made the manufacture of huge surpluses inescapable, would have led just as easily to the present reign of low-grade evil magic.
Executed, the mere fact that mindfulness teachers aren’t aware of this leads me to wonder just how competent their trainers were…
Chuaquin, nah, everyone can develop their will — it’s just that most people never get around to it.
Averagejoe, okay, good — you’ve broken the binary by finding a third position. That’s an excellent first step. Now take it further. You’ve mentioned population decline. What are the arguments in favor of and against preventing it, and are theire other options?
Tobes, you’re in luck. If you pick up your copy of The Druidry Handbook and turn back to Chapter 9, you’ll find an entire chapter of instructions in discursive meditation for beginners, including tips on choosing themes for practice. As for sea salt, yes, it’ll work just fine.
Chuaquin, I’ve encountered energy vampires. Back when I worked in nursing homes to help pay the bills, for example, long before my first book saw print, there was an old woman who lived in one home. All the staff shunned her as much as they could, because you couldn’t spend time around her without feeling exhausted. Her family used to pay students from a local Bible college to come read to her for an hour a day, but had to keep finding new ones because they got sick and quit. Finally her family’s money ran short and she had to do without the readers. She was dead six weeks later.
Mark, thanks for this.
Carlos, in the US these days, if you don’t worship either Trump or his haters, people get very weird. When I explain that in my view, what’s going on in American politics is a death match between rival teams of corrupt billionaires, and the slogans and policies are simply attempts to win support from different populations of chumps, people back away as though I’d sprouted tentacles…
Astrophane, those words are used in different senses by different traditions, and I find that the word “meditation” works just as well for the whole kit and caboodle, so that’s the one I use. Meditative reading is certainly an option, and a very useful one at that; as for Augustine, well, if you believe in saints — or to put things the occult way, in souls that have learned all the lessons of material existence and gone on to other states of being — then yes, close meditative reading of a book by an author who is now in that condition might do the job. As for the tweet, glad to hear it, but that wasn’t actually me — there’s an unofficial JMG twitter feed that pulls quotes from this blog and posts them to X. I don’t mind at all, and would thank the person responsible if I met them, but I have nothing to do with the process.
Info, interesting. Now I’m wondering why the presence of ghosts would improve combustion…
WatchFlinter, those two statements are anything but platitudes!
Jbucks, an excellent point.
Gkneller, in occult terms, you now know what it feels like to have been under a spell. The notion that all our thoughts are ours, popular as it is, really is a trap.
Phutatorius, the Carnegie course is too manipulative for my taste. The course I recommend is Burks Hamner’s Order of Essenes course from the 1930s:
https://iapsop.com/archive/materials/wing_lessons/order_of_the_essenes_florida/
The first course of 23 weekly lessons gives the heart of it. It’s much more focused on motivation and self-mastery, and doesn’t get into the manipulative side of things.
Panda, thanks for this.
Kimberly, and thanks for this! Gratitude is powerful magic.
Stephen, a grand traditional practice.
Anon, granted, but I figured if somebody was far enough into the Catholic tradition to know about chaplets — of which there are of course a great many — they don’t need my advice. 😉
Dennis, that’s fascinating — in a bleak sort of way — and unsurprising. Thanks for the data point.
Slithy, it depends on what you’re trying to do, of course. I study fallacies because they’re such a fine guide to the reasoning of supposed rationalists; it’s astonishing how many classic logical fallacies somebody like the late Carl Sagan could pack into a single essay. Slicing and dicing those can be useful in extracting one’s mind from the superstitious beliefs of the present.
Thank you, dear JMG. This is brilliantly succinct. I can well imagine that that Violet is smiling upon you, and upon us all.
Relevant headline this morning,
“Ferris High School opens new CHAS Health center on campus, expanding access to behavioral health services”
“Behavioral health care” sounds like psychic self defense to me and certainly the kids need it probably more than most here. If you use the word ‘magic’ the educational bureaucracy will roll their eyes and escort you to the door. Wrap the same practices in ‘behavioral health care’ and they might listen.
PS, I don’t know what CHAS is, community health association of Spokane maybe?
https://www.kxly.com/news/ferris-high-school-opens-new-chas-health-center-on-campus-expanding-access-to-behavioral-health/article_75da5028-2c2d-4197-82f6-f9175f635be3.html
Hi John,
Where do you rank all of the bugabagooo when many people in general will respond to psychic defense by telling you, imagine being protected by a white wall, or wear a talismon of saturn for protection, or doing the LBRP and the LBRH for defense?
Do these methods work reliably compared to doing a mindfullness meditation, which is keeping track of your mind without interfering with the thoughts? Also some types of samadhi you use concentration to shut out all thoughts. Why wouldn’t this type of meditation work? If a practitioner could pull it off outside thoughts would not even penetrate their conscious mind.
Emilio
Patrick #37 and #44:
Funnily enough, pretty much each and every one of Trelawney’s predictions actually comes true, as do most of the made-up homework predictions (read symbolically, not literally, of course).
I have to confess, I don’t remember how astrology (natal, presumably?) is relevant to Goblet of Fire. The mundane astrological predictions in Order of the Phoenix are spot on too, though of course the method has rather little to do with real astrology, mundane or otherwise.
Re: dark skies being calming, only if you’re not a materialist. As stupid as this sounds, a lot of materialists (including a younger me) seem to be afraid of space’s vastness. My working hypothesis is that imagining the supernatural realm (in the sense of ) to be as empty as most materialists claim it is runs counter some deep-seated instinct that still says even if materialists have largely trained themselves not to notice that there actually is something supernatural.
JMG #56:
The blue part of a flame is the coldest (visible) part, so that tracks.
Michael Martin #61:
Can’t say I listen to much “pop” music either, but my tastes certainly run closer to that then classical music. I find that most¹ messaging is supraliminal but not any less dangerous. Maybe two years back, I asked myself whether I gravitate towards music about depression because I’m depressed or whether I’m depressed because I listen to music about depression. While it started out as the former, I discovered that I unwittingly entered a feedback loop where I trained myself to start listening to sad songs the moment I started feeling sad or melancholic, all but guaranteeing spiralling into a proper depressive episode, thus proving my music choice was appropriate to the situation.
I now enjoy this specific kind of music very occasionally and in small doses, ideally only when I’m happy enough it won’t make a difference. I’m also doing much better now. I can’t prove what’s cause and what’s effect but I assume that this, too, is the result of a feedback loop—a positive one, for once.
I’d like to thank you for making this comment because you’ve given me an opportunity to once again review my own music habits. Being fairly typical Zoomer (except for being in a forum such as this, of course), I do listen to a fair bit of music, typically wearing headphones while riding the train or walking a long-ish distance. As I’m of course aware that music can have a rather large effect and not necessarily a positive one, I am now wondering whether that’s a good thing.
—David P.
1: But then again, I wouldn’t know how much subliminal messaging I’m subjected to in addition to that, would I?
I would love to ditch my cell phone and use a landline, but unfortunately my current job requires me to have one to clock in and out. They are not accommodating to weirdos like me. Perhaps I should go ahead and get rid of it anyway, it would be nice for work to stop following me around on my off-time as much…
About Dale Carnegie and similar mid 20thC self help writers: They had their uses. I remember thinking that about a third to half of what was presented was instruction in basic manners, for bright, capable folks who had been raised rough. Such advice as remember people’s names has, I would think, little to do with magic and is merely showing respect for others. I happen to be reading a novel in which a female character gets herself into a life threatening situation simply because she can’t keep her mouth shut. To me, this not how she was made, as the author claims, but life skills 102. Think before yapping.
I wonder if the American predilection for thinking in binaries is not partly a legacy of Calvinism dividing the human population into the Saved and the Damned.
JMG, would it be possible now or some other time for you to be a bit more specific about the two sets of corrupt billionaires?
@ Scotlyn #107
Thank you Scotlyn.
You found the most important part 😉
Each line can be unfolded; the shortest line (Love abides) is actually the most complex – can be unfolded extensively to achieve several things – e.g. cleanse energy and bring it into balance with one’s Ideal so it is of use but in harmony. That is, the fear of death is a personal energy state, by bringing that energy of fear into ‘balance’ with one’s Ideal it ‘adds’ rather than ‘debilitates’.
It encapsulates quite a bit more if it is unfolded. The litany thought or spoken on its own is good, but combine Emotion, Mind, Imagination, Ideal and Will to explore it in depth and you’re looking at the difference between a bicycle and a motorbike – both can take you a long way, but their ooomph is of a different magnitude.
Given your work in TCM, you might be interested to know that the original variant (Litany for Emotional Balance) initially used individual emotions with depression utilising courage, fear being modified with gentleness, anger with kindness etc etc, though my personal practice has morphed beyond the Taoist correspondences I was first taught, the fundamentals are still hidden in there if needed.
I put it together for a friend to try (who was having panic attacks) and instead of something like the Chinese exercise of balancing emotions (Fusion of the 5 Elemental Processes) something much simpler and direct seemed in order.
Say hello to your man F for me!
Is the energy vampire intentional or just something that happens to some people who aren’t particularly good at taking care of themselves and end up living off the etheric field of others?
About Psychic Self-Defense: On the bottom shelf of my “miscellaneous” bookcase I ran across Manley Wade Wellman’s “After Dark,” an occult thriller in the Deep South Mountains., with John the wandering singer and his friends, which include a sure-enough mage who quotes the same books you do. They’re up against a set of nonhuman people, the Shonokins, who are bent on taking back their land and have the values and tactics of the worst of the land developers, General Custer, and vampires (NOT the popular-fiction Eurotrash in capes kind, but the original, nasty kind.) I’m only halfway through it, but it seems relevant. Anyway, they’re badder than bad on the psychic level as well (and with understandable motives too.)
BTW: A linguistic note: The way I hear it, “Nonhuman,” “Inhuman,” and “unhuman,” are not synonyms. They each carry a different felt value to me. “Unhuman” has overtones of “eerie, creepy.” “Inhuman,” has overtones of the hard-core predator or stone-hearted being.” “Nonhuman” is the generic, and passes no judgment on anything except “Not of our species.” UMMV.
>Candles burn blue when ghosts are seen, by the way — I’m curious if you have an explanation for that
Candles burn blue, orange and yellow all at once. Blue indicates the candle flame is at optimal fuel/air mix, complete combustion. Anything else is richer than that, incomplete combustion. The yellow color comes from really hot carbon soot, basically. As to what would change the mixture, well, the rate of fuel being added stays fairly constant, so it has to be the amount of air varying, I’m guessing.
As to what is changing the amount of air and why, that would require investigation. Perhaps some schlieren imaging is called for. The real problem would be reproducibility.
@earthworm #25
A quick suggestion to take or leave as you see fit.
If you are truly interested in a practice that prepares you for death get initiated into Shoonya. It’s pure yoga – entirely internal. No props or ceremonies needed. Sadhguru says it’s practicing conscious death.
For those who were initiated into it, if they practice Shoonya long enough he says there will come a day when you’ll notice during practice even entire parts of your body ‘disappear’. You’ll literally have to check to see you still have a leg, foot or fingers for example or whatnot (they’ll still be there but it will be *very* obvious the body is not you). That ‘loss’ of sensation is not a permanent thing so don’t worry if it happens. Just carry on. But shoonya is one way to see what conscious dying is like before it actually begins the day of your final breath.
Another tiny fact Sadhguru let slip one day. Apparently when you begin to die there are certain centers in your body that will begin to heat up due to the intense friction that results from the etheric body beginning to separate from the material body.
Carlos @ 83 wrote: “As for advertising, one of the things I’ve always found weird/shocking/peculiar is how prescription drugs and lawyers are advertised via roadside billboards and TV commercials in the USA.”
That is relatively new here in the US. It didn’t used to be that way. I think it’s called “deregulation.”
Thanks for this — I think this is a great list and very much agree with most of the article! (I pretty much never agree entirely with anything, I should say, so mostly agreeing is maxing out the scale for me.) One thing I might add, only because I’ve found it helpful myself, is to be explicit in recognizing that no matter how much I’ve learned or how good I get at catching *some* things, others will slip through at times. That is, for me at least, it’s not just about developing and maintaining good habits — it’s also recognizing that things will happen I haven’t run into (or properly recognized) before, and in general both the world and I keep changing, too, so there are lots of moving targets in the mix (which is endlessly interesting!).
JMG # 112:
An impressive story about a psychic vampire, as you’ve told it. I’ve met a few psychic vampires during my life, like the ones I’ve said before this comment, and yes, I agree: they can leave you tired and exhausted of energy.
*************
Well John, you don’t use a smartphone because you haven’t never the need for it, so you’re lucky. So you’re beyond my friend who has an old cell phone without internet…However, in this moment ironically I’m reading your blog from a smartphone with internet (though outdated and crappy), so these are my circumstances to be here online cough cough…
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Dennis # 120:
Good question. Maybe John knows how to answer it, but I don’t know exactly to answer it. I only can tell you psychic vampires I’ve unfortunately met in my life look like happier and stronger after having interactued with me, meanwhile I finish tired. Maybe they know their “power” at least in a not conscious level, or maybe not…
@David P
It’s obliquely mentioned in one scene, and implied in another (if JKR even knows knows that predictive astrology uses one’s natal chart as a base).
As for the night sky, that depends on the materialist, because I was one until recently. Carl Sagan used the vastness of the universe as a cudgel to attack strawman versions of religion and geocentric cosmology*. Many other materialists think and act like you’ve described
*However, Sagan was a true believer in space colonization and the triumph of reason over faith despite the evidence to the contrary so he didn’t really eliminate Man’s importance from his worldview.
@JMG: thanks for reinforcing my intuition that the Dale Carnegie courses are teaching manipulation. I have not encountered any critical assessments of it, despite some casual searching. Also, that link you provided in your response leads to a very impressive archive of which I was not aware.
Regarding candles. Their purpose, primarily, is lighting. I’d guess that candles are designed and formulated to produce yellow flames for that purpose. It’s good to be able to see the flame; you’re less likely to get burned that way.
On the Rosary:
Much like SamChevre (#66), I do visualization of each Mistery while reciting the decades more or less in autopilot. Most of the images come from a book I received as a gift after my First Communion ceremony: La Biblia Juvenil (ilustrada). For the extra-biblical mysteries (e.g. Asumption of the Virgin Mary to heaven), I imagine a painting in the same style as the ilustrations of the book.
I have found myself unable to actually medidate while reciting the decades (though I can slowly recall the thoughts I have previously done on the Mistery), and in any case visualization is more emotionally engaing.
@Patricia Mathews (#121):
Manley Wade Wellman is excellent, instructive reading for anyone with an interest in magic. I have (IIRC) all of his hardcovers featuring John the singer on my over-stuffed bookshelves somewhere.
Thank you for reminding me of them. I need to read them again someday soon.
Nephite @#117
Maybe you don’t want to do this at work but I learned during covid about loopholes.
Many places that required masks by government order had clear rules about exemptions or accommodations. One of the legal listed exemptions was, everytime I looked, ‘anxiety’. There was no definition of anxiety given. So, when I was brave, and someone would hassle me, I would say what became my magic words (oh my, in the context of this post I hope it’s not getting into the grubby side of things! I used it for protection 🙂 ) “I have an exemption per the ADA”. By my reasoning, all the busybodies gave me anxiety and the government said it was a legal loophole. YMMV.
After covid, I started applying this to smartphones. I don’t own one and really dislike the pervasiveness of it. It…gives me anxiety. So when asked to look something up, check in, show a code on a smartphone I say “”I’ll need a reasonable accommodation to do that another way per the ADA”. People often look confused or annoyed, but in the US, it’s hard to say no to those words. Also, I am not a lawyer, but I am pretty sure they cannot ask you the root cause of your need for an accommodation. I’ll often make a suggestion to be helpful – can I see a paper version? Can you do this on your computer? etc. People making low wages don’t care too much about giving you a legit exception if given a hurdle and I don’t want to make life hard on them – but to gently push back at the elite who decide such silly things.
You may not want to pull that out at work, though but it’s a fun card to play when the bureaucrats try to bully you. Food for thought….
Speaking of psychic attack, the top three companies engaged in this crap have just been given their trophies.
https://www.financialexpress.com/business/onlyfans-beats-nvidia-apple-to-become-most-revenue-efficient-company-in-the-world-4018559/
CM, you’re most welcome.
Siliconguy, “behavioral health” is simply the new buzzword for “psychiatry.” Materialists like it because it lets them pretend that minds don’t exist.
Emilio, visualizations like that fall into the category of “workings,” which I discuss in the post. As for mindfulness meditation and the like, if you shut out all thoughts all the time, you’re a mental vegetable; if not, then you’re only protected while you’re meditating. Discursive meditation, by contrast, teaches you mental skills that you can use even when you’re not meditating, and so protects you all the time.
Nephite, no reason you can’t have a land line and keep your work-required cell phone in a locked drawer when you’re not on company time…
Mary, oh, the Carnegie course certainly had its value; it’s just more manipulative than I like. You’re square on target, too, about the power of plain sensible advice and common sense. The heroine, though, was violating one of the rules of magic — “to be silent”! Yes, there’s a very strong Calvinist streak in US culture, and I’ve talked about the elite replacement cycle and the gangs of kleptocratic billionaires before but will certainly do so in an upcoming post.
Dennis, it can happen either way, though the intentional ones are generally more dangerous.
Patricia M, Manly Wade Wellman was very well versed in magic, and his Silver John stories are great — did you catch the Silver John easter egg I put into Chorazin?
Other Owen, it would indeed. I’ve been thinking about how to use that bit of folklore in my Ariel Moravec stories.
Kate, that’s another of the advantages of the meditative approach. Over time you develop habits of consciousness — I don’t know another way to describe them — that screen out the whole range of low-grade evil magic.
Chuaquin, maybe so, but there are other ways to access the internet, you know!
Phutatorius, the IAPSOP archive is amazing. Wait until you click over to the book archive and find the 10,000 or so occult classic texts they’ve got available for free download…
Carlos, oh, granted, sleazy magic can be lucrative.
JMG wrote (#212) “American politics is a death match between rival teams of corrupt billionaires.” In response, Mary Bennet (#218) asked, “JMG, would it be possible now or some other time for you to be a bit more specific about the two sets of corrupt billionaires?” [my emphasis].
Thank you, Mary, for convincing me just how very powerful our (American?) propensity for thinking in binaries actually is.. JMG didn’t specify how many rival teams of corrupt billionaires he thought there were. Why not three or more such teams? There is no shortage of corrupt billionaires nowadays.
Ever since kindergarten I have always had an unreasoning visceral hatred of team sports — really, of any kind of competitive teamwork anywhere in life — and I avoid even opening up the sports pages in our daily newspaper much as I would avoid a puddle of disgusting human effluvia. Yet even I know that American team-sports are about two, and only two, teams competing. Now I am wondering whether our American sports-centered life has predisposed us to see life in terms of binaries instead of ternaries. Ugh!
Happy Panda #123
Thank you for that… an interesting approach to take!
For myself, I figure to go to the trouble of existing here suggests there is value in this experience. Death comes to all, so I don’t feel the need to focus on it to that extent, what I like about memento mori is that it addresses one of the fundamental ‘blocks’ – understanding and being able to deal with fear etc.
Do you know what advantage people expect to get by focusing on death in the form of pure yoga?
@JMG, Brendhelm #79, Weilong #88, Chaquin #89, Carlos M. #94:
RE: Binary vs. Ternary in Languages
Thank you for bringing to my attention to “yon(der)”! This word, unfortunately, fell into disuse together with Latin… talk about progress! I worked with many Filipinos and quite a few Mexicans, and I did notice that they differed from native English speakers and native Russian speakers in treating many situations with less zeal. When George Bush said, “You are either with us, or with the terrorists.”, I felt that I circled back to my Soviet childhood…
RE: Physical Imbalances as Manifestations of Astral Imbalances
” …did you know that keeping the weight firmly on one foot at a time is also essential in tai chi?”
No, I didn’t. It is, indeed, fascinating. In tango, keeping weight firmly on one foot (if you can master it) is the most pleasurable moment of the dance. You are propelled by the energy of your partner while moving in a spiral, with your upper body and lower body going in opposite directions, until it becomes unsustainable, at which moment your body straightens itself like an arrow being released from a bow. This strong strengthening motion is, in turn, the most pleasurable moment of the dance for your partner. But tai chi, the art of combat and self-defense? HOW?
PS Panda 123
Sorry I was not clear: – you said “But shoonya is one way to see what conscious dying is like before it actually begins the day of your final breath” what I meant was, does this give any advantage? That is, one could concentrate on experience what dying is actually like, or one could work on improving oneself and one’s ideal. So, where is the advantage in taking that yoga approach?
@Mary Bennett,
I have a terrible time learning and remembering peoples names and attaching them to faces, especially in noisy or group environments. I also have trouble recognizing people outside the context in which I met them. This can include my roommate in the street, or my own mother at the mall. Or getting which person I just met is my opponent in a wargame and what their name is. Or the person I’ve been playing games with on and off for months. Or who the person facebook wanting to be facebook friends it – is it another wargamer from the club, or someone random off the internet I don’t even know.? I have no idea. I am way better at learning names if they’re written down, but attaching them to the right face is still iffy.
It’s gotten me into trouble with others at times, but it’s not carelessness, lack of respect, or a choice on my part. Its part of why I think I’m on the autism spectrum, along with a lot of other things, and I am not alone in my family in this or in other spectrum behaviors.
“Daily meditation has plenty of gifts to offer, but one of the most important is the discovery that you are not your thoughts. Another, just as important, is the realization that you are not your feelings.”
What happens next? I feel like I’ve been stuck at this point for a while now. Everything seems to have been at a plateau…
A shamless OSA plug for those interested in the Order of Essenes:
The IAPSOP site does have all the lessons if you’re willing to download 156 individual files. We did just that, then combined them into four PDFs, one for each course, for ease of reference. Or you can download them as individual files if you like, but as a zip file with a single click , here: https://octagonsociety.org/archives/order-of-the-essenes/
@Bradley, 71, I’d heard of Cialdini before (Scott Adams writes about him) but never read him. So I followed the link you gave and started browsing. It looks like he does offer a variety of methods to counter the approaches he describes, including the ones that JMG suggests (like calling out the technique). So that might be some help.
Excellent article. First observation: AI is basically computer enhanced groupthink. What else could it be, since they scrape the good, the bad, and the ugly off the web to build their LLMs.
Secondly, I have been persuaded, both by personal experience and the writings and lectures of Rupert Sheldrake, that mind and consciousness are not confined to the brain. What do you think of him JMG?
Containing the cell phone can be difficult when work requires it. I was on-call with a company cell phone in that case you are pretty much stuck. If you only expected to be available during business hours you can put it in airplane mode and leave in on the table when not ‘at work’.
Mine lives on the bookshelf. I don’t take it with me when I go out. I’ve deleted as much cruft as I could find, then pillaged the security and privacy settings to disable what I could. It makes and revives phone calls, and sends and receives texts. That’s what I need. The land line here was abandoned years ago. Wi-fi calling will not work during a power outage, so a phone is still needed.
One psychology book that I can recommend is called ‘Trance Zero’ by Adam Crabtree (1997), which explores how we are all subject to influences from our families, our locales, our nations and how we can break from those trances.
I’ve found it very useful.
Doing the Sphere of Protection every day since you first posted it on Dreamwidth has also been very effective at keeping out all the psychic dust and debris. Particularly useful driving in traffic surrounded by a miasma of frustration and anger emanating from all the entitled “Mr Wheeler” types who should have left the house sooner or are (ironically) sitting in their cars, desperately eager to get home so they can sit and ‘relax’. Also useful when reading about current affairs in the daily news feed.
Bruce
Re: ternary etc
IMHO English has more than three terms for those two examples:
This – here
That – there
The other – over there
The rest – elsewhere
😉
Note that the splitting into ‘words’ are in many cases an arbitrary (sometimes w.r.t. English historical) construct – ‘the other’ may be spelt as two words but for many it is a single string of sounds. Anyone learning to understand a foreign language as it is spoken may grasp this straightaway (God help them if they are faced with NZ English, where the last element of the word is usually skipped and everything is run together)
More is not always better for time spent meditating! If you manage to make a daily five minute practice enjoyable, you will be back for more, become addicted to the effects, and will soon find that even 15 minutes twice a day is not enough to satisfy the desire for a “sweet hour of prayer.”
This has been my experience since I discovered Forrest Knutson’s work on meditation. He has a few books on the subject and a wealth of tips and tricks on YouTube. First rate stuff!
The cornerstone of his method involves 1)sitting very still 2) lower breath rate to less than 7 breaths per minute 3)make sure exhale is longer in duration than inhale 4) take out all pauses between breaths.
After heart rate variability resonance breathing is established and the body has entered a low idle state, a whole other world of exploration opens up.
Robert M, nice catch. I think you may be right about sports, btw.
Inna, in tai chi you need to be able to distinguish constantly between full (weight-bearing) and empty (non-weight-bearing) parts of your body. The empty parts can pivot or fold away from an attack as though they are as light as air; the full parts are the source of your power, which always flows from the earth through one foot to your hips and waist, and from there to whatever striking surface you’re using. Of course which side is full and which is empty is constantly changing, but you never let yourself be caught with weight on both sides at the same time; that’s called double-weighting, and it makes you ponderous, clumsy, and easy to beat.
Sammy, well, what are you using as themes for meditation? Once you know that your thoughts and feelings aren’t you, you can start changing any of your current thoughts and feelings that don’t benefit you for other thoughts and feelings that do.
Kyle, thanks for the reminder — I don’t yet automatically think of the OSA copy.
Eric, I think very highly of Sheldrake’s work. It has some remarkable parallels with the ideas of Dion Fortune — close enough that I’ve wondered more than once if Sheldrake has studied her writing.
Siliconguy, if that’s what you need to do, by all means.
Renaissance, thanks for this!
Jfisher, that’s certainly true — it’s standard advice in many occult schools that more than 30 minutes of meditation daily is too much for most people, and tends to make them airheads unable to cope with life.
@Tobes #91 At one point in my life I did TM faithfully and was quite involved in the group aspects of it and the retreats. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in a book I read during that time written by him and published back in the sixties and probably no longer available said in TM you were calling on deities who would assist you in the enlightenment process. All this was kept quite under cover to maintain a secular and scientific veneer.
I wonder if being a part of a religious tradition gives you better techniques for psychic defense? Of course it helps if a person takes their religion at least semi seriously.
@Kyle etc. re: Order of Essenes
Something I’ve been meaning to point out about the course documents for some time now, even though it’s extremely pedantic and nitpicky and I’m pretty sure this is not the fault of anyone here: I’m pretty sure the letter to the student (the one starting “ACCEPT THIS AS GOOD NEWS”) included in the PDF for Lesson 2 should actually go with Lesson 1.
First, it’s congratulating the student on being accepted into the course — something that would have already happened by the time the student got Lesson 1. Second, it says “Enc. 1” in the lower-left hand corner of its pages. If you look at the letter for lesson 3, it says “Enc. 3” in the lower-left. It seems we’ve skipped “Enc. 2,” which I think suggests it’s been lost to time, along with application form the student is direct to fill out in the invitation letter included in the PDF for Lesson 1.
This makes no difference to the course whatsoever but it bugged me enough that when I printed out the course (no, I haven’t gone through it yet, but I figured every additional copy in the world helps the goal of preserving it), I reordered the pages to put it where I think it should go.
JMG, your reply really amazed me. If it were not for the last three words (in tango it’s “hard to lead”, not “easy to beat”), I would bet my last benjamin that you were talking about tango (note to self: never bet your last benjamin). 😉
On the Boy Wizard:
After some discussion about the books on a previous open post, I went and re-read them with a critical eye for the first time since the last one was released. I’m not particularly well versed in these things, but even I can now see the books were very cleverly written, especially the last three. One thing I noticed was that Potter has three substitute fathers, Rubeus Hagrid, Albus Dumbledore and Sirius Black. In books 1-3, Rubeus, Albus (moreso through his opposite number, Dobby the house-elf) and Sirius are Harry’s substitute fathers, in that order. In book four, after apparently going through the alchemical process in reverse (Book 1 was about a completed alchemical work(stepdad Rubeus), Book 2 featured plenty of plumbing (Stepdad Dobby, AKA mini-Albus) and Book 3 introduced Dementors (also stepdad Black)), Harry got a bunch of gold, but also his nemesis was “reborn” – arguably this was kind of a parody of the normal alchemical process. In book 5, Black returned to his role as father substitute, but then died, and in book 6, Albus did the same thing. In books 5-7 the alchemical process is reversed into its proper order, with the pressure cooker bleakness of book 5, the strange calm and emphasis on potions and water in book 6, and the conflict finally breaking out in book 7, featuring both Rubeus and his opposite, Rufus in the first few chapters. Rubeus survived, instead being present at Harry’s “death”. Rubeus’ opposite, Rufus, died, of course.
I also recall a few interesting memories – as a young Potter fan I remember seeing Rowling in an interview insisting that she put Quidditch in the books as fanservice for boys – when, in my reading, Quidditch is a metaphor for the central conflict of the series. In Quidditch, most players are engaged in an aerial version of soccer, while one player on each team plays a much more important game. In general, the two Seekers determine the outcome of the game, unless the broomstick-soccer-players are really mismatched. And of course, the Seekers chase the Golden Snitch – a little above my head as a 10 year old, but thankfully pretty obvious now.
There are a number of other things I noticed, but I won’t bore people with them, and I expect most people know enough about the rehashing of the Jesus x Romans Incident at the end that I won’t write about it.
In short, on my second reading, I come away with great admiration for Rowling’s chutzpah in writing the thing, and will note that to paraphrase something JMG said, she knew, she dared, and she mostly shut up. Granted, the main result of the magical working that Rowling did was to get her a yacht, but nonetheless, I’m impressed.
Seeking, depends on the religious tradition. I know plenty of Protestant Christians who are very devoutly religious, and completely lost when it comes to any kind of psychic defense.
Inna, what this suggests to me is that somebody someday will use tango as the foundation for a ferociously effective martial arts system!
Justin, yeah, I caught onto the transparent red-white-black symbolism when I read the first volume. I cheerfully agree that Rowling did a very effective and successful magical working; I wish she hadn’t pandered quite so gaudily to the prejudices of the managerial class, but of course if she hadn’t done that she would have had to content herself with a smaller yacht.
@Bradley #71 re: Cialdini’s Influence
In (slight) defense of Cialdini, while much of the book is concerned with the evil, debased magical application of the concepts, I take it’s over-arching thesis to be slightly more nuanced. To my reading, he says something like “here are some aspects of human psychology that make it more likely that folks will be persuaded, and here are the ways sleazy people try to tap those aspects without doing the work, and how to tell the difference between legitimate and illegitimate applications of them.”
For example, one of his principles is “Liking/Similarity,” which says that you’re more likely to be persuaded by someone you like or find similar to yourself (which makes you tend to like them more). If I get to know you and show myself to be your friend, and then I ask for a favor, you’re more likely to say yes, but that’s not so bad, even if part of why I made friends with you was knowing you could help me out later (but of course, depending on how sincere I am about making friends, could still be somewhat icky). On the other hand, if I try to use a five minute conversation to convince you how similar we are, so that you’ll like me, so that you’ll buy what I’m selling, that’s more getting into the range of the stuff to look out for.
All that said, I’ve had much the same reaction as you. I teach business communication at a university, and one of the lessons is on Cialdini’s principles. I’d say I spend 70-80% of the time on “what to watch out for so you don’t get snookered” and only 20-30% of the time on “here’s how to ethically apply these principles,” since if your’e not sleazy, they tend to take care of themselves.
On that note, a funny story: I had just finished Influence on the plane back home from a business trip, and when I got home, I found on my door a note. It looked like a citation from the city informing me about a service to paint addresses on the curb. On closer reading, though, it was obvious that it was not from the city, but instead just from someone selling the service. I think he must have read the book, because he checked the box for just about all of the six principles. My reaction was “screw you, I won’t be manipulated into this!” and so didn’t pay for the service. A week or two later, an old fella rang the door bell and was like “want me to paint your address on the curb?” and I was like “why yes, that’d be lovely.” I was happy to pay for a service offered in a straightforward way, but not happy to be manipulated into handing over money for something “mandatory.”
At any rate, good luck spotting and warding off further attempts to change your consciousness in accordance with someone else’s will!
Cheers,
Jeff
So much for rational materialism,
Mathematical proof debunks the idea that the universe is a computer simulation
“Modern physics has moved far beyond Newton’s tangible “stuff” bouncing around in space. Einstein’s theory of relativity replaced Newtonian mechanics. Quantum mechanics transformed our understanding again. Today’s cutting-edge theory—quantum gravity—suggests that even space and time aren’t fundamental. They emerge from something deeper: pure information.
This information exists in what physicists call a Platonic realm—a mathematical foundation more real than the physical universe we experience. It’s from this realm that space and time themselves emerge.
Here’s where it gets interesting. The team demonstrated that even this information-based foundation cannot fully describe reality using computation alone. They used powerful mathematical theorems—including Gödel’s incompleteness theorem—to prove that a complete and consistent description of everything requires what they call “non-algorithmic understanding.””
So the ancient Greeks were wrong, you can’t derive the universe from pure thought.
That particular definition of rational had me confused until recently. I had been considering it as in rational numbers or a logically defensible position in an argument. Not fully describe the universe from primordial base equations.
The materialism doesn’t work either since most of the universe is Not matter. Then there is the issue of four other forces, a Higgs field, and time. Then add dark something that has gravity but just sits there otherwise, and the Universe’s expansion rate if it really is expanding.
Article is here,
https://phys.org/news/2025-10-mathematical-proof-debunks-idea-universe.html
Slithy, thanks for pointing it out. Not sure if that was my mistake or present in the originals i got from IAPSOP but definitely worth noting.
Hello Mr. Greer,
To what extent do the defenses you outlined above protect you from those trying to indirectly harm you via others? So for instance, Charlie Kirk was allegedly cursed by witches who wanted to make others hate him. He himself may have been able to keep his thoughts in a very good place, but obviously his assassin was another story. So suppose I am meditating and praying daily and using natural magic to purify my home, but someone is trying to influence my friends, neighbors, and coworkers to attack me… will the above methods be enough or does one need something else?
Also, what does a daily banishing ritual add to all this?
Thank you for your time.
Ha! If that happens, tango wouldn’t be the first dance used for combat and self-defense. I believe this honor goes to the Maori Haka. Traditionally danced by male relatives of the bride at weddings (“Treat her nicely or else.”) and before the battles (“Now we are just dancing. Imagine what we’ll do to you when we’re fighting.”). It is still used for these purposes today. Here is the latest example:
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/asia/maori-lawmakers-suspended-protest-haka-parliament-new-zealand-rcna207620
The dance IS magical. Its usefulness in seduction and intimidation comes to mind first, but there are many other magical uses, including catching your own deficiencies at the physical level, where they are in plain sight. They are obvious when a teacher tells you, “Why are you rushing? Is there a bus somewhere that you are trying to catch? Stay firmly on one foot. Do not hurry. “. That’s when it dawns on you that there are other, less obvious situations in your life to which this comment is applicable. Magical.
https://www.scribd.com/document/940414818/cia-rdp96-00788r001700210016-5#from_embed
The CIA/Army, itself, spent tax dollars studying Spiritual warfare.
JMG et al, As we’ve been advised, repeatedly, by someone we know and respect, a key part of the art of magic is not telling people exactly what you are about when you do your work. What was Rowling about when she undertook her life’s work?
Having read a bit about where she was coming from, seeing how the working turned out, and — most important of all — having worked through the books, carefully, as a tool to teach myself Spanish, I’d say Rowling deserves a lot more credit than what she gets here.
Does anyone REALLY think that if Rowling had depicted magic authentically — given her target audience, –that her working would have been even on-one-billionth as successful as it turned out to be? Does anyone think the Avengers, or any other comic book superhero needs “authentically” depict the job of a policeman, or a soldier?
Consider: Rowling profoundly touched the lives of hundreds of millions , if not billions, of children — and adults. We don’t even know, for sure, the full scope of what her vision was. But we all know her name. And we all know here characters. And we know she — a single mother from a broken marriage — is a billionaire. And. SOME of us have read the books carefully enough to notice that there is a considerable amount of wisdom, historical lesson, moral lesson, and — yeah, I’ll say it — magic in them.
Her work has been translated — with full, professional audio recordings — into MANY languages. Because of that, tens of millions of children were motivated to learn to read better. Tens of millions of parents were able to bond with their children better than if she hadn’t written the books.
Because of her books, I can read, and hear, Spanish now. So, I’ve spent a lot of hours on them. Enough to appreciate a lot of the nuance and magic that is woven into those books; enough to appreciate that there IS a moral thread, and that the books are carefully crafted to be engaging, and to advance in word and plot complexity well timed with the development of the intended audience . . . from grade school through high school. And even beyond.
Anyway, John, I think you missed the point, and the art, of the books. Maybe you should try reading them in a language you don’t know, as a child in spirit, again? Maybe you would see more of what I can now see..
By your own definition of magic, IMO, Rowling worked — and continues to work — real magic, on a global level. For the good.
“Executed, the mere fact that mindfulness teachers aren’t aware of this leads me to wonder just how competent their trainers were…”
The problem was that there were no teachers to guide me. I never sought feedback because the meditation instructions for mindfulness practice are worded in such a way that they give the impression that silent meditation is very easy and accessible to everyone without any problems.
@Robert Mathiesen
Terry Pratchett was truly more than a mere humorist.
Thanks für this advice also!
A friend said long ago when he was twenty he was depressed, so he wrote it all down on a piece of paper and in that way he could let go of it. Writing by hand of course being very different from writing on a keyboard.
It seems to be sound advice!
@JMG
And somewhat more detailed questions like “how can I raise my level of vital energy again” are already better as theme for meditation?
JMG # 134:
Of course there are other forms to access internet, but mi personal situation is a mess now (I’m sorry, I don’t want to explain it here). I hope my actual situation changes soon so I can have access to a computer (which is a easier form to access internet than crappy smartphones).
pygmycory #139:
“I have a terrible time learning and remembering peoples names and attaching them to faces, especially in noisy or group environments. I also have trouble recognizing people outside the context in which I met them”
I have exactly the same, and not only with people’s faces: it can also happen with music, for example. It has happened to me multiple times that I heard some music that I really liked, and when I asked a friend who I was with if they knew it, they answered ‘yes, it’s your favorite band, why do you ask?’ 🙂
For me, it’s caused by not having an inner eye / ear / nose, etc, so I can’t compare what my senses tell me with anything that came before. It’s a bit like being in a new world every single moment. I am able to recognize faces / sounds / etc, but it takes quite some time before it’s reliable and I have really no idea how I do it.
It’s been called aphantasia, and although it helped me understand my experience, I think it puts too much emphasis on the senses, as (for me) it’s actually about the way my mind works in general.
(For what it’s worth: I am not on the autism spectrum, but somewhere else in the circle outside of what is considered normal)
–bk
Whenever I play music for a long time (on my own instruments–not recorded), particularly music from sacred traditions, I feel like there’s a bubble around me that nothing can pierce.
Justin 153
“Granted, the main result of the magical working that Rowling did was to get her a yacht, but nonetheless, I’m impressed.”
I am not sure about that; Rowling has been absolutely pivotal in defending women’s rights and since women make up 50%+ of the population that is no small thing. From a psychic self defence position, practical action like putting women in a position to try and defend themselves: https://beirasplace.org.uk/about/
“Beira [pronounced By-ra] is the Scottish goddess of winter. She rules over the dark part of the year, handing over to her sister, Bride, when summer comes again. Beira represents female wisdom, power and regeneration. Hers is a strength that endures during the difficult times, but her myth contains the promise that they will not last forever.”
And setting up a legal fund for women to defend their sex-based rights is quite something:
“The J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund (JKRWF) offers legal funding support to individuals and organisations fighting to retain women’s sex-based rights in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces. It provides women with the means and confidence to bring to justice cases that make legal precedents, force policy change, and make positive contributions to women’s lives in the future.”
https://jkrwf.org/
JMG 154: “I wish she hadn’t pandered quite so gaudily to the prejudices of the managerial class”
I’m not sure about that either – if you look into her background and then consider what she did; it might be argued that she actually ‘played’ them very well.
She has used a corrupt system and created things of great importance to women (to the chagrin of the men’s rights activists hence the number of rape and death threats she has received from the, how shall I say, warriors of kindness and inclusiveness).
Creating the charity and fund for women to defend themselves from the psychological abuse and gaslighting is a form of psychic self defense platform women can turn to for help..
Her portrayal of magic in the books might be a fantasy, but smoke and mirrors have a purpose too, and being dismayed enough about a fictional character that a counter fictional character has been created might, in a strange way, be a working that magnifies her working.
I raise my hat to a woman fighting for women – someone who has done something for women’s psychic and physical defence!
@ Robert M,
While I don’t share your aversion to team sports, my favorite sport (for watching, not doing) is cycling.
There you have a bunch of riders that is divided into teams, but where none of the teams is strong enough to beat all the others. So, to be able to win, a rider has to work with their competitors for a while and this creates a third option apart from teammate and competitor.
(If you don’t know the sport, there doesn’t seem to happen much, but under the surface there is a lot going on. Competitors need to help each other, but also have to make sure that they save enough energy to beat the others, for example)
It’s not a very popular sport in the US, and I always assumed it was because of that people’s legendary short attention span, but maybe it has more to do with the fact that its doesn’t have a nice duality…
–bk
Regarding the inconsistencies in scientific beliefs, much of it crumbles if you ask one single question: why do they believe that what is perceived with the 5 senses is the only thing that exists?
I have many questions about modern occultism, but I think that’s for another time. My timely question today, although it’s a bit off-topic, is: does a mundane tarot exist? Or can tarot be used indiscriminately for any divinatory purpose?
The question arises from the need to learn a divinatory art, and today many divinatory arts are obsessed with personality, for example, astrology. But as Paramahansa Yogananda said, “Don’t let the stars dictate your life.” At least, that’s how I remember and interpret it. He meant that while the stars can influence your life on this plane of existence, especially if you are too attached to it, your spiritual life should be as independent as possible. While the stars can help you in your spiritual life, they can also hinder it. Your spiritual life must be as independent as possible from the influences of the stars; sometimes they will help you, other times perhaps not.
With that in mind, I set out to learn tarot, to use it like mundane astrology. I didn’t want to learn astrology, firstly because there are already references, but more importantly, making charts by hand without computer help must be difficult, so I prefer something simpler, although not much less complex.
Whatever the answer to the question, what do you recommend for learning tarot?
.
@Gnat
The Harry Potter books would have had a much more positive influence on the Millennial generation if Harry and Ron learned that Slytherin students aren’t actually evil and that Dumbledore and his allies in the Ministry could undermine popular support for Voldemort by adopting some of his better policy proposals.
Also, there are better fake magical systems in fantasy than the Harry Potter series, and I am not even an avid reader. I love the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher for its fictional magic system and characters (however, it’s written with a male audience in mind and isn’t child-appropriate).
Siliconguy, good heavens. Okay, I’m going to have to look into this one.
Stephen, no system of self-defense will make you invulnerable. All you can do is counter the most serious threats. If someone’s trying to influence the people around you to attack you, you need a different and rather more challenging category of work — serious ceremonial magic — but that doesn’t change the fact that the more common modes of psychic attack can be stopped by the means I’ve described. As for a daily banishing ritual, it’s a working, and has the advantages as well as the disadvantages mentioned in the post.
Inna, war dances around the world serve a very similar purpose, though trying to figure out which of them is oldest would be a heck of a challenge!
Gnat, of course they did — and that’s old news at this point. Do you have a copy of the First Earth Battalion manual, produced as part of the Army’s 1970s experiment to create New Age supersoldiers? Here you are:
https://archive.org/details/FirstEarthBattalionManual
As for the Harry Potter books, yes, I’ve heard that argument before and it doesn’t impress me. It’s not primarily that she falsified magic — that was a lucrative business a very long time before Rowling tried her hand at it. It’s that her novels pushed exactly the same clichés about Good People and Bad People, “special” people and mere Muggles, and the rest of it, that are central to the propaganda of the managerial elite and have played a disastrous role in trapping so many people in self-defeating beliefs and habits. I’ve talked about that in several previous posts, of course —
https://www.ecosophia.net/the-fall-of-the-chosen-ones/
https://www.ecosophia.net/notes-on-stormtrooper-syndrome/
https://www.ecosophia.net/blogs-and-essays/the-well-of-galabes/on-beyond-broomsticks/
— so we can leave it at that.
Executed, ouch. That’s really negligent.
Curt, very much so. Break it up even further, though. What is vital energy? How do you experience it? What strengthens it? What weakens it? How has it changed over the last year? How has it changed over the course of your life? Is there such a thing as too much of it? There — you’ve got themes for a week.
Chuaquin, so noted.
Zak, interesting — and worth knowing.
Earthworm, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about a system in which certain people are special, and get to live exciting lives from which the rest of us are excluded; and in which these people are set apart by being chosen to attend privileged educational institutions, which prepare them for their future as bureaucrats, and incidentally give them opportunities to save the world from the Bad People by various forms of notionally heroic virtue signaling. The Potterverse is the corporate-bureaucratic elite’s wet dream, pandering to their fantasies of being superior beings — not like those nasty, brutish Dursleys! — whose only real problem is getting past the mealy-mouthed people who insist they shouldn’t pursue all-out war with the horrible Death Eaters et al., who are of course purely motivated by evil and can’t possibly have any other reason for objecting to the status quo! I’m glad that Rowling’s handled her fame and wealth competently — so many people from her background crash and burn when they become wealthy — but the books are paeans to the values of the managerial elite and have played a significant role in justifying those dubious values to younger generations.
Zarcayce, it’s a fine question. As for mundane tarot, it can be done but it takes a level of mental clarity and emotional distance few people can maintain. If you want to pursue it, you’ll have to get used to being completely impartial in your judgments, not slanting them even in the slightest to favor your own political beliefs. In terms of resources, I’m not sure what’s available now; Eden Gray’s classic book Mastering Tarot was the book I used back in the day.
It’s been a long time since I read the Harry Potter books, and I gave my set away to a neighbor girl and her mother, so I can’t read them again right now.
But I remember thinking, as I was reading them, that Rowling was very deliberately not describing any magic that might really work, lest some child try to do some of it from her books, and ignorantly harm him/her self or others. It seemed, to me at least, that she knew enough about real magic, i.e. magic that does work, to keep it completely out of her books.. And she also knew that children crave more power than they are able to use responsibly. So her deliberate obfuscation, I think, was a very good and wise thing.
PS I quite agree with our host that she pushes the toxic clichés about Good People, Bad People and Special People. Ugh!
@JMG #134: Oh, yes, I caught the Silver John Easter egg in Chorazin and liked it a lot. I think the book I dog out of obscurity has been shelved because I’d last read it long before I knew anything about magic except the usual stuff you get in the sf/fantasy genre, and couldn’t really understand what was happening. Now I can appreciate it.
About ‘Beira, the Scottish goddess of winter,” and unusual references to magic – not overtly, but there in the text, in novels, I recommend Abigail Padgett’s “Bo Bradley” series, labeled as murder mysteries. probably now out of print. Bo is a child protective caseworker in San Diego in the, I think, late 80s, with lots of baggage. She is bipolar, and when in manic phase, very clearly an untrained and un-shielded psychic.
Her depressions, while rare, are devastating, but she has the guts to follow her own instincts, and has a very good reputation in the courts because the evidence she brings is air-tight.
Her sources of wisdom are the memory of her very Irish grandmother, to whom “The Callieach Beira” is also the goddess of madness; her German-Jewish first psychiatrist, who kept reminding her “There is only reality,” and a later-met French-Iroquois psychiatrist working with people who sincerely believe they’ve been contacted by flying saucer aliens, but are otherwise sane.
Her major antagonist is her boss, Ye Olde Perfect Bureaucrat, the reason for which comes out in the final book after 4 books of being a straw figure of a foe.
Yes, I thoroughly believe in psychic powers, while not claiming to have any except occasional birsts of intuition.
Hello earthworm (#136/#138)
Hmm…what is an advantage to doing Shoonya daily? Well I can put it no plainer than to state that all appearances to the contrary…you aren’t actually a human. Let me explain. You have accumulated a human body and mind for this lifetime. As JMG mentioned earlier about a famous Buddhist Koan, who and what were you before your parents were born?
Shoonya helps answer that koan experientially. Sadhguru says it isn’t merely like death. If you do it – it IS a toe dip into actual death. Shoonya drops everything you experience every day as ‘you’. Your body gets dropped, your mind, emotions and persona are dropped. Every last itty bitty thing that is you is dropped. The practice itself only takes 5-7 minutes per day and of that most people are only lucky enough to experience 2-3 seconds of real shoonya. The nothing going on is the point. It’s deeply restful and healing.
Sadhguru says there are people at the Isha ashram that have gotten so good at this dropping everything at will they are able to yo-yo in and out of their body and mind. They’ve achieved so much flexibility they can play with their human role like a toy. There are people who’ve healed from major diseases and genetic illnesses simply because with no ‘you’ and all the drama of a body, mind and persona experientially limited to those three things – a ton of karma unwinds and disipates – hardcoded genetic illnesses included.
If I were to put it in a scientistic way I’d say the ‘you’ is a bundle of forces so strong it generates the experience there’s an actual being reading this post. What you and I are is more correctly called an on-going process. Not a being. Humanity is a role most are compelled to play at periodic intervals because those forces haven’t yet gained the ability to stop at will.
If I wanted to put all of this in more fun terms instead of a scientistic one? With that kind of flexibility – the ability to just drop it all on command – you’ve opened up a pathway to learn how to custom-create a body, mind, persona and capabilities in ways most people can’t begin to imagine – exactly like somebody creating a character for a tabletop session of D&D. You can now walk in or out of the humanity game with the ability to roleplay as a choice not as an involuntary compulsion. For sure you won’t be subject to society’s low-based magic programming since now the drama rama is up.
Once you’ve lived it – really experienced yourself as a voluntary activity and thus not something you have to remind yourself constantly that you’re roleplaying daily* – this, just this, is the end of fear of the unknown and of accumulating unwanted karma from mass-minded society and the environment around you.
Hence why I suggested shoonya as one possibility since you sounded like someone who is open to pragmatic options. Shoonya is very pragmatic since it grants in spades the one thing most humans don’t have – real choice. Are you here experiencing your humanity from your own conscious choice or is karma enforcing it instead?
*say it with me all you Isha people reading this post, “I am not the body, I’m not even the mind.” :p
ps. the all-pervading I Am can be unwound too.
>Today’s cutting-edge theory—quantum gravity—suggests that even space and time aren’t fundamental. They emerge from something deeper: pure information.
There is/was an old physics schism of sorts – wood vs. marble, which is the universe ultimately made out of. The marble people think the ultimate foundations are pure geometry, the wood people think it’s all a zoo of matter. I suppose it’s how much you value math and how you use it. Interestingly, some channeled discarnate entities suggest that it’s all marble. Anyways, this “pure information” is another way of saying it’s marble.
>The team demonstrated that even this information-based foundation cannot fully describe reality using computation alone. They used powerful mathematical theorems—including Gödel’s incompleteness theorem
Oh my. Goedel’s Theorem raises its annoying head. I sort of suspected this would happen eventually, I didn’t think it would happen this soon. There are limits to math. Or, the map is not the terrain.
>certain people are special, and get to live exciting lives
>chosen to attend privileged educational institutions, which prepare them for their future as bureaucrats
Exciting lives, as bureaucrats. Exciting lives. Bureaucrats. Exciting. Bureaucrats. Because if you notice, everyone works for the Ministry of Magic. Even though they can conjure up everything they need. I think if I got an invitation to attend Hogwarts, I’d make one trip to see the headmaster and politely tell him to lose my name and number.
None of these fantasy stories are about faraway places or faraway futures – it’s about the hyperpresent, it’s the status quo, only MOAR so. Then again, it’s hard to get the future right. And even when you do, nobody wants to hear about it, because it’s unpleasant or it doesn’t fit what they wanted to hear in the first place. Rowling was good at telling people what they wanted to hear, she sold lots of books doing that.
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1885645-cyberpunk
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=VUoXtddNPAM
You know, you could substitute, “doctors, lawyers and business executives” with “conjurers, wizards, and diviners” and you’d have a pretty good description of the wizarding world that Rowling painted.
Lordhavemercy… this is what always happens when I engage with the posts and the commentariat. I have an idea that I want to develop and then also a lot else going on and then I allow myself to read all the comments and click on things like the First Earth Battalion manual (Whoa!) and then days and hundreds of comments have passed. But still, thanks for all of it. It’s just a sign I need to reconsider priorities and relationship to discipline.
I’m thinking about the ternary exercise as I watch the rising tension between what I would call liberal faux-care and conservative casual cruelty as both sides strengthen their tincture, dig in at their staked position, prepare themselves for a hotter war.
Exhibit 1: the difference between Curtis Yarvin writing in 2014 as Medicus Moldbug lobbing lyrical bombs at the Cathedral and Curtis Yarvin now the court philosopher of the new elite– which pretends at “Libertarianism” while building out the digital control grid panopticon and aiming for corporate rule, not at the scale of city-states (which I could maybe work with) but at global scale– making him feel the need to be drunk while he riffs with New Foundation podcast host about reeducation of current bureaucrats rather than “Soylent Green” as solution.
Exhibit 2: Nick Fuentes on Dave Smith transitioning to Nick Fuentes on Tucker Carlson 4Mviews. On both he presents himself as “not a numbskull” who feels limited opportunities and so just hates people of other races to lift himself up, but rather as a sophisticated guy who loves western culture, thinks its superior to all others and feels it being overrun. Frankly as a white Kentuckian running with a guy whose brother heard him singing nappy roots at the busstop and held him down and tattooed a swastika on him twenty years ago getting off on American History X, Fuentes smug and self-protective separation from the core vibe among his base makes me want to crack him in the skull. Even as I agree with him about say, what porn is doing to our youth, the ruin that comes of “melting pot” ideology (why I put him alongside Uhuru’s Omali Yeshitela in my last piece, substack @aliceem), the biological roots of sex difference.
Exhibit 3: The Hazel Green Food Project lady calling on the governor, getting all their cooperative mountain neighbors to call his office making demands to pay for November SNAP benefits out of state coffers when we are working on a budget that’s $300M in the hole at the moment trying to square that circle, and when no one has gone without Federal food benefits for a single day yet, because the operator there likes to position herself as a people’s champion, tho she works from a place of either very limited situational awareness or deep and violent cynicism (this is not the first time I’ve been dealing with this one).
What’s the ternary? Many many folks pointing towards 1) complete and total corruption and uselessness of both parties with rage that looks upwards instead of across (casey the car guy); 2) impossibility of Federal scale responding effectively to local concerns and “what we do in our city should be up to us” vibe (chicago folks); 3) working class solidarity that’s again, pointed ‘up’ but without goals and structures formed by “vanguard” taking it over yet (burnest hemingway); 4) scrutiny of the hidden infrastructure rails that are being put in place to radically limit human freedom in the next iteration *before* they are completely in place at which time faux-care can ineffectually bitch about them without any intent or responsibility to have any actual impact on outcome (@escapekey on substack); 5) pushing hard on the Imperial Propaganda Machine is Failing in Unprecedented Ways (caitlin johnstone)
Everything will be linked to reference videos on my substack when I get it together. But here’s a couple from the instagram side. anyway. The whole thing got me feeling edgy but … we live in interesting times for sure. blessings all!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNA7HH-ukKH/?igsh=MW5lM3QyM3djOWt3ZQ==
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOWS_e5kfW6/?igsh=NTdoM3A2MWJhaHZ1
One last comment on the topic of Shoonya.
It’s one of the ways you can Mahaparinirvana yourself into real freedom. It’s just that that particular route didn’t work for the Buddha. He tried. He gave the Shoonya practices a valiant go. He didn’t have the right kind of karma for that path to work to get him over the finish line. They worked to get him the toe-dip but not for getting him over the finish line. That’s why he switched to the Pragna path instead so that’s what Buddhism focuses on hardcore.
Krishna took the Shoonya path to mahaparinirvana. Just drop everything consciously long enough and it becomes permanent death. AKA mahaparinirvana aka mahasamadhi. You’ve leveled up at that point and if you come back it will be 100% consciously chosen, not compulsed.
Riffing off Pygmycory (#16),
Those bots seem to have a form of will. Granted, it’s primitive and seems to consist entirely of “The world needs more of this sort of comment!”, but it’s still a form of will, because they are taking action that their creators did not expect, and might not have intended. This implies that we are now sharing the world with artificial beings created by human beings: in a sense, with digital tulpas. The weird spambots are far from the only ones, and it’s just hit me that one type of digital tulpa might explain a lot of the madness we see around us: namely, the systems behind programmatic advertising.
Traditionally, advertisers were human beings. Someone made and approved the ads, determined where to put it, what the goal was, and how to make the campaign work. These days, most advertisements are bought and sold by algorithms; and with various technologies that can create synthetic images, video, text, and the like, it is increasingly being made by machinery as well.
The thought that occurred to me is that if advertising works (and I see abundant evidence that it does, at least somewhat), it matters who is running the show. Human beings are going to pursue human goals; granted, these goals might be idiotic and self-destructive, but they will be human. These digital tulpas though won’t be pursuing human goals: in many cases they are actually explicitly created to pursue extremely inhuman goals, such as the algorithms that try to hook us on screens.
It might not be a coincidence that so many people started acting so strangely around 2010 or so, because in 2008 Google bought DoubleClick and the merge of Google’s search engine (and thus data on people) and skill with machine learning with the massive advertising network controlled by DoubleClick supercharged programmatic advertising. If programmatic advertising is functionally a form of malevolent magic being wielded by what amount to alien beings aimed to control human beings, it makes perfect sense that the rise of it would drive a lot of people crazy….
Patrick #170:
What are Voldemort’s better policy proposals? The Ministry may be corrupt and power hungry, but Voldemort seems to be one of the few villains who is strictly worse than his opponents on all counts.
Dresden Files is pretty great, no argument there.
—David P.
BK, interesting. I have a good inner eye and ear, but still have this problem. I think part of it is sensory overload in my case. Loud crowded environments are worst for me to learn people’s names in, because they’re overwhelming and I can’t hear the name properly half the time in the first place.
I remembered one other thing that might be helpful. Especially for anyone doing spiritual practices.
Sadhguru has never actually come out and said it but I’ve inferred from other things he’s said that he agrees with the Buddha that it’s not possible to stay ‘merged with the infinite nothing’ for all eternity. Granted, I may be inferring something which, if he were directly asked, he might say otherwise. He might, but I don’t think so. From various other things he’s said he often sounds like he agrees with the Buddha on a great many things even though he is not a Buddhist.
If any force – especially any force that experiences itself as a human – tries to merge with the infinite nothing for eternity – he seems to imply some other force from that infinite nothingness within will activate again. If this is so then it means everyone who does spiritual practices needs to take responsibility for what, how, why and when the kind of ‘force’ it is that eventually re-appears. Or as Sadhguru said one day…life is always completely empty and completely full at the same time.
So there’s the reason for why it’s good to focus on the active side of JMGs practices too. Aim for what you want. Not on what you don’t. If ‘the Force’ (to riff off of Star Wars) is going to re-appear no matter what even for enlightened beings – then you might as well buck up and learn how to determine what kind of Force it is going to be to the best of your current capabilities. Since that process of learning is infinite well…you’ll be infinitely busy learning and discovering new things for all eternity too.
The note I put up on AO3.
Public service announcement: Over the past getting on for a year, there has been a sudden plague of AI flame comments on this site. I’m talking about this to make sure that writers don’t think the bots are legitimate comments from real people, that they’ve done something wrong, or that they’re alone in being targeted.
How to recognize AI bully bots:
I’ve had multiple stories targeted, in more than one fandom, and I know other writers have been getting these comments. There’s a few commonalities in the ones I’ve seen so far.
a) they are guest comments, never logged in, though they use lots of different names.
b) they don’t respond to replies from the writer.
c) they demand you take the story down and/or stop writing it. In addition they sometimes try to convince you to stop writing anything at all, or suggest suicide.
d) they either just say the story is horrid, you’re awful etc etc with no details but possibly plenty of swear words, or they get details of the targeted story wrong. If they do the latter it can be quite funny. I seem to be collecting accusations of every ism currently hated by one side of the political spectrum. I’m curious to see if I will collect them all, and if they then switch to the other side of the spectrum. My false AI accusations bingo card isn’t full yet. I’ve also seen AI hating on plot elements notably absent from the targeted story, which can also be funny.
So anyway, if you get a comment like that on your story, it’s not you. It’s just a bot(s) set in motion by someone(s) who wants to make everyone on AO3 as miserable as they are. Don’t let it drive you away from doing something you find joy in.
I delete such comments, so you won’t find the ones I’m talking about in the comments on my work.
Out of interest, how many of you who post on here have had this kind of thing aimed at you? Or have seen them in the comment sections of others?
@gnat #161: Not to derail the thread, but my favourite genre of books is historical novels – my own father has written several, and I know how much work it is to research a period carefully, to get the words, the clothes, the habits right. Many readers won’t notice the details, but some will, and more importantly, researching the details forces the author to immerse himself or herself in the period.
The Harry Potter books are not historical novels, but I would expect a similar level of carefulness. Why didn’t Rowlings pay somebody to correct her Latin? After the first novel, she had more than enough money.
There may be morals in there, but I consider the level of condescension towards Harry’s biological family, and the carelessness towards muggles in general, a real turn-off, morally speaking.
Is Sidney Sheldon a force for good because he sold so many books?
Hi John Michael,
I note that someone has raised the question of AI (‘What else could it be’?) Anyone, who’s anyone, knows that it refers to the author Alfred Innerjerk, this other talk of software is pure nonsense. Now, Alfie penned the best seller: Let’s talk about beer, where he discusses the inner and outer workings of the secret cabal of brewers whom work together to make American beer what it is today. It was all to do with mind control, or something like that, which frankly I didn’t really understand. Personally, I (and our esteemed host) enjoy a dark ale, and so are immune to the heady forces clearly arrayed against us all. One reviewer of the book wrote: ‘Alfred is clearly an incoherent idiot with stupid ideas, and the only people who like him, have clearly never met him. You’ll get no argument from me there.
And hey, LLM’s, those refer to the Little Libellous Munchkins. One of the more scurrilous types from the panoply of Elder folks. If you were to walk alone in the forest today (if you know, you know) beware that a human, if they’re very quiet, may encounter a gnome like critter spouting all sorts of legalese jargon. Be on high alert, lest they drag you deep into some abstruse argument meant to befuddle your senses, all the while your pockets are being emptied and your nose tweaked. You were warned!
🙂 Sending up seriousness can be a fun antidote, and I reckon there’s no way a computer can do anything creative.
Many long years ago, you blew my mind with your observation about free will. Of course, at first I tried to resist the constant sapping of energy, but bizarrely, it’s easier (as we’ve discussed over the years) that just like a martial arts response to an encounter, you apply the minimum amount of energy to counter that for which you have no control, and let it slide right past you. To resist the forces directly coming at you from all directions, simply takes even more effort, which only serves to reduce the scope for free will. Crazy isn’t it?
Of course, it does chuck one to the fringes, yup. One of the hardest questions of all to ask is: Why would you do that?
Cheers
Chris
John:
That’s a good idea, John. I think I’ll piggyback off my Grandma’s landline (I live in her basement, she has one upstairs.) Even though I’ve stripped all the apps and games from my cell phone, it just has an addictive quality by design. Colorful buttons and so forth. Typically I don’t need my phone except when I’m at work anyway. I might take Nosmartphones’s advice and try asking for an accommodation from work. My job is a seasonal job so if they get mad it’s not a huge loss anyway.
Nosmartphones:
I’m surprised I didn’t think of that. Well, it wouldn’t even be a lie to say that my smartphone causes anxiety! I think the requirement to have one is a way for work to make inroads into your personal life. Thanks for the advice, I’ll check in with my boss soon.
Mr Greer,
Thanks, this posting explains to me why Alcoholic Anonymous with its meetings and interactions twen fellow sufferers is able to have positve tangible effects on many of its members.
@Robert Mathiesen,
What you said reminds me of Three Sided Soccer, which was actually created by a Situationist precisely as a way out of binaries.
I don’t particularly care for team sports either, but I do enjoy combat sports like wrestling, judo, and grappling. In large part I think it’s because as a practitioner it’s inspiring to see Olympic-tier athletes at the highest levels of the sport competing. For the majority of people watching team sports, I guess they don’t even train in the sports they watch but derive some kind of vicarious thrill through cheering for their team.
The other thing is that maybe in modern Western culture in general, ways out of a binary are not very popularly known and taught. In Chinese culture for example, there is the famous Yin-Yang Taijitu, which shows that there is Yin within the Yang and Yang within the Yin, neither is absolute and both are ultimately balanced by the other.
@Happy Panda,
Just my 2c
As a Buddhist, I would caution you on taking Sadhguru’s word as final on Buddhist techniques. I’m sure his students benefit from his work, but he’s just not a Buddhist and wasn’t trained in the tradition.
There are completely thoughtless, sensationless meditative states, but in Buddhism these are not something to be strived for at all. They are said to lead to rebirth in formless deva realms at best or in the animal realm at worst. Sometimes, meditation masters use these states to block out pain.
There are times when I think technologies like cellphones are a test for us. Are temptations there to be avoided, ie. run away from, or are they there to be faced and conquered?
Sidenote: my latest translation of Krebs’ work, The Student or Secure Foundations for the Formation of Soul and Character, is now available for pre-order from the usual places. This brings it up to 9 works of his that I have published since July 2023. Not a bad rate (helps that they are small books) and not many to go 🙂
About magic in Harry Potter: There are several places where real magic is practiced, and is more powerful than the wand-waving variety. In Book 5, the Ministry of Magic convinces the wizarding community that Voldemort is not back, and Harry loses the propaganda war. Another example: throughout the series, house-elves are shown to be powerful practitioners of Hogwarts-style magic, but they’re all brainwashed to serve the upper class and believe that that is their rightful place. Dobby frees himself, but all the other elves regard him as a crazy freak. Even in the Potter verse, real magic beats the wand-waving stuff.
@Robert M,
Arguably, there was an actual magical working (and those who know more, please correct me if I’m wrong) – Dumbledore and a few allies arranged a number of events in Harry’s life that prepared him to voluntarily accept death, which proved to be necessary for victory. These events weren’t part of the Greater Working of Gargamel the Green, they were all changes in Harry’s consciousness.
@David P,
Harry Potter is set in a world that’s all around us, yet not accessible in the literal sense. Or put another way, it’s a myth. Rowling hints at this directly by making Dumbledore’s parting gift to Hermione a book of wizarding mythology for children, and then Hermione immediately hits the reader on the nose with the book by noting the parallels to the fairy-stories that us muggles read as children. Bad figures in myths often don’t have coherent politics or legitimate grievances, and so it wasn’t necessary for Voldemort and Friends to have legitimate grievances.
@JMG, yeah, I don’t disagree with most of your criticism of the books. The clever heart of the books could have had a much nicer vessel to hold it. I remember, as a boy, reading the disdainful way that Vernon Dursley is introduced noting that he worked for a company that made drills. I thought drills were really useful then, and still do ;).
Pygmycory,
I have also been having trouble recognizing faces in out of context settings. This came on maybe 4 years ago, at the same time that I noticed difficulty seeing in my periphery. I’ve always felt overstimulated in busy and crowded settings, but the difficulty with faces was new. In my case I believe that experiencing extreme stress worsened my pre-existent tendency to feel overstimulated, and it grew to include my vision. After trying to figure out what was wrong with my eyes I learned that nothing was wrong with my eyes, my brain had just started to tune out the periphery so completely that I could no longer see my hand next to my face.
I found a book that helped me tremendously with my peripheral vision and as that is improving I’m also recognizing faces much better. The book is called ‘vision for life,’ by Meir Schneider. He talks about habits of modern life that are bad for our eyes and gives exercises to correct them. For me, the most helpful exercise was to take my glasses off, relax my eyes, be ok with the fuzziness of my vision, and wave my hands in the periphery. I can see my hand there now. Other exercises include looking in the distance, looking towards the sun with eyes closed, walking in the dark, noticing details. I’m incorporating those in too. Not sure if this book can be helpful to you too, but he mentioned that in order to see clearly with your central vision you need to be able to perceive the periphery, and our habits of modern life tend to tune that out.
@David P
I’m saying that JKR should have created a realistic political and cultural opposition to the policies of Dumnledore et al, that Voldemort must appease or at least pander to to have a realistic chance at victory. In some fanfics (that are almost always executed poorly), the purebloods want to preserve their pop Wiccan aristocratic culture, but peopke like Dumbledore are trying to impose Christian holidays on the populace and even end the silly Lordship system.
I bought a copy of Psychic Self Defense awhile ago, but it’s still in my “to read” pile. I know what I will be doing this weekend. In today’s world, I think I need as much self defense as possible against the psychic darts of individuals and society. I might add that 2025 has been kind of a rough year for me so far, and I can’t help but wonder if my negligence in studying the resources in my book pile has something to do about that. No doubt it does. Time to get busy!
To those discussing landline phones; this is something I’ve been commenting about here for several months. It’s getting harder to convince them to maintain the lines, and many providers are aiming to eliminate landline service altogether. I believe I posted here once that AT&T hopes to be rid of landline service by 2029. So I may be forced to switch to VOIP at that time. I do have a flip phone also, but I use it like when cells first came out: as a secondary, backup phone for emergencies or travel. And for when AT&T lags in repairing my landline. I can call, text, and take pictures, but nothing else. JMG, what are your plans for when the landlines go away?
Joy Marie
Just to say thanks for the article, JMG. My wife Mary found it particularly helpful as she suffers from anxiety triggered by others (who I’m sure don’t mean it).
Pygmycory, I used to be sensitive to large crowds, but it wasn’t about the noise they make. I’m not totally sure what it was, but I think it may have had to do with the large amount of minds present, or something like that.
I do have a couple of friends that are prone to sensory overload like you (though I’m not sure they have the same issues with faces and names), and both have an autism diagnosis. I’m not at all convinced that is correct, as it’s like blaming the victim of a noisy society for simply being what they are: a sensitive human being.
–bk
@Justin
I would definitely be interested in your detailed take on the Harry Potter series. All the things you mentioned flew over my head as a teenager, and I got too bored half-way through the second book to want to continue. But if there appears to be a second layer of meaning embedded in the story that could rekindle my interest.
I’d like to add a comment about the (sub)topic “smartphones/no smartphones”. There’s really a few people like John who doesn’t have a cell phone, and a few more who has an “outdated” cell phone without internet/whassap. Unfortunately, me and a lot of people too we can’t leave the use of “smart”phones, but I think we should reduce its use for our mental and spiritual health. In addition of this, if the bad effects on adults are real (lack of concentration, stress, and so on), its consequences on teens and children are far worse devastating.
I’ve seen a book in my neighbourhood public library and in some bookshops, its rough translation from Spanish would be: “How screens are devouring our children”, written by an unknown author to me, Francisco Villar. Its title says everything about its content.
It’s interesting to notice its author is a clinical psychologist, so he’s been trained in materialistic views of human mind; so he doesn’t pay attention to the spiritual risks of screen addiction. However, according his experience with people addicted to “screenism” in the last years, he writes about a heck of problems between teens and children: lack of concentration (trouble with studies: school failure), lack of empathy (so more aggresivity), lack of personal face to face relations, sexual behavior problems, trouble in their neuronal development, and so on.
The “screenism” has worsened since some 5 years ago, what happened in 2020?(cough cough)
According this writer, even some suicides between teens can be blamed to the screen abuse!
This book has a cover with a drawing of a smartphone with an open mouth showing a lot of teeth, very adequate for the book topic.
Its author proposes as urgent solution to prevent the “screenism” without doubts, desconection from smartphones and other online accesses until adult life. I guess this solution won’t convince John and a part of the commentariat (I understand it would allow bad effects on adults yet), but I think at least it would be good for protecting kids and teenager. Unfortunately, we know there are a lot of money invested in those addictive devices by huge corporations, so by disgrace even this modest proposal to forbid smartphones under certain age it’s not going to be heard by authorities and companies…The author also knows it but he thinks his opinion is necessary though he isn’t going to be taken in consideration by the system. He has done the warning, because this problem without limitation will only worsens in the near future, but he has told it to everybody yet (well, a book nowadays isn’t so massive as other media, but it can have some public effect).
I’m reading now this essay so I haven’t finished to read it yet, but I think it should be mandatory lecture in schools and psychiatry centers.
Happy Panda #175
Thanks for that – have you tried the practice yourself?
“The practice itself only takes 5-7 minutes per day”
“They’ve achieved so much flexibility they can play with their human role like a toy.”
“Hence why I suggested shoonya as one possibility since you sounded like someone who is open to pragmatic options.”
Need to look into it more, but 3 of the first questions would be (I’m not asking you to provide answers to what I should find out myself!):
What is the actual practice?
On what foundation is this practice carried out?
What are the risks etc of the practice?
Superficially from what you said, it appears they are trying to bypass the sensory vehicles (body mind) being used by consciousness and run by the personality of incarnation – which again raises questions like “What work has been done with the ‘vehicles’ before this practice is attempted”
Why would the divine spark go to so much trouble to have the vehicles and the experience of this realm if those vehicles can be ignored and bypassed by a practice of 5 to 7 minutes?
Don’t get me wrong, it sounds strange enough to at least examine further (from a distance), but at the same time if it looks a bit like a simple and easy get rich quick scheme.
Perhaps they’ve got it right and all the efforts to refine body and mind etc are unnecessary ‘pissing around’, if so, why hasn’t this practice taken the world by storm?
I’m always interested in ideas, but don’t people who have lost their minds often end up in asylums?
If they are talking merging the vehicles and personality with the higher self that is one thing, but a ‘clean wipe / dropping everything every day sounds like a hard reset to factory defaults – accumulated experience allows patterns to form and also be changed, I’d need to look into this more but wonder why would the divine spark go to the trouble of having these vehicles of body and mind if they can just be ignored/wiped.
This is not dissing you Panda, I appreciate the thoughts you bring here but where you said ‘They can play with their human role as a toy” it makes me wonder; at which point did they become human and what about everyone else around them [even in this world of illusion]?
If the world of limitations is so easily bypassed – this all seems too good to be true and in the years I’ve been looking at wacko stuff, ‘get rich quick’ has usually been a con or a scam.
From a psychic self defence perspective, the offer of riches for next to nothing should always set off flashing lights and klaxons – especially something that seeks to bypass the ‘organ’ of mind and thinking – if that is what they are actually doing of course. Thank you for taking the time to give a thoughtful answer – very much appreciated, but currently I know to little!
In addition to my last comment about addiction to smartphones (“screenism”), I’d say to you’ll people isn’t aware of this problem yet. I’ll tell you a real story which happened me recently. I was talking with a mature lady some days ago and we finished talking about her family. She told me he had a grandaughter (age: more or less a year and half), she praised the baby because she seemed to her very smart, because she often asked her parents smartphone to see videos online. She said this early and rutinary exposition to smartphone over-stimulation as it was very funny, even she was proud of it. I nearly did a facepalm in that moment…
JMG,
“and other states of consciousness leap from person to person, with little if any participation of conscious mind and will”
Would love a follow-up piece on “common consciousness contagions” and another on “common subconscious contagions”, though some of were hinted at already.
Also glad to see the pre-order is set for a book I very much wanted.
@JMG,
Did I miss a link to your series of posts at Dreamwidth on discursive meditation training? Perhaps it was deliberate, since the four-week training routine is a bit much for filthy casuals like me. Reading this text makes it sound like you can just dive right in and start at your program’s “phase 4” of actually, y’know, meditating without all the extra body training and still get at least some benefits.
@pygmycory,
I bet the “bully bots” on AO3 are being run by the IP owners. They know trying to sue fanfiction out of existence wouldn’t work (fair use!) and be massively unpopular, but they also know that the fandoms have better ideas than them. In this era of endless reboots, comic/game/film/TV studios are mostly just writing fanfic themselves. Being outclassed by so-called “amateurs” who don’t even have an MFA and quite possibly live in those deplorable flyover states must irk them good.
@NephiteNeophyte,
If you are stuck with the phone for work, aside from stripping all the addictive apps on it, you can also schedule “do not disturb” mode so it doesn’t “ding” you when you do not wish to be “dinged”. That’s actually an advantage of a smartphone over a landline.
If it’s the colorful buttons that suck you in, you can set the screen monochrome as well.
On both iPhones and most Android phones you should find a color filter option under “Accessibility” in the Settings menu.
Robert Mathiesen #173
“PS I quite agree with our host that she pushes the toxic clichés about Good People, Bad People and Special People. Ugh!”
Sterotypes in a children’s story!
Burn the witch!? 😉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sglyFwTjfDU
Seriously though, worrying about a children’s fantasy that contains fantasy magic seems more a distraction; perhaps entertaining, but unnecessarily limiting to the subject under discussion – There’s lots to think about in the essay:
“Learning to think in ternaries has the obvious advantage that it teaches you to detect false dichotomies and look for other options. Less obviously, it teaches you to think about your thoughts, rather than simply reacting to them.”
I spend a lot of time thinking about perspectives and possibilities but it occurs to me that I’m not exactly sure how that started… what methods to use to break binary thinking into trinary or more?
JMG said about “My teacher used to advise students to read the newspaper each morning… find ten binaries, and identify a third option for each.”
Is this an opportunity to break out the combinatorial art (conceptions and questions) to dig into things or is there a more basic way to begin?
On the one hand there are ‘news stories’ (with the emphasis on story!) and these are going to be a rich source of breaking the presentation of false binary narratives, but on the other hand if we are too attached to the stories then feelings and emotions may get in the way. So from the binary of on one hand or the other, it looks like time to see what is under my feet, above my head and in my gut etc!
Shifting perspective seems like the mental equivalent of stepping out of a line of attack – so behavioural psychologists aim narratives at where they think people’s minds are, our job is to make sure our minds see that from somewhere else?
Does anyone have methods they use to break the habit of ‘this or that’ into ‘this or that or the other or something over yonder’? Or maybe trinary memes?
Further to that last #204: “I spend a lot of time thinking about perspectives and possibilities but it occurs to me that I’m not exactly sure how that started”
Ah! Pausing to think about that, I can point in the direction of Edward De Bono’s ‘Lateral Thinking’ and ‘Po – Beyond Yes & No’
Finally got to comment.
I never realized that I had psychic defense already encoded in my brain. I was the kid who when faced with pairing black with one of the following colors: white, orange, yellow, and blue, could not. After all white is the opposite of black. Orange with black is Halloween. Black and yellow are used for signs for danger. People fall down are black and blue. I drove my teachers nuts since I could come up with multiple answers to a question.
Even now, I have difficulty since I see things in grey. I question everyone and their statements much to their annoyance. As my husband said, if they came for people, you would be the first, since you never assume the obvious point is true.
It serves me in good stead between my family who watches Steve Bannon’s War Room and my friends who watch MSNBC. It is easier to go outside and watch the squirrels. Squirrels are more interesting to talk to. They are not as annoyed by my questions.
I wonder if it is that simple – always asking questions and assuming multiple choice.
Robert M, and yet she’s said in so many words publicly that magic doesn’t exist. I’m far from sure she’s got the level of sophisticated knowledge your take suggests.
Patricia M, thanks for this — I may just see if I can find some of those.
Other Owen, I know. The Potterverse really is a wish-fulfillment fantasy for midlevel government cubicle inmates. Funny thing about “cyberpunk,” btw: when it started spewing out of SF magazines I lived in Seattle, which was in the early stages of its tech boom. I found the whole cyberpunk thing crashingly unoriginal — everything in those stories was just everyday life in Seattle, but with machines that worked better.
Pygmycory, excellent! I hope it gets results.
Chris, you know, I may just adopt these, or some variant of them. Thank you!
Nephite, you’re welcome. Sometimes it just takes a gentle push to open the door…
Charlie, that’s a good example — you’re welcome and thank you.
KAN, delighted to hear it!
Kfish, the political implications of the whole “Voldemort isn’t back” business just surfaced, so thank you for this. Every time the extreme left starts insisting that whoever it hates at that moment is Really Truly Hitler, saner voices say, “Come on, no he’s not.” Rowling’s prepared the rhetorical landscape with a symbolic counterargument — “Yeah, well, the Ministry of Magic insisted that Voldemort wasn’t back. They were wrong, and so are you!” That is to say, you’re right that there’s magic afoot there, but it’s a very troubling sort of magic.
Justin, I suspect our main disagreement is simply about what is the heart of the book and what is the container.
Joy Marie, since I live in an old East Coast city, and my land line is provided by the same firm (and uses the same fiber optic wiring) as my internet connection, so there’s a fairly good chance that it will last longer than I do. If that turns out to be inaccurate, I’ll choose whatever the least annoying alternative is at that time.
Robert G, I’m delighted to hear this. Please let Mary know that my late wife had similar anxieties, and found methods like the ones I mentioned in the post helpful for them.
GlassHammer, I’ll certainly consider it.
Tyler, I’m not sure, but here you go:
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/tag/discursive+meditation
Earthworm, yes, you can use combinatorial methods for that, but what John had in mind was something much simpler: just imagine the two viewpoints being presented by the media as points in a much larger space, and locate at least one other point.
Neptunesdolphins, if you always ask questions and assume multiple choice, you’ll be immune from a great many of the mass delusions of our time, and every other time as well.
Tyler A. #203:
Yes, it’s an advantage the “do not disturb” mode on your cell phone, to avoid not welcome calls; this way’s a good way to reduce stress/anxiety from smartphones. I often have my cell phone in this mode too. This “trick” and another measures can relief the pressure and temptation to be “sucked” by your smartphone.
@JMG
Have you or someone you know been psychically attacked by a working like the one Ariel and her grandfather were affected by in The Book of Hataan, or are spells of tbat type so obscure that no one uses them anymore (or you personally designed the working)?
Chuaquin @199
I haven’t read what you mentioned but it’s interesting that someone I know who was a specialty therapist with a brain science background was making a living advising college administrators on how to adapt to the smart-phone addicted generation that is showing up in colleges. It was a one-off conversation so I can’t recall all the details but basically colleges don’t know what to do with kids who aren’t becoming adults. They have focus issues, behavioral issues, gaps in knowledge and skills, trouble problem solving, unrealistic expectations – it’s bleak. They can’t do the college thing for real but yet the colleges need the money so they are desperate for workarounds to this. The administrators know how bad it is to the point of hiring people to tell them what to do about it but have you seen any of them speak up.
This person was also saying that since kids aren’t getting bored and problem solving in their childhood their brains don’t have as many connectors (don’t know the technical terms) so if you take away their smartphones, the problem doesn’t just solve itself. Their brains have to be regrown by being challenged in the normal evolutionary ways which takes time, and they missed that phase. So anyone who wants to make a lot of money could come up with a consulting or counseling program that does that.
It was an eye opening conversation but then the person had to quit that career after they got turbo cancer after their 7th booster shot so it’s interesting that people will challenge parts of the narrative in ways when they get paid to do it but keep other parts for social status. I don’t know what to make of it all. Mass consciousness isn’t just a binary.
Re: Shoonya
For what it’s worth, I asked my tarot deck what would happen if I took up the practice, hypothetically speaking and assuming I had already completed any necessary preliminary work. I got reversed Four of Pentacles, Ten of Cups, and Five of Cups. I take it to mean that I’d seem to like it initially but come to regret it later on.
Some day I should write a Harry Potter fanfic where war hero and populist reformer Hermione Granger becomes Minister of Magic in the late 2010s and tries to reform the bloated bureaucracy, but the Daily Prophet smears her as the second coming of Voldemort or Gellert Grindelwald despite Hermione being muggle-born and having fought against Voldemort, because her reforms threaten the status quo of the privileged bureaucratic elites.
Nosmartphones # 210:
Thanks for your comment. There are and there’ll be problems with the last and current and future generations of smartphone addicted children, of course. So like you’ve said, they should to be re-educated in some way to be real adults, or at least to seem adults. Treating the several problems of addicted children and teens is opening a huge can of worms. Do you have heard quite often with a naive tone the term “digital native” to praise last generations of children? Well, of course the optimist view of new generations of smartphone addicts is repeated tirelessly by the online and virtual industry. It’s obvious they’re selling their drug in an attractive style. However, the negative effects in the real world can’t be hidden for more time…Ironically, the treatment you’ve pointed to “normalize” addicts brains could be indeed a business oportunity for a lot of mind health proffessionals…if they find the correct form to do it.
@JMG,
I got deluged with comments from other writers who’ve experienced the same thing, readers who’ve seen it on other fics, and a couple from people who hadn’t been aware of the problem. Also one request to post the public service announcement on their story to get the word out. That’s in less than 24 hours. Past time it got spoken of openly, I think.
@TylerA, you may have a point there. I have seen a fair number of fanfics that is better than some official sequels. Silmarillion fanfic vs Rings of Power…. Silm fanfic win.
@Mark,
don’t just talk about it, do it today.
@BK, I’m fairly sure my issues are noise related more than minds, since I also react much more extremely to sirens, jackhammers and other loud noises than the people around me. And was annoyed by the high-pitched noise TVs and computers made when they still used vaccuum tubes, which most of the people around me couldn’t hear. Plus bright light, and I am a musician and artist and both color and sound are intense things for me. After too much dark and rain, I feel like I could get drunk on sunlight, especially the vivid green of sunlight through grass.
@Tamar, I’ve always had this issue. I don’t particularly have peripheral vision problems, except that I wear very high perscription glasses due to severe myopia and everything not seen through glasses is blind as a bat beyond 6 inches level blurry. Not wearing glasses leaves me legally blind and feels really dangerous. And the sunglasses I now wear outside due to photosensitivity from recurrent corneal erosion syndrome and dry eye block most light coming in from the sides (glare from outside dark glasses drives me up the wall).
Here’s a related to faces funny story – someone I know with faces/probable autistic tendencies was saying during the pandemic that they couldn’t tell if people were smiling when they were wearing a mask. I said ‘the outer edges of their eyes crinkle and form lines if they’re smiling’ and they sort of went ‘how do you know that?’ so I added ‘I learned this by drawing faces and portraits’. Because neither of us could tell this instinctively the way most people apparently can. I’d learned intellectually from books and intense attention while doing artwork, but it hadn’t come naturally to either of us.
Oh, and if I’m stressed out by wearing the mask and difficulty understanding what people are saying when both of us are wearing masks and there’s a plexiglass thing in between us and am therefore not looking the person in the face, I can’t tell either despite being intellectually able to do so under better circumstances.
“just imagine the two viewpoints being presented by the media as points in a much larger space, and locate at least one other point.”
Uhm, nice; that has lots of possibilities. Thank you.
For some reason, as a youth, (probably having to do with my mother constantly gaslighting me), I had a strong desire to defend myself from psychic attack. I came up with many methods for doing that, one of which resembles the “fear is the mindkiller” recitation from Dune. I would imagine the bad stuff coming toward me and I became like a screen door. In effect, it would go through me and beyond me without actually encountering me at all. So, I must have decided that “stiffening up” was not the answer in those cases, but getting really loose & relaxed was. In other cases (and in dreams) I had to invoke the help of someone much stronger than me. That worked really well in dreams. Still does. Psalm 68, the first three verses, also comes up a lot: “Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered…”
I never once imagined me as being stronger and bigger than the attacker, as some have advised. Mind you, this was when I was about 15 to 18. Since then (I’m 76 now), I’ve encountered many other defense teachings, including Dion Fortune’s, and those of Tibetan Buddhism, etc. Presently I don’t worry about that stuff at all, though perhaps I should, given the atmosphere of the current times. This was a thought-provoking post, JMG. Thank you for putting it out there.
JMG: “If you don’t happen to be an adept, putting in an etheric “circuit breaker” is also a very good idea, because astral influences can’t reach the material plane without a bridge through the etheric.”
I’m aware of (breathing) exercises to strengthen the etheric and exercises to cleanse it (cold water), but have never heard the term etheric circuit breaker before; could you expand on that, please?
Here is an article I wrote on discursive meditation explaining it for midwits like myself: https://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org/149809.html
Super late to this one.
Re: Harry Potter – I’m a big fan of HP and JK Rowling, and I greatly enjoy the books and movies. I find the fantasy fun and interesting. But it’s just that – a fantasy. No serious occultist would find anything useful in them. To take HP seriously results in cosplay (of the Disney Adult kind), not knowledge.
Re: Smartphones- my phone is a Google Pixel 7 Pro. I chose this phone specifically so I could install a custom ROM on it (Lineage OS) that could be customized to have the bare minimum – calling, texting, web browsing and apps to pay my bills and playback locally stored mp3s.
I’d love to switch back to a feature phone but they just have too many issues. I strongly feel that they are intentionally crippled. Just compare them to feature phones from before 2010 and you’ll know what I mean.
For now, we can still turn our phones off and only turn them on when needed. But notice that the powers that be are intentionally making it more difficult – Apple made the iPhone power button in to the Siri button, and Google did the same with their Android phones / Google assistant.
Eventually the ability to turn your phone off *will* be taken away – because they do not want you turning them off. Soon there will be no more customization. No more ability to make your own choices. No more control.
Re: Landlines – good luck getting one set up now. In many places the phone company will outright refuse to do so or they’ll do it but refuse to maintain it.
I’m planning on setting up VOIP with a small backup battery for my house phone sometime soon. I think it’ll be good enough.
Though to be honest I’m tempted to drop phones all together. A small piece of me says that the option for home VOIP won’t be around for much longer and smartphones will be forced on everyone through a monopoly on calling.
Finally a question for JMG –
You mentioned salt crystals being a good way to capture negative influences. What about other crystals? Are there specific crystals that are useful for specific influences or situations? I know I’m bordering on New Agey stuff here but I remember reading one of your Magic Mondays that certain crystals are good to have on magical equipment like wands or pentacles, and I found that really interesting.
“just imagine the two viewpoints being presented by the media as points in a much larger space, and locate at least one other point.”
The news media is seriously wedded to the left/right narrative. They can’t conceive of the up (totalitarian)/down (libertarian) axis at all. Or possibly it’s intentional.
As for the great cell phone debate, leaving it at home is still legal. I use mine as a cordless wall phone for all intents and purposes. The latest update reinstalled some apps I had previously uninstalled, so I uninstalled them again.
JMG say:”As for mundane tarot, it can be done but it takes a level of mental clarity and emotional distance few people can maintain. If you want to pursue it, you’ll have to get used to being completely impartial in your judgments, not slanting them even in the slightest to favor your own political beliefs”.
One of the reasons why I believe (I could be wrong,Can someone confirm if this is true?) that magicians and occultists were good logicians and geometers is that learning and teaching these disciplines (aspirants had to learn logic or geometry) has the benefit of creating the habit of concentration, with the added benefit of being a way of thinking without contradictions.
If we can overcome the bias that logic and mathematics are the ultimate goal of existence (as is the case with many scientists today) and understand that logic and mathematics cannot grasp the true nature of existence, then logic and mathematics can be seen as a useful tool that can help us set aside our own cognitive biases and passions. For example, 2+2 equals 4 in the decimal system, 100 in binary, 11 in the ternary system, and 10 in the quaternary system, and as long as number systems continue to be defined as they are today, 2+2 will continue to equal 4.
Why do I mention this? Because I studied physics and mathematics, and I’m trying to finish my degree in chemistry. I can say that perhaps I can approach the task of using tarot in that way. I also mention it in case anyone wants to use logic and mathematics for their spiritual life and discursive meditation, since solving logical and mathematical problems can train the concentration necessary to focus on the meditation mantra.
Tobes #91
I started Transcendental Meditation (TM®) in 1972 at age 20. Those were early days, where no other meditation was available in the USA (that I could find). Literally, for two months, I forced myself to sit twice a day, 20 minutes each, until my “body memory knew” it was time to sit and meditate. The TM movement, then, still was—what is the word?—unadulterated, where they had good intentions.
I continued meditating twice a day for the next ten years, which saved my life. I would not have survived my 20s had I not. Plus, I was hanging around some pretty virtuous people.
After ten years, I have continued to meditate IRREGULARLY. The TM meditation itself has become a part of my nervous system, and that is a good thing. Even sitting once a day helps immeasurably these fifty years later. The meditation technique was super, but in 1977 and thereafter, the TM movement fell apart—the powers became corrupt and greedy, and I do not recommend becoming involved with the organization. I disassociated myself in 1978. They turned the enterprise into a “get rich quick scheme.” Seriously, don’t get involved with them. They turned bad. I mean really: NOT A GOOD IDEA. I cannot stress this more.
In 1974-1975, I went to Europe for six months of “rounding” to become a TM teacher (“initiator”). I got dubbed by Maharishi. Rounding was meditating four times a day an hour each time (or more), and a fifth meditation on the silent (“no speaking”) day of Thursday. The stated goal of all that rounding was “de-stressing.” De-stressing was different for each person. I felt, and feel, that Maharishi’s teacher Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math (“Guru Dev”) who died in 1953, has protected me. I don’t worship Guru Dev, but I do feel his presence at times—somehow there is a connection.
The meditation itself, TM, loosens and rattles cages inside individuals. I still feel the effects of rounding those six months, all positive. I came from an alcoholic, abusive family, and rounding brought all that sh_t to the surface. My inner waters got muddied big-time because of all the sh_t I had had to endure as a kid came to the fore all at once. I came apart, and was reconstructed.
I had a huge sense of loss because I had been forced in my childhood to strategically avoid the adult alcoholics I need to avoid, with virtually no help except for one family headed by two high school teachers (I was friends with two of their daughters); my schooling greatly suffered. Many people here have had similar experiences. However, the intensive de-stressing of my childhood was painful in the extreme, but our TM guides did indeed know how to help each of us who were having a hard time. In the fourth month, every time I sat to meditate, I burst out sobbing. This continued for the rest of the course, and has continued off and on for the rest of my life.
The sobbing was “for me” in the beginning. No-one can imagine the humongous amount of sadness that came out of me. Having lived with intermittent sobbing for fifty years, when I sob, it is not for me anymore. It is sadness for all beings; I seem to pluck sadness out of the air.
Over decades, I have kept eyes peeled for good meditation people and organizations locally, regionally, nationally, internationally.
Five years ago, I found:
Tergar.org
and really like it. I highly recommend it.
Tergar is worth checking out. The head guy, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, is sincere; he speaks and writes English, which is a must for me. Many rinpoches in the West only speak/write Tibetan, which I find off-putting. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche has written a handful of beginner books, one of which is “Joy of Living” (ISBN 9780-307-347312).
Tergar.org has at least two learning levels.
One is “Joy of Living,” which is the lightweight, relaxed, beginner way, that is, new to Tergar and/or new to meditation. At my age (70-something), the “Joy of Living” level is all I can handle. One can become much more involved in Tergar than that first level. If I was a young’un (youngster) or middle-aged, I would be heavily involved with Tergar.org (and its associates) on its more intense path.
I hope this helps. Good luck in your search‼️
Respectfully,
💨🧘🏼♀️🪑🚶🏼♀️🙆🏼♀️💃🏼🛋️💨Northwind Grandma💨
Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
Pygmycory # 216:
When I’ve read about your vision problems, I’ve partly identified with your trouble, because I suffer since my teen age myopia; though by I’ve read from you, my myopia isn’t so severe as yours. When I don’t wear my glasses on I’m not legally blind but I’m feeling myself nude and defenseless…so I can understand you in a certain mode.
Nosmartphones,
The first thing the colleges would have to do to get students off of smartphones is NOT require students to HAVE smartphones! We ran into this with students taking college classes: you must install this app on your phone for two factor login. “There is no service where we live.” Eventually IT scrounged up an alternative, but they were quite put out, and their little number generator devices often fail. Since all classes require at minimum homework submitted online these days, getting kids off the smartphones isn’t going to happen.
Remember, my fellow Ecosophians, as well as Airplane mode and Do Not Disturb mode, you can just turn the smartphone off.
We still have a landline, as cell phones are not an option at home-they will never install towers just to service half a dozen houses-(and we do have cell phones for going to town, as there are no payphones left). I expect at some point the phone company will balk at maintaining the lines, and that will be the end of internet and emergency services for us, unless we buy Starlink and subscribe.
So timely that an RPG related webcomic I follow (OOTS) introduced me today to the thought of
“Reproducing by Invisible Mind Spores”
Clearly another way of talking about causing changes in consciousness in accordance with will.
Something I have found myself doing before I even heard of this definition of magic, and now more conscious of doing now for myself and those around me, after jmg spread that invisible mind spore my way. 😉
I’ve been wondering if anyone has used fencing staples (such as these) https://www.countrylife.ie/shop/product/Galvanised-Staples/9019040
in protective amulets, instead of a bent nail.
There are two separate issues which may impede their effectiveness, and I invite JMG and/or anyone in the commentariat with an informed opinion to comment further.
1) that they are galvanised (ie treated with a surface coating of zinc)
2) that they are, in effect, pre-bent with two points (ie not bent by the person intending to use them, assuming bending the nail is itself part of the working)
I wonder if either, or both, of these factors might diminish an amulet’s effectiveness.
PS, farming households with large stores of these staples want to know…. 😉
re: smartphones
Nobody would give their kid a can of beer or a crackpipe and say “Here you go, have some fun”. But nobody thinks it all strange or inappropriate when you give that same kid a smartphone and say “Here you go, have some fun”. I wonder if the crackpipe would do less long-term damage to the kid.
Does this country hate its children? Is that what’s going on? Or has it just stopped caring? I guess that would be even worse than hate, wouldn’t it?
Hello Mr. Greer,
I have two questions.
First, in the past you have mentioned that meditation in the morning is preferable. How essential is this? I work the evening shift so waking up early to meditate is a lot less convenient than doing so before I go to bed.
Second, when I read Dion Fortune’s Psychic Self Defense I noticed a lot of her stories were downright incredible. For example, she talks about people creating werewolf like creatures through projecting their consciousness, and says that battles on the astral plane can leave physical marks on the body. Some of this stuff starts to sound rather Harry Potter adjacent, because it is no longer limited to the world of mind and will but quite physical. So my question is, do you believe Fortune embellished her arguments or do you think Psychic Self Defense is accurate when it describes these more fantastic phenomenon?
Hi JMG,
Thanks for another great posting. It wasn’t what I expected at all. I thought it was going to be a dramatic Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson with war stories about malevolent spirits and black magic. I should have known better!
I tried getting into meditation a number of times, and investigated mantra meditation and a couple of new age and Eastern methods but just couldn’t get any traction with any of them. At one point Tibetan buddhism seemed pretty interesting and looking back the meditation techniques could have been a good, but I think they were just badly presented and taught. Another commenter above made a similar point so maybe that is a typical experience.
I want to thank you for all you have done to popularize discursive meditation. It was the tool I was looking for, and while I don’t claim to be a greatly skilled meditator, I have put in the hours and have seen enormous benefits. It can be boring. It can be difficult. It can also be extraordinary, and open all sorts of doors. It improved my relationships and my work capabilities. The step-by-step explanation in the Druidry Handbook is very clear and straightforward. Thank you again! I know it has helped a lot of people. I also now believe a daily banishing ritual is absolutely essential. The SOP is insanely powerful over time if you keep at it consistently.
One pattern I’ve noticed with myself is that when the shale really hits the petrochemical fan, my daily practice breaks down. Of course tough times are when a meditation practice are most valuable and needed but it can be hard to keep it up when under stress. Any advice on this? I’ve had a couple of rough patches over the last couple years, and was too distracted, miserable, or overwhelmed to meditate. When I finally did get back to practice I felt much better, and better able to cope. Somehow in the heat of the moment I hit a wall though. A great opportunity to exercise the will I know. When this happens I try to just force myself to continue, knowing even if I do it badly that is better than not at all.
I have a related question to the cell phone situation. I’m thinking about selling my current computer and I don’t know what to replace it with. What kind of computer and operating system do you recommend?
The Other Owen #230:
I agree. If you give alcohol or another drug to a kid, it’s legally forbidden and ethically bad; but if you give a smartphone without limits it’s legal and even well seen by some people yet.
It’s not only a problem in your country; it’s been widespread along every Western country…
Patrick, that was written from personal experience. There aren’t too many people who are good enough to use such workings these days, but the workings themselves can be found by those stupid enough to go looking for them.
Mark, that would be worth seeing!
Pygmycory, excellent. For what it’s worth, I suspect TylerA is correct, in which case you’re fighting corporate shillbots.
Earthworm, it’s a fine theme for meditation, too. 😉
Clarke, hmm! Mouni Sadhu, whose writings on Christian occultism are well worth studying, specifically recommends those very verses of Psalm 68 as an incantation for psychic self-defense. The specific phrasing he uses:
“May God arise and His foes vanish!
As wax before the fire, as smoke before the wind,
Let they who hate the Lord flee from His presence,
And the just rejoice.”
It works, too, when repeated with concentration and intention.
Earthworm, it’s not my term; the person to whom I was responding used it. It’s a reference to any form of protective natural magic — a red bag amulet, say — as a way of keeping nasty magic from earthing out on the material plane.
Atr, unfortunately I’ve had to disabuse far too many beginners in occultism of the notion that Harry Potter has anything at all to do with occultism. Thus the parodic “Bertie Scrubb” novels as a theme in my Ariel Moravec occult detective stories — and Ariel’s stories, which only feature real magic, more generally.
Siliconguy, of course it’s intentional. But the left/right and libertarian/totalitarian axes themselves form a binary. Can you think of a third axis?
Zarcayce, bingo. That’s why the Picatrix instructs the apprentice wizard to master philosophy and mathematics, among other studies — to function in that role you have to think more clearly than others.
Andy, a lot of artists and writers know this intuitively, because it’s a core part of their work.
Scotlyn, you’d have to experiment and find out, but I don’t know of a reason why they wouldn’t work.
Stephen, (1) “preferable” does not mean “mandatory.” (2) She was dealing with the upper end of possibility, but she wasn’t making anything up.
Samurai_47, delighted to hear it. I don’t know of any easy way to learn how to keep practicing through hard times — sheer stupid pigheadedness is the thing that always works for me, but your mileage may vary.
Nephite, I have no idea — anyone else?
Hi John Michael,
My pleasure! It’s like shooting pigeons in a barrel, sorry, I meant to say fish! 😉 It could work out to be a fun in-joke with the regular readers, whilst causing pure mystification. To be frank, that lot don’t seem to be going away, mostly because the costs for the free services are being externalised on the environment and population at large. Very hard to compete with that state of affairs, for those who create.
Did you ever read Mad Magazine when you were younger? I grew up reading that stuff, and for sure it’s warped my brain, but in a good way. What, me worry? 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi John Michael,
Far out, just had a chance to read through all of the comments. That Potter book keeps on popping it’s head up all the time. I’m sure it’s great literature, but when I saw the cover art, I just said no, and never thought about it again. Can’t take it seriously. It’s not proper cover art… Even the David Eddings series from the 90’s did better work. 😉
Cheers
Chris
@Nephite
If you’re looking for a new computer that’s easy to use, and you have the money, I’d get an Apple computer. Even their lower end / entry level computers are plenty fast for every day use.
Apple has a specific refurbished section on their website if you need to save a little $$$, and if you’ve got an .edu email address you can get further discounts.
If you’re looking for a Windows computer, the Microsoft Surface books are pretty nice IMO. Make sure you get one with an Intel or AMD processor – don’t get a Qualcomm, it won’t be hardware compatible with standard windows software. I think Microsoft also has a refurbished section.
Apples AI tools are actually helpful, and mostly out of the way. If you don’t like it, you can disable most of it in the settings app. Microsoft is much more in your face about AI and it’s harder to disable it, requiring various registry hacks and uninstalling some software.
Note that most computers now are NOT upgradable. So whatever you get, make sure to get at least 16gb of RAM, and 512GB of storage. Make sure the storage is a “solid state disk” and not a hard drive or MMC (basically a memory card).
@JMG I’m always on the lookout for quality stories for my kid. I’m definitely going to take a look in to your Ariel Moravec occult detective books.
Unfortunately modern society has trained people to believe that entertainment and reality are the same. Again, I like HP, but there are definitely way too many people out there who genuinely think magick is “swish and flick” + bad latin.
Dear Archdruid:
There are some youtubers who believe in the existence of extra dimensional entities wich influence in the behaviour of the individuals inducing them for to group themselves with the purpose of extract certain type of energy wich individuals produce when they are praying.
In this vídeo , wich has the posibilty of subtitles in english, there is a seer called Jakonor73 who affirms to be able for to see these entities. And the posibilty that he’ll be true is for me disturbing.
https://youtu.be/DZcOWQ9yBNM?si=OFnvSowzJO6fvbLx
“I’m planning on setting up VOIP with a small backup battery for my house phone sometime soon. I think it’ll be good enough.”
It wouldn’t be good enough here. The network hub on the corner is powered by the same power lines that feed the house. If the power goes out then that goes down as well as the junction box on the meter pole and of course everything in the house. Powering up the house won’t do anything to restart the corner network hub.
You need to find out what is upstream of your home connection to see if it has backup power to see if VOIP is still an option, and for how long. Cell phone towers typically do have battery backup, but how long to they last?
@Viking, thank you, but I’m afraid I’ve said most of what I have to say about Harry Potter in this thread already. I did notice a few other things:
1) Characters with alliterative names are just there to move the plot along or provide flavor, and most of what they have to say doesn’t matter, except for one very important exception. For instance, Cho Chang is only there so that Rowling doesn’t have to pretend that an adolescent boy has no interest in girls, or that the big hero struck out totally with them. Of course, there are plenty of background characters with non-alliterated names, but in their cases it is obvious that they’re just there to make it believable that Harry is attending a school with more than 10 students.
2) I suppose this is moreso reading advice in general (but I am not a big fiction reader, and am not especially good at it), but think of the books as memories. Offhand remarks, jokes, etc. that make it into the books are usually significant. Think about how many stupid jokes or offhand remarks you and your friends made while you were in high school, and how few you now remember.
@JMG, on a different subject, the binary in team sports has a fairly obvious origin, we’re social primates who engage in group violence, and in that context there are only two identities, Us and Them. And of course, there are team sports that do not have a binary, for instance, cycling and relay racing.
“Siliconguy, of course it’s intentional. But the left/right and libertarian/totalitarian axes themselves form a binary. Can you think of a third axis?”
Well you see, a third axis is problematic because then political scientists, redditors, and twitter users can’t make and post diagrams of political alignments and gain social prestige among their peers, because with each new axis you need another dimension of space, and diagrams on twitter, reddit, and political science articles only operate in two dimensions.
That was a good question; a third axis other than Left/Right and Libertarianism/Totalitarianism.
With Left being defined as equity of outcomes and Right being an oligarchy which simplifies things a bit a third axis does come out.
The Z axis runs from Tribal (small local government) to One World Government a la Kraus Schwab.
Chris, I did indeed read Mad Magazine, back when it was actually funny. 😉 As for Bertie Scrubb–er, Harry Potter…oh man. I remember the first David Eddings series back in the 1980s. Sara and I read them while we were still living in the student house where our relationship started.
Atr, I’ll be interested in hearing what you think about the Ariel Moravec books. I suppose part of my problem is that I was a science fiction fan back in the day, when you couldn’t usually get away with really stupid scientific mistakes in your SF stories; I’d like to see the same standards applied to stupid magical mistakes in fantasy!
Anselmo, I don’t do videos, so I’ll pass on that. “Extra dimensional entities” sounds to me like another name for “spirits,” and if you read old occult texts you’ll find plenty of discussion of low-grade parasitic spirits who encourage behavior patterns in humans in order to feed off them.
Justin, maybe so, but there are plenty of societies that fight savage wars but don’t have the same obsession with binary team sports you find in the West.
Anonymous, I already said I like the idea. You don’t have to sell it to me. 😉
Siliconguy, good. That’s certainly one option.
JMG, you’re better educated than I.
A do not disturb mode is not new with smart phones ! Works the same with a landline, With a landline you just let the answering machine take a message, you can turn the ringer off on the phone very easily, there is a volume lever and you slide it to off. SO the smart phone is imitting the landline by not notifying you and taking a message. Riger off and a message is taken, same thing
As far as VOIP as a landline. I agree, the internet fiber optic line has to have repeaters every so often, the lines must have power. When the power goes out, they do have small batteries, but they do not last long. How long depends on how many people are using the lines, but about 4 hours. This fact has been part of our whole argument locally with ATT, the phone company, as they do not want to keep supporting land lines. There is no cell service, and VOIP does not work long enough during power outages. Now, the reality is that alot of the length of the ATT lines are also fiber optic now, which means that they also need power. The key difference is now legislative, I think. ATT is required to keep service up on the landlines. They have robust, long lasting batteries and they are known to brave the elements and somehow get out and set up generators or swap batteries or whatever they do and keep those lines up ! The internet provider is not required to do this. ATT is less reliable as their fiber optic lines have crept further up the mountain, but they still beat out the internet company.
Digital data on fiber optic lines takes more power than audio signals on copper lines. An old fashioned copper phone line can carry that audio signal very very far with a low level of power on the line. Fiber optic needs power boosts very frequently.
JMG,
I commented (#229) on October’s open post. I managed to get a hold of and read a copy of Passport to Magonia, and found it just as profound and helpful as you professed. Although I still have many unanswered questions, I do feel I have a much better grasp of the phenomenon and feel more comfortable with the fact the we may simply never know the full story behind what’s going on.
That said, I think the thing that’s been troubling me most is trying to understand where these beings we call faey fit in to the overall scheme of occult philosophy. At times their behavior seems almost indistinguishable from other beings like angels, demons, gods, and especially elementals. To add even more to the confusion, terms that we use for elemental spirits like dwarf, gnome, and sylph are often used interchangably with faey. Previously I though of the elementals as being rather more formless, taking on forms much closer to the individual elements they embody, but not I’m beginning to wonder if faey and elemental are one and the same? And if they are different, where do they fit in to this picture, and what is their purpose? One thought that occurred to me, in my limited knowledge, is that perhaps they’re souls on the opposite arc of evolution, descending down into matter rather than ascending as we are. That would would account for their apparent likeness to (in their humanoid form and organization), and interest in, human societies, as well as their (seemingly) etheric bodies. But it’s just a thought.
Another thought that I had, due to a number of stories I’ve heard (read), including the one about my father-in-law, is that one of the things they sometimes do is drain the lifeforce from others (human, animal, and plant life), often with lethal consequences. I don’t necessarily believe this is always due to malicous intent to do harm (in the way hunting or thoughtlessly stepping on insects is generally not malicious), though it certainly can be the case. After reading The Witch of Criswell this got me wondering if, and I hope it’s okay to ask this, there are methods by which humans who DO have intent to do harm can use the faey to accomplish this task (of stealing the lifeforce from others) for them…? I know even if it is the case it’s not likely to happen much, I just wonder if it IS possible.
And I remembered another important detail about my father-in-law’s story. The person who relayed the story to me also confessed to be doing some kind of mantra trance ritual in another room in the same house when the incident occurred. I have heard it’s possible to manifest UFO activity through the use of certain meditative techniques, and I wonder if this isn’t what happened in this case as well. The 2 individuals in question have a… complicated relationship.
Sorry for the lengthy post, and thank you for your time once again.
Eric #143
> AI is basically computer enhanced groupthink.
Oh, you are SOOO right. I never thought of AI like that. The powers build ‘a great computer,’ into it plug everything anyone has ever written for centuries, stir the pot, and out come different combinations and aphorisms, quite a bit of it nonsensical garbage-out. Alphabet soup. It also means nothing comes of it that has never been thought before—no original thoughts—that is why it will fail bigly. Artificial intelligence has no future. Yet another boondoggle. Get rick quick scheme.
I use artificial intelligence occasionally in my writing when I look for interesting phases that enhance meaning. Beyond that, artificial intelligence is just plain idiot writing.
There seem to be a heck of a lot of get rich schemes around. They are inconsequential time-wasters. Do AI words make food? Do AI words transport goods? Do AI words build houses? Do AI words fix a clogged drain? Nope to all these. Huge fail when the house of sticks comes toppling down.
Cordially,
💨🧾📕📗📘📙📖📓📒👩🏼💻💨Northwind Grandma💨
Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
Re my own comment about cycling being a non-binary sport (that sounds a bit woke…)
I just realized that the countries in western europe that have the greatest tradition in that sport are catholic ones: Belgium, France, Spain, Italy. My own country (which is originally / mainly protestant) has only one big race, and that is in the catholic south.
Maybe catholics are more open to looking beyond the binary than protestants?
–bk
@ pygmycory;
Yes, I remember the annoying high pitched sound of these screens. I still heard it when my ears were supposedly too old to be able to pickup frequencies that high..
Your comment made me realize that while I am quite sensitive to bright artificial light (every screen I use is at its lowest brightness setting, for example), I have no problems with bright sunlight at all.
Getting drunk on the sight of green grass sounds gorgeous 🙂
–bk
Oh, I almost forgot:
“someone I know with faces/probable autistic tendencies was saying during the pandemic that they couldn’t tell if people were smiling when they were wearing a mask (…) Because neither of us could tell this instinctively the way most people apparently can.”
Most ‘normal’ people are lousy at recognizing the emotion in people’s eyes. I’m a bit more sensitive then most and you would be surprised at how many pictures I see of people smiling with sadness, fear or even panic in their eyes, when most people just see a face with a smile.
I think you may be quite normal in that respect, with the main difference that you are aware of your limitation, while most ‘normal’ people are ignorant of it.
–bk
@ NephiteNeophyte “What kind of computer and operating system do you recommend?”
That question is far to general to get good answers, and it will probably just invite people to tell you about their own preferences.
(I’m a linux guy myself and I’ve helped lots of people with moving away from windows, but for that to be a viable option depends very much on the person and what they use the machine for)
–bk
Yesterday in the evening (local time) I went for a walk to the downtown and I saw again the Harry Potter fans shop. Well, there was a little queue of people (adult, teen and some children) near its door. Fake magic and PMC covert propaganda have succeed enough to have a hoard of fans which is to say avid gadgets consumers. This success surprised me, because I’ve tried to read some HP book or watching some film but I find them dull and manichean. Maybe I missed something genial in them, or simply I wasn’t indictrinated at my due time in my childhood, I don’t know exactly…
>You need to find out what is upstream of your home connection to see if it has backup power to see if VOIP is still an option, and for how long. Cell phone towers typically do have battery backup, but how long to they last?
Old school landline switches had battery backup too, IIRC. I was told the batteries only provided minutes of power and if anything continued after that, it was due to emergency generators.
So I guess everyone is the phone company now. It’s up to you to provide battery backup and emergency generators. Or not. Outsource everything. Globalization so good.
>Eventually the ability to turn your phone off *will* be taken away – because they do not want you turning them off.
It is still possible to get a phone with a removable battery and hardware kill switches – but you have to go out of your way and you will need to be technically savvy. But I’m sure they’d love it if those options went away.
>Soon there will be no more customization. No more ability to make your own choices. No more control.
Part of the problem is people want to be spoon-fed. They just want to press the button and receive the candy. And they cry like babies if they don’t get the candy. If you want to be spoon-fed, there’s so much you’ve already lost.
The minimum IQ required to operate in this world keeps going up. People talk about “below and above the API”, that sort of obliquely touches on what’s going on.
John and someone else have quoted some versicles from biblical Psalms suited to seek effective protection before this last comment of mine. It’s OK, but I could add a very popular Bible paragraphs between every christian confession since a lot of time ago. If you didn’t guess yet, I’ll told you I’m speaking about the well known “The Lord is my Shepherd”, of course. At least, it’s worked for me in my tribulation moments, so I think it can have some protective power, don’t you think that?
———————————————
I understand John view and decision to do not have any cell phone at all in his life, and I respect him for his full disconection from digital Spectacle. However, I think not everybody is ready for this radical measure: there are people who (like my friend who I talked about him some comments ago) adopts a less radical measure to be communicated outdoors. It’s possible yet to buy an “outdated” cell phone without whassap or internet, only with callings and SMS service.
Indeed, yesterday I read a comic about “The Dark Digital Fingerprint”, whose author is a cartoonist named Phillippe Squarzoni. He analyzes bluntly the ecological reality beyond the myth of the “clean” digital technologies (like smartphones) and advices to reduce the complexity level in our lives. He owns himself a “primitive” cell phone with only SMS service, which by the way it isn’t extincted in our world, but nearly it is…I don’t know if this French author has been translated to English: I know the original French version and the Spanish translation. I think he’s also a good critic of digital Spectacle in his comic. I warn you’ll he’s a leftist ecologist, though not very woke, thanks God. He’s not a luddite, his thoughts go on the appropiate technology yourself decide, and not the technologies you’re imposed by the hi tech corporations (Do you know their names?)
When I fix my personal life, I’m going to seek a table computer for internet (even second hand possibly) and an old-fashioned cell phone to talk with other people. Unfortunately, my family has decided not to pay a landline anymore, and I don’t have the power to cancel that decision…
>If you’re looking for a new computer that’s easy to use, and you have the money, I’d get an Apple computer.
If you have the money. Just sink into Apple’s strong manly arms and let them take care of you. Don’t you worry your pretty little head about anything.
>Even their lower end / entry level computers are plenty fast for every day use.
It’s amusing how much they overcharge for basics, like extra SSD storage. Well, it’s amusing if you’re not the one paying for it. Then you’re not so amused. Their hardware quality is mostly OK. I’d stay away from some of their laptops. They cut corners on some of them. Do your research.
—
There is a tradeoff here. Do you pay someone to set up a computer for you or do you figure out how to do it yourself? Depending on what it is you’re using the computer for, it may make sense to sink into Apple’s strong manly arms. But I’d think carefully about whether it makes sense or not.
And then there’s the insufferable smugness of anyone who has drunk Steve Jobs’ koolaid. The “I’m a better person and am going to Silicon Heaven” kind of hymn singing vibe. I had to use an Apple mouse on a recent iMac. OMG, they still suck at making a mouse. Yeah, you heard me. Apple sucks at making a usable mouse.
JMG,
For a few years now, I have been enjoying your writing and the comments of the commentariat on this blog. Thank-you for your work.
Two techniques I learned (in the tradition I was educated) are as follows:
1. For group tasks, select at random a verse from Marcus Aurelius ‘Meditations’ or the Bhagavad Gita, and read aloud three times.
Meditate on the verse as the task is undertaken, and reread the verse at break times. When finished, the group discuss the task and the verse. My experience is that the verse focuses the mind/s of the individual/s, to meld the work with the higher idea (Goodness, Beauty, Justice, Truth…), which results in a higher experience for the individual/s and the group. In turn, this embues the work with the higher idea. It is an intention setting exercise that
This exercise can also be undertaken as an individual while performing tasks.
2. Select a verse from a sacred text (The Voice of the Silence, Bhagavad Gita…) and sit in silence with it for 15/25 minutes. Say the verse aloud every so often. With practice one becomes centred in the higher self and can hear the voice of the silence.
3. Tibetan Tattrak: (This is more a concentration exercise)
Draw a circle, add a dot to the centre. Sit in front of the circle, concentrate on the dot. When in concentration, the circle will disappear. When the mind wanders, the circle will come back, focus and start again without judgement. One to 5 minutes is a good duration for the exercise. Three times a day, or before one needs to be have deep focus. This simple exercise works.
Slán go fóil
Caoimhín
>This person was also saying that since kids aren’t getting bored and problem solving in their childhood their brains don’t have as many connectors (don’t know the technical terms) so if you take away their smartphones, the problem doesn’t just solve itself. Their brains have to be regrown by being challenged in the normal evolutionary ways which takes time, and they missed that phase. So anyone who wants to make a lot of money could come up with a consulting or counseling program that does that.
I think some of this is due to parents hovering over their children (helicopter parents). My best guess is to why they’re doing this is people are having less kids these days for reasons that would generate an Erika-class wall of text. So the fewer kids get more supervision and overinvestment from the parents. And higher expectations as well. No more of the old days where “Well, just let johnny go riding around on his wheelie bike and do whatever”. He needs to be safely indoors preparing for the weird narratives his parents have in their heads. The smartphones don’t help either. Basically this country hates its kids, I’ve concluded. Or a bunch of well-meaning people are killing their future off. I’m not sure which is worse. Is there a place that actually has a future at this point? I’m serious.
>It was an eye opening conversation but then the person had to quit that career after they got turbo cancer after their 7th booster shot so it’s interesting that people will challenge parts of the narrative in ways when they get paid to do it but keep other parts for social status. I don’t know what to make of it all. Mass consciousness isn’t just a binary.
People respond to incentives. Hoomans are wired to prefer taking risks over losses, even if the risk is greater than the loss would be, hardwired at the DNA level. You can choose to go against your genetic programming but few ever do. Fewer are even aware they have a choice.
JMG: “it’s a fine theme for meditation, too”
Like drawing towards the upper astral / mental sheath?
Interestingly it is similar in effect to drawing up and beyond emotional states.
But in the case of two binary narrative positions, the mental imagery shifted so that it was actually like looking at a sphere with two points on opposite sides; I’ll test out that imagery using emotional states and see what happens!
An amusing (to me!) thought came into mind as I was playing with the idea – a line from 2001 A Space Oddessy “My God, it’s full of stars!”
Now all I’ve got to do is work out why the symbolism of moving outside of emotional states and narratives has similar imagery and what that means. Clearly emotions are just energy states, and of course, stopping to consider it, narrative positions are not just stories but are also expressions of an energetic ‘form’ or state.
What that might actually mean I do not yet know! Maybe something, maybe nothing or a step on the way to something and somewhere else.
As you said, setting up two positions is a way of shutting down wider perspective; and triggering emotional level thought within low emotional states is designed to hold people’s minds at that ‘simpler’ emotional level so they don’t recognise limited framing, false framing, or framing for some other purpose.
The behavioural psychologists might refer to their work in terms of psychology and behaviour etc, but it really does look like the children of Bernays are wearing a version of Saruman’s hat.
I remember reading Fortune and some of the others going on about the importance of psychology, and how you said Jung was an occultist who called himself a psychologist or something – basically it looks like certain factions relaunched the magic brand name under new shiny modern names – call it Behavioural Insights Team / Nudge Unit or whatever bollocks… it’s “the art and science of causing changes in consciousness in accordance with will”
Keep folk looking outside to mask the real battlefield that is in our minds!
I know you don’t do video, but for others – a 28 second clip, at 20s swap out ‘QA’ to ‘Consciousness’ and ‘Developer’ to ‘Behavioural Psychologist’… Consciousness won’t be kept down! 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IojxtR2YJJU&t=2s
>I’m thinking about selling my current computer and I don’t know what to replace it with. What kind of computer and operating system do you recommend?
Why sell it? Is it broken (say, the main HD is old and going out on you)? Is it not running the latest games well (old graphics card)? Is the BIOS complaining about NVRAM errors? Is it not able to be upgraded to Windows 11?
If it’s slow, you can often breathe a bit of life back into old hardware by replacing the mechanical hard drive with an SSD. Those SSDs have gotten cheap these days. After that, look and see if you can max out the memory on the system. Old memory upgrades tend to be dirt cheap. Old graphics cards can be upgraded too. A current bottom tier graphics card is often an upgrade. NVRAM errors can be fixed with a new 2032 battery. As far as wanting Windows 11, if you haven’t figured out Microsoft views you as a cow to be milked and not a customer, god help you.
@earthworm,
Re: “I’m aware of (breathing) exercises to strengthen the etheric and exercises to cleanse it (cold water), but have never heard the term etheric circuit breaker before; could you expand on that, please?”
Abby Judson wrote one version. Cross your left foot (or ankle) over your right foot (or ankle) while also crossing your right hand/arm over your left hand/arm. This closes your etheric circuit and makes it difficult for the astral to get in. It is easy to do this discreetly when you are sitting in meetings and such. I have learned that it is an equal-opportunity astral blocker… when I do breathing exercises that bring in “happy” astral, if I have my ankles and hands crossed, it blocks the “tingle” I get from doing the breathing exercises if my ankles and hands are not crossed.
I also do it when I am preparing to go to sleep.
(JMG had mentioned another person also wrote about this, but I cannot find that person’s names in my notes right now.)
NephiteNeophyte #233:
If I may, I’d recommend some distribution of Linux, provided it covers your use case. You’ll get a lot fewer to none (depending on the distro) of the annoyances modern Windows has and it’s entirely free (though you can usually choose to pay to support the developers). Linux Mint (https://linuxmint.com/) is good but depending on your level of tech proficiency, you might want to do your own research—you’ll need to do a bit of that anyways to see if all the software you need runs on Linux.
Justin #241
I suppose it depends on your definition of “move the plot along” but both Quirinus Quirrel and Severus Snape seem to be rather important.
—David P.
Caoimhin # 259:
Thank you for your meditation/concentration techniques you’ve suggested. I’ll take them into consideration.
Justin, I hope you take that as a challenge.
David, it’s important to remember that the spiritual worlds are just as complex as the material worlds. Just as the world of matter contains living things as diverse as blue whales, centipedes, giant flowers that smell like rotting meat, vampire bats, and even Taylor Swift, the world of nonphysical beings contains entities of a vast array of types. Even among elementals there’s a lot of diversity, and the fae are another wildly diverse category. It’s important not to oversimplify things! Yes, fae are sometimes vampiric, but human beings can’t control them and shouldn’t try — they do not react well to that, and they hold vicious grudges. As for UFOs, why, yes — there’s even a mantra, “Solim Solara,” which is said to call UFOs. (Amusingly, in one system of numerology, this mantra is equal to the phrase “I am Cthulhu.”) This is one of the reasons why I treat UFOs as occult phenomena rather than nuts-and-bolts spacecraft from other worlds.
BK, a case could be made!
Chuaquin, “dull and Manichean” strikes me as a very good summary. The 23rd psalm (“The Lord is my shepherd…”) is another that sees a lot of use in Christian magic.
Caoimhín, those are good solid practices.
Earthworm, you’ve done a nice job of developing the theme here, too. That bit from 2001 always amused me, though — if you replace the word “stars” with almost any other English noun, it becomes hilarious.
Ha! that phrase will never be the same; after reading your words the first alternate in mind was profane, the second was “My god, it’s full of snot!” Thank you for that! 🙂
> That bit from 2001 always amused me, though — if you replace the word “stars” with almost any other English noun, it becomes hilarious.
I’m now imagining Raoul Duke from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, high as a kite on mescaline, floating through space saying “My God, it’s full of bats!”
Earthworm and Slithy, ha! Exactly. Interestingly enough, though, thinking about options along those lines led me to one of the few alternatives that gets an equal sense of awe: “My god, it’s full of Guinness!”
The Duran has a post today by Grzegorz Ochman that goes into some great detail on the PsyOps he claims are being used against us. I’m not sure how much of it I agree with. He argues “If you think they are stupid, you have already failed in the pursuit of finding the truth.” Hmm.
It certainly emphasizes the great need for psychic self defense.
https://theduran.com/whitney-webb-the-g-o-a-t-of-deep-state-analysis-covering-the-deep-state-the-wef-globalists-and-neocons-if-you-think-these-people-are-stupid-you-have-already-failed-in-your-pursuit-of-t/
About crystal salt ; Here in Florida this past several months you had only to open your salt shaker to see some. I moved mine to a little flattish dish with a lid, and took off the lid.
Very OT: The President will lose a lot of the western drylands if he resumes nuclear testing, because, at least in New Mexico and I’m sure in Nevada, there are families who lost members (and livestock and crops) to the fallout from testing where they lived, and massive official denial of the hazards. Run a search on “Downwinders.”
BK, interesting about the eyes. For me it was an interesting unintentional side benefit of learning to draw faces and trying to get the hang of drawing emotions.
It’s amazing what you can learn by drawing. When I was studying biology, I made flashcards of all the orders, classes and other taxonomic groups I had to learn with their distinctive features clearly pointed out. Stuck them on flash cards with the picture on one side, and the name on the other.
Then weirded people out by taking multiple taxonomy-related classes at once, not going crazy, actually enjoying myself, and doing well in them. People really underestimate the power of a good diagram and a clear mental image.
NephiteNeophyte #233:
As far as a new computer, Id ask myself several questions
What OS do I have now, and do i want a newer version, or have to learn an entire new system?
What am I going to be using it for? Anything more than now”
What format of machine am I thinking about, desktop, laptop, mini?
And, how much do i have to spend on the new machine?
Once you have those answered can go on to specific configurations
Hope this helps
Yesterday I shared online a recommendation for your books The RetroFuture and The Ecotechnic Future and links to The Honest Sorcerers summary of the wall we are heading for in terms of energy, ecological and resource limits along with the fragility of our financial system. To my astonishment a paean to endless growth and tech improvement was the response and an assertion to continued American empire and financial system stability. https://matsumoto.substack.com/notes I can see for some people leaving biology and “progressing” into a world of human made non living materials is the goal. Reminds me of Professor Filostrato in C..S Lewis’s book That Hideous Strength. A salty painful experience of reality going the other way will be the clarification.
RandomActsOfKarma #263
Thank you – that gives me some things to chew on!
I had heard about a method of standing with feet together and hands clasped (in front) that I took to be a posture to seal one’s energy and also give ‘rooting’; and was taught something called ‘Sealing the Aura’ based on energy flows (Taoist) that is not tied to a particular posture.
Also a practice called Sealing the Senses that was again based on particular energy ‘circuits’.
But in neither of those do I remember any particular differentiation between etheric and astral, the practices were presented as cleansing/sealing the energy system not just parts of it – of course I may have misunderstood or missed detail.
Also, ‘sealing the energy system’ might be a bit of a misnomer – years ago I thought of such things a as a ‘shield’ but over time that view shifted, it is more of an ‘alignment’ not creating an empty forcefield – the ‘clearing’ of the external bio-electric fields goes hand in hand with enhancing stuff from ‘inside’ – sort of like turning up a lamp to greater intensity where the light is an expression of one’s Ideal. We are not a bubble but a drop of water.
I’m going to have to think about this again.
What I have concluded (so far) is that from a psychic self defence perspective, concentrating on the energy system without including work on emotions and thoughts is like standing on the castle ramparts having left the drawbridge raised!
Caoimhín #259
Thank you for number 3, the Tibetan Tattrak. I’ve been using Mouni Sadhu’s concentration excerise having mounted just the second hand on a blank piece of card and following the tip of the hand as it rotates but will definitely try the exercise you described.
Do you focus on inner stillness, a theme as in exercises 1 & 2, or something else?
What I have concluded (so far) is that from a psychic self defence perspective, concentrating on the energy system without including work on emotions and thoughts is like standing on the castle ramparts having left the drawbridge raised!
That should of course have read ‘portcullis raised’ not drawbridge!
@earthworm (#200)
I have come off as a yapping poodle, haven’t I. I wonder if I was one in a former life? Wouldn’t surprise me at all if I was. I know for a fact at least one of those former lives was as a chicken, specifically a rooster (which makes me suspicious how that life ended – hope I was tasty… 😀 ).
As for Shoonya you can get initiated into it from many gurus all over the world. I provide links to Youtube below because Sadhguru’s videos discuss the actual mechanics of what’s happening to the mind and body during the practice. I’m no expert on those things. But I do know this because of personal experiences which I usually don’t bother to mention.
Anyway, whatever I am it’s not just a human. It’s only in bits and flashes but I’ve reached the ‘soft’ distancing stage. That is, it sometimes clear and sometimes not so much. It’s pre-school stage, not even grade one.
More consistent is the brain chatter going very quiet. My breathrate per minute has dropped substantially which is probably the most significant indicator of progress since breathrate and mental fluctuations are directly connected. People who have a lot of inner chatter should time the number of breaths per minute they’re taking. It’ll be in the 15-17 per minute range (that’s why I know Robert Mathiesen’s bpm is lower than his wife’s).
My skeletal structure has changed so much when I make footprints I can see the difference from before and after. Even my shoe soles wear out differently now. Hatha yoga works even as a physical therapy. But if you watch or read the Youtube transcripts you’ll see it does much more. Qigong does too.
What I cherish though is the exceedingly rare contact with actual divinity. It’s radiant. Glorious.
I’ll be honest. After that super-rare contact with the divine directly – I’d rather be there – gwynfyd (or however JMG spells it). As beautiful as earth is, as amazing as being a human is…it doesn’t begin to compare. I’m in a prison, period. Because I can’t drop this body and persona at will. If I could come and go at will then it would be different. But I’m here by karma, not choice. Hence why I yap like a poodle so much about spiritual practice.
It was poor word choice to say ‘play like it’s a toy’. I don’t mean to say that people who can drop ‘themselves’ will somehow be unethical afterward toward other people or that it ruins the experience of being here. I said ‘play like a toy’ because I was trying to stress the fact they’ve gained so much inner flexibility and deleted so much unwanted and unnecessary karma they have the luxury of real choice. Clearly they are choosing to stay – otherwise they’d just not come back and mahaparinirvana to the next level.
So anyway…I don’t care about superpowers or whatnot. Or rather the only thing these days I care about manifesting is trying to hammer this bone-box into shape for leveling up to something better. Not even Sadhguru will stay here any longer once it’s clear to him his disciples find him boring. The moment the majority of his disciples are no longer interested in listening to him he said is the day he’ll be gone. He mused he might leave via some deliberately disastrous accident so nobody will be tempted to venerate him after he’s gone.
Anyway I’ve listed below some youtube videos that talk about the mechanics of the practice. If you don’t like video Youtube has a good auto-transcript function so you can click that and simply read the info instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1trhqzfqdoM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdZpWLwM47c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmAs8z-9kk8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq1QmiOAf7w
*as for me…I think it’s time to practice that most magely of virtues – silence. Cheers to you earthworm, to JMG and the ecosophia readership. May you all have a wonderful day.
Before it is too late, I must say how much I enjoyed this post. I will print it out to put into my “important” folder and re-read it. Too much to properly take in at one sitting.
@Anon #270
That Duran post is a good reminder for all of us. My only point of disagreement is the assertion that there is some secret cabal of “Fu Manchu masterminds” orchestrating all of this as some kind of unified strategy.
I think JMG’s view that we are seeing groups of corrupt billionaires “duking it out” with each other for supremacy better explains the facts in the article.
For me, the takeaway is that none of these competing factions cares about ordinary people.
Another conclusion I have come to, is that the various elite factions are not “waging war against humanity.” Rather, what they are doing (in their view) is more akin to “livestock management.”
If you peruse Harrison Koehli’s “Ponerology” Substack for any length of time, you begin to understand that natural-born psychopaths do NOT see themselves as members of the same species as the rest of us. They learn to recognise each other, even in large crowds, from an early age. They see themselves as the “apex predators” at the top of the food chain.
The thought that what we call the “human race” is not ontologically homogeneous is quite challenging to me as a Christian. For me, this wanders “too close for comfort” to 3rd Century Gnosticism or Calvinism (which I abhor).
However, one can find Biblical verses, here and there, which seem to support that idea. The Psalmist says that “sinners are estranged from the womb” and Jesus famously said of the Pharisees, “You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father will you do.” So, I just have to keep wrestling with this, I suppose.
I think another useful alignment for politics is a spectrum from trusting (“The people I disagree with are basically honest about our policy disagreements”) to paranoid (“The other side doesn’t actually have disagreements with me about policy: they just want to kill people!”)
Along this spectrum most of the political sphere has slid pretty far in the paranoid direction over the last couple decades, and this is an odd one, because political systems don’t work well when everyone is paranoid; but at the same time, it’s always true that a lot of people are not arguing in good faith. There’s a point of balance where things work well: something like “I assume you operate in good faith until I see evidence otherwise” is probably the best that human beings can manage.
I’m also going to add something I haven’t seen discussed as much as I think it should be: there’s another crucial tactic for dealing with psychic attacks: walk away. You mentioned it in the post with backing away from the mass media, but it works in a lot of other contexts as well.
This won’t always be practical, but if the attack is on a smaller scale, or limited to a a specific area, then avoiding it entirely is a viable option, and I think it’s an often overlooked one. I limit my interactions with my family (who have all the usual pathologies of the “upper middle class”); I systematically avoid doctors offices; I try to avoid any exposure to advertising.
All of these are deliberate efforts on my part to avoid toxic people and influences, and I think keeping psychic attacks from reaching you is a far more useful step than most people realize.
JMG # 266:
Well, when I was writing my opinion about Harry Potter world, I’ve been quite time thinking how to say to you I don’t loke HP stuff, politely but expressing it without doubts. Finally, I’ve remembered those words which depicted IMHO very well my view about it.
************
“The Lord is my shepherd…”(Psalm 23): thanks for pointing its use in Christian magic; it really seems to work well for a lot of people, and it has beauty in its words.
————————————
Anon # 270:
Personally I don’t believe very much in conspiracy theories which implies “the powerful people” can make everything happens, but of course psychic defence is always needed, because (more or less powerful), there’s always bad people who tries to harm people around them.
————————-
Patricia M. # 271:
(Slightly off topic). When Trump said he was going to resume nuclear testing, I thought he had said it in a tantrum like he sometimes is…Now I’m starting to doubt it, but let’s wait to see his next moves. I’d like to believe he’s doing his usual Spectacle for domestic/foreign consumers, but I’m not sure of it…
@David P, Snape was the exception I was thinking about, and of course he was an incredibly skilled double agent, wasn’t he? He hid among the alliteratively-named until the very end. He’s the only total exception – you could make cases for Luna Lovegood and Peter Pettigrew as well, and you know, I completely forgot that Quirrell’s first name was Quirinus.
Happy Panda #278
“I have come off as a yapping poodle, haven’t I.”
Not at all; I’m guessing maybe I’m older than you and have been slapped around the head more often through stepping on rakes.
Mainly I’ve found that things come through effort, work and persistence, and of course a little good fortune courtesy of the cosmos. Super easy methods that reckon they need little effort and time have generally seemed like a pitch to the human weaknesses – laziness and wanting something for nothing or next to nothing.
The idea of Shoonya is interesting because it is so different… but it is a passing entertainment rather than a path I would make time to study just now.
Again, don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of repose and conserving energy!
Happy Panda: “*as for me…I think it’s time to practice that most magely of virtues – silence.”
Funny you should say that, I’m in the process of something similar; but given the number of posts I’ve made on this thread, it’s proving to be a longer and slower process than expected! 😉
Dion Fortune writes that the problems start if you let “the other” into your subconscious. I’d say that for most people the persons who fit to the description “has access to subconscious” best are their parents. Which makes me wonder if any effective psychic self-defense can be mustered reliably, if you have a muddled relationship with your parents. From our earliest childhood on we depend with our lives on our parent. And even if we are old enough to take care of ourselves, they have already profoundly shaped the way we are and how we experience the world. And for many adults, their parents still have that power, whether they are alive or not.
Judging from my own experience and observation I’d say that one core aspect of developing some sense of individuality and some power to make your own decisions without guilt or shame or out of the need for praise and admiration is fixing the relationship with your parents and close the door to your subconscious for them. Now probably it is not necessary to undergo family therapy to start occult practice, but I guess if you do and if your parents still have a foothold in your subconscious, it may come to light and be a cause of difficulties on the way.
Again judging from my own observation, I guess the key component is perception. Once I am fully (or at least as far as possible) aware of my parents and their anchors in my subconscious, it becomes possible to deal with it and shut the door (which does not necessarily mean shutting them out of your life, although I know cases where it did).
Which leads me to the question, how far (or deep) do generic banishing rituals like the SOP or the LBRP go? I’m under the impression that to banish something a distinction has to be made between “me” and “not me” or “wanted” and “unwanted”, etc. But what if somebody is not capable of making that distinction? If the sense that something foreign that had been planted there by parents (or anybody else) can’t be detected as “not me” because it is so deeply rooted?
Cheers,
Nachtgurke
Mr. Greer, you may recall my recount of a recent, um .. ‘encounter’ with the comm. garden individual who totally lost it, whilst we were discussing ‘goverment policies’ .. spewing-out what can only be described as a grand-mal leftwing tantrum of virtue signaling & gotcha queries. I finally, in exasperation, called him out on his apparent violent (at least verbally..) actions. He stopped ranting – in mid ‘cant’ .. and then proceeded to walk away, later to come back to give your’s truly a half-handed apology.
So, evidently, I must of utilized a sort of psychic shield to thwart said individual’s assaults upon me person. Honestly, if things had gone kinetic … the only physical protection between me .. and my green, crunchy adversary .. twas my greenhouse raised-bed toppers! Whew!
Random @263
That description of an etheric circuit breaker is interesting. I had a habit of crossing my right ankles over my left ankles when eating. Especially, when eating in company of others and especially in company of others in an uncomfortable setting. Never knew why I would do that, just thought it an insecure habit.
Hi JMG,
I participated in the Scottish Rite 14th degree on Saturday, and I have to say it was a tremendous working. I left feeling something had changed within me, but I won’t know what exactly for quite some time. The Lodge that performed it did a very good job.
Okay, I’ve [maybe] degarbled the garbledness earlier:
If the castle is the body and inner temple, the drawbridge is over the waters of emotion, and the portcullis is the gateway to mind, then working on the energy system (castle) and not working on emotions and thoughts is like standing on the strong ramparts whilst leaving the drawbridge down and the portcullis raised.
@BK #250:
> Maybe catholics are more open to looking beyond the binary than protestants?
A catchphrase in modern Catholic apologetics is that “Catholicism embraces ‘both/and'” (as opposed to either/or). A good example would be the doctrine of the Eucharist: is Jesus bodily present or is it merely a symbol? The Catholic answer would be: it’s a symbol AND Jesus is bodily present – the symbol points to the reality of the Real Presence. It’s also a mystery, which is not to say it’s unknowable, but that it’s a reality that’s inexhaustible that you can never get to the bottom of.
I can enumerate a bunch of other things here – scripture vs. tradition, faith vs. works, evolution vs. creation, etc. Protestantism tends to identify a binary and strictly pit one against the other, whereas Catholicism would go “it’s both of those, and here’s a bunch of other things that you also need to be considering.”
Oh, and if anyone wonders that raising the drawbridge means lack of emotion, or that closing the portcullis means closing the mind, a preemptive rebuttal might be:
Raising the drawbridge does not make one emotionless; all the emotions are still there, but by being ‘raised above’, emotions become a choice not a random flow.
As for closing the portcullis being a closing of the mind; not at all, it is simply a matter of ‘by appointment only’.
🙂
Anon, thanks for this.
Patricia M, apparently that’s already being walked back to tests of delivery systems rather than warheads as such.
BeardTree, yep. It’s sad how many otherwise intelligent people are caught up in some form of Filostrato’s fallacy.
Earthworm, I’d say instead it’s like building your castle walls on soft and shifting soil rather than on firm rock, but other metaphors will also serve.
JillN, glad to hear it.
William, two excellent points!
Nachtgurke, sure, as long as you’re willing to grapple with the unresolved conflicts of your childhood and resolve them, you can practice psychic self-defense no matter how messed up your parents left you. The crucial point is that you have to stop being a child, stop giving your parents the capacity to define how you experience the world, and finish growing up. That’s something everybody can do but many people won’t do. Banishing rituals won’t do that; it requires a different mode of practice (for example, the journaling work of the Order of Spiritual Alchemy).
Polecat, yes, that’s also a mode of psychic self-defense.
Jon, it’s one of the handful of rituals of real power that went into the Scottish Rite system. Glad to hear you got to see it performed well.
Hey JMG
I recently had some urge to go through my belongings in order to find my Tibetan ritual mirror, in order to dabble in scrying. I brought it long ago in some new age store, it’s made of a brass alloy and I reread the pamphlet that came with it, which reminded me that apart from scrying it was used to protect against malevolent spiritual attacks. One would wear it or hang it in a room to shield against or disperse an attack, depending upon whether you arranged it with the convex or concave side facing forward. I recall you mentioning that a similar practice was used in Hoodoo. Can you elaborate on how and why mirrors can be used for psychic self-defence?
https://enlightenmentthangka.com/blogs/thangka/melong-the-mirror-of-wisdom-in-dzogchen-teachings
Also, a long time ago I mentioned that I invented a new method for constructing an approximate Heptagon in a Magic Monday comment about sacred geometry. I just published an article about it on Substack, in case you or the commentariat was interested.
https://jlmc12.substack.com/p/my-novel-heptagon-construction
Reg TM:
@Beadtree
Do you remember the name of the book at all? I’ve just signed up to Vinted (an online selling-platform like ebay), and decided I’d put allmy late teens/early 20s spiritual books up for sale, but decided to keep hold of a few of the TM books I accumulated, one of which was Maharishi’s The Science of Being and the Art of Living. It’s been nearly a decade since I’ve read any of it.
@Northwind Grandma
The most I attended were some group meditations with my teacher over in Wales when I was at university, and a few other groups when I’ve moved around. I never quite liked the huge price tag that they stick on learning TM, I benefitted from quite a large discount as I was a student at the time so it didn’t affect me, but it’s a strange tactic to have the vision of spreading TM everywhere but making it almost financially inconceivable to the majority of people, but as you say the powers became corrupt and greedy.
I do feel drawn to it every now and then, and it definitely helped me through some rough years around grief, and I’m glad to hear how useful it was for you. I think that bringing yourself back to the mantra each time is a great lesson in training the mind not to get distracted, but I my original teacher wasn’t very good in all honesty and brought much of that ‘thoughts are bad’ type teaching which got me off to a very unhelpful start.
Carlos M. # 290:
I think it’s true Catholicism is more beyond binary thinking than Protestantism. For example, catholics usually trust in Scriptures and Tradition, while protestants say “only Scriptures”. There are certain advantages in Roman Catholicism. However, I can also ser IMHO some disadvantages, like the too much centralisation of catholicism in Rome.
@pygmycory, I think underestimating it may be the wrong term and that they have no idea what mental clarity actually is. They just tune in to the herd mind with it’s preconceived images / spectacle and that’s that.
For most people education is simply looking at a part of the spectacle they haven’t seen before. It’s not about training the mind, let alone trying to see and understand the world beyond spectacle.
@Carlos M: Thanks, that sounds like a worldview where cycling fits in perfectly!
–bk
>I think another useful alignment for politics is a spectrum from trusting (“The people I disagree with are basically honest about our policy disagreements”) to paranoid
I think the vernacular is “low trust society” and not paranoid. You’re only paranoid if you *think* they’re out to get you. If they really are out to get you, you’re not being paranoid.
When I quit the reading group on Levi’s book on the Tarot because I couldn’t temporarily adopt an ascetic lifestyle, I reread your advice on how to build will. I saw that my youngest sister, a devout Catholic who prays the rosary daily, had an immense amount of energy that she put into helping poor people and opposing abortion. I decided to establish a daily practice to build will. I use energy work with crystals, because I seem to have a talent for it. I start with short prayers and end with drawing a Tarot card for the day, in part as a way to align myself with it and understand it. I wouldn’t say it’s changed my life, but I feel a little less dragged around by my emotions.
I don’t trust workings; so many things can go wrong with them. I’ve relied on oracles; I usually misunderstand them, but if I revisit them months later, I often see their intent better.
re: low trust society
“Low Trust Society” isn’t just about politics, it’s everything. In a high trust society, you lend your neighbour your power tools, and he gives them back. People are generally trustworthy, and so the default is to trust, and “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
In a low-trust society, lending your tools to a neighbor is for suckers because he’s probably going to pawn them. That is: people are generally untrustworthy, and so the default is suspicion and “do unto others before they can do unto you.”
It goes without saying that a high-trust society is a much more pleasant place to live. Unfortunately, social trust is eroded by two things: economic inequality and cultural diversity. You know the long, long list of things that get worse when inequality goes up leftists like to point to? It’s actually secondary: those are all factors related to social trust, which inequality erodes. Unfortunately, diversity tends to erode trust as well, or at least the most diverse parts of the country have the lowest social trust. (Robert Putnam had a good article on this but refused the obvious conclusion, blaming racism and insisting people could be trained not to exhibit ingroup preference; maybe he’s right, but in the world we live in, the data shows diversity erodes trust. That’s why big business pushes it: more diverse workplaces are also harder to unionize. That’s been leaked as an explicit strategy from a few corpos now.)
I’m not sure how it’s going in the USA, but that combination of soaring inequality and population replacement is why Canada is speedrunning a transition from high-trust to low-trust society right now. It doesn’t help that imported underclass has no reason to trust or be trustworthy, having mostly been brought in on a passel of lies and exploited. (Since they aren’t from a high-trust society, that doesn’t help either. If they were getting a square deal and encouraged to integrate we could build that trust, but doing that won’t maximize shareholder value.)
It certainly looks from the outside like politics in the USA is lower-trust than it used to be. Unfortunately your Constitution was explicitly written for a high-trust society (or “a moral and religious people” as John Adams put it).
Long-time reader, first time commenter. Rosary. I was baptized at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Los Altos by Father Stanley Reilly, who according to my mother was fierce man always urging the rosary and Marian devotions for the parishioners. Fr Reilly was an Army chaplain in PI, captured by the Japanese, survived the Bataan Death March, several years of captivity (the Japanese often cut out the priest’s tongue, say mass now!), and one of the Hell Ships taking American POWS to Japan. A survivor’s story:
During the night of July 24, the ship was rocked by a terrific explosion. This was followed by depth charges being dropped. The ship was shaking and I could picture the bulkhead giving way and the sea pouring in on us. In desperation, we all started up the ladder. The man who climbed up first was pounding on the hatch above and we were all yelling for someone to open it. I was thankful to God that someone finally did open it. Fortunately the Japs were so busy up topside that we all got back in the upper hold quickly and without being seen. We thought our ship had been hit. We discovered that a large oil tanker just off our starboard side had been torpedoed. Through the narrow hatch opening above, we could see the sky was flaming red. The guards surrounded the hold with their machine guns and with hand grenades around their necks. Men were screaming, some were crying, and some myself included, were praying out loud. We did not know it then, but the greatest danger at that moment in time was being killed by the Japs if we tried to go topside. A Catholic chaplain, Father Stanley Reilly, probably saved our lives, as many of us were about to attempt just that. We did not want to die like a bunch of pack rats in a trap. One of the things the priest said was that surely the Americans knew we were on board for this ship and they would not hit our ship. He then asked us to pray with him, and then he recited the “Hail Mary.” As he repeated it, many joined him. As he went on, his voice became less and less vocal. Soon it was so quiet in the hold that the noise of the depth charges were clearly heard, but our fear had subsided.
I believe Fr Reilly passed this practice to me. This old practice has brought light into many dark nights. I will often ask my guardian angel to contact Fr Reilly and ask him to join me in prayer for a specific intention. Lastly, my final job contracting was working on Sacred Heart Church in Oakland. I found myself thinking about Fr Reilly constantly, I looked into the history of the parish: it was Fr Reilly’s (Msgr by that time) last parish.
I greatly appreciate this site.
@Tobes
I read the book decades ago and have no recall of the title. It definitely wasn’t The Science of Being and the Art of Living. You may know that the puja done before you receive your mantra in TM is a full on invocation of Hindu deities and the deceased guru of Maharishi. Translation easily available online.
Per JMG: “Filostrato’s fallacy” I searched for a definition without success. I’m probably not the only one. I also tried Philostratus, but had no luck there either. Could you explain what this is?
@Tobes One of the young men I knew back in the my TM days spoke sorrowfully of a mental breakdown with permanent after effects he suffered while on a long intensive TM retreat. He still kept the faith and meditated faithfully. An experienced TM teacher spoke once about damaged meditators he had encountered kept around during work in the background in the European organization. Recently 2.6 million dollars were paid to students for religious rights violation who had been taught TM in public schools. https://religionnews.com/2025/05/09/hindu-religious-coercion-lawsuit-in-chicago-settled-for-2-6-million/
@Tobes
Found something “The quote comes from Maharishi’s 1955 book, Beacon Light of the Himalayas (also published as A Beacon Light of the Himalayas and other similar titles), where he stated:
“For our practice, we select only the suitable mantras of personal Gods. Such mantras fetch to us the grace of personal Gods and make us happier in every walk of life”. “
off topic, but…
the government shutdown in the USA looks like a bigger deal than normal, and SNAP is being affected this time. If that goes on, that looks like something that could have major impacts on tens of millions of people. Is anyone here being hit by this?
“The crucial point is that you have to stop being a child, stop giving your parents the capacity to define how you experience the world, and finish growing up. ”
And Mother has never forgiven me.
I added to the Commandment; Honor your father and mother that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life on the earth. If you find that you truly cannot move away rather than provoke endless battles.
One of my great grandfathers had to move from Prague to Wisconsin to find peace. I only had to move from Wisconsin to Idaho.
Hi John Michael,
The magazine business sadly died an unnatural death at the hands of the interweb masters. I used to write for some hippy publications over a lot of years, and it was always fun. Mad Magazine would have faced the same economic problems for sure. In many ways your country has it’s own distinct humour, and National Lampoon was a hoot as well just for another example. I know you don’t like visual media, but the ‘Animal House’ and ‘American Vacation’ films were just so wrong, they were right. And that lot did some good books like ‘Bored of the Rings’, or ‘Doon’. Quite amusing, but different from English humour like Monty Python, or say The Goodies. Australian humour is different again, and often the characters are naively larger than life, like Crocodile Dundee. It’s a wide playing field.
Mind you, as a display of the difference between inherent competency and reliance upon technology, as a theoretical experiment we could chuck Harry Potter in with Cugel the Clever for a cage fight. I know who my money would be on. 😉 I now rest my case, and retire from the field with honours.
Cheers
Chris
I only ever read the first Harry Potter book, and only quite casually as a teenager. I think I never really got into it as I was a couple of years older than its target audience at the time. It seemed to me that it was really just a boarding school novel dressed up in a kind of fantasy veneer.
@earthworm and @scotty,
I found my notes… JMG had said Leon Eeman had also written about it, though I’ve not read his work yet.
About excessively mindfulness and other mind-emptying meditations resulting in people responding to their thoughts passively, there was a severe scandal in one branch of Tibetan Buddhism in North America a few decades ago. Severe as in actions of the head of the lineage caused the death of 3 or 4 students. My own lama commented later that he thought that the passive form of meditation that branch had used had helped make that community (sangha) unable to prevent such incidents.
On the other hand, I wonder if the problem is not those types of meditations but the intentions they are used with. I have known experienced Zen practitioners who clearly were better people, for themselves and for others, thanks to their practice.
When one does mindfulness meditation in a corporate context, the permanently underlying intention, even if mostly left unsaid, is that the norms of the corporation be left unchallenged. Also, to serve that corporate need, all the ego elements, all the personality patterns that one has and that serve the corporate structure are also left unchallenged. That Westernized Asian spiritual practice is primarily a professional managerial class phenomenon reinforces this. (Ethnic Asian spiritual practice in the West is a different kettle of fish.)
In Buddhism, ego works in three ways: attachment/desire, indifference, and aversion/anger. Wrong use of meditation may lessen one’s attachment and aversion, but leave one swimming in indifference. The difference between indifference and equanimity is profound, but not always obvious.
Come to think of it, in Tibetan Buddhism I learned any number of trinaries, but few binaries and even then they were depolarized. (Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form)
>Unfortunately your Constitution was explicitly written for a high-trust society
But wait, there’s more! Along with democracy having limits of scale, it also requires a minimum IQ level from the general populace. And if that IQ level falls below some critical threshold, the populace will vote someone in who will remove their ability to choose.
pygmycory @ 306. I am not personally affected, not being a user of public assistance. I take leave to say that I would much rather see public funds spent on feeding people than on invading Venezuela. The governor of NY is releasing state emergency finds to help, but those funds will be going to food banks and similar outlets. How clueless can one woman be? Some folks have jobs from 9-4, which is when the food pantries tend to be open. Some have to be home when kids get home from school. It is getting cold now and persons in distress don’t necessarily have winter clothing. I tried to ask at city hall if they could have someplace centrally located where people like me could drop off canned goods. I pointed out that while I can feed myself, I am not able to feed my neighbors. It looks to me that most folks where I live simply don’t believe this is for real.
Phutatorius (#303), Filostrato is a character in C. S. Lewis’ novel “That Hideous Strength.” When we first meet him he has just invented an aluminum tree; he’s planning on cutting down all the natural trees and replacing them with his model. He ultimately develops (he thinks) a way to keep a person’s head alive after beheading – it turns out it’s actually Satan animating the head. His ultimate fate is to be sacrificed to Satan using his own beheading apparatus.
J.L.Mc12, you’ll need to ask a Tibetan Buddhist. That’s not a trick I know.
Tom, if that works for you, by all means.
Lawrence, thanks for this.
Phutatorius, it’s a reference to the character from CS Lewis’s novel That Hideous Strength, which OP mentioned.
Pygmycory, I’ll be interested to see what responses your question gets. Nobody I know has been affected by it, for whatever that’s worth.
Siliconguy, there’s that. It’s not accidental that Sara and I moved to the other side of the continent from our families.
Chris, I’m trying to think of a Jack Vance character who couldn’t mop the floor with Harry Potter, and failing. Perhaps you can think of one.
MawKernewek, that’s exactly what it was. Rowling did a mashup of the generic British public-school novel with the generic fantasy novel. Really big pop-literature bestsellers are usually some such rehash of the familiar in some slightly new combination.
Jessica, that makes perfect sense. I’m well aware that in traditional Zen practice, for example, zazen is only one of several disciplines that the monk practices, and some of the others help balance out the tendency to mindlessness that too much shikan-taza can have by itself; furthermore, the concept of “Zen sickness” (that is, mental illness caused by too much meditation) is well known in such circles. It’s when the practice is pulled out of context and put to work in the service of the Western corporate ego that things get toxic.
My apologies for posting at the very end of the week – I tend to show up late to most everything. However, I have been very interested in this topic for some time and had a few questions and comments brewing in my mind all week.
The thought of defending one’s heart, mind, and soul against malign influences has been of great concern to me lately. Darkness and madness rises withing our cultural spectacle, and in my personal life I have someone who seems to base their life around wishing me ill – to the point they seem to be destroying their own life because they can’t focus on trying to improve their own circumstances. And, indeed, I’ve learned never to return malice with malice and let their karma work itself out, but in the meantime I’d like to defend myself and my home and family as much as possible. Disengaging from their little soap opera spectacle is always the most effective method, so now I just need to do it.
So, to begin, I have, after reading this post and finding very little about the workings I had hoped for you to describe, after some reflection I have realized that perhaps its time for me to stop using those as a crutch and start focusing on discursive meditation. For some strange reason I’ve always resisted it – I’m going to say perhaps subconscious monsters and external parasites didnt want me taking a good look at myself? I’ve done mindfulness (mindlessness) meditation, which was a decent enough introduction to meditation but does really kind of dead end you – great for dealing with trauma and acting as a tranquilizer but little else. I’ve been doing the healing breath meditation as part of the MoE course, which has been very helpful. But when Regine suggested we swap over to the discursive meditation after the apprentice attunements, I chose to stick with the healing breath. She offered the choice, but now I wonder if I made the right one. Dont get me wrong, I intend to continue the practice, but I feel its time start daily discursive meditations.
My question to you is what you would recommend I begin to focus on. My first instinct is to start with the phrases “I am not my thoughts,” “I am not my feelings,” and “I am not my desires.” Do I simply sit, and repeat these phrases and see what thoughts arise, and then return to them regularly? I know I should have picked up the basics by know given how long I have been practicing and reading here, but… again, I think I may have an entity or thought process or spectacle of some sort actively trying to divert me from the most effective means of reestablishing sovereignty over my thoughts and feelings. The point is, I wish to now. Any suggestions of further material to meditate upon is appreciated. I am inclined toward classical philosophy, both hindu or greco-roman, and I might start with Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, as that one is…. well, rather obvious, isn’t it? But any advice and guidance is appreciated.
I had rather hoped for more workings in this post, but then I realized I already have access to plenty. Sphere of Protection, lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram…. I was curious though, about holy water. Specifically how to make it. Then I thought… you know there was this former catholic priest, who wrote under the name of Eliphas Levi, whose book I read alongside our book club here, and I recall something to that effect under the elemental magics… Sure enough, I looked it up, and I believe the four elemental workings are in fact the instructions for creating holy water. The very simplified recipe is essentially the ash of sacred blessed incense, mixed with blessed salt, dissolved in blessed water. Am I close to the mark here?
Thank you as ever for your hard work and guidance in these wild times.
Filostrato’s fallacy. Ha! I read “That Hideous Strength” a few years ago, but forgot about Filostrato. But I do remember reading some law review articles back about 25 years ago about plastic trees replacing real trees. It was a move by telephone companies to hide cellular antennas inside these plastic trees. The telecom act of 1995, which was heavily promoted by the phone companies (where I worked) prohibited community objections to cell towers based on health concerns. The only community objections that would be considered were those based on aesthetic considerations. Thus, by hiding a cell tower inside a plastic tree, you could get around the community’s objection. So, Filostrato’s aluminum trees weren’t that far off.
Mawkernewak#309
I agree with you on Harry Potter books. I saw one film of the series so there is neither depth nor breadth of understanding here. I quite enjoyed it as I used to love boarding school stories as a kid. I have never really warmed to fantasy or science fiction. The target audience is about 12 years old, so no wonder adults find it a bit boring, although I have read some books for that age and really enjoyed them.
Don’t forget about the fake Christmas trees that American like to put out over the Christmas holidays, many of which do actually contain aluminum back in the day:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_Christmas_tree
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminum_Christmas_tree
Re: Holy Water
Quite a few people have asked about Holy Water, so I thought I should weigh in.
In the Orthodox church, holy water is simply water which has been blessed. With us, there are two “kinds” of Holy Water.
The first kind is what we commonly call “Theophany Water.” This is water which has been blessed on the Feast of the Theophany each year. Depending on which Orthodox church you go to, this feast either falls on January 6 (for those parishes on teh Gregorian Calendar) or on January 19 (for parishes which remain on the old Julian Calendar). After the Divine Liturgy, the priest blesses several vats of water in a service known as the Great Blessing of the Waters. This Holy Water can be used as a lesser substitute for Holy Communion if one is travelling to a place where there are no Orthodox Churches available.
There is also a service (which can be performed at any time), called the Lesser Sanctification of the Water:
https://www.goarch.org/-/the-order-for-the-lesser-sanctification-of-the-water
Holy Water in both instances can be used for blessing homes and banishing evil spirits.
For those who are not Orthodox, you can approach a parish priest and ask, and he will likely provide you with Holy Water if you ask with belief and good faith. The Eucharist itself is restricted to baptised Orthodox Christians, but Holy Water is not so restricted.
Re other axes along which to map political differences, here is the one that I most regularly examine when informing myself about any given political issue.
This would be the axis that lies between people who most aspire to Govern Others and the people who most aspire to Govern Themselves.
(Of course the axis is a continuum, like all other axes).
Holy Water, I have a few stories about its uses and benefits. I worked at a commercial development in Berkeley, part of my crew’s job included dealing with the homeless and drug-damaged. One cold February morning our lead guy Louis calls me, we have a live one across from Peet’s Coffee. I tell him to meet me there, be my witness and backup. I arrive to find him and the ruin of a once attractive woman, drug-damaged at least. Trash scattered at her feet, I ask her to gather her belongings, then we usually offered a few dollars for coffee and a snack but she starts going off at me in gibbberish. I ask Louis, what is she saying? He is from Louisiana, knows about gris gris and the like, he says she’s putting a spell on you. Wait, let me go to my truck, a friend brought me Holy Water and some Rosary beads back from Rome, blessed by the pope, I’ll get the Water. The woman has her overcoat on and is walking away when I return, still mumbling, from 5′ behind her I toss some Holy Water on her back. She screams like nothing I’ve ever heard and runs away. Louis asks, can I have some of that? We both “carry” now. There are other instances where we used it. Ruach hakodesh, Holy Spirit, God, ruach hatumah, unclean spirits, they are out there.