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-
- The following texts are out of Pete Carroll's forthcoming book
- "Liber Kaos, The Psychonomicon" (Weiser).
-
-
- SLEIGHT OF MIND
-
- The conscious mind is a maelstrom of fleeting thoughts, images,
- sensations, feelings, conflicting desires and doubts; barely able to
- confine its attention to a single clear objective for a microsecond
- before secondary thoughts begin to adulterate it and provoke yet
- further trains of mental discourse. If you do not believe this then
- attempt to confine your conscious attention to the dot at the end of
- this sentence without involving yourself in any other form of
- thinking, including thinking about the dot.
-
- Sleight of Mind means using the more stable thoughts, feelings,
- sensations and images stored in the subconscious or unconscious
- parts of the mind to launch or receive aetheric patterns. Tricks
- have to be used here, because if those things in the subconscious
- are brought into the focus of the conscious they will not be
- magically effective. On the other hand, they have to be released or
- activated somehow at a level just below conscious awareness for in
- their normal memory storage mode, which is an abstract code, they
- are not magically effective either.
-
- Thus the magician has to occupy his conscious mind with something
- which somehow activates his intent in his subconscious without
- consciously reminding him of what it is. This is basic Sleight of
- Mind. Though this seem paradoxical or impossible, there are many
- tricks in the lore of magic which make it easier in practice. Some
- consideration will be given to Sleight of Mind in each five
- classical magical operations.
-
-
-
- SLEIGHT OF MIND IN ENCHANTMENT
-
- Most traditional magical spells demand that the operator confine his
- attention to some abstract or analogical representation of what he
- wants to achieve. For example, to cause dissention amongst one's
- foe, one might name a number of stones with their names, or better
- still some abstract form of their names, and then whilst
- hysterically angry, batter the stones together. The hysterical anger
- functions partly to block conscious thought and add force to the
- subconscious desire. What many conventional texts fail to mention is
- that during the magical act one must avoid consciously thinking or
- fantasising about desired result. Thus the anger should be
- stimulated by some means other than thinking of one's foes, and if
- one wishes to shout something out during the battering of the stones
- it should be a consciously unintelligible statement. Even the desire
- read backwards may suffice. It is possible to use an inhibitory
- rather than an ecstatic means of preventing thought and channelling
- power to the subconscious. In this case the magician attempts to
- limit his conscious attention entirely to the performance of the
- enchantment by yoga type exercises and sensory deprivation to still
- the mind. This is usually a more difficult approach to enchantment
- for most magicians.
-
- If, in the above example, the battered stones are subsequently
- placed in a pouch as a talisman to reinforce the original spell,
- then the magician must also avoid consciously thinking about
- whatever it represents whenever he subsequently attempts to "charge"
- it again.
-
- All the spells which work are variants of this basic technique and
- work by the same basic mechanism. Baroque systems of symbol and
- correspondance are generally unnecessary. Effective spells can be
- created simply by modifying written, drawn, modelled or spoken
- representations of desire until they become consciously
- unintelligible. The subconscious will, of course, always know what
- the resulting sigil, diagram, artifact or mantra is actually for.
- Excellent results are often obtained by magicians who make up a
- collection of spells over a period and then perform them at a later
- date having consciously forgotten what they were for.
-
-
- SLEIGHT OF MIND IN DIVINATION
-
- There are three elements to be considered in divination; the target,
- the means of obtaining information about it and the interpretation
- of the information. It is essential that the target does not enter
- the field of conscious awareness during the obtaining of information
- about it, or the result will merely consist of ordinary thoughts,
- fantasies and guesses. Similarly the method of obtaining the
- information should preclude the interference of conscious thought.
- There are two basic methods for achieving this, sortiledge and
- hallucination.
-
- Sortilege procedures involve shuffling cards, rolling dice, casting
- bones or sticks or coins and similar methods. The principle here is
- that minute movements initiated by the subconscious will provide a
- mechanism by which the subconscious can communicate its psychic
- knowledge. Hallucinatory methods work in a similar fashion, the
- operator will gaze for example into a black mirror or a chalice of
- water and wait for his subconscious to reveal its psychic knowledge
- by optical hallucination. Other senses can also be used. For example
- a mixture of the four basic tastes can be imbibed to see which of
- the tastes predominates for any question, a previous attribution of,
- for example, sweet to yes, salt to probably, sour to probably not,
- and bitter to no, having been previously established. Whichever
- method is used, it is important that the subconscious is thoroughly
- informed of the target and that no conscious deliberation take place
- during the divination. One effective hallucinatory technique is to
- write the name of the target or better still draw an abstract sigil
- representing it, on the back of a black mirror. Any visions
- experienced whilst gazing blankly into it should be recorded by a
- machine or scribe. The interpretation can then safely be made in
- full conscious awareness afterwards, much as a spell is deliberately
- planned beforehand.
-
- Careful observation will confirm that virtually all spontaneous
- parapsychological events occur through some form of sleight of mind.
- It is invariably something hovering just below the threshold of
- awareness that initiated an unusual event or gave one a curious half
- sensed feeling that something was about to happen just before it
- did. The magician seeks to exploid this effect deliberately, but in
- doing so he must avoid doing it deliberately as it were. Conscious
- lust of result destroys magical effect, so trickery must be employed
- to annul it and to activate the subconscious.
-
- There are dangers inherent in the development of the sleight of mind
- technique for enchantment and divination. It is easy to become
- obsessed with what might or might not lurk just below the threshold
- of consciousness waiting to be triggered by a stray analogical
- thought. Thus a feeling of omnipotence can begin to develop,
- particularly if the magician starts to misinterpret divination as
- enchantment and comes to feel that everything going on around him is
- the result of his subconscious desires. The final madness begins
- when one starts interpreting even the disasters which befall one as
- expressions of what one must really have wanted. Paranoia can also
- become a vicious downward spiral. Those who harbour subconscious
- fears of things going wrong, or going against them, will find it
- remarkably easy to actually make things go badly for themselves with
- even a small degree of expertise at sleight of mind. The only
- defence against pitfalls is to adhere to the formal techniques of
- enchantment and divination, to ignore random results where possible,
- or to accept them with laughter, and as a general principle to think
- positive at all times, for such thoughts will permeate down to the
- subconscious,
-
-
- SLEIGHT OF MIND IN EVOCATION
-
- There are three elements involved in evocation, the implantation of
- the entity in the subconscious, the empowerment of the entity and
- the direction of the entity to various tasks. The implantation can
- be effected either by an extended effort of fantasy and imagination
- or by a more formal ritual in which the entity is visualised
- exercising the general types of power which the magician wishes it
- to have. The empowerment, which can form the climax to a ritual,
- consists of the magician confining his attention to the material
- basis of the entity, or some sigil, mantra, glyph or other abstract
- or analogical representation of it, whilst in full gnosis. Sexual
- gnosis is often used here as the symbolism of creating a being,
- albeit a non material one, is particularly appropriate; although,
- for reasons to be discussed in the sex magic section, it is
- generally unwise to empower entities with destructive capabilities
- in this manner. When directing an entity to perform a particular
- task it is usually more effective to use sleight of mind techniques
- rather than consciously meaningful commands. For example the
- magician can make the desired command into a mantra or sigil and
- recite or visualise these onto the material basis or visualised
- image of the entity.
-
- Evoked entities should never be allowed to exceed the powers that
- the magician built into them, nor should the magician attempt to add
- extra capabilities to existing entities without careful
- consideration of the consequences. Evoked entities are the magicians
- servitors, he is their master, if he starts accepting advice from
- them the results can be disastrous. Four entities are usually
- sufficient. One for execution of complex enchantments, one for
- divinations where simple techniques may not suffice, one for magical
- defense, and also attack if necessary, and perhaps a fourth for
- works of Octarine Magic.
-
-
- SLEIGHT OF MIND IN INVOCATION
-
- Invocation is a three stage process. Firstly the magician
- consciously identifies with what is traditionally called a god-form,
- secondly he enters gnosis and thirdly the magicians subconsciousness
- manifests the powers of the god-form. A successful invocation means
- nothing less than full "possession" by the god-form. With practice
- the first stage of conscious identification can be abbreviated
- greatly to the point where it may only be necessary to concentrate
- momentarily on a well used god-form. God-forms may usefully be
- thought of as archetypal manifestations of basic human drives
- present in all individuals and available via aetheric resonance from
- the acts and thoughts of all other humans. The pagans were sensible
- enough to build the whole of human psychology into most of their
- pantheons and to develop archetypal images to represent all of the
- various selves that the human organism is composed of. It is for
- this reason that classical pagan sybolism is so often used by
- magicians. However there is always a perfectly adequate amount of
- sex, violence, love, intellectual brilliance, death and everything
- else going on in the world at any time for the magician to establish
- aetheric resonance with, if he wishes to work in a more free form
- manner.
-
- Basically two forms of subconscious activity have to be brought into
- play simultaneously for a successful invocation. The emotions must
- be selectively aroused to add power. This often begins consciously
- by an effort of deliberate simulation during the conscious
- identification phase and then forms a vital part of the gnosis
- phase, but it must develop its own momentum during the possession
- phase when the conscious lets the subconscious take over. The other
- subconscious faculty required appears to be located in the normally
- rather quiet right cerebral hemisphere. This must be induced to
- channel up the genius of whatever is invoked and to give it form and
- expression. The only certain technique here is to carefully prepare
- the ritual so that all the necessary physical materials and mental
- ideas and beliefs are available and then throw yourself
- wholeheartedly into it with a supreme effort of method acting. Fake
- it till you make it, as comprehensively as possible, until you get
- more out than you appear to be putting in. I am not satisfied by an
- invocation unless I am surprised by the result. Basically one is
- calling the gods, the archetypal forces, up out of oneself and from
- the collective aetheric of the human race and only if they exceed
- one's expectations should the operation be regarded as successful.
- One of the most important sleight of mind tricks in invocation
- hinges on the curious relationship of ritual to belief. My fellow
- humans, it is my unfortunate duty to point out that we have greater
- propensity to believe what we do, than to do what we believe. All
- philosophy is biography; force someone to perform military or
- religious rituals and they will come to believe that they are a
- soldier or a religious devotee. Our beliefs are largely formed by
- what we find ourselves doing. The magician, however, exploids this
- mechanism to his advantage. He starts with an idea of what he wants
- to believe and then selects a ritual and a god-form in which he acts
- as though such beliefs are true. By performing them he alters his
- belief deliberately. Perhaps it would be better to say that he
- provides himself with a range of beliefs which he can invoke
- selectively to enable himself as circumstances demand. He should be
- capable of the actions which stem from the beliefs that he is a
- superb lover, a courageous and efficient warrior, an intellectual
- genius, a brilliant businessman, is supremely likable and
- charismatic and indeed anything else which might be useful.
-
- Mastery of sleight of mind in invocation brings with it some
- dangers. The main thing is to avoid is excessive identification with
- any particular form which seems to yield good results. If a
- particular invoked form seems to be dominating a magicians entire
- existence, it is essential that he try something else as well,
- preferably something quite different, as an alternative. Otherwise
- he faces a long-term narrowing of his humanity which may well prove
- effective in the short term, but which leads inexorably to sterility
- and failure. The magician should also be aware of god-forms which
- begin to exceed the purposes for which they were invoked. There are
- many selves within us, we are all cases of multiple personality
- though generally unafflicted with the amnesia which is the hallmark
- of clinical manifestations of this condition. Sanity is a state in
- which our component selves love and trust each other and are
- prepared to let each other assume control as circumstances demand.
- If a particular self, enhanced by invocation, begins to seriously
- encroach on the functions of the other selves, it is a sign that
- something is going wrong, the basic self-love which binds the selves
- together is breaking down and demons will arise as a result. A demon
- is a god acting out of turn.
-
-
- SLEIGHT OF MIND IN ILLUMINATION
-
- Only those forms of illumination which lead to useful behaviour
- changes deserve to be known as such. When I hear the word
- "spirituality", I tend to reach for a loaded wand. Most
- professionally spiritual people are vile and untrustworthy when off
- duty, simply because their beliefs conflict with basic drives and
- only manage to distort their natural behaviour temporarily. The
- demons then come screaming up out of the cellar at unexpected
- moments.
-
- When selecting objectives for illumination, the magician should
- choose forms of self improvement which can be precisely specified
- and measured and which effect changes of behaviour in his entire
- existence. Invocation is the main tool in illumination, although
- enchantment where spells are cast upon oneselves and divination to
- seek objectives for illumination may also find some application.
- Evocation can sometimes be used with care, but there is no point in
- simply creating an entity that is the repository of what one wishes
- were true for oneself in general. This is a frequent mistake in
- religion. Forms of worship which create only entities in the
- subconscious are inferior to more wholehearted worship, which, at
- its best, is pure invocation. The Jesuits "Imitation of Christ" is
- more effective than merely praying to Jesus for example.
-
- Illumination proceeds in the same general manner as invocation,
- except that the magician is striving to effect specific changes to
- his everyday behaviour, rather than to create enhanced facilities
- that can be drawn upon for particular purposes. The basic technique
- remains the same, the required beliefs are identified and then
- implanted in the subconscious by ritual or other acts. Such acts
- force the subconscious acquisition of the beliefs they imply.
-
- Modest and realistic objectives are preferable to grandiose schemes
- in illumination. One modifies the behaviour and beliefs of others by
- beginning with only the most trivial demands. The same applies to
- oneselves. The magician should beware of implanting beliefs whose
- expression cannot be sustained by the human body or the environment.
- For example it is possible to implant the belief that flight can be
- achieved without an aircraft. However it has rarely proved possible
- to implant this belief deeply enough to ensure that such flights
- were not of exceedingly short duration. Nevertheless such feats as
- fire-walking and obliviousness to extreme pain are sometimes
- achieved by this mechanism.
-
- The sleight of mind which implants belief through ritual action is
- more powerful than any other weapon that humanity possesses, yet its
- influence is so pervasive that we seldom notice it. It makes
- religions, wars, cults and cultures possible. It has killed
- countless millions and created our personal and social realities.
- Those who understand how to use it on others can be messiahs or
- dictators, depending on their degree of personal myopia. Those who
- understand how to apply it to themselves have a jewel beyond price
- if they use it wisely; otherwise they tend to rapidly invoke their
- own Nemesis with it.
-
-
- SLEIGHT OF MIND IN DEMONOLOGY
- A surprise addition. "Liber Boomerang"
-
- A god ignored is a demon born.
-
- Think you to hypertrophy some selves at the expense of others?
-
- That which is denied gains power, and seeks strange and unexpected
- forms of manifestation.
-
- Deny Death and other forms of Suicide will arise.
-
- Deny Sex and bizzarre forms of its expression will torment you.
-
- Deny Love and absurd sentimentalities will disable you.
-
- Deny Aggression only to stare eventually at the bloody Knife in your
- shaking hand.
-
- Deny honest Fear and Desire only to create senseless neuroticism and
- avarice.
-
- Deny Laughter and the world laughs at you.
-
- Deny Magic only to become a confused robot, inexplicable even unto
- yourself.
-
- ---
- * Origin: ChaosBox: Nothing is true -> all is permitted... (2:243/2)
-
-