Dialoguepartners
Copyright © 2001---->, Per-Otto Sylwan, Uppsala Sweden. All rights reserved.
Magic
Writing about magic I would like to start by giving you some magic.
As an example I therefore hereby present to you the strongest magic of the so called modern christian western world.
When you understand the significance of this statement, you will also have a good clue to what magic really is.
Introduction
This is a book dealing with the basic concepts of reality. These concepts are buried deep deep down in our consciousness in the form of the thoughts and intent of the first spirit which is the primary source for there being a reality at all. As it is dealing with such basic things this is not a book designed primarily for personal development. Some of the training methods suggested and described in this book could however be used for personal development in the "normal" sense. Used this way they are safe, positive and beneficial for most people. On the other hand some of the training methods could if you use them thoughtless and drastically lead to what can be the opposite of personal development and I therefore caution the reader to be careful when applying them. Dealing with true magic means that you loosen the boonds to the reality you are used to and this can lead to alienation and sometimes deep confusion. These risks should however not be overemphasized since there is a soundness in most people which makes them keep the balance and do what is good for themselves as well as for others.
I write this book because I think I know something about this subject that I want to share with others. My knowledge comes from almost 40 years of studying magic and related topics and although I am not into doing really deep magic on a conscious level I think I have pushed the borders of my personal reality a bit further than most people. Humanity of today is on the brink of entering a new awareness and a new step of development. This step will increase the need for more insights and knowledge of the forces that are the base for creation and existence in this reality.
Magic is neither good nor bad , it simply is. You can not even say that it´s a tool since magic is the basic truth about reality.
There are however tools you can use to do magic but the primary and in deeper levels only tool is yourself and your intent.
There are no levels of magic since magic just is, but there are levels on which to do magic.
There is everyday magic, small magic whith small miracles and small everyday changes in it. There are greater miracles and great magic
which deals with greater changes in society and in the course of human development. In
the bottom of it all there is true magic which is the magic of thought and intent and which can induce any change or miracle.
As magic is niether good nor bad it can however be used to do both. It´s potential is unlimited which is something everyone entering the
field should consider. To chose how you use yourself and your abilities is always crucial, but it is even more important in the
field of using true magic than it is in a more "ordinary" life.
You can however put your trust in the following:
Nothing is worth anything without compassion, empathy and love, "without a heart",
and the good side in life is in the end always stronger and more important than what is evil or bad.
This rule is valid for magic and magicians as well as for all other aspects of existence and as a matter of fact this truth is,
if possible maybe even more true for magicians than for others.
Without love and compassion existence is a meaningless nothing and if you lack an open heart you can never as a person reach beyond a
certain point in your own development and skill. This is true everywhere and the same goes for magical development.
There is an important reason for this fact and that is that without the heart there is a "hole" in our beings where
there should be a connection between heaven and earth. This fact is constitutional and has to do with the basic patterns
for existence created by the first spirit. The first spirit in its wisdom created the universes with this constitutional
fact built into it and even if reality can change in endless ways
the basic rules for existence created by the first spirit are unchangable.
The reason for this "rule" being there is that love is necessary to remind us of that in the end we are
all of us parts of the same wholeness and that we belong together.
Any being using his intent to do evil will in the end be stopped and fail because of his or her lack of an open heart.
It is like reaching a great wall which is unclimbable. The only way to pass this wall is to open the heart and then
the connection to the whole will be restored and then also redemption will follow.
I think it is important to point out that this nescessity of love and redemption also is the central message of the
Christian gospels as well as it´s central in other major religions and in most spiritual traditions.
I highly recommend the reader of this book to before everything else work on developing compassion, empathy and love. To do this is to encourage life itself and to do this is necessary if you want to go forward and claim the right of true conscious existence. To work on the heart goes before every other teaching and the most powerful being without a heart will in the end fail before the poorest of the poor if in this poverty there is a living open heart. You should also know that the heart can never die or be defeated it can only be hidden and clouded.
Basic concepts
Belief
We are all magicians and we all do magic all the time. There is for instance small magic in almost everything
we say and do and in what we think is true or not true. However the stronger magic we all exercise is almost
always performed on a subconscious level and the most important and potent parts of this activity are buried very deep down
in our consciousness.
The strong and “real” magic we all do all the time is to build, uphold and maintain the world around us, the world
we call “reality”. We start doing this as soon as we start to exist in this world. This is an ongoing process and
the more aware we get the more complex and fixed we tend to make our world.
Since we all do magic all the time You could say that we are all magicians. This is however not really true. Being a magician in the
true sense and in the way most of us interpret this concept means
being in control of the magic you perform and hence being able to chose your "reality" and sometimes also the reality of others.
Doing magic is a question of believing. However, that statement even if it is true, tend to miss the point because most people does not have a true conscious understanding of the deeper meaning of the word belief. Most of us think of believing as something related only to our superficial intellect and not to ourselves as whole beings, body, soul and spirit and to ourselves as beings where every atom in our body is filled with consciousness and not only our brain.
Our conscious intellect is building it´s activity on the premises of the world as we percieve it. We consider what we perceive as true, real and logic, missing the fact that we all of us together have built and defined our reality being active on a deep, complex, mostly subconscious level. We mostly tend to think of the world as something outside ourselves and we think of the way it is built as something set up by someone else, or maybe just being there with no one responsible. To get around that misunderstanding of the world and what reality is, we must change our views and our understanding of ourselves and of the meaning and the concepts of belief. If we are to understand how true magic is working questioning and changing these premises is absolutely necessary.
Disbelief is as important as belief
This statement is very, very important for the understanding of magic. What we chose not to believe affects us as
much as what we chose to believe. Knowing and accepting this for a fact you end up realising that it is all a matter of choise.
If you in turn accept that statement it might get scary because the other side of that coin is that everything is possible.
Upholding the world
The magic we exercise maintaining the dualistic world around us is heavy work. It tires us and is the main reason for our need of
sleep. Sleeping we are free to wander around in the dreamworld where everything is possible.
If we don’t sleep we end up hallucinating. We stop being able to uphold the world and the borders of “reality” weakens.
On the other hand being able to consciously go into the world of dreams is one of the basic means to consciously exercise true magic.
The same goes for being able to consciously leave this world by dying or by just going someplace else bringing your body along with you.
Science is eating magic
The so called modern western science has its own magic. In many ways there is not much difference between that magic and other magic.
In other ways there is an abyss separating it from other magic. The main reason for that abyss is firstly that modern science
uses disbelief as one of its absolutely most central forces and secondly that it needs machines for almost everything. Modern science
does its magic in a very, very formalised, strict and rigid way. Only some patterns are allowed to work. What lies outside those
patterns is mostly banned or ignored.
Exceptions from that attitude can sometimes be found for example in modern physics when it is
breaking new ground. A problem however is that even open minded scientists often are very heavy indoctrinated with the "truths" that
are the cornerstones of science. They mostly don’t realise how untrue these “truths” are, and they mostly don’t realise that what they call
truths and axioms are almost always just models, built upon other models and that those models although they are the base for scientific
development often are limitating creativity instead of encouraging it.
The world is a luminous wonderful glowing pearl full of it´s own magic. You could say that the world is glowing from the light of magic. However the old pre christian world was still more luminous. Modern science combined with the limitating concepts of christianity and rationality is enlightening the world with its light of scientific truths as well as with electricity but it is at the same time slowly and efficiently extinguishing or hiding the true light of magic.
This makes the world dull and tends to make a lot of people loose hope and feel depressed.
Intent
Belief systems are as numerous as there are thoughts and they are as necessary for living as air. They are in fact even more necessary
since they are the fundament of existence and without them there would just be chaos.
Every belief system naturally has its own rules and
limitations. For most of us our different belief systems are overlapping each other especially on the subconscious level. On the conscious
level we often tend to exaggerate the differences and we often attack those with a "different" view.
It is however not necessary to hide the light of others and try to "puncture" their belief systems
by claiming your own wiews and by living according to your own rules. As a matter of fact it is quite possible and also profoundly
more interesting and educating to stay tolerant and accept and enjoy the differences of other people.
As there are a limitless amount of belief systems there are also limitless ways to do magic. Making rituals, using rythms and music, drawing circles, having communions of different kinds, like for instance the christian way of eating Jesus body and drinking his blood. In the end however to do true magic no outer means or rituals are necessary. In the end all you need is Intent.
Intent is the central thing in all magic. When you do magic making rituals and by using different tools you use them because you need tools or rituals to open up to deeper levels of consciousness and to focus and sharpen your intent.
It is not easy to describe or to tell what intent really is and I hope your
understanding of what it is will grow from reading this book.
Understanding intent is so intimately linked to experiencing that it is more or less impossible to grasp with your intellect.
There are other works and books describing intent and different ways to train yourself in experiencing intent. One way to train yourself is meditation. In my opinion Zazen or Zen meditation and similar methods of meditation without mantras or other distractions are among the more efficient for the purpose.
Writing this book on a serious and important subject I will try an explanation of what intent is even if it is almost impossible to describe, but I strongly suggest some kind of personal practise to the reader who want to go further.
In my experience intent is there when your awareness touches the place or part in your mind where thoughts are borned.
Touching this place with your conscious mind
you are able to afflict what thoughts will be borned. It is a very subtle and fragile thing and I am not able to explain it further or to
tell you how you can mean to do something without having thought about it beforehand. You just know it when its there and it can be a scary
wonderous thing to experience.
Being aware of your intent can be like balancing on the edge of a knife. You can compare it with the experience of being a rally driver,
driving a car very fast on a difficult road.
Maybe this does not sound extremely difficult. Some people are very good at doing this and many others can at least do it even if
not very good. It will however be very different if you think about doing this and at the same time you are totally aware of every
decision on your part that is
normally done subconsciously and reflexively out of training. If you consciously have do make every decision even considering
the smallest movement of body, hands and eyes, driving a car in a rally will indeed be a very difficult and almost impossible thing to do.
It is like for an instant of an instant of an instant, realising that every kind of activity on your part if ever so small
can change the world forever.
It is like realising that anything except absolute stillness and lack of thought is going to do something to yourself and to everything
else around you. You may also experience that it is almost impossible to stay at that place and that the moment you leave it you start doing so
many things and are involved in so many processes that existence for a short moment feels very complicated and impossible to grasp.
There is a story I can tell that might give you further insight in the subject of intent. It is a simple story of creation
and it is the “true” story of the first intent.
It is the story of how everything started and so it is also the true story
about the origin of magic as well as of everything else.
The original spirit*
In a beginning there was……?……?….? ……………………………………………..!!
There was not nothing because nothingness can not exist without something.
There was not emptiness since emptiness can not be without there being something.
Lets say this beginning was and it was unimaginable and impossible to grasp.
In this beginning there was the original spirit.
Somehow the original spirit was aware of its existence.
How that was possible is not possible to grasp or understand.
Still it was a fact.
Aware and realising, needing something to fill its awareness the original spirit acted.
First it sent its awareness as far as it could in one direction, let us call this direction forward. Finding nothing there it sent
its awareness as far as it could in the opposite direction, which is backward since forward already was created. Finding nothing
there the original spirit sent its awareness as far as it could 90* in another direction which we call left. Finding nothing it
did the same in the opposite direction which was to the right since left was now created. Still finding nothing the original spirit
turned its awareness another 90* and sent it out as far as it could in a direction we can call upward. Still finding nothing and
with only one direction left to go it did the same downward.
Finding nothing with its awareness as far as it could go in all these six directions the original spirit despaired.
It got dizzy and started to spin. Spinning faster and faster in all directions possible it suddenly discovered how a golden globe
came into being, created by the six points of awareness stretched out in six different directions and now moving so fast and in
so many directions that a
sphere was created.
And suddenly as by a miracle time and space came into being.
The spirit went to the surface of the sphere and see outside was eternity.
It went to the inside and inside was eternity as well although there suddenly seemed to be a center where before there had been some
kind of unimaginable nothing at the place where it all had started.
The original spirit decided to call the sphere “The egg of creation” and filled with joy of existence, and of having
somewhere to be, the original spirit expanded and started to fill the universe with creation.
*In regard to beeing a story of creation part of the inspiration for the above story is fetched from the books "The flower of life" I and II written by Drunvalo Melchisedec
Choice
Choice is essential. Once you choose to open a new path new possibilities arise. Every choice you make changes your life.
Most choices however tend for most of us to be more or less neutralised by the “world concept” and its tendency to make everything go back
to “normal”. The "world concept" could be seen as the same as our common shared view of "reality" that we have learned and are
cultivating together.
It is like a contract where we all have agreed to most of the "rules". This contract is hard to brake and there are consequenses for
those who are braking it. Your own influence on the whole of the agreement is very very limited and reality tends to act like a rubber ball.
When you push it, it bounces back to be the same round sphere that it was before.
Some choices of course due to circumstances make your life change drastically anyway since there are still many possibilities
allowed to us “inside the ball of reality”.
The choice to enter the path of magic is often made by starting to do some training that change your view of the world radically. There is also most often a second point when you realise that an important choice is there and then there is a more conscious choosing point as well. When your view of the world is changed purpously it is often hard to go back to the "way it was". After a more conscius choice to question the learnings and rules that has formed Your view of the world it can however be very hard or almost impossible to go back and this is therefore sometimes refered to as the point of no return.
In some spiritual teachings there is sometimes a name for the first choosing point connected to entering some kind of training.
An example of this are the myths about entering the bodhisatwa path.
Sometimes the first and second point of choice are so closely linked and so close in time that you can hardly say that there is a
second choosing point. On the personal level it is however almost always there as an important reality and even if you don´t see it clearly
when the choice is made you almost always can do so when looking back.
One thing which must be said about choosing magic is that there are examples of people who seem to have been deprived of their choice by being mentally hijacked and more or less forced into entering the magical path. This can happen, but on a deeper subconscious level, they also for the most part have to agree in some way even if it is forced on them. Otherwise they will never be able to train and learn properly.
Choosing magic, to allow it to really happen you also open the path to chaos, to realising that everything exists in the same place and at the same time, overlapping and intermingling endlessly. Time becomes a true illusion and your intent resting in your mind and "heart" is your only reliable tool and your only saviour if you want to stay intact.
Choosing magic can sometimes be like "puncturing the rubber ball of reality" and make the world as you know it collaps.
Going into magic out of ignorance can happen and may start very small
but soon grow so big that it changes your whole life quickly and radically and often at some point when all theses changes starts
you have to make your personal choice whether to go forward or turn back. If you are in much turmoil this can be hard to do
and as said above going back after a certain point can be very difficult and might cost you dearly.
"Puncturing the world" is a drastic thing to do and it is therefore normally not advisable. It is much better to install a vent or a
small opening that allows the world to collapse more slowly and accordingly let you have some control over what happens.
Doing this is the better way and the training connected with most "good" magical paths is built this way. This allows you to train
properly so that you have all the insights you need to make your "choices" in a more satisfying way.
Magic returning
After a long time of being banned, suppressed and ignored, magic is now returning to the conscious modern western world.
The importance of the "age of aquarius" should not be underestimated. Collective consciousness is developing rapidly and acceptance of magic
as well as magical insights are spreading very fast indeed. This big change is very obvious if you look back 40 years. 1968 really was
an important turning point and the seventies was like a huge melting pot for new ideas. At first more profound changes were traceable only
among a small exclusive mostly rather young part of the western population. During the seventies these new ideas and changes successively
were "spilling out" and spreading with increasing speed.
The 80:s might for some look like a setback, but now in the year 2004 it is
obvious that a broad and profound change in attitudes and ideas has gotten a strong foothold among bigger parts of the population.
The seventies were crucial. As for magic and its development many schools of magic that had been in hiding for hundreds of years suddenly went out in the open and started to share their knowledge. There were many new books and ideas during that time. For my part I think the works of Carlos Castaneda were among the most important. A lot of the "frontier people" were deeply affected by these books. What was special was that these books in a very detailed way describes the process of a scholar entering the magical field and that Castaneda wrote about his experiences as a scholar of magic in such a way that it is possible to follow his own process very close. The teachings of his nagual teacher don Juan Mathus are so well described that you get deeply involved in Castanedas own process and therefore get an understanding of some of the most important things that are connected to opening up to and beeing aware of the magic in the world.
As a "second hander" it is almost impossible to transfer the knowledge and insights which are given in Castanedas books. You have to read them for yourself to be able to understand. If you do I must however caution you not to fall into the trap of thinking they are all about drugs. In the first volumes Castaneda describes several occasions of using mescaline. Many readers have stopped after one or more of the first books because of this. Those who continue to read further will however realise that this is not at all a central part of the teachings given by don Juan. On the contrary don Juan in the latter books points out that using hallucinogenetic drugs can be harmful and destructive and that the only reason for letting Castaneda use these drugs was "because he was so dumb" and because he could not accept that his view of reality was not the only one possible.
To give you more insight in don Juan Mathus teachings and in what is needed for a scholar of magic, I will present to you the following quotations from the book Tales of power by Carlos Castaneda (Tales of power 1974; pp 231-233, 245, 247-248, 265.) Exactly the same quotations can also be found in the book "Patterns of the hypnotic techniques by Milton H Erickson,M.D. volume 1 by Richard Bandler and John Grinder.
..... The first act of a teacher is to introduce the idea that the world we think we see is only a view, a description of the world. Every effort of a teacher is geared to provide this point to his apprentice. But accepting it seems to be one of the hardest things one can do. We are complacently caught in our particular view of the world, which compels us to feel and act as if we knew everything about the world. A teacher, from the very first act he performs aims at stopping that view. Sorcerers call it stopping the internal dialogue and they are convinced that it is the single most important technique that an apprentice can learn.....
....."Stopping the internal dialogue is , however the key to the sorcerers world," he said. "The rest of the activities are only props. All they do is accelerate the effect of stopping the internal dialogue.".....
.....The teacher reorders the view of the world. I have called that view the island of the tonal. I´ve said that everything that we are is on that island. The sorcerers´ explanation says that the island of the tonal is made by our perception, which has been trained to focus on certain elements. Each of those elements and all of them together form our view of the world. The job of a teacher, insofar as the apprentice´s perception is concerned, consists of reordering all the elements of the island on one half of the bubble. By now you must have realized that cleaning and reordering the island of the tonal means regrouping all its elements on the side of reason. My task has been to disarrange your ordinary view, not to destroy it, but to force it to rally on the side of reason.....
....He drew an imaginery circle on the rock and devided it in two along a vertical diameter. He said that the art of a teacher was to force
his disciple to group his view of the world on the right half of the bubble.
"Why the right half?" I asked.
"thats the side of the tonal,"he said. "The teacher always addresses himself to that side, and by presenting his apprentice on
the one hand with the warrior´s way he forces him into reasonableness and sobriety, and strength of character and body; and by presenting
him on the other hand with unthinkable but real situations which the apprentice cannot cope with, he forces him to realise that his reason,
although it is a most wonderful affair, can only cover a small area.....
....."Walking in that specific manner saturates the tonal," he said. "It floods it. You see, the attention of the tonal has to
be placed on its creations. In fact, it is that attention that creates the order of the world in the first place; so the tonal must be
attentive to the elements of its world in order to maintain it, and must, above all, uphold the world as an internal dialogue."
He said that the right way of walking was a subterfuge. The warrior, first by curling his fingers, drew attention to the arms; and then
by looking, without focusing the eyes, at any point directly in front of him on the arc that started at the tip of his feet and ended
above the horizon, he litteraly flooded his tonal with information. The tonal without its one-to-one relation with the
elements of its description, was incapable of talking to itself, and thus became silent.... ( Authors remark:
This is partly a description of a certain kind of walking practise taught by don Juan)
.....Order in our perception is the exclusive realm of the tonal; only there can our actions have a sequence; only there are they like stairways where one can count the steps. There is nothing of that sort in the nagual. Therefore the view of the tonal is a tool, and as such it is not only the best tool but the only one we´ve got....
...." Dreaming is a practical aid deviced by sorcerers," he said. " they were no fools; they knew what they were dooing and sought the usefulness of the nagual by training their tonal to let go for a moment, so to speak and then grab again. This statement doesn´t make sense to you. But that´s what you´ve been doing all along: training yourself to let go without loosing your marbles. Dreaming of course, is the crown of the sorcerers´ efforts, the ultimate use of the nagual."
The Castaneda books and the teachings of don Juan are very important. They also gives a hint of the fact that shamanistic and sorcerous
traditions have been preserved in secret in spite of the christian conquest, suppression and extermination of the world and culture
of the indians.
Before the "white man" these traditions where most often a living part of the different indian societies.
Most of these schools or traditions have been preserved and in hiding for several hundred years. That they now come out of hiding, a thing
which is still happening today and has sucessively happened during the last 50 years is
an important part of the spiritual development nescessary for humanitys next step of development.
Some aspects of Juan Mathus teachings are especially important. Of these aspects the concepts of the tonal, the nagual and the nagual being are quite central.
Tonal and nagual
As for the tonal and nagual they are, or at least seems to be the same as our two bodily halves and brain halves. They are the products and manifestation of duality and accordingly quite different in quality. You can compare them with yin and yang, male and female aspects of the human self etc. As you can derive from the quotations above, tonal stands for structure and reason and nagual stands for feelings, intuition and chaos. To further understand this and to understand the consequenses of manipulation of the mechanisms that constitutes a "normal" undisturbed use of the tonal and the nagual you have to read Castanedas books or some other similar work, or find a teacher and investigate this for yourself.
The Nagual being
As for the nagual being, don Juan does not give us many facts about this special kind of being except that he or she is four parted. In the following I will add some additional things to his description.
The concept of the naqual being is very interesting. According to don Juan a nagual is a very rare and special kind of human being. A nagual is a four parted being while other people are two parted. Being four parted a nagual has special qualities and abilities which ordinary people does not have. Among those abilities a gift to do magic easier than others is maybe the most important. The name nagual has its origin in the central parts of the american continent, but it has probably even older roots. Another ancient name which has its origin in the mediterrainean area is "lucumon" or "lucumone".
While almost every other human being consists of two halves separated by a vertical midline in front-back direction, the nagual has each of these both parts split in two. The result of this is that there is at least one more "separation line" in his/her being. The most obvious one is also vertical but in a left-right direction. The two midlines formes a cross penetrating the whole nagual being from top to bottom. The additional "split" or separation line makes a big difference in ability for the nagual to open up his or her being to both the known and unknown world.
This is a picture of the traditional "Lucumon Cross" also called Cross of the Nagual.
It shows two crossing
lines as well as the specific diagonal cross linking of the nagual (se below).
You should notice the similarity to the christian cross.
There are more interesting facts concerning the nagual.
The normal two parted human is split in two halves with different qualities.
The differences are related and connected to the differences of the two brain halves.
A popular and often used way of describing
the two bodily halves is to say that the left part is the "female" or "intuitive" part of the being while the right part is the
"structured" or "male" part. Refering to the taoistic approach You could also call the left body half the "yin" part and the right for the
"yang" part.
This split is the same in both men and women. A relatively few of the population have the two sides reversed.
As for the brain halves they
are split the same but "opposite" way to that of the body since the the left half of the brain is more directly connected to the right side
of the body and vice versa.
Our being does not only consist of the body we normaly se. People with "open" eyes can percieve the human being as a luminous oval
sphere with an egg like shape. This is what is popularly called the aura or at least a part of it. The split described above is visible also
in most of the aureatic part of humans.
The nagual who is split in four parts instead of two has two different intuitive or female parts as well as two different male
structured parts. These are however not obviously visible when you look at the nagual body. For some of those who can percieve the aura they
are if not exactly obivous at least percievable.
These four parts are linked in a way which constitutes a second diagonal cross in the nagual being and this goes for the body and brain
as well as for the aureatic part. The second diagonal cross is formed as a result of a unique crossvice connection in the nagual
brain and being. The frontside left part is connected to
the backside right part and vice versa. In the brain this connection goes from front right to back left and from front left to back right.
The nagual brain also has a slight depression going from right to left which makes it look slightly four parted.
This is the traditional sign of the lucumon or nagual which is nowadays closely linked to the nagual Jesus of Nasareth
The result of the different constitution of the nagual is among other things that his or her perception internally is built up in a
partly different way from that of ordinary humans. There also is a more complex interaction in the brain considering structure and
intuition. The possibilities of internal interaction are richer and it is easier for a nagual than for an ordinary human
to reach the place between left and right, which is the place of Intent and the
point where you can step aside and be less bound by reality.
There are numerous names for this focus of awareness,
like for instance "the place of creation", "the place outside dualism and time", "the place outside the circel" etcetera.
What is important is that this focus point is the place where your "Intent" is active
and where you can change the "world concept" if you are aware and have the skill, will and energy to do so.
Ordinary built humans can of course also reach this "place" or "focus point" and then they are sometimes able to act as forcefully as
any nagual to induce change.
The nagual however has a lot "for free" and normally does not need as much training. Sometimes in rare cases even no specific
training at all is necessary.
Mostly the nagual however also need quite a lot of training which is obvious in Castanedas books as well as some other similar works.
As for ordinary humans they might need very long and tedious training. However this same training also sometimes make them very
focused and skilled in using their intent when they finaly learn to do so.
The nagual Jesus son of Mary and Josef
As you have probably deduced from the pictures above Jesus was a nagual. His mother Mary probably was one as well. Mary however was untrained while Jesus was trained by skilled teachers particularly in India. It is likely that Jesus was very adaptive and skilled even as untrained which can partly come from having his nagual mother so close. The genetics of the nagual is such that it is rare to have a parent with the same constitution. This might however have been more common in older days.
The sign
is in christianity said to mean the greek initial letters KR, meaning Kristos or Christ.
This might eventually be the case, but as the "ordinary" cross existed and was used as an important symbol long before Jesus was
borned so also the sign
is an old symbol for and graphical description of the nagual. There are probably those in christianity
who knows this but for some obscure reason they have chosen to keep it hidden and secret in the same way a lot of other important
knowledge has been suppressed mostly by the catolic church and it´s inquisition.
(A fact that many people does not know of is that the inquisition was active as long as till some time in the nineteenth century.)
As Jesus was a nagual, some other men and women in human history and also today has had or have this quality as well. There is however not an obvious natural connection between being a nagual and being a leader or being clever and having spiritual or other wisdom. A nagual can be as god or as bad, wise or unwise, competent or incompetent as every other human being. Among spiritual leaders you can however more often find this quality than is usual in most other fields of practise. This is due to the unique quality of the nagual being which makes a nagual more able than ordinary humans to open up to spiritual matters and to the spiritual world. As for leading others, since a nagual is very rare indeed, there is an enormous amount of candidates to choose from among ordinary humans when looking for someone to lead and guide others. Nagual leaders in more worldly matters are therefore very very uncommon.
Jesus was a very important person. His impact on human history is so very great that it is almost impossible to imagine. His teachings are central for us humans. In a way it is really a pity that these teachings are connected to the bible with all it´s historical texts and it is in my opinion important to at least partly disconnect the evangelic message from the rest of the bible. Instead we should look upon the old testament and other parts of the bible outside of the gospels only as a way to place Jesus in a historical context and as an help in understanding what we need to know about him.
When you interpret the evangelistic message it is utterly essential to start with what is most important. To do this you should
apply and use the same steps in the same sequence as they are the cornerstones of all learning.
Doing this you must consider learning by imitation / modelling as the first, basic and most important step.
Modelling is the way a newborned baby learns and modelling continues to be of importance far up in education.
Learning by listening to verbal messages and instructions starts to play a role as we grow older and at
some point around 8 to 9 years this kind of learning is maybe almost as much used as modelling. Depending on situation that
however differs very much and even as grown ups we tend to use modelling as a basic way of learning. That is for instance
the case in most subconscious learning processes.
Applying this wiew on the gospels we must start with what Jesus did, his actions. They are what really weighs heavy in his
teachings and if we
compare the four gospels with each other and also with other reliable stories about Jesus it is possible to see what is likely
to be true and wash out the central stuff.
As a second step we can start looking at what he might have taught verbally. As soon as you start looking at verbal teachings
it is however nescessary to be careful of misinterpretations and possible influence from the people reporting on these messages.
You should therefore be rather sceptical when you look at this part.
As a third step we can start to look at what other people among Jesus pupils and followers might have done and said and how they
seem to interpret Jesus teachings. Doing this you might find something that confirms what you have deduced using the first two steps.
I should estimate that of Jesus teachings his actions are about 80%, his verbal message 15% and the rest 5%.
Following these steps you might wash out:
1) that Jesus seemed to value people the same whether poor or rich, influential or noninfluential,
man or woman. Every human has the same value.
2) Jesus also seems to have love empathy and compassion in a way thats very unusual. He seems to have a great loving and caring heart.
3) Jesus renounces worldly power.
4) Jesus choose death before compromising his heart.
5) Before dying and in death he choose and gave forgivness.
You might possibly wash out a lot of other things as well, but hardly as important as these five.
The christian churches and congregations often have a peculiar way of looking upon the evangelic message as if it is their property. Maybe this does not seem so strange to you at first notice since it is the way humans often act, but when you think about it further you will probably also see how crazy this attitude is. It is impossible to own someones actions or the story of someones actions. No one can own the example of Jesus told in the gospels. Nor can anyone own the right to interpret this message since the message of the gospels is a gift to all humanity, christians as well as others, who want to be part of and maybe follow Jesus teachings.
Jesus was a spiritual teacher and he was also a magician. There is no doubt that he was able perform the miracles told in the bible.
Things like that are possible to do and a nagual as said above has a natural talent to do magic.
More important than this is however Jesus
impact on history and this is magic as well, maybe among the most powerfull magic there is even if it does not mean doing instant miracles.
Jesus teachings and / or other similar ones are central if you want to open up for and use your intent consciously. The same teachings are part of many magical traditions. Carlos Castanedas teacher don Juan talks about the way of the heart and the importance of following this path and the same goes for a lot of other teachers. Without an open heart and without compassion, empathy and love you risk to loose yourself. That is an important fact for every conscious being but it is absolutely crucial if you choose a path involving true magic.
The love of Jesus, his open heart and his choice of forgivness is the central message of the gospels.
Magical training
There are numerous different paths to go towards magic and numerous training methods as well. There are however some basic things that most people need to deal with one way or another if they are to investigate the path of magic. Below some of them are listed as examples.
- Stilling the mind
- Disconnect from history
- Senses, perception and communication
- Opening to the chanels of feeling
- Claiming the body
- Opening of the dreamworld to everyday consciousness
- Deprogramming of the mind
- Holy geometry
- Neutralising time references
- Waking up kundalini or chi
As said above these are just some examples. There are more and probably many that I have not considered.
Two of the above are however in my opinion quite central and that is the question of stilling the mind and of opening up to
the dreamworld. To manage these two areas it is probably necessary to investigate some of the other listed fields of training.
Overlappings of course exists between most of the topics in the list. Because of that
each training area can also be like a gateway and
when you are in the process of working with one of them the effect might generalise to one or more of the others.
This also means that it is probably not necessary to train yourself very actively in each of the mentioned areas.
However one can also say that the wider your training the better since this makes you more complete and more competent.
Stilling the mind
I recommend meditation as one good way to still our mind.
There are different kinds of meditation and each method has its own approach and specific effects.
As I see it some methods are more complete in that they focus on your whole beeing while others might be designed to develop or
open up a part of your resources.
As said above I think zen meditation / zazen is a good method to use. I recommend the Soto school tradition since it is very clean and
simple. Other schools of zen and other methods like for instance Vipasana, TM or Acem are also very good and has similar effects.
Irrespective of method, meditation is mostly a good way to be with yourself, to come closer to yourself and to
get more relaxed. It is therefore good for you irrespective of your goals.
It is important to find a method that feels good to work with and which fits your own personality and your own needs.
The more complete methods of meditation like zen, works to strengthen the "here and now conciousness" , reduce internal
dialogue and to help in disconnecting from parts where the self or the mind is bound in history.
Meditation also helps in successively reducing mental and bodily tensions.
One very good thing about meditation is that it in many traditions or schools, is a practise which is effective and at the same time
"kind" to the practitioner.
What might sound a little strange in this context is also that meditation is in a way counter effective in proportion to magic. The reason
for this is that all
good and sound methods for meditation have a built in positive process of their own.
In the long run they reduce and still the internal dialogue, opens the heart chakra and makes us more
relaxed, focused and more at ease. The opening of the heart chakra tend to give contentment and make us less restless and ambitious.
People with long practise in meditation often know a lot about the illusion of reality and of how fragile reality can be. Meditation can allow you to rest in the field close to the borders of reality and some experienced practitioners have achieved a profound openness towards the essence of magic without having to fully enter the field. You could in a way say that they are able to avoid choosing magic at the same time as they continously learn more about it. You could also say that meditation can help you learn and at the same time postpone an eventual choice to enter the world of magic. This is a very good thing and makes meditation an exquisite tool for personal development and getting deep insights without any drastic implications and this is also why I put much emphasis in recommending meditation as a basic practise irrespective of what goal you want to achieve.
Below I give some more information about the Soto school Zazen.
Zen meditation
Zen meditation has been developed as part of the japanese zen buddhism. It is a very effective tool for deep relaxation bodily as well as mentaly. The art of Zen gives us better contact with the subconscious parts of our being and it helps us to link our hereandnow consciousness to our inner world. As the touch of zen thus will help us to link to our inner garden, in time this will reduce stress in our systems for preparation and readiness and our level of tension will be reduced as well. When we get better contact with our inner self, we also automaticly improve contact with the outside world. This will increase our vitality and joy of life and make us more creative. Regular practice in the art of zen meditation opens the heart chakra, strengthens our conscious self and improves balance bodily and mentaly. It also helps us to integrate parts of our beings which blocks our perception and vitality. This gives us a more safe platform in life.
Zen meditation in Soto-school practise is focused on the central parts of our mind and
body. It is a very "clean" method which can easily be practised without mysticism and religious
inclinations. In Soto tradition "Zen" and "sitting" are the same.
The practise of meditation is called ZaZen which means something like "true sitting".
In Soto tradition there are no additional techniques like for instance choanes and similar
practises.
Doing ZaZen means just "sitting" and "being with yourself". As our instrument for perception and feelings the body
is very important as focus for our mind. Breathing as the most obvious rythm in our body is together with body awareness
central as an additional "point" of focus.
Breathing becomes a kind of anchor and link between our conscious and subconscious mind.
The method is very simple and it does not matter if the practitioner has spiritual or psychological ambitions or just wants to get more relaxed. Doing ZaZen works similarly for everyone irrespective of their goals.
A more relaxed attitude to life, better health and improved well being are among the more common rewards for most people
The method
Traditionally Zen meditation is practisized sitting in lotus, half lotus or diamond position.
Usually you sit on a small pillow or low chair. It is however quite possible to sit in an ordinary chair or in a
sofa. It is more important to feel comfortable than doing "right".
The lotus position is however valuable for several reasons. It is very functional physiologically as well as anathomically, which is important if you practise regularly. Apart from that the lotus position is important on a symbolical level. It is a very strong archetype which is widely spread all over the world and it is no less important than for instance the christian cross or the taoist yinyang symbol.
The lotusposition must however not be overemphasized. The basic method in ZaZen is how you focus your mind and this practise does it´s work and give results irrespective of position. Zen meditation can therefore even be done lying down as long as you realise the complication that this also triggers our sleeping mechanisms. Falling asleep interrupts the process of meditation and is not to be recommended but it can happen when you are in a sitting position as well and if you are very tired it is probably better to get some sleep than to meditate.
If you want to practise ZaZen traditionally, sitting in an upright position, it is important to rest your weight on the"sitting bones" on both sides of your sacrum which requires that your spine / body is "balancing" vertically.
According to many teachers a good way to do this is to imagine yourself partly held up by a thread from your sacrum up through your spine and the backside of your skull.
The hands should be held in your lap with the backside of one hand resting in the palm of the other hand and the tips of your thumbs connecting above and opposed to your palms.
ZaZen is mostly practised with your eyes open and your view resting 1,5 to 2 meters in front of your body
Step by step instruction
When you meditate together in a
group it is not unusual that the leader or someone else mark beginning and end with a gong gong. When you meditate by yourself
it is advisable to use some kind of clock with a tone signal to help telling you when it is time to stop your meditation.
In Transcendental meditation like TM or ACEM the process is similar, but there, instead of using your body and breathing as a focus, you have a mantra ( a rythmical sound or word) which you repeat mentaly and use as a focus for your mind.
Remember that there is absolutely nothing wrong with thinking about something else or disappearing into some thoughts. This is the way we humans function. The same thing happens when you are about to fall asleep. You drift away in different kind of thoughts and/or memories. In most effective methods of meditation some kind of focusing of your mind is central as a way to strengthen your "hereandnow" consciousness. But it is essential that this focusing is very subtle. Too much effort will just be counteractive and increase tension instead of reducing it. Little by little this subtle focusing activity will uncharge your unconscious self and give help to increase mental freedom of choice. In time this will also give possibilities to experience how it is to be when you dont have any thoughts at all.
or with your feet drawn back in and under your body / the chair.
As for the hands it is very good to try to hold one hand resting in the palm of the other hand in the way described above. It is however quite ok to just let your hands rest in your lap.
The so called Diamond position, with your knees forward and your feet behind sitting pillow and bottom
can be a good alternative if you want to sit on the floor but don´t find the lotus position comfortable enough.
If you choose not to sit with your back vertical in a natural straight position. You should try to find symetry and some kind of bodily "balance" in some other way. It can for instance be very good to use pillows to give support if you want to lean back in a sofa or an armchair.
Disconnect from history
History builds you, your personal one as well as the history you share with other people. It affects you so deeply that it governs almost everything you do. History binds you and it most often does that without you realising it. If you realise it you still often choose to let it be because it feels safe, maybe even good and you mostly don’t have enough reason to change the way things are.
There are a lot of different ways to get less bound by your personal history. Meditation as mentioned above is one good way to in a kind way loosen yourself from your history. To work on the bindings to our shared history more drastic methods are often required even if meditation has its effect also in this more complex topic.
There are many similarities and overlappings between the processes of working with history and working with time references. Both processes are aimed at freeing the mind from the preconceptions that binds it. All history is of course a product of time since history deals with the past. To realise how much of an illusion time is you also might have to think of history as an illusion. This is not an easy thing to do and you need to take a little care when you work with this. Some kind of anchor might be needed to keep you balanced and stable. Here again I suggest meditation as one of the best tools that I know of. It might also be important to point out that working with history does not mean that you should wipe it out. What is needed is to change your view and get freer. The history that you are used to and want to be in might then also be used as an anchor and reference point for your mind.
Recalling your history
Recalling your historyis a way to loosen the bonds with which you are bound and allow you to look at yourself and at the world with fewer conscious and subconscious preconceptions. This can be done in different ways although most are rather similar in their approach. One way is to write down your personal history as detailed as possible. If you want to you can complete this written recollection with paintings and drawings. You can also make maps of how you relate to people, places, things, values and ideas. Both in the written parts and in drawings and maps it is important to note the feelings linked to persons, things, places and experiences. If needed you can share your recollection with someone and at the same time maybe get help to work on eventual traumatic parts. However the recollection in itself is the most important and if you take your time and do this properly and thoroughly it can be of great value.
One more drastic method is described in the works of Carlos Castaneda. It is done like this: You start with building a box i which you
can sit comfortably. It is an advantage if the box is well isolated so that you dont get disturbed by sounds from the outside.
There should be no light in the box.
To work on your history you sit in the box regularly preferably for some hours or more each time.
Sitting in the box for the first time you start with your present situation and work backwards in memory remembering things as detailed
as possible. Each time you sit in the box you start where you stopped the previous time. I dont remember if Castaneda suggests that you
start each session with a short recollection of what you have remebered so far, but I think this can be beneficial.
This process of recollection goes on until you can not remember more or reach further back in your history.
When that will be is hard to predict, but if you do this recollection process I think you
will be surpriced by your ability to remember things and how far back it is possible to go.
Castanedas teacher don Juan claims that this recollection process is a way to "cheat the Eagle". According to don Juan the Eagle is
a kind of metaphor or name for the "ultimate spirit", the "first spirit" or whatever you would like to call it.
The Eagle is undescribable and impossible to grasp or percieve but if you are perceptive enough you still know it´s there.
When a person dies he or she is normally "spiritually consumed" by the Eagle who wants the collected memories and experiences of every being.
According to don Juan the Eagle however gets satisfied with "a copy" and he also means that the conscious recollection of your memories will
provide this "copy".
If you think of how many stories there are about people who
have been close to death and during their last seconds have experienced recollecting their whole life in a few seconds, this maybe
does not seem totally crazy, at least not if you look upon this thing of being "consumed" as a metaphor.
The Lung gom pa tradition
There is one much more drastic similar kind of practise described by "Lama Anagarica Govinda" in his book "The way of the white clouds.”
In this book he tells a lot of different interesting things from his research and travelling in Tibet as a buddhist scholar.
Among other things he tells about the "Lung gom pa" which are an order of monks traditionally engaged as healers, spiritual teachers
and sometimes also messengers in the Tibetan mountains.
The Lung gom pa train themselves in a rather drastic way. The new initiates have a relatively short period at the monastery when they
get instructions and are prepared for the "real training". This training consists of several years of total isolation.
This isolation can in some cases be so very extreme that the student/trainee is placed in a walled up small room or cave inside
the rock without light and with little or no sound from the outside. There is no possibility to communicate with the outside world
except for food and water which are provided through a small lock opening with no human contact possible or allowed.
In cases not as extreme the isolation is also as total considering human contact, but the trainee lives in a small hut/apartment
with a fireplace and a small kitchen and also light trough a hole in the roof. On the roof there are high walls, which makes it possible
for the monk to use the roof for walking and other physical activity without being seen or being able to see the surrounding area.
The time for isolation differs somewhat, but a full training period consists of nine years, sometimes with an additional three years.
It is said that a trainee when coming out after many years of isolation was/is totally changed with a different personality than the one
he had before starting the training. This is not hard to believe since such isolation combined with methods for deprogramming must have
very drastic consequences. Recalling history is one of the deprogramming tools that was/is most certainly used by the Lung gom pa.
The change in personality is also formally confirmed by a total renounciation of the former identity including all ties, name,
all former relations and family ties etc.
One part of the Lung gom pa training is devoted to levitation training. The trainee who comes out after his isolation is tested
regarding his levitating ability by being placed in a sitting position on the bottom of a deep hole which should be twice the hight
of the trainee. Still in sitting position the trainee is supposed to levitate himself out of the hole.
By being abel to levitate the Lung gom pa are/were* able to run for hours on end through ruff terrain in the mountains.
This is an important part of an old religious tradition demanding that the monk coming out from isolation should be sent on a quest
involving the task of during a very short period of time visit some of the more important spiritual centers and monasteries in Tibet.
This task is said to be totally impossible for a normal person and for the fully trained Lung gom pa to be able to do this in spite
of the lack of roads and often also in bad weather, levitation was/is necessary.
*There are no reports that I know of from the Tibet of today regarding the Lung gom pa
Psychotherapy
Effective psychotherapy can help you to be less bound to your personal history. Psychotherapy tends to focus on the parts of your
personal history where you have had difficulties or problems. Since these parts are also where you are most bound up,
psychotherapy is often
an effective tool to deal with personal historical bonds. However you must also realise that it is not only the problematic parts of your
history that binds you. One can be very bound by good memories as well as bad ones and since the bonds of your whole history can
be what stops you from freeing yourself it might not be enough with psycho therapy even if it is of some help. It is important to
realise that beeing bound goes very very deep into your unconscious being and that to loosen these bonds
you might have to dig a lot deeper than you are able to imagine in beforehand.
There are some methods in the field of psychotherapy
which focus on and involve systematic, structured recollection of your personal history. Most often this is done in group work. One such
method is called the star process or star therapy. Because of it´s efficiency concerning history and historical bonds, and its transpersonal
and spiritual approach I highly recommend this or similar psychotherapeutical training methods.
As for psychotherapy I think it is often very useful as a tool for personal development. For the purpouse of magical training you have to combine it with other practises for example meditation and different techniques for strengthening bodily and mental awareness.
Our shared history
It is not easy to free ourselves from our common history which we share with other humans
and also with plant- and animal life on this planet. We also share it with planet earth herself a fact that it is very
very important to be aware of.
Recollection is not easily possible with common history. This kind of history is built into our very
beings genetically and on a deep subconscious level in our collective memory where individuality does not exist in the way we are used to.
You have to work on this indirectly through other areas of training. To work with time structure, how you look upon time and how
time references binds you is maybe the best indirect way.
More directly it is important to start with adopting an attitude of openness.
You have to realise and accept that history might be less fixed than seems to be the case.
Since we percieve everything right in each existing
moment you can not be quite certain about the realities of the common history. It could for instance be the case that we build
our history successively little by little. Maybe our collective subconscious is also working to confirm the history which seems most
likely in every given moment.
Maybe it also is so that what you believe on a level deep enough is true.
As an example of what might be necessary to deal with you can take the story from the bible about God creating the world in
seven days and in the end creating Eden and Adam and Eve.
If you are a darwinist this story seems like a lot of superstitious gibberish and if you are schooled in
the area of science you think that you know what is true and what is not true.
You might be certain that you are right, but if you are not willing to
question this rightness you are also locked up in a way which hinders flexibility, and flexibility is one of the absolute cornerstones
of true magic. Accordingly what you have to do to loosen your bonds to our common history is to stop beeing absolutely certain about
the truthfullness or rightness of any "certain claim" of how our history has been formed.
You might have to believe in something,
it is almost impossible not to, but you also have to see that you choose your belief and that this choice of belief must be made on a
deeper level than the place in your consciousness where you form the reality and history you choose to believe in.
For us in the western world it is important to realise that being able to use intent and to do true magic is of course not something which is reserved for people who are well educated and wise in the "western way" and who are most often also darwinists. On the contrary well educated westerners and scientists in their certainty of knowing what is right about reality and what is the "right" story of creation and human development might have severe difficulties when and if they are trying to open up to magic.
Senses, perception and communication
"In the beginning there was sound. The voice and the words of God created the world."
This metaphor is deeply rooted in different stories of creation including the bible.
As for most of us we tend to think of sound as the primary tool for communication. This is something which is very
untrue. Words are maybe 15% of human communication. Tonal patterns and how you choose to combine the words are another part which is
at least as important as the words are in/by themselves. For learning more about communication, tonal patterns are as a matter
of fact much more important
to consider than the abstract meaning of the words. An illustrating example of the importance of tonal patterns is the fact that it is
for instance possible, to say the simple words yes or no with many different
meanings depending on the way you pronounce and and express them. If you try to play with this for a while I think you can most certainly
find more than ten different meanings for each of them just by changing intonation. If you add body language there are even more
possibilities.
Body language, meaning gestures and postures and the body language of the face, our facial expressions is another important part of
communication which is at least as important as words and intonation.
Facial expressions are the most important part of body language. The importance of this is very great indeed.
Our face is full of small sensors which are very perceptive. The internal feeling in the face is different with
the change of the facial muscles by milimeters or sometimes even tenths of milimeters. However thats not enough.
That same small change in your face can totally change your whole internal
perception of the body as well, how you feel and also as a matter of fact how you think about yourself. Again however this is
not enough. The same very small change in your face will change how you are percieved by others around you and how they feel about
you. The importance of the face and facial expressions should not be underestimated.
Some parts of the face are more important and these are
mainly the central parts. The mouth and the area around it. The nose and the area around it and the eyes and the area
around the eyes. The eyes are very important in themselves. It is however very hard to differentiate between the eyes and the area
around the eyes since this is maybe the part where the smallest change can have the greatest impact and make the biggest difference.
If you find my statements hard to believe you should sit for a while and let yourself make small small changes in your face and feel
the differences in feeling which are sometimes very obvious not only in the face but in the whole body.
Excercise
Sit down by yourself, if possible in front of a mirror. It is also very good to do this excercise together in a pair and then you
should sit opposite each other and take turns with trying out the excercise and acting as an observer and/or maybe also as mirror.
The first thing you should test
is to very slightly raise the corners of you mouth. You dont need to raise them very much at all before the feeling of joy gets
obvious. Do the same in the opposite way and make the corners of your mouth fall slightly downwards and very soon you feel sadness
creeping into your whole body. To feel very joyfull or very sad you have to move the corners of the mouth more maybe one centimeter or even
a little more. Only
very little is however enough for the more subtle changes, which even if they are subtle make a very big difference. You could also try
pressing the lips and teeth together and widen your nostrils slightly and feel that the result of that probably will take you close to
anger or fill you with anger.
Play with these and other facial expressions for a short while and notice also the resulting effects in your internal feelings and in
body postures and maybe even associated thoughts. Try and make the changes smaller and smaller and then also exaggerate your
expressions. If you work in a pair the observer should try to notice how he or she gets affected by
the different expressions and the changes in the percieved expressions.
The anathomy and physiology involved in facial body language and expressions are very complicated. The inervation of the face is very rich and there are links from the whole face to both halves of the brain. This is also true for the eyes. In the brain there are complex connections and linkage which make your face interact with your whole body.
The main feelings of sadness, anger and joy are closely linked to facial expressions but also to the body as a whole and there are typical body postures connected to each of the mayor feelings.
If you work on this for a little while more and exaggerate the expressions of happiness sadness and anger in your face you will clearly notice how your body follows and how the body postures change very drastically for each feeling.
It is a pity that surgeons who make plastic surgery on the face does not consider the importance of facial inervation and how the language of the faces of their patients can be very distorted and disturbed by their operations. Especially if you make big or repeated operations in the central area of the face this can have a severe effect on their patients internal reference system and deprive them of the ability to express nuances. This also can have a huge impact on how they think upon themselves as persons. Disturbances are not limited to the face since the facial expressions are so closely interlinked with bodily perception.
As mentioned above, facial expressions and body postures does not only affect feelings, they affect thoughts as well
and they can be linked to verbal thoughts as well as internal pictures. This is something that is well known to modern actors who often
work with film or TV where the face is very exposed to the audience. They know this and they have to make, using the "right" thoughts,
part of their acting to give a reliable impression to their wiewers.
To know body language and be conscious of this part of communication can be very
beneficial to most people as long as they stay with the wholeness and dont try to interfere to much in separate parts of what they express.
In general it is very good to be aware of the body and what goes on in the body. Knowledge in this area affects the self and
how we think upon ourselves as persons.
As for a person who is acting on a magical level knowledge of these things are essential. To be able to use intent properly it is necessary to be clean and without double messages in ones communication and that requires god control in all parts of communication without exception.
There is one school of communicative theory and psychology which is very interesting if you want to dig deeper into the subject of communication, senses and perception. This theoretical concept is called NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming.
Neuro Linguistic Programming, NLP
NLP was developed in the nineteenseventies.
It is not an invention but a discovery and it is a breakthrough
in the field of how to understand and systematize human communication.
The founders of NLP John Grinder and Richard Bandler have systematically
studied the patterns of communication. By looking at the basic elements like words, intonation and body language they have discovered
and mapped different patterns and noted their implications and effects.
NLP is a tool. It was developed with focus on practical handling and doing and how to achieve proper results.
Accordingly you could say that NLP firstly is a practical methodology and secondly a theory in the field of human growth and change and a
theoretical part of psychology-psychotherapy.
NLP is closely related to gestalt therapy in that it partly refines and develops techniques which have been introduced as part of the
gestalt concept. NLP also has similarities to gestalt therapy in its pragmatic approach and its focus on "how to do" to stimulate human
growth and change. At least as important as the gestalt influence are however ideas and practises fetched from the works of
Milton H Ericksson, the most famous user of hypnosis for psychotherapeutical purpouses in the 20:ieth century
The story of how NLP was created and developed is rather fascinating.
The founders, John Grinder and Richard Bandler were scholars in mathematics and linguistics.
They were together in the therapeutical climate and culture that was part of the
human growth movement in the late 1960:s. Questioning a lot of what they witnessed, they took upon themselves to study what
it was that made some therapists able to help people change while others where not very sucessfull.
They choose to study three particularly good therapists, all different and all very sucessfull in stimulating change.
Two of the three were gestalt therapists namely Fritz Perls the founder of gestalt therapy and Virginia Satir one of its most well known
and skilled practitioners, famous for her work with family therapy. The third was Milton Eriksson as mentioned above
one of the most skilled users of hypnosis as a theraputical instrument in modern psychotherapy.
Grinder and Bandler studied how these three used their communicational skills. In their analyses they put high emphasis
on non verbal communication and
also on how language was used, meaning choice of words, building of phrases and tonal patterns and other aspects.
They discovered that although the three were very different, their strategies for communication and intervention were very similar.
Based on these patterns and a very skilled study of other therapists plus a lot of cases, clients and therapy sessions they started
to formulate the base for NLP. The new approach that NLP represents was presented in the middle of the 1970:s.
Grinder and Bandlers books gives a lot of very interesting, usefull and in the immediate approach amazingly simple examples and analyses of communication both verbaly and otherwise between therapists and clients. Reading their books the importance of, and responsibility for proper and adequate communication as an instrument in therapeutical work becomes very obvious.
I think that knowledge of NLP or other similar knowledge is essential in the field of any activity where you whish to induce change. It gives you the tools to work systematically, to minimize your effort and to specify and target the result you want to achieve. There is small magic i NLP since it deals a lot with what goes on in the subconscious parts of humans and of human communication.
Below I will give a short introduction in the basics of NLP.
Sensory systems and strategies
NLP deals with perception and references to our memory. You could say that it deals with inner as well as outer perception,
our own and that of people with whom we communicate. The maybe most important part of NLP is to systematically
divide human perception, memory references and communication in five different areas: 1) seeing; 2) hearing; 3)feeling; 4)smelling and 5)tasting.
To do this seems rather obvious but it has not been done before in a systematical way.
Seeing, hearing and feeling are the most obvious of the above areas and these three are very important for
how we organize our thoughts. The other two, tasting and especially smelling are also important but not as frequently used in our
conscious thought patterns.
They tend to be more active and important on a deeper subconscious level than the other three.
All humans normally use all the three mayor areas or "sensory systems", but it is not unusual that we use only one or two of
them consciously and the/thee other(s) subconsciously . Sometimes one of the sensory areas can be very dominant which tend to
"lock up" our thought patterns
One of NLP:s discoveries is that we move our eyes in a different way depending on which of these three systems that is active for the moment. How we move our eyes can differ. However we can all of us be divided into groups where the patterns are the same. Most right handed people fall into one dominating mayor group which is represented by the picture below.
Picture
- When making internal pictures people look 1. up and to the left for remembered (eidetic) pictures 2. up and to the right for constructed pictures. 3. straight forward and slightly defocused for certain "visionary like" pictures. Number 3 is mostly not as commonly used as the other two.
- When hearing inner sounds or words people look horisontally to the left for remebered sounds or words and horisontally to the right for constructed sounds or words. People also look down to the left for unspecified access of words.
- When feeling internal feelings people look down to the right. Smell and taste also are represented in this area.
Constitutionary left handed people have a reversed pattern to that of right handed people and then there are a relatively few with other patterns. By putting a few of "the right" questions it is always relatively easy to if needed "map" the pattern a person have.
When we communicate verbally the eye movements are always more or less matched by words in the same sensory area.
- When making internal pictures we use words like "se; wiew; picture; vision; seems; clear;" etc.
- When hearing internal sounds or words we tend to use external words like "hear; listen; sound; tell; speak" etc.
- As for the feeling area we use words like "heavy; grab; handle; feel; grip;" etc
If you combine looking at a persons eye movements and listening to their choice of words it is always possible to know which of these three sensory systems that are at work for the moment. Changes can be fast, but we tend to use patterns that are rather individual.
Thought patterns
When we organize our thoughts we usually do this in two or three steps using three different systems. 1. Our "leading system" access some information for example a picture. 2. After this we might access associated information for example some internal verbal commentary to the picture. This is called the "representational system". 3. Lastly we go to our "reference system" to check for validity/internal conclusion for instance by checking if it feels right. If you have a two step strategy you have a leading system which is the same as your representational system and then you do the step 3 referential checking directly after step 1.
Example: If you ask someone how to spell a word there is an interesting pattern which according to Grinder and Bandler
all good spellers use. It is a two step strategy. 1. They access an eidetic, remebered picture of the word. 2. They check this picture
kinesthetically. Accordingly the typical pattern for a "normally organized" right handed person is to 1. first look up and to the left and
then
2. down and to the right often with a small confirming reaction connected to the "feeling check".
According to Grinder and Bandler
all other spelling strategies results in bad spelling even if some strategies are better than others.
One typical strategy which really bad spellers use is to begin with hearing the remebered sound of the word internally and then try to
check it out in one of the other sensory systems.
Internal maps and associations
During his or her life every person builds up an internal "reference system" consisting of experiences, memories conclusions and ideas.
We all internalise what we experience. It is however important not to believe or think of all our memories as reality, since they
are of course not. They are only our own representations of reality and they can sometimes be heavily distorted.
In our daily life
we use our inner references and reference system as a map. We compare it with what we experience today and use this comparison to orient
ourselves and to choose how to interact with other people and the world around us. All our memories in this map are accessible
through and associated with one or more of our sensory chanels. When we communicate our senses always trigger and relate to
internal associations from our "map." These associations are mostly functional.
Sometimes they are however not very constructive to use for interacting with others but we use them anyhow.
There are a lot of different individual strategies for how we typically organize our thoughts. Some however in each given situation
works better than others. Helping people with personal problems to organize themselves differently and more functionally
is one part of what NLP is all about.
Helping people to be less bound to and give alternatives to "bad associations" by giving them new constructive and positive ones are
another area where NLP is very effective.
Matching
Matching or pacing is an important part of NLP. This is not a totally new idea or strategy but in NLP it is refined and more subtle than
in any other well known technique that I know of. This has its base in the fact that NLP is both very systematic and gives very
thorough information to its user.
Matching or pacing means to adapt yourself and your communication to someone else(s). This is very important in all communication, and people
often match each other subconsciously. When done consciously it is however very effective and can be a powerfull tool for getting the
outcome you want. When used in psychotherapy matching is often necessary to use to get in contact with the client and to have their confidence.
Many psychotherapists use pacing as a natural talent without thinking about it. Others use it more consciously.
To match or pace someone you should mainly adapt to their body language and to their choice of words and tonal patterns.
Doing this without being obvious will help to get in contact with the other person. When done more systematically as is
possible with the use of NLP, you notice how people communicate by looking at eye movements and listening to choice of words and notice
choice of sensory system and then you
combine this knowledge with noticing body posture, tonal patterns, breathing etc. When done in a proper way this can allow you to lead
the conversation or communication. As soon as you by pacing get good contact or "rapport" you are able to steer the communication
your way if you whish to do so.
In psychotherapy this allows you to help people change their communicational strategies and to change how they use/organize their
sensory systems and associated thoughts. What is relatively easy is for example to help people who have a dominant sensory system
to open up to using the other ones more frequently as well. This is good to do since everyone need to have easy access to all three of the
mayor sensory systems. One way to do this is to pace the sensory system a person uses and then link to one or more of the others.
Done rightly and in a way that "anchors" this link within the other person it has lasting effects.
Another thing that is relatively easily done is to help a bad speller change by teaching him/her to use the right accessing strategy.
Important in all psycho therapeutical work is to first notice what and how people do to communicate and how they organize themselves and
then by pacing, linking and other means help them to change.
When and if you use NLP you should realise that it is a
powerfull technique which used wrongly can be manipulative and hurt both the user and persons he or she tries to manipulate.
NLP and hypnosis
As mentioned NLP is a very potent method and for the skilled user it is not at all difficult to use it for trance induction and
hypnotic suggestions.
NLP is as a method designed to allow communication with unconsious parts of a person and when you combine this with inducing a trance it is
possible to manipulate and deeply affect people without them knowing or beeing able to resist.
Milton Ericksson who as a person
has had great influence on the development of NLP was a very skilled user of hypnosis. John Grinder and Richard Bandler were or are,
when they choose to maybe as skilled as Milton Ericksson.
When working with hypnosis good pacing is absolutely necessary.
After pacing sucessfully you are able to lead conversation/communication and then it is not difficult to induce a trance if you have the
skill. I will not go further into this since it would require a more thorough account of NLP than this book gives. Instead I recommend
the reader to read one or more books about NLP and trance work.
Personal views
I studied NLP in the early 80:s as part of my continuos training as a gestalt therapist. My training as a gestalt therapist
had already made me rather skilled at using myself and my communication as a therapeutical instrument. I was however very fascinated
by NLP and in my studies I got a deeper and wider understanding of how to further adapt and use my own communicational patterns.
I also learned some very useful new techniques and acquired other very usefull knowledge.
Little by little I started to integrate my new learnings in my professional work to the benefit of myself and my clients.
However NLP also gave me different kind of impulses and understanding. I became very much more conscious regarding the limits of
and problems with manipulative techniques. I looked with partly new eyes upon gestalt therapy and the rather extensive manipulation
that is part of this therapeutical concept. The result was for my part a rather radical change in relation to psychotherapeutical work,
my own as well as others.
As I see it it is important to have great respect for the type of communicative techniques that NLP represents.
They are very useful but must be used with great care. Carelessness strikes back on both client and therapist. As a matter
of fact it can be even more riskful for the therapist. It is almost impossible to live an ordinary, healthy and sound life
if You fall into the trap of using this kind of "therapeutical glasses" and these tools for change in your ordinary
life. If You start to involve and use these techniques in your personal life You risk to allienate and isolate yourself from friends,
family and collegues. I have seen this happen and it is very difficult to reverse this process of allienation.
As for myself I have made my choice and I use this kind of techniques only in my profession in my work with clients and
groups. To do otherwise would be as bad as if a surgeon would walk around and wave with his scalpel outside his operation room.
NLP and magic
It should be obvious to the reader why I choose to write about NLP as part of the subject of magic. NLP is as potent in this area as it is when used more "normaly". Some of the learnings that NLP provide are necessary for a person who chooses to open up to magic. These skills are of course not new. On the contrary they have always at least partly been part of magical teachings and training. With NLP much of this knowledge has left the often secret learning field of magical tradition. NLP also gives new additionary knowledge which makes these things easier to learn.
There is a lot more to NLP than the above and I therefore recommend you to read one or more books about NLP. The title I especially recommend for beginners is "Frogs into Princes" by Bandler and Grinder
Chapters to come....
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was a very special man. In fact he was so special that one can question if he was outside of his original time concept. He might also have been a nagual and even if he was not he had a knowledge of the constitution of the nagual. His "canon picture" of a human inside a cirkel with four arms and four legs shows a very deep insight and knowledge in ancient holy geometry and it also tells of knowledge about the nagual body.
The flower of life and Drunvalo Melchizedek
Drunvalo Melchizedek is a now living well known "spiritual" scholar and teacher. His works and teachings called "Flower of life"
are very very interesting at least considering the teachings of the so called "sacred geometry".
There are a lot of other interesting information in
his theories as well, but there are also things he claims that can be rather hard to "digest" for many scholars.
If You however focus on the holy geometry and stay critic to some other parts in his books You will probably get an input of
new knowledge that will change your life for ever. His insights in geometry shows us the mathematical and geometrical base for
creation and existence and the paralells to the modern string theory and fractal theory is obvious for anyone who dig under
the surface of his teachings.
To get to know more about this subject follow this link: To Flower of Life site
Changing the world concept
Since it takes a lot of energy to maintain the world, to maintain “reality,” you also need energy to change it. Maintaining the
world is a collective thing, something we all do together. There are rules to follow and you are expected to follow the rules.
To do magic in the sense of really changing something you will have to break those rules.
............................................... .............To be continued ..................
The text above is the initial text of "The book of magic" which is a serious book about true magic and about the basic rules for reality. The book is still unfinished and will hopefully be ready for publishing sometimes in 2008. In the above I publish the initial text on this site to give a hint of the content and inform about the coming book.
As an additional information about the content of "The book of magic" I publish the list below which consists of the subtitels
and chapters in the book dealing with magical training.
The list is not fully complete but it gives a good overall information about a part of the content and its serious approach to magic.
Some of these chapters are finished, some are in the process of writing and some are still on the idea stage.
Magical training
There are numerous different paths to go towards magic and numerous training methods as well. There are however some basic things that most people need to deal with one way or another if they are to investigate the path of magic. Below some of them are listed as examples.
- Stilling the mind
- Disconnect from history
- Senses, perception and communication
- Holy geometry
- Opening to the chanels of feeling
- Claiming the body
- Opening of the dreamworld to everyday consciousness
- Deprogramming of the mind
- Neutralising time references
- Waking up kundalini or chi
As said above these are just some examples. There are more and probably many that I have not considered.
Two of the above are however in my opinion quite central and that is the question of stilling the mind and of opening up to
the dreamworld. To manage these two areas it is probably necessary to investigate some of the other listed fields of training.
Overlappings of course exists between most of the topics in the list. Because of that
each training area can also be like a gateway and
when you are in the process of working with one of them the effect might generalise to one or more of the others.
This also means that it is probably not necessary to train yourself very actively in each of the mentioned areas.
However one can also say that the wider your training the better since this makes you more complete and more competent.
Remember that everything that you can not imagine is possible, but... since it takes a lot of energy to maintain the world, to maintain “reality,” you also need energy to change it. Maintaining the world is a collective thing, something we all do together. There are rules to follow and you are expected to follow the rules. To do magic in the sense of really changing something you will have to break those rules.
2003-2004, Per-Otto Sylwan, Uppsala Sweden. All rights reserved. http://www.floweroflife.org/toverview1.htmYou can reach Dialoguepartner on phone number: 0046-18-51 03 62 or 0046-708-55 85 33 or via e-mail
Tel: + 46-18-51 03 62 or +46-708-55 85 33
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