Path: typhoon.sonic.net!not-for-mail Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick,alt.tarot Followup-To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick Subject: Perceptual Distortion and Deception in Occultism References: <3EBF0AD4.BA70B8A4@luckymojo.com> <10cff505.0306021244.7fe8dd6b@posting.google.com> <10cff505.0306042316.792e1540@posting.google.com> <10cff505.0306090439.3bdb5a74@posting.google.com> From: nagasiva Reply-To: spam@luckymojo.com User-Agent: nn/6.6.0 Lines: 71 Message-ID: Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 21:41:07 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 208.201.242.18 X-Complaints-To: abuse@sonic.net X-Trace: typhoon.sonic.net 1055886067 208.201.242.18 (Tue, 17 Jun 2003 14:41:07 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 14:41:07 PDT Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.magick.tyagi:40136 alt.magick:349438 alt.pagan.magick:37563 alt.tarot:117219 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