Studying New Age, Occult, Neopagan Religion - Dangerous?

Is it Dangerous?

Total Votes:

[ 0 ]

This poll closed on February 15, 2005.
No longer accepting new votes.

[Triste Morningstar]

Axioma

Triste Morningstar

Byaggha

Reagun Ban

Triste Morningstar

Damn. For a second there, I was kind of hoping that people were going to start hexing each other or something. whee

Ya can't hex a bhuddist. That's just wrong.

Sure you can, but the karmatic implications of doing so are...well, actually they're just as nasty as the implications of doing it to someone else. xd

BOODHA LIKES BOODHISTS? ZOMFG TEH BOODA WILL PUNISH YOU.

Fun Fact: According to my religion class, Buddhists do, in fact, believe that Buddha will punish them. I love my religion teacher dearly, but HOSHIT.

Triste, are you ABSOLUTELY sure you haven't just been hypnotysed into THINKING your Religion Teacher is the teacher and you're the student? Because it sounds the other way around.

Oh, I'm quite sure. All of my teachers are very, very opinionated. And I really, really disagree with them.

[Triste Morningstar]

OokamiBlue

I've seen neo-pagan studies get dangerous once... two of my ex-friends (who went stalker on me when I told them I was sick of their delusions and melodrama) got HEAVILY into the darker side of the Fluff... they managed to summon Raven (if not THE Raven then at the very least one of THE Raven's close kin) in my house thru the little natural ability they had and sheer delusioned belief. there were popping lightbulbs and breaking glasses that had fallen 4 times further before without breaking for over a week...

but the most physically dangerous thing they did was one convinced the other her seizures were "psychic attacks from evil spirits in the Astro" (yes, she calls it the "Astro" stare ). the other one had her laying on her back while she was having a seizure and was trying to banish the "evil spirits" from her while she was starting to choke on her tongue. if I hadn't forced her to sit up and put out some calming vibes she woulda choked and died in my house.

Bloody hell.

My ex had an angel in her basement. confused

It's actually too bad, really. We sued to stick our tongues out at each other to tease each other... hers was like Gene Simmons'.

Good times, man. whee

[SlaineWildfire]

Well, personally, I think that if you're dealing with the big bads, such as angry or violent spirits that are stronger than you, then you sort of deserved to get whacked in the head. Other than that, I don't believe there's anything you can do within the realm of the supernatural that can actually truly hurt you... Except for maybe your karma. Heh.

[Astenwroth]

SlaineWildfire

Well, personally, I think that if you're dealing with the big bads, such as angry or violent spirits that are stronger than you, then you sort of deserved to get whacked in the head. Other than that, I don't believe there's anything you can do within the realm of the supernatural that can actually truly hurt you... Except for maybe your karma. Heh.

Big bads are something to worry about. But things that are obvious aren't the biggest dangers. Subtlety is a more vicious and deadly tool then anything else. As for nothing within the realm of the supernatural that can actualy hurt you.. Eh. That's your belief. I've personaly seen too much to share it.

[SlaineWildfire]

And I've seen plenty of proof that nothing can hurt you unless you let it. Sure, there are potentially spirits who are strong enough to do some serious damage to your mind, but not many who actually bother. Nor are there many who can do damage physically. 99.9% of the spirits your average person comes into contact are mild and mostly benign. Maybe I'm just overly confidant in my abilities, but the only time I've ever had an entity of any sort do more damage than just scaring the crap out of me was when I made the mistake of inviting it into my body. That was, granted, really stupid of me, but that was the one and only time of my five years working in the realm of the supernatural that anything has been able to injure me beyond scaring.

[Astenwroth]

SlaineWildfire

And I've seen plenty of proof that nothing can hurt you unless you let it. Sure, there are potentially spirits who are strong enough to do some serious damage to your mind, but not many who actually bother. Nor are there many who can do damage physically. 99.9% of the spirits your average person comes into contact are mild and mostly benign. Maybe I'm just overly confidant in my abilities, but the only time I've ever had an entity of any sort do more damage than just scaring the crap out of me was when I made the mistake of inviting it into my body. That was, granted, really stupid of me, but that was the one and only time of my five years working in the realm of the supernatural that anything has been able to injure me beyond scaring.

How odd, I start posting about a previous roomie and my computer reboots. Heh. Anyways she used to let almost anything into her to use her as a mouthpiece or other agent. Not so much questioning as to why something wanted to use her more asking about for how long. So I got to see all kinds of issues with that.

Most nastiness doesn't bother me as I've got my own unpleasant ways of dealing with them but that's mostly for me, doesn't realy help those around me. So I have also seen people mentaly scarred to the point they are no longer them. But that was mostly idiots that did things they shouldn't do.
Maybe it's just the area I live in but theres more then %1 of bad stuff around here. As my associate Fiddlers Green already said, most stuff people around here find is all in Borders, and people who know more know enough to just leave s**t alone. It's the ones that are trying to go from one catagory to another that usualy brings about nasty stuff. So perhaps it's more by are then just in general.

[SlaineWildfire]

Astenwroth

How odd, I start posting about a previous roomie and my computer reboots. Heh. Anyways she used to let almost anything into her to use her as a mouthpiece or other agent. Not so much questioning as to why something wanted to use her more asking about for how long. So I got to see all kinds of issues with that.

Now that's just stupidity.

Astenwroth

Most nastiness doesn't bother me as I've got my own unpleasant ways of dealing with them but that's mostly for me, doesn't realy help those around me. So I have also seen people mentaly scarred to the point they are no longer them. But that was mostly idiots that did things they shouldn't do.
Maybe it's just the area I live in but theres more then %1 of bad stuff around here. As my associate Fiddlers Green already said, most stuff people around here find is all in Borders, and people who know more know enough to just leave s**t alone. It's the ones that are trying to go from one catagory to another that usualy brings about nasty stuff. So perhaps it's more by are then just in general.

But see, this is just reiterating my point. If you ******** with the big bads, then you deserve to get whacked in the head. There are different levels of "big badness". The one that might scare the s**t out of someone else might mean nothing to you, and vice versa. It's all relative.

But that's why you train yourself to protect yourself. Just in the case that there is something out there that wants to hurt you, human or otherwise. You have to be aware of all possibilities. And who knows, maybe you're just a big-bad magnet. I've seen some people who simply act like a lighthouse for negative energy.

[Astenwroth]

SlaineWildfire

But that's why you train yourself to protect yourself. Just in the case that there is something out there that wants to hurt you, human or otherwise. You have to be aware of all possibilities. And who knows, maybe you're just a big-bad magnet. I've seen some people who simply act like a lighthouse for negative energy.

Yep.. Quite annoying tendency of hers. Specialy when we had to chase things back out or bargain for her return. Mrf.

As for negative energy, I view it as energy. Just like any other to manipulate and direct. Of course living next to a place where hundreds of peoples dreams and hopes are crushed and ground into misery every season does give one quite the opportunity to study it.

[Jaaks]

Reagun Ban

Two of the eight paths to power?
What, pray tell, are the ohter six?

This question still hasn't been answered. Anyone know? If this falls under the 8 paths of magick (Chaos paradigm) then "blood-letting" is not one of them.

[~Lady Nightmare~]

Starlock

This, I shall admit, was inspired by a comment from Nuri, so thanks for the inspiration! biggrin

Whenever parents discover their child is studying things of the occult, New Age, or Neopagan religions, often they react negatively. Western culture in general frowns upon these things as illogical, dangerous, breeding grounds for moral relativity, among a host of other things. The kids who study into these areas usually defend against their interests with great fervor. Often the study of these three things are done by anybody persuing a Neopagan religion at some point.

However, might the cultural criticisms and the parents be right? Can, at times, study into New Age, the occult, and Neopagan religions be dangerous? Voice your thoughts!

If it is dangerous, the parents should be able to explain to the child how it is, and why. Just because you personally disprove of something, doesn' make it a good reason.
And, slight digression: my parents don't care what religion I follow. So, not ALL parents are like that.

[Fiddlers Green]

SlaineWildfire

And I've seen plenty of proof that nothing can hurt you unless you let it. Sure, there are potentially spirits who are strong enough to do some serious damage to your mind, but not many who actually bother. Nor are there many who can do damage physically. 99.9% of the spirits your average person comes into contact are mild and mostly benign. Maybe I'm just overly confidant in my abilities, but the only time I've ever had an entity of any sort do more damage than just scaring the crap out of me was when I made the mistake of inviting it into my body. That was, granted, really stupid of me, but that was the one and only time of my five years working in the realm of the supernatural that anything has been able to injure me beyond scaring.

The problem is, about 99.9% of the would be Magi that I know are phenomenally stupid. They will actively seek out that 0.1% of all the hidden things that can actually do harm, and poke at it. Fortunately, most of them haven't found a real secret, so can't really invoke anything other than a headache from those of us that have done research on the matter. That and they will, thru sheer ignorance, invite whatever beastie they're trying to summon up today to do them harm, they just don't know it. Much like speaking a foreign tongue, you may say things you didn't mean.
That is the real danger, hobbyists who don't know what they're doing...

[Astenwroth]

~Lady Nightmare~

If it is dangerous, the parents should be able to explain to the child how it is, and why. Just because you personally disprove of something, doesn' make it a good reason.
And, slight digression: my parents don't care what religion I follow. So, not ALL parents are like that.

Most parents can't explain why.. Other then saying "It's evil." just because most of the major religions take a very dim view on occultism. You have to be educated on something to rationaly discuss it with your childrent. My mom just had a rule of "As long as your safe." therefore I just usualy didn't tell her what I was doing. No need to give her grey hairs.

[Starlock]

Astenwroth

~Lady Nightmare~

If it is dangerous, the parents should be able to explain to the child how it is, and why. Just because you personally disprove of something, doesn' make it a good reason.
And, slight digression: my parents don't care what religion I follow. So, not ALL parents are like that.

Most parents can't explain why.. Other then saying "It's evil." just because most of the major religions take a very dim view on occultism. You have to be educated on something to rationaly discuss it with your childrent. My mom just had a rule of "As long as your safe." therefore I just usualy didn't tell her what I was doing. No need to give her grey hairs.

Yeah, most people do just view the occult as evil, but I like the point that Lady Nightmare braught up. I think this rule could be applied to racism and other forms of prejudice too. A lot of people just stimatize things like Neopaganism, the occult, and the New Age stuff without really understanding it. Should the people who are into this kind of stuff take it upon themselves to educate the masses as to the true nature of these three things?

[~Lady Nightmare~]

Starlock

Astenwroth

~Lady Nightmare~

If it is dangerous, the parents should be able to explain to the child how it is, and why. Just because you personally disprove of something, doesn' make it a good reason.
And, slight digression: my parents don't care what religion I follow. So, not ALL parents are like that.

Most parents can't explain why.. Other then saying "It's evil." just because most of the major religions take a very dim view on occultism. You have to be educated on something to rationaly discuss it with your childrent. My mom just had a rule of "As long as your safe." therefore I just usualy didn't tell her what I was doing. No need to give her grey hairs.

Yeah, most people do just view the occult as evil, but I like the point that Lady Nightmare braught up. I think this rule could be applied to racism and other forms of prejudice too. A lot of people just stimatize things like Neopaganism, the occult, and the New Age stuff without really understanding it. Should the people who are into this kind of stuff take it upon themselves to educate the masses as to the true nature of these three things?

I don't think so, unless there is outright persecution in which case there is no choice. Sensible people will go out and research, and try to learn, even if it means just typing 'Wicca' into Google. At least that's what I did.

[SlaineWildfire]

Starlock

Should the people who are into this kind of stuff take it upon themselves to educate the masses as to the true nature of these three things?

Potentially yes, but in reality, no I don't think so.

The reason for my saying this is because, as Fiddler said, there are a vast majority of those who engage in the Occult, or in Neopaganism, even, that are just plain moronic. When you have a community (and I use the term loosely) that is being prejudiced against, do you really want to send out people as PR who don't know d**k about the truth in the community? Of course not. So my opinion is, we keep our mouths shut. There will always be people who are afraid of what they don't understand, and there will always be people who see magic, spirits, the paranormal, etc as evil. If someone asks you a direct question, be as honest as you can with them, of course, but don't shoot your mouth off if you really don't know the answer or really haven't been involved long enough to have any concrete experience.