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]

Nope. As Dion Fortune points out in The Cosmic Doctrine -- and she could have had an enjoyable discussion on this point with any competent student of taijiquan or aikido, or for that matter any decent boxer -- direct opposition is the weakest way to face a hostile force, as it locks the force in place and gives it strength. Given that we're discussing an incoherent working that uses bunny-slope techniques, it needed the opposition of something like Griffin's "battle magic" to give it any coherence and effect at all, and Griffin and his wife then took the brunt of that. Mind you, he succeeded in his intention, as that would have discharged a good deal of what energy the anti-Trump working had -- and you'll notice that right about the time he and his wife had their accidents, the Trump administration started really getting the upper hand on its opponents.

There are many other ways to mess with hostile magic. Given the way that the opposition to Trump seems to be running around in self-referential circles these days, shrieking about Russians under every mattress until even liberal humor mags like The Onion are making fun of them, while Trump's approval ratings rise and Democratic prospects for the 2018 election sink alarmingly, I have every reason to think that those other ways are getting a thorough workout just now.

[(Anonymous)]

Another good example of the kind: https://politics.theonion.com/startling-report-finds-evidence-democrats-may-have-atte-1819908378

This has made me think of a rather humorous and potentially quite explosive counter to some of the anti-Trump workings: a number of them are trying to expose the "foreign influence that got him elected". The counter is to embrace it, and call for all foreign influence on American elections to be exposed.

[ecosophia]

Oh my. The Onion scores another direct hit.

Affirming a spell a little more generally than the sender intends is in fact a very nice counterspell. There are all kinds of judo tricks like that, especially when the spell's poorly designed -- and even more so if it's founded on a lie, as in the case you've mentioned. (I'm quite sure the people who are shrieking about Russians know perfectly well, in their heart of hearts, that it wasn't foreign influence that put Trump in office; their language is too shrill to be grounded on anything honest.) I gather that all kinds of dirty Democratic laundry is on its way to a very public viewing in the months ahead...

[(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...

[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.

[amritarosa]

Whatever the metaphysical equivalent of a cartoon light bulb popping alight above my head might be, it sure has been happening as I read "The Cosmic Doctrine".

There is so much in that first chapter that I have had to slow way, WAY down in my reading, and go over small sections of it several times. I even visualize it before I fall asleep at night. The description of the three spheres genesis and information on good and evil have been particularly impactful.

Thanks again for recommending it - I look forward to the discussions.
Bonnie

[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!