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Perceptual Distortion and Deception in Occultism

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick,alt.tarot
From: nagasiva 
Subject: Perceptual Distortion and Deception in Occultism
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 21:41:07 GMT

50030617 VIII (Y2006 Piscean Age?) [attributions left as is]

"Tom" :
# "jk" :
#> eyeofhoor@yahoo.com (Prophet 718):
#> while yelling "victory" all the way down:
#>
#># , allow me to express our deepest gratitude for
#># the two-ton magic brick you have added to the Tower.
#>
#> That particular brick is actually made out of cardboard, 
#> like the rest of the Thelemic Tower.

Babble-On's Card Tower!

# Yeah, but it has "TWO TONS" written on it.  That's enough to 
# convince some occultists of its weight.  Especially if it 
# looks like those words were written on it a long time ago.  

they might even be written on it in some supposed ancient
language (but the gods don't reveal that the language as
presented really means 'bright red cabbage').

# And if your scales don't show that weight, they will tell 
# you that this kind of weight isn't detectable by your
# inferior materialistic technology.

or that weight is something that the observer doesn't *really*
understand, its mass and the way it pulls to ground is 'just
an illusion that the observer must somehow overcome' (a test
set up by the God for winnowing True Masters from fakes --
compare Creationism with archaeological data).

# Belief often has nothing to do with evidence and everything 
# to do with a personal agenda....
# http://www.apa.org/books/4318830s.html
#>
#>Cognitive Dissonance: Progress on a Pivotal Theory 
#>                       in Social Psychology
#>Edited by Eddie Harmon-Jones and Judson Mills 

belief has something to do with personal subjective
empiricism (as regards subjective effects), however
reliably reported by the mystic. belief usually does
have to do with a personal agenda, though it doesn't
have to (one might suspend this for one's own 
reasons: for discussion in this forum for example).

usually the empirical method is as good as the perceptual 
state of the observer (of course enhanced toward the ideal
of objectivity with peer review), and many mystical and 
occult methods include states or practices that inspire 
perceptual distortions for the purpose of result that
make unbiased reports difficult to find. 

if one combines the ostensibly stigmatizing admission 
of the use of some kind of psychoactive, to facilitate 
suspension of disbelief or maybe the enabling of enhanced 
imaginative effects as it impacts waking consciousness,
with the widespread standard of 'protecting the unwary
from powerful occult (or mystical) technology', it is
no wonder that most information on practical occultism
and shamanic explorations are incomplete, extremely
biased, and completely ungrounded. neither do these
make reporting reliable (because they are often twisted
by the very methods which make the data available), 
nor do they predispose the skeptical to regard them 
with a great degree of reliability (having learned long
ago the problems of confusing the visionary with the real).

nagasiva

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