An Experiment, Updated

[ecosophia]

Earlier this month I posted a few words here about a curious effect I'd discovered -- that sharp points of iron or steel seem to have the same power to dispel addiction to television, the internet, and cell phones that they traditionally had on faery glamour.  I wasn't expecting anything like the passionate response I got -- that entry got more comments than anything else I've posted here, including the very lengthy debate over the inept attempt at anti-Trump sorcery I critiqued a month ago, and a great many people agreed to give it a try. 

At this point some of the results are in, and I've been able to draw some tentative conclusions and draft a hypothesis on which further experimentation can be based: 

1) The effect seems to be real, and not just a matter of the placebo effect. Quite a few readers have reported immediate effects, not only on themselves, but on people who had no idea that the experiment was being tried, and who suddenly lost interest in television. 

2) The effect isn't guaranteed. Not everyone noted effects. In particular, when someone else in the household was using television, the internet, or their phone as a drug to avoid dealing with personal problems, that person's addiction was pretty reliably not affected by the presence of sharp iron. 

3) The effect can generate opposition. In a significant minority of cases, people who weren't in on the experiment found the sharp iron objects and removed them, even when there was no obvious reason to do so. 

My hypothesis is as follows: we're dealing with a genuine effect here, but the glamour it appears to counter is only one of the factors in the phenomenon of television addiction. Some people watch television or use other electronic media obsessively for personal reasons unrelated to the glamour. There may also be other variables that influence whether a sharp iron point will decrease the hold electronic media has on people.

At this point, I'm going to propose a few changes to the experimental protocol. First, if you have housemates who aren't in on the experiment, use an X-acto knife blade or a steel pin taped to the underside of the television, internet router, or other object, rather than a knife -- the knives are too visible, and can get noticed and removed. Second, try to assess whether your housemates' addiction to electronic media may be a way they use to avoid major issues, and keep that in mind when assessing your options. Other than that, if you feel inspired to join the experiment, give it a shot and see what results you get. 

Comments

[ecosophia]

Excellent! You've caught onto one of the secrets of making sense of occult literature -- take it very, very slowly, and follow the directions. More on this next month!

[(Anonymous)]

It's possible I got resistance from the equipment itself. I noticed the positive effect had stopped and I'd sunk back into the zombie state, but it turned out the nail clippers were laying in the floor away from the modem and looked just like the modem had shrugged them off. Obviously the modem has wires coming out of it and one would only have to be accidently pulled to create the same effect, but it's an interesting thought. The nail clippers have now been reinforced with a needle taped to the casing and the effect seems to have come back. One thing I've noticed is if I deliberately try to zone out while the effect is going, I can do it but I don't seem to be able to go quite as deep and part of my brain stays alert to what is happening.

[(Anonymous)]

Does this sort of thing work even where the spell in question is poorly done? Because if so, then a badly thought out spell, especially one that's heavily publicized, seems like even worse of an idea than I thought it was...

[(Anonymous)]

I've had a knife hidden under the TV since JMG suggested the experiment.
There has been no observable change in my family's TV watching over that time. We don't watch a lot as a rule and have regular teaching moments with the kids over what the adverts are trying to or why such a such a show adds no value to the world. But there are times when it is on and they seem to be sucked into a vacant zombie like state - I usually leave the room at this stage.

[ecosophia]

Yes indeed. If I may use a martial arts metaphor again, imagine that you've got a black belt in jujitsu, and some drunk guy picks a fight with you and starts off with a big, clumsy, unbalanced swinging punch. That's going to be much easier for you to handle than a precise, well-aimed jab by somebody who knows what he's doing, and you're going to have the drunk guy flat on his face with his arm tied in a square knot before he has any idea what hit him.

[ecosophia]

Hmm! That's interesting. Many thanks for the data points.

[ecosophia]

Fair enough -- that's also useful data.

[packshaud]

This is incorrect. Because iron doesn't provide energy, the star collapses into a white dwarf--unless it is bigger than 1.4 solar masses, then the collapse provides enough temperature for the star to go supernova.

Some results

[(Anonymous)]

I put blades under the router, the TV, and pins in both phone cases. I've been withdrawing from the great Time suck Facepalm anyways, and continue to do so. I don't watch much TV, although I followed the PBS Sunday night shows. I think I'm less interested, though that may be a placebo. My wife still religiously follows St. Rachel of Maddow. I have noticed less of her waking in the middle of the night, endlessly scrolling through Facebook. maybe I sleep through it, maybe she does less.
I'll comment more as time passes

Not much to say, right now

[(Anonymous)]

I've put an open, sharpened, Opinel garden knife with a pretty sharp point and a keen edge on the shelf underneath the internet router and modem. It seems to have had absolutely no effect on my partner's excessive facebooking and social media intake. On the other hand, I was drawn to finally delete my accounts completely and walk away from them, but I'd been contemplating that for a long time and hadn't used them in over six months - I never liked the glamour aspect to these services and once they stopped being a useful source of information (I'd find out about events the day after they happened, quite reliably) I gave up on them wholesale already.

Sorry, but it doesn't seem to have accomplished anything here.

Hi Volt TV Hisses

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.anagramgenius.com/archive/hi-volt-tv-hisses.html