Posts Tagged ‘Book’s Ethereal Software’

How Do Sigils Create Luck? And More Reader Questions

Monday, February 15th, 2016

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Sharon, a new reader, experienced psychic, and curious scientist, sent me some excellent questions. Today, I’m answering the second half of her email. (First half is here if you missed it.)

Once again, her text in italics.

5. What is the driving force, place, plain, thing, that sends me these messages in my mind? Why does it send me these intuitions?

Short answer: Ethereal software. Longer answer is below.

6. How do sigils change behaviour and events physically?

This was one of my initial driving questions. Even before I realized I was developing a new system of magick, I wanted to know how a symbolic action over here (like a ritual or a sigil) could cause a change over there. Also, borrowing a question from Chaos Magick, how is it that all these different systems, with different techniques and explanations and theories, all produced such similar results?

I didn’t have the language at the time, but looking back, those questions hinged on complexity. Creating luck is complex. It requires predicting events, evaluating many options, and understanding which specific states of the world will satisfy the request. Decisions that complex couldn’t happen in, say, a bird’s mind. And if they happened in my mind, I would probably be aware of all the options and paths my mind was evaluating, which simply wasn’t my experience. So I hypothesized that those complex decisions happened in the forces we channel — what I now call ethereal software.

I’m glad I wasn’t thinking about sigils back then, because that adds a few steps, and I don’t think I would have guessed them correctly. Let me explain:

If a person does a ritual, and they’re already connected to ethereal software, then it’s obvious that the software can respond to their ritual. And if a person touches a stone or jewelry or other object, connects their ethereal software to the object, then mails the object to someone else, it’s obvious that the recipient could touch the object and connect to the software. All of that just makes sense to me.

What about sigils? If you have a dozen stones, all with different software attached, you might want to label them. The label wouldn’t be magickally important, but it would help you grab the right stone. Similarly, if a person associates a sigil with a certain intent, seeing the sigil might keep their unconscious focused on that intent. (This is more or less A.O. Spare’s sigils.) So, sigils as labels and reminders, that was my model for years.

In 2008 or 2009, I tested it. Actually, I was experimenting with making connections based on pictures and voices and videos on youtube, looking into how that worked. I found that, after I focused on the picture but before I got the connection to the person, a specific piece of ethereal software connected to me, just for a second. I called this “lookup software,” because it was looking up the person associated with that picture.

A few months later, I was looking at a symbol for Golden Dawn or something similar, and found similar lookup software. Somehow, it detected that I was looking at the sigil and automatically connected me to that system’s ethereal software.

I still didn’t fully believe it. That result just seemed so odd. Where did that lookup software come from? How did it know when to connect? But then I wanted to distribute some ethereal software with my book, and I decided to test it. I made a sigil, contacted that sigil-detecting ethereal software, asked it to associate my book’s ethereal software with the sigil. Then I tested a sigil, online, with all of you. I really expected that test to fail, it just seemed so odd, so unlikely to be the way the world actually works. But now over 50 readers have tested it (thank you!!!) and it works. So, based on being able to use that sigil-recognizing software to bind a software of my choosing to a sigil, I’m fairly confident that’s how sigils work.

Your blog has helped me to get close to the answer to questions 5 and 6, so thank you very much for your help :-)
To answer no. 5, this blog gives ‘etheral software’. I would like a clarification of what this is, if possible. I’m the sort of person who is not able to do magik until they deeply understand all the parts involved, the same way that I don’t plan on eating a food till I know what every ingredient is e.g where it came from, what it is made of, who gathered it etc.

You’re absolutely correct, the name “ethereal software” isn’t an answer. It’s just a word. If a person doesn’t understand what that word refers to, then it’s only a curiosity stopper.

The best way to understand ethereal software really is to use it. That’s why my book starts by showing how to connect to it.

You receive psychic intuitions. So instead of connecting you to my ethereal software, let’s make you aware of your own. Try engaging your mind to ask for a psychic intuition, but instead of asking for luck, ask, “Give me your basic usage instructions.” That’s a common and useful command for most ethereal software.

Therefore, it is difficult for me to do magik if I do not know exactly what this software is. Is it in the sky? Is it outside of the universe?

Ethereal objects don’t have a location in the same way that your laptop or house do. That’s like asking, “Where is the internet?” It’s more accurate to ask what ordinary physical object the software is bound to.

And how does it affect the future?
How does my intent change it?

Ethereal software seems to work by connecting to the user’s mind and reading their thoughts. This is another idea that used to be a hypothesis, but now I’ve used it to help a friend get new software for new psychic intuitions, and to activate psychic intuitions for myself (with a lot of debugging), and some other techniques.

In terms of how it affects the future, I don’t know. I have some ideas. And I hope you’ll help us in answering that one day.

I have heard that magik works because it is you changing the brainwaves in your mind and charging your mind with those brain waves e.g. when a person laughs, they send out positive energy so you laugh to.
Therefore, different crystals and herbs give off different energies, wavelengths, frequencies etc. That have an effect on us. But this is easy, meaning I can charge a bag of crystals, carry them with me, and my intent will work out since the crystals give off the right frequencies to bring about change.

In my previous post (which wasn’t up when Sharon sent these questions), we talked about the difference between visualizations to engage the unconscious vs models of how magick actually works. Both the ideas you mention (broadcasting brainwaves and crystals carrying intent) seem like fun visualizations, but are probably not the real mechanism of magick.

How can we tell? Ask, “If the world really worked like that, what would we expect to see?” If smiling (and presumably other actions) really released waves that other people could easily, reliably pick up, we would expect to see psychic experiments producing dramatic, obvious successes — 90% accuracy, not slightly-higher-than-random accuracy. And if crystals were the key ingredient to creating luck, we would expect all the systems of magick that don’t use crystals to fail.

I struggle to comprehend how there is a system independent of all of us that we can tap into, tell what to do, and it does it for us AND at the time needed . How I can sit doing a ritual with the intention to get a job and this software does it for me at the exact time I need it in 3 days or even it may mean I miss that job interview and get an even better job. It sounds like an unnamed diety to me, and I’m an atheist :-( (who strongly beleives in ghosts and spirits, maybe even faeries)

Indeed. I think we do our best work when we face the true complexity of manifesting, when we realize the magnitude of decisions and knowledge and guidance it requires, and grapple with the forces involved in creating that. This is why answers like “crystals channel your intent” or “brainwaves transmit your intent” never sounded right to me — those are simple mechanisms, and a simple mechanism doesn’t create a complex behavior.

But ethereal software isn’t a deity. It’s a powerful tool, like your computer. It knows how to retrieve information that you, as a human, cannot easily access. And it can act on that information in ways that you, as a human, cannot easily do yourself. But it’s a tool, not a deity to be worshiped.

With all of this, I’d encourage you to explore. Try it yourself. Get some experience with ethereal software, the spirits that make it, and all the rest of magick. Then you’ll be able to trust your own experiences, instead of my words. Which is how it should be.

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Do Negative Thoughts Affect Manifesting?

Monday, March 3rd, 2014

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Does your overall outlook on life influence magick?

John has been asking about this, relating to expectations of poverty and abundance. If ethereal software stays connected to you and reads your thoughts, could your expectations be sending it instructions?

My answer: I don’t know. This isn’t something I normally think about, because I consciously package up my messages to ethereal software, then disconnect. Stray thoughts don’t enter into the equation. Even with psychic information, which is always connected to me, it only feeds me information based on passing thoughts — for influencing events, it requires an explicit request.

But what about novices? Is this a real concern? I asked the ethereal software I use for psychic info about the safeguards. Its reply:

Yes, there are safeguards. First, we distinguish between requests and fears, so we won’t manifest something you’re thinking negatively about. Second, we look for a request to “make something happen.” That is, just because you’re thinking about a thing, that doesn’t mean it’s a request, and we know that. We only manifest things you ask for, not random passing thoughts.

Other settings may change this. In particular, if the user doesn’t know how to make explicit requests, we do more guessing. But still, the rule is to look for something they really hope will happen.

The ethereal software for my book says:

We have two safeguards. First, we only treat explicit requests for events as manifesting. Thinking about an event doesn’t result in a request, only saying, “Make this happen,” or something similar, counts. Second, we do a quick evaluation to see if this request will likely be positive for the requester. This can be over-ridden, but by default (unless the user explicitly says, “I know this is predicted to be bad, but do it anyway,” or an equivalent phrase), we won’t execute requests that are bad for the asker. (This can also be disabled in user settings, where a user can request that this check be disabled by default for them, but only if they are a senior user or higher.)

Those sound like good answers to me.

Now, that’s two pieces of ethereal software, made by one group of spirits. I can’t know how others behave. But that certainly seems like a good solution to this problem, and one I would expect most groups to adopt.

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How Obvious Connections Feel

Monday, February 24th, 2014

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Alex is trying the obvious connections from my book’s ethereal software. His text is italics, my reply is normal text:

This is cool. I’ve discovered your blog a couple days ago, and just tried this command right after connecting to the software and asking it to give me obvious connections. I think i noticed it connecting to me the first time because of the sigil becoming kind of alive, pulsating. May be some optical illusion though. At first, i didn’t notice clearly the obvious connection, but i certainly noticed a change when i asked the software to withdraw the connections.

Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to write about this.

That’s probably an optical illusion, something to do with how you were staring at the sigil. It hasn’t happened with any of the other testers (as far as I know), and the software isn’t doing anything to the eyes or visual cortex.

I tried engaging and withdrawing the connections a few times, and noticed it kept a certain connection that i felt at the front of my head at all times, while switching on and off another stronger one that centered on my chest, but felt kind of on the whole front of my body, when i asked it to give me obvious connections.

Yup, that sounds about right. The software makes connections to your mind so it can communicate with you. That’s how all ethereal software works, actually. That communication connection stays the whole time you’re using it. Then the obvious connection turns on and off when you give the command.

It seemed to me that the obvious connections were flooding me with energy (that felt pleasant, by the way), and tried asking the system if it was giving me energy. I didn’t get any clear answer.

Yes, that’s basically what it’s doing. The connection is full of energy, that’s why it’s obvious.

(For anyone really digging into direct magick: The connection has a high level of activation, not energy, and strongly maintains its own signature rather than adjusting to the user’s signature. That’s what makes it obvious.)

(For everyone else: There are some subtle distinctions between energy and other magickal structures. They matter when you’re building techniques. But if you’re just trying to get the gist of what’s going on, “energy” is close enough.)

And don’t worry that you didn’t get a reply from the software. That’s not until Book 2, the sequel to the one I’m writing now.

Nevertheless, i tried asking it to give me obvious connections without sending me energy, which made a fainter result, and then to give me obvious connections the way it did the first time, which felt stronger again. I also noticed that once i phrased the command “stop all connections”, but meaning just the obvious ones, and it was able to tell my intentions, not stopping the connection in my head.

This all sounds good. I’m not surprised it read your intent, as communication happens in concepts rather than words, so if you were thinking about the obvious connections when you said “all connections,” you probably sent that concept.

Another thing is that i was starting to feel a bit of a headache, and i asked the software to make the connection to my head gentler. I kept feeling an intensity on my head, but it stopped hurting. Was that supposed to work like that?

That sounds like a good result, so I’ll go with yes. A lot of these behaviors are the defaults provided by the spirits who made the software, it’s just how they always make software. So I didn’t previously know it did that, but that doesn’t surprise me.

Last thing, when i asked it to prepare my mind to communicate with it, the connection on the front of my head seemed to surround my head to come from all directions (sidewise in a ring, not from above or below) and then kind of went into the background, making itself less obvious to me, but still being there.

Here’s the interesting thing about these sensations: They don’t necessarily correspond to specific connections. Sure, intensity tends to correlate with the amount of energy, though it has more to do with the signature (or type) of the energy than the actual amount.

These sensations come from your ethereal muscles, not the nerves in your skin. Your ethereal muscles notice connections and create sensations to communicate that experience. But do those sensations mean a literal “this is where the connection is”? I don’t know. They could also be a metaphor, like how we visualize white light to tell our ethereal muscles to move energy around, knowing full well that there’s no white glow involved.

So, it doesn’t surprise me that those connections were less obvious than the obvious connection. I’d expect that, actually. But what do those specific sensations mean? I couldn’t say — it has to do with how your brain interprets the messages from your ethereal muscles.

I’d like to ask you if what i experienced makes any sense to you, regarding the way you programmed the software, or if you can tell some way i’m deluding myself in the results i perceive to get. I’m not that good in telling what’s really happening from what i’m imagining (i suppose that’s a huge part of the reason why i’m here).

Thank you for your teaching!

Thanks for using what I write, and for sharing your experiences!

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Noticing Ethereal Software

Monday, January 20th, 2014

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I’m writing the chapter of my book where you ask the ethereal software to make obvious connections to you, so you can verify that everything is working. And I’m wondering, how do you make a magickal connection that even non-mages notice?

A little background: I originally made the obvious-connection technique while teaching a psychic about direct magick. The point was for her to notice connections, as opposed to energy or intuitions or anything else. I made increasingly obvious connections — she noticed when I reached the level of a gentle psychic attack, making connections so stiff and rough they would shift her energy signature. Then I slowly backed off, making increasingly gentle connections, helping her notice them each time, until she could notice normal connections.

So, it was for training specifically in noticing connections. Not a technique designed to make the most obvious sensations for non-mages.

I also designed the obvious-connection technique 5-10 years ago, before learning much energy healing, before researching erotic energy and recognizing that I had to affect the activity layer of nerves, not some other layer or other tissue.

At this point, I could probably design a better technique, focused on sensations for non-mages, using more than just aggressive connections, and drawing from my additional years of experience. I’ll blog as I do it. Today, I want to share my initial thoughts:

This technique should probably involve the activity layer of nerves. That seems to be the best way to create sensations. And as a side benefit, that’s also the basis for erotic energy, so I can re-use whatever I learn.

I’d like to keep the effect to the energy layer, rather than going deeper into the paths toward cells. It’s easier to clean up afterward that way.

I’d also like to focus on nerves in the body, rather than the brain. Sure, most sensations mages feel are from ethereal muscles creating sensations in the brain, but that’s incredibly complex. I’d much rather put some energy in the person’s skin or arm.

My next steps are more training in physical effects and energy in the body, then to learn specifically about creating sensations. The Enochian spirits may have some good insights here, too.

Thoughts? Advice? Got your own techniques? Leave a comment.

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Mystery Solved (Book’s Ethereal Software)

Saturday, August 10th, 2013

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If you’ve followed the comments on the old post about beta testing the ethereal software for my book, you know there was a mystery recently. Today, I solved it. And, as is often the case, the answer is less of a deep revelation, and more of a simple technique I was doing wrong.

A little background: To teach readers magick, I had some spirits I work with make some ethereal software. I tied the software to a sigil, so readers can access it. And I posted the sigil, to verify that readers would, in fact, get the connections.

A week or two ago, a reader said she didn’t notice anything while looking at the sigil. That’s common enough, since non-mages generally don’t notice connections, but in writing my reply, I looked at the sigil too, and didn’t notice any connections myself. Odd, but I tied the software to the sigil over a year ago, and I’m no expert at that. Maybe it wore off?

Then another reader tested it out again. (This is one of the reasons I love blogging: Getting this kind of feedback and help from readers. Thanks, guys!) He found that everything was working. So I tested it again, and again found nothing. My guess was that his mind was used to contacting the software, and looking at the sigil simply reminded his unconscious of the software, and it made the connection based on his memory of the software’s signature, without actually using the sigil itself.

A few days later, another reader tested it, and also found it was working. Which makes it less likely that the sigil has faded. I tested it again, and again found nothing. But I kept at it, and noticed a very light connection being blocked by my shielding.

Yup, that’s the software’s connection. Once I let it in, everything’s working again. And once I told my ethereal muscles to trust that connection from the software, the sigil works again for me, quite quickly.

Here’s what happened: I hadn’t used that software in a year or more, and my ethereal muscles forgot to trust it. Like if you don’t visit a website for a year, and then you stumble on it again, and you’re not sure if you recognize it. Since they didn’t trust it, my shielding wasn’t allowing its connections in. A simple error on my part, and a nice reminder that magick is really complicated.

And once again, thank you to Grab, Nikki, and all my readers who’ve helped me with this testing.

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Book Excerpts: Awakening Your Mental Muscles – The Command

Friday, November 30th, 2012

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Another excerpt on awakening your mental muscles. Make sure to read the other excerpts on the topic so you know what to expect.

The command is, “Awaken my mental muscles.” Yes, it really is that simple. Most of the commands for this book’s ethereal software will be.

Note: The ethereal software is actually listening to the concepts and ideas in your mind, not the words themselves. So, if “mental muscles” doesn’t mean much to you yet, try replacing it with the definition: “Awaken the parts of my mind that drive magick,” which has produced better results for friends who weren’t familiar with my terms.

You only need to give this command once. It will run until completion, with no further interaction required. But there’s no harm in giving the command multiple times — the software will just ignore the later instructions. And if you already have some mental muscles awake, the software won’t affect them. It’ll only activate new ones.

When you give this command, remember to first connect to the ethereal software by looking at the sigil, focusing on it for 30 seconds or so, then repeatedly thinking the command for another 30 seconds or so. Once that’s done, rest for a few hours (to let it awaken a few mental muscles), then start your daily direct magick practice routine.

And a reminder: This beta testing post covered how to connect to the ethereal software.

The Exercises (Not an Excerpt)

The next several chapters will cover the daily exercises. It starts with building and moving energy, then with working with connections, and finally with communicating with the ethereal software. Those links go to old posts covering the topics — there will be some changes to the exercises, and tons of editing, but they should work well enough for those of you who want to get started.

And a quick book update: I’m mostly done making the full outline of the book. I know, I’ve been posting excerpts for a while, but I’ve been writing with only a vague outline. This past week, I’ve been working on a chapter-by-chapter outline of the book, where one chapter roughly equals one long blog post (~1000 words, or 4 print pages). Expect a couple posts as I think through how to present topics, followed by more rapid progress on the book. Thanks for your enthusiasm and patience, everyone.

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Case Study: A Reader’s Failed Manifesting

Tuesday, September 11th, 2012

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Yesterday, I told you about magick to find missing jewelry. What I didn’t tell you is that my reader never found her ring.

Yes, the manifesting failed. She looked for the ring, asked for guidance, looked again, and still, no ring. So, I dug into why, figuring I could either debug the ethereal software, or at least give her some advice about what to practice.

My first thought was that maybe she didn’t send the question properly — for example, maybe the software didn’t know which piece of jewelry she was looking for. Or maybe the ethereal software heard her fine, but wasn’t doing the manifesting properly. Or maybe it wasn’t delivering the results to her mind properly. I could solve any of those problems, but I had to know which it was first.

I connected to the ethereal software, asked it for the list of users (remember, I own my book’s ethereal software, so I have access to everything it does), and found her requests. The messages themselves were quite clear, and the software confirmed that it knew what she wanted. The problem, it said, was that her ring was not “within her zone of control,” which I took to mean that it’s not in her house. That is, she lost it somewhere around town, not anywhere she can find simply by looking.

Manifesting works by selecting a sequence of events that will lead to the desired outcome. But, if there is no such sequence of events — or if the sequence is so unlikely that the ethereal software can’t make it happen — then you don’t get any result. Which was the case here. The software tried to tell her that, but she’s not set up to receive conscious messages, so it just failed silently.

Failing silently is the default for most magick. You do your ritual or visualization, then you wait for the results. I don’t know of any style that tells you immediately whether the magick worked or not. So, this is no worse than any other style. But it’s no better, either, and frankly, failing silently is bad form, and it’s something we should change.

I’m telling you this for a few reasons. First, so you can see some of the challenges in developing user-friendly magick. Second, to give you an example of why manifestings sometimes fails, to help you debug your own magick. And third, so I have something to refer back to when I eventually get my ethereal software to stop failing silently.

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Magick to Find Lost Jewelry

Monday, September 10th, 2012

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A reader emailed me recently. She’d lost a family heirloom, and wanted advice finding it. Here’s my reply:

  • Connect to my book’s ethereal software via the sigil.
  • Issue the command, “Cause me to find the ring I’m looking for.” For “the ring,” think of the ring, how it looks, who gave it to you, etc. Look at the sigil while issuing the command.
  • Start searching for the ring, trusting your intuitions. Every minute, pause, collect your thoughts, and try to listen for intuitions again.

I’ve used this command when looking for car keys. Thought it might be useful to someone else, too.

(There are also some limitations. I discuss that next post.)

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The Not-Quite-Ready Guide to My Ethereal Software

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

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Several of you have been asking me for more details on how to use the ethereal software. It’s still not ready for prime time, and I haven’t tested it that thoroughly myself, so I’ve been keeping quiet about it. But then Simon said:

Guess all I mean is that with the core blog readers maybe you don’t necessarily have to have that stuff worked out perfectly. You can go a bit more ‘guinea pig’ on us. After all you are talking to a bunch of people who don’t have a problem using something that might give them caffeine headaches at first…

That made me smile, because it’s exactly my attitude with magick: Try things out, and if I get a headache, so be it. So, I’m going to share what I know.

But first, a bit of safety: I’ve programmed (and tested) a command, “Discontinue all effects on me.” It will stop anything the software is actively doing to you. Use it if you get a headache. Note: Undoing lasting changes that are already done is more complex, so any lasting changes (like awakening mental muscles) will remain. While I don’t think lasting headaches are likely, there’s always some risk when you make lasting changes. If you get a headache that doesn’t go away after 4 hours, let me know so I can undo whatever is causing it. (The sooner the better, since these things are easier to undo within 48 hours of initially making the change.)

So, with that in mind, here are some details for the ethereal software:

Awaken My Mental Muscles

The ethereal software has a command to awaken some mental muscles. Which ones? Erm, the ones used in basic direct magick, I think. Or maybe the ones for talking with this ethereal software. Or both? Either way, they’re useful.

I haven’t reviewed all the details myself, so I’m not sure if it gets exactly the right set of muscles, but I’m fairly sure it gets some good ones, and probably some mental muscles that you wouldn’t use in other types of magick. (That means that it might be useful even for experienced mages.) I do trust that, whatever muscles it activates, it activates them properly, because that’s something the spirit who made it would know how to do. If you want to try it, here’s the command:

“Awaken my mental muscles. Keep doing that until instructed otherwise.”

One debugging tip: When I tested this with my non-mage friend, the term “mental muscles” doesn’t mean much to her, so she had to specify “Awaken the parts of my mind that drive magick.” In other words, if any of the words in the command don’t mean much to you, replace them into their definition so that everything makes intuitive sense. You’re communicating in concepts, not words, so you need to use words that conjure up concepts.

That command should run for about 2 weeks. (Less time if you already have some mental muscles already active.) I recommend that you do daily practice during that time, so your mental muscles get some use while they’re activating. An energy meditation for 5 minutes every morning and evening is a good default.

By the way, I’ve tested it with one friend, but only watched the command for a day. So I know it works, more or less, but I don’t know what the completion looks like. That means we’re in alpha testing (where we don’t know if it works at all), rather than a beta testing (where we’re working out the little kinks).

Other Commands

This is going to be speculation. I know what the software is programmed to do, and I can tell you the commands I’d use to do it, but I haven’t actually tested them yet, so I these commands are my best guess, not the actual answers.

Why all this focus on testing the ethereal software? Well, it was programmed by a spirit I know. He’s skilled at magick in general, an expert at making ethereal software, and I trust him thoroughly. But he doesn’t work with humans a lot, so he may simply not realize that some things that are simple for him aren’t, you know, simple. For example, a command might require additional information to function properly, and it might be information that novice direct mages simply cannot provide, like magickal connections to different types of tissues. It won’t hurt you (beyond a possible headache / fatigue / similar), but it might not work. If you find yourself getting frustrated, take a break and let me know what you were trying.

OK, that’s enough disclaimers, now here are some commands:

“Establish connections to my mind for use is psychic intuitions.” Do this before asking for any psychic intuitions. Potential complications: These connections are quite complex. It might need additional instructions to be able to send you information consciously, as opposed to insights that will come to you unconsciously over time, like visions or dreams.

“Guide me to be successful in X.” Or “alter my decisions to make me successful in X.” These are basic psychic commands. For me, “guide me” has it send me info that I can consciously decide what to do with, while “alter my decisions” has it simply change what I do without any conscious thought on my part. Your mileage may vary.

Touch an injury, think, “Heal this injury.” This sends energy intended to promote some combination of numbing and accelerated healing. What are the exact results? Hard to say. It won’t close wounds up before your eyes. Could it go 2x as fast? I can’t say — I’ll do testing at some point. Or you can do testing for me :) The thing to remember is, if the numbing works, you’ll feel better before you actually are better, so don’t overdo it or you’ll injure yourself worse.

On all of those, you’ll want to specify to “keep doing that until otherwise instructed.” It will automatically stop when the command completes, or you can tell it to “Stop doing X,” where X is the command you gave before.

Eventually, I want to set up a tingling whenever you get a command right, but that’s so completely not ready yet. Right now, it will send you a message, like “Acknowledged,” when it accepts a command. You will probably be unable to read this message — most mages I know cannot. So, it will be hard to tell when something worked.

One more reminder: These commands are all in alpha testing, which means you may be the first human trying some of them. If that’s not something you want — if you want a tested, official method that I’ve used and recommend — then just wait a few months.

And if you do try it, please let me know how all this goes. I’m curious, and this really does seem like a great way to get the software tested much faster. So let me know what works, what doesn’t, and what you’d like to see.

Note: I leave for Australia today. I have a long layover in China to nap and shower, but not sure about internet there. I may be out of contact for the next 48 hours, starting around midnight tonight, US Pacific time. I’ve opened up comments, so anyone who’s already commented on the blog can post new comments without needing me to review them. Please, talk amongst yourselves until I’m back.

If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.

Shipping My Ethereal Software (My Work July 1-7)

Sunday, July 8th, 2012

You found my old blog. Thanks for visiting! For my new writing, visit mikesententia.com.

My big news this week is getting the ethereal software out the door and into your hands. So far, 5 new of you have sent me beta test results (plus 3 from the closed beta, plus myself, for a total of 9). Except for one non-mage, everyone reported noticeable connections. At first glance, that might seem trivial, but I’m excited for a few reasons:

  • It means the sigil is working. I had never tied ethereal software trace until before, so I’m excited to know I got the technique right, and to know that my model (which suggested this technique) is in the ballpark of correct, also.
  • Many of you have said that you can’t feel connections from your ethereal software. You’ll do a ritual, or some Reiki, or something else, but you don’t notice the ethereal software that drives that magick. So I’m excited that we can finally get everyone to feel these connections, so you can start exploring how ethereal software works, and develop the skills to recognize all the other ethereal software you use, too.
  • Also, after working solo for so many years, it’s really nice to have this community supporting my research. Thanks, everyone!

So, that was my main accomplishment this week. I want to share one success, and one failure, that went into making that happen.

On Monday, I found that my beta testers didn’t notice the ethereal software’s normal connections, so I added the command to make obvious connections. To actually do that only took a conversation with the spirit who made the ethereal software, but getting him to understand what I wanted took some work.

We’d already set the ethereal software to automatically make an obvious connection. Some of the beta testers felt it, and I certainly did, so I’m sure it was beyond obvious by this spirit’s standards. So, asking for “more obvious” just didn’t work: He was nowhere close to what we needed, and inching it up wouldn’t cut it. I had to explain just what I meant by obvious: “Like you’re trying to shift my mind’s energy signature to the software’s signature by sending me lots of energy.” His reply: “That sounds like a dumb way to shift anything.” Yes, he gave me sass.

But, he trusts me, and he programmed it in. It was still too gentle first, and I had to ask him to increase the power about five times before we got to where it is now. But it works — many of you felt it — and that’s all that matters.

Except that it doesn’t work for non-mages. My beta tester didn’t feel anything, and I was nervous about that: I don’t know how far along you (my readers) are, and I don’t yet know how far along you need to be to notice these “obvious” connections. I was nervous that the results would be mixed, with many of you reporting not noticing anything, and that I’d lose face.

So, I wanted a physical effect on the nerves to make even non-mages feel a tingle. I got a team of spirits to try some obvious approaches, which all worked great on me, but had no effect on my non-mage beta tester. And so I had a choice: Ship what I have, or wait for every feature.

I was tempted to wait. It’s safe. It avoids failure, and the embarrassment of failing publicly. It’s the easy path.

But I also wanted to get back to writing my book, which is been on hold, waiting for this ethereal software. And I wanted to test the work I’ve done so far, and make sure that I’m going in the right direction. And I wanted to get this ethereal software to all of you, because several of you have been asking for it by comments and email.

And then, I remembered technology blogs talking about regular computer software development, explaining how waiting for every feature is a death sentence, and how you need to pick the minimum viable capabilities and ship them. So I did.

So, that was my week: Develop the minimum viable product on Monday, try to squeeze in one last feature on Tuesday and Wednesday, accept that it wasn’t going to happen on Thursday, and ship the software on Friday. It was a good week, and I’m proud of the results.

Next week, I’ll return to those techniques to cause tingling, and lead the research myself, rather than delegating it to spirits. Because sometimes, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself — particularly when you’re researching the human body, and you’re the only researcher who has one.

If you liked this post, consider visiting my current blog at mikesententia.com.