How it started, how it's going

[oregano]

I had what western materialist psychology calls a "psychotic break" a decade ago. My entire journey from then to now has been teaching myself occult principles and techniques in order to regain control of my mind. Following some recent success with that, I found this place.

I've thought enough about it and witnessed enough things to now be able to say that I know that the occult is real. My feeling is the next bit of the journey will be a somewhat less exciting period of study and practice. I welcome this, and hope that these forums can be a home base in that endeavor.

To new connections!

 

[The Wizard Tim]

Hi Oregano,

What do you mean when you say that "the Occult is real"?
What secret things is it, what hidden things is it, what concealed things is it that you mean are real?
Magick?
Ceremonial Magicians?
Alchemy and The Great Work?
Invoking and Evoking of entities?

I personally like to conduct magickal workings within the Psychological model of Magick; mostly due to that whole thing about mind over matter, though I do enjoy using correspondences such as one would use in the Resonance model of Magick. I recommend reading Nicholas Kingsley's paper on Amazon titled Unravleing Magick, it adds credibility to that which you "know is real" and is a fantastic authoritative source on magick.

Keep on!

 

[oregano]

A lot of things

It all falls under the same umbrella-realization that the context in which the qualia present in awareness exist is not dictated by the content of awareness. So this would necessitate an entirely new branch of knowledge outside of the empirical. Spiritual/occult knowledge, in other words.

I started realizing this when I started meditating. I considered the content of my awareness field, and instead of internally labeling this or that as "chair", "box", or any kind of empirically-based definition, I noticed that I could just call it "awareness" instead.

So naturally I started to wonder: hey, if I say that the chair is "in the house", where is the awareness of the chair?

Basically a lot of spiritual traditions exist to provide an answer to this question. Materialism is actually no different. It says that awareness lives, "in the brain".

That's the "secret thing", as you called it. A question, not an answer.

 

[Swampdweller900]

Hello, and welcome to the forum.

I'll be straight up with you - the occult isn't always easy on mental health. Have you in the years past, talk to a mental health professional? There are some problems the occult can't always fix. Witches don't have covens for the tax benefits - we all need support from time to time.

 

[The Wizard Tim]

A lot of things

It all falls under the same umbrella-realization that the context in which the qualia present in awareness exist is not dictated by the content of awareness. So this would necessitate an entirely new branch of knowledge outside of the empirical. Spiritual/occult knowledge, in other words.

I started realizing this when I started meditating. I considered the content of my awareness field, and instead of internally labeling this or that as "chair", "box", or any kind of empirically-based definition, I noticed that I could just call it "awareness" instead.

So naturally I started to wonder: hey, if I say that the chair is "in the house", where is the awareness of the chair?

Basically a lot of spiritual traditions exist to provide an answer to this question. Materialism is actually no different. It says that awareness lives, "in the brain".

That's the "secret thing", as you called it. A question, not an answer.

Interesting.

So when you are asking yourself where the awareness of the chair is, do you mean; where in yourself is your awareness and ability to perceive the chair housed?

Or, do you mean; where is the chair's awareness, in that the chair would be aware of it's own existence?

 

[oregano]

Interesting.

So when you are asking yourself where the awareness of the chair is, do you mean; where in yourself is your awareness and ability to perceive the chair housed?

Or, do you mean; where is the chair's awareness, in that the chair would be aware of it's own existence?

Not really either of those

The chair is said to have a physical location independent of a person's perspective of it. We all know how to say where the chair is, and it's the same for everyone regardless of their view of the chair from where they are.

But the awareness of the chair from a subjective first-person perspective is itself an ontological entity. Where is this entity?

Is it in the brain? Is it in the mind of God? Is it in a computer simulation? Nowhere at all? Everywhere?