the essence of magic boils down to the application of two ordinary mental skills attention and intention the strength of the magical outcome is modulated by four factors belief imagination emotion and clarity that's basically it the ceremonial robes summer settings black candles secret handshakes chanting in ancient languages sex and drugs all are good theater which may help in withdrawing the mind from the distractions of the mundane world but ultimately they're unnecessary the single most important aid to developing magical skills is to learn how to enter the state of consciousness known as gnosis the time honored and safest way to do this is through meditation if you manage to read only one book about meditation i recommend the science of enlightenment how meditation works by shinzon young published in 2016. it's also available as an audiobook it's an exceptionally clear exposition written for the western mindset covering what meditation is how to do it and how it works the basic practice of meditation is straightforward sit in a comfortable position relax your body close your eyes then quiet your mind and stop thinking well not so simple if you're a novice three seconds after beginning this practice your mind will start to wander and you'll enjoy one enticing fantasy after another after dreaming about tasty cheeseburgers for 10 minutes you'll suddenly realize that your mind was wandering so you start again relax your body drop your jaw a bit and relax the muscles around your eyes let it go empty your mind no thoughts this time after a whole six seconds of calm silence your mind will wander again it's not much but it's progress so you do it again and again it may take weeks or months of practice to achieve extended periods when the mind remains still while engaged in this practice you're essentially reprogramming your nervous system even if you don't notice it you'll start to feel better physically and mentally you'll see the world more clearly as shinsen young puts it as a result of this practice clarity and equanimity are slowly but surely trickling down into the subconscious they rewire us at the most fundamental levels some meditation techniques involve mentally repeating sounds words or phrases to help keep your mind focused others train you to visualize complex patterns still others just involve watching your breath there are scores of variations one of the more popular methods today is called mindfulness this is a secular version of the buddhist practice called the pesana which literally translated means to see in various ways the goal is to see things as they actually are not as they may appear to be the goal of meditation across many traditions is to achieve a state of awareness where one gains the realization that the personal self and the universal self are one within the gnosis state abilities naturally arise that allow the meditator to manipulate or to transcend the world within the path of yoga the goal of meditation is transcendence or personal liberation in that tradition the sid eyes or powers that are gained are strongly de-emphasized in the magical tradition gaining those powers is the goal it's worth mentioning that the yoga sutras the classical book of yoga written by the indian sage patanjali about 2000 years ago assures us that these powers have nothing to do with faith religious doctrine divine intervention spirituality or the supernatural these powers are just another aspect of the natural world as buddhist scholar alan wallace put it in buddhism these abilities are not miracles in the sense of being supernatural events any more than the discovery and amazing uses of lasers are miraculous what may appear supernatural to a scientist or a layperson may seem perfectly natural to an advanced contemplative much as certain technological advances may appear miraculous to a contemplative many variations of the superpowers are described in the yojic tradition they range from vanilla sci to super magic such as levitation for most people most of the time sci experiences are spontaneous and tend to occur mainly during periods of crisis or extreme motivation by contrast the siddis are regarded as reliable and under full conscious control some magicians are said to have developed that level of ability as well but as with the eyes achieving conscious robust control of super abilities is rare one way to investigate if meditation really does amplify natural science magical skills is to ask meditators about their experiences they found that three out of four reported increases in meaningful synchronicities as a result of their practice nearly half reported sensing non-physical entities and a third reported experiences such as clairvoyance or telepathy this suggests that meditation works as the yogic and other traditions claim it does at least when it comes to subjective reports the bottom line if you want to perform magic effectively maintain a disciplined meditation practice learn to quiet your mind see the world as it is not as it appears to be when viewed through multiple layers of cultural conditioning it's unrealistic to expect that you'll become the legendary merlin after lighting a candle and practicing meditation for 5 minutes throwing battle magic lightning bolts from your fingertips looks great in the movies but for the majority of us magic is expressed in subtle ways performing potent magic like any refined skill requires talent and disciplined practice perhaps you are the one in a million who's gifted with strong natural talent if so you'll be able to achieve dramatic effects fairly quickly but the rest of us have to work at it fortunately nearly anyone who's able to follow instructions and is serious about practicing can perform some degree of magic because according to the esoteric world view whether you know it or not within you there's a spark of the same source that manifests the entire universe with that as a brief introduction here then are two variations for exercising your force of will affirmations and sigils affirmations [Music] force of wool magic involves the application of focused attention intention imagination and belief it's preposterously simple but many claim that it works we'll use a slightly elaborated example from the appropriately entitled book it works this book provides a prime example of writing magic one of the earliest forms of magical practice the four steps are as follows one know what you want the clearer the intended goal the more likely it will manifest believe that the goal will be achieved imagine that it has already been achieved in the future and it is inexorably headed your way write the goal on a piece of paper to focus your attention use a pen and paper exclusively reserved for this purpose while writing imagine that the surface of the paper represents universal consciousness and the ink represents your unconscious as you write your goal imagine that you are casting your unconscious intentions onto the medium that creates and sustains reality itself two review what you want review your goal daily between reviews do not dwell on it you want to strengthen your intention and keep it clear but you also want to allow the goal to seep into your unconscious because that's where magic is catalyzed you may want to secure the writing paper with a special ribbon or place it in a box set aside specifically for this purpose 3. maintain secrecy don't share your goal with others they may inject out and you need to maintain strong belief 4.
when it works accept the outcome with gratitude and use it to strengthen your belief this method like any form of magical manifestation is neutral with respect to morals or ethics however virtue is its own reward and it's useful to keep in mind spider-man's motto with great power comes great responsibility this means it would be morally questionable to use this technique to influence someone else even in a way that you would consider to be positive without that person's permission in addition from a pragmatic perspective it is useful to begin with simple easily measurable outcomes like finding a small amount of money or achieving a modest goal avoid jumping straight away into grandiose schemes like world peace not because it wouldn't work at least in principle but because gaining crystal clarity on what an accomplishment of that type of goal would mean and how one would know if it happened isn't as simple as it may seem sigils before considering how to create a sigil a bit of background is in order first a sigil is simply a symbol for a desired goal it has an advantage over writing because crafting a sigil requires more focused attention than just writing it and because use of a symbolic goal reduces the grasp of the analytical mind in addition after the sigil is created the magician traditionally charges and then releases it the charging is meant to forcefully concentrate emotion intention and belief on the goal the releasing is intended to push the goal from the conscious mind into the unconscious there's another reason a sigil is useful as a magical tool consider the word spell as a verb spell means an action where symbols are combined to form larger symbols which in turn refer to objects actions or concepts that is letters make words words make sentences the magical meaning of the noun spell is similar to the meaning of the verb except it assumes a worldview where everything is connected beyond space-time this is the meaning of the magical law of correspondences now consider the word draw one meaning of the verb draw is to devise a picture or a symbol the other is to pull together from the magical perspective a symbol is more than something that points to a relationship it's also an integral part of the structure of reality itself by drawing a symbol you pull the meaning of that symbol into existence if the word symbol fido corresponds to a real dog named fido then operations on the symbol will also influence the actual fido this is the concept underlying homeopathy the wearing of good luck charms and voodoo comb the hair of a doll main in the likeness of your distant friend and your friend may thank you later about the wonderful new hairdo that she spontaneously decided to adopt note this example is on the razor's edge of black magic so don't try this at home the idea that signs and symbols reflect or literally are the relational structure that holds the universe together was famously explored in robert heinlein's stranger in a strange land the main character in that story valentine michael smith was raised on mars in learning the martian language smith gained powers that looked like magic he taught others martian words and they too were able to gain these exceptional powers a similar idea of an alien language evoking special powers was the late motif of the 2016 science fiction movie arrival in that story the scientist who figures out how to interpret an alien language based on circular time begins to literally experience time differently this notion jibes with informational interpretations of quantum theory perhaps the most famous of those interpretations was proposed by princeton university physicist john wheeler as wheeler put it every bit every particle every field of force even the space-time continuum itself derives its function its meaning its very existence entirely from the quantum field it answers to yes or no questions binary choices bits i suggest that we may never understand this strange thing the quantum until we understand how information may underlie reality information may not be just what we learn about the world it may be the very thing that makes it when a photon is absorbed and thereby measured until its absorption it had no true reality an unspittable bit of information is added to what we know about the world and at the same time that bit of information determines the structure of that one small part of the world it creates the reality of the time and place of that photons interaction mit physicist max tegmark proposes that physical reality is a mathematical structure an abstract set of relationships from that viewpoint if one manipulates those abstract relationships then one manipulates the physical world that's the idea of a sigil and a force of will magic in general making and using a sigil 1. write your desire example i find a 10 bill 2 list the first letters of words in the sentence ignoring words that begin with a vowel you'll end up with ftdb three fit the letters together into an abstract symbol as in figure one four focus on the symbol projecting either intense calm or intense emotion through the symbol to charge it and amplify your desire magicians provoke this charge within the state of gnosis through deep meditation by firing up a fierce concentration by engaging in strong physical activity by evoking anger or by using the moment of sexual orgasm to provide an explosive point of focus 5. after the sigil is charged release your attention by putting the sigil away some magicians will go as far as to burn it others will momentarily glance at the sigil every so often or place the symbol in a location where they'll see it now and then the idea is to deflect the intention of the sigil from the conscious mind to the deep unconscious where it will simmer and draw the desired outcome into being 6.