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Gnosis: Altered Mental States

Gnosis encompasses various mental states in which a practitioner engages in mystical experiences, such as one-pointedness or Samadhi. Often, these states are brief but can be extended through practice. Typically, reaching this state is essential for manifestation. Flow, considered one of the mildest forms of gnosis, remains adequate for consistent manifestation according to the magician's experience.

Most common cult-based initiatory practices use very unusual forms of initiation, such as trauma, sexual arousal— especially edging, singing and dancing, or repeating something until that critical moment you reach where you're about to give in. These may not always induce gnosis per se, but allow it to be achieved quicker, albeit through submission or yielding to a master. That said, I will touch upon these practices.

Note: I'm not entirely sure if connections are considered a gnostic state, although I think they are.


Trauma

When we experience trauma, we generally find ourselves stuck repeating thought processes relating to that trauma for a while. If it's an argument with someone, we'd constantly convince ourselves we were right or justify the argument to get over it. This thought cycle can be forcefully associated with intent, by including the trauma in a ritual. Depending on each individual, the effect of the ritual might weaken over time, hence changing some aspects of the affliction should be a matter of consideration. This is but one of many ways to initiate yourself or someone else. Once something is etched into your brain, it becomes easy to use that aspect in sorcery or as a source thereof.


Sexual arousal

The most common form of gnosis is popularized by sigilization. There are too many forms of arousal-based gnosis to cover here, but I'll link some sources to them on the main magick page.


Ritual

This includes singing, dancing, repetition, affirmation, and belief. A pre-existing belief can be used to amplify spellwork. Usually, this is done with a mentor, a magus, or someone experienced engaging in this practice. The person dances and sings until they "give in". This would initiate them into the gnostic state. General rituals done in paganistic practices should almost always be done when someone is well-experienced in magick and can use gnosis. For beginners with magick, cleansing rituals are a good way to learn how to get magick under the belt. As with connections, being sincere and believing in what you're doing is very important. Allow yourself to fully immerse in your ritual.


Kia

In the context of Gnosis, "Kia" signifies the foundational energy or Altered Mental States (AMS) that chaotes employ in their practices. It directly affects the state of gnosis, especially one-pointedness, an AMS during which the mind becomes intensely focused on a single point or goal. It's an absolute focus one can only achieve when honed in on an object completely, which can be learned via focal meditation. Absolute arousal is the most popular. From this, one can infer the degree of one-pointedness required for such manifestations, which is clearly challenging to sustain.


Linking

Links or Connections are corridors between two conceptual masses.

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