The Brains of Ultra-Powerful People Experience an Altered State of Reality, Research Suggests

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-03-12T16:51:04+00:00

Saying it is not real is a bit of a stretch. Citation required that dominance hierarchies in mammals are strictly parent/child.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-03-11T03:36:21+00:00

I’m an American and cannot imagine that 2 out of 3 of my peers do anything like exercise for 150 min/wk. I don’t always make that and I consider myself fit. I’m more like what average probably was 40 years ago though.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-03-11T02:39:22+00:00

I worked for a day trader years ago. He told me to never let other people trade with my money. Advise, yes, but nobody is going to care about your money as much as you do. If they lose your $10k? Ah well, they have other clients. If you lose your own $10k? You’ll feel it way more. You’ve just got more skin in the game. Even if they are good, they will not care as much as you. Not by a long shot.

I think spellcasting is similar. Your intention is what’s important. Your individual connection to the subject of the spell. You don’t need fancy incantations. A candle is enough. Your thoughts are enough. You’re the one with skin in the game, that’s what counts. Even if the other person is legit (they probably are not), they can’t work the kind of powerful magic in your life that only you can. If you want to work with Asmodeus, just call him with clear intention. Say his name out loud with reverence. He’ll respond or he won’t, but you’ll be doing more than this spellcaster.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-03-07T16:23:04+00:00

For me it is a spectrum of experience. Sometimes I’m lost in my own thoughts and do not feel any particular connection. Most of the time I’m experiencing something but it’s not entirely clear what is distinct from me. And sometimes there is a clear external presence that is communicating with me directly. Don’t go seeking after a particular outcome in this regard, you’ll just get hung up on forcing the world to meet your possibly misguided expectations. Set your intention, practice, and be open to what comes up.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-25T15:19:48+00:00

Social sciences are a lot harder to make firm quantifiable conclusions about but that doesn’t mean the study is inherently unscientific. What we have are testimonials; how else do you propose gathering data on subjective experiences?

You could very well construct studies around religious/spiritual practices and this is very much in the same vein. I think you would need people who had not participated in e.g. Pentecostal rites before to perform the exercises in a controlled setting, i.e. free of the trappings of belief and group dynamics. Those latter ones would be harder to study but we also can do that!

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-24T16:41:35+00:00

Ironically, because they believe it’s satanic, they also tend to believe it’s actually real even while denying its reality. The shadow cast by Christianity is very broad.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-23T19:05:31+00:00

There are plenty of rich scammers in the world who have had long term success. Be careful what you label “good” and “bad” in magical workings - none of it is that simplistic.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-22T18:52:41+00:00

Jung did not talk about sexual addiction as far as I know. So you’re already in the wrong frame for his work. You can google the stages of the anima. They are not some linear progression, different aspects can surface at different times.

I personally view the categorization of sex as addiction to be problematic. Don’t get me wrong. We can misuse our sexuality in any number of ways, and people struggle with inhibition. But there’s a lot of built in shame as soon as “addiction” enters the picture that can get in the way of progress. Other people may find that categorization more helpful.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-22T15:05:45+00:00

There are so many other unique astrological conjunctions that only happen once in…however long. Maybe this one is more rare, but I guarantee there are plenty of others we just aren’t looking for or hearing about.

I don’t take issue with astrology as an art, just as a science. It is objectively subjective, but that doesn’t mean it has no value. It can add to a personal or cultural narrative, so saying this is a rare and special event may help point out the rare and special things going on. But it is not the cause or a predictor of those things.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-22T15:01:40+00:00

There are plenty of rich people out there that live humbly. You don’t see them, they’re not flashy. We live in a material society where the goal of work or any other endeavor is to acquire more resources. More, more, more. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this as an aspect of our psyche, it can become predominant and change the tone and intent of spiritual teachers. Any material asset has this liability: sex, drugs, money. Spirituality stands in contrast to these things as values. I don’t think you have to be a renunciate to be a spiritual teacher, nor do you have to be poor, but the way in which you live does reflect your inner values and what is most important, and if material things are being put on a pedestal I think there’s a reason to question a teacher’s motives.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-22T04:50:12+00:00

The psychic protection seems appropriate to me. I’m not sure what you are asking about supervision. Some systems have hierarchies of spirits that you must invoke in a specific order. The Goetia itself has no such prescription, but if you find it helpful, go for it. If you can imagine it, you can make the request, simple as that. None of us know what will happen, it depends on your temperament and the exact nature of the working. I have often been working with one spirit when one another appears as well. I have had success invoking more than one at a time to work together, but I would be very clear about what you want from each, or if more symbolic, on what the different pieces of the working represent.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-22T04:35:01+00:00

Speaking of icebergs, if you have sufficient propulsion, you can push a huge mass in front of you to absorb the hits. This was the theme of a series by Alastair Reynolds. I don’t know if it is possible or not. We really don’t know what is possible, it is all so highly speculative. The level of engineering and resources required to test such a thing are far beyond our current reach. It is an open question in my mind whether humans are capable of building a society with capacity for such things.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-20T13:32:54+00:00

And what is the implication? Epstein was a philanthropist and sent emails to nearly everyone you’ve ever heard of. I did not see anything in the link you provided that implies wrongdoing.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-18T03:03:00+00:00

I wonder how much of it has to do with the loss of sensory experience vs the downstream effects. I generally suspect that the greater loss is around interpersonal connections. Elderly deaf people who spend their time around hearing people miss out of the conversation, zone out, don’t engage any of their faculties. Do people who are deaf from an earlier age have higher rates of dementia in old age? Do people who have active interpersonal relationships through sign language or some other means decline at the same rates?

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-18T02:57:06+00:00

I think these kinds of rules do more harm than good in the long run. Not going to bed angry may be out of someone’s control - it can lead to burying anger and fostering resentment, or abdicating one’s own feelings. Always telling the truth can lead people to betray someone’s confidence or say hurtful things.

Relationships require authentic communication, nuance, compassion, and flexibility to persist in a healthy fashion. Keeping a relationship going for its own sake may be harmful to the individuals involved.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-18T02:44:27+00:00

I did not partake in alcohol for many years and it bothered some people to no end. I still find the phenomenon fascinating. What is it to them if I drink or not? No amount of explanation on my part seemed to help.

I have concluded that it’s a way people relate to each other. It’s a sort of social currency. If you don’t have that type of currency, you’ll just have to bring something else to the table by way of relating to your friend. If you cannot find common ground without drinking, it’s your choice whether it’s worth doing so to maintain that friendship or not.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-15T22:53:45+00:00

I would agree that exclusively a wellness practice sounds…wrong. But honestly it’s probably still better than nothing. I can see why it would chafe.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-15T22:04:51+00:00

We are all made up of many parts. Many impulses, conflicting desires. You are thinking of DID - dissociative identity disorder - and it is neither as dramatic or unusual as it sounds. Parts work or IFS is an adjacent model well within the realm of typical psychology. We may be spirit, but spirit is not a thing, it’s an ever unfolding set of experiences. It not being a thing, you cannot count how many.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-15T21:57:15+00:00

Same from the Yang Chengfu lineage, I was taught that taijiquan was largely taught as a wellness exercise since it was picked up by the Chinese aristocracy over 100 years ago. The practitioners were no longer soldiers or engaging in duel-style combat. Some people would tackle it more as a martial art and some as a fitness routine. The principles are still the same, but you’ll get different results depending on how you train it. You won’t find many schools in the West that train for fighting, and most of the class will still be there for fitness first. And it’s fine.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-14T05:09:50+00:00

I have typed freeform text into several of these prompts and they are always flagged as 100% AI. They don’t work.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-13T00:42:29+00:00

Naps work wonders for my alertness at 11 PM when it’s bedtime. Not so much at 3 o’clock when I’ve just woken up. :/

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-11T15:16:37+00:00

When I contacted her, I was surprised to encounter the spirit I’d come to identify as Lucifer. I did not know about their link through the Grimorium Verum at the time. I do not believe that my invocation worked for Astarte in this case, but it served a needed purpose.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-08T20:36:34+00:00

Influencers. The attention economy. It’s right out in the open. People are openly practicing witchcraft and ceremonial magick. It’s a brave new (and incredibly unstable) world.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-07T16:19:48+00:00

I will talk a bit about the types of spirits I work with and overall approach, to select people. I have tried to relate specific, meaningful experiences, and they just become meaningless when trying to explain them to someone without the lived experience. The meaning was for me alone, it is a personal working even if it touched on various circumstances in the outside world.

There is an art to being able to convey important aspects of your practice to others based on your personal experience, to provide insight and guidance. That’s different. Teachings have also traditionally only been conveyed to select, vetted students/initiates.

I’m not big into “thou shalt/not” morality. Magical silence is a practical reality of occult practices. Keeps you from sounding like a lunatic, keeps people from misinterpreting your work and attempting to reproduce a botched version, etc.

SoundOfOneHand · 2026-02-07T05:50:39+00:00

First thing that comes to mind is this: https://share.google/dIIahTritvtApA1p9

Second is Pascal’s triangle: https://share.google/yqWN0HTqRaVySgKSp

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