Thursday, February 20, 2014

Smile When You Say That

"People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion".
~ Albert Einstein

Mage Music 79

It’s not just people who believe in physics who get what it's all about. People who live the tenets of Magick and apply them in life also understand that the only moment when change is possible is the now.
Now is when/where life happens.
Now is where the power is.
But how do you stay in the now when there are so many pressures of the past and future distracting you?

The fallacy of the string of beads
There's too much to overcome. 
I can’t make any changes until I fix this other thing first. 
I can’t create a new reality because my past makes things have to be the way they are.
These are the kinds of things people tell themselves to explain why they are where they are and why their lives aren't changing.  We all do it.  But unfortunately, these are the thoughts that block Magick and the possibility of change. 

These thoughts are fallacies based on the idea that time is like a string of beads, that one moment in existence follows the next in an order that cannot be changed.  But time is not a string of beads. Time is not one moment after the next in an inevitable sequence. Time is a dimension, a physical property of the Universe like length, width and height are. And like these other dimensions, time just is - all at once.

The illusion of past, present and future is a product of human perception, which is finite and cannot ordinarily embrace the fullness of all that is. The default human perception is to sample reality in finite and discrete units - a sequence of events, a string of beads - but the Mage understands that this limited perception is not the way it has to be.

Because all dimensions exist all the time within time, anything can move or be moved from one condition in reality to another by choice and through the rituals (actions) of one who has the desire and will to do so. It is a matter of not letting the weight of perceived past or future influence the moment that is now.

Breaking free of the weight and influence of past and future is key. You need a reliable method to interrupt who you have been being in order to transition to the new reality you choose to manifest. How do you do that?

The confounded bridge

In music the bridge is often used to contrast with and prepare for moving from one musical passage to another. It is not intrusive – it fits with the whole – but it is different enough that it is a clear message that what was is done and something different is coming. It can be a note, a pause, a key change or a combination of several musical elements, but its function is to enable connection with a different place.

A Mage must have a reliable bridge to the now, the only moment of power - a bridge that is strong enough to clear the perception of an inevitable past-future sequence and allow for a new direction. It might surprise you to know that the simplest tool to accomplish this is the lowly smile.

Smile when you think that thing

Human (and some other animal’s) facial expressions reflect the output of the part of the brain called the limbic system (a.k.a. the paleomammalian brain or the reptile brain).  The limbic system is the oldest part of the brain (in terms of evolution) and is the most primitive. This part of the brain works on automatic responses, not intellectual decisions. It’s where emotions and immediate reaction to danger is handled and where memory is processed. It’s where “social processing”, including the evaluation of faces, occurs.  It's why you smile or frown without even being aware you're doing it.

When you’re feeling sad or mad or happy the emotions are reflected on your face automatically by the limbic system. The emotions don’t even have to be current – the memory of past sadness, anger or happiness and the anticipation of them in the future can elicit the facial expressions just as well. But what’s more important for Magick is that this is a two-way street. 
" The moment you change your perception is the moment you rewrite the chemistry of your body. "
~ Dr Bruce H. Lipton.
Beliefs are the lenses through which perceptions of the world are filtered. As with any good lens, beliefs are transparent, that is, they seem invisible and you are mostly unaware of them. Emotions are shaped by the lenses of beliefs. Unchecked, emotions rule a person and take the place of conscious choice.

No Magick for you when you live unconsciously because then you can make no choices.

Here's the usual string of beads of unconscious living:  Memory (limbic system) leads to emotion leads to physical results - one of which is the expression on your face. It's simple chemistry. Positive emotions cause the body to produce certain chemicals (e.g. dopamine and serotonin) and these in turn provide energy and growth and give people a feeling of connection with the world. Negative emotions cause the body to produce totally different chemicals (e.g. cortisol and epinephrine). These chemicals shut down your body, protectively disconnect you from the world to prepare you for fight or flight. Enough of these chemicals and you no longer have conscious control, meaning you can no longer make choices.  No Magick for you.

The simple smile - a tool you  have with you at all times if you only choose to use it - is the bridge that interrupts the flow and influence of memory and connects with the now. It is the reverse string of beads. The smile tells the body that a positive emotion is in play and the limbic system - which is so primitive it can be fooled this way - says okay, things must be good. The limbic system backs off and suddenly you are in the now.

The simple smile - it puts you in the NOW.  Try one on and see.






7 comments:

  1. Scott Adams is asking for fellow musicians' help in understanding and teaching the hiddenpriorityfactor since we are used to dealing with anxiety. Teaching nothing means you have nothing to prove you were right, ever, likewise if you disagree. Terrorism has nothing to solve their cause, so nothing's going to nuke the world. Gods didn't create out of nothing so Gods created out of Gods (meaning Gods are physical existence and the alternative is non-existing physical existence). Religion is stating a future perfection is existing at present (contradicting the verb time). I need feedback to eliminate roadblocks in common sense. For much more please click the following link https://plus.google.com/108361809127465806238/posts/2fo6PAfdyGC

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    1. I'm not going to delete this comment, but for those who are hesitant to check out the link provided, the site is called "Terrorism - The Hidden Priority Factor". I'm not actually sure what Mr. Adams' site is about, but it isn't about music or Magick as far as I can figure.

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  2. We can say that is all about psychological choises. I mean, we don't even know our power, the power of the now whick is always present second by second. There are a lot of bridges and invisible ways to move from an illusion to another one (past, present and future) but our eyes can't see them.
    But Mages can. I don't know if they can be considered as superhumans, or something similar, but the have the power to move across the time flow, in a way. I'm starting thinking that you're an extremely powerful Mage, Lif! I could never imagine that the smile was the key to apply the power according to our will. Sometimes the solution is so easy to become invisible and unthinkable.
    Trust me, when i finished reading this post, i realized i was smiling.

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    1. I don't believe in the concept of life as illusion. I think - and quantum science seems to support the idea - that the reality we experience is the only reality that can be *in that experiential moment*. This is true even if my reality is not the same as yours or the next person's. In fact, the illusion is that there could be something else in the moment we experience. Reality is in the state of experiencing in the now - not in the potential experiences to be had nor the road not chosen.

      The moment of now moves in all dimensions at will. Magick is the power in the now.







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    2. That's right. Life is real, and more than an illusion is a subjective perception, also in terms of time. The now of another planet, star, or whatever piece of universe very far from us could see Earth as something that's over, dead, which has completed its destiny. That's because in a such huge space, one moment is translated into light-years. So i wonder what and above all, WHEN actually the now is.

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  3. "Now" is not a description of time so much as a description of an act of human perception. Even when considering the past, a human is considering it in the now. The now is all humans - in ordinary consciousness - have. So in a sense, "when" can't be applied to the dimension of time any more than it can be applied to the dimensions of length or width.

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    1. More thoughts. Human perception of the dimension of time is always "now".

      Past and future cannot be perceived by humans as past or future - only as "now". If a time machine was invented and transported you to, say, Katowice, Poland in 1998, you might be at a Page-Plant concert that happened in the past relative to today, but *your* experience at the concert would still be, for you, "now". "Now" is relative to the perceiver and the act of perception, not to what is being perceived.

      Time and space and the perception of it is very slippery to talk about in ordinary language. Apparently it can be "talked" about using equations but I'm no quantum physicist and so I can't talk about it any other way than with imprecise language.

      But that doesn't mean the concepts can't be used. A musician doesn't have to be able to explain the science of sound vibrations, the inner ear and the brain's interpretation of what is perceived to create music. And a Mage doesn't have to be able to explain quantum physics to manifest using Magick.

      Thanks for your comments - they are thought provoking.

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