RE: [BardonPraxis] Manifestation

[4i81-adq1@...]

Hi Andrew the Merry, I like your moniker :-)

Video games and magic, what a juicy topic! I've stolen effects from
video games, especially sound and visuals, to add "flare" and engage the
imagination more powerfully with intent. Some of these are especially
effective in shielding for me.

> I could've used the above quote :-) My speech was about how video
games
> have
> helped to shape my world. 

Video games seem to correlate with a modern mythology (and it seems the
myths of a time are seldom recognized in their own temporal framework.)
At one time I started compiling a list of some of the implicit
philosophy that is embedded in these games... here are a few unadorned
bullets from that list...lessons that we learn from video games
implicitly, some of them have distinctive pagan and/or hermetic flavor:

1. Opposition makes the game interesting. The minor challenges prepare
you for the major ones (big bosses, etc.) Obstacles can be avoided,
eliminated, or absorbed. Absorbing takes away energy to resist further
obstacles; eliminating takes away resources.
2. As you gain mastery things don't become easier, in fact, stuff comes
at you faster and harder.
3. If you skip ahead through some shortcut to success, you will have
difficulty maintaining at that level because you have not evolved the
skills that go with it. 
4. Spatial metaphors: a lot of it is based on "Navigation" around
obstacles, to opportunities; reactions appropriate in one context may
not work or be dangerous in another...
5. Temporal metaphors: there is both a time limit (mortality) and
infinity (you can always start over, but you don't retain what you've
accomplished --- materially --- the knowledge retained is still on what
you have to got through again, but not on what you have yet to
encounter) You can slow things down sometimes by speeding up.... 
6. Interface is key... learning what manipulations create certain
results... limited set of operations to manage complexity sequences...
pragmatic, use of consensual knowledge-pools (cheat-sheets, etc.) (group
lists? Lol)

more... but less on topic perhaps...

Here's an excerpt from my "notes to self" on using these games as an
exercise of projection, with some warnings I noted about the process,
maybe some of which can be of use to you or others exploring this venue
as a complement to Bardon...

> I used the example of a fantasy story: being
> able
> to have the character be my avatar, instead of just viewing its
activities.
> I did my best to highlight how important it is for me to "be there",
to do
> more than just control the character on the screen.
> 
> Oh, sorry if this is considered off-topic. But Bardon does cover A
> LOT ;-)


I'm getting ready to make the same mistake Andrew, I sure Rawn will swat
me if I'm wandering to far afield and I'm going to blame you, hahah

Notes from my journal...

Projection ...

There is a way of playing video games that develops and refines a very
specialized magical skill. It involves a splitting of self and
projecting a fragment of identity into a game avatar that represents the
player in a virtual world. The intent, or will, of the player translates
directly to this avatar through joystick, keyboard, or other physical
manipulation. These translations are not one to one correspondences of
physical cause and physical effect, rather the physical actions
themselves are kinesthetic gestures that function somewhere between
puppeteer and incantation. 

Those who cannot project their energetic substance experience a far
"flatter" effect. Merely a detached visual rather than an energetic
coupling. Those who project some of the "stuff" of consciousness into
their telesmatic avatar experience a widening of reality into this other
type of dimension. The dimension is ritualized, there are patterns,
often specific patterns that evoke consistent results. While on one
level these results are merely predictable shifts of colored light, on
another they are symbolic webs of interplay between actor and
environment, an environment being navigated for a desired effect.

One danger to those who do not realize the implications of developing
this magical technique, is the splitting of self and projection of a
percentage of awareness into immersion with the game is still coupled
with the self in the external world. As the projected energy gains more
coherence of action and a type of personality in the virtual realm, it
becomes a potential magnet, pulling more energy into its expression of
being from the source. In this case the source is the energy of the
player and the mental focus, the flexibility of his or her energy field
in projection can easily lend itself to a difficult compulsion to
resist. 

This is not about "escape" into a fantasy realm, it is about a class of
energetics, the nascent stages of which can project the consciousness
into objects and whose intermediate levels enable shape-shifting, remote
viewing and astral projection. It is also a foundational technique in
charging talismans and creating servitors and artificial elementals.
Without a grounding in magic, particularly in those with fertile occult
potential, the development of this skill in the context of games (or
even online "chat") can be very unbalancing. Used as a tool, however,
these virtual devices become extremely powerful mechanisms for rapidly
refining and extending this vestigial ability of consciousness.

[Importance of magical mirror... your imbalances will be what creates
the attraction...how?]

---------------

-emc