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We’ve been talking about direct magick techniques for enlightenment, and I want to share the results of that work — how this magick changed how I think and respond — but that’s difficult. See, they’re not vague updates. It’s not like I used to think money was important, and now I value friends more. No, the changes show up when I consider specific aspects of my life: My path with magick, my relationships with friends and lovers, and how I respond when my beliefs are challenged. The changes live in the details, which makes this difficult to discuss in a public forum.
But, I do want to share this part of my journey. So, here are three changes triggered by the integration. I hope you’ll understand when I leave some details vague.
Action, Not Guilt
I often have a feeling that I need to get better with magick. Not that it would be nice to be better, but that I need to. Like I’m racing against some deadline, and slowly losing. It’s the same irrationally-guilty feeling as thinking I haven’t put in enough hours at work, all the while knowing that hours worked isn’t really what matters.
Shortly after integrating my mind, this thought started bothering me. But something new followed it: The idea that, no, I don’t need to get better in general, I just need to work on the 3 tasks I’ve already picked as my main project for the next several years. It refocused me away from guilt and onto thinking about how to advance those projects, and it did it effortlessly — I know what it feels like to consciously redirect my thoughts, and this refocusing felt totally different, like it came from the same unconscious regions as the initial feeling of needing to get better.
At the time, I wrote, “It’s like the automated patterns of thought that I normally have are being interrupted and updated, which is excellent.”
Is this enlightenment? Not quite. But it shows the results of integrating a lot of areas of my mind, and it’s definitely a change for the better.
Clarity in Relationships
Next, I thought about relationships, and I could easily focus on what was healthy. Not just “this person is healthy, this one isn’t,” but a sense of what sort of relationship would be healthy with each person: What to share, how vulnerable to be, and so on. I used to be distracted by unimportant annoyances, like a minor disagreement or scheduling problems, but they didn’t even enter my thoughts. (Until I sat down to compare my thinking now with my thinking previously.)
I know, this is terribly vague. Sorry. The point is, without consciously trying to clarify my thinking, my thinking simply clarified on its own. Which tells me that my mind was working better.
Insight, Not Reactions
The next day, I called the spirit who taught me the technique, and asked him about the metrics he uses to determine how well an enlightenment technique worked. His answer:
We look at stray desires. Not thoughts, but drives, urges, things you can’t control that cause inner conflict. If you’re not aware of any, that’s a good indication they’re not there. Can you easily cast your mind around to subjects you’d find painful before?
I do, asking “What if magick isn’t real?” Of course, I have thought about this in the past, but it’s always something I have to force myself to do, consciously stepping through the logic while avoiding gut reactions. But this time, I got an effortless, intuitive answer: “I’m going to act like it is, and that’s enough. We all have to take some gambles to accomplish anything great.”
I also thought about death, conflicts with my parents, and some other topics, and felt clear on each one. Not necessarily deep, but I didn’t have my normal instant reactions, and I was able to get to some insight about each topic. It’s good. Healing, even.
Summary
That’s a quick smattering of the changes I observed after doing this integration technique. If you’re considering using direct magick for enlightenment yourself, hopefully this gives you some idea of what to expect.
(I’m fully aware that skeptics will say this was all placebo. This series isn’t for them.)
I have one more technique to share tomorrow. And, for those of you eager to try some consciousness integration on yourself, I’ll program a basic technique into my book’s ethereal software with it later this year.
Also, between yesterday and today, I’ve replied to most of the comments on this series. If you were waiting for a response, it’s probably there by now.
Other posts in this series:- Enlightenment and Modern Psychology (August 13, 2012)
- Direct Magick for Enlightenment (July 30, 2012)
- Western-Secular-Style Enlightenment (July 30, 2012)
- My Main Technique for Enlightenment (August 1, 2012)
- Enlightenment and Ascention (August 2, 2012)
- From Psychology to Enlightenment (August 3, 2012)
- Enlightenment: A Systematic Model (August 4, 2012)
- An Advanced Technique for Enlightenment (August 6, 2012)
- Algorithms for Consciousness Integration (August 7, 2012)
- Why Enlightenment Improves Your Magick (August 10, 2012)
- 3 Results from the Enlightenment Technique (August 8, 2012)
- Rewiring Unconscious Thoughts (August 9, 2012)
Tags: Case Studies, Consciousness Integration, Enlightenment