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Urban Legends (for fun and profit)

 
  

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Less searchable M0rd4nt
15:46 / 18.03.02
Additional: I'm thinking of turning Josh The Hospital Porter into the patron saint of urban myths. What do you guys think?
 
 
grant
19:15 / 18.03.02
Actually, I think there already *is* one. Kali had a charm for this saint... hell, I can't remember the name, but it came from a misreading of a cargo crate of religious icons that washed up in New Orleans 100 years ago or so.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
19:54 / 18.03.02
Well, whaddaya know. There is a patron saint of urban legends. Sort of.

I think I'll culitivate Josh all the same. He can be the vice-patron saint of urban legends.
 
 
grant
16:23 / 19.03.02
I'd never heard of St. Librata, but that's *great*. I was thinking about the one I mentioned, who is St. Expedite, patron of merchants, computer programmers & procrastinators. (Not urban legends, though.) Might be working Expedite and a few others (Christopher, the soon-to-be-sainted Juan Diego, George) into a tabloid story on "The Maybe Saints."

And I'm *still* getting replies about Josh & the Rice twin. Amazing, the people who half buy it.
 
 
grant
15:59 / 20.03.02
Most interesting reply thus far:
quote:Flynn's Ocean 71
I was in there only a couple of times because I looked seriously underage
then, but I remember in the bathroom--the one time I used it--a sketch on the
stall wall and caption describing it.
Paraphrasing it, it read:
I killed my brother in the womb because he raped me.

One of the guys from the Exploited was also in there filling up water
balloons with some chick.


Oh, and the "fetus-in-fetu" pages really help convincing people there might be something to this.

[ 20-03-2002: Message edited by: grant ]
 
 
grant
18:01 / 21.03.02
Another fact-filled reply, from a documentary maker:
quote:Grant,

Loved the Body Thief tale . . . true or not. Six years ago I pitched a doc idea to Discovery on conjoined twins. (They passed, and maybe someday, I'll pitch it again to a network with more guts.)
Anyway, I thought you might be interested in a couple of relevant sections from the treatment.

"And then there are the instances in which,
according to the 19th century pathologists Gould and Pyle, "one might almost say that a man may be pregnant with his brother or sister, or in which an infant may carry its twin without the fact being apparent." In one case, a tumor cut from a man's abdomen had teeth and hair. In another, a 27-year old man issued, after great pain, "fetal bones and a mass of macerated tissue." Christians before the 20th century would often mythologize such events, which they associated
with the birth of Eve from Adam's rib.

"In the teens and twenties, hundreds of thousands of sideshow visitors observed Pasqual Pinon, a Mexican man born with an 'extra head' atop his own. Pasqual's parasitic brother had eyes that blinked and could see and a mouth that opened and closed constantly but was unable to speak."

Cheers,
 
 
grant
16:12 / 08.04.02
I'm still getting responses. This one is good:

I've heard that story about her before too, but I
think it's an urban legend. I first heard it
after the Queen of the Damned came out.

However, my great aunt Dagne did have part of an
absorbed twin in her stomach cavity. She didn't
write vampire books, but she did do a stint as
one of those motorcycle cage riders one sees in the
circus.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
16:50 / 08.04.02
I loved that latest one. If it isn't true it really ought to be.

I think this is working, BTW. As a reminder, the basic intent was consolidated into the following: Growth, life, energy, ability, power, development, magick.

I'd hoped for a boost in my physical energy levels, but as I sort of expected, my physical self is still a chubby, wheezing wreck. However, I've been experiencing quite a lot of deveolpment on the creative and magickal levels (which for me are fundamentally interconnected.) My writing and general communication skills are improving, and I've had a strong sense that new levels of conciousness are starting to open up. Every so often I've been taking a moment to imagine that I'm accessing the energy generated by the story, that each of the intent-chunks above are like little batteries being charged up. Then I move on to an image of the energy being focused through me and out onto the board.

Is anyone else getting any results/effects that they think could be attributed to this exercise? 'Coz I'm planning to do another one in a few months- probably more mystical and less grim.
 
 
ciarconn
17:51 / 10.04.02
Well, I did experience an increase in my meta-cognitive abilities. Though I didn't have the time to "access" the UL. If you think of creating another one, count me in.
 
 
ciarconn
19:05 / 15.04.02
I am going to traduce it to spanish, and circulate it on several mailing list, let's see what comes out of this.
 
 
ciarconn
01:16 / 16.04.02
Hey, MC, I can't find it, You have a copy left?
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
11:49 / 20.04.02
Hmm, that's odd- the old link don't work. Try here.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
13:29 / 19.05.02
Interested parties may like to note that I've now stared on my next project, "Build your own ghost". (I'm still getting results from Lung Fetus, BTW).
 
 
gravitybitch
17:23 / 27.05.02
Another possibility for a "legend" -

I was trapped in a long and slow-moving line the other day, and overheard two school-teacher types discussing how late the new Harry Potter book is. Do you suppose that Rowling got into trouble with [pick a magickal order] over her depiction of [some ritual that's too close to the 'truth'] in [? I haven't actually read any of the books] and that's why the next installment is so late? She's either had personal difficulties that have made writing next to impossible, or she's been forced to do a major rewrite to avoid revealing more 'secrets'...
 
 
gravitybitch
06:46 / 28.05.02
Major improvement (I think) on the tardiness of Harry Potter:

The nastiest Bible Belt fundies decided to fight fire with fire, and in the best tradition of fire&brimstone preachers frequenting hookers, hired a "black mage" to curse Rowlings for portraying magic as fun and appealing. She's had a variety of problems because of the curse, which is why this book is so late. However, YOU CAN HELP!!

Go to a mirror and light a candle, lighter, or long match, and hold it so that you can see the flame and its reflection line up. Rub the third eye spot of your reflection with the forefinger of your right hand three times in a counterclockwise direction and say, "Good magic is good for everybody." Put out the flame, blow the reflection a kiss, and go about your normal business... (The flames open up the Other Plane, counterclockwise on this side of the mirror clears the curse here and builds energy clockwise on the Other Plane, and having your reflection blow you a kiss is a blessing and will protect you from any backlash...)

Anybody think that the fans of The National Enquirer will buy this?
a) fundies = bad
b) magic = good
c) the appeal for help
d) you, yes you, get to do real magic without fear of consequences

iszabelle
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
08:15 / 28.05.02
Nice idea, izabelle. Maybe when grant gets back he'll pass it along?
 
 
gravitybitch
00:46 / 29.05.02
Thanks! (blushes)

Actually, "throw-away" rituals like that are fairly easy. I'm wondering if we want to release a number of them into the public consciousness?

Let's ignore, for the time being, the fact that most of the public is untrained and woefully lacking in the focus required to perform magick. After reading about Gek and MC's success with the lung-fetus legend (powered by the public, mind you), I'm coming to the conclusion that things birthed on this board have a lot of intrinsic power. Ritual launched from here into the public domain might well have effects, and not just for us.

Can anybody think of drawbacks to this? Even if we postulate total control over the end results, what might be negative consequences to the general increase of magick and weirdness in the world?
iszabelle
(I'm not really power-hungry, really I'm not!)
 
 
gravitybitch
00:48 / 29.05.02
ummmn, this might want to be a separate thread...
 
 
gravitybitch
02:46 / 01.06.02
Then again, maybe not.

iszabelle
 
 
ciarconn
12:39 / 01.06.02
You know, I was talking with a friend about this project, and some opinions related to what izsabelle's saying came up.

When I explained the basic theories behind the UL spell, she said it was like stealing people's intent (I said it was only "redirecting" it); semantics aside, it is without everybody's consent.
But at the end, that's what magic is all about, imposing my view of reality to everybody and making it real by having everybody consenting it.

And yet, there's the question of moral responsability, which can get very tricky (pun intended) in this board. Some months ago, a kid asked about the morality of controling other people's thoughts, everyone in the board said it was wrong (because it directly affected other people): but when other kid asked if it was rtight to use magick to aid him in his exams, everybody considered it was right (because it would be like using any extra skill).
I am not saying that the moral thought here is ambiguous, I am pointing that perhaps being a mage requieres a whole differente ethical view of the world, because magick gives a different perspective of power over poeple and reality.

And I do think this merits a diferent thread, Izsa

On "increasing the magick adn weirdness on the world". I think that would be better for us. the "more magick there is", the easier it will be to make magick happen, the more powerfull we will be (no, I am not powerhungry either )
 
 
gravitybitch
18:57 / 01.06.02
This was supposed to be a new topic, with the title of "Increasing the Magick in the World" but I haven't been registered long enough to start a thread. O Mighty Monitors, please fix this as you see fit... Meanwhile this will be my very first thread! Please be gentle with me, and I promise I'll stop doing the "new puppy dance" soon...

When I explained the basic theories behind the UL spell, she said it was like stealing people's intent (I said it was only "redirecting" it); semantics aside, it is without everybody's consent.
I definitely don't think that Urban Legend spells are "theft of intent" since people in general have NO intent around ULs other than maybe propagating them. I'm not even sure about "redirecting intent."

My view is that there's a vast pool of intent- or belief-energy that everybody contributes to and feeds from. On the lightest level, people contribute their energy to fads and trends and stuff like ULs, and in general the only point/result is the trend itself. Magick is supposed to focus the practitioner's energy and point it at a consciously chosen goal. What I think happens with the UL spells is that we're making another channel for energy to get into the pool, and sort of putting a waterwheel on it. The energy is going to go wherever it would have gone without our spells, and we're not stopping it or doing anything more than tagging along for the ride.

What's different about the "Help JK Rowling" UL is that it contains ritual for the general public to play with. And this is what I'm questioning. While I don't think there would be any problems with that one in particular, I'm wondering what sorts of problems might come up if the public started doing rituals with the understanding that it's magick on anything like a regular basis.

'belle
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
08:42 / 03.06.02
WRT "Lung Fetus" I did have a couple of scruples. To make things fairer I put the whole story, including the fact that I'd made it up and the fact that there was a spell encoded in it, on my public blog. A quick Google on "fetus in fetu" will take you right to it.

Not my fault if people don't do a little research, eh?
 
  

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