The current title for this article is toxic acceptance that may or may not change. It’s really about being able to question experiences – especially our own, but certainly those of others that obviously need it.
I was reading a post on a forum a while ago and I remember that this person grabbed a series of supposed clues and then tied them together to form a sort of causality for a natural event that happened where several people were killed. These events happen regularly and this person had no particularly advanced practice and haven’t had one in the past. From what I remember of these supposed clues were they saw a clock at 11:11, heard some song that had nothing to do with drowning (but something about change), and they had a bad dream that had nothing to do with drowning. Then trying to say that they had caused this flood and were responsible for these people drowning.
When I brought up that none of these clues seem to be tied together in a meaningful way to anybody else but this person and tried to offer opinions on why some may be and others weren’t, I was the one whose posts were attacked rather than the idea these tenuous linkings that clearly had nothing to do with each other. It was perfectly fine to put together very random things to form a connection like someone with a schizo-affective disorder but as soon as somebody brought up that there didn’t seem to be linkings between these things, all of a sudden I wasn’t being accepting of this person’s experience. I was the one who they felt wasn’t thinking clearly. I wish I could say it was only one or two. Only one wanted to take the heavy lead in deliberately deluding this person.
This may be hard for a few people, but I don’t believe that all opinions or experiences are equally valid. This this is going to be the same opinion for someone else reading my stuff. I’m certainly not going to swallow nonsense just to appease some random internet stranger to fulfill my need to feel needed/wanted/important.
I don’t know what happened in the rest of that conversation because I decided that it wasn’t worth my time and energy to fight with the main pretend princess who wanted it to be “right” because she simply wanted to provide comfort to someone and wanted the attention back from them. Rather than try to put some common sense to the situation and say let’s take a step back.
I’m not saying that crazy experiences don’t happen. They happen to me sometimes. It has happened to others whose opinions I trust. Weird stuff that happened in and out of ritual, but I think we’re kind of in a place right now where people just accept anything and that really doesn’t help the person learn from those experiences.
There are always cases where we are tested with something like this and typically it is to see if we are being able to discern the truth or not. Blindly accepting any experience by other people as valid doesn’t necessarily help them learn discernment. Without learning discernment, we’re never really going to know whether what we just heard was our self telling us what we want to hear, whether good or bad, or whether it was genuine communication from the spirit we thought we were talking to or communication from a sort of trickster spirit or one with malicious intent. This person now thinks they shouldn’t critically question any experience that they have. If they can cause a flood without knowing it, what else can they do? Cue Delusion 101 music.
I think we may want to collectively take a step backwards and start reviewing some of these experiences, especially our own, to help further our own progress and by doing so acquiring the abilities to help others with theirs in a meaningful way that doesn’t encourage fantasy and wishful thinking. I used to collect old psychic books from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s and one thing they all had kind of in common is that they lacked any sort of discernment. Consequently most of those books are no longer in print, no longer add value, and didn’t make any real mark on the community. It was a bit easier to see back then because there was less information available than there is today and the amount of this information is partly why this is needed more than ever.
You can make the argument that most people have trouble discerning real news from fake and there is merit (and actual studies) to support this. That’s absolutely fair and clearly means we need to try harder to get better at this. That includes questioning things we read – especially if they’re telling us what we want to hear or are looking to use emotion to cloud judgement. We need to understand when it’s just an internet source telling us what we want to hear and whether it’s more substantial than your Uncle Cletus’ Dirty Sock Divination Facebook group.
It should be pretty clear to any non-beginner than some poor internet soul likely didn’t cause that flood that was bound to happen again that season. A fair number of magicians in that same skill level as that poor soul have trouble conjuring up necessities or simply wants. Advanced magicians, potentially, but a beginner with no regular practice isn’t a likely cause when they had no attachment to the event or outcome. And what did that person learn from those determined to agree for their own personal agendas? I’ll tell you what they didn’t learn…
Discernment. Discerning that not all perceived links have genuine meaning. That the desire to have that sort of latent power doesn’t mean one has it available (or has it, but I’m feeling generous). That those that immediately validate your experience are genuine and experienced enough to know what they’re talking about.
I get that we don’t have a responsibility for other people’s practices. I do admit that I feel a bit guilty for removing my responses looking back on it. Up to the time I stopped following it, I was the sole source of reason in that thread -if I recall correctly. I wish I had left it up, even if it kept resulting in belligerent replies. Taking down posts of different points of view means that the appeasers are what’s remembered. They will usually have the louder voices and may actually be decent at what they pretend to know, but it will be the only voice and seem more factual for it even if they aren’t.
So, yes, this post will stay up. I have a sort of debt to pay to that poor internet soul and myself. It’s not too inflammatory unless someone’s looking for a new target or needs to feel emotionally satisfied by harassing others to drown out their differing voice. I can’t compete with their online presence any more than they could probably compete with my magical one. After all, we typically get better at what we actually do.
