The Power Within
There is no doubt in my mind that there is a hidden power in the human brain. A power that most humans aren’t even aware they possess, a trait so powerful that it shapes entire lives…
I’m talking of course about the power of self deception. You’d have to be delusional to believe you have psychic powers…unless of course, you’re Lil K. That kid is obviously psychic. Look at him go! His head is definitely big enough to have hidden abilities locked away inside it! I sure as shit hope he got some special psychic talent to make up for what amounts to a hideous physical deformity.
Maybe some day he can use his powers to reshape his giant square head…that would be pretty useful!
For thousands of years, humans of all cultures have claimed to possess powers beyond the everyday. Whether it is the ability to commune with the deceased, the power to see into the future, or any number of seemingly paranormal attributes, you can bet someone somewhere has tried to convince others they and they alone are able to assist their fellow man with it…for a small fee of course. These individuals have offered innumerable explanations for such amazing abilities, from the religious (God or gods have given them this gift) to the secular, (something biological they possess) to the really weird (aliens!).
The problem with all this is that science has never been able to prove any of it, not even with fat rewards like the one offered by James Randi, a world renowned skeptic of all things paranormal. Even with one million dollars on the lines, nobody has ever been able to pass the preliminary tests the JREF has created to assess these claims of psychic power. That seems a little strange right? There are tons of psychics out there! There are the big ones that get on TV like John Edwards the fellow that communicates with the dead. There are lesser known, but still fairly popular individuals that write books and give seminars on the subject of psychic powers. There are those little small town psychics that you see in middle America, working out of their homes. There are even phone psychics that can tell you the future for just a few dollars a minute! Remember Miss Cleo? That chick HAD to be psychic, right?
As it turns out, not so much. None of these people have ever been able to prove anything they claim in the lab, if they’ve even tried. Most of the successful psychics out there even give themselves away through the legal documentation they’re forced to provide for themselves. That John Edwards guy even has an NDA that all audience members are forced to sign before they can enter the staging area! Phone psychics are forced to tell you that their services are for “entertainment only” and that they should not be taken seriously. That’s not exactly a glowing recommendation of their own product now, is it?
So what’s the deal? How can these people become so successful without ever proving themselves to the scientific community? How have some humans made a living off of others by way of psychic abilities for thousands of years? The answer is simple: delusion. People want comfort about the future. They want to know what’s around the corner, they want to feel comforted by the thought that someone somewhere has the answers and that those answers are simple. Unfortunately, the universe we live in isn’t a simple one, our lives and the lives of all living things are incalculably complex.
While the thought of an ever changing, complex, and difficult universe may frighten and scare some people, there is solace in the idea that everything changes. As long as we can embrace change, we can continue to grow as individuals. No rut, no bad luck is ever permanent. There is always a path to better things.
Everything changes.
Why not embrace it?
EDIT: Since there seems to be some confusion, this post is not about religious experiences nor is it about ceremonial or ritual magic. It is specifically about claims of being able to perform paranormal phenomena and even more specifically about using those claims for money or to mislead others.
The determination! If someone were to tell me that they’ve never attempted such a feat, I think I would happily watch as their trousers set aflame. In all honesty, I give it a good go every once in a while; you know, to see if I’ve miraculously obtained the ability to send evil-doers rocketing into the atmosphere, never to be seen from again.
Or at least roast a marshmallow without a flame. Let’s face it, who (besides people whom don’t like roasted marshmallows, or the mallows in general) wouldn’t want that type of psionic ability?
Very funny. ♥
It’s like Lil K’s subconscious thinks of his friend as a block o_o lol
They both have such square shaped heads…I guess it’s not really that far off! hahah
Always a fun topic! I’m a tarot reader, personally. I’ve been deemed pretty accurate by those I’ve given readings to. The thing I always have to remind people, though, is the future isn’t set in stone. Those who claim to know EXACTLY are fakes. Generally those who seek money off it are fakes, too.
On another note, for some reason your color pallate in this one seems different o.o Not in a bad way, though. Maybe I’m seeing things.
It’s the green eyes.
I’ve experienced far too much personally to discount that there indeed exist phenomena in this world, that tend to be branded as ‘psychic,’ that we as of yet can not explain. I’d be dead right now if I hadn’t.
…That’s not to say that there aren’t tons of hacks out there, of course there are. People want money and also want to believe that they have something others don’t and also want to bond with others through shared spiritual experiences, etc. But it is important to realize that we don’t have all the answers, none of us, when it comes to these sorts of things, and I’d say it’s a sort of self-delusion of having those answers, to pass it all off at once as bunk.
Ye gods, I love this comic.
Practicing magician here- I can’t speak for ‘psychics’ but… Your post makes a number of assumptions about people like me that I cannot correct specifically (it would take volumes) but I do want to point out the fact as you are otherwise going to misunderstand that entire set of stuff- and it is a big and influential set of stuff in pretty much every culture, and of massive historical significance. A single illustrative example: most people think alchemists were attempting to turn lead to gold because, hey, gold! They were not. While they did conduct chemical experiments for their own sake, that was not the core of their practice either. They were attempting a personal union with God, enlightenment. Reactions like turning lead into gold were signs of progress- you couldn’t do that until you’d reached sufficient enlightenment, dig? They were, as a rule, already rich men- the last thing they needed was more gold.
Of the many magicians I know, only the absolute noobs are after things like a million dollars. There are certain differences in perspective and values that come with practice- very similar to the ones you get from really practicing Buddhism.
Most of what is really going on in the arena of magic is hidden- occult- either because the authors intentionally obfuscated things in their texts (the alchemists were huge into that) or because there are a whole bunch of things you just can’t tell somebody no matter how hard you try- they have to learn by doing. Aleister Crowley, for instance- you know, The Beast, 666- was trying really really hard to achieve union with his holy guardian angel, with God. “Do what thou wilt” does not mean “be an amoral jackass” it means you are supposed to become so good that you will only want to do the right things. You’d never know it by lookin at him or just skimming his books, would ya? That was on purpose.
Practicing ritual magic (or any ritual or ceremony) is not the same, nor have I tried to equate it with, claims of being able to perform paranormal feats for monetary gain. The post is primarily about those that use claims of psychic abilities to fleece other people out of money or to mislead them with information they cannot possibly possess.
If you do either of these things, yes you fall under the category of discussion in the post. If you do not, it is an entirely different thing.
I’ve studied ritual magic, I have friends who have practiced magic in the past and some who still do today. I have friends that believe in the powers of crystals, tarot, or auras. I do not think belief in these things makes you a bad person nor was I trying to imply that in the post. I didn’t really get into the specifics of any particular topic because each one would require pages and pages to discuss thoroughly.
After heavily researching everything from modern wiccan rituals to ancient Chinese geomancy I have to say I don’t entirely agree with what you’re saying about magic being hidden from the masses, but hey maybe there’s some cabal that has kept information from me, I suppose that’s possible.
Also, I’m very much aware of the union of spirit and physical matter inherent to all alchemical practices, whether they be European in nature or Asian as in the case of the Taoist practices of China.
I’d like to clarify here that the people that comment on the strip whenever their personal belief system is examined in the blog post like to accuse me of somehow “misunderstanding” their particular set of beliefs and that I “make assumptions” are often making very quick assumptions about me, often about topics that aren’t being covered in the post. The blog is not as thorough as it could be, I will admit that, but it is usually a mix of my own opinion along with the facts I feel capable of providing. I cannot write a 10 page research paper for every strip that covers every facet of every belief.
TLDR: When people think that I make assumptions, they are generally misreading or misinterpreting the blog post. This particular blog was not about ritual magic or magical beliefs, it was about claims of psychic phenomena, specifically those individuals that take money from others in exchange for such services. I do not and will never agree with (or advocate) people taking money from others for such things, even if they earnestly believe in what they are doing and I will always speak out against it.
What threw me was the line “For thousands of years, humans of all cultures have claimed to possess powers beyond the everyday…for a small fee of course.” which seemed to include a lot more than your local “psychic readings” shop.
I’m sorry if I offended you- as I seem to have- that wasn’t my intent. It really did seem to me like you were missing out on the inner workings of an important cultural phenomenon.
As to things being hidden- sometimes they are intentionally so, with authors tossing complete hogwash into their books to trip up the non-initiate, and sometimes its because you just can’t explain something, it has to be experienced.
Shutting up now.
Magicians know how to appear to bend reality. Houdini spent a good part of his life showing people what happened on the other side of the glass, so to speak. Deception that leads to happiness is a very dangerous thing, in that people seem to gravitate towards it. From human sacrifice to “make up” for a bad crop, to snake oil, to Kau Cim readings, to miracle homeopathic remedies. These are all ways to remove human responsibility so everyone feels a bit better.
A relative of mine that lived a long long time ago was an alchemist, published in the Theatrum Chemicum in 1602. They were trying to bring all of the knowledge of alchemy together. And it eventually fizzled out as a movement, not because the non-believers, but because more accurate ways of explaining what they were trying to explain came about in science.
haha I’m sorry, one of the things I hate about this comments section is that it’s really hard to have an actual conversation with someone else. I would never ask anyone to shut up unless they were being disrespectful, which you were not.
My tone comes across as irritated but I’m really just trying to be as clear as possible. You don’t know me and I don’t really know you, so it can be hard to get a sense of what someone does and doesn’t know, it’s easy to make assumptions in an internet comments forum. I don’t think you were being a jerk at all or anything like that, I think you just misread a little bit and I wanted to set the record straight a bit about what the blog was about.
I think some readers have a little work to do in not jumping to assume that I’m talking specifically about them or that I dislike their beliefs, I also think I have some work to do in clarifying the blog posts a bit more haha
Please don’t shut up, I like conversing with readers, I also just like being very clear about things as well 🙂
“Since there seems to be some confusion, this post is not about religious experiences nor is it about ceremonial or ritual magic.”
Right, but it may as well be. Anyone who answers a question with, “because magic,” or “because god,” is a charlatan.
What if the answer is “because of a magic god”?
That seems very ignorant, I really hope you didn’t mean to be condescending or insulting. Also, this comic and especially the blog post have little to do with religion. The comic sports god-cat, and the blog post mentions that some religions do different stuff that doesn’t fall under what he’s calling out. Also, it isn’t terrible to believe in miracles or phenomena or higher powers when science can’t explain something, it’s just doing your best to cope with what you’ve got with the best explanation you’ve got.
haha nice. By the way, are you trying a different style with this comic? It looks like it was drawn a bit differently.
ready for anime boston?
What was the chicken sandwich like?
Mind blowing?
In the comic what is displayed I’d call it more telekinesis. I wouldn’t be suprised if some people getting money from others for reading the future had some sort of telepathy, as in reading minds, or knowing what the person feels. You tell someone what they want to, and want to not hear you can get money from them. Now, if i were one who was more psychic I’d probably be trying to get money too, (trying to play the lotto and guessing right numbers counts as well) but I am not. I wonder though if the 1% has some in there, as in, how come they are billionaires? Maybe? Maybe =).
I would say I have it a litte, as in, sometimes, as in maybe a big one once every three years of “knowing”. To explain it, I would call it a tingle, or my spider sense, then I think of some words and it happens. I tell people about it, most don’t believe me, and even if I’m like, “oh, watch over there, there is going to be a car accident” they look and see it, then the question comes up of, “How did you see that?” as in physically, how did I notice before it happened, and I say, “I just knew” and which they shrug it off and say, “sure”. So even with others out there with less and way better abilities than my own. I’m not suprised that they don’t tell any or many because no one believes them, even the wife of a friend of mine has it and my friend doesn’t really believe it or is shocked to know that she knows so much of what is to be.
I believe her and believe in her because she tells me and I know. She would tell me and her husband that someone at church is going to announce that they are pregnant next week and they do, sometimes she wants to help by warning people of certain days and being safe driving but for the most part she keeps it to herself. Sometimes she goofs up and would say congratulations about the baby, to someone and they would be like, “How did you know?” because they haven’t announced it yet.
I had a friend who was a friend of her as well and said it was “Satan’s power” and that mine was “God’s intuition” well she isn’t a friend of either because claiming a knowing over another is one such religious power is wacko. Sure this whole thing sounds wacko to some. I go to church sometimes, don’t know where my knowing comes from, but I don’t feel like branding it to any source or god.
Funniest moment was when I found out she had the ability to know, and she found out about me as well, “Uhhh,” she said, “you might want to slow down driving some” driving on the freeway to their place, “I know” I said, thusely began the conversation.
Sorry for long winded post. XD One last thought though, if you can change the strings of destiny, wouldn’t you? (not that I believe in one pure destiny, I have my own feelings of how things go and do not go but this would make this post a multi page post) =)
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1989-06-02/
Great minds, thinking alike? 😉
Nyahahaha, I wonder how many other people stare at a box and try to make it float? I always tried to psychokinesis distant food items to me, hasn’t worked out so far.
Telephagia would be a nice explanation for how less stuff is in the kitchen by degrees. How are my leftovers are smaller than 20cc but all represented…
How long ’til we get the wirework outtakes where the hero’s flailing less than balletic on an implausible arc? There just weren’t enough in _Crouching Dragon… _ or for that matter MI5: oddly sharp drops into Burj Khalifa windows.
well i am mildly empathic and when i enter a room i can sense the emotions of everyone in the room which makes it much easier to keep from being the one to set someone off who is a emotional time bomb, allowing me sit back and watch as they erupt in the face of the person who ended up asking them a question. So there,,,…,.,.
The human mind can do some really awesome stuff, including some stuff which we normally consider to be impossible, such an adrenaline rush bypassing our inherent safeguards that prevent us from using our full body strength. Seriously, most people can physically lift about six times as much as they are able to under normal circumstances just because we have built-in limitations so we don’t screw up our bones and such since they can’t handle that kind of stress on a regular basis… but under certain circumstances, we can do some really crazy stuff. The power of the placebo effect is another scary-strong example of just how amazing the stuff the brain can do when it goes at a problem full-force. Levitation, however, is not one of those things, no matter how awesome it would be.
Unless you consider using the mind to invent aircraft, jetpacks and that kind of stuff. Which are still pretty awesome, so maybe we can loosen the definition up a little bit so we can shove those in there somehow?