Madness as a Tool The dictionary definitions of madness leave a lot to be desired in their interpretation. They use a range of terms like;lunacy, frenzy, extreme folly, recklessness, mental derangement, insanity, craziness, mania, and senseless. These focus on negativity and inaccuracy, as most of those classified as mentally ill, would appear to suffer an overload of sensory input. In my opinion, madness can be defined as behaviour of the extreme minorities of any social group, that the majority view as strange and peculiar. This is a view I later found better stated by Szasz. From this perspective, choosing the Left Hand Path is probably minority enough to be perceived as madness by the World of Horrors, who accept many different religions relatively happily, as they have the commonality of being Right Hand Path. Looking for a moment at madness as an illness, as opposed to an elite chosen path, it is interesting to consider what factors cause madness in the general populus, and also what behaviours constitute that state of being. Madness seems to be brought on by presence of certain states, and of these states reaching overload level. The main factors are Stress, the overload of which manifests in anxiety, panic, control issues, depression and various other physical symptoms. Past Abuse, emotional and physical, can also be a factor, causing self esteem problems, trust issues, inability to maintain hopes and other life targets, and possibly a split persona that becomes unable to integrate with society in any 'normal' way. Other influencing factors are chemical and physical, such as injuries, genetics, S.A.D., Allergens [including dietary influences], drugs, Serotonin levels, and lifestyle. The only important differences in madness, seem to me to be a matter of perception; why some people are strong and work through these issues to a place of self acceptance, if not comfort, even learning to use these experiences to aid in their self creation. Yet others become overwhelmed by their mental state, go to elaborate lengths of denial, develop a dependance on medication or other substances, or become institutionalised. Using madness as an aid to Xeper, entails stripping away the layers of behaviour that society considers normal, and examining what each behaviour is useful for or a hindrance to. Why some patterns achieve results, and how to heighten this. Using fear as a kick off point for introspection of isolate intelligence, and exploring the dark recesses of ones mind, like a house in which you have only been living in one room heretofore. The understanding of the crossover of the subjective and objective worlds, and how to manipulate this information. Also the withdrawal from the manipulations of society. It seems to me that when we as Magicians use 'madness' as a tool, we call it LBM. Some examples of this are included for illustrative purposes; Portraying standard insane behaviour in a crowd situation will gain personal space and ease of movement. Tingeing this behaviour with elements of implied psychopathic tendancies, will cause people to treat you with more caution. Slightly crazy behaviour can cause people to see you as more of a fun person, and potential friend. Highlighting aspects of your 'madness' in an honest fashion can cause the state to grant you certain 'boons' by way of compensation for what they see as a handicap. Helping others in WoH to work through their problems, in these areas, will gain respect and power. Knowing which behaviours to apply to which social situations, is essential! The above examples apply mainly to individual situations, but similar tactics apply in a crowd; Dictators have used frenzy as a method to raise emotion in a crowd, on a 'wind them up, and watch them go' basis. This works on a smaller scale in office politics, more from a basis of turning on the runt, this pattern crosses all sorts of social stratas. Fever pitch frenzy is the way of the advertising boys, [Apep], at times like Xmas. This also works with religious leaders and is highlighted in the disorderly chaos of disaster situations, where the energy is raised without a guiding front figure. It is of value to look at which behaviours WoH classifies as madness that we use for our personal growth, and which ones we have not yet unearthed and tapped into. Ref; The Myth of Mental Illness- Szasz
Near Death Experience to Xeper stopping at all Stations! We all know that going through a near death experience, or any extremely difficult situation, makes us stronger in the long run, but I wanted to take a closer look at what happens psychologically during, what is usually a long slow process. Looking at the entire process as a journey, with the bad experience at A and Xeper at Z, there are a lot of ‘stops’ in between. Why do so many people get off before the journey is complete? What is that special factor that makes others ride it to the end? Obviously strength of Will is a biggy, but I think there is more to it than that. The route varies from person to person, but in a lot of cases, Madness features as one of the stations. The first stop, however, is fear. Whilst actually in a near death experience, there is no room for fear. Psychologically, there is just too much going on, whilst physically, all the fight or flight stress chemicals are being directed to their intended targets, hence the ability to perform remarkable feats of strength and endure terrible pain, while barely feeling it. But during the hospitalisation or other immobilisation process that invariably follows, these helper chemicals become the enemy. Action has suddenly stopped and all the fight/flight chemicals are still running round the body unused, causing stress sensations such as panic/anxiety/fear. This can manifest physically as; palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, chest pain, choking sensation, sweating, shaking, headaches, nausea and other digestive disorders, dry mouth, blurred vision etc. The medical profession understand why these symptoms occur and realise they are not life-threatening, so concentrate their efforts on the serious injuries. But the patient, who may well not understand what is happening, will transfer their feelings to fear as they lay there immobile on the trolley, with nothing to do but think. From what I have been told so far, it seems that people who pass through this stage unconscious, have a better chance of avoiding a lot of the subsequent madness. Madness that seems to arise out of the fact, that although this fear may chemically disappear, mentally it leaves a big imprint on the memory and is relived long after the event. Probably this helps in the learning process, i.e. don’t do that you might die! It can manifest in as severe forms as post traumatic stress disorder or depression. [Incidentally, I would still be interested in hearing from other people who have had a similar experience, as I continue to collect data on this topic.] After the fear stop, which is pretty much universally shared, everyone takes different routes to the same end. For instance the realisation that one has narrowly escaped death, can lead to a journey via Mortality, Fragility, Isolation and eventually mental repair and re-integration. But a different person can travel the exact same path seeing the stops as Immortality, Invincibility, and Strength. This comes down to the half full/half empty thing, i.e. whether one’s attitude is positive. Several people have mentioned the sense of Flow being important to getting them through this time. Dr Oliver Sacks talks about Flow as an orchestra within the body, where he was unable to re-integrate a limb with his body imago until he ‘heard’ the music it made as it worked together with the rest of him. In fact a degree of body dysmorphia is extremely common when parts of the body are immobilised. The injured limb actually feels dead or alien, to the degree that some patients actually believe it to be somebody else’s limb. It is hard to imagine a rational person being able to look at their leg in plaster, yet their brain interpret the information as seeing themselves as an amputee wearing a false limb! Yet this is another station most orthopaedic patients stop at to a greater or lesser degree. Some physical damage is permanent, and requires adaptation, such as when a person is blinded and has to learn to redistribute the use of the seeing part of their brain amongst the remaining senses. This again, can lead to a choice of pathways; Resentment, Bitterness, and finally Resolution. Or Challenge accepted, Hard Work, Sense of Achievement and Pride. It seems quite beneficial to have a balance of control and acceptance as neither is beneficial all the time. There are times when not giving control to the medics would be detrimental, and other times when being a spiritless patient would slow healing i.e. physio. Other things sneak in amongst this process. Secret things that you want to pretend are outside of your control, but eventually have to admit are really your own responsibility, try as you might to ditch them! People react very differently to the process of being institutionalised, having, quite literally, labels put on them. Loss of control can take you to an angry place, or be a huge relief of life’s burdens. Intelligence seems to factor in here. For example, a doctor, who is quite highly educated himself, reacted better to watching his surgery under epidural, than he had on a previous occasion when he had been unconscious. But to the layperson, the same scenario could cause months of nightmares, and actually hinder the healing process. There is also the strong possibility of stopping at the ‘why are we here?’ station. When one nearly experiences death, all that has previously been important comes into question. What is really worth doing, and what is just a waste of time? Am I just another part of a big machine? Is there any point? Eventually, the strong person pulls some meaningfulness back from this state, but it is a bit like quicksand, as the meaning of everything eventually falls apart under close examination, like a child constantly asking Why? If the medical profession have made an error at some point, there is also the issue of erosion of trust. It is quite possible that until that point, doctors were seen as infallible. As soon as one issue of trust comes under question, others often follow, and they come hand in hand with paranoia. This can be a major bypass on the journey, but ultimately a positive one which leaves you trusting only yourself truly, which has got to be safer! Finally, the last stop is growing up. You emerge from the chrysalis a different person, and know that the person you were before the near death experience is gone forever. As time passes, you come to celebrate that. But what a journey! Book ref; A leg to stand on by Oliver Sacks