Hands-On Chaos Magic: Reality Manipulation through the Ovayki Current - Andrieh Vitimus 2009

Using Cognitive Science and NLP in Our Magic

Generally speaking, NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) is a system to study how people encode information and perception into memory and, in some cases, meaning. Neuro refers to neurons, or the five sensory systems through which our bodies receive input. Linguistic refers to how our language models our internal world. Programming is a term from computer science regarding the construction of applications that respond in exact ways to input. NLP sees thoughts and feelings as habitual programs of response to inputted stimuli. The metaphor is that the mind itself is a computer. This particular idea is not entirely new, as both behaviorist and cognitive perspectives in psychology adopt similar ideas that the mind merely responds via habit or conditioning.

NLP has some core assumptions that are slightly different in different books, including NLP: The New Technology of Achievement (Andreas and Faulkner 1994), but they come down to the same ideas.

The first premise is very important. Essentially, this supposition asserts that your experience of the world is not the world. The perception of the world is not the world. Your model and perception of the world is not the world. Many other occult authors have repeatedly pointed out that your perception of the world has an impact on the world you live in. Donald Michael Kraig has an Identify, Objectify, and Banish ritual just to alter perceptions in the world (Kraig 2004). Personally, I have given lectures on changing perceptions as well. The map or model of the world is never the world. This, in practical terms, means that your perception is never the world.

The second general across-the-board idea is that we encode our experiences into memory using the five senses, and the patterns those senses make determine the general meaning of the experiences. Most NLP books will call this the structure of the experience. A related but unlisted correlative of this tenet is what makes NLP so powerful. For our adventure, that means experiences are made up of information. Changes to the actual, remembered sensory information-or to the order of how the senses are put together-alters the experience you had.

As we have already seen in many of our exercises, there is a lingering and lasting effect. Trance states and relaxation take a minute or two for us to come out of. Neurotransmitters do get released when we attempt meditation or magic. The mind doesn't really know the difference between a memory and a fantasy, and it produces the same neurochemicals whether the experience is from a memory, a fantasy, or an actual experience. In many cases, neurological studies indicate that the brain does not know the difference between the two states of consciousness, although the ego/consciousness assigns a different label to the different states of consciousness, which again refers to the structuring of the experience (Arntz 2004). Taking this a bit further, we come to the conclusion that there is little or no separation between the mind and the body. As author Andy Bradbury would say, "Your mind and your body are indivisible parts of the same system" (2008).

Other assumptions that NLP uses include the following:

• You are always communicating (and the end result gives you the meaning of that verbal or nonverbal communication).

• You must try different things if what you are doing isn't working.

• All failure is merely information you can use to achieve your goal or steer your direction.

• You have the needed internal resources to accomplish any goal (but that doesn't mean you know how to use it, or where to find it inside). This idea is based on the fact that you learn all the time.

• Any experience, talent, or skill one person has can be carefully studied, modeled, and transmitted to a different person by relating one person's map of the world to another person's map of the world.

Usually, more is more in NLP, meaning that the more sensory data and the greater the intensity of those experiences, the greater weight we give them. Given that the brain does not know the difference between a memory and an event, for reality manipulations, the greater amount of sensory information and the intensity of the information will help to convince the brain that even an imagined experience is real. This only works when the sensory information is consistent with the chosen theme for an experience. NLP: The New Technology of Achievement gives an exercise where you apply a soundtrack to an experience and then rerun the experience with a soundtrack that mismatches the experience (Andreas and Faulkner 1994). Try this. Merely by changing the soundtrack, you associate the experience with something incongruent, and you can change and lessen the impact of the experience.

Generally what this means is that we can lessen the effect of negative experiences by making the senses involved with the memory seem less vivid. So make the colors duller or even black and white. Imagine heavy feelings becoming less heavy. Imagine viewing the situation as if it were a movie instead of seeing the situation through your own eyes. Step back from the memory and, if possible, perceive it as a snapshot on the wall. Anything that reduces the sensory weight of an experience can reduce its impact on you. You have to experiment with this to understand it. Take an experience that you believe had a large impact on you in a negative way, and see what you remember about it. Write down the details. Then take an experience that had little impact on you (such as a morning commute), and compare this experience to the negative experience. What happens when you make the more extreme experience look and feel like the everyday one in your memory?

My fellow adventurer, I encouraged you to look up more resources about NLP and the NLP suppositions from an Internet search. Many of these ideas are encapsulated in the games and exercises of this adventure.

Enhancing Positive Experiences

Poll your associates and friends. Gather some experiences that they were really happy for you about. These could be any types of experiences. Choose two experiences from this list. Before starting, relax, breathe, and clear your head. First, choose an experience that you deem very important and also one that other people may have enthusiasm for, but you personally are neutral toward. Revisit each experience. Record all the sensations you can remember about the positive and important situation. How does this compare with what you can remember from the neutral event?

In your mind's eye, try to add information to the neutral event until it has as much sensory input as the more important event. If you see the neutral event, move yourself from watching the event as an observer to becoming an active participant. As a participant, keep adding details until there is roughly the same amount of details as the more important event. Try to add details in a way that is similar to the types of details you remembered regarding the first event. While relaxing, just add details that seem to make sense for the scene, regardless of the accuracy.

Check the results a few days after the experiment. Relax, clear your mind, and breathe. Try to remember the second experience now. Does the second experience seem to have more information contained in the memory? How do you feel about the second experience? How does the second experience now compare to the first? What details or ideas came about from revisiting and working with the second experience? Of course, if either this experiment or the last experiment didn't work, try a different visualization.

A Quick Modality Introduction: Improving Your NLP (and Magic) Abilities

In NLP, everyone has one or more sensory channels that have a greater impact on his or her encoding of experience than other channels. This is referred to as a modality, and in general people will encode information in one of the five senses. Usually, a person will have one sense that is the primary way he or she incorporates data. Some people will use a primary sense to incorporate their experiences, while other people will switch depending on which situation or type of situation they are in. NLP will switch which sense is used in which situation in order to help people adapt to it.

Many magic books assume a visual orientation. This can be a tremendous problem for people who do not work well with the visual modality. Magic can be worked from any of the senses. If there are any examples that do not resonate well with you, try to rework them into your preferred sensory modality. For instance, instead of seeing a pentagram, carve and feel it in the air, and listen to the buzzing and whizzing sounds it makes.

From this magician's point of view, it is optimal to develop all the sensory encoding abilities for all the senses. In fact, to develop the ability to use your imagination in all five senses or at least multiple senses is a great empowerment to magic. Your brain will believe the magic is more real. However, each person will use a certain sense more strongly to encapsulate information in the experience. Several exercises in the later parts of the book attempt to work on this exact point. Once you get past yourself, the subconscious mind can be the greatest magician of all (Carroll 1987).

A simple technique for discovering your preferred modality for a given situation is to simply consider the words you use to describe that situation. Words like "I see" and many visual cues indicate a visual modality. Tactile words or "feelings" like "weight," "carve," "hard," etc., indicate a kinetic modality. Verbal words or phrases such as "I hear" or "can you hear what I am saying?" indicate an auditory modality. It is beyond the scope of this book to dive deeper into the details of NLP. However, even by looking at how you describe a situation, you can see that there is a preferred method of encapsulating the memory in one of the five senses. Now, try to pick a memory that is not entirely positive. How do you describe this event? Write down the description. Is there a preferred sense or modality that is tied to the memory? I want you to sit down and rewrite the memory using a totally different sense. If you had at first written out the memory using terms like "the weight," "crushing," etc., which are all tactile and feeling modalities, write out the memory using only verbal cues like "colors," "I see," etc. Rereading the memory, how do you feel about the experience? When you are starting out, though, do try to include details from the sense you are the most comfortable with in your workings.

A Wee Bit of Anchoring/Operant Conditioning

Anchoring is another very useful technique, but really, anchoring is merely a form of conditioning well known to cognitive science, behaviorism, and psychology. The idea is very simple. A gesture, word, scent, or bit of sensory information can be conditioned to re-create a state of mind, especially if that state of mind leaves a strong enough impression or if an anchor is repeated enough. Our minds don't always remember the event that caused the original link, and it may produce the state of mind outside of the original context.

An example of this would be if someone got hit in the stomach while eating a red berry. Even the sight of a red berry might trigger the pain in the stomach or at least trigger the memory of the experience. (For very traumatic events, or when a person is in an altered state of conscious ness, he or she may not remember the original events at all and what is triggered is only a state of mind.) Realistically, we have many more anchors than we are aware of. Often one situation will trigger an emotional response or a certain state of mind because it has tangential surface details similar to a past experience. Essentially, our subconscious mind can slip back to that mental state and generate it in our current mindset without conscious intervention. Therefore, the subconscious mind acts as if the situation is exactly the same, and in trying to "protect" you, it brings back the emotional/intellectual effect.

Earlier in our adventure, we used some relaxation techniques known as progressive relaxation. Let's go back to those experiences for a minute. Try to redo the open-door exercise, but as you finish the exercise, press the thumb of your right hand to the index finger of your right hand with some pressure. Continue to stay as deeply relaxed as you possibly can, while holding your index finger to your thumb. Now, stand up, wait a few minutes, and then, again using your right hand, press your index finger to your thumb. What is the effect? Any experience or the memory of the experience can be anchored to a symbol, word, gesture, smell, or taste to produce a state of mind.