tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294505416127496842.post6003331351543946019..comments2024-03-25T14:09:59.347-05:00Comments on Augoeides: Review: Defensive Occultism by Robert RubinScott Stenwickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12389664381513219613noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294505416127496842.post-57633432440962440082014-04-21T13:12:28.838-05:002014-04-21T13:12:28.838-05:00You are certainly correct that the presence of men...You are certainly correct that the presence of mental illness doesn't mean that no attack is present. Furthermore, it's quite possible to design a curse that will cause mental illness in a target - I can think of a couple ways to do that right off the top of my head. Still, in my experience I've encountered more people with mental illness issues who were deluded about being attacked than people who seem like they might be actual targets.<br /><br />Jason Miller and I had a long conversation about that awhile back. I come at it from the perspective of a fairly isolated individual practitioner, whereas he comes at it from the perspective of a professional sorcerer who has clients with problems seeking him out. I expect that our different perspectives skew our biases in opposite directions, so the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.<br /><br />Anybody who asks for tons of money to "break a curse" - especially more than once - is pretty clearly a fraud in my book. That includes everyone from TV preachers to would-be psychics.<br /><br />As far as Christianity goes, I think it depends. I agree with you on "fire and brimstone" fundamentalism - in some of those churches The Devil gets more mention than Jesus does! On the other hand, like the Poor Oppressed folks, those denominations tend to be out of the mainstream. I grew up liberal Lutheran and don't have much a of a bone to pick with Christianity as a religion in general. Some of the particular manifestations of it, though, really make my skin crawl.Scott Stenwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12389664381513219613noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294505416127496842.post-59967978477869697202014-04-21T12:58:03.950-05:002014-04-21T12:58:03.950-05:00I think there is some grey area here. "Menta...I think there is some grey area here. "Mental illness" phenomena CAN overlap with "possession" or demonic influence, imo. Kierkegaard defines the demonic in terms of the person's "will" being directed back against himself. So from that standpoint, it would originate in the self. However it could make one vulnerable to outside influence, as we see in The Mass Psychology of Fascism or The Geneaology of Morals. <br /><br />I just received a recording of Jeffrey Yuen lecturing on the 13 Ghost Points of Chinese Acupuncture too. Might do a post on that.<br /><br />However I do agree that paying large sums of money to a tv preacher is probably not the best course of action. LOL. In fact, I would look at that as an example of demonic influence. <br /><br />I look at contemporary Christianity in it's culturally philistine form as a very demonic religion. Nerdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04393819034606674001noreply@blogger.com