noonespecial

This world is an illusion/matrix stuff drives me bonkers, if u walk in front of a bus what kind of illusion will occur. lmao.

I dont think a guru is what u need brother. And the ego isnt a bad thing either, we have them for a reason, just observe your thoughts, make note of them and keep going.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Liber-L-vel-Bogus-The-Real-Confession-of-Aleister-Crowley/1687315198161452 http://www.tobew.com/TNE.pdf What say the bums?

Sorry guys I meant to post this in the esoteric section.

Really aiming for that gothic crowd. Good folks though over there though, ordered a couple of hardcopies of Gates Through Stone last year.

Oh yeah that's corny man, agreed. Same with Cabo, Cancun, etc., all owned by mult-national corporations and beer companies. On the other hand I'm going to a wedding this week, the couple are going to Bhutan for their honey moon, that's pretty cool imo.

Or go to vacation somewhere poor, help their economy and talk about it on FB so more people go there on vacation and help the economy.

How did Chinese think compare to Westerners, I grew up around a lot of 1st gen and immigrants from China and really never discerned to much of a difference, but perhaps that is because westerners no longer think like westerners (back then)

UFA-My claim is that the Unconscious is literally the same as the objective world, that the physical objects you happen to be looking at right now, whatever they may be, are as much a part of your mind as the thoughts you believe you're thinking. The science comes in proving that theory. Aha, I will look into the matter more deeply.

Hi UFA: What do you assume there is any difference between the Unconscious and the so-called "objective world”? Well, no need to get nitpicky...there is and there isn't. It takes a certain level of training to recognize the subconscious is always speaking, it takes more training to politely ignore it in indifference, another level of training to see it, and another to turn that sight off and on. I knew what you meant. But all in that world is but a representation, even the light. Believing in that world is one level of attainment. Disbelieving it is another. Yet a higher is to pierce its heart. Ah piercing the heart, very poetic. Vivekananda said, "All the world is but a symbol," I love that quote, sums it all up succinctly. Per chance just came by this, "Therefore I say to you, lord, that those who speak about things that are invisible and difficult to explain are like those who shoot their arrows at a target at night. To be sure, they shoot their arrows as anyone would since they shoot at the target but it is not visible. Yet when the light comes forth and hides the darkness, then the work of each will appear...Jesus said, "It is in light that light exists." - Book of Thomas the Contender. To be more exact, they use our beliefs against us. I don’t think its that simple. We were feeding prisoners to lions for entertainment less than 2000 years ago…now we watch football instead, lol...likewise women couldn’t vote and blacks had to drink from separate water fountains just last century. Although there is most definitely a vampiric, stagnant element involved in our world, there is progress as well. But I fully understand the cynicism, I go through it a couple times of month. When the intellectual side of the western path get a bit to much, a heavy dose of mental wu-wei does the job. I confess to not being very well read in esoteric matters. Really, you seem quite knowledgable? Vallée is not an occult author, although what he writes of is related to all of the above. You should check him out if you can, at the very least he can provide fodder for your fiction, best of all he does not pretend to have answers. Dimensions is especially good. Cheers! NOS

Sorry I tried to use the quote proper, but this was easier, my replies in bold. Hi Noonespecial, My views have changed since I first wrote this, for a number of reasons. First, I have racked up more than a few flight hours since then (often aided by alchemical preparations). The nature of those experiences are varied and that has taught me much of practical importance. Most importantly however is that my pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone has proven to be at least somewhat fruitful and my understanding of these so-called "astral journeys" has deepened considerably. Excellent. Though it feels like a body, I am not at all sure it is a body in the usual sense (certainly not in the sense I understood it then). A projection or a structure within which consciousness may operate are closer to my current understanding. The body itself is nothing more than a point, unless one expects or needs it to be otherwise. I use the term ‘body’ strictly out of convenience. However, you said a structure within the consciousness may operate, that sounds like a body. Furthermore, I believe that the conventional understanding of "Yesod" as being a place or plane is fundamentally flawed. It does seem to share much in common with the nature of the physical world (including the ability for one to map it out and go different places), but ultimately my experience has been that this is primarily an exploration of the Unconscious. This is not to imply that I mean this so-called place is purely a subjective, personal thing. It is in fact personal proof of the opposite. The Sefer Yetzirah states 10 Sefirah of NOTHINGNESS, what does that imply? Illusion, perhaps? Again all of these terms are just for the sake of convenience. What I described is what I like to call lower Yesod (for convenience sake again), it is not the unconscious, I can very much go outside, go upstairs, etc, etc. It is the dim view of matter detached from the physical vehicle. I think that most of the "signposts" that people talk about (such as light) are personal representations. I suspect that my lunar world would be unrecognizable to you, yet for me, it is endlessly expressive and rich in meaning. Perhaps a bit of misunderstanding, see above. The LIGHT I mentioned is not a signpost, it is LIGHT. As in physical light, coming from a light bulb, a candle, etc; yet viewed outside of the physical senses. That said, I have discovered that that expression - the so-called contents of Yesod - are dependent on something much more subtle and intelligent, a consciousness whose existence lies far beyond the suspicion of most. An intelligence which hides and even speaks but only if forced to (do not read this as evocation, for it is not). Nice. In that sense, Yesod is illusory because most people (including myself for a long time and certainly to some degree now) are fooled by its nature. But I am now touching on illumination, not astral travel. Yes, this is the danger of the whole business we speak off, and why skepticism is of utmost import. Yet there is a healthy skepticism, and a dangerous, disrespectful skepticism that can wind up biting back. Everything here is illusion. Every expectation we have, no matter how subtle and clever, is used against us in this place. If we believe it is a training ground, we will be presented with tests. If we believe it is hell, we will see demons. If we believe there are aliens out to get us, guess what we find there. I would say just as illusory as any emotion or thought we experience in every day consciousness. The last portion I wholly agree with, these realms, or the intelligence behind the realms work with us, they adapt to our beliefs. Have you read Jaques Vallee by any chance? Maps and portals are some of the ingenious bars of this prison. A prison intended to hold those who have pierced the first veil of the illusion of separateness, the lie of the personal "I”. YES! A map is just that…a map. I would even say adepts over the ages have set up intentionally misleading maps…ahem...I don’t know if you caught some of my other posts, where I bring up the notion of the archons, that is the Power of the 12 - and the difference between the Hermetic understanding and the Gnostic understanding, is the glass half full or half empty. Is life a prison or a school? I have reached no solid conclusions, and I probably won’t in this lifetime. An example: Over a period of months, I found myself in this strange world, night after night in my childhood home. Darkness is everywhere and it takes me a long time to learn to produce a little light, to walk, to open a door without shrinking my consciousness into its very atoms. With long practice, I achieve all of these things. I leave my bedroom and I am back in my childhood home, back in the 1970s. The original rug is there, the purple flower couches. It is amazing. I believe I am making progress. On a later trip, my mother walks into the kitchen and says something cryptic to me. I spend much time trying to understand this message. Still later, I attempt to walk out through the family room, but the way is barred by a massive steel door which I cannot move. On another trip, this time aided by an alchemical product, I find myself in the kitchen. I draw a circle and begin to float... my power here seems to be growing. I walk into the other room and easily tear open the massive steel door. I walk out the front of my home and I fly up into the air. I intend to leave this world and go to the next, but I find myself floating in the beautiful cherry blossoms, spinning around in joy. What a wonderful, beautiful series of events. The type of journey one could write a long book about. And it's all an elaborate, intricate prison, intended to keep me in bondage. A fantasy for the mind, like the one the sprawling fields of humans inhabited in the movie, The Matrix. It is all a lie, a damned lie, a poison which infects occultists and mystics and keeps them from ever attaining truth. Dark nights frater, thank you for sharing.

Got it.

I think you more or less got it. I wrote a longer reply, but cut it down to what I believe the most important aspect. I'll be using Qabalistic terminiolgy because that is what I am familiar with. Here are my classifications: ---- 0. Passive meditation / Assiah 1. Active meditation / Assiah The above two are usually what is confused with actual occult practice by armchair Jungian people - you see a vision, often time static will actually appear over the blackness of meditation and go on to become a scene, it could best be called internal scrying, wherein the vision is very much confined to a seperate 'space'; for the most part you are fully aware you are sitting on the couch meditating when this occurs, even if remotely. Just as the scryer regardless of the intensity of the vision is aware the vision is confined to the tool of recpetion. You can even drift into trance, and shockingly snap out of it due to the contents you witness, but there is no real sense of ever having left the body. The operator is still very much seperate from the vision. 2. OBE / Etheric View / Path of Tav / Upper Assiah/ Lower Yetzirah (Yesod) - I would say the Lunar body is the body is what we use here, I call it the Etheric which is really a bridge between the Guph and the Ruach - it takes practice (I still find myself stumbling around) - This is the astral view laid on top of the regular surroundings, ie. you are walking arond your room but something is off, it is murky, dim, smoke filled, notice the LIGHT here if any is present.... The aim is to wake up here without waking up your body or being shocked out of it. There is usually no clear line of ever having left regular consciousness, until either you see your body lying still or you try to open a door, etc... Operating ritual on this plane propels you to the other spheres. A physical temple is both an anchor and a launching pad. Usually a symbol appears as a gate to Astral proper, perhaps even the body of a planet itself. Via a bit of experimetnation, I believe this is where will and precise operation seems to come into play; as well as circulating Light in your regualr body, also strong physical conditioning, I myself lift weights, jog almost everyday...what I have noticed is each system seems to have a different tool that strengthen the operator's control over the energy body here, say a lamen with a particular sigil or the ring of pele in enochian - the whole practice is almost psychedelic in nature, will comes into play when you accomplish what you set out to do here properly without drifting off or becoming entranced with amazement. 3. OBE / Astral View / Yetzirah Proper (The Six) Perhaps your solar body proper, Ruach level of operation - you are in another, objective reality. All I can say is a proper belief system comes in handy here. 4. Unclassifiable / Briah / Lower Binah You are in the womb. A type of surrender is necessary to enter, interestingly there are 3D mandelbrot videos that convey what this 'looks' like - but the experience cannot be conveyed in mundane language. - time, space, the sense of self are all thrown out the window here.

I think Marblehead is closer.

......thats helpful.

I love those days. When they come I notice and enjoy, because the next day I could be a complete crab and the cycle repeats.

"You must be reading a different book. I would be interested to know exactly what you find in this title that constitutes quality." UFA Thats a polite way of saying 'it was just ok' - not hot steaming garbage, neither a game changer of any sort. I found it lies in step with much of modern occult literature, wherein an older system such as Trithmesius, Dee/Kelly or in this case, I thought Agrippa (until you mentioned the Church of Light) is 'updated' whether for better or worse - and publsihed as new. I am also aware that the book industry is a very competitive market, and it is ultimately a business, and the book struck me as title that was written for the layperson, perhaps someone with a casual interest in Kabalah (NOT QABALAH) sees the title and picks it up on a hunch at Barnes & Nobles, and I'm sure any unscrupulous actions taken on behalf of the publisher do not necesarily represent the wishes of the author. By the way, you mentioned youre an author, where can we find your work?

Thanks for the more in depth analysis of the system UFA. I suppose when youre an author you willingly put yourelf out there for that type of critique, especially in nebulous fields such as the occult. What I saw was a character assesment that did not at all match my experience with the man, simple as that.

Lol Kafka.

Yup, I actually have a copy of that book on my computer, and he goes into quite some detail about the AMORC system and the differences, neither is my cup of tea either, but it seems to be a quality work. Anyway I should also mention that during our correspondence, neither of us not once made mention of his occult celebrity, which he surely must habe known I was aware due to the titles I was selling, neither did he expect any 'deals' didnt make a hassle over my pricing, and blunder I made in describing the item. Hence my comment, seems like a very upright guy.

Briefly, I did business with him last year, (I had some books he wanted) and he is a really great person, understanding, patient, courteous, etc. You may or may not be correct, either way it's not very cool to defame someones character who is not present to counter such claims.

No apologies needed friend, sarcasm is hard to convey via text.

The quote system here drives me nuts lol, quickly: On subjective synthesis; this does not mean no-thing is objective, it is fancy speak for saying, 'stick with one system and use it,' this forms a baseline standard on which to perform esoteric experimentation. On the 72 - From what I've gathered both through reading, experience and a bit of intuition - is that all of 'this' relates to time, which relates to space, which relate to death and generation (ie. the enemy, the devil is directly equated with death in early church literature, Origen, Augustine, etc). So then the 72 are the subangles of the 12. The quote from Jesus is interesting because the gnostic saw these entities as the enemy, the masters of time, where as in the European extract of hermeticism we tend to entertain these beings as deities, even as gods to be worshiped without making a solid cosmological decision as to their nature. I have not done a working of the 72. Maybe one day.

Exactly what I was saying lmaooo Nah, Paq fights for the money, loves to drink, gamble and cheat on his wife, but acts like an innocent god fearing dude for the public, he is as fake as the politicians in the PI. Which incidentally, he is going to become. Mayweather is 20x more tao, his foot work even reminds me of Bruce...sure May is not a good guy, but he admits as much, ultimately the Tao is amoral in nature.

WELL SAID FRIEND