Perfecting Your Own Ritual

[Mungoman]

Some believe that the most important element behind magic is intent, the ritual merely serves to focus and channel the mind.
Some say it is far better to learn and master one effective technique in martial arts / self defence, to absolutely drill it into the sub conscious and muscle memory, to perfect every last nuance so it becomes part of you, than to go through the motions with multiple, poorly applied techniques.

With that possibility in mind, has anyone here picked a 'spell' or field of ESP they want to experiment with and applied their full focus on that only, building up their own methodology and throwing the self into it? For example, someone may have decided they want to master psi, maybe moving objects with the mind, another may work solely on developing their vision to see the aura, or perhaps someone is out there giving everything they have got to be able to plant thoughts in others' minds...

What I am wanting to know is if anybody believes you can make your own technique and it will work if you work on it enough, with enough focus and intent, and if you have actually spent a good amount of time doing it.

I reckon stuKE that intent, technique, and repetition is fine, but in my opinion, knowing that you can is the ticket - look at the Placebo effect mate - Is that what you were looking for?

At one time I won $8,000. I knew I was going to win it, twenty four hours beforehand - even down to how I was going to be presented with the cheque - I saw it and knew it.

Anyway, that's my answer to your question. Good question though.

 

[Mungoman]

Hi StuKE,

I'm not sure this answers your question in the way you're asking, but this is how I go about things in the way that is most successful.

I've been doing various forms of divination for many years now. Tarot cards are easiest to use because they contain so much information, but just about anything can be used for divination purposes.

I don't use rituals that most people would recognize as such. No candles or calling upon guardian spirits or anything. However, this doesn't mean there is no ritual at all. Shuffling the cards and laying them out is a ritual, if you see what I mean.

This is not the thing that makes it work for me, though. By far the most important thing is what's happening with my ability to concentrate at the time. This is very specific, and I will try to describe it in a way that makes sense (but no guarantees, alas!)

Some may call it divided attention, but this doesn't seem quite accurate, because of the way it's so specifically divided. It's as if I've focused myriad parts of my attention on my actions or surroundings, while leaving one channel open to pick up the signal from...whatever mysterious place it comes. This part of my attention is a bit like peripheral vision. You can't look directly at it, or focus on it, otherwise it will vanish. You almost have to outfox it, pretend you don't notice!

A three way mirror is a good analogy. If you look forward into the mirror, you can peripherally see those other reflections on the right and left sides. For me, the information I need for the divination is coming from the left hand side while I focus on the center. If I turn my focus. it will disappear.

Also, when reading for a person, it's important to pick up their signal as well. ("signal" is just the best term for whatever it is I'm picking up - I don't know what it is, really). If I fail to grasp these signals, then I have to rely on intellectual knowledge of whatever symbolism is in front of me. This can still be instructive, but nowhere near as accurate, in a gut-level intuitive way.

Anyway, the point is that any ritual of mine is meant to facilitate this mental state. With divination it's extremely easy, with other workings, more effort and perhaps more elaborate ritual is needed.

Well said Ulalume - good description of how to see an aura - even the slightly out of focus eyes.

 

[StuKE]

I reckon stuKE that intent, technique, and repetition is fine, but in my opinion, knowing that you can is the ticket - look at the Placebo effect mate - Is that what you were looking for?

At one time I won $8,000. I knew I was going to win it, twenty four hours beforehand - even down to how I was going to be presented with the cheque - I saw it and knew it.

Anyway, that's my answer to your question. Good question though.

Yes, that is exactly what I am asking. Good post, very interesting, thanks.

 

[mr_nic]

AFAIK, I'm absolutely convinced I learnt this as a child. If I had sufficient desire, intent and will then I could exert influence on the outcome of events - usually something involving my parents not finding out about something I'd broken or some other issue that I'd likely be punished for. The intent was so strong (as I wanted to avoid being punished) that I just knew when it was going to work.

I sort of equated it to praying at the time but knew it was stronger than the usual nonsense uttered at school or in church. If I wanted it enough, something answered.

 

[StuKE]

AFAIK, I'm absolutely convinced I learnt this as a child. If I had sufficient desire, intent and will then I could exert influence on the outcome of events - usually something involving my parents not finding out about something I'd broken or some other issue that I'd likely be punished for. The intent was so strong (as I wanted to avoid being punished) that I just knew when it was going to work.

I sort of equated it to praying at the time but knew it was stronger than the usual nonsense uttered at school or in church. If I wanted it enough, something answered.

This is good stuff, exactly the sort of thing I was after. From what I am reading more and more here. absolute belief and intent are the order of the day. Not fr off the old 'you create your own reality' line.
I planned to practice psi - in particular moving a n object with my mind. The idea of a si wheel was rejected because I think it would be extremely difficult to rule out such factors as air currents (particularly from exhaling) or body heat, so I bought a jar and hung a needle on a bit of cotton from the underside of the lid. I was / am convinced enough that if I work at it, I will be able to move it. The trouble is, I never committed to actually starting, always something else to do first and my focus is a bit lax these days! Excuses, I know...

 

[Coal]

The idea of a si wheel was rejected because I think it would be extremely difficult to rule out such factors as air currents (particularly from exhaling) or body heat, so I bought a jar and hung a needle on a bit of cotton from the underside of the lid. I was / am convinced enough that if I work at it, I will be able to move it. The trouble is, I never committed to actually starting, always something else to do first and my focus is a bit lax these days! Excuses, I know...

Try folding a piece of paper into a small 'flight' and balancing it on the point of a needle stuck into a cork. Put a clear plastic bowl over the top and seal the edge with masking tape to prevent draughts.

I had one on my windowsill at uni for a whole term, no-one ever moved it, but you never know.

 

[StuKE]

Try folding a piece of paper into a small 'flight' and balancing it on the point of a needle stuck into a cork. Put a clear plastic bowl over the top and seal the edge with masking tape to prevent draughts.

I had one on my windowsill at uni for a whole term, no-one ever moved it, but you never know.

View attachment 4173

Thanks. Very similar to a psi wheel, but the bowl makes it a better method. Found the jar easy enough to make with no outside influence (as long as I did not wave a magnet around it or stomp around). Interestingly, when I would read up about people's similar experiments, plenty said they could make it move but Hardly any when it was behind glass. Some said it was harder, I wonder if it was just that the glass was preventing air movement etc.
Would you consider trying it again or is that it? How much time did you put into it?

 

[Coal]

Thanks. Very similar to a psi wheel, but the bowl makes it a better method. Found the jar easy enough to make with no outside influence (as long as I did not wave a magnet around it or stomp around). Interestingly, when I would read up about people's similar experiments, plenty said they could make it move but Hardly any when it was behind glass. Some said it was harder, I wonder if it was just that the glass was preventing air movement etc.
Would you consider trying it again or is that it? How much time did you put into it?

I and everyone who came in and who expressed an interest for about 10 weeks had a go. It never moved!

 

[StuKE]

I and everyone who came in and who expressed an interest for about 10 weeks had a go. It never moved!

Bloody awkward psi device. Se, that's the trouble with these inanimate objects, they get too big for their boots - above their station if you like. Coming here, with their absolute lack of motion, sitting on their arse under an upside down, taped transparent mixing bowl and blatantly rubbing your nose in it by doing f all.
Bastards.

 

[StuKE]

Bloody awkward psi device. Se, that's the trouble with these inanimate objects, they get too big for their boots - above their station if you like. Coming here, with their absolute lack of motion, sitting on their arse under an upside down, taped transparent mixing bowl and blatantly rubbing your nose in it by doing f all.
Bastards.

Sorry, went a bit Stewart Lee there. And now I'mquoting myself.

 

[Coal]

Sorry, went a bit Stewart Lee there. And now I'mquoting myself.

Heh.

 

[IbisNibs]

Fascinating question, thanks StuKE!
A friend of a friend of mine reports that she can win money at slot machines by telling the slot machine she needs a (modest) amount of money. For example, she'll say, "I really want to take so-and-so to lunch and it will cost this much." And that's the amount she wins. I've never witnessed this however, and I have no idea what her success rate actually is, but she perceives her technique to be pretty reliable.

It's as if I've focused myriad parts of my attention on my actions or surroundings, while leaving one channel open to pick up the signal from...whatever mysterious place it comes. . . . You almost have to outfox it, pretend you don't notice!

This reminds me of the process of drawing or painting from deep places within.
Other times, however, the "signal" has gotten rather bossy, surroundings be damned.

One of the key requirements is a combination of personal sensibilities and 'quiet space' to enable focused reflection with no distractions.

This wasn't a call to meditate (with an inward focus ...) in a natural setting. . . . Doing this helped me to grasp how to be aware, how to recognize things that weren't simply sensory, and how to engage these ephemeral things as clues / cues.

So absolutely spot on, I had to put it in bold. This is how poetry happens. Magic and Art have everything in common.
Alas, allowing the ephemeral cues to surface has become an increasingly difficult practice to make space for as I've gotten older.

At one time I won $8,000. I knew I was going to win it, twenty four hours beforehand - even down to how I was going to be presented with the cheque - I saw it and knew it.

A very close friend of mine said she once saw lottery numbers superimposed over her normal vision. She knew she had to play those numbers, and she did, and she won. However, it's never happened to her again, but she's tried to repeat the experience.

 

[AlchoPwn]

What I am wanting to know is if anybody believes you can make your own technique and it will work if you work on it enough, with enough focus and intent, and if you have actually spent a good amount of time doing it.

I once met an allegedly enlightened Buddhist (he had a lineage he could recite, that is supposed to be how you tell these things) who thought this was possible. His preferred method was a form of rote chanting meditation for 100,000 repetitions. The only problem I have with this is where is the energy coming from to make the method work? From what I have understood of matters esoteric, if you lack a rock solid foundation in energy working it is a waste of time.

 

[chicorea]

Magic and Art have everything in common.

I agree with @Ibis on this one. Coming back to the first posts on this thread, I would point that a long pratice, be it a martial art or guitar playing, lead someone to an almost organic relationship with movements or an instrument. A musician, as well as a kung fu praticioner, trust its own body to move, to deal with the actions needed, with a minimum of rational intervention. Songwriting can be a very strange process sometimes : the song (as well as the words to a poet) actually come to you, through your fingers. It's like discovering, amazed, something that your hands are doing for yourself. And this is something that you can believe, because it comes from you and through you.

Concerning Tarot reading, yes, I have done it for a long time. And I confess that after a while I understood that my reading wasn't intending to show me the future, but helping to visualise things that I chose to ignore in the present. Tarot helped me to unlock the images that were just in front of me, disguised, codified. I enjoyed doing it for a long time. Until one day, when I was doing an innocent read. Suddenly I had this certitude, a strange feeling of knowing already something, as if it was yesterday papers. "Oh, yes, of course, X is dead". X wasn't dead. Not until one week later. It scared me a lot, as if I was co-responsible for this death. Until today my decks are there, undisturbed, going with me when I move and all. But I purposedly "forget" to handle them again.

So, unintentional drill can unearth unexpected answers from you mind or your body? Pretty much yes, in my experience.