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ravenradiodj - Crowley (from what I remember) did indeed express his findings very matter-of-factly, and went to great pains, as you say, to explain how rationally he had thought everything through. My problem with Crowley (and other similar) is their disbelief in the evidence of the world around them that points to all life and thought as being purely natural phenomena. Crowley's rationality is seductive, but gives way at the last minute to something very different:
"Official psychoanalysis is therefore committed to upholding a fraud... psychoanalysts have misinterpreted life, and announced the absurdity that every human being is essentially an anti-social, criminal, and insane animal" (Crowley).
The truth as I see it is that, to a great extent the psychoanalysts (and other scientists who are trying to de-mystify the mind) have come to a far less absurd, and more mutually supportable set of notions than Crowley ever did.
It is this rejection of the human-animal/human-machine that I have problems with.
However, Crowley (and other mystics) keep an ace up their sleeves, that those who learn and study their methods will be rewarded with seemingly magic(k)al powers. And here again I maintain that there are many things the human, animal mind is capable of doing, perfectly naturally, that we are normally unaware of. Please don't misunderstand me, I am NOT talking about telekinesis, or long-distance telepathy, or spoon-bending or stuff like that. What I am talking about is personal influence, deep understanding of other people, non-verbal interpersonal communication (apparent telepathy) and being able to tune your perceptions so acutely that you are able to predict events more keenly than normally thought reasonable. None of these things are magical, supernatural or weird in any way, however, they are things that people might ascribe to the workings of external forces.
neutone, I'm not sure I follow your reasoning. Whether the prayers are directed to God, or a fallen angel is in my mind unimportant, the prayers are a technique that moulds the mind into a certain mode of operation (a mental stillness, or level of acute concentration perhaps), and it is this mode of operation that performs the 'mystical' act, which is later ascribed to having been the work of the summoned spirit. Yes it is a tappable channel, but I really don't see there being a need to invent spirits and a whole invisible world (as if quantum mechanics wasn't an invisible world? cough!) - let me rephrase that, an invisible world populated with conscious beings (lets QM off the hook) that can be contacted, summoned, petitioned for favors etc...
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