Teacher: KMiller (Elliptic)
Date: 5/24/2006
For beginners, to get them up to date and catch up on Kitsune’s lectures, so they could attend class the following Friday.
[21:07] <Elliptic> And not fuck up my beautiful logs, even though I have join notice disabled.
[21:07] <Searh> Whyfor?
[21:07] <Elliptic> Because I’m not quite ready to start. I was a bad person, and should’ve made it a half an hour later.
[21:09] <Searh> For the logs, I’d like to note I hate proxy people.
[21:09] <Elliptic> K.
[21:09] <Elliptic> I’m assuming everyone that’s here is here.
[21:10] Elliptic sets mode: +m
[21:10] <Elliptic> Now you all cannot talk.
[21:10] <Elliptic> Because I am going to talk.
[21:10] <Elliptic> …oh my god.
[21:10] <Elliptic> The people I want to run this for aren’t even in here.
[21:11] <Elliptic> Now we get to start by me ranting.
[21:11] <Elliptic> This is pleasant for you all, isn’t it?
[21:12] <Elliptic> I’d start anyways, but I don’t want to have to deal with the questions that would arise.
[21:12] <Elliptic> So I guess I’ll go over what we’re going to talk about, while people get in here.
[21:12] FxChiP|dishesnstuff is now known as FxChiP
[21:12] <Elliptic> Eh, I’m starting, whatever.
[21:13] <Elliptic> Alright, we’re going to be doing some introductory beginner type stuff with psi energy.
[21:13] <Elliptic> That means not astral bits.
[21:14] <Elliptic> Psi energy is a physiological byproduct of the nervous system. That’s my hypothesis. I tend to stick to it, because it’s the best thing out there right now.
[21:14] <Elliptic> Psi energy can be formed other ways, by mechanical means, the same way any other product can be. However, it seems to primarily form as a result of nervous system function.
[21:15] <Elliptic> What this means is that you create psi. You make it. By thinking.
[21:15] <Elliptic> Plants, on the other hand, do not.
[21:15] <Elliptic> So drawing energy from a tree might get you something, but that something ain’t psi.
[21:16] <Elliptic> Psi energy has a couple unique properties that allows us to do what we’re going to be doing tonight.
[21:16] <Elliptic> The most important property is that psi energy tends to become imprinted by the thoughts of individuals in the surrounding area.
[21:17] <Elliptic> It’s malleable. It can be shaped and formed, and it can maintain that shape and form.
[21:17] <Elliptic> It also appears to be able to achieve various levels of concentration…from very dense to very thin.
[21:18] <Elliptic> Objections are being brought up in the other channel, which I’ll discuss in a bit.
[21:19] <Elliptic> Now, given that energy is generated by nervous function, and given that most of the people in here have functional nervous systems, as best as I know, it follows that you all have this energy.
[21:19] <Elliptic> It tends to pool in ambience around the physical body, and be more concentrated in areas with higher concentrations of nerves and neurons, called ganglia.
[21:20] <Elliptic> With the exception of the brain-area ones, many Hindu “chakras” and other ideations of energy centers seem to be correlate fairly strongly.
[21:21] <Elliptic> I believe Guild likes to use the “dan tian” or whatever the hell it’s called. I use the term “energy center” there as the main location. It’s located around a group of ganglia which controls diaphragmatic contraction, just above the navel and below the rib cage.
[21:22] <Elliptic> Opening for questions or comments.
[21:22] <Elliptic> Wait…that’s a bad idea. PM me if you want to talk.
[21:23] <Elliptic> Paper_Tractor has asked if the area in question is the solar plexus – it is not.
[21:23] <Elliptic> The solar plexus is located just below the meeting point of the ribcage. This is significantly lower than that.
[21:24] <Elliptic> Hmm, it seems to me the “dan tian” is actually located 2 tics below the navel, as I start thinking about it.
[21:24] <Elliptic> That’s a group of ganglia which regulates hormonal action in the reproductive organs as well as maintaining homeostasis in some of the GI tract. So that works just the same.
[21:24] <Elliptic> Felidae would like to comment…
[21:25] Elliptic sets mode: +v Felidae
[21:26] <Elliptic> Felidae?
[21:26] <Felidae> as I said in the room,I believe there has been research done on plants wich showed responses on an EG-type machine,wich both measured a similair response to that found in the nervous system and showed psi-type phenomena with those plants(responding to people even thinking about lighting them with a match for example)…given this,doesn’t it seem reasonable to suppose some plants have at the very least psi-like activity?
[21:28] <Elliptic> It seems to me that plants responding to psionic influence doesn’t necessarily give evidence of their ability to generate the stuff, or technically “sense” it. Plants don’t have nervous systems, that I know of, but they do respond to stimuli.
[21:29] <Elliptic> So I wouldn’t be surprised if they did have some kind of response to psionic activity, but to the best of our current understanding, they don’t seem to generate it in and of itself – and I am saying that in contradiction to orgone studies and Kirlian photography studies, so it’s possible that something further down the road may prove me wrong.
[21:29] Elliptic sets mode: -v Felidae
[21:29] <Elliptic> Moving on…
[21:30] <Elliptic> The first thing I want to do here is also what I would consider the most difficult barrier to cross.
[21:30] <Elliptic> I personally have always had difficulty explaining the process of gaining awareness of psionic energy, as it’s not really something I did, so much.
[21:31] <Elliptic> It’s very difficult to explain how to feel that energy is around, or, newage as it may sound, “feel your own energy,” but it seems to me the best way might be to do a comparison of samples.
[21:31] <Elliptic> So take a moment here and “feel.” Just take in all the sensations and feelings around your body. Don’t do anything special, just kind of note where things are. Turn your awareness inward, if you will.
[21:33] <Elliptic> Assuming we’ve all done this, now, we’re going to try moving a bit of energy around. There are several approaches to this, generally all sharing the common bond of being ways at biofeedback.
[21:34] <Elliptic> Biofeedback is the practice of mentally and intentionally influencing one’s body, a typical example being taking control over one’s heartbeat.
[21:35] <Elliptic> As a lower level process, controlling one’s rate of breathing is a form of biofeedback.
[21:35] <Elliptic> Biofeedback is a well known phenomena, and in recent years studies have been being conducted which demonstrate moderate efficacy in treatment of diseases…so there’s that, your body can do some neat stuff.
[21:36] <Elliptic> In this case, controlling psi energy would be a process of stimulating nerves in a particular pattern to get a particular output. I used to believe that was the be all and end all of it, however I’ve concluded that there’s slightly more to “programming” and such than that…either way, it’s irrelevant.
[21:37] <Elliptic> What I want you to do is focus on a bit of energy in one of those energy centers I mentioned, above or below the navel. We’re going to move some of that energy around.
[21:38] <Elliptic> The two most common ways of doing it is a visualization approach, which is commonly taught in biofeedback classes as well, and the “at will” approach, whereby one simply moves the energy “at will” like they would their arm or leg.
[21:38] <Elliptic> Clearly, the latter requires a sense of understanding of where the energy is, and how it operates, and most individuals without a natural feel for it have to rely on the first method.
[21:39] <Elliptic> So that’s what I’m going with, for now, is visualization. Now, it’s important to note with visualization that what you visualize doesn’t matter. The visualization itself means _nothing._ It’s a tool.
[21:39] <Elliptic> The visualization is your higher mind’s way of telling your lower mind what you want it to do.
[21:40] <Elliptic> While I can’t cite them off the top of my head, I seem to recall some studies where sports players visualized their success and marginally increased it across a mean, so that’s pretty neat. Your subconscious mind can get some nice effects from your body if you tell it what to do.
[21:41] <Elliptic> So what you’re going to visualize really doesn’t matter.
[21:41] <Elliptic> You could visualize electricity, or water, or fire, or whatever.
[21:42] <Elliptic> It’s not going to turn your energy into that stuff, and in fact the psi won’t even behave like that stuff, unless you imprint on it to do so.
[21:43] <Elliptic> So what we’re going to do is choose our visualization for energy (not worrying about what it is) and apply it to our actual persons. Because we know there’s energy around ganglia, we can visualize it there and associate with our brain that that is what we want to move.
[21:43] <Elliptic> So go on and picture a whole bunch of energy in your gut.
[21:43] <Elliptic> Then picture it moving. I recommend moving a bit (not all of it, mind you, just a smidgen) up to the shoulder, down to the arm, back up the arm, whatever. Just move it around.
[21:44] <Elliptic> I shan’t tell you what you should feel, because that would frontload for a big ol’ placebo.
[21:45] <Elliptic> PM me if you have a question – don’t PM the question, I’m just going to give you voice and then you can answer it.
[21:47] <Elliptic> You know why I hate the Internet? Because you can go to these things and just log them, so I might as well just type up a fucking article. Moving on…
[21:47] <Elliptic> Now that we’ve successfully moved the energy, we can get a better feel for it. Like we did before, where we turned our awareness inward, I want you to move a bit around, while turning your awareness inward.
[21:49] <Elliptic> You’ll probably notice some sensations, potentially uncomfortable if you do certain things. This is good, because it’s self-generated feedback.
[21:50] <Elliptic> Now, it’s not “proof.” But it does tell you the stuff is presumably moving, or you’re making yourself feel something – either way, it’s neat.
[21:50] <Elliptic> Once we’ve moved energy around for a bit, we can move on. Spend ten minutes playing around with it all. PM me if you have a question or comment, and I’ll voice you to ask it here.
[21:51] <Elliptic> Checking to see if i’ve lost my connection…
[21:52] <Elliptic> Hrmm.
[21:54] Elliptic sets mode: +v Searh
[21:55] <Elliptic> …that was delayed.
[21:55] <Elliptic> By like 2 minutes.
[21:55] <Elliptic> Weird.
[21:55] <Searh> Is it possible for psionics to physicly interact with your envoirement?
[21:55] <Elliptic> Yes.
[21:55] <Searh> Elaborate, please.
[21:56] <Elliptic> Because psi is generated by a physical process, it follows that psi would be able to interact with physical matter. Seeing as it’s either a form of matter or energy, there’s some kind of interaction potential.
[21:57] <Elliptic> Most commonly, psionic effects can cause electronic malfunctions and interfere with circuitry. Likewise, electronics can interfere with psi. So it would appear psi is in fact a form of energy and can be influenced by electromagnetic radiation.
[21:58] <Elliptic> Psi is potentially responsible for psychokinetic effects, in its denser form, but I’m not sure about that.
[21:58] <Searh> “Tears” in reality? Allowing people to see through walls? Are we talking superhuman powers? ( Obviously not superhuman, but you know what I mean. )
[21:59] <Elliptic> Hmm, the mechanisms aren’t the same, but psi is capable of allowing for feats that are typically not considered normal human stuff. Seeing through walls? Remote Viewing can have a similar effect, but I’m not convinced RV functions through normal psi-energy channels.
[21:59] Elliptic sets mode: -v Searh
[21:59] <Elliptic> Bob, you wanted to say something?
[22:00] <Bobrobyn> Okay, how do you know (when doing these excersises) that you’re not just creating a sensation (or biofeedbacking a sensation, if I’m using that word properly) for yourself to feel?
[22:01] <Elliptic> Good question…and somewhat difficult to address. In these earlier stages, typically, we don’t. We’re going on good faith. When you have a partner, and they can feel the sensation, that works best. It’s also preferable that the person is physically there, and precautions are being taken against frontloading potential actions…but we’re not so lucky.
[22:02] <Elliptic> What I would consider typically “a good sign” is when a sensation occurs that you weren’t expecting.
[22:02] <Elliptic> You can’t very well biofeedback yourself by conscious manipulation to feel something you didn’t plan on feeling – that would require a stimulus of some sort…or I suppose a rather disturbing hallucinogenic disorder.
[22:03] <Elliptic> And feelings we don’t expect do tend to happen – we can’t all predict the interplay of energy within the system perfectly.
[22:03] Elliptic sets mode: +v Felidae
[22:03] <Elliptic> Felidae, you had something?
[22:04] <Felidae> While moving energy around in the area suggested,ssensations became strong enough that it was difficult to continue…this is why I don’t typically use the area suggested actually,and it became even more apparent this time…for example,just moving a little bit around my body I got very ‘giggly’and almost ‘flighty’,and when I sent a strand of it through to my head my body literally jerked foward…is this common with this centre,as compared to
[22:05] <Felidae> other energy centres,and does it decrease with practice in that area,making it more potentially usefull for me as somerthing other than,to use a somewhat slang term,a good stone?
[22:06] <Elliptic> There are some people who apparently demonstrate different effects depending on what center is used – Guild actually promotes that different areas are responsible for different skills. I personally don’t have a difference between where I get my energy, but I tend to draw from “the whole field.”
[22:06] <Elliptic> Moving energy through the brain is what I generally consider a “bad idea.”
[22:06] <Felidae> noted
[22:06] <Felidae> and thanks
[22:06] <Elliptic> Because psi can interfere with electronics and such, it follows it can also interfere with neurological electrical activity. It’s risky.
[22:07] <Elliptic> So it’s possible that that energy is being imprinted, that you’ve frontloaded it with a special purpose, or that you genuinely get a different effect – I don’t know enough to say…ultimately, it doesn’t matter, because if it’s happening, it’s happening.
[22:08] Elliptic sets mode: -v Felidae
[22:08] <Elliptic> Having had ample time to move stuff around internally, we can move on to moving stuff around externally.
[22:09] <Elliptic> The most common learning tool for this is the infamous, notorious, incredible psiball.
[22:09] <Elliptic> It’s just a ball of psi. Some people get really, really into these things for some reason, though.
[22:09] <Elliptic> So they work for learning.
[22:10] <Elliptic> I recommend moving energy from the center you’ve been using, as it’s what you’re used to, and moving it to the hands. The hands should be cupped as if holding a ball, but _not_ touching one another.
[22:10] <Elliptic> I actually prefer to keep them a few inches away from one another, anyways. I recommend holding them below the heart level, to eliminate possible changes in blood flow from causing false-feedback.
[22:11] <Elliptic> The next step is simple in concept, but it turns out some people have trouble with it. All you’re going to do is “push” the energy out from the palms, and into the ball. Note that the energy will behave the same outside as it does inside.
[22:12] <Elliptic> In fact, the hands aren’t needed at all, but when practicing, they’re nice to have there for feedback.
[22:12] G2_Wolf is now known as I_Blame_Keiya
[22:12] <Elliptic> There are different feelings that result here. Some are less grandoise than others. Some people “mesh” energy differently.
[22:12] <Elliptic> G2, you’d better be fucking kidding me.
[22:13] <Elliptic> Change back.
[22:13] I_Blame_Keiya is now known as G2_Wolf
[22:13] <Elliptic> Thank you.
[22:14] <Elliptic> Ok, anyways…people “feel” it differently sometimes…it’s often subjective. That’s actually a good thing, by way of verifiability, in a way – I can’t tell you what to feel, and then you placebo it.
[22:14] <Elliptic> Interestingly, my brother and I feel it the same way, which indicates that there is something about our nervous systems that results in the different perceptions.
[22:15] <Elliptic> One thing that is fun to do with these is to start with a ball about the size of a basketball, and then “push” together, compressing it.
[22:15] <Elliptic> The sensations then are especially evident, for me.
[22:16] <Elliptic> A lot of people advocate building a “shell” around these things…I don’t see the point – the shell will decompose as much as anything else, and it’s not necessary. You are making a ball, here.
[22:16] <Elliptic> Now, something to note is that despite “techniques” or whatever else, now that you’re making a ball, you can make basically anything.
[22:16] <Elliptic> You’re not limited in your capacity to create here, just because there are no articles on the Interwebnetmachine about psidodecahedrons.
[22:17] <Elliptic> A lot of people say “I can reliably make a psiball but not a psicube” and they are wrong, that’s a mental block. If you can make one, you can make the other.
[22:18] <Elliptic> I’d say a shield, which we’ll get to next, but shields are much larger, so it’s reasonably possible that someone could make a ball but not a shield. *shrugs*
[22:18] <Elliptic> The point here is if you can control it to do one thing, you can control it to do lots of things.
[22:18] <Elliptic> PM if you have a comment or question you’d like to share.
[22:21] <Elliptic> Or am I such a marvelous, wonderful, brilliant teacher that I come across crystal clear, and there’s not a question in your hearts or minds?
[22:21] <Elliptic> Bob points out that there’s some neat stuff in Anka’s manual regarding different shapes, etc.
[22:22] <Elliptic> I recommend sticking to Platonic and Archimedean solids.
[22:23] <Elliptic> Although I suppose if you wanted to make Klein bottles or Moebius strips, you could.
[22:23] <Elliptic> Moving on, then…
[22:24] <Elliptic> The next and final bit we’re going to touch on tonight, before Kitsune’s class on scanning and sensing on Friday, is shielding.
[22:24] <Elliptic> Shields are useful things. They’re more useful for me than you.
[22:24] <Elliptic> Still, I like it when you all use them. Keeps your thoughts relatively muffled and out of my head.
[22:24] <Elliptic> Further, Guild likes them because there’s the ever-lurking threat of psionic boogeymen.
[22:25] <Elliptic> While unlikely, it’s possible in your wanderings you may come across something unfriendly, and that something might want at you – in those cases, shields are neat.
[22:25] <Elliptic> The most simple shields are simply barriers, working like actual shields.
[22:26] <Elliptic> In this case, you want to move your energy out away from your body, into a shape around your entire body – a force field.
[22:26] <Elliptic> This you want to make relatively thick, and relatively dense, and you want to think it really hard.
[22:26] <Elliptic> By that I mean you want it to be imprinted solidly, so that it doesn’t dissipate…while psi energy can hold a form, it doesn’t do so forever – the more strongly it’s put into a form, the longer it will hold.
[22:27] <Elliptic> It’s for this reason I advocate using simple shields – shields that are easy to envision completely and to enact with a lot of force of will. The more bells and whistles, the harder it is to imprint it all, and the faster it will all dissipate.
[22:28] <Elliptic> Furthermore, the simpler it is, the easier it is to recall in vivid detail when you want to “reinforce” it.
[22:29] <Elliptic> With a partner, shields are normally quite dense, and if you’re ever so fortunate as to come across a physical partner, a good solid exercise is to make a good solid shield, then push against it, etc.
[22:29] <Elliptic> G2 asks a good question in PM, I’m going to copy it here if that’s ok.
[22:30] <Elliptic> <G2_Wolf> Question: What is better, have it dense and in a small space, or less dense but over a greater area?
[22:30] FxChiP is now known as FxChiP|coding
[22:30] <Elliptic> This is a very good question for a lot of reasons…and the answer is a bit long windy, I think. Basically, it depends on what you want the shield to do.
[22:31] <Elliptic> If you intend to use the shield to filter out telepathic information, then I would recommend less dense, but over a greater area…in fact, the best here are big, puffy clouds centered around the individual.
[22:31] <Elliptic> For defense against attack, solid, super-dense shields are generally preferred…even if this is more restrictive.
[22:32] <Elliptic> I always making the shield large enough that you can’t stick your own arm or leg out of the thing, however…but then I also like some that are very close in, so someone can’t stand within the shield physically.
[22:32] <Elliptic> And that is a concern…making a shield 15 feet around you might seem like a good idea, until someone steps right up next to you on the subway and is mentally loud and annoying as hell.
[22:33] <Elliptic> When at all possible, I like using two layers of shield, one being loose and puffy, and one being more solid. It’s sometimes wise to make these both in two separate “goes” so you can imprint them both individually, and so with a lot more force of will.
[22:35] <Elliptic> For general purposes, I recommend somewhere in between. Of course, it’s always wise to have the entire physical body surrounded, since a lot of psi effects seem to work like waves and EM fields, and so a breach in the shield is like a breach in MSPaint, and in a fielded area, everything will rush in through the little hole and make you go “dammit” and hit undo and then spend the next 10 minutes finding the damn one pixel hole.
[22:36] <Elliptic> And in real life, sometimes you can’t hit undo, and you get a headache for the rest of the day – the double edged sword here being that if you spend a lot of time learning to be more sensitive to energy, you also become more sensitive to energetic effects…and so someone with a painfully misaligned energy field can become absolutely grating on you.
[22:38] <Elliptic> Hmm, seems like as good a time as any to point out that what I am teaching here is from a prescriptivist view…Nobody made the argument that we need to redo everything we know – that’s not really accurate. I am describing what I know about this stuff based on what is actually there. The reason that there are different perspectives is because what is actually there sometimes appears differently to different people.
[22:39] <Elliptic> But what’s really real is there, regardless, and so describing something is not saying that this is absolutely how it is – psi seems to have some interesting interactions with astral stuff, as well as some quantum ramifications, that while they are there, we don’t really know much about right now.
[22:40] <Elliptic> So there’s that. I’m unmoderating. Hope you enjoyed…any questions, you all can PM me all night long as long as I’m around.
[22:40] Elliptic sets mode: -m
[22:41] FxChiP|coding loves you, Elliptic