Step One: Go Out of Your Mind
*DICLAIMER: This post contains trace amounts of allegorical math and is not recommended for those with allergies.*
Right, so… magic. Where to begin?
Indeed, audience, very good question you have there. What a charming and handsome audience you are, too! Such a nice hat you’ve got on. You’re going to want to hold onto that.
For those of you gorgeous individuals out there who were with me last post, hello again! And for those of you just arriving, welcome! Please find a seat. We have biscuits and punch. And to those who have not yet entered and will eventually, I only hope there are some biscuits left. Oh, what am I saying? I’m sure there will be.
If you will kindly remember from last time, I mentioned that I was going to be discussing magic theory. I had initially supposed I might begin by discussing coincidence, but instead it has presented itself to me in such a way as I have decided to escort you with me down my own personal rabbit hole, as I myself descended, one experience at a time*. Hence, thusly, in accordance with and rightfully so, I have decided to begin by starting at the erm… well… the beginning.
(*Note: All of the kernels I dispense which I consider important to the successful dissemination of magical know-how will be described as “concepts”. Each concept will likely require intense dissection of the associated material through personal introspection [i.e. meditation] on the subject in one’s own spare time.)
In order to successfully practice magic you must, first and foremost, LITERALLY go out of your mind.
Now of course, being considered “out” of one’s mind typically recalls to the untrained perspective all manner of frightful associations, from serial killings to straight jackets to cannibalism. But if, for the moment, we choose to withhold passing judgment on this “going crazy” thing all the kids are buzzing about these days, and choose as well to disregard the presumptive conclusion that it automatically equates to some heinous and despicable state of mind, instead we can perhaps consider that maybe insanity is not as clear-cut of a diagnosis as we would like it to be.
For example, if I were to hallucinate a large purple alligator sitting in a sun dress atop a unicycle in your mother’s drawing room, in order to successfully make the diagnosis that I truly believed I was experiencing something that was not there, you would have to firmly and uncompromisingly believe two things: 1) that I sincerely believe what I am saying to you about the alligator, and 2) that you yourself are not hallucinating me, what I am saying, and everything else about your mother’s drawing room that would serve to contradict what I am saying. To put things into perspective, if you and I were the only two beings in existence, there would be a 50/50 shot that YOU, in fact, were the crazy one, and diagnosis of insanity would OBJECTIVELY* be equally valid from either party. (Coincidentally, there would be equal parts 0% and 100% likelihood that, no matter what we said, we could both be validly considered either sane, insane, or both simultaneously.)
(* Obviously “objectively” is the goal, since it contains the most unbiased information.)
In summary, we can think about validating another being’s insanity from the standpoint that, in order to be successful at such validation, you need a group of other beings outside of yourself to agree with you.
We shall refer to beings appearing distinct from the self as externally perceived beings. In this case, “being” can indicate a human being, inanimate object, force, or any other such fanciful abstraction. In this scenario, it could be humans speaking to you to tell you that they, also, do not see the cycling gator. Other beings would manifest in simply the fact that you do not “see” the alligator, the sun dress, or the unicycle; all of those “beings” are failing to exist, confirm to you, and agree with you that they are, in fact, there. (Note: the self is also a perceived being, but whether that is to be considered externally or internally perceived is not as relevant.)
I notice now that a few of you are drooling and have otherwise glazed over. Fear not; a comprehensive glossary and bib dispenser are being considered for future editions of this blog. And to everyone else: thanks for not falling asleep! And I would like to ask those of you who can still grasp what I am saying to remain calm. The tightening you feel in your skull is simply your brain breathing for the first time in a while. We are offering a free Skull Untightening after the seminar.
Beings must AGREE with one another in order for reality to be considered actual and cohesive.
This suggests an interesting paradox, which I touched on above, and which I will restate now as the following three concepts
Sanity requires validation from externally perceived beings.
You can only ever perceive such external beings from within your own mind.
(This idea is a central tenant of the philosophy known as "solipsism". I will likely touch on this in a future post.)
If your sanity is ever questioned, it is impossible to know if the perceived answers and validation are coming from outside of yourself, and is therefore IMPOSSIBLE to know what is and is not “real”, no matter how many perceived beings agree or disagree with your description of reality.
It just may be that mankind has been so far frightfully arrogant to assume that ANY of us are “sane” and that perhaps both insanity and sanity are impossible to verify, and could very well occur at the same time.
In the example I offered earlier, there were two people, a shared setting, and two disparate descriptions of the setting, one which involved a rather flamboyantly dressed (if talented) alligator, and the other description which was quite frankly horridly uninteresting. But imagine now if the alligator were to slide down off of his (or her) unicycle, turn to the man who was hallucinating it all, and ask
“Who’s that you’re talking to?”
Suddenly, we now have three separate perceived beings with powers of speech. And the alligator can not see the other man who is attempting to diagnose our baffled protagonist.
(At this point in the program I will now attempt to fill your brain with nothing more than Mentos and diet cola. You have been warned.)
If you take a moment to calculate the sudden shift in odds, from the perspective of the man who is friends with the alligator, he now has two beings that claim he is insane, each disagreeing with him over the existence of the other. Figuring this way, the man is now considered by three beings to be either hallucinating or not. In the mind of the alligator, where 100% represents the perception of all three individuals, he is not hallucinating 67% himself and the alligator, hallucinating 33% his friend. In the mind of his friend, he is not hallucinating 67% himself and his friend, hallucinating 33% the alligator. In his own reality, he is therefore (through basic addition) 66% hallucinating and 134% not hallucinating for 200% perceived reality. Yes, 200% does seem like a frightfully high number. But once again, we have determined that he MUST be hallucinating, since at least once of his externally perceived beings says so.
Note that, since both beings agree that the man himself exists, another 66% of the man’s perception goes towards himself. In this experiment, we have so far assumed that the man believed what the other two said about the fact that he existed. However, if we decide that he doesn’t believe, the statistics switch from 66% hallucination and 134% not hallucination to 134% hallucination and 66% not hallucination. Of course, the man at that point would become somewhat entirely moot, and any and all percentages would be rendered irrelevant, but that isn’t something to concern ourselves with just yet.
(*I will be rounding to whole numbers throughout this thought experiment.)
Now if, say, he chooses to agree with the alligator’s suggestion that he is hallucinating 33% of the people he sees, suddenly that reality becomes 100% perceived, with his human friend now being considered a 100% perceived fantasy. By choosing one reality over another, our protagonist FORCES himself into being able to be validly considered insane by simply accepting that validation from an externally perceived being was more valid than his own perceptions. The man could have lived as neither insane nor sane, or perhaps both, but by choosing to accept and incorporate only part of HIS OWN PERSONAL reality, he compartmentalized and defined, and is now apt for psychological evaluation. (Note that we were told that the man was hallucinating the alligator, and if we choose to believe that one statement, then it appears the man is actually living in 100% fantasy, and labeling his friend incorrectly. But really more to the point is the idea that that would be irrelevant to the man.)
What this essentially boils down to is that, in order for what we are told to make sense to us, we must first make an explicit choice to BELIEVE it. That which we do not believe will be forever irreconcilable to our view of the universe. Which is why belief is so crucial to the human experience, and also quite crucial for an understanding of magic.
Children believe in Santa Claus because they have nothing inside their minds aside from sheer belief regarding whatever their parents tell them, until such point as they can speak enough with WORDS to reason to themselves that such things either could or could not exist. And think about everything we ever learn by being taught! At some point, we must have believed that the sounds coming out of our parents mouths and the mysterious symbols comprising the alphabet would be an important thing to learn, otherwise we would never have bothered to adopt them in the first place. But certain people, such as those we might label “idiot savants”, can accomplish borderline miraculous feats of mental or physical dexterity, and many of them are often socially awkward or bereft of any social skills or desire to communicate. God exists through belief. The universe and all things within it also exist through belief. And magic… magic indeed only exists through belief. Words are words, and no amount of explanation will force understanding into your mind unless you choose to think about, form connections for yourself about, and either believe or disbelieve in the things which are taught to you.
You can not truly experience, know, or understand any idea or concept (explained to you or otherwise) unless you truly believe in it first.
To believe in something, you must accept it without question.
Now, some of you who came in late may very well choose to disregard anyone who dismisses questioning things as a doddering hack, but I would encourage those who hold that opinion to go read a very enlightening article on the eastern philosophy Mu. (For lazy/fatigued eyeballs, I would suggest scrolling to the “Interpretations” section to get to the meat of the matter.) I would also ask that anyone considering questions as comprising the holy grail of inquiry would also recognize that such a consideration is, in itself, a belief, and is thusly only proving my point. If you do not question your desire to question, then you are not really being honest to your desire, yes?
If you only question yourself, you can only receive creative answers.
Creation, such as it is, is the formative process of the universe, and is an integral part of magic. Even Language, at one point, had to be created from within the mind. Since its creation, the things we have believed impossible have been chained up with words describing their impossibility and all the reasons why such things are not possible. But you cannot DISPROVE anything with the logic of argument, and when you think about it, debate competitions are only ever decided by a panel of judges, who assign victory based on how much they BELIEVE that one opponent was more correct than another, not by how objectively “correct” they were. Fact and fiction are only defined by how much faith we have in whomever is describing them to us, but in the end, it is up to our belief to choose between what we accept as truth, and what we foolishly reject as falsehood. Magic is a choice. You either believe in it, or allow it to remain an impossibility.
I am aware, dear audience, that this has been quite the merry-go-round of good intentions and likely missed connections, but I have confidence that with further study and a likewise wholehearted effort on my part to continue writing, we shall eventually reach a compromise to the point where magic seems to you less an insanity, and more an extremely unlikely possibility. I could, I realize, simply plug on and ignore those of you who may be on the fence about this “magic” business. But I figured I’d at least spend this one article defending my belief in it, since I know it to be fundamental to my understanding of magic, and because I sincerely want all of you to be able to get a handle on your own understandings.
But that’s about all the time we have for today! Gift bags will be handed out at the north entrance of the gymnasium.
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