"HOW TO USE MAGICK WITH A STRAIGHT FACE" (C) 1989 by Scot Rhoads, all rights reserved MYSTIC MOON Metaphysical Books, NEW MOON RISING journal & BBS 8818 Troy St., Spring Vly, CA 91977 (619) 466-8064; BBS: 466-5403 "People that eat blowfish are stupid. People that do not eat blowfish are also stupid." --Japanese proverb With the advent of the New Age, many people are airing great new ways to change your life for the better. These ideas are based on the premise that we have total control of our lives on some level. All we need do is reach that level with our desires. This is, of course, the big challenge. You can read millions of words on that subject. Why is there so much information? Because achieving this kind of control is a very individual thing. There are so many different ways that each person could write his own book. To succeed, each must find his own path. The reason there are instructions at all, though, is because each can find guidance in the successes of others. Magick is one of these many guides. This file is relatively short because it concentrates less on the myriad details of magick and more on how to find your own path. The task is never as easy as it sounds, but it is not complex, either. With straight forward exercises (good, honest work on your Self) you will achieve whatever you desire. We all have this power. The way we use it is not by gaining a new ability, but by getting out of the way of the ability we already have. This book outlines the basic blocks and the kinds of things to do about them. But, as with any advice, it is up to you to honestly assess your own situation and discover what works best for you. Remember, achieving your personal Power is everyone's path in life. You will succeed, it is only a question of when. This book is designed to bring that success more quickly and, overall, more easily. Many people these days still appeal to the "booga-booga" aspect of magick: "We will grant you incredible powers to use on whomever you please if you send us money." As we enter into the New Age of understanding, people are learning that occult powers are actually a natural part of everyone's life. It is our goal to help this process along. We hope to teach newcomers what magick is about. This book is written not only to inform, but also to circumvent the psychological barriers set up by living in a mechanistic society. The mechanistic paradigm (the idea that each person and object is totally separate from the rest of the universe except through physical interaction) precludes magick (non-physically affecting one's environment). The magickal paradigm states that your beliefs create your reality. This choice is like contemplating eating blowfish-- when you analyze it, you can conclude that adopting either paradigm is stupid. Since you can't please everyone else, pick the one that you like best. If (and only if) the magickal paradigm appeals to you, then choose it. Then the trick is to get out of the mind- set that says that magick is impossible. We hope that you will try some exercises to prove to yourself that magick works. Once you have done so, then you are on the way to achieving anything you desire. Power Power can be a very misleading term. The way most people mean it is in the sense of "power-over." People recognize power as the ability to get others to do what you want, especially when these others have different ideas. This is not Power (with a capital 'P') at all. When you rely on someone else to do something for you, you give your Power to him. This is very different from doing something *with* someone, then both parties gain. But, to believe that you must force or trick another is to say that you need this person to do something that you cannot. You may steal their power (lower case) but you give away your Power. Power is, among other things, the innate ability to bring whatever you truly desire into your life. When you "make" others manifest them for you, you create blocks in your own mind. These blocks say "I cannot do this myself," which obstructs your Power. This is "giving away your Power." When you "take your Power," you accept responsibility for your life. This is not guilt or martyrdom, it is honestly assessing your life and recognizing your successes and failures. Give yourself credit for even the smallest success and recognize that you can overcome every obstacle. Then you allow your Power to express itself. What you need comes to you; projects work for you. We often think of many obstacles as insurmountable. For instance, many believe the lottery to be their only desperate hope of escaping poverty. Such people give away their Power. And why shouldn't they? Everything they've experienced tells them this. Our whole society is rooted in the mechanistic paradigm (all causes and effects have a physical link), which precludes a belief in Power. How is one to know that this concept works? How can this be real when it is so different from what we are used to? Our society has a concept of "Reality" as an objective existence of which we are all a part. When two people have different ideas of the nature of some detail, then at least one is Wrong. We all have a fear of being Wrong. When we are Wrong we miss out on things and people don't like us as much. Therefore we desperately strive to be Right. It turns out that Right is what ever those around you happen to feel that it should be. It's as if they all took a vote when you were out of the room. But "Right" changes all the time: from preservatives are harmless, to preservatives cause cancer; from Stalin is a great leader, to Stalin was a monster; from Ptolemy explains the forces of the universe perfectly, to Newton explains the forces of the universe perfectly, to Einstein explains the forces of the universe perfectly. The philosophy of science this calls this evolving better (or at least different) explanations. Yet, while these ideas hold sway, people call them "Reality." Just how reliable is Reality? We all live our lives using our individual concepts of Reality to get along. We update them as we see fit. But few will fundamentally change their concepts. We are sure that, although we may not have the details, we certainly have a feel for the basics. Anyone who disagrees with the mechanistic paradigm, for instance, must be missing at least a few marbles. Such a person is irrational in a universe that we know to be rational. But is the universe truly rational? Science has pursued the mechanistic paradigm down to the smallest scale, particle physics; here it fails to explain the universe. The building blocks of Reality do not behave rationally. If you drive a car from one side of a mountain to the other and you have a choice of two tunnels, you will drive through one of them. If a single electron has a choice of two holes in a plate to pass through, it will go through both. You can plot the speed and position of your car to the limit of the accuracy of your instruments, but you will never be able to do both to that electron. When you observe this mythical car, it is a solid object. If it were not, it would not be a car. If you drove it around, then tested to see if the car were not solid and discovered that it wasn't, what would you think? Around the turn of the century, scientists figured out that light acts like a wave when you test for a wave, and like a particle when you test for a particle. In the regular world it must be one *or* the other. The two are as mutually exclusive as a non-solid car that you can none the less drive. Mysteriously, light was behaving like both. Eventually, scientists concluded that light doesn't work like the universe we are used to. The act of observing light defines its character. This is called wave-particle duality. Later in the century, scientists found that atomic particles, the building blocks of all matter, behave this way, too. Now imagine that you can find no evidence that this car crosses the space between where you see it and where you saw it last. Suppose the car isn't actually "there" when you're not looking-- the act of looking brings it into "existence." What would you think if noticed that your expectations seem to have an effect on where it turns out to be? This is awfully strange, but it is the kind of universe that particle physicists find. "Looking at" a subatomic particle "brings it into existence." Also, scientists are finding that whatever kind of particle they expect to find in an experiment, tends to be there. This is starting to look less like brilliant theory and more like an effect of the observers. They are no longer separate from their experiments. It turns out that the universe doesn't actually work the way we've always assumed it does. This is the nature of matter on the smallest scale, and it doesn't make sense in every day life. This does not mean that we should abandon our present ideas of how to live. Keep what works ("If it ain't broke, don't fix it"). Particle physics won't affect how you drive through tunnels, for instance. But, if you accept physics, the epitome of the mechanistic paradigm, this means that our mechanistic ideas of how the universe works are fundamentally incomplete. In other words, the mechanistic paradigm is not the whole story. Big deal. What does this mean in a practical sense? The world seems to work just the same as it did when the mechanistic paradigm was unchallenged. But what if our preconceptions dictate what we are aware of? It is a common trick to set up a group of people for startling event and see how many will overlook a strange inconsistency. In one instance, a teacher took a student off into an adjoining room on a pretext. There was the sound of an argument and a crash and the student ran out through the room. One of the other students suspected a set up and she was the only one who noticed that the teacher's accomplice was carrying a bone. A much more dramatic example is the story of Magellan's ships. When the explorer landed on a particular island, the natives, who had never seen europeans before, recognized them as funny looking men in funny looking little boats. But Magellan soon found that the natives were unaware of the large ships that carried them there, though they were impossible to overlook. The natives had seen men and small boats before, but they had never seen a large ship. Such a thing was outside of their experience and therefore outside of their comprehension. Their eyes must have seen the ships, but their brains did not. he natives gathered to try to see them, staring intently at where they supposed to be anchored. Soon the local shaman could discern the barest outline which he described to the others. Eventually they could all perceive ships. Who can say what we make ourselves unaware of? It is only after we've expanded our perception that we learn how limited it was before. But we can't go around indiscriminately "expanding our consciousness." What we choose to believe is based on our desires. If you are happy with what you believe, the is no reason to change. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Change is challenging and even if you succeed, it may well be unpleasant. But if you feel unable to overcome obstacles in your life (and you *really* want to), then you have nothing to loose. Magick will only expand possibilities. If it's all a crock, you've lost nothing. If it's true, you can do anything you're willing to work for. It is a draw-win situation. The only way you can lose is to make your choice out of fear. Don't let the opinions of others influence what you choose to believe. Don't give away your Power. Everyone else is in the same situation you are, so when it comes to your own life, there is no greater authority than yourself. If you're interested in magick, try it and see for yourself if it works for you. What Magick Is Magick is a way of using your Power. More technically, magick is the process of non-physically affecting your environment through messages consciously impressed on the subconscious with a system of symbols. (This will become clear later.) This is the broadest definition and it can include such things as prayer, meditation, chanting, positive thinking, subliminal tapes, programming and hypnotism. Some think that magick is unnatural and evil. It is no more evil than any tool. A knife, for instance, is "good" or "evil" depending on its use. It can be invaluable in many beneficial projects, yet it can also harm. Nothing is immune to misuse. People even try to use prayer against others. Such potential is not a reason for fear, but for respect. The idea that magick is unnatural is a modern misconception. Magic has only recently come to mean Hollywood special effects or pulling rabbits from hats. It is often spelled magick in order to distinguish it from this new meaning. For millennia magick has been a path to enlightenment and self mastery or just plain getting what you want. It is nothing supernatural. Magick uses natural powers and the natural flow of the universe to bring about the changes you desire. We are so immersed in magick that, like still air, we are unaware of it. We all use this power without thought, like breathing. Magick is using these powers with awareness. Magick involves placing a message of your choosing into your subconscious. This is all that is necessary to achieve any goal. The power of the subconscious is awesome. When you unite it with your conscious will, you can do anything you want. Remove the internal barriers and the external barriers melt away. Oriental philosophy would call this "following the Tao." Achieving this is the challenge of magick. How Magick Works How can programming the subconscious affect the world around us? What are the mechanisms involved? According to the occult view, it works because that is the nature of the universe. In the West, we use the mechanistic paradigm. A paradigm is a pattern or model, in this case describing the way the universe works. We use paradigms to function, usually without even realizing it. The mechanistic paradigm is one of the most basic that underlie our culture. This model states that there is an objective reality in which objects interact solely through physical contact. Science has updated this to include fields like gravity and magnetism, but the principle is the same. The result is a universe in which the individual is nearly powerless. You can only make real change through physical action. Magick is the act of making such changes non-physically, so it does not fit in with the mechanistic paradigm. Most westerners are unaware that the magickal paradigm represents a majority view among the world's cultures. Basically, it is the antithesis of the mechanistic view. It states that there is no objective universe, only subjective universes. These universes are the perceptions of each individual. You couldn't possibly do any experiment that would show your universe to be either subjective or objective. You must be an objective observer in order to tell the difference. You are automatically a subjective observer because you are in the universe. That's life. At this point, there is no practical difference between these views. The universe looks the same either way. But the magickal paradigm also states that the universe is an expression of your perceptions and your perceptions are that part of yourself over which you have control. When you change your own attitudes and preconceptions, the universe will follow. This gives an individual as much power over the universe as he has over himself. Metaphysics We obviously don't exercise infinite power. There is more to magick than merely having a desire or belief. That is because we have many conflicting desires and beliefs on many levels. There is a level called, among other things, the Little Self. This roughly corresponds to the subconscious and the super ego. The ego, the part of ourselves which we think of as "I," is called the Middle Self. The Little Self is the gateway to the High Self, our connection with godhead and the universe. Infinite power lies with the High Self, but our access is through the Little Self which has its own ideas. The Little Self is aware of and accepts everything around it and everything you think, even when you are not aware. These perceptions build up very strong ideas in the Little Self. When these ideas are different from yours (those of the Middle Self), your ideas loose. To succeed, you must unify your will. Of course, people rightfully complain that even if we do create our universe, it's still tough to make changes. That is because there is quite a bit of inertia to ideas that have been strongly supported since childhood (or before, if you accept past-lives). In an extreme example, the original "Peter Pan" had to be changed to keep from harming children. In the original version, the characters flew because "they believed." Many children attempted to fly and discovered the hard way that their Little Self did not agree. Things like a belief in gravity may be possible to overcome, but no one will argue that it's commonly done. This example sounds silly because our experience of gravity is so compelling that it seems ridiculous to consider it to be "merely a thought construct." But another belief that is nearly as widespread is that of poverty. This is a significantly less daunting belief which many have overcome. As long as you believe you are poor, you will be. This is often a very strong belief. Many cannot even genuinely imagine themselves as being wealthy. But, because it is not beyond reasonable comprehension, it is possible to reprogram your Little Self-- much as it's possible for left-handers to learn to be right-handed. Magick is an effective way to do this. If you are unconvinced, consider how many little messages you heard when growing up, which you now believe on some level. Frequent messages, especially with children, usually become true. If you have heard all your life that you are poor or dumb or unsuccessful, eventually you believe it and eventually it's true. You probably know many people with an unjustifiably poor self image. This is an image which their Little Selves accepted, probably during childhood when they couldn't protect themselves. That is how messages to the Little Self work against you. And the Little Self is aware of everything, even when you are asleep. It also believes everything it hears. So the next time that you hear that you're not good or that you need to buy a product that you don't really want, consciously give your Little Self a different message. Talk to it and tell it what you want to believe. This is what makes your universe, so make it the way you want it. When you have a particularly powerful belief to overcome, then you must send a powerful message. That is the role of magick. Religion The religious rendition of magick is prayer. Although they are different things, the principles are similar. Techniques that are effective for one will work very well in the other. In fact, they use many common symbols. One could say that magick is secular prayer. Prayer works when "God answers it." This is entirely in line with the metaphysical explanation. You can say that the Higher Self is God or your connection to God. This is simply a different way of expressing the same ineffable principles. You can adapt anything here to fit into your views. Don't let the way these concepts are phrased put you off. Feel free to interpret this as much as you like in order to make it acceptable and usable to you. Psychology The explanations so far require new way of thinking about the universe, but those entrenched in the mechanistic paradigm need not miss out. Psychology has enough respect as a science to offer hope. If you replace Little Self with subconscious, the principle is the same. Although there is no longer a source of infinite power or non-physical change. But influencing the subconscious is the next best thing in a mechanistic world. Psychologists would say that magick directs all your unconscious efforts toward your goal. It also eliminates those unconscious efforts keeping you from your goal. This may not sound like much, but it is primarily these efforts that determine success or failure. It is easy to overlook because, for the most part, the conscious will is the same as the unconscious will. Thus, we succeed at endeavors such as waking up, getting to work on time and fixing dinner. This may seem silly, but when your subconscious doesn't share a goal, even simple tasks are exceptionally difficult. The power of the subconscious can either fight you or help you. Where ever you succeed, it's almost certainly helping. Where ever you fail, it's almost certainly fighting. The subconscious represents everything the mind does that we do not think about. This involves a most of what we do. When you are driving on a familiar freeway in good conditions, you are usually thinking about the music on the radio or salient problems. At such times it is your subconscious driving. If you notice something strange in the road, it was your subconscious that brought it to your attention. This is very helpful, but that isn't necessarily the case. The subconscious can throw up all kinds of barriers, prevent-ng even the simplest tasks. It can make you late for work when it doesn't feel like going--you can wake up late, feel ill, misplace car keys or even have an accident. This influence sometimes goes to the extremes. People can even be paralyzed by hysteria, a condition that lies entirely within the mind. Pathological fears are another example. An agoraphobe, for instance, can have such an extreme reaction to being outdoors that he cannot leave his house no matter how badly he wants to. The subtle action of the subconscious can be almost as profound. Even when the influence of the subconscious is indistinguishable from chance happenings, on larger scale the effect is dramatic. Psychologists try to ensure that experiments are "double blind" for this reason. They must set up an experimental group and a control group. In the latter, there is only the single element, the target of the experiment, that is different. In drug testing, experimenters use placebos on a control group. The act of administering a substance can have a profound mental effect, even when that substance is inert, a placebo. When they expect effective drugs, people can have great results with a placebo. But the "placebo effect" is purely psychological. If either the experimenter or the subject think that they know which is being administered, that is enough to throw off the results. The subconscious of the subject reacts to what the subject expects. If the experimenter knows what he is administering, then the subject's subconscious reacts to cues from the experimenter's subconscious. This is sometimes called the "Clever Hans effect" after a horse which seemed to be able to do math. In reality, clever Hans but was reacting to cues from the people around him. When someone near him knew the answer, the horse could sense that person's expectation. It was sometime before researchers even considered these nearly invisible clues. Although such subconscious actions are very subtle, they can dramatically change the results of an experiment. The subconscious similarly affects results in your life as well. Magick programs the subconscious to work for you. This is not as potent as the metaphysical concept, but it will make you as effective as you can possibly be in a mechanistic world. A unified will directs all your efforts, conscious and otherwise, toward your goal. Since the subconscious can present insurmountable barriers, working out these barriers is all it takes to be on the road to success. Some may be disturbed to think that magick may be misrepresenting how it works, but that should not be a problem. In one experiment, scientists gave placebos to a group of subjects. After the placebos "took effect," the scientists explained what they were. Even when the scientists made it clear to the subjects that the placebos had no biochemical action, many subjects still wanted a prescription for them. (It would be interesting to see how much more effective prescription placebos are versus over the counter placebos.) Were these people stupid? Or were they wise to stick with something that worked? New Science Those that cannot extricate themselves from old mechanistic views need an excuse to allow the placebo effect to bring them success. Ironically, the same discipline which made magick so difficult can now provide this excuse. Scientists are exploring some new ideas which depart from the founding mechanistic paradigm. Ideas consonant with the magickal paradigm show up in Jung's synchronicity, quantum physics, the Gaia hypothesis and the morphogenetic field hypothesis (see Rupert Sheldrake's "A New Science of Life"). When these views obviously challenge the traditional mechanistic paradigm, they are a source of hostility or amusement. When the challenge is more subtle, people ignore it. Never the less, the West is gradually turning toward a view more in tune with magick. With greater frequency, people are willing to consider the idea that we affect our universe on more than just a physical level. Scientific evidence now supports the idea of non-physically affecting your environment. Quantum physics suggests that an experimenter's goals seem to create whatever particle he's looking for. The morphogenetic field hypothesis suggests that actions affect all other actions to the degree that the circumstances are similar. This explains why it becomes easier to grow a certain type of crystal over time and how new animal behaviors "jump" from one isolated population to another. Science is continually finding support for things that metaphysicians have said for millennia. If your respect for science is such that you cannot take magick seriously, do some research into these areas. If you can find an acceptable explanation, then you can respect magick. This respect is essential for success. But don't look for "proofs." The concept of magick is nebulous. It's designed to explain the way things are. "Contrary evidence" only shows that you misunderstand. Change your definition to include the new evidence. Magick can never be proven wrong because it can't be pinned down. Since it explains a subjective reality, it can never be proven right, either. The magickal paradigm will confirm any preconceptions, so the mechanistic paradigm will look "true" if that is what you expect. Since it also postulates so many unknowns in the mind, this paradigm states that what you get is what you expected. As with so many things, you will believe if you want to and you won't if you don't want to. But when you're on the fence, the right explanation can help you accept the possibility. Only then you can honestly try magick. If you experiment with a negative attitude, it is the nature of magick to confirm this. Magick works best for those practical enough to be skeptical, but open minded enough to give it an honest try. If a part of you is genuinely interested in magick, work to become comfortable with it. Start with simple and harmless work. Leave the embarrassing stuff for later, after you've seen it work and you don't care so much if your friends find out. Avoid getting too involved in the "explanations." If you need one, pick whichever you like. It doesn't have to be any of those here. Each has to build his own models. In any case, reality transcends the understanding of waking- consciousness, so any expressible explanation is "wrong" in the traditional sense, anyway. For a good illustration, try to "understand" wave-particle duality in any but a mathematical sense. It's as impossible to picture as a four dimensional cube. However the universe "actually is," always act in a manner that is responsible in an obj-ective universe. If this were not essential, people would have abandoned the objective universe long ago. Objective or subjective, there are many empirical rules of behavior that we all know. Magick doesn't change these rules. Don't drive crazily because you've done a protection spell. Don't spend unwisely because you've done a prosperity spell. Don't jump off a building because you've done a flight spell. Remain within these rules and you loose nothing by acting as though the universe is subjective. You should not be doing anything you don't want to do in the first place, because such acts are pointless in either universe. If the universe is objective, then you have had some harmless fun. If the universe is subjective, then you have the chance to get anything you want. If you approach it properly, you can't lose.