Laws of Magic IV: Law of Relative Truth

IV Law of Relative Truth

Every statement is true, false, and/or meaningless. This is a function of one’s vantage point (Worldview). It is possible for a concept or act to violate the truth of a personal universe and still be “true,” provided that it “works” in a specific situation. (This law is closely allied to Law VI: the Law of Paradox and Law I: The Law of Worldviews.) Essentially, The Law of Relative Truths allows personal worldviews to overlap and also to interact with the nominal universe which underlies all other existences, bridging the gap between Laws I and VI.

According to Law I, there are two kinds of Truth in the cosmos: one Absolute and the other Relative. The Absolute Truth is the unchanging and eternal Tao which underlies the world(s) we know. Relative truth, or what we consider reality, is faceted by the perceptions and desires of individual wills. It is ever changing because it is illusory. In our world of competing realities, it is a constant war of wills. If your will is strong enough, you can rewrite another being’s reality, but the price can be high. Every Worldview is real to those who have conscious awareness of it or give it credence, shaping it by their belief or disbelief. This is a very important Law as it pertains to sanity. If you cannot accept the idea of other realities, it is very possible that your mind could break when confronted by a truly alien Worldview, especially if that Worldview has the backing of multiple minds. If you have no option but to function within this worldview, it is best to go with the flow, but you must maintain your own Worldview at the same time as the Absolute to which you will eventually return. Most people do not have the strength of mind to segment their awareness in this fashion (explaining both the growing number of people who are diagnosed with mental disorders and the ease with which Slenderman seems to rewrite the minds of His victims).

Consider that water is wet only to creatures which do not live in water. We do not think of our habitat as “dry” any more than a fish thinks of its home as “wet.” The terms are meaningless to beings who have no reason to know them. In order to function within the parameters of another creature’s Worldview and cause changes there, you must be willing and able to suspend your own Worldview and accept the vantage point of that other being as true. This is tantamount to the adage that you must walk a mile in someone’s shoes before you can understand their choices; you must walk that "mile" before it is possible to make changes which the other person will accept as true and acceptable within the parameters of their own Worldview. It is impossible to change another being’s Worldview without first adopting their viewpoint and using it as a common stepping off point. The greatest danger here is that in adopting another's viewpoint, you can easily lose your own, permanently trapping you within the Worldview of the other (at best, making you schizophrenic).

To dismiss another person’s Worldview as false is to assume that only yours is true. You can still change some aspects of the other being’s Worldview, but this will depend largely on your will. In most cases, this will pertain only to the minor elements of the other being‘s viewpoint. This is a very difficult Law to put into practice and a very dangerous one to get wrong.

The Law of Relative Truth has far reaching ramifications however.

It explains the power of suggestion. For instance: someone tells you that you have been cursed. If you believe it, then your belief lends truth (and power) to the existence of the curse. Positive reinforcement, in other words. If you believe there is no curse, you have the power to negate its effects. If your will is strong (stronger than the person who has placed a curse on you), you can dismiss the curse completely as untrue.

It affects divination and visions of the future in what is referred to as self-fulfilling prophecy. If you are made aware of a possible future, that future is more likely to come to pass because you know of its possibility. This is especially true if you adopt a defeatist attitude of waiting for it to come to pass. Consider the “curse” a prediction of ill fortune. If you accept its existence, you have already lent energy to the creation of a future where its existence is validated.

It also pertains to the power of names. The power inherent in names is something the ancients were more aware of than we are today. Essentially a name has the power to call a thing and control it. The more names, or information, you have connected to a specific thing, the more control over it you have. Names, descriptions, even origins and dates, give you a better understanding of a thing and therefore more power over it. It can even allow you to create a thing.

Despite the fact that modern humans no longer take into account the power of names (forgoing the tradition of secret names, adult names, and the intentional destruction of names in order to harm the spirit of the dead), there has been some modern experimentation into this aspect of the Law of Relative Truth. Talking about a ghost or spirit gives power to that spirit to interact within the parameters of your Worldview. If someone is told that a house is haunted, even if they say they do not believe in ghosts, any doubt they may silently harbor gives a real (or imagined) spirit a window into the world of the observer.

This spirit may even be created by the belief of the observer (or it may be a spirit which uses the parameters of the belief to clothe itself in the trappings of our reality). (This is the Core Theory mentioned by many who know of Slenderman.) Even if someone does not know a house to be haunted, the fact that someone believes the house to be haunted allows anything there to make itself known. This logically extends to the creation of Thought-forms (also called Tulpas, servitors, egregores, golems, etc). Essentially, you can create a spiritual entity with the power of your belief, and this effect snowballs based on the number of observers who believe.

In the 1970s, The Toronto Society Of Psychical Research experimented with the concept of thought-forms, creating a spirit named Philip. They were extremely successful, though the groups were never able to explain the results of their experiment scientifically. (Unfortunately magical laws are inadmissible in scientific arguments!) Though this experiment was performed simply to ascertain “scientifically” whether it could be done, in magic, thought-forms or Tulpas can be given various tasks beyond simple séance-type interaction. Thought-forms can be asked to ward a place, person, or thing, to attack others psychically, gather information… essentially a thought-form can do nearly any task you set for it within the parameters you initially envisioned. It is very much like a computer program, or if ignored, like a virus or even a vampire. The danger lies in not assigning such a creature any function. Ignoring it will not make it go away or dissipate. Awareness of a thing lends power to its existence, however small a contribution that power may be. It will draw energy from you by making you notice it or through more direct means.

Laws of Magic: II Law of Attention

II Law of Attention:
All Worldviews exist as potential, gaining momentum the more energy and belief we put into them. The more one seeks to support a given law, conclusion, or Worldview, the more evidence one will find. We create our world, moment by moment (as illustrated by the first Law) by means of the recursive internal dialogue of words and symbols with which we constantly edit our perceptions. By focusing our attention to a specific purpose, we rearrange our worldview. In other words, belief is paramount to the function of magic, while doubt in oneself or one’s goal sabotage’s the goal before it can be achieved.

In physics, this is akin to the Observer Effect (some will no doubt get a chuckle from the name of this phenomena), whereby the results of an experiment changes with the observer (Ex. Schrödinger’s Cat). You can use this law to reinforce your Worldview. By seeking to validate your Worldview, you create the evidence you seek, which is both a function and a danger of this Law. Your subconscious provides the symbolism and signs to which your conscious mind responds. A kind of synchronicity occurs between your subconscious and conscious mind which results in coincidental observations. These observations make it seem that what you believe is true or increases your belief that something is true, thereby reinforcing your focus on your personal truth. If you don't see the danger here yet, then consider how our slender anti-friend hunts.

Though this is normally an unconscious function of the mind, it can be done consciously through the use of syllogisms (the conscious stringing together of symbols which lead your mind in a specific direction). Therein lies the power of the Law of Attention. So long as you can maintain focus on your personal truth, you can begin to bend reality to your will. The longer you are able to maintain this attention or the more energy you put into your desires, the more you are able to convince yourself, and the minds around you, of your personal truth. The more minds agree on a "truth," the longer the universe will allow it to last.

By simply desiring a Worldview to be true, your mind begins to discard any illusions between you and its validation (this is called "wish magic" by some). In other words, you see more evidence of its reality because you are no longer disregarding it. The evidence may have existed all along, but until you were ready to accept it, it remained hidden from you. On the other hand, you are also actively creating this evidence as you go as a means of reinforcing the Worldview you are consciously or unconsciously building.

In the long run, this Law is invaluable for strengthening your Worldview. By stringing along events and symbols in a logical fashion, you can prove a Worldview is possible. In doing so, changes to your current Worldview become easier. What I mean is, if you are attempting to alter your current Worldview to a new one (in other words- working a spell), then use of the second Law facilitates that change.

This law has a secondary function applicable to divination. It deals with interpretation of omens and portents which connect to our subconscious desires, and which many fail to note prior to the event they foretell. Those who have a talent for divination can learn to read the will of the Tao reality through the Law of Attention.

Affirmations are one of the easiest ways to put the Law of Worldviews into effect, but the Law of Attention deals more precisely with accessing the subconscious through symbolism. The simplest way to do this is by creating a sigil. A sigil can be produced by collecting any words which apply to the reality you wish to create. Some books will tell you to choose letters from an alphabet that the writer considers in some way magical, but any alphabet or system of symbols can be used. When you are just starting out, it is more important to be familiar with your tools (your own alphabet in this instance) as a boost to your confidence. Later you can choose an alphabet to which you may attach special significance.

To create a simple sigil, write a short sentence pertaining to your hoped for goal. Reduce each word to the first letter and throw out any letters which repeat. Combine the letters, eliminating shared lines, until you have a symbol which is a representation of all the letters. Draw this form on a clean sheet of paper, using whatever ink you feel appropriate. This will be your sigil once you empower it (by focusing your will on the symbol and investing it with the power of your belief in what it represents). Once you put it to use, watch for the changes you desire in your reality. Acknowledgment of those changes will further validate your worldview.

Laws of Magic: I Law of Worldviews

I Law of Worldviews

The world we perceive is not the true world. What we see is a mixture of the underlying reality (the Tao or objective, unknowable reality which supports everything we build upon it) and our perception (the subjective). Science supports the idea that by observing phenomena, we change it. While changing your worldview does not alter the eternal, real world, it does change the world you perceive. That is, by changing his worldview a magician is able to make real changes in the world which is real to humanity. (This will be explored further in Law VII: the Law of Reflections.)

Because there are an infinite number of ways to perceive the world, there are also an infinite number of worlds we may assemble without awareness. The true underlying reality is unknowable to us as long as we retain our worldview of separateness and self. Through meditation and other techniques, an explorer of this underlying reality can become one with it, but when joined to it, he can no longer step back and observe it, having become for that moment a part of it. As soon as he steps back, he begins to build observations about his experience, destroying the moment and obscuring the world which he has left. Thus there is no such thing as an independent observer. You participate in creating the world by perceiving it. This is then the objective all magic, bending reality to your will to create the phenomena or world you desire despite the will of others. The Will is the most powerful tool of a magician.

The Law of Personal Universes Every sentient being lives in and quite possibly creates a unique universe which can never be 100% identical to that lived in by another. So-called “reality” is a matter of consensus opinion.

The Law of Infinite Universes The total number of universes into which all possible combinations of existing phenomena could be organized is infinite. Anything is possible, though some things are more probable than others and so are easier to enact.

According to the Law of Worldviews and its sublaws, our reality is our own creation, attached tenuously to the underlying “real” world. Both worlds are real in so far as we are able to understand, both affect our well-being, but our personal reality is in constant flux, changing according to both the real world and our perception of it. Unlike the underlying reality however, only one’s own personal world may be altered willfully. The underlying reality remains unaltered. It is the foundation upon which we build our observations. A good example of this is the use of positive affirmations. When someone convinces themselves of the possibility of change, they bring that change into being.

True immersion in the “real” world would remove any desire for change. We cannot live in the “real” world (I believe it is as aspect of the Afterlife). It can be visited for short periods by minds that have attuned themselves to it, but staying too long might prevent the observer from returning or remove all desire to return (resulting in death). Since we cannot live in this “real” world, affirmations, meditations, and spellwork are valuable tools for reshaping the subjective world we must live in. Any attempt to alter the objective reality immediately removes the observer to the mutable universe of perception and creation. Only in the universes of our finite perception can change be put into effect. The world we each perceive is created by thought and desire and remains a mutable, warped copy of the underlying universe which exists as the bedrock of all our realities. (However, if your will is strong enough to affect the less material and therefore more spiritually mutable sister dimensions in direct contact with the world most of us see, it is possible to be incredibly kickass like the Amalgamation Sage.)

Because the number of possibilities in any individual universe are infinite, so too are the types of phenomena which can be caused through the application of will. However, since some phenomena are more probable than others, some will require less energy should they be attempted. For instance, it would be easier to create a pig than a flying pig, though creation of any matter from nothing would overtax our limited cognitive abilities.

Because each of us creates our own reality, it is difficult, though not impossible, for two or more people to agree upon the same phenomena. Police will tell you that witnesses to a crime rarely agree on the fine details of what they saw. Creation of phenomena is easier with one observer and becomes successively more difficult the more observers are included. Should a magician manage to obtain the cooperation of other observers however, either in suspending their expectations or in focusing their wills on a joint project (through agreed upon symbolism), the bending of reality to the Will becomes easier than with only one observer/magi. (More on this in Law IV.) This is also where the use of traditional tools and supplies comes into play. Stones, herbs, symbols, and other trappings of magic are powerful due to the combined will of generations of magicians using the same items in their own practice. It taps into the collective unconscious or what some call the Akashic Records.

The Law of Worldviews is a valuable tool towards understanding the underlying universe even as it affects the subjective universes of our perceptions. Application of this Law allows the creation or dispersal of energy in the form of phenomena. Belief is the all important factor. Believing something is possible allows it to be an option in your reality. Doubt destroys that possibility. Belief that something can hurt you, feeds the doubt that you can prevent that harm.

A person who believes in fairies, angels, spirits, etc, can communicate with them if they are present. Is this person delusional? Science would say yes, but such entities can cause changes to the physical universe that others can observe: temperature, weather, cumulative alterations in the subject. If multiple observers can be convinced to share a worldview, they will be able to function partially within that world, and the original observer within theirs. Shared perception creates a shared world through which the occupants may affect each other. The shared world will become more real based upon the number of believers in that world. Thus if three out of four people believe enough in the presence of a spirit, they may be able to empower that entity to appear or cause phenomena the fourth non-believer may experience despite his disbelief. It is not that we create a non-human entity (though it is possible to do so), but that we allow ourselves the option of perceiving it. Others may prefer not to allow it into their personal worldview and therefore, based on the strength of their will and belief, prevent it from manifesting in their reality.

This Law explains also the very real danger of cults, particularly Slendy and friends.