Rationalist Magic: Initiation into the Cult of Rationatron

[-]kithpendragon10y110

I think placebomancy is the best word I've seen in years!

[-]Richard_Kennaway10y40

Placebon is good as well. "I'm not really into veganism, I just do it for the placebons."

[-]Raziel12310y70

Sorry my bad english, non native speaker here.

All this can enter the framework of chaos Magick, but I very much dislike the aesthetics of what you propose.

In my "Magickal practice"(like 1 or 2 times a month) I do mindfulness and some Sigil contemplation and Godforms.

With mindfulness I make a very specific practice designed deal with uneasy emotions, it's got 3 parts,

First: the idea is to focus on the body sensations until you identify a bundle of then and you then name it (i.e anger), focus on the named emotion without any effort in increase it not lessen it, after you can feel the emotion better give it a color that suits it and displace the emotion half a meter away from you with your arms (like moving a ghost), the turn 90° and repeat with another emotion.

Second: once you go full circle return the first emotion to you (catch it with your arms) and feel it inside you, and keep feeling it until you notice some change in the sensation, It doesn't have to feel nice just different, then put it away and repeat with each emotion.

Finaly: make the 4 emotions around you move upwards and combine them in one big orb, and imagine how it goes through a filter that purify it, slowy dropping dropplets of the now golden/white energy to your head. when it feels like there is no more emotions above you finish with a basic banish (2-3 minutos of breathing do the trick).

It's kinda late, if anyone is interested in know more, say so and I will most likely reply

P.S. I do not believe magic is real

[-]moridinamael10y70

I wholeheartedly and unironically endorse this

edit:

A technique for magically sending your consciousness between quantum worldlines:

Something bad has happened! Close your eyes with the intent to jump to an alternate worldline where that thing didn't happen, with the understanding that if you succeed, you won't have any memory of that thing happening. Open your eyes. It worked! Whatever bad thing you were trying to avoid has no longer happened in your current worldline, and you have no memory of it ever having occurred.

Assume that anything that went wrong in the worldline in which you find yourself is probably not as bad as the thing you were trying to escape from.

[-][anonymous]10y30

Sound's like so8res's concept of "Being a new homonculus."

[-]skeptical_lurker10y50

I introduce the novel, genius concept of "rationalist magic", i.e. magic practised by rationalists.

It's about time someone made an atheist religion.

In a world of 7 000 000 000 people, most ideas have already been thought of, and I think this one sort-of has too. LaVeyan Satanism is an atheistic religion that uses magick (its more edgy if you misspell magic) as an "intellectual decompression chamber" a sort of post-rationalist thing for psychological benefits. There are other atheistic religions too, but I can't recall any others that use magic.

Not that this is a criticism of your post, I thought it was a good collection of exercises. Have you actually tried using any of them?

[-]wizard10y00

Fair enough, the idea already exists although in the edgier guise of satan.

Have you actually tried using any of them?

I did most and added some for completion. I already had some contact with spirits and mystical visions.

[-]MrMind10y40

Wonderfully entertaining. And the circle of protection with p's? Superb!

For mantras: someone who knows Lojban can please translate "My mind is calibrated on the True Probabilities"?

[-]gilch10y30

Some other techniques to add to the list:

Hypnosis
Biofeedback
Spaced repetition
Fast mental arithmetic
Speed reading

There's also variant on Tulpas called a servitor, which is a hallucination of something inanimate instead of an intelligent companion. I've been wondering for a while if a notepad servitor or something could improve one's working memory.

[-]wizard10y20

Edit: the ultimate truth is too much for mortals to behold.

[-]Algernoq10y10

Can I recruit followers? Starting a cult is a useful exercise for ambitious rationalists.

[-]wizard10y10

Yes, everyone has permission to gather followers and begin cults for Rationatron.

[-]ChristianKl10y10

There's little value superficially listed a bunch of techniques. I would expect most attempts to follow it to be ineffective. The people I know who actively use mantra's would consider your section on mantra's irresponsible because people can mess themselves up by using mantra's wrongly.

Astral Projection also falls into the same camp of techniques with mess up a person who plays around with them without knowing what they are doing.

If you want to do more than just a joke, if you want to persue this train of thought the rational way, don't list a bunch of techniques that are your distortions of what somebody else wrote.

It's highly preferable to get in person teacher instead of trying to make sense of a book. Apart from that you should limit yourself through those things that you can back up with your own experience.

If you don't have experience with aura seeing, don't try to tell other rationalists that they should experiment with aura seeing because there are books for aura seeing. That's living in fantasy.

[-][anonymous]10y00

Can the placebo effect really mess you up like that?

[-]ChristianKl10y00

Can the placebo effect really mess you up like that?

The placebo effect alone doesn't.

If you however reach a state that the OP describes as hypnagogic state (a state where the mind is awake but the body is sleeping), there are risks that come with states like that.

I'm not confident that someone who wants to use mantra after reading the description of the OP actually reaches altered states but I understand that people who use mantras on a regular basis do use them to reach altered states and do consider it to produce effect that can mess up a person if wrongly used.

[-]MrMind10y00

If you however reach a state that the OP describes as hypnagogic state (a state where the mind is awake but the body is sleeping), there are risks that come with states like that.

I call bullshit on that. Seems to me just a way to stop curiosity, for fear if not for feeling something's sacred. If someone is messed by daydreaming, then his/her problems lies elsewhere.

[-]ChristianKl10y00

I call bullshit on that. Seems to me just a way to stop curiosity, for fear if not for something sacred.

It's a well-grounded fear for me. It wouldn't be the first time that someone got into a seriously harmful state after reading about a mental technique on LW and applying it.

If there sacredness involved it's the hypocratic oath for me.

[-]Pfft10y00

What are previous examples of people on LW applying mental techniques and getting into seriously harmful states?

[-]polymathwannabe10y00

This poor soul got seriously freaked out after reading a SF novel where people disappear from the universal simulation every time they go to sleep.

[-][anonymous]10y10

That poor soul found less wrong because of history of freaking out about existential things. I don't think applying techniques had anything to do with it.

[-]ChristianKl10y00

What are previous examples of people on LW applying mental techniques and getting into seriously harmful states?

That's not something about which I want to go publically into the details but if you would make a list of people posting about serious mental problems in the last two years and would look at the top of that list you would find the case. If you would then look at this users history you would find a discussion about applying a mental technique.

There another LW event where multiple people threw up after a few rituals. Likely no lasting damage but still not optimal.

In both cases the causality isn't obvious and you can make an argument that A wasn't the cause of B, but both of them were enough were emotional charged events and they got me to be more careful about the subject. There are also experiences that I had outside of the LW context that make me careful.

For completion there are other events where people got into mental health issues after dealing with the anthropomorphic arguments too much. Very recently a person on slack posted that they are emotionally troubled as a result of QI. But mental health issues because taking a specific road in philosophic inquiry are distinct from using arrising in connection with mental techniques.

[-]Lumifer10y10

Eris smiles.

[-]passive_fist10y10

This gave me more than a few chuckles. Thanks.

[-][anonymous]10y00

maybe