thinking a lot about magic and my own spiritual beliefs today. it's funny that the anti-anti position is often characterized as "fiction doesn't affect reality" because I'm both a proshipper and a big believer in the idea that the human mind holds a lot of sway over reality

the thing is, i believe imaginary things impacting reality is in general a bad thing, because it's usually not deliberate. nasty fanfictions where fictional characters get wrecked are actually a great way for real people to deliberately assert control/dominance over fiction

i know it's profoundly weird and Very Online to tie my own spiritual beliefs to fanfiction discourse but honestly so much of my spirituality is based on how to make sense of postmodern reality that it wouldn't make sense not to factor in stuff like kinning. chaote lyfe i guess

anyway my experience is that trying to ignore or prevent the expression of imaginary bad things is a lot of what causes them to manifest in reality. a lot of this happens for me because I'm schizotypal but i genuinely think it happens to everyone and I'm just more aware of it

if you're a pizzagater, you start seeing instances of pedophilia everywhere. the baader-meinhof effect isn't just a fun illusion, it genuinely impacts your ability to perceive reality. if you're aware of it, this allows you to manipulate the reality that you see

if there's anything I've learned from studying neuroscience, it's that your brain gives you next to no access to reality. being neurotypical just means you're being fed the most common reality by your senses. changing your brain changes which world you have access to

so in my experience, the best way to go through life knowing that the world is an illusion is to genuinely believe that you have some degree of control over your reality and you're not going to let the external collective hallucination world control you. this is why I'm a chaote

assuming that not only you but everyone else has access to a common set of fundamental truths about reality is a bad way to go about it. this effectively gives power to your moral/ideological enemies, who are unconcerned with your perception of reality and believe "fake news"

instead try: all news is fake, all fiction becomes reality if you let it. choose the fictions that you want to become real, and give imaginary space to the fictions you don't want to become real. ignoring them lets them take over your unconscious mind and manifest

in my head I've been calling this worldview "anti-tlönista aktion" :P

this is also a lot of why despite being far left, i have a lot of sympathy for libertarian free speech advocates, etc. penalizing thought crimes is a pipeline to making those crimes happen. let people voice their nasty thoughts so you can talk them out of it

oh BTW other spiritualists incorporate this view too. in sigil magic, the sigil only works if you forget what it's for. in vedic meditation, you're supposed to forget your mantra when you're not using it. unconscious things are more powerful; saying them aloud robs them of power

it's also just helpful for me as a paranoid person. i had a lot more intrusive thoughts about antisemitism *before* it became a national conversation and everyone acknowledged it was a real problem. thanks, 4chan!