Blog Comments

  1. Moonchild's Avatar
    Thanks very much Andy. I have taken note of that.
    What programme would be similar to the "middle mind centering" he used to control hunger pangs?
  2. Andy's Avatar
    On the Proteus:
    Peak Performance sessions are 1-6.
    (Quick) Energy is 38-42.
    5 is Athletic Warmup.
  3. Moonchild's Avatar
    That's very interesting. I have the Proteus...are the sessions different on that?
  4. andrev's Avatar
    i agree with Marisa's recommendation of AVS machines for sleep disorders. I used a Photosonix Muse# for more than 20 years, and now have a Procyon, with which I'm very pleased.

    Headphones for sleep are a big issue. Have tried just about everything. The most comfortable ones I've ever used were Bedphones, http://www.bedphones.com, although the three that I tried had quality control issues and limited low end response. Sent feedback to the company and was told that they were aware of these issues, and were working to address them. So it's probably worth keeping an eye on their progress.

    Am currently using some good quality Sony in-ears, which do an excellent job of screening out ambient noise. Reasonably comfortable, and I'm able to adjust them so the cables go up and away from my head.
  5. Marisa's Avatar
    I stand corrected. That's what I get for trying to rely on memory. Hmmmm over to the book shelf - ah, the copy I have is "777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of AC" (it's three books in one).

    Anyway, Crowley was only involved in my initial post because of a couple of quotes, which tied into my definition of magick. In this case, it's the words, the idea of the subject that matters - the source of those words is acting as a distraction and it shouldn't.

    M.
  6. neuroasis's Avatar
    Sorry but you are actually talking about Sepher Sephiroth when you are talking about numerology (gematria). It was a work that was included in the modern editions, part of the 'and Other Qabalistic Writings'. Here is the entry on Wikipedia.

    Liber 777 Vel Prolegoma Symbolica Ad Systemam Sceptico-Mysticae Viae Explicande, Fundamentum Hieroglyphicum Sanctissimorum Scientiae Summae (whew, thanks to copy and paste!) is a work where pantheons and symbols for ritual (gemstones, plants, godforms, tarot cards....) are all aligned to the Qabalistic Tree of Life. I am referring to the Tables of Correspondence.

    I'll accept that as defined I may be referring to Sympathetic Magic. Certainly, Crowley was strongly influenced by Frazer's Golden Bough which is where this idea was formulated. I'll also accept that we may use different or broader terms (even more precise) than 'belief' and arrive at better understanding. I would never insist that there is only one way of doing things or at looking at things. I don't mean to suggest that the case I am making is the definitive one.
    Updated 06-17-2011 at 12:59 PM by neuroasis
  7. Marisa's Avatar
    I respectfully disagree with you regarding belief being necessary to activate symbolism. While symbolism can be linked to a belief, it is the acknowledgment of association between the two objects or ideas that makes the symbol workable. I do agree that it usually makes most sense to use symbol structures that are already in place - for example, the number "1" being associate with a single object or Christ on the cross being associated with Christianity etc.

    Crowley's work in 777 is not based on symbolism, it's based on Hebrew numerology. Numerology in itself though does use both symbolism and belief.

    Sympathetic magic is more of a related subject and is more in line with what you are talking about (or so I think). While sympathetic magic uses symbolism and belief, it does not encompass all that is or can be symbolic or all that needs to happen to make something symbolic.

    Methods such as "anchoring" (NLP) are ways to create symbolic associations (on purpose) that can operate outside of belief. For example, the smell of a rose being linked to a feeling of happiness. Anchors can also be created accidentally or unconsciously (for example, see wolf = feel fear) and those usually do involve a belief of some sort about the object.
  8. neuroasis's Avatar
    "Belief" is the key to activation of the symbols. It is the crossover point between suspending rational examination and taking a leap of "faith". That is letting the symbol take on a life of its own and operate outside your recognized sphere of influence. Now, these are religious terms and that is what causes many people pause. I don't really intend them in that sense strictly, although that is the mechanism for the transmission of those tenets.

    Here is an example of how we commonly put on and pull off beliefs everyday. Whenever we watch a movie or a television show for us to participate in the story we have to 'believe' that those actors are the characters that they are portraying. We may have seen them dozens of different times in other roles but for the purpose of this particular screenplay we must accept them as this character.

    It is the same when working with aspects of ourselves or intelligences beyond ourselves. Remember how we talked about associational clusters of relatedness? That is all a symbol system is.

    For instance, it wouldn't make much sense to ask Buddha (to pick a rabbit out of a hat) to give you a new recipe for oatmeal cookies. That is not what that symbol is for. The character that Martha Stewart plays would be a much better choice for this.

    In Catholicism the saints play these various roles in Christendom. This is why it was so easy for African religions to adopt this pantheon when they were 'converted'. They recognized the 'function' of their Orishas contained within these symbols. Of course, pagan religions are replete with a multitude of gods and spirits serving various roles.

    It seems in the memory stores of the Universal Mind there are these clusters of relatedness as well. Being shared among many intelligences, the symbols are adapted to the worldview and folklore of many cultures. That is why I say that to a large degree the symbols are interchangeable. Crowley gathered many of these worldwide associations together for the first time in his seminal book, 777.

    When we fall in love with someone we see them transfigured. We see beyond their everyday persona and all their flaws into that which most highly reflects a Perfection. We say that we 'believe' in them and see what marvelous things they are capable of. To work with a symbol, one falls in love with it.

    These aren't religious principles or even spiritual principles necessarily. I can use whatever terminology in science, psychology, mythology, or esotericism and still really see and mean the same thing. Certainly, I could improve in ways of describing it.
  9. Marisa's Avatar
    I don't think you need to believe in the symbols in order to use them. You only need to know what they mean and how they associate to other ideas. It's quite an effective way of designing neural pathways.

    Belief - now there's an interesting topic. I guess it's best to define what kind of beliefs I'm referring to. This would be the belief in god, spirits, demons, angels or other planes of existence. I currently take the position that religious/spiritual belief can actually get in the way of growth. Beliefs tend to conflict with change and the evolution of ideas. Beliefs tend to get stuck in dogma and the "rules" of that particular belief system.

    Having been on both sides of the fence, I also do appreciate where you are coming from concerning the study of magick or spirituality. Perhaps it boils down to what the individual is looking to get out of the discipline? For myself, I use my knowledge of magick for the ideas and creative approaches to understanding and using the mind.

    "Modern Magick", I agree, is a good book if someone is wanting to understand how that system works. It's one of the most comprehensive books out there. One of the foundation books that I would say is noteworthy is Franz Bardon's, "Initiation into Hermetics".

    Now that I am looking at things from a different perspective, it will be interesting (at least to me) to see how my perception of the teachings has changed or if I can translate it in practical terms.

    M.
  10. neuroasis's Avatar
    This is a 'can of worms' and a topic that can (and should be) discussed at great length for those who are interested. It should be realized though that Crowley is the 'deep end' of the pool. To most people first considering the subject he is absolutely incomprehensible. Later along the road one may begin to decipher his writings. There is no doubt that he has impacted everything in this field that has come after him. So by reading modern authors you are still to some degree reading him.

    Part of using a magickal symbol system is to believe (at least temporarily) in the reality of those symbols. It really doesn't matter what symbol system you choose. Some have a longer history than others and are well established for the purpose. Many also have a lot of baggage. The point is to 'enflame thyself with prayer'. Meditate upon those words for awhile and look at their meanings from many different perspectives and gather what it is that is intended and how it applies to a modern mindset.

    For a Western practical perspective 2 worthy books are Donald Michael Kraig's "Modern Magick" and Frater U.D. 's "High Magick". The first is rooted strongly in the Golden Dawn Judeo-Christian pantheon (sprinkled with a bit of Eastern, particularly Egyptian, practice). However, it is a lucid presentation with a strong foundational framework for practice. "High Magick" is a little more agnostic with many exercises but it is a little bit deeper. You should have at least some familiarity with traditional approaches which you will get from reading "Modern Magick".

    Each of these books teach "Ceremonial Magick" whose intent is to align oneself with higher forces and progress along an active evolutionary path. This is to be distinguished from "Low Magick" which is to put simply but somewhat inaccurately "spell craft". That is, results-oriented magick to gain love, money, protection, revenge...

    Crowley's work falls into the "High Magick" category regardless of what popular culture would have you believe.
    Updated 06-15-2011 at 12:22 PM by neuroasis
  11. neuroasis's Avatar
    There is a beautiful documentary by Ram Dass (Richard Alpert) who was an associate of Timothy Leary and who is the author of the famous sixties book Be Here Now. It is about how he has coped with being 'stroked' (his words) and how it has changed his perspective. It is called Fierce Grace. It is also available for streaming on Netflix.
  12. Marisa's Avatar
    Sorry for the delay in responding. I just found that I had comments. Doh!

    Anji, Yes, I did read that book. It was incredible!

    Robert, That's very interesting how your mother and mine have hallucinations of a similar nature. While my mom isn't seeing dragons, she does think that this stuffed dog I gave her is sentient. Also, she thinks both me and my sister were adopted. She even has entire stories built around how this happened. The stories are not really logical but in her mind they make sense. This does remind me of how when we dream our minds can create stories and they make sense to us at the time.

    Neuroasis, I agree with you about how memories are linked with associations. The brain also does have a sense of temporal organization which allows us to know whether something happened in the recent or distant past (if not the date). That's a whole discussion on its own - temporal organization. I recently came across a good paper on the subject - in case you or anyone is interested in this subject - http://www.somasimple.com/pdf_files/temporal_brain.pdf
  13. neuroasis's Avatar
    This product design is pretty nice: SleepPhones. Pillow Speakers work for some people too. I have in the past used both ones that are inserted into a pillow case and ones that are manufactured in the pillow. I prefer the inserted ones as it much easier to laundry the pillow.
    Updated 06-02-2011 at 04:37 PM by neuroasis
  14. Marisa's Avatar
    The glasses and headphones are pretty robust and have held up pretty good (no damage yet). The long wires are a bit of a problem but I've solved that adequately by winding up the wires and bunching them together with an elastic band. I'll email you on an idea of a sleep model.
  15. Robert Austin's Avatar
    Reminds me that we should consider building some extra-robust ganzframes and phones for sleepers, who might just roll over their Procyon. I wonder if small speakers on either side of the bed, with binaural beats, might help? No wires to tangle or console to smash in that case!
  16. Anji's Avatar
    Did you read the book "My Stroke of Insight"?
  17. Robert Austin's Avatar
    Fascinating post, Marisa! What a strange experience of the world your mother must be having. My mother's strokes were all in her right hemisphere, which has scrambled her visual memory. Though she's still pretty lucid and can sound like her pre-stroke self, she has reported that there was a dragon living under her bed, is convinced that my brother's son's wife just had two children despite being reminded that there was just one, and the like. When I ask her what she spends time thinking, she says "making lists" and "analyzing" which is pretty consistent with having a functioning left hemisphere.

    Regarding your Mom's EEG, you are almost certainly right - regions near the locus of a stroke tend to spend most of their time in low frequency land, and sometimes neurofeedback to specific areas (temporal in your mom's case) can improve things. I left my mother a Procyon programmed to ramp between 12 and 18 hz as she expressed interest in trying this, and hopefully the folks running the family home haven't taken it away since it was not prescribed by her doctor...
  18. neuroasis's Avatar
    I do not tend to think of memories being stored in a linear fashion however with the case of your mother (which is very trying and heart-wrenching I am sure, my grandmother had a stroke and we took care of her for 8 years as she progressively moved further into dementia) ... there is a unique opportunity to understand a bit more about the organization of our memories.

    I use a model of understanding memory stores as association chains. In this way memories are organized into clusters of relatedness. So if I think of a cat I trigger a whole chain of associations. To rebuild a particular story of a cat, I follow a particular link in the chain which leads to another link and so on.

    I also do know for a fact personally that memories or items in memory can be organized alphabetically or at least that is a serialized overlay pattern. I often know the first letter of something that I am trying to remember and observe myself following the chain to retrieve the remaining letters.

    This model of association clusters can go a long way in explaining dreams (where at one level clusters are built in free-form manner without the necessary formal rules of logic) and also may help shed some light on your mother's condition. In her present state, associational paths are acting as if they are cross wired. That way one bit of memory composites with another bit of memory along a seemingly haphazard path. However, as these memories are clustered together then they trigger one another and she is not quite able to retrace the exact path along the original chain. Just food for thought.

    Having said this, it probably now makes a little more sense what I was talking about in the kundalini thread with traumatic memories being an overriding cluster on which the whole associational structure is superimposed, acting as a strange attractor, with every memory ultimately reminding of and triggering some aspect of that trauma.

    Also, in the 'conversational hypnosis' thread brewmasher's observance that he goes into the kitchen and forgets why he is there could reveal that the act of going into the kitchen has triggered an association cluster that he has become immersed in for a moment and his original purpose for being there is diffused in the chain. So he begins retracing to find the trigger.

    Once again, this is all just speculation but I have put this model to great use myself.
    Updated 05-19-2011 at 05:00 PM by neuroasis