Post by swampiewolfess on Jan 22, 2008 18:55:03 GMT -5
How To Begin
Then the Old Man of the Earth stooped over the floor of the cave, raised a huge stone from it, and left it leaning. It disclosed a great hole. "That is the way", he said. "But there are no stairs", I cried. "You must throw yourself in", he replied. "There is no other way."
-- George MacDonald
The power of magic cannot be found in a recipe book. If it were only that easy! Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that one will stumble upon the hidden grimoire or mystic amulet that will instantly grant one "magical powers". The ability to perform real magic is attained only through diligent practice, hard work and, well, "divine inspiration".
When one surveys all of the traditions of magic over the centuries, one notices that certain forms and procedures appear again and again. So if one strips away the outer symbolism and only retains that which is repeated across many systems, one is identifying the "strange attractors" which point to an underlying principle. It's reasonable to assume that these procedures arise for the same reason that any intelligent being who uses geometry will stumble across the value of pi sooner or later. It's something integral to the nature of the human mind/body and the reality we find ourselves in.
Here lies Chaos Magic's nod to tradition. But the Chaote must be extremely picky about which traditional techniques s/he adopts, and examine them dispassionately to determine what is useful technique and what is artifice.
Gnosis
One concept is absolutely indispensable to magic of any kind. The key to making magic work is the ability to achieve an altered state of consciousness. But not just any old altered state will do, or drunks and stoners would be the most powerful mages on the planet. The staggering inability of 500,000 acid-stoned hippies to stop a rainstorm at the Woodstock festival no matter how hard they chanted is poignant testimony to this fact.
The required mental shift has been called many names in history: samadhi by the yogis, jnara by the Tantrists, "awake" by the Sufi Moslems. It has been referred to as the Naugul, the Abyss, the crack between worlds. In a nod to the traditions of the old Gnostic sects, this state has come to be called by most Chaotes (and shall be referred to in this book) as gnosis.
Gnosis is the direct perception of the Void. It is the state when the discursive mind shuts down, and there is unfiltered access to the subconscious.
The most common experience of gnosis to the average person is the sexual orgasm. At the peak of orgasm, the mind essentially stops thinking, and the consciousness is focused on a single point in space-time. Once this concept was grasped and it's psychic usefulness realized, several mystic-magical sects developed the technique to various high levels. Among these are the Tantrists of Asia, the Mediterranean Gnostics, the Roman cults of Dyonious and modern offshoots such as the Fraternus Saturni and the Ordo Templi Orentis (OTO). Aleister Crowley became obsessed with sexual magic and nearly all of his writings and techniques have a strong sexual element.
However, sexual climax is not the only path to the gnostic state (although it is probably the most fun.) The subject of sex magic gets it's own chapter later on in the book, so we won't dwell on it yet. It serves the purposes of a magician to be able to have other methods of achieving gnosis at their command besides sex, and the development of other techniques has the side effect of also making sexual gnosis easier to attain and control.
Meditation
To be an effective magician, it's very useful to make a concentrated effort to learn at least one technique of meditation. For our purposes, this is defined as a system of self-control by which one can stimulate alpha-wave activity in the brain, which is the hallmark of a effective meditation system. We will discuss one technique here that naturally lends itself to being used for magical purposes such as scrying and out-of-body experiences. It is simple and effective, but one may choose another if so desired.
Find a quiet, comfortable place in which to practice, and arrange to be undisturbed for at least an hour or so. Wear loose fitting clothing or better still, no clothing at all.
This style uses what the Yogis call the "dead pose" -- in other words, flat on your back. The surface should be comfortable, but not so much so that it tends to induce sleepiness. A Japanese futon bed is ideal, but a foam pad (like the kind sold in camping supply stores) or a rolled-out sleeping bag are quite acceptable.
Spend several minutes getting "adjusted" so all of the little discomforts are minimized and you can lie undisturbed. You should end up with your arms slightly away from your body and legs slightly spread apart, so no part of your body is in contact with any other part. Then you must lie totally mointionless for the duration of the exercise.
The first step is to begin taking deep, regular breaths; either only through the nose, or breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Try to take an equal length of time breathing in as breathing out. Spend several minutes concentrating only on regular breathing before moving on.
The next step is to focus on individual parts of the body and "relax" each on in turn. Begin with the feet; say to yourself (silently) "my toes are relaxed and light as a cloud". Repeat this phrase until you begin to feel in your toes a sensation of "warmth", "lightness", "tingling" -- the subjective descriptions vary but you'll know it when you get it.
Once you've achieved this, change the phrase to "my feet are relaxed and light as a cloud", and feel the sensation begin to move upward. Proceed in this manner relaxing each body part in turn. Once you have relaxed you legs, proceed to your fingers and up your arms, then the hips, abdomen and chest, converge the sensation at the shoulders and work up to the neck, face back of the head and finally the scalp. Make sure you are thourogh - don't forget such parts as the genitals, buttocks, small of the back, shoulder blades, etc.
When the entire body is relaxed, begin to imagine yourself as if you really are as light as a cloud and you are gently floating up into the air above the cusion. By this point you should feel profoundly relaxed and slightly euphoric. This is a light gnosis-state or "magical trance" that will be exploited later for magical purposes, but for the moment just concentrate on the feeling itself and the way you attained it.
Bring yourself "back" by imagining yourself getting heavier and hevier, in a reversal of the previous procedure. Eventually, slowly begin slight movements of your muscles; flex the toes and fingers, shrug the shoulders, roll the head gently from side to side. Take a few moments to gently "stretch out" before rising from your cushion.
It may take an hour or more to get results at first, or you may only succeed in geting your feet and fingertips to relax and feel "tingly". Regular practice is the key, as it will get easier the more you do it.
This technique of progressive relaxation can also be performed in a comfortable sitting position -- both feet on the floor, arms on armrests, head supported by a pad or pillow. Some people may find this position easier when advancing to the next step of visualization. Ultimately, the goal is to be able to rise and move about while still reamining in the trance state.
If you've never had any meditational training before this, I would strongly urge you to persevere in the practice for at least 4 weeks, spending at least one hour a day. You should strive to be able to enter the "light trance" state at will within a few minutes time. At that point, you're ready for the next step.
Visualization
Visualization is the process of using the imagination to induce specific visual illusions in oneself at will, what Karl Jung called the active imagination. It is the ability to make yourself "see things" that are not physically present by strongly imagining them and behaving as though they were. In other words, self-induced hallucinations.
Magicians hold that sufficiently powerful visualization by one person can have an influence on the psyches of others in their presence as well as themselves. The most mundane example of this phenomenon is the situation where one person stands in a street and looks up at the empty sky intently, as if there were something up there. Within moments a crowd has gathered, all looking up at the same non-existent thing. Some will even swear that they see "something"!
Another example is the effect of watching a performance by an expert pantomime. If s/he describes the "solid" objects of the performance will sufficient skill, the audience will come to "see" the invisible barriers, doors, windstorms, etc. - so much so that people who attend performances by masters such as Marcel Marceau think for brief moments that they actually do see Marceau's invisible "props".
Visualization is one of the "slight-of-mind" tricks that are a part of every magical system ever devised. Remember that magic functions by tapping into the psychological state we call "belief". Powerful visualization is indispensable for putting the magician into a belief state conducive to deriving magical effects.
What follows are some basic exercises in magical visualization. One should first spend some time getting into the first stage of magical trance, then practice these exercises once a day. Many studies have shown that meditation greatly improves one's learning ability, especially immediately after a session, so we may as well take advantage of it, right? The techniques in the following section on Magical Protection can be practiced concurrently with these; the technique of protection described is itself a visualization exercise.
Visualization Practice
A good way to practice visualization and get a handle on what the experience is like is to use the visual phenomenon of "after images" as a learning tool.
For this exercise, you need some brightly colored construction paper (fluorescent colors work particularly well if you can find them), some large white card stock paper (11 x 17 is perfect), scissors, tape or paper glue, and a blank white wall (an extra large piece of white posterboard hung on a wall will do nicely.)
Take some scissors and cut some approximately 1 foot long strips of colored paper about one-quarter inch in width. Now use these to paste or tape together a five-pointed star figure as pictured below:
Mount this on the white card stock. You should end up with what looks like a large flash card with a star in the middle.
Make four of these cards using different colors. The best colors to use in the construction of the star are orange, purple, green and red. The reason will be clear in a moment.
Arrange yourself facing the blank white wall with your "flash cards" in easy reach. The wall should be brightly lit. Choose one of the cards and hold it up in front of your eyes. Stare fixedly at it without moving your eyes for at least one full minute. You may want to pin it to the wall in front of you to avoid having it move. After a minute or two, quickly remove it and stare directly at the blank white wall. You should see an after image of the star figure on the blank wall, in a hue that is the opposite of the card's on the color wheel. (In other words, the orange star will yield a blue image, the purple a yellow image, the green a red image and the red a green image. These are the traditional "Elemental" colors of water, air, fire and earth respectively, and are as good a place to start as any.)
Once you have an after image showing on the blank white wall, try holding your gaze very still and "trace" the apparent outline of the star with your fingertip. This is a typical action used in "setting wards" or traditional banishing rites.
Next you can try doing the same thing, but look out into the room instead of at the blank wall. The after image should seem to float in mid air in front of your eyes. Try tracing it's outline with a fingertip again.
Then try the exercise with all of the different colors. You may have to wait a few moments between each one for the previous image to fade away.
Eventually you can create more and different flash cards to practice with, if you feel inclined.
All this is only to give you an idea of the "look and feel" of magical visualization. The final goal is to be able to "see" the figures, or any other image you choose, by sheer imagination alone. But I've found that these exercises are an excellent way to speed up the learning curve. It gives your memory something on which to hang the visualized perception, making it easier to obtain.
The next step is to practice summoning the images without the use of the cards at all. One way to progress toward this goal is to start by first obtaining the after-image, but trying to keep the image "going" even after the visual effect begins to fade. Progressively use the cards less and less until you can do without them.
Do the above exercises at least once a day for another few weeks at least, while continuing with your meditation sessions. When you find you are able to get yourself into a light trance state in less than 10 minutes, and can visualize simple geometric forms to a reasonable degree of "visibility", you'll have the basic mental disciplines needed to do effective magical work.
The Juggler's Meditation
Here we're going to deviate from the traditional approach. Almost all of the old magical traditions use some form or another of the mental skills described above. However, the general direction of their discipline in almost all cases is to encourage complete stilling of the mind as the goal. Such quieting of the thought processes is a valuable tool, as it can quickly connect one to the Void and the attainment of the gnostic mind-state. However, stopping one's mental processes completely by sheer concentration alone is a d**nably hard trick, where even a few seconds of "no-thought" can only be attained by extreme effort. Expect to spend months or even years mastering such a technique.
As an alternative, here's a technique that seems to me to be able to launch one into a gnosis state functionally equal to the scant seconds of mental quiescence obtained by the inhibitory methods mentioned above. It takes an exactly opposite approach to the goal -- call it "meditative overload". It also makes use of the skills of meditation and visualization that you've been practicing (you have been practicing, haven't you?)
Everyone is aware that the mind can be active with several unrelated thought processes at once. If you're walking down a familiar street, one can easily avoid the obstacles of other pedestrians, curbs, traffic, etc. without having to devote conscious awareness to the process. While walking, one can also have a song running through one's head, while at the same time be thinking about a meeting one has later, and what one is going to say at the meeting, AND be buttoning one's jacket or rolling up sleeves all at the same time. This is not unusual at all. So we're going to expand on this mental trick that we all already know how to do.
Start by visualizing a simple form with your eyes closed -- say a bright blue square. Now, instead of trying to quiet your mind, start a song going in your head. Don't stop visualizing the square! Next, pay attention to whatever it is you're standing/sitting/laying on. Feel the texture and the weight of your body on it. Don't stop visualizing the square! Keep the song going! Then, try to recall the smell and taste of a delicious food. Of course, keep the blue square, song and texture active mentally! If you can, keep adding things to concentrate on using a variety of sensory types.
What you'll soon notice is your mind "time-sharing" between the various mental activities -- almost like a juggler catching and tossing the progression of different objects in the air. But this is NOT a contest. The whole idea of this technique is to FAIL. Eventually, you will add one too many mental activities, whatever your own particular capacity might be. Your mind will seem to move faster and faster switching from one conscious awareness to another until ...CLICK! You will drop all of the balls, so to speak. Suddenly, your overloaded mind will shut down, if only for the briefest of seconds. Congratulations - you have hit the gnostic state. This really works -- try it and see.
Sensory Deprivation
Another useful practice is known as sensory deprivation. The effects of extended periods of solitude have been known throughout history; the monk's cell and hermit's cave have a well documented reputation for their effects on the mind. But in the past it was believed that "the power of God" accounted for the experiences described by the meditating monk.
The first scientific experiments in sensory deprivation were conducted by American and Soviet space researchers, to determine the effects of long spaceflights on the mental states of astronauts. To their dismay, it became clear that mild disorientation and loss of time sense resulted after only several hours, with extreme effects such as hallucinations and delusional thinking occuring in less than a couple of days.
But what was horrible to a strict technologist was seen as something useful and desirable to others. One early researcher, Dr. John Lilly, developed the "isolation tank", a coffin-sized enclosure that allowed the subject to be floated in body-temperature salt water in total blackness and silence. His books detail the effects experienced by Lilly and his fellow psychonauts, and they are highly recommended to the student of magic.
The benfit of such a practice is to increase the awareness of one's own internal universe. The subjects of such experiments generally reported that the hallucinations and impressions they experienced were "meaningful" to them in some way. A student of magic is in a particularly privilged position to make use of these effects.
In the past decade or so sensory deprivation has become quite well known, inspiring Hollywood treatments such as the film "Altered States". But the elaborate flotation tanks and other expensive equipment depicted in the film is not neccesary to experience the effects of sensory deprivation. In fact, it has been shown that complete darkness and silence are not required to induce these effects. It can be also accomplished by merely keeping all sensory input uniformly constant.
This is one exercise where it is very useful to have an assistant who can "look after things" while it's going on. Some people, when deprived of sight and hearing, become easily obsessed with the idea that the phone will ring, someone will knock on the door, or the house will catch on fire -- this makes it very hard to relax and immerse oneself in the experience. Another person can also help you set things up, as you will see in the following description.
Deprivation Meditation
There are several commercially marketed "brain-wave" machines available that are used to accomplish the same thing as this exercise, but they tend to be on the expensive side, starting at $100 or so and going up quickly. Using the technique described below you can spend less than 10 bucks (assuming you already own an inexpensive radio/cassette player) and find out if you might want to justify the expense of the fancier machines.
For this exercise you will need the following equipment:
- two white ping pong balls
- two large (4" square) gauze pads
- a razor knife (to slice the pads and ping pong balls)
- medical paper adhesive tape
- a portable "boom box" radio/cassette player
- lightweight stereo headphones
- a desk lamp with a 25 - 60 watt red light bulb
Then the Old Man of the Earth stooped over the floor of the cave, raised a huge stone from it, and left it leaning. It disclosed a great hole. "That is the way", he said. "But there are no stairs", I cried. "You must throw yourself in", he replied. "There is no other way."
-- George MacDonald
The power of magic cannot be found in a recipe book. If it were only that easy! Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that one will stumble upon the hidden grimoire or mystic amulet that will instantly grant one "magical powers". The ability to perform real magic is attained only through diligent practice, hard work and, well, "divine inspiration".
When one surveys all of the traditions of magic over the centuries, one notices that certain forms and procedures appear again and again. So if one strips away the outer symbolism and only retains that which is repeated across many systems, one is identifying the "strange attractors" which point to an underlying principle. It's reasonable to assume that these procedures arise for the same reason that any intelligent being who uses geometry will stumble across the value of pi sooner or later. It's something integral to the nature of the human mind/body and the reality we find ourselves in.
Here lies Chaos Magic's nod to tradition. But the Chaote must be extremely picky about which traditional techniques s/he adopts, and examine them dispassionately to determine what is useful technique and what is artifice.
Gnosis
One concept is absolutely indispensable to magic of any kind. The key to making magic work is the ability to achieve an altered state of consciousness. But not just any old altered state will do, or drunks and stoners would be the most powerful mages on the planet. The staggering inability of 500,000 acid-stoned hippies to stop a rainstorm at the Woodstock festival no matter how hard they chanted is poignant testimony to this fact.
The required mental shift has been called many names in history: samadhi by the yogis, jnara by the Tantrists, "awake" by the Sufi Moslems. It has been referred to as the Naugul, the Abyss, the crack between worlds. In a nod to the traditions of the old Gnostic sects, this state has come to be called by most Chaotes (and shall be referred to in this book) as gnosis.
Gnosis is the direct perception of the Void. It is the state when the discursive mind shuts down, and there is unfiltered access to the subconscious.
The most common experience of gnosis to the average person is the sexual orgasm. At the peak of orgasm, the mind essentially stops thinking, and the consciousness is focused on a single point in space-time. Once this concept was grasped and it's psychic usefulness realized, several mystic-magical sects developed the technique to various high levels. Among these are the Tantrists of Asia, the Mediterranean Gnostics, the Roman cults of Dyonious and modern offshoots such as the Fraternus Saturni and the Ordo Templi Orentis (OTO). Aleister Crowley became obsessed with sexual magic and nearly all of his writings and techniques have a strong sexual element.
However, sexual climax is not the only path to the gnostic state (although it is probably the most fun.) The subject of sex magic gets it's own chapter later on in the book, so we won't dwell on it yet. It serves the purposes of a magician to be able to have other methods of achieving gnosis at their command besides sex, and the development of other techniques has the side effect of also making sexual gnosis easier to attain and control.
Meditation
To be an effective magician, it's very useful to make a concentrated effort to learn at least one technique of meditation. For our purposes, this is defined as a system of self-control by which one can stimulate alpha-wave activity in the brain, which is the hallmark of a effective meditation system. We will discuss one technique here that naturally lends itself to being used for magical purposes such as scrying and out-of-body experiences. It is simple and effective, but one may choose another if so desired.
Find a quiet, comfortable place in which to practice, and arrange to be undisturbed for at least an hour or so. Wear loose fitting clothing or better still, no clothing at all.
This style uses what the Yogis call the "dead pose" -- in other words, flat on your back. The surface should be comfortable, but not so much so that it tends to induce sleepiness. A Japanese futon bed is ideal, but a foam pad (like the kind sold in camping supply stores) or a rolled-out sleeping bag are quite acceptable.
Spend several minutes getting "adjusted" so all of the little discomforts are minimized and you can lie undisturbed. You should end up with your arms slightly away from your body and legs slightly spread apart, so no part of your body is in contact with any other part. Then you must lie totally mointionless for the duration of the exercise.
The first step is to begin taking deep, regular breaths; either only through the nose, or breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Try to take an equal length of time breathing in as breathing out. Spend several minutes concentrating only on regular breathing before moving on.
The next step is to focus on individual parts of the body and "relax" each on in turn. Begin with the feet; say to yourself (silently) "my toes are relaxed and light as a cloud". Repeat this phrase until you begin to feel in your toes a sensation of "warmth", "lightness", "tingling" -- the subjective descriptions vary but you'll know it when you get it.
Once you've achieved this, change the phrase to "my feet are relaxed and light as a cloud", and feel the sensation begin to move upward. Proceed in this manner relaxing each body part in turn. Once you have relaxed you legs, proceed to your fingers and up your arms, then the hips, abdomen and chest, converge the sensation at the shoulders and work up to the neck, face back of the head and finally the scalp. Make sure you are thourogh - don't forget such parts as the genitals, buttocks, small of the back, shoulder blades, etc.
When the entire body is relaxed, begin to imagine yourself as if you really are as light as a cloud and you are gently floating up into the air above the cusion. By this point you should feel profoundly relaxed and slightly euphoric. This is a light gnosis-state or "magical trance" that will be exploited later for magical purposes, but for the moment just concentrate on the feeling itself and the way you attained it.
Bring yourself "back" by imagining yourself getting heavier and hevier, in a reversal of the previous procedure. Eventually, slowly begin slight movements of your muscles; flex the toes and fingers, shrug the shoulders, roll the head gently from side to side. Take a few moments to gently "stretch out" before rising from your cushion.
It may take an hour or more to get results at first, or you may only succeed in geting your feet and fingertips to relax and feel "tingly". Regular practice is the key, as it will get easier the more you do it.
This technique of progressive relaxation can also be performed in a comfortable sitting position -- both feet on the floor, arms on armrests, head supported by a pad or pillow. Some people may find this position easier when advancing to the next step of visualization. Ultimately, the goal is to be able to rise and move about while still reamining in the trance state.
If you've never had any meditational training before this, I would strongly urge you to persevere in the practice for at least 4 weeks, spending at least one hour a day. You should strive to be able to enter the "light trance" state at will within a few minutes time. At that point, you're ready for the next step.
Visualization
Visualization is the process of using the imagination to induce specific visual illusions in oneself at will, what Karl Jung called the active imagination. It is the ability to make yourself "see things" that are not physically present by strongly imagining them and behaving as though they were. In other words, self-induced hallucinations.
Magicians hold that sufficiently powerful visualization by one person can have an influence on the psyches of others in their presence as well as themselves. The most mundane example of this phenomenon is the situation where one person stands in a street and looks up at the empty sky intently, as if there were something up there. Within moments a crowd has gathered, all looking up at the same non-existent thing. Some will even swear that they see "something"!
Another example is the effect of watching a performance by an expert pantomime. If s/he describes the "solid" objects of the performance will sufficient skill, the audience will come to "see" the invisible barriers, doors, windstorms, etc. - so much so that people who attend performances by masters such as Marcel Marceau think for brief moments that they actually do see Marceau's invisible "props".
Visualization is one of the "slight-of-mind" tricks that are a part of every magical system ever devised. Remember that magic functions by tapping into the psychological state we call "belief". Powerful visualization is indispensable for putting the magician into a belief state conducive to deriving magical effects.
What follows are some basic exercises in magical visualization. One should first spend some time getting into the first stage of magical trance, then practice these exercises once a day. Many studies have shown that meditation greatly improves one's learning ability, especially immediately after a session, so we may as well take advantage of it, right? The techniques in the following section on Magical Protection can be practiced concurrently with these; the technique of protection described is itself a visualization exercise.
Visualization Practice
A good way to practice visualization and get a handle on what the experience is like is to use the visual phenomenon of "after images" as a learning tool.
For this exercise, you need some brightly colored construction paper (fluorescent colors work particularly well if you can find them), some large white card stock paper (11 x 17 is perfect), scissors, tape or paper glue, and a blank white wall (an extra large piece of white posterboard hung on a wall will do nicely.)
Take some scissors and cut some approximately 1 foot long strips of colored paper about one-quarter inch in width. Now use these to paste or tape together a five-pointed star figure as pictured below:
Mount this on the white card stock. You should end up with what looks like a large flash card with a star in the middle.
Make four of these cards using different colors. The best colors to use in the construction of the star are orange, purple, green and red. The reason will be clear in a moment.
Arrange yourself facing the blank white wall with your "flash cards" in easy reach. The wall should be brightly lit. Choose one of the cards and hold it up in front of your eyes. Stare fixedly at it without moving your eyes for at least one full minute. You may want to pin it to the wall in front of you to avoid having it move. After a minute or two, quickly remove it and stare directly at the blank white wall. You should see an after image of the star figure on the blank wall, in a hue that is the opposite of the card's on the color wheel. (In other words, the orange star will yield a blue image, the purple a yellow image, the green a red image and the red a green image. These are the traditional "Elemental" colors of water, air, fire and earth respectively, and are as good a place to start as any.)
Once you have an after image showing on the blank white wall, try holding your gaze very still and "trace" the apparent outline of the star with your fingertip. This is a typical action used in "setting wards" or traditional banishing rites.
Next you can try doing the same thing, but look out into the room instead of at the blank wall. The after image should seem to float in mid air in front of your eyes. Try tracing it's outline with a fingertip again.
Then try the exercise with all of the different colors. You may have to wait a few moments between each one for the previous image to fade away.
Eventually you can create more and different flash cards to practice with, if you feel inclined.
All this is only to give you an idea of the "look and feel" of magical visualization. The final goal is to be able to "see" the figures, or any other image you choose, by sheer imagination alone. But I've found that these exercises are an excellent way to speed up the learning curve. It gives your memory something on which to hang the visualized perception, making it easier to obtain.
The next step is to practice summoning the images without the use of the cards at all. One way to progress toward this goal is to start by first obtaining the after-image, but trying to keep the image "going" even after the visual effect begins to fade. Progressively use the cards less and less until you can do without them.
Do the above exercises at least once a day for another few weeks at least, while continuing with your meditation sessions. When you find you are able to get yourself into a light trance state in less than 10 minutes, and can visualize simple geometric forms to a reasonable degree of "visibility", you'll have the basic mental disciplines needed to do effective magical work.
The Juggler's Meditation
Here we're going to deviate from the traditional approach. Almost all of the old magical traditions use some form or another of the mental skills described above. However, the general direction of their discipline in almost all cases is to encourage complete stilling of the mind as the goal. Such quieting of the thought processes is a valuable tool, as it can quickly connect one to the Void and the attainment of the gnostic mind-state. However, stopping one's mental processes completely by sheer concentration alone is a d**nably hard trick, where even a few seconds of "no-thought" can only be attained by extreme effort. Expect to spend months or even years mastering such a technique.
As an alternative, here's a technique that seems to me to be able to launch one into a gnosis state functionally equal to the scant seconds of mental quiescence obtained by the inhibitory methods mentioned above. It takes an exactly opposite approach to the goal -- call it "meditative overload". It also makes use of the skills of meditation and visualization that you've been practicing (you have been practicing, haven't you?)
Everyone is aware that the mind can be active with several unrelated thought processes at once. If you're walking down a familiar street, one can easily avoid the obstacles of other pedestrians, curbs, traffic, etc. without having to devote conscious awareness to the process. While walking, one can also have a song running through one's head, while at the same time be thinking about a meeting one has later, and what one is going to say at the meeting, AND be buttoning one's jacket or rolling up sleeves all at the same time. This is not unusual at all. So we're going to expand on this mental trick that we all already know how to do.
Start by visualizing a simple form with your eyes closed -- say a bright blue square. Now, instead of trying to quiet your mind, start a song going in your head. Don't stop visualizing the square! Next, pay attention to whatever it is you're standing/sitting/laying on. Feel the texture and the weight of your body on it. Don't stop visualizing the square! Keep the song going! Then, try to recall the smell and taste of a delicious food. Of course, keep the blue square, song and texture active mentally! If you can, keep adding things to concentrate on using a variety of sensory types.
What you'll soon notice is your mind "time-sharing" between the various mental activities -- almost like a juggler catching and tossing the progression of different objects in the air. But this is NOT a contest. The whole idea of this technique is to FAIL. Eventually, you will add one too many mental activities, whatever your own particular capacity might be. Your mind will seem to move faster and faster switching from one conscious awareness to another until ...CLICK! You will drop all of the balls, so to speak. Suddenly, your overloaded mind will shut down, if only for the briefest of seconds. Congratulations - you have hit the gnostic state. This really works -- try it and see.
Sensory Deprivation
Another useful practice is known as sensory deprivation. The effects of extended periods of solitude have been known throughout history; the monk's cell and hermit's cave have a well documented reputation for their effects on the mind. But in the past it was believed that "the power of God" accounted for the experiences described by the meditating monk.
The first scientific experiments in sensory deprivation were conducted by American and Soviet space researchers, to determine the effects of long spaceflights on the mental states of astronauts. To their dismay, it became clear that mild disorientation and loss of time sense resulted after only several hours, with extreme effects such as hallucinations and delusional thinking occuring in less than a couple of days.
But what was horrible to a strict technologist was seen as something useful and desirable to others. One early researcher, Dr. John Lilly, developed the "isolation tank", a coffin-sized enclosure that allowed the subject to be floated in body-temperature salt water in total blackness and silence. His books detail the effects experienced by Lilly and his fellow psychonauts, and they are highly recommended to the student of magic.
The benfit of such a practice is to increase the awareness of one's own internal universe. The subjects of such experiments generally reported that the hallucinations and impressions they experienced were "meaningful" to them in some way. A student of magic is in a particularly privilged position to make use of these effects.
In the past decade or so sensory deprivation has become quite well known, inspiring Hollywood treatments such as the film "Altered States". But the elaborate flotation tanks and other expensive equipment depicted in the film is not neccesary to experience the effects of sensory deprivation. In fact, it has been shown that complete darkness and silence are not required to induce these effects. It can be also accomplished by merely keeping all sensory input uniformly constant.
This is one exercise where it is very useful to have an assistant who can "look after things" while it's going on. Some people, when deprived of sight and hearing, become easily obsessed with the idea that the phone will ring, someone will knock on the door, or the house will catch on fire -- this makes it very hard to relax and immerse oneself in the experience. Another person can also help you set things up, as you will see in the following description.
Deprivation Meditation
There are several commercially marketed "brain-wave" machines available that are used to accomplish the same thing as this exercise, but they tend to be on the expensive side, starting at $100 or so and going up quickly. Using the technique described below you can spend less than 10 bucks (assuming you already own an inexpensive radio/cassette player) and find out if you might want to justify the expense of the fancier machines.
For this exercise you will need the following equipment:
- two white ping pong balls
- two large (4" square) gauze pads
- a razor knife (to slice the pads and ping pong balls)
- medical paper adhesive tape
- a portable "boom box" radio/cassette player
- lightweight stereo headphones
- a desk lamp with a 25 - 60 watt red light bulb
