some wack religious spooky business

I have some interesting information to share as well as some maybe less interesting personal and spooky stuff. About 6 years ago I started getting into religion as many do because I was desperate. Then a year of being atheist again, and then the next year back into exploring chrisitianity but this time because I was seeking for answers outside of science. I had always been drawn to religion even as the young child of an agnostic mother who studied philosophy. Later I converted to Islam, mainly just because I liked it. I researched into lots of religions and not really out of seeing any as more true than the other and more just how I could fit it into my life I became muslim. Around this time I was heavily addicted to amphetamines and was also taking a lot of psychadelics, so while I had lots of visions during this time I cant really say they amount to anything or are worth sharing. Anyways because I guess im more interested in religion in a broader sense I guess I continued reading and doing some research. Id been putting off Judaism for awhile, after all I had read the bible and the Torah is just the first five books or whatever. Regardless in an amphetamine binge I cut out those Moses books from the bible and read them seperately and did more research and found out about the Zohar. Specifically I was interested in it because of stories I had been hearing about god as being androgynous, which I had then heard the Zohar has much to say about. There is no question in my mind about god being neither male nor female, nor anything in particular, but to make things short this is androgynous in a different sense and had more material implications I was interested in. My research has led me to hear some strange things. One is about something called Jerusalem syndrome, where upon visiting Jerusalem some tourists enter sort of a religious psychosis. But I was also reading things from Rabbis claiming that the Zohar itself induces a similar madness in those not holy enough, or not meeting certain requirements. While on some level this doesnt surprise me, as certain cultural practices and religions can induce psychological damage on those not accustomed to it, it is interesting in that it is a Jewish text that many Jews themselves seem scared to read, or will not even touch it. If this were true this wouldnt be the same as Jerusalem syndrome, where a foreigner is being exposed to this new environment and new ideas. For clarification the Zohar supposedly is teachings of Kabbalah, the Jewish mystic tradition, written down. Its incredibly complex, my own readings so far can confirm that, and also supposedly contains the names of angels, which I have yet to see unless I am misinterpreting or unaware of certain bits being the names. Or rather if those unfamiliar with it are assuming certain words are the names of angels. Im at a certain point where I may cease reading it in light of these recent findings about psychological damage, my health comes first these days. Likewise the religious aspect of me does not want to piss off any supernatural beings if what is said about angel names is true. Regardless I have intense dreams so ive been paying attention to those as ive read. Im expecting an interesting one tonight if I fall back asleep, ive already had two ive woken from but the sleep wasnt deep enough to produce anything interesting. If not tonight tommorow night. Anyways im curious to hear what some of you have heard about this book, regardless of your religious beliefs. Should I stop or continue? I forgot to mention part of my caution is due to being told from a questionable source we could say that I am not to pursue answers about reality/god/etc. anymore because my brain isnt ready. That in another life I may be, but not this one, and my concern should be down here. So if I seem overly superstitious of what amounts to just words this is why. As I said questionable source though, and I may have a questionable interpretation of what the questionable source actually said.

The deep well of occultism and magic goes down far, who knows what you might find. I have simply collected knowledge from diverse sources, but nothing that i can put in reasonable context yet. It can certainly lead to psychosis in those not ready, no literature can prepare you to go down that road. You must seek your power and wisdom from within and spend some time doing psychonautics and get in touch with your spiritual core. If you get sucked in so hard maybe try to read some other books to get new perspectives and take your mind off. Maybe the visions you had will make sense one day, or wont idk. Visions can only be properly interpreted if your mind is sufficiently adjust to the patterns of the higher realm. Good luck wherever you go and dont forget to love lain on the way.

I am on your plane

>>14976 The tricky part of anything having to do with occultism is the difficulty to make the distinction between your own mind playing tricks on you due to the power of suggestion and actual supernatural occurences. So, I guess the only good advice I can give you is to try to keep your head cool and try not to scare yourself to death. Anyway, I've never studied Kabbalah or any form of Jewish mysticism, but I can tell you that - wether or not there actually are supernatural beings - they feed on fear. And trust me, you'll know fear.

>>15108 yep. Basically, there are three possible outcomes upon encountering a threatening supernatural being: -option one: it is a hallucination and thus nothing to worry about -option two: it is simply trying to scare you so that you are weakened, and will back off if you show no fear. -option three: you fuarrrked with forces you shouldn't have and you will die or be driven to madness whether you show fear or not. Have good judgement, you can usually go by gut feeling, but never be gripped with fear. As the saying goes: fear is the mind-killer. I have had half-dreams that I interpreted as succubus visitations. I was worried, but so far there aren't really any bad side effects, and I have no idea what to do and don't trust the church which is the source of most western demonology, so I just enjoy the dream sex.

If you want an academic take on I guess I'll call it Abrhamic Occult tradition, check out Frances Yates works. The Zohar seems to have a lot in common with the work of people like John Dee although they cite The Book of Enoch mostly but I'm sure the Zohar was incorporated as well

>>15109 >I have no idea what to do Dragon's blood is the best banishing incense (short of sulfur, which you really don't want to burn indoors), open your windows, burn it while marching through your entire home. Recite the rite of the Stele of Jeu while at it for maximum effect. For future reference, put a couple houseplants and raw eggs into different rooms. If bad juju is around, the plants will inexplicably wither and the egg will rot before its time. >>15130 Dee seems like a sensible path to pursue for angelic stuff. I recommend the works of Lon Milo DuQuette on it. He's a long-term practitioner of Enochian, and the source material can be quite confused at times, and later rewrites by censors aren't helping. There's also works on learning the Enochian language as revealed to Dee as such, which, if Dee's claims are true, should be incredibly powerful, even rivalling the more orthodox barbaric names, except more controlled.

Just passing by, because I experienced something I don't really understand. Last year, I was under one of the most stressful and demoralizing moments of my life, to the point that one day, under the sum of fear and anger, I literally broke for a moment. I had a panic attack, had to lay down and because of my anger, I was so mad I didn't even want or cared to feel better, I was just... there, autistically screeching I guess. At that moment I felt like something, many things, were circling around me, like some kind of scavengers preparing themselves to feed on my fractured consciousness. I felt something I can't really describe, but for the first time, something intrinsically dirty or evil, not as socially ill or having antagonistic interests, but something that wasn't worth anything but contempt and disgust and which was (were) coming for me. I don't know why, but I felt like the only way out was to start praying, which is what I did. I'm not really a religious person, I mean, I strongly believe in God, but not in the devil, the creation in seven days or hell for whoever didn't receive the magic sacraments from the larping boy. But instead of clinging to dogma, I prayed by focusing on what I believe, good, righteousness and "incredulity in evil" I guess. The pressure started to diminish and around half an hour after, disappeared. I started to feel better around one week later. That episode pushed me to care about religion for a week and then despise it even more for its sectarianism and angry bearded man in the sky. But anyway, I can't figure out what was that feeling anymore, as I said, I believe "evil" to be the absence, not the opposite of "good" and I don't really believe in spirits or at least in demons. But I just don't know what happened back then, if it were actual spirits, me momentarily getting schizophrenic and being attacked by the blackest parts of myself, or anything else. Is there any similar story to compare to? Whether I believe them or not, I'd like to hear more on that subject.

>>15142 I have felt something similar as well. Like my being was prey to my inner daemons, feeling them circling me and waiting for the smallest opening to devour. I passed years fearing myself and putting myself into hibernation -- trying to minify the danger but then some things happened that reminded to me that I can be strong. And since I try to look this fellows with a laugh in my mouth and a tear in my eye, because I've started to get it -- it's just me.

>>15109 >option three Do you know of any examples of anybody dropping dead from entity contact without evidence of suicide, even a 'friend of a friend' story? Genuinely curious.

>>15142 >Is there any similar story to compare to? They're all over the place, just go digging for them. I'll give you some things you can search that may lead you to at least verify the phenomenon is real. You can find at least one piece of research on all in the 'secular' category, and beyond that you should be able to find personal accounts for each term. Secular phenomenon: Multiple personality disorder, dissociative identity disorder, tulpamancy, fictive, voice of god. Esoteric phenomenon: servitor, familiar, djinn/yokai/demon, yidam, demonic possession, poltergeist haunting, archeon. Personally speaking, I made a tulpa, which... either went corrupt, or... got killed by a demon, which then proceeded to fool me that it was my tulpa. It successfully took a low level of physical possession, which was preceded by a day of feeling what I can only describe as an extremely thick and intense aura of dread and negativity. Definitely not something you forget.

>>15152 no but I don't fuarrrk with that stuff. I don't fuarrrk with demons and I don't fuarrrk with faeries. Not something I want to get involved with. I just talk to trees. I have many alternate explanations for the sensations that I described as a succubus visitation. Psychic linking with someone feels more likely to me.

>>15152 There's Christopher Case that's said to have died in such a way. Not sure if you count those undergoing exorcism, but there's also a couple cases of death there (though you may say that it's the fault of the exorcism, what with suggestion and such).

>>15153 Thank you, I needed terms to make my own researches and you just gave me that. I'm not a secular fanatic, I think it's pretty retarded to close yourself that way in the name of openness. Especially since those people treat others like machines and disregard feelings and personnalities for their own "I know the human machine" power trips.

>>15108 Lower spirits usually feed on fear according to some occult sources i read. Higher spirits are usually friendly from what i hear but our spiritual plane is so full of negativity it gets attracted to us. More spiritually developed beings want to get us out of this mess, but they are not allowed to interfere without us being able to get the message. Higher spiritual beings usually have our wellbeing in mind without interfering in our natural development.