Date: Fri, 01 Jan 1999 22:35:56 -0500
From: ~Dragon Lady~ <~Dragon.Lady~@f501.n163.z1.fidonet.org>
Subject: Hello

 DR> So, what exactly is this conf about?  WICCA type stuff, the CCG, or David
 DR> Copperfield type stuff?

Well Dear you have part of it right, we talk about the Magick of life, not the
show stopping kind.:) This echo covers the whole specturm, from the how and
whys. 

Magick is a way of using your Power.  More technically, magick is 
the  process of non-physically affecting your environment through 
messages consciously impressed on the subconscious with a  system 
of symbols.  (This will become clear later.) This is the broadest 
definition and it can include such things as prayer,  meditation, 
chanting,  positive thinking,  subliminal tapes,  programming and 
hypnotism.

Some think that magick is unnatural and evil.  It is no more evil 
than  any  tool.  A  knife,  for instance,  is "good"  or  "evil" 
depending  on its use.  It can be invaluable in  many  beneficial 
projects,  yet  it  can also harm.  Nothing is immune to  misuse. 
People even try to use prayer against others.  Such potential  is 
not a reason for fear,  but for respect.  The idea that magick is 
unnatural is a modern misconception. Magic has only recently come 
to  mean Hollywood special effects or pulling rabbits from  hats. 
It  is often spelled magick in order to distinguish it from  this 
new   meaning.   For   millennia  magick  has  been  a  path   to 
enlightenment  and  self mastery or just plain getting  what  you 
want.  It is nothing supernatural. Magick uses natural powers and 
the  natural flow of the universe to bring about the changes  you 
desire. We are so immersed in magick that, like still air, we are 
unaware  of  it.  We all use this  power  without  thought,  like 
breathing. Magick is using these powers with awareness.

Magick  involves  placing  a message of your choosing  into  your 
subconscious.  This is all that is necessary to achieve any goal. 
The power of the subconscious is awesome.  When you unite it with 
your  conscious will,  you can do anything you want.  Remove  the 
internal barriers and the external barriers melt  away.  Oriental 
philosophy would call this "following the Tao." Achieving this is 
the challenge of magick.

                        HOW MAGICK WORKS

   How  can programming the subconscious affect the world  around 
us?  What  are the mechanisms involved?  According to the  occult 
view, it works because that is the nature of the universe.

   In the West,  we use the mechanistic paradigm. A paradigm is a 
pattern  or model,  in this case describing the way the  universe 
works.  We  use  paradigms  to  function,  usually  without  even 
realizing  it.  The mechanistic paradigm is one of the most basic 
that  underlie our culture.  This model states that there  is  an 
objective  reality  in  which  objects  interact  solely  through 
physical contact. Science has updated this to include fields like 
gravity and magnetism,  but the principle is the same. The result 
is  a universe in which the individual is nearly  powerless.  You 
can only make real change through physical action.  Magick is the 
act of making such changes non-physically,  so it does not fit in 
with the mechanistic paradigm.

   Most   westerners  are  unaware  that  the  magickal  paradigm 
represents a majority view among the world's cultures. Basically, 
it  is  the antithesis of the mechanistic view.  It  states  that 
there is no objective universe,  only subjective universes. These 
universes  are the perceptions of each individual.  You  couldn't 
possibly  do any experiment that would show your universe  to  be 
either subjective or objective. You must be an objective observer 
in  order  to  tell  the  difference.  You  are  automatically  a 
subjective observer because you are in the universe. That's life. 

   At this point,  there is no practical difference between these 
views.  The universe looks the same either way.  But the magickal 
paradigm  also states that the universe is an expression of  your 
perceptions  and your perceptions are that part of yourself  over 
which  you have control.  When you change your own attitudes  and 
preconceptions,   the   universe  will  follow.   This  gives  an 
individual  as  much  power  over the universe  as  he  has  over 
himself.

                           Metaphysics

We  obviously  don't exercise infinite power.  There is  more  to 
magick than merely having a desire or belief.  That is because we 
have  many conflicting desires and beliefs on many levels.  There 
is  a level called,  among other things,  the Little  Self.  This 
roughly  corresponds to the subconscious and the super  ego.  The 
ego,  the  part of ourselves which we think of as "I," is  called 
the Middle Self. The Little Self is the gateway to the High Self, 
our connection with godhead and the universe. Infinite power lies 
with  the High Self,  but our access is through the  Little  Self 
which has its own ideas.  The Little Self is aware of and accepts 
everything around it and everything you think,  even when you are 
not  aware.  These perceptions build up very strong ideas in  the 
Little Self.  When these ideas are different from yours (those of 
the Middle Self),  your ideas loose.  To succeed,  you must unify 
your will. 

   Of  course,  people  rightfully  complain that even if  we  do 
create our universe,  it's still tough to make changes.  That  is 
because  there is quite a bit of inertia to ideas that have  been 
strongly  supported  since childhood (or before,  if  you  accept 
past-lives).  In an extreme example, the original "Peter Pan" had 
to  be  changed to keep from harming children.  In  the  original 
version,  the  characters  flew  because  "they  believed."  Many 
children  attempted to fly and discovered the hard way that their 
Little Self did not agree. Things like a belief in gravity may be 
possible  to overcome,  but no one will argue that it's  commonly 
done. 

   This example sounds silly because our experience of gravity is 
so  compelling  that  it seems ridiculous to consider  it  to  be 
"merely  a thought construct." But another belief that is  nearly 
as  widespread is that of poverty.  This is a significantly  less 
daunting belief which many have overcome.  As long as you believe 
you  are poor,  you will be.  This is often a very strong belief. 
Many  cannot even genuinely imagine themselves as being  wealthy. 
But,  because  it is not beyond reasonable comprehension,  it  is 
possible  to reprogram your Little Self-- much  as  it's possible 
for  left-handers  to  learn to be  right-handed.  Magick  is  an 
effective way to do this.

   If you are unconvinced,  consider how many little messages you 
heard  when  growing  up,  which you now believe on  some  level. 
Frequent messages, especially with children, usually become true. 
If  you  have heard all your life that you are poor  or  dumb  or 
unsuccessful, eventually you believe it and eventually it's true. 
You  probably  know many people with an unjustifiably  poor  self 
image.  This  is  an  image which their Little  Selves  accepted, 
probably during childhood when they couldn't protect  themselves. 
That is how messages to the Little Self work against you. And the 
Little Self is aware of everything,  even when you are asleep. It 
also believes everything it hears. So the next time that you hear 
that  you're not good or that you need to buy a product that  you 
don't really want,  consciously give your Little Self a different 
message. Talk to it and tell it what you want to believe. This is 
what  makes your universe,  so make it the way you want it.  When 
you  have a particularly powerful belief to  overcome,  then  you 
must send a powerful message. That is the role of magick.

                            Religion

   The religious rendition of magick is prayer. Although they are 
different things, the principles are similar. Techniques that are 
effective for one will work very well in the other. In fact, they 
use  many  common symbols.  One could say that magick is  secular 
prayer.

   Prayer  works when "God answers it." This is entirely in  line 
with  the metaphysical explanation.  You can say that the  Higher 
Self is God or your connection to God. This is simply a different 
way  of expressing the same ineffable principles.  You can  adapt 
anything  here  to fit into your views.  Don't let the way  these 
concepts are phrased put you off.  Feel free to interpret this as 
much  as  you like in order to make it acceptable and  usable  to 
you.

                           Psychology

   The  explanations so far require new way of thinking about the 
universe,  but those entrenched in the mechanistic paradigm  need 
not miss out. Psychology has enough respect as a science to offer 
hope. If you replace Little Self with subconscious, the principle 
is  the  same.  Although there is no longer a source of  infinite 
power or non-physical change. But influencing the subconscious is 
the next best thing in a mechanistic world. 

   Psychologists   would   say  that  magick  directs  all   your 
unconscious  efforts toward your goal.  It also eliminates  those 
unconscious  efforts  keeping you from your goal.  This  may  not 
sound like much, but it is primarily these efforts that determine 
success or failure.  It is easy to overlook because, for the most 
part,  the  conscious will is the same as the  unconscious  will. 
Thus,  we succeed at endeavors such as waking up, getting to work 
on  time and fixing dinner.  This may seem silly,  but when  your 
subconscious  doesn't  share  a  goal,   even  simple  tasks  are 
exceptionally difficult. The power of the subconscious can either 
fight  you  or  help you.  Where ever you  succeed,  it's  almost 
certainly  helping.  Where ever you fail,  it's almost  certainly 
fighting.

   The  subconscious represents everything the mind does that  we 
do not think about.  This involves a most of what we do. When you 
are  driving  on a familiar freeway in good conditions,  you  are 
usually  thinking  about  the  music  on  the  radio  or  salient 
problems.  At such times it is your subconscious driving.  If you 
notice  something strange in the road,  it was your  subconscious 
that brought it to your attention. This is very helpful, but that 
isn't  necessarily the case.  The subconscious can throw  up  all 
kinds  of barriers,  preventing even the simplest tasks.  It  can 
make  you late for work when it doesn't feel like going-- you can 
wake  up  late,  feel  ill,  misplace car keys or  even  have  an 
accident.  This influence sometimes goes to the extremes.  People 
can even be paralyzed by hysteria, a condition that lies entirely 
within  the  mind.  Pathological fears are  another  example.  An 
agoraphobe,  for instance,  can have such an extreme reaction  to 
being outdoors that he cannot leave his house no matter how badly 
he wants to.

   The  subtle  action  of  the subconscious  can  be  almost  as 
profound.   Even  when  the  influence  of  the  subconscious  is 
indistinguishable  from  chance happenings,  on larger scale  the 
effect is dramatic.  Psychologists try to ensure that experiments 
are  "double  blind"  for  this  reason.  They  must  set  up  an 
experimental group and a control group.  In the latter,  there is 
only the single element,  the target of the experiment,  that  is 
different. 
 
   In  drug  testing,  experimenters  use placebos on  a  control 
group.  The act of administering a substance can have a  profound 
mental effect, even when that substance is inert, a placebo. When 
they expect effective drugs, people can have great results with a 
placebo.  But  the "placebo effect" is purely  psychological.  If 
either the experimenter or the subject think that they know which 
is  being administered,  that is enough to throw off the results. 
The  subconscious  of  the subject reacts  to  what  the  subject 
expects. If the experimenter knows what he is administering, then 
the subject's subconscious reacts to cues from the experimenter's 
subconscious.  This  is sometimes called the "Clever Hans effect" 
after  a horse which seemed to be able to do  math.  In  reality, 
clever  Hans but was reacting to cues from the people around him. 
When someone near him knew the answer, the horse could sense that 
person's  expectation.  It was sometime before  researchers  even 
considered   these   nearly  invisible   clues.   Although   such 
subconscious  actions  are  very subtle,  they  can  dramatically 
change the results of an experiment.

   The  subconscious  similarly affects results in your  life  as 
well.  Magick programs the subconscious to work for you.  This is 
not  as potent as the metaphysical concept,  but it will make you 
as  effective as you can possibly be in a  mechanistic  world.  A 
unified  will directs all your efforts,  conscious and otherwise, 
toward   your   goal.   Since  the   subconscious   can   present 
insurmountable  barriers,  working  out these barriers is all  it 
takes to be on the road to success.

   Some   may   be  disturbed  to  think  that  magick   may   be 
misrepresenting  how it works,  but that should not be a problem. 
In  one  experiment,  scientists  gave placebos  to  a  group  of 
subjects.  After  the  placebos  "took  effect,"  the  scientists 
explained what they were.  Even when the scientists made it clear 
to the subjects that the placebos had no biochemical action, many 
subjects  still  wanted  a prescription for them.  (It  would  be 
interesting to see how much more effective prescription  placebos 
are  versus over the counter placebos.) Were these people stupid? 
Or were they wise to stick with something that worked? 

Hope this helps :)