First, the idea of a “sound mind” is not as objective as it is often treated.
In clinical psychology, mental health is typically assessed based on functionality (e.g., ability to maintain relationships, work, self-care) and distress, not on whether someone’s worldview aligns with a dominant cultural norm.
What is considered “sound” is therefore subjective and not absolute, shaped by individual, cultural, historical, and systemic standards.
This introduces a theory called normative bias, which is the tendency to treat the majority experience as inherently correct or superior, even when human cognition and perception exist on a wide and diverse spectrum.
Your point claiming exclusive access to “real results” reflects another important bias here called the self-enhancement bias or illusory superiority bias
This is where individuals overestimate the validity or uniqueness of their own experiences while dismissing others.
In social psychology or group or belief-based contexts, this can evolve into a form of identity-protective cognition, where maintaining one’s status as “real” “authentic” or “advanced” becomes psychologically important.
while dismissing others as mentally ill, delusional, fraudulent, fantasists, or inferior then serves to reinforce that identity to protect one’s own identity.
There’s also a layer of projection involved.
When someone strongly criticises others as mentally ill, addicts, delusional, or somehow deficient, they may be externalising their own uncertainty or seeking a deeper need for validation.
In psychological terms, this is called a defense mechanism. Projection. Simplistically, that is protecting one’s internal sense of certainty by discrediting alternative perspectives.
Ultimately, what you’re attempting to highlight is a tension between subjective experience (no results) and claims of objective authority (real results, but with self proclaimed exclusions focused on stereotypes, prejudice and assumption).
Psychology tends to be cautious of any framework, magickal occult or otherwise, that asserts universal standardised validity while dismissing others outright, you speak on fanatics, but the definition of fanaticism comes close to this.
interesting to note that stance itself often reveals more about the individual’s cognitive and emotional needs than about the absolute truth-value of the system they’re defending, or proclaiming adepthood in.
So in psychological terms, and FTR psychology and spirituality are entwined, as psychology was intended to be the “study of consciousness” and social psychology dives into the realm of “bias” in depth.
the most grounded, balanced and nuanced position is one that allows for an equilibrium, variability, remains aware of personal bias, can hold dialectics (two opposing perspectives at one time), explore the shades of grey, and can avoid conflating personal differences in opinion with absolute dysfunction or condemnation of those who differ in their practice.
Psychology would instead point to a concept called cognitive pluralism which is the recognition that different individuals construct meaning in different ways, influenced by personality, upbringing, culture, and temperament.
What “works” for one person (whether in spirituality, ritual, magick, or belief) can not be generalised as an absolute to others, not because one is true and the other false, but because human perception and interpretation are inherently subjective NOT objective.
just food for thought
First, the idea of a “sound mind” is not as objective as it is often treated.
In clinical psychology, mental health is typically assessed based on functionality (e.g., ability to maintain relationships, work, self-care) and distress, not on whether someone’s worldview aligns with a dominant cultural norm.
What is considered “sound” is therefore subjective and not absolute, shaped by individual, cultural, historical, and systemic standards.
This introduces a theory called normative bias, which is the tendency to treat the majority experience as inherently correct or superior, even when human cognition and perception exist on a wide and diverse spectrum.
Your point claiming exclusive access to “real results” reflects another important bias here called the self-enhancement bias or illusory superiority bias
This is where individuals overestimate the validity or uniqueness of their own experiences while dismissing others.
In social psychology or group or belief-based contexts, this can evolve into a form of identity-protective cognition, where maintaining one’s status as “real” “authentic” or “advanced” becomes psychologically important.
while dismissing others as mentally ill, delusional, fraudulent, fantasists, or inferior then serves to reinforce that identity to protect one’s own identity.
There’s also a layer of projection involved.
When someone strongly criticises others as mentally ill, addicts, delusional, or somehow deficient, they may be externalising their own uncertainty or seeking a deeper need for validation.
In psychological terms, this is called a defense mechanism. Projection. Simplistically, that is protecting one’s internal sense of certainty by discrediting alternative perspectives.
Ultimately, what you’re attempting to highlight is a tension between subjective experience (no results) and claims of objective authority (real results, but with self proclaimed exclusions focused on stereotypes, prejudice and assumption).
Psychology tends to be cautious of any framework, magickal occult or otherwise, that asserts universal standardised validity while dismissing others outright, you speak on fanatics, but the definition of fanaticism comes close to this.
interesting to note that stance itself often reveals more about the individual’s cognitive and emotional needs than about the absolute truth-value of the system they’re defending, or proclaiming adepthood in.
So in psychological terms, and FTR psychology and spirituality are entwined, as psychology was intended to be the “study of consciousness” and social psychology dives into the realm of “bias” in depth.
the most grounded, balanced and nuanced position is one that allows for an equilibrium, variability, remains aware of personal bias, can hold dialectics (two opposing perspectives at one time), explore the shades of grey, and can avoid conflating personal differences in opinion with absolute dysfunction or condemnation of those who differ in their practice.
Psychology would instead point to a concept called cognitive pluralism which is the recognition that different individuals construct meaning in different ways, influenced by personality, upbringing, culture, and temperament.
What “works” for one person (whether in spirituality, ritual, magick, or belief) can not be generalised as an absolute to others, not because one is true and the other false, but because human perception and interpretation are inherently subjective NOT objective.
just food for though