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Some quick thoughts on psychic/magical attacks, defense, and the general line of this thread.
First, let me be clear with is a psychic attack. A psychic attack is most commonly an attempt to circumvent and damage another’s Will, self-image, or what-have-you and thusly affect the target’s actions. This attack on self-image and create self-destructive urges within the target. While there are other, more direct attacks wherein a magician attempts to create direct harm, but I believe these to be less common and less effective, these direct attacks are not the focus of this article. Working from this definition, we can categorize sexual assaults, brainwashing, and psychological manipulations as psychic assaults. The defenses a magician uses against magical attacks should also be effective against these, more mundane attacks.
Having established that most psychic attacks are focused on changing the Will of the target, we can now examine effective responses against these attacks. These defenses should focus on reinforcing the positive aspects of the target’s personality in order to drown out alien self-destructive urges. In reaction to an attack on one’s self image, I would advice the target to move into safe areas, where one feels most comfortable, wear clothes that make them feel comfortable and powerful, do things they feel good doing and commit themselves to a regular regime of banishing rites.
Banishing rites are intended to make one feel safe and powerful. The magician is taught that by using banishing rites, he removes alien influences from his sphere, but really he is in fact bolstering his own ego by pretending that he has the power to dispose of such things. Considering this, I would advise anyone who believes themselves to be under psychic attack defend with the banishing rite they feel most comfortable and powerful with. While special use pentagrams have their purpose, for example Chaos-vowel based ones for linguistic rites and spiral pentagrams for Erisian magic, I feel most comfortable with the G.D.’s LBRP, so when my ego needs a upper, I resort to good-old Adonai vibrations.
The rule in defense is self-empowerment.
(one caveat: when at all possible, break off all contact with the attacker. If this is not possible, use all available means, including but not limited to magic, to move him out of your world.)
Now then, I have some problems with the theories of this post. One is that by making psychic attackers come to the mental forefront of our little group, we increase the belief in attacks and the power of attackers. For example, Joe Barbelith might read our discussion regarding psychic attack and think “Well, gee, should I be worried about this?” This could lead to unnecessary fear, paranoia and other negative emotions. Furthermore, the focus on retaliation against the attacker is also misguided as, in addition to the dangers of attacking a strong attacker that I have already discussed, any efforts spent attacking represent energy that could be better used defending and bolstering one’s self-image. Furthermore, the suggestion that one is under attack can also be seen as a weakness in and of itself since it means that the target’s psychic defenses could not deflect the attack.
In conclusion, I recently (yesterday) found a book by Dion Fortune entitled Psychic Self-Defense, an interesting synchronicity. I have not read it yet, but I will inform you all of its impact on my theories and defenses. Notably, it does say it has a section on determining if you are under a magical attack, something I am ignorant of.
Feel free to comment on my thoughts.
-Jesse |
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). He's got his own biases but he gives more concrete techniques to try and his biases aren't quite as... dramatic as Fortunes. He also has chapter about 'good' and 'evil' groups and how in his experience they all do the same sorts of things and are all people with their own agendas.