WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!!! JAY Z AT A HILLARY CONCERT WITH THE SPIRIT COOKER MARINA ABRAMOVIC!!!!! THIS IS FUCKING REAL EVIL VS GOOD! SPREAD #SPIRITCOOKING TO STOP CIVIL WAR! #MAGAAAAAAAAAA

I'm reading a book right now called Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson. It's about the 8-circuits of the brain model and how to, basically, how to brainwash yourself into a new person. Here's a good review:

In Promethues Rising, Robert Anton Wilson tells you how to alter your brain in a positive fashion. He teaches you to see the world differently, though not necessarily his way. What he has done is written a book which demonstrates how the human mind can be either used for freedom or slavery. The choice is up to us. Using Leary's model of the Eight Circuit nervous system Wilson explain such things as patriotism, brainwashing, and morality. He then systematically shows you how to brainwash yourself for fun and profit.

He talks a bit about Crowley and the occult, but other than that I don't know much about him/it. I'm a little over half way done with this book so I'll share what I've learned and how I interpret the occult. I broke it into 2 parts because my comment ended up being stupidly long.

Part I:

To me it sounds like the occult is about shattering your own perception of reality, destroying your own sense of ego (your identity, emotions, etc.), so you can force a mental transformation/spiritual evolution and become something else. They basically take psychology, like Jungian psychology, and add rituals and magical claims on top of it to give it a supernatural feel. Like you break down who you are, or who you think you are, so you can build a new you or unleash the true you, and have more control over your own mind and body. You know how they say mind over matter? Or how Buddhist monks can supposedly endure extreme pain due to meditation? Or Wim Hoff? Or those crazy people who get off on piercings and shit have extreme thresholds for pain? It's all the same technique - using the power of belief and learning to use the power of your own mind to accomplish seemingly amazing feats or cause a mental transformation. This book talks a little about some seriously weird shit that I had to skip through because it bothered me, but I don't remember reading about "spirit cooking" (maybe I blocked it out though - blood grosses me out!). I've heard rumors and conspiracies of people into sacrifices and perverse evil stuff and I think they are disgusting freaks and I don't know wtf that shit is and want nothing to do with any of the disturbing "black magic" initiation rituals/rumors I've heard of. They freak me out and I think the people doing these things, if it's real and not just conspiracies, are sociopaths and disgusting. I felt like I should make that clear :P I'm not into that bullshit!

So moving on, a lot of these magical and occult systems honestly sounds like self-brainwashing and the power of positive thinking to me, but, again, I'm not yet done with this book. It's all about how perception creates reality. I'll let Fringe explain it. From what I understand, rituals and that sort of thing are intended to convince your own mind that something intangible is happening - like lighting a candle to banish darkness is a ritual to symbolize overcoming depression and dark thoughts. Your mind actually seeing and physically performing these rituals with symbols you've associated with complex thoughts or ideas enhances your belief in it like people taking blue placebo pills believe it will actually heal them even though they're just sugar pills or people carrying around a rabbit's foot believe it's somehow attracting good luck and warding off evil. From what I've read about the placebo effect the entire ritual is important and not just the pill - actually having a doctor prescribe a medical looking pill and telling you it will work makes it more powerful. Some athletes have special warm-up rituals to motivate them that they seriously believe improves their athletic abilities - rituals are the exact same thing and it's entirely about convincing your own mind that you are capable of something and altering your own perception of reality. The rituals build confidence so people approach life with a clear mind rather than insecure, weak, and full of self-doubt where they make mistakes, are clumsy, are afraid of their own shadows, producing stress hormones that have negative physiological impacts, etc. "Magic", the Law of Attraction, and all of that stuff, in my opinion, are all variations of the placebo effect, but instead of healing allergies or whatever it's about forcing a mental transformation and breaking you out of old thought patterns that might be holding you back. Christians do the same thing when they pray for help from God, but people into these fringe beliefs think they are being helped by some alternative mystical forces when I personally think it's all coming from the same source and/or just our own minds. I'm not a believer in the supernatural, but I think the placebo effect and psychosomatic symptoms prove our own minds are more powerful than we realize and can have a seriously negative or positive impact on our bodies and lives.

And when people chant mantras, spells, prayers, affirmations, and that sort of thing I think it's basically self-brainwashing, motivation, inspiration, and a mental placebo effect to reshape how you perceive reality, retrain your own mind, and take control of your own emotions and thoughts. People who are insecure, for example, have a difficult time dating, making friends, getting jobs, and it's because they hate themselves and their insecurity is sensed by everyone around them, negatively impacts how they interact with people or see themselves, and not because anything is actually wrong with them. Their minds are completely broken and they don't know how to interact with life and their own minds hold them back. If they were confident they might not be afraid to talk to that cute girl or invite a friend out, but their insecurity turns them into chicken shits and then they think everyone hates them which shatters their self-esteem creating a vicious cycle. Their mind becomes their prison and torturer, but they perceive it as the world is against them or they have bad luck. This book calls reshaping your own brain "meta programming" or something like that - as if your mind is a computer and you can reprogram it. I have anxiety and when I have panic attacks I'll write out "everything is going to be ok" affirmations like 10X or until I believe it and calm down (Scott Adams from Dilbert uses affirmations too and swears it made him successful - source). It seems to me like a lot of Wiccan spells, occult chants, Law of Attraction affirmations, placebo effect, and so on are similar to Christians praying to god to heal them - everyone thinks there's some divine power whether it's Yahweh, the moon god, a mother goddess, Shiva, Jesus, Buddha, Xenu, or whatever and they personify that divine mystical power, ask it for guidance, pray to it, and so on and believe it's actually helping them in some way. Whether it's actually mystical or just the power of our own minds is not really important - the belief is.

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