By The Pyre: The Nature of Reality

Hi all,

I wanted to introduce you all to a new series of essays/journal entries I'm going to be posting, called By The Pyre. These are going to be reflections on various topics as the relate to my "tag line" of Bisexual Leftist Himbo Warlock, so a little bit of kink, a little bit of hypno there, a little of magic over there, and a just a teensy bit of politics. I think you'll get a good idea of how these will pan out with this first one on how there's no such thing as an objective reality. I do plan on filming these and releasing these on Youtube and Tiktok eventually.

One of the most important realizations I have come to is that there is no such thing as objective reality. The only thing any of us has is an incomplete picture taken with whatever senses we might have access to and processed through a biased subconscious. You might think the world works one way, or at the very least ought to, but that all crumbles when you meet someone with diametrically opposed viewpoint.

Body dysmorphia is an excellent of how individuated reality can be: an outsider might look at a bodybuilder and see a perfect specimen, but if the bodybuilder is dealing with dysmorphia, when he looks in the mirror, all he can see is his flaws.

Mental Illness, of course, highlights that there are multiple degrees to which reality is splintered. While we each have our own viewpoints, there is a certain amount of consensus that dictates what is ultimately considered the “the truth.” To someone with schizophrenia, for example, hallucinations are indiscernible from reality until that version of reality can be vetoed by an outside perspective, either another person, or a recording of some form. In this example the reality as seen by the majority or even just the recording alone overrules the reality observed by someone with schizophrenia. But what if that person were the last person on earth, with no means to verify via recording. The impact of the hallucinations on the schizophrenic would be such that they might well be real.

Gender is another realm in which the idea of an objective reality breaks down. I personally view myself as agender. At the deepest core of myself I feel that neither the label of “man” nor “woman” fits me, although I find the clothing and body type that has arbitrarily been labeled by the masses as “masculine” to be particularly appealing. Truthfully I often feel like an automaton made up to look like a man. But because I was born with penis and appear masculine, I’ve been labeled against my will as Man by society at large. I’m lucky that the incongruity between my internal gender and what I’m viewed as doesn’t put me into any danger. For many trans, intersex and even some cis people, these incongruities can be life threatening. And yet for all the scientific evidence and logic arguments trans people have made to justify their own existence, it can often feel like there will always be people who live in a reality where men are born men, women are born women, and anything that breaks those rules are an abomination.

But these gaps in reality don’t always have to be a source of conflict. In fact I’ve made it my life's work to put it to my advantage. I was once asked if the success I’ve had practicing Chaos Magick wasn’t just confirmation bias, to which my answer was YES and that’s the point. In casting a spell, I put my intentions to the forefront of my mind which caused me to make subconscious decisions in support of that intention, as well as seek external confirmations that that intention was being manifested in the world around me. Whether or not there was actual manipulation of said reality, whether the “magick” was “real” or not doesn’t matter, I cast the spell and I got the results I wanted, and that’s all that matters.

Hypnosis is another means by which we can use these gaps to manipulate our reality. Rather than making changes to the world around us, it allows us to alter the lense through which we view it, as well as view ourselves. A confidence file can improve our self esteem, a jock file can change how we view working out. Dumbing down files don’t reduce our IQ Potential, but allows us to view the world on simpler terms, unburdened by the deeper analysis we normally put ourselves through.

So remember that although reality may seem rigid and stubborn, it can also be brittle and breakable. You just need to look at it from another angle.