Suggestions for that annoying sceptic

[Kepler]

Many years ago, one of them confronted me at a party to try to ridicule my interests.

I tried to blow him off, but he kept pushing. In a fit of irritation, I told him "Okay, fine, care to test your theory ? Give me a lock of your hair and permission to destroy your life, and just using occult means I will. " They looked shocked and shut up, probably becasue they thought I was crazy.

That's similar to a situation I encountered where a belligerent pseudosceptic was trying to ridicule an entity contact.

After politely making a one time limited offer of contact with "The Grue" they immediately refused. Following that the same offer was specifically made to another that wasn't being sceptical and they refused. Then for a limited time it was open to all and no one took up on it. Which given the group was very surprising to me and required reassessing who those people claimed to be and my own consensus bias. As I would be inclined to readily accept to help an entity find its celestial alignment or disprove the claim.

The pseudosceptic and those that didn't want to acknowledge their refusal ended up dealing with their refusal by changing the story to me threatening them with the entity rather than it being an offer they refused or left unacknowledged. Fortunately there was a record that showed it was an offer and undermined their attempt to create a false narrative.

 

[skatedom]

Many of the skeptics I've met are Catholic, so I just question some of their religious dogmas by comparing them to certain occult rituals.

 

[kiki]

Eh. I tend to have a more attraction vs promotion way of handling things. I just don't hide what I'm up to and share about it as though the person already agrees with me or is a trusted ally - so that they can have a more fly on the wall experience with observing me, rather than sharing it with a hyper consciousness of their skepticism or trying to contort myself to be understood better. I mean, there's a myriad of strategies it just depends on the person and situation and energy you have. But in the situation your talking about I would even say "you know it doesn't matter you'll be just fine with or without the belief or knowledge so it's whatever" which gives them more agency and relieved the pressure...they have their own resistance they need to work through without me adding stress by cajoling them.

Imagine you're discussing magick with someone you know to be a sceptic; you usually avoid the issue given your friend's tendency to dismiss out of hand the topic. This time though, they seem a bit more interested, but still find the idea of magick highly questionable.

For a moment it seems as though you might have them considering something, but can see you're about to lose them. Given your friend's scepticism, you think that giving them a practical task to try themselves might actually be worthwhile.

You lean forward, getting their attention, and say:

'Actually, why don't you just try. . . '

Well? What would your direction be here?

I

 

[Firetree]

Imagine you're discussing magick with someone you know to be a sceptic; you usually avoid the issue given your friend's tendency to dismiss out of hand the topic. This time though, they seem a bit more interested, but still find the idea of magick highly questionable.

For a moment it seems as though you might have them considering something, but can see you're about to lose them. Given your friend's scepticism, you think that giving them a practical task to try themselves might actually be worthwhile.

You lean forward, getting their attention, and say:

'Actually, why don't you just try. . . '

Well? What would your direction be here?

.... ****ing off . ''

 

[MorganBlack]

Many of the skeptics I've met are Catholic,

Mexican Catholicism is a fundamentally magical culture. Any seeming disagreements with Cradle Caths in my family is really only about technical terminology. What we call "magic" they will call "miracles".

They'll recoil in horror if you shove a bunch of demons in their face. And they're not fans of the hyper-aggressive occult talk full of will, power, force, demons, pagan gods, and cursing. But if if you speak their language and talk about miracles, or having one's prayers answered by God, or saints, once you break it down to brass tacks, they don't really not have any issue with the thing we sometimes called "magic" - as long it's not used to hurt people.

 

[kiki]

I've always found this quite endearing. Mexican Catholics are extremely superstitious, it's kind of a running joke in the culture that low key, Abuelita is witch and the goth grandkids know she's down XD

Mexican Catholicism is a fundamentally magical culture. Any seeming disagreements with Cradle Caths in my family is really only about technical terminology. What we call "magic" they will call "miracles".

They'll recoil in horror if you shove a bunch of demons in their face. And they're not fans of the hyper-aggressive occult talk full of will, power, force, demons, pagan gods, and cursing. But if if you speak their language and talk about miracles, or having one's prayers answered by God, or saints, once you break it down to brass tacks, they don't really not have any issue with the thing we sometimes called "magic" - as long it's not used to hurt people

 

[Angelkesfarl]

I will tell him of the simplest magic, which is to cut three pieces from a paper tissue lengthwise to the width of a matchstick, place them in the middle of it, roll it over them, and then cover it with his bare hand. After that, I will say a few simple words and let him choose one of three options for the three matchsticks, commanding him to keep it abstract in his mind while questioning about a certain matter; and then, I will truly enjoy seeing the shock of astonishment, bewilderment, and awe when he finds the correct answer as one of the matchsticks emerges from the middle of the tissue to the outside. Thank you, everyone...

 

[Reynard]

I'm doing a management/leadership degree at work, and my project is on reframing chaos magic techniques as a management tool (servitors as objectives/corporate values, tarot as a reflection tool, sigils as positive reinforcement of objectives, that sort of thing).

In the next few weeks, I need to kick off a project with the staff in my department which I can then reflect on/refer to in my dissertation. This afternoon, I got the service managers together to run it by them. A couple of them report to me and they're close friends, so they already know my interest in chaos magic in my private life, but the rest are unaware.

I explained what I wanted to achieve, and pretty much everyone took it in the spirit it was intended - a fun, innovative way of engaging with staff, trying new things, and so on. However, one of my friends made a few joking comments (nothing mean, he was just taking the piss a bit, which is fine because we have a mutual respect/piss-taking rapport).

Just as he finished saying something like "and then we can all put on our Harry Potter robes and fly around on our broomsticks" the handle on his cup broke in his hand, and he spilt his tea all over his lap.

Clearly, this wasn't me getting magical revenge or anything. But, hey, based on the original question of what you do with that annoying sceptic: just curse the mother-humper

 

[Kellhuss]

I'm doing a management/leadership degree at work, and my project is on reframing chaos magic techniques as a management tool (servitors as objectives/corporate values, tarot as a reflection tool, sigils as positive reinforcement of objectives, that sort of thing).

In the next few weeks, I need to kick off a project with the staff in my department which I can then reflect on/refer to in my dissertation. This afternoon, I got the service managers together to run it by them. A couple of them report to me and they're close friends, so they already know my interest in chaos magic in my private life, but the rest are unaware.

I explained what I wanted to achieve, and pretty much everyone took it in the spirit it was intended - a fun, innovative way of engaging with staff, trying new things, and so on. However, one of my friends made a few joking comments (nothing mean, he was just taking the piss a bit, which is fine because we have a mutual respect/piss-taking rapport).

Just as he finished saying something like "and then we can all put on our Harry Potter robes and fly around on our broomsticks" the handle on his cup broke in his hand, and he spilt his tea all over his lap.

Clearly, this wasn't me getting magical revenge or anything. But, hey, based on the original question of what you do with that annoying sceptic: just curse the mother-humper

Excellent work