Rituals and Neurons: Unlocking Brain Potential

Diary Entry 11/22/2024

The Brain’s Wiring and Human Behavior

The brain’s job is to wire together two things into one circuit. This simple principle is what underlies the vast majority of what people consider to be “human behavior”. When two neurons in the brain link up, this creates a faster, more efficient pathway for some mental process to occur. We usually associate this with “learning”, but it is also what determines the readiness with which someone can be “empathetic”, “angry”, or “sad” in response to a situation. In other words, if this process is learning, then all that we do with a human brain is learn. The level and nuance of such learning we are, however, wholly unaware of. It is an entirely unconscious domain by which the vast majority of learning is formulated upon.

Anytime you have two neurons which are activated at the same time, the brain tries ever so slightly to nudge a connection between the two of them. This is why repetition is often seen as the most important aspect of learning.

Unlimited Synaptic Connections

Now, what if I told you that there were no limitations on what two things may be wired together? Synapses are prone to form between any two neurons assuming that there is not a simpler, more efficient route that would connect the two. Therefore, it is not wrong for one to think that habitually hearing the word “blue” when seeing the color blue will cause visual and auditory neurons to link up together without the involvement of higher brain regions. In fact, there is a whole class of phenomenon called “synesthetic” which are thought to occur because of such a linkage.

Associative Learning Beyond the Ordinary

So, what if it were possible to associate the full faculty of the anthropological processing our brains do with something as simple as a sigil, or picture? What if it were possible to activate, at will, the whole of the facial, psychosomatic, emotional, and rational parts of our brain that are usually active when communicating with a colleague in response to something as foreign as the astrological symbols? What if the phenomenon regularly described as “Magick” or “Mysticism” is really just a result of people having discovered a method for doing just what we are describing?

Magick as a Mode of Thought

Magick is regarded, in the modern lens, as a “primitive” mode of thought. Often, it is seen as a precursor to the empirical rationality we call the sciences. I can agree with this perspective, but only so far as it is seen that many theories of Magick imply an ontological theory that requires a great deal of miraculous things to exist. I say such theories are wholly unnecessary, and in fact, can ruin the process and technique of Magick to anyone who takes them seriously!

The human brain is, on the whole, a putrid pulp of associations which we are horrendously ignorant of! Even to the man or woman who “is” that brain under study, they know very little outside of what this insidious mound of flesh graces us with during a flash of “conscious awareness”. The subjective experience of a human brain is so short of the full domain of its contents. In other words, objectively and subjectively, we know too damn little about what is really going on in our own minds!

Discovering the Unconscious Mind

With this said, Magick is the method to discover these unconscious parts of the brain and mind. We develop faculties in ourselves that are similar to dreaming, except that we bring them to their utmost perfection under conscious awareness. Using these developed faculties, we explore all manner of phenomenon using them and write them down so that we have a clear picture of that which is contained—or hidden!—therein. To anybody that is used to writing down their dreams and analyzing them, it will be no big surprise that we argue a great deal of information is hidden in the “experiential” and “nonsensical” nature of the dreams themselves.

The development of these faculties is no different than any other faculty one learns in gradeschool. We are not born with the ability to do calculus, but through repitition and practice we are able to do it entirely in our heads. Likewise, piano players of sufficient skill can play complex pieces entirely in their heads, yet we are all born with no idea what a piano--or music--even is! We say that these Magickal faculties are no different; only that they are more useful for finding knowledge of the unconscious contents.

Techniques for Non-Physical Sensing

So, we aim to establish techniques that allow one to “feel”, “see”, “hear”, “taste”, and “touch” in ways that do not ever cross their physical senses. We develop a “Body of Light” (Astral Body) that is nothing more than an imaginative vehicle which is brought to its utmost conception through repetition and practice. Using such a vehicle, we explore the “planes” of existence by imagining that this Body of Light is traveling and interacting with phenomena peculiar to that plane. This is no different than what the brain forces us to undergo during the usual dream activity.

The purpose for us to aim to do it ourselves is so that we can determine what it is that we will explore; what it is that we will experience. If dreams can provide insight into the unconscious portions of the mind, then it is no big surprise to imagine that replicating these faculties of dream in waking life can do so as well!

Rituals and Synaptic Activation

So, it is with the rituals as well, even though they require a more nuanced explanation to understand. Rituals are a way of getting all of those insidious, unknown little synaptic connections we discussed to be activated—on the whole—in a unified, systematic way. There is no objective reason behind the ritual, and the results of any ritual are nothing but a process in the mind of the practitioner. The point of any ritual is simply to make the whole mind—the whole brain—which encodes any such idea activate in response to that idea.

Thus, our rituals are symbolically constructed so that the central idea is present in all aspects which are capable of consciously perceiving. For example, a ritual based on the idea of “love” would include invocations to the god Venus, perhaps the god Aphrodite even. It would include symbols of love that the practitioner is aware of and habitually attuned to seeing as such—like the classic heart symbol. It will include a dance that is suggestive of the kind of love that the practitioner has experienced to this point. It will include scents and perfumes that the practitioner is used to associating with love.

The Purpose of Rituals

Anything which the Magician is capable of consciously perceiving, or being aware of, should be associated with this one central idea; in doing so, all of the little, miniscule synaptic connections which are in some way part of that circuit which contributes to “love” in the mind are activated. Why would we want to activate these synapses? Simply so that the practitioner can gather some idea of what really the structure and composition of their mind is. After such a ritual, the brain is bound to think, feel, and perceive the world in a way which is “tinged” by this overarching concept. The brain is, after having activated all circuits associated with the idea, likely to use them as “context” for whatever else the Magician chooses to think on. This is a very hard thing to describe, so I shall do my best as follows:

Any brain region which has recently been activated is “stored” for some time in the brain’s sequential context of events. Similar to what we commonly called “working memory”, there is a store of things which are the unconscious “working memory”; except, that it is vastly superior to our conscious version. This unconscious context subtly influences many things that the brain does, the most notable being what it is that rises to conscious awareness at any given time. For example, the sheer act of taking off a person’s work clothes is oftentimes enough to change this context enough to prevent work-related thoughts from entering the mind while at home. Now, imagine how great a difference this change in context becomes when you integrate many different symbols into one experience!

Unifying the Mind

There is also the unification of the mind which these rituals confer. Through repetition, the brain will join many fragmentary circuits which all are harmonious under the single idea into a single, integrated circuit of “love”—or whatever such concept you choose. When we activate them all at once, they wire themselves together through repetition; the mind becomes, on the whole, harmonious even with itself under the idea involved. Through daily practice of certain rituals, you find that you can conceive of the central idea in new ways, and in more influential ways. An example of this is reported by many Magicians when, after some time in their ritual practice, they find that they can now “smell” the idea itself—or any other such synesthetic linking of idea and sense. This is a very powerful aspect of ritual, and I have yet to find a good description of it elsewhere.

Identification with the Universe

Further, on this last point, is the dogma in Magickal literature that the goal of the practice is to “identify oneself with the Universe”. Given all that we have said, I think it is possible to see what this may mean! Through the ritual practices, we unite and integrate many different neurological circuits into a singly connected unit. In doing so, we find that our depth of thought on these subjects increases dramatically. Therefore, to integrate many different concepts in this fashion is to “unify” one's own brain as far as the concepts are concerned. If one were to plan their practices in such a way so that many concepts are integrated, even seemingly contradictory ones, it is possible to see a new “concept” of self-emerge which is of a type of unity very hard to describe unless you’ve experienced it. When your practice has gone so far that you are trying to perform rituals on the concept of “God” or “reality” itself, so far as you are capable of symbolizing them, you will unify your entire mind under this domain and mystically the “identification with God” is not such an insane statement anymore. Much is to be said on the unbelievably powerful and transformative effect this will have on the Magician; I cannot however speak on these things.