re: Practice Rituals & Doubting Yourself

["JSC_Magi <jsc_magi@...>" <jsc_magi@...>]

Good day to all,

First off let me ask a question. Does anybody do a kind of ritual 
when they do their bardonian exercises? I mean do you just sit on a 
chair or lay down somewhere and say " Ok, time do do my exercises!"
or do you actually do a sort of ritual before you get into the 
bardonian exercises. By a ritual I mean like doing the Lesser 
Banishing, or a purification or lighting inscense?
The reason i ask is that me and a fellow occultist have been having 
an ongoing debate/discussion for the last several years as to 
whether it is better to light inscense, do a purification etc, etc 
before starting the exercises or just to do them. My argument is 
that by doing a ritual like a purification and lighting inscense and 
a short empowered meditation/prayer for guidance before doing the 
exercises set up a kind of sacred energy aura to the practise, its 
help you center yourself and get into the proper mind frame. His 
argument is that by doing this you are setting up certains keys that 
your soul/mind/spiriy, whatever you want to call it, will need to be 
able to achieve the same results. In other words when you need to 
use your skills, such as in a healing, you won't be able to because 
your "Self" will need to tune into the keys to be able to access the 
energy needed because that is how you have conditioned your "Self" 
to tap into and access and use your skills.

Next question. How does one learn to discern the difference when 
talking to spirits, or when doing mental travelling etc, between 
what reallity is and fantasy. I mean that when doing a tarot reading 
there is an unwritten rule that you should not do a divination on 
your own microcosm because you are too attached to the situation and 
will get cloudy resulsts. By this I mean since the answers and 
interpretations come through your "Self" wishfull thinking will 
influence the results and bring you the answer/interpretation that 
you are looking for. Now does this apply to tha later Bardonian 
exercises like mental wandering and contacting elementals? e.g. you 
are conversing with a spirit, or so you think, and get a reply. Now 
is it your own mind using information you already possess answering 
you or is it the real deal? In other words is this truly a magical 
experience wher you are truly contacting a spirit or just wishful 
thinking in other words a figment or your imagination? e.g 2. You 
are doing your mental wandering exercise things are going good, 
things are going great. You see your cat, your room etc. You go 
further out and as you do you see a car crash or something totally 
different like someone stealing your mail etc etc. Now how can you 
tell what is real and what isn't, did it really happen or where you 
just daydreaming?

Hope I didn't confuse people too much but these are questions that 
have been nagging at me for a while and was wondering about other 
practitioners opinions and maybe even experiences if you are so 
guided by your "Self" to answer. Thanks to all for your replies, 
ideas and opinions.

Lloddfafnir