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I personally think in Magick, self-induced brain-change brings you to, what R. A. Wilson calls, Chapel Perilous, which appears to be very similar to the symptoms of schizophrenia. I went through an extreme initiation through "Chapel Perilous" back in 1994-95 in much the same way Wilson describes in Cosmic Trigger, only without the aid of psychedelics. And I have been trying to get back to that ultimate state of awareness, where the really weird stuff starts happening, ever since. You come out on the other side of these "reality tests" completely changed. As Wilson says in Trigger, "You come out the other side either a stone paranoid or an agnostic; there is no third way." To put it into "magickal" terms Wilson also says this:
Quote:
Everything you fear is waiting with slavering jaws in Chapel Perilous, but if you are armed with the wand of intuition, the cup of sympathy, the sword of reason and the pentacle of valor, you will find there (the legends say) the Medicine of Metals, the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher's Stone, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness.
The difference would be that a schizophrenic does not realize that they are permanently living in Chapel Perilous, and not by choice. Another case to study, related to Magickal practice, would be Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones). He allegedly took the Oath of the Abyss and became a "schizophrenic" or a genius depending on who is looking. If I remember correctly, and someone else may be able to correct me here, Frater Achad ended up naked in the streets of a Canadian city (I forget which one). The life of Science Fiction writer Phillip K. Dick, may be worthy of note here also. He started to experience "reality" similar to the characters and themes in his own fiction. If you can get a hold of his Exegesis you will see the writings of someone trying to understand the not-so-understandable. He "fictionalized" his experiences in the VALIS trilogy and Radio Free Albemuth for anyone interested. He seemed to have had a "schizophrenic" experience, partially induced by mega-doses of vitamins, some sort of pain-killer, and an abscessed tooth (I think), but came out the other side perfectly sane as far as I can tell. He tried to make sense of it for the rest of his life by writing it all down in the "exegesis" (some may say that is insane). All of these things that Wilson and Dick are talking about in their books; hearing voices, hallucinations, contact with higher intelligence, religious experiences, paranoia, numerical obsessions, etc. are also common symptoms of schizophrenia. |
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