Chapter

(ACTIVATION TECHNIQUES)

The so-called War on Drugs has, over the last decade, created a public indoctrination program of such grotesque proportions that many people have actually embraced its political ideology. As a result, a lot of basically honest and reality-based thinking about drugs has been censored. (Or just plain ignored. Crowley's Diary of a Drug Fiend provides a description of drug abuse and use in a way that is probably even more relevant today than it was when it was written in 1922. Also quite relevant, but rarely cited these days, is Andrew Weil's The Natural Mind.)

1 think that an open, honest approach to drugs is our best course to reduce violence and alleviate quite a bit of needless suffering. Openness and honesty, you will note, does not include lumping all drugs into one undifferentiated mass. Heroin and LSD are as different as, for instance, aspirin and alcohol. Openness does not involve blanket denial such as " Drugs Kill" or " Just Say No"; it does, however, involve teaching people (youth and adults) to clearly weigh different kinds of evidence and to make individual decisions - on any subject. It seems strange to me that openness and honesty, which are highly valued in most other circumstances, are not the accepted means of conduct.

The idea of True Will, I believe, and ritual congruence, puts the use of anything into perspective. For instance, if your intent is to build a house, a hammer is a very useful thing; but if you're just swinging a sledge for the hell of it, you're probably going to do a lot of damage, and maybe even hurt yourself. Likewise with drugs; they are no different than anything else. A tool is only effective when used for the proper purpose, under the correct circumstances. Also, a choice of many different kinds of tools allows the best one to be chosen for each purpose. I think that if more people who are in any way interested in taking drugs had information about more different kinds of them, they could choose some of the safer ones. Nitrous oxide, for example, provides a more immediate and complete experience than cocaine base (crack), but, with a few simple guidelines, is much safer (though not totally safe), not physically addictive and also legal to purchase in many places. N02 just has not received the same kind of media attention.

In cultures where drugs are respected as resources or allies to spiritual ends, such as in South American Indian society, in the Native American Church, the Bwiti people of Africa, and many others, the use of the drug (whether, as in the above examples, it is ayahuasca, psilocybin mushrooms, peyote or Ibo root, all powerful psychedelics) is fully ritualized and there is rarely, if ever, any social problem or crime associated with it. In fact, there is quite a bit of social gain. This idea also relates to the experiences of many Americans with MDMA (Ecstasy) in recent years. Because use of the empathogenic drug evolved in psychotherapeutic settings, and in " New Age" circles, it was quite ritualized by the time it spread into the general population. Ecstasy's therapeutic and " chakra opening" qualities were well publicized, even in articles that meant to denounce its use, and this played a great role in determining people's expectations and intent in using it. Ecstasy may or may not have more potential therapeutic uses than other substances, it may just be the way that we have approached it.

Drugs are just one of many activation tools available to the magickian (that is, assuming you live in a society where drugs are available). Many non-drug methods, in fact, are quite powerful, often more powerful than chemical agents. They probably have equal potential for abuse as well. 1 hope that we are never faced with the hypnotic suggestion from some well-intentioned social reformer that " Hypnosis Kills."

Anything that produces an exalted or ecstatic state of consciousness can have use as a ritual activator. The way these are used depends on the ritual context and on the nature of the activator. Methods such as hypnosis or meditation require a greater act of will to initiate and to maintain the altered state. This has the benefit, with practice, of increasing control of the experience. Also, the practice of concentration necessary to continue meditative states is an aid to occupying the conscious mind so that unconscious factors may have their chance. It follows, then (in my mind, at least), that some combinations of techniques, each congruent to the nature of the operation, will have an even greater effect. An experiment in this direction might include drinking a glass of wine with the hypnosis technique described in the last exercise. Or, if you live in a land where some of the rights of men and women are recognized, you can smoke a joint, or have a lungfull of laughing gas.

A very powerful activator is that altered state called " astral projection" or " out of body experience." There are some very simple techniques to achieve astral projection, but all should be used with great care of set and setting (for our purposes, a well banished and consecrated space, with a very congruent invocation). These range from concentration on the throat-center while in a meditative state, to lucid dreaming techniques, to sensory deprivation. One of these practices while in a chemical or electronic (brain machine) altered state can be a quick route to new and unusual realities. If you are going to experiment in this way, make sure you are thoroughly practiced in your ritual work and experienced with the altered state separately before beginning.

Prolonged sexual experiences are very good activators. Delaying orgasm for periods of an hour or more can produce a very intense altered state. This combined with yoga techniques, in the context of a congruent ritual can be very powerful. Practice this with all the care and respect that you would the other activators. (I've kept this brief because there are several fine books now in print dealing with just this subject. Omar Garrison's Tantra: the Yoga of Sex is quite good. Robert Anton Wilson's Sex and Drugs provides some good, entertaining general information.)

With attention to invocation, very complete and specific experiences can be developed. Several years ago I had the good fortune to be able to experiment, for a time, with a very powerful activator which I will call " factor K" (See John Lilly's The Scientist, for an interesting account of experiments with factor K. I think that where Lilly went wrong with these experiments was in his lack of attention to set and setting. Nevertheless, I am indebted to John Lilly for recording his experiments, and publishing them, in such a thorough manner. I would have had no idea where to begin my own work.) The form which I obtained this substance was a water soluble powder which was readily absorbed through the nasal mucus membranes.(I snorted it.) its action lasted for about an hour. The quality of its effect, I soon learned, was extremely variable, dependent more upon set and setting than anything else I have ever come in contact with. I'll give a couple of examples to illustrate this.

After beginning my experiments with extremely simple ritual settings, and small doses of factor K., I eventually settled on a form which involved banishing, consecrating and performing a full invocation.(Unfortunately, my records of this series of experiments, which were fairly extensive, are not available. Toward the end of the experiments, my apartment was broken into and my notebook was stolen (along with a little cash and some electronic equipment), leaving me with only an outline of the experiments and the tape transcripts. I can't even guess what they might have intended with the notebook. Beat me to publication, perhaps? Although most of the stolen stuff was recovered, the notebook never reappeared.) I would then take a moderate to large dose of K, and don a pair of headphones that would play me a pre-recorded hypnotic instruction. I had another tape machine handy, set on record, to capture any words that might come out of my mouth.

My audio hypnosis was basically the same through all of these experiments and was intended to heighten the experience while allowing me to give verbal descriptions of what was happening. It began with very basic trance induction techniques, then went on to the following:

At this junction all things are possible

It is only for a moment of will to happen

as the vastness, nothingness and infinity of

unconsciousness changes and turns in its

infinite play. And it is infinite at each

instant, as all possibilities are realized.

And so the conscious mind can become

involved in a search for ultimate reality-

everything-turns-on-this-moment-

as the unconscious is as it always

has been and always will, permeated

at every point by infinity and so can understand this voice.

And the vastness divides and

dissolves continually and

entities resembling consciousnesses are formed,

vast minds and tiny minds,

active forms and static thoughts. It

can be understood that some of these

vaster entities incorporate the smaller

that division can occur in new ways

which can use the parts

of the unconscious which intersect

with the human organism as well as

the intelligence of a vaster mind.

And so the greater one can use the

particular language of the smaller one

and the specific language medium of

the organism.

Thus the human organism can now

speak with control and clarity

as the voice of a greater entity

which can say what it will

in accordance with it's knowledge

of what can be said.

And, only as fast as what

can be said is said,

and only as fast as the

greater mind wills it,

in accordance with the

changes and turns of the

infinite play, the conscious

mind can return from its

searches and the organism

can assume whatever configuration

is pleasant and useful for the moment. (This suggestion was developed from verbiage that was produced during previous experiments with factor K.)

Each time I repeated this experiment, I experienced something quite dramatic. On one particular occasion, the invocation I used was Crowley's Liber V, a ritual designed to invoke the " Forces of the Aeon" and employing the Thelemic mythology of Nuit, Hadit and Ra Hoor Khuit. Before the hypno-tape had even ended, I found myself in a very different place. No longer was I in my upstate New York apartment; I was in Egypt, inside a pyramid. I was lying inside an open sarcophagus. The inside of the chamber was brightly lit, a bluish-white light adhering to everything and also radiating very strongly from me. I felt that this light, which moved through me, and radiated from me, connected me with everything around me, the walls, floor, bricks of the pyramid, and with everything else through space and time, especially a moment in space-time when a man in upstate New York was lying within a magick circle somewhere in the twentieth century. This is difficult to describe; time ceased being linear and ancient Egypt and many other " times" were all there at the same moment. I'll quote a little bit from the transcript of my tape:

There is this that is

The speaking one is but a speck

I am the corpse in the pyramid

The falcons roost

There are no corpses but for the observer

The language of the lesser-one is

tossed about like a mote in a river.

Feathering cumulus dark clouds

Thunder and fire...

I am in the center of the pyramid

Given the experience uniting all with all

One with many

Many with all

The choice of consciousness to roam

To rove...

Evolution is infinity..

Egyptian world exists

simultaneously

Light

All

The birds fly

The desert's expanse is all is all is all is all

Horizons of infinity

The pyramid is translucent

All is clear all is energy

The one corpse does not matter

The corpse that flies

Flies

Flies

All returns

There is no matter..

This is probably not the best or most coherent thing I have ever said, but it does give some flavor of the experience. And it does provide some illustration of how my ritual intent affected the experience. My conscious mind was overwhelmed by the experience. I had little knowledge of being Philip H. Farber, I even had almost no conscious memory of having done the ritual. I was this being of radiant energy inside of a pyramid. While my conscious mind was just experiencing, my unconscious was still resonating with the intent of the ritual. The Egyptian quality of it, as well as the references to falcons, infinity, etc., follows quite readily from the nature of the mythology involved. The first few lines of the above text seem like a kind of post-hypnotic echo to the trance induction.

Another example, which involves a similar dose of factor K, but a very different ritual setting, may provide a contrast. This occurred well over a year later, when an isolated sample of K came my way. The experiment involved two other people and was performed in the main room of an art gallery after closing. I quote this from my magickal record:

" In the gallery we had a display of surreal, archetypal oil paintings by an artist named P- M-. Our original intention was to take the K in the gallery and see where the paintings took us. That day, however, P- had a change of plans and had to take the artwork down, so we were left with an empty gallery when it came time to dose.

" We banished the space (using the Star Ruby) and the three of us each snorted about **mg. Two of us smoked while we waited for the K to take effect. As it has a habit of doing, the K came up quickly, but it came without the storm of impressions and associations that had marked past experiments. The feeling was one of ultimate clarity and lucidity. In

a thoroughly banished space, in an empty art gallery, there was no impetus to go in any direction. At least one of us felt that we weren't getting off too well, so we each snorted a supplemental dose of about **mg. This only served to heighten the experience of stillness and clarity. One of us had a set of tuning forks in the circle, and set about doing

sound therapy on another. I was not the one being directly operated on with the tuning forks, but I nevertheless experienced the vibrations in my own body. This served to remind me of the power of willed thought with K (We all later described the experience as one of potential. It seemed as if we could go in any direction at a thought, that as soon as something was willed, it would be done. Ile intent of the art center was to provide an experience of creative freedom, and the K dose was a good confirmation of success in this intent.), and I began, as a kind of dharana exercise, to imagine vivid artwork on the white walls. This was quite successful, and very beautiful. I managed to cover the walls entirely with a brightly-colored jungle of hallucinatory flowers. As I was doing this, quite suddenly, I felt a surge of energy rising in my spine which I experienced as large white flowers blooming thickly up the middle pillar. I described this to my friends and one later said that my words triggered the experience in hir. After a while (It is very difficult to gauge passage of time with K.), we became aware of very strong currents of energy passing among us. All three of us held hands together and it was as if a) there was a very strong throbbing current passing through them, and b) as if all three hands had melted together into one mass of something not necessarily solid. As if on cue, we simultaneously released hands and repeated the same thing with our hands about six inches apart. The pulsating current was, if anything, even stronger and quite tangible to me in the air between our hands and through my body. It was as if we were creating a very beautiful, but transient, sort of artform out of these subtle currents. Only we could see it (I think), and only now.

" All in all, the predominant impressions were of lucidity, peace, beauty and will. Very, very pleasant."

Factor K is fairly difficult to obtain (although legal if purchased in small amounts from sources outside the U.S.A.), and probably not suited for everyday exploration. In recent years, my experiments of this kind have made use of sound and light brain machines. These devices use a set of goggles and headphones to expose the senses to pulses of light and sound which are calibrated at frequencies known to have specific effects on the brain. The brain waves tend to resonate or fall in step with these frequencies, and it is therefore possible to tune the brain to many different states of consciousness. Most of the machines are able to run pre-recorded sessions of some sort, and are also able to integrate a musical track into the experience.

An example of this kind of experience occurred when I banished, consecrated, and then, as an invocation, selected a passage at random from The Book of the Law: " Behold! these be grave mysteries; for there are also of my friends who be hermits. Now think not to find them in the forest or on the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed by magnificent beasts of women with large limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and masses of flaming hair about them; there shall ye find them.I'll continue from my magickal record:

" Then I put on my brain machine gear and relaxed to see what might happen. The music I had playing likely had a strong effect on what transpired: The Pipes of Pan, by the Master Musicians of Joujouka. I started out thinking, quite intellectually, about the [above] passage, comparing it to, for instance, the one about doing things with delicacy, by the rules of art. This thought produced a sort of physical exhilaration. About this time, I began to experience visual images of green, spring wood and mountains. Then the view was from the top of a craggy, but wooded peak, a high place, a fine realm for Pan. This seemed to merge mystically with itself, Van Gogh-like, each object, each color flowing rhythmically into everything else. It had an oriental feel to it... Then it was truly the realm of Pan, and I was dancing with the god. I thought, then, about the story I once wrote [Chapter 5 of this volume] which concerned a hermit and is quite relevant to [the above passage]. This then led to a dream-like state where I was somewhere else - it all seemed quite normal until I was able to look back on it. In this place, I was conducting this very same ritual experiment, but there were others with me. Particularly one person who I trusted very much and who was helping me. I thought he was going to leave and I grew concerned, but he stayed and I was relieved. I went in and out of this state 3 times. The second time there was a young man with dark hair who I did not fully trust. He was appointed as an assistant to me, and proved worthy though I remained somewhat wary. In the 3rd incident there were a great number of people and they were telling me that I had been chosen to write their words - in one sense, the words that they wished to communicate, in another sense the words that they [wished to read]. Each time I came out of this state, I went back in after consciously thinking about my story."

At the time I placed no importance on the content of this experience. I did not like the idea of " being chosen" to write somebody else's words, nor did I even know who " they" were. But about a week and a half later, I had the idea to write this book and began a magickal operation for the purpose of increasing my effectiveness as a writer. I shy from attributing cause-effect relationships to this kind of work; rather, I would say that the same Will which prompts me to write these words was the same Will that inspired me to perform that particular magick. The ritual and the work resonate together.

Along with brain machine developer Stephen Barry,." brain gym" operator Nicholas Ross and, on one occasion, author Robert Anton Wilson, I have presented a ritual workshop that incorporates a sound and light brain machine as an activation technique. I include the ritual as we presented it to workshop participants. For the reader of this book, a good portion can serve as a review of some basic techniques.(For a good overview of brain machine technology, see Michael Hutchinson's Megabrain.)

EXERCISE #15

FUTURERITUAL

SOFTWARE

for interaction with a

multiple-user brain machine

in a group setting

GENERATING INTENT

Your intent determines what the content and direction of the ritual for you will be. What is it that you would like to gain from this work? The intent should be developed and written down (or remembered) in a clear, concise way so that it can be used in the ritual at the appropriate time. This intent can take the form of traditional magick (i.e., to invoke an elemental force or a deity such as Pan, Artemis, Hermes, etc.), or it may use a model of therapeutic or generative change, such as those described by NLP or similar systems. One possible question to ask is, " What is it that I lack, that I should like to gain? " You may choose something that you are currently working on in your life, or in whatever practice or discipline you are working in.

ENTER RITUAL AREA

BANISHING

A traditional magickal banishing performed by one person, followed by a more personal banishing that might consist of pot-banging, drumthumping, yelling, etc., around the perimeter, outward. Each yell or noise should be envisioned and/or felt as an enduring presence which remains even without the magickian's conscious concentration. If you are a traditional magickian, you can use the sounds and energy to build up pentagrams at the cardinal points. Others can let the guardians take shape, position or quality intuitively, as may seem appropriate. The purpose of all this is to make sure that everything within the place of working is subservient to the single purpose of the ritual. The banishing prevents use of the space for anything but the one purpose.

CONSECRATION

Personal consecration: Silently aspiring as Hadit to Nuit, or to H.G.A. Or, for the verbally oriented, a mantra of sorts may be repeated, for instance, " I am uplifted in thine heart; and the kisses of the stars rain hard upon thy body, " or " God, I invite you to indwell the pure temple that I have prepared for you." Or some combination of all these techniques. As in all of this, the more sensory modes that you use, the more effective it will be. When you think that you have made some success with this, you can allow or imagine your body and mind to be infused or vibrating with the energy of the infinite. At least 5 minutes.

Projection: Walk around in circle, using the sign of the enterer to project the energy of the infinite through the circle. Again, that energy may take any sensory form: sound, vision, feeling.

TAKE YOUR SEAT

Little circle: Mentally define a smaller circle around just you, a personal circle which excludes all others. Start with sign of silence, aura withdrawn, then, at whatever pace is comfortable, expand your aura to fill the little circle. Then draw the aura in as small as possible, to a single point if you can. Repeat this until the aura is quite dense.

THE OATH AND INTENT with MEDITATION

We go around the circle and each stands and states hir name, hir experience as a person, what s/he does in life, etc. Then make a statement of your intent in doing this ritual. What is the single purpose that you have chosen? If you so decide, you may do this silently. Please sit when you are done.

While you wait your turn and/or wait for the next phase, you can practice the silent meditation or hypnosis technique of your choice.

DON YOUR HEADGEAR

Relax for a bit, perhaps continuing your meditation, or simply allowing yourself to become receptive to the frequency of the machine. When you are ready, move on to the invocation.

INVOCATION

Use whatever technique you have chosen, or whatever technique works, to invoke the quality of your intent. For instance, if you have chosen aspiration to the highest, you may use the state induced by the machine to " imagine" yourself doing a specific ritual that you might know, a specific meditation method, etc. If you have chosen therapeutic or generative intent, then you can use an appropriate hypnosis technique, or you can " imagine" yourself going through the process of acquiring the desired quality, finally possessing that quality and being in the future situation(s) where that quality will be most useful. Whatever your choice, strive to incorporate as many sensory modes as you comfortably can: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory.

Note: This may require some effort of will, or it can simply happen with its own momentum. Be receptive to it, and flexible if it is appropriate.

Continue this until it reaches its logical conclusion, or until you are exhausted, or until you feel the exaltation which you might associate with successful invocation. There is no set time for this: you decide when you are finished invoking.

ABSORPTION OF ENERGY

Spend some time allowing yourself to become completely receptive to the energies which have developed within the ritual area. Let them enter you from wherever they might, or from all points simultaneously. Allow these energies to fill you. Relax and experience whatever it is that you may experience at this point. Take whatever time seems appropriate, or until the machine stops (you should have plenty of time to enjoy this). (the program used in the workshop ran for about 45 minutes)

CLOSING

Remove your headgear, silently declare your operation completed and the energy invoked to be an asset to you for as long as it is appropriate. For instance, " My operation is complete, my circle closed, and the forces invoked always available as a tool for my True Will."

Keep careful records.