That’s really going to suck for someone, because I’m not driving anywhere tomorrow. I think you’re endangering your soul by deliberately intending to inflict pain or unhappiness on someone who never did anything to you.
I really don’t know how you can live with all of that negativity.
I’m crawling out of my lurk mode just so that I can post in this thread. The level of absurdity is simply too much to resist.
I also feel that it is relevant to give the perspective of someone who has actually been diagnosed as a synesthete by clinical standards, and has even participated as a test subject for studies involving synesthesia. I was asked to participate in an ongoing study during college when a I made it through a series of tests for simple Grapheme-color synesthesia. It takes a very long time to set up these studies seeing as how researchers have to establish long-term tests in order to weed out the people who are simply faking it for attention.
Grapheme-color synesthesia, the most commonly reported manifestation, simply means that a person perceives numbers and letters as being irrevocably associated with the experience of colors. I can’t honestly claim that I physically “see” numbers and letters as the set patterns my brain involuntarily arranges them in. I know exactly what color a character on a printed page or electronic screen is. When I look at a number 3 printed in black on a page, I know it’s black, but it only shows up in my head as a dark mustardy yellow. It takes a concentrated effort to imagine it as any other color. The default is always, without fail, something like pantone 3965 C.
I’ll be the first to admit that I have no real way of knowing what is going on in KGS’s head, but judging from KGS’s posts, he sounds as though he is practically cloned from the kinds of people I saw get dropped from the program for being slaves to their own cognitive biases.
His (is he a “he?”) descriptions of what he is calling “synesthesia” don’t sound anything like those of the other participants in the aforementioned study who made the cut, but they sound every bit like the ones whose only functional understanding of what synesthesia is comes from a self-perpetuated fantasy peppered with a mix of new-agey nonsense.
In case it wasn’t already painfully obvious, not one single thing he has posted thus far resembles anything close to the actual neurological research being done on synesthesia.
Um, hate to break this to you, but yes, imagination = fake. Really. Harry Potter? Totally not real. Frodo Baggins? Complete fantasy. Don’t get me started with JC. Really, bullshit, all of it. Sorry to have to be so blunt, but that’s just the way it is. I supposed you’ll hate me the way you hate Randi now cuz I had the gall to show you what’s real. Imagination by itself cannot change the world. And by ‘the world’ I mean ‘the world the rest of us live in’ and not ‘the delusional fantasy you have imposed on yourself’.
Speaking of which, I think some of your brain matter has fallen out and slopped onto your shoes.
This can be terminal in the case of Hush Puppies.
I know we’re on to a different type of crazy, but I missed pseudo’s crazystupid, which in my mind is much more fun than simple crazy.
I have something to get off my chest here, and those who want to avoid a wall of text, scroll freely (italics and brackets in the following quote are mine):
Mark it, not only am I a member, I’m the leader!. (talking about conspiracy theories…)
I’d also point out that psuedo is, as usual, an idiot without a fingernail’s grasp on actual facts. I don’t let anything other than the facts determine my position. I’m an agnostic atheist through and through and see no need for nor reason for me to believe in a God or gods. I oppose and have opposed both the nature and conduct of the war in Iraq as well as most of Bush’s politics. I’m just not trapped in a comic book fantasy world where there’s only Good and Evil, and anybody who finds value in faith or is more conservative than I am is Evil. The fact that Der is an unrepentant bigoted asshole doesn’t determine my positions, my positions determine the fact that I find his bigotry and rancid character to be abhorrent.
It’s interesting and elucidative that the group of people who habitually defend worthless, hate-crazed loons like Der also are on record as defending trolls like BadChad.
These emotional cripples evidently live with such fear in their hearts that they can’t even see being friends with people who have a different aesthetic about the unprovable parts of reality. That theists and a-theists must remain on totally opposite ‘sides’, as warring camps, rather than simply acknowledging that as long as you’re a good person, whether you worship Jesus or Ganesh or don’t believe in any God or gods doesn’t matter any more than if you prefer swiss to cheddar or chocolate to vanilla.
The paranoid delusion (and make no mistake, it dsplays a disturbing level of paranoia) that if enough people were religious us agnostics’ and atheists’ lives would be “difficult or perhaps impossible” is so insane I’m not even sure where to begin on it. To start with, the vast, vast majority of people are already spiritual if they don’t belong to an organized religion. And, lo and behold, the paranoid fantasy that leads nuts like pseudo to fear for their very lives has no connection with reality. Christians aren’t kicking in our doors, aren’t dragging us in chains to their churches or the Auto De Fe.
Yes, there is a strong religious drive behind initiatives like Proposition 8, but then again, there are religious people who oppose those measures too. (One of our family’s closest friends are a lesbian rabbi and her partner who were married in the first ever gay marriage performed in a Reform Jewish congregation).
The irony, and the truly pathetic thing is that most of us in the Western world live in the freest, most religiously tolerant time and place in the last few millenia. And these paranoids are still worried that their lives will be made impossible if more people were to follow Jesus’ example or practice Tikun Olam or struggle to improve their karma or adhere to the tenets of Buddhism or…
I’d add, as something of an aside, that since most of my extended family was actually (as opposed to theoretically at some point in the future in some paranoid delusion) butchered either during the Pogroms or the Holocaust for the ‘crime’ of being Jewish, these motherfuckers who hop on on the cross and demand their right to be unbearable assholes to theists out of ‘self defense’ are, simply, cowards.
Ballless, gutless, whinging, whimpering, quivering, pseudo-martyr cowards.
It’s sad that crazy bigots like pseudo, der and dribble are so terrified of a simple difference of opinion that they view the other side as not just different, but ‘evil’. For what it’s worth, the three of those paranoid nutters rolled up into one great big towering paranoid sphincter wouldn’t be worth the dirt under the fingernails of someone like Polycarp or Zoe who, for all their flaws, are decent, good people. And despite any of their virtues, the three paranoids in this thread are utterly irredeemable hate-filled, hate-driven, hate-spewing loons.
Ahem.
This thread can now return to its regularly scheduled LeKatt-clone bashing.
What in the name of Brock Samson’s bloodstained codpiece? Are you seriously claiming to send a spirit after somebody? There are so many things wrong with this that you’re making Helena Blavatsky look like Stephen Hawking.
First of all, you claim this will harm nobody, and then you say that somebody may get a flat tire. You know that flat tires can be dangerous right? Second, from my amateur knowledge of esoteric spirituality, what you claim to be doing is extremely dangerous. Of course it goes without saying that to most people you just sound batshit bonkers, which while I won’t go that far, I will say that I don’t believe you command spirits around, sorry.
What’s the matter with a simple flat tire?!? If getting a flat tire ruins your day – especially if you have no plans to drive anywhere – then you really need to seek out counseling, because you have a major problem. Call AAA, or contact a friend with an air pump, let them fix the problem. Besides, all I said was “witness” – it doesn’t have to be your car.
Out of curiosity…what’s your favorite type of hamadryad? I’m guessing it’s #7 on that list (Ampelos; aka vines, esp. grape vines) but that’s mainly based on this post, which btw is what you skeptics call a “hot read”. 
Interestingly, your OP in that link does contain Nathaniel’s true name…that’s right, “Nathaniel” is not his real name. (Spirits have privacy concerns just like regular human beings.)
I gotta agree with that. There is too much unreasoning hate and sides-choosing.
I’m no believer in Yaweh, Jesus or Allah, but I’ve taken to avoiding most religious discussion on this site because the well is bound to be poisioned from the start. I go elsewhere for reasonable discussion on such issues.
It is too bad. In real life, some of the best stay-up-until-3-in-the AM discussions I’ve ever had was with another couple - who are a Protestant Christian married to a Muslim (Sufi) - with myself the atheist Jew (interested in Taoism) and my wife a Catholic. Eye-opening to me. Can never happen here, I think.
I thought you all claimed this was bullshit, everything I’ve said so far. Why are you getting upset now? As far as everyone’s concerned, I’m just some random kook, right?
It’s a damned (no pun intended) shame, but you’re almost definitely correct.
I remember, when I was a young child I went on something called Project Understanding. Six Reform Jews and six Catholics along with one rabbi, a priest and an American Muslim woman who’d ‘gone native’ after she’d been living in Syria for several years and adopted the practice of wearing (I believe it’d be correctly called) an abaya. And all of us, together, toured Israel and the holy sites that were sacred to each of the three faiths.
Even then I was an a-theist and I was lucky enough to have some truly excellent discussions on morality and ontology with the Catholics and especially with the priest, a man who was a former bar tender and to this day remains one of the funniest guys I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.
It’s an absolute shame that we couldn’t ever have a discussion like that on the Dope without some rhetorical bomb chucker bulldozing in and frothing about how religious people are evil and mentally ill.
Nice try, but I really don’t feel the need to complete the personal connection you’re attempting to make. Thanks for the link, though - hadn’t read it in at least 4 years, and I can assure everyone that I still hate poison ivy with the same raw passion.
The connection is already complete. I’ve laid down the rhythm, and all that’s required is a curious spirit to follow the rhythm to its distant branches, wherever the path may lead. For the record, I don’t think anything at all will happen (and even if it does, I’m confident you will write it off as mere coincidence) but it would still be interesting to know the results of this little experiment – send the results via PM tomorrow, if you can spare the attention. 
I do think the vast majority of what you say is merely your own delusion, but on the chance that A) spirits such as you mention exist, and B) you are messing with one… well, in my tradition at least, things typically end poorly.
Speaking of auras, I tend to be extremely sensitive to other people’s emotional states. While I don’t see anything physical, people going through extreme positive or negative emotions can almost seem to exude a type of energy. Now, do I believe this is something metaphysical? While I dabble with the idea, I believe that it’s really mostly useful as a metaphor, and that it’s extremely likely it’s a combination of body language, subconscious social cues, and my somewhat above-average emotional skills. I guess my point is that perhaps you should try seeking out a natural explanation for your aura thingy before you jump to spiritual conclusions. This goes for Nathaniel as well.
Also, I wouldn’t call myself upset. More like extremely concerned. I’m also very curious. On top of that, I also enjoy poking you. Like I said before, a little of Column A…
Of course I’m typing all this on the assumption that you do not live under a bridge. If you are banned for trolling, I will release the man-eating ducks, ala Skald.
Wow, if you think I meant anything remotely mystical or spiritual, and if you think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that I’m PMing you tomorrow - no, there’s really no “if,” since I don’t think I could think you’re any more out of touch with reality than I already do.
One of these days I’ll learn to stop poking the crazy. But not today; no, not today.
You’re preaching to the choir here, my friend. I’ve experimented with all sorts of magick, including dark magick, and yes, it does have a tendency to reflect and trigger instant, negative karma – even if you set the boundaries & time limits properly, there’s always risk. Especially Black Magick (the type where you deliberately wish harm or death on another human) – that sort of magick you do. not. fuck. around. with. It doesn’t even matter if Black Magick really works or not – because, if you believe 100% that you have caused harm to someone using only power of your mind, it will fuck with your conscience like crazy, if you have any sort of humanity at all. Trust me, I know the potential dangers.
What you’re talking about sounds like regular empathy, a natural yet poorly-understood human emotion which has been the subject of many recent neurological studies, which has led to the discovery of mirror neurons. Pretty kewl, huh? 
I remember your previous response – that’s how I determined you were genuine. Like Hamadryad, I don’t mind a little friendly ribbing – as long as it’s friendly, right?
Post the results in this thread, then, if you don’t want to PM me directly.
Try learning to spell it before you practice it. Yes, I know some nerds throw a “K” on there to pretend it’s real; it’s still properly “magic.”
BTW, it doesn’t exist.
Most wiccans I know still spell it with a “k”, so I utilize that spelling to differentiate “magick” (the real-world kind) from fictional “magic”, the kind that only exists in fantasy novels & MMORPGs.
Hey man, don’t make me sic Nathaniel on you. 
Sorry, but you’re not right.
The word “magick” was coined, or I should probably say “re-minted” by Aleister Crowley in order to differentiate magick from stage magic and the like. Magick, properly defined, is the art and science of inducing a change in reality in conformity with one’s will. That’s it. Science is magick. Tehcnology is magick. A ritual that makes you feel good and powerful is a magickal ritual because it works, not because any magical spirits and monsters are granting you special powers. Just like I still find Shabat services to be immensely comforting and calming, and yet I don’t believe in any God behind the rituals, at all.
That doesn’t mean I endorse, support (or understand) half of what KGS is on about, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater please.
I used to be like you.
I, of course, never had a “Nathaniel” at my beck and call, but I was a firm believer. I reveled in my “powers” that made me better than the people in my life that I disliked.
By your way of thinking, I have killed 2 human beings.
But the reality is, I haven’t. Because there is no Nathaniel. There is no “power” to channel in order to affect reality in the way you are saying.
So, to you sir, I issue this challenge, if you can hack it:
My given name is <a secret --Giraffe>. I am a sag, born in the year <of the goat --Giraffe>.
My “Magickal” name, when such a thing was important to me, was “Archimedes”.
In general, during invocation, I would call on the Celtic pantheon, though I learned that names really didn’t matter. According to what I have learned, apparently I was rather Hermetic later on, in that I didn’t believe that candles and incense were necessary to inact a change.
I live in Western Pennsylvania.
Send your Nathaniel. Cause badness in my life, and I will report it. But if nothing untoward or out of the ordinary happens, I will report that as well.
I absolve you of any backlash on this. Bring it on.
I await your reply. IF you need any further information, feel free to ask (though I won’t get to specfic on location, for obvious reasons).