---Introduce yourself---

I am not going to divulge this information, and I mean it as no slight against you. It is just for my own personal comfort. There is an unfortunate stigma against people taking any form of psychotropic drug as being "mentally ill", when that is the farthest thing from the truth. This is the age of the internet, and anonymity is not rooted as strongly as people think.
Don't worry in the slightest about that - there is also a potential stigma against people taking an interest in psychic things - so most people here try to be anonymous one way or another.

I would really like to move on to other topics now though. This whole psychiatric experience has been a difficult journey for me. I am very cautious on who I trust because of it, but also there to help anyone in need.

I think that is a good idea. I suspect that people who have psychic connections are more prone to mental problems - the overload and cognitive dissonance must be enormous.

David
 
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Don't worry in the slightest about that - there is also a potential stigma against people taking an interest in psychic things - so most people here try to be anonymous one way or another.



I think that is a good idea. I suspect that people who have psychic connections are more prone to mental problems - the overload and cognitive dissonance must be enormous.

David

Thank you David for being so understanding. I do realize you were asking for more information to benefit others. I have a great gauge with people, even over the internet.

It's very sad that people have a negative perception against others that believe in something more than what we can see and measure. But even portraying that to them they look at you like you have three heads. My best friend is an atheist, and even though we don't agree on everything, we respect each other. I wish the world could be more like that. I appreciate your welcome again, and also telling me your own experience with pharmaceuticals.

Now I am going to try to get some sleep, insomnia is no mans friend.
 
Hi all, I'm a philosophical truth-seeker and would very much like join all you smart people in discussion about interesting topics such as consciousness, self-development and balance between science-religion. I'm a seasoned software professional but I have a long experience with the esoteric, the strange and the "supernatural". :) I live in central Europe. I'm blogging now and then at www.peopleandbits.info and tweeting at @peopleandbits. Yeah and also greets to Alex for hosting an absolutely smashing show!
 
Hi I'm Dean. I am a former agnostic, then atheist, turned to serious orthodox Christian, and a fan of Thomas Aquinas. I came across Skeptiko a few weeks ago and have been watching and while I'm skeptical of some things, I am open-minded. There seems to be a notion that a serious orthodox Xtian would be hostile to the ideas around here but for the most part I'm not, in fact, very little runs in direct conflict with what I believe.

WHatever anyone's religious beliefs, I think the notion that consciousness is completely encased in the electrochemical soup of our brain & central nervous system is nonsense, as is Materialism generally. Indeed I see Materialism as mind-poison, as the "spell" that needs breaking, to steal the ludicrous Daniel Dennett's metaphor--the Materialist Delusion must be punctured!
 
Hi I'm Dean. I am a former agnostic, then atheist, turned to serious orthodox Christian, and a fan of Thomas Aquinas. I came across Skeptiko a few weeks ago and have been watching and while I'm skeptical of some things, I am open-minded. There seems to be a notion that a serious orthodox Xtian would be hostile to the ideas around here but for the most part I'm not, in fact, very little runs in direct conflict with what I believe.
Hi Dean, welcome to the forum!

I think there is a feeling that many religious organisations like to control exactly what their followers think. This can make it awkward for them to treat actual observations in an unbiased way. For example, it does seem that most people experience positive NDE's, regardless of whether they were believers or not, a few experience negative (hellish) NDE's, bet again regardless of their former lives, and some people have had an NDE of each type, or an NDE that starts out bad becomes positive part way through!

This doesn't seem consistent with Christian teaching.

I think the notion that consciousness is completely encased in the electrochemical soup of our brain & central nervous system is nonsense, as is Materialism generally.

I think most of us have come to the same conclusion because of a variety of different kinds of evidence - but you will find people here who disagree - provided they discuss their ideas in a reasonable way, they are also welcome here!

David
 
Hey there. I have been studying and practicing magic for arguably my whole life however I started going hardcore into trying to develop physical magic starting around 2008-2009. Physical magic in this case being defined as things like telekinesis, where things can be directly affected by the practiioner in an obvious physical way on demand right in front of them repeatably. During the same time I accidentally started slipping into astral projection which I called "Lucid daydreaming" at the time because of the sheer qualitative difference betwen it and normal daydreaming. Also learned about the phenomenon of shared dreams and shared projections. Had a ridiculous amount of encounters with entities, some were nice, others not so much. Very crazy shit started happening, pissed off a bunch of narccisistic bigots in projection, nearly died multiple times as a result and still have issues with it to this day.

I got a surprising amount of success with all of this before overloading my body in october 2010 out of frustration which destroyed my body's ability to recharge energy. Slowly over the course of the next year and a half or so my energy atrophied and I slumped into what would probably be classed a suicidal depression. Largely due to the knowledge that I could never talk about any of it openly and honestly due to the sheer "craziness" of it likely landing me in a psych ward.

For whatever reason my ability to project wasn't nearly as affected by the loss of of my energy. So I doubled down into that field despite not caring in the slightest for the skillset and developed the ability to "Poltergeist" via experiments carried out in late 2010 - early 2011. Poltergeisting is essentially remote viewing plus the ability to physically interact with the environment that you're viewing. It was then turned into the basis of regaining my lost physical ability.

My now girlfriend who lived on the other side of the world to me at the time urged me not to give up on my research and training partly because she'd witnessed enough of my successes to know it wasn't nothing. When she moved here in November 2013 I decided I'd start on the process of healing both the physical wounds and the mental/emotional ones and redevelop the physical ability that I'd lost and then some. I developed a three stage model to define my progress.

Stage 1: demonstrating some accurate passive sensing ability for objects outside of me.

Stage 2: Demonstrate some intentional active manipulation ability on objects outside of me.

Stage 3: Demonstrate both active and passive abilities at a level of strength and control that could be deemed practical for everyday use

Mostly rebuilt my energy network around July 2014 albeit still in an atrophied state. Joined a Kung Fu studio in September 2014. Achieved Stage 1 in December 2014

Fully physically healed around July 2015. Achieved what I like to call Stage 1.9 in October 2015 when I confirmed a successful poltergeist where I moved a whole bunch of deck furniture around the yard in ways that would be impossible for the wind to do. Realized that, since I had originally laid down, imagined all that with the intention that it turn into a poltergeist, placed furniture in very specific places and positions to demonstrate that it was me to myself, and then had it actually happen, that it easily classified as a Stage 2 level of ability. However since it was done via projection as opposed to direct telekinesis, I couldn't count it as full Stage 2

Achieved what I like to call Stage 1.95 about a month and a half ago or so when I managed to push my energy so hard it visibly burned me on my chest. Replicated twice with no intentio of doing a third. But since the effect was on my body as opposed to another object at a distance, I couldn't classify it as full Stage 2.

Currently working on solving "The Diving Board Paradox" to finish up the mental/emotional recovery which will probably also achieve stage 2 if not 3 in the process.

My goal with all this is to develop full on real magic. Not this indirect wicca prayer bullshit. I want to develop it in a way that can be taught to, explained to, and demonstrated to others much like a martial art and used like one too. I believe it is long, LONG past the time for parapsychology research to be looking at whether or not a phenomenon exists and to instead start focusing on taking the knowledge they have and developijng it into something practical in the real world. My reasons for this goal are too numerous to list here. Part of it is my genetic condition, X-Linked Retinitus Pigmentosa, Which I want to cure before I go totally blind because it's bullshit. Other reasons include many of the not so nice encounters/debates I've had with various entities in projection. The stories of which are too long, too numerous, and too crazy to include in this comment. Magic to me is best defined as "Applied Self-Determination" If freedom were a skill, magic would be that skill.
 
How could you practice magic your whole life and never had heard of Crowley? That seems rather odd.

Before I went hardcore in 2008 I did not think of any of it as "magic" nor was I trying to develop it as such. I didn't see it as any different than any other skillset. It's only in hindsight that I realized that I've actually been developing experiements and running them since I was around 6 years old. Most of the stuff back then focused on developing abilities in/for dreams to help me fight and kill nightmares. Or rather, things that, if I'd run or been scared, would've made me percieve the whole experience as a nightmare because things would've ended badly. A practice and skillset that I have since been forced to learn translated pretty much directly to projection and poltergeisting which is likely why I slipped into it so easily in 2008-2009 without realizing. Despite that this whole thing has been a group effort in one way or another. I've had a lot of spirits outright and explicityly threaten me and my girlfriend for daring to try to develop magic, largely out of pure rascist, narccissistic bigotry. Threats they followed up on. They're largely where my data on the kruger effect comes from. To this day if I accidentally pop out of my body something will without fail attempt to kill and/or eat me or shove me back in my body. Sometimes even being shoved back in results in physical injury. And if I get away with it once and no one shows up or catches me in time, usually something pulls me in or otherwise attacks me within the week or the next time I get close. Although it's not nearly as bad as it used to be. But I've also had other spirits think that what I'm trying to do is cool and have offered tips and tricks and general help which I'm always grateful for. Since it's not like they had any obligation to help and it's not even like I had asked them for it in the first place. I haven't even gotten to the crazy stuff yet.
 
You would probably enjoy Mike Sententia. His website and podcast below. He is a scientist who is working on developing a kind of practical magic through repetition and experimentation.

I'll have to do my due diligence and listen to the whole thing but here's my critiques of what I read from the excerpts

"The term ethereal software is essentially the mechanism that spirit’s use to help with our requests."

"Greg and Mike discuss the evolution of a relationship with an entity and exactly what that may look like. From contacting random spirits using ethereal software, to moving beyond over time and connecting with a spirit who specializes in communication. Mike details his experience for listeners. Mike also helps offer insight into what implications this has on a spiritual level, how this has molded his paradigm, and what the reality of these spirits may include."

If this stuff is as literal as the rest of the excerpts make it out to be then he has a laughably, pathetically broad definition of the term "Direct." Moreover this is the EXACT thing that I rejected when I first started getting contacted by entities. I rejected any notion that I or anyone else "needed" them. I rejected any and all authority they claimed to have over me or anyone else. I didn't want them to do shit for me, I wanted to do it myself. I wanted to do what they did. Well, their fragile little egos just couldn't handle that. They wanted to feel special. They wanted to feel like they were the ones in control. They wanted to be the ones who decided what happend and why. After all if other lesser people could do what they could do, well, that would be anarchy. It would be chaos and mayhem and the end of the world for everyone! And just like every other idiot, they were allergic to thinking. All it took was a few question, particularly my favorite, "Why?" to make them feel so threatened that they just needed to "put me in my place." Fucking hell in hindsight those people reminded me of things I read about the exploration days of british sailors in the 1600's and how they'd shoot a pistol at the ground near a native of some island they were visiting. Then write about how funny it was that the native was so perplexed and awestruck by it because they didn't understand gunpowder and thus did not understand the briton's "superiority." Then substitute magic for blackpowder and balls of lead and it's pretty much the same attitude.

If anyone wants me to believe that they're a superior being that I should be bowing down to, then they can come down here and prove it. If you wanna know what some of these people are/were like then imagine your average Social Justice Warrior, modern Feminist, etc and then give them the ability to do shit like fly and throw balls and beams of energy and manifest shit like lightning and fire using energy and sure, you start to get something that sounds like a bad anime, but you also start to get the idea. I suppose that's where the crazy stuff starts.

But it's unbelievably satisfying seeing the look on these pathetic retards faces after someone who's supposed to be inferior beats them at their own game in their own realm.

But like I said, I still have to do my due dilligence and listen to the podcast before deciding what I think of their "Direct Magick" ideas, and also probably not continue responding here since I'm pretty sure it's not the point of the thread. Although I could be wrong.
 
I don't think it matters where we choose to converse. Conversation is the entire point of the forum.

You certainly have an unorthodox practice of magic. It's clear you aren't interested in courting allies in any realm! Good luck in your endeavors!

Just a quick check. Are you aware that many people who practice magic develop bonds with some specific non-physical entities who then provide some measure of "protection".
 
Just a quick check. Are you aware that many people who practice magic develop bonds with some specific non-physical entities who then provide some measure of "protection".

I am and I have. However that is not the same as someone demanding that I hand over all power and control to them "or else." There's way more to this story than I'm even willing to tell at the moment, but sufficed to say we have helped each other. There are some cases where I'd be dead right now if it wasn't for them and vice versa. It is better to have allies rather than enemies, but some people cannot handle the idea that everyone is fundamentally equal and that nothing matters even if there are differences on the surface. For those people there apparently is no compromise and quite frankly no intelligence either. As all the "enemies" I and my girlfriend have met were universally self righteous hypocrites with blatant double standards. Some had more of an ideology about it than others. But not everyone is like that. There's plenty of friendly people as well. The only real reason they acted as aggressively and murderously as they did, by their own admission, is because they didn't believe it was possible for there to be any consequences for their actions. Especially not from someone down here because "Humans don't have magic" as the stereotype goes. Much like taunting a caged animal because you believe there's nothing it can do from behind those bars.

As one apparition told me, "Whatcha gonna do kid, you gonna call the cops and tell them ghosts are attacking you?"

People who did that sort of thing often justified it with logic along the lines of "It doesn't matter if we ruin lives or kill people because they were gonna die anyways and besides even though they don't understand that death isn't the end we still do so in the grand scheme of things we didn't do anything wrong." Reasoning that things like murder and torture were about a harmful as ruffling someones hair "in the long run." Or i suppose more accurately, griefing someone in a video game because "it's just a game and they're just gonna respawn anyways." I won't deny that technically they're probably not wrong, but it's still a dick move even if it's true. So I figured that if they enjoyed doing it to others so much. surely they wouldn't mind if it were done back to them.

Despite all that I refuse to think of these people as "evil." Sure they enjoyed hurting other people, but technically so did I when I defended myself or other people or attacked premptively. I wasn't any different from them. The only real difference between us are our tastes.
 
Hey All, my name is Brandon. I've been a long time follower of Skeptiko (at least 6 years following). It's been an experience learning different perspectives on psi/ paranormal phenomenon. I would call my self a "closet believer", as I do not typically talk about my interest in these topics professionally or personally. Statistically I would say that psi phenomenon are valid, however I feel that the most compelling evidence comes from the documentation and testing of specific individuals. I'm in IT industry, specifically focusing on data center infrastructure which includes hardware and software.

I look forward to interacting with everyone!
 
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Hey All, my name is Brandon. I've been a long time follower of Skeptiko (at least 6 years following). It's been an experience learning different perspectives on psi/ paranormal phenomenon. I would call my sell a "closet believer", as I do not typically talk about my interest in these topics professionally or personally. Statistically I would say that psi phenomenon are valid, however I feel that the most compelling evidence comes from the documentation and testing of specific individuals. I'm in IT industry, specifically focusing on data center infrastructure which includes hardware and software.

I look forward to interacting with everyone!
Welcome!
 
Hey All, my name is Brandon. I've been a long time follower of Skeptiko (at least 6 years following). It's been an experience learning different perspectives on psi/ paranormal phenomenon. I would call my sell a "closet believer", as I do not typically talk about my interest in these topics professionally or personally. Statistically I would say that psi phenomenon are valid, however I feel that the most compelling evidence comes from the documentation and testing of specific individuals. I'm in IT industry, specifically focusing on data center infrastructure which includes hardware and software.

I look forward to interacting with everyone!

Welcome, and you've made a good start with your post on Shamanic healing. I'm part way into the video and may be commenting later.
 
Hello all! My name is Jason, and I am a long-time Skeptiko listener but very new to the forum. I live in sunny(?) Florida with my wife and four cats, all of whom I regularly drive nuts with my fascination for consciousness research, meditation, and various para-psychological studies.

Currently, I am assisting Alex with a number of projects for the show. the website, and the Skeptiko community, so I am sure I will be popping up here from time to time.

I have recently been reading up on the forum archives and really appreciate the insightful and thought-provoking discussions that seem to be the norm around here. Good stuff! I look forward to getting to know as many of you as I can. :):):)

Until later,
Jason
 
Hello all! My name is Jason, and I am a long-time Skeptiko listener but very new to the forum. I live in sunny(?) Florida with my wife and four cats, all of whom I regularly drive nuts with my fascination for consciousness research, meditation, and various para-psychological studies.

Currently, I am assisting Alex with a number of projects for the show. the website, and the Skeptiko community, so I am sure I will be popping up here from time to time.

I have recently been reading up on the forum archives and really appreciate the insightful and thought-provoking discussions that seem to be the norm around here. Good stuff! I look forward to getting to know as many of you as I can. :):):)

Until later,
Jason

Welcome, Jason. I look forward to hearing more from you.:)
 
Hello, glad to join the forum! A little about me, I've been religiously devouring skeptiko podcasts for the last 6 months or so and information on consciousness for about a year starting with Tom Campbells youtube videos. I've dabbled in various spiritual practices with the chaos magic approach (been listening to Gordon the longest) and found some things I enjoy and others I didn't, spiritually I am primarily a hermeticist following the 7 hermetic principles. I'm a hypnotherapist by trade and an artist, a lucid dreamer and an amateur astral projector. I hope to see one day proof through my own experimentation of the 'All is mind' hermetic axiom. Politically I am a classical Liberal. I enjoy dogs, knowledge and altered states of consciousness.
 
Hello, glad to join the forum! A little about me, I've been religiously devouring skeptiko podcasts for the last 6 months or so and information on consciousness for about a year starting with Tom Campbells youtube videos. I've dabbled in various spiritual practices with the chaos magic approach (been listening to Gordon the longest) and found some things I enjoy and others I didn't, spiritually I am primarily a hermeticist following the 7 hermetic principles. I'm a hypnotherapist by trade and an artist, a lucid dreamer and an amateur astral projector. I hope to see one day proof through my own experimentation of the 'All is mind' hermetic axiom. Politically I am a classical Liberal. I enjoy dogs, knowledge and altered states of consciousness.
Welcome fellow traveller.
 
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