ltp

Do the fictions we create (daytime imagination, dreams, films, books, video games) with characters in them, give rise to real conscious experiences of these characters? Basically, if I imagine, or if I dream of a genocide, will it cause millions of conscious experiences of genocide to be experienced by "God" ? If these conscious experiences exist, then ethically, is it immoral to imagine these things? Should we force ourselves to stop imagining them, try to stop dreaming of them, avoid consuming and producing works that depict such facts ? Are these conscientious experiences really analogous to those that we normally consider to exist, ours and those of people in the "real" world? Or, will the things the fiction is about really be experienced as conscious experiences of imagining/dreaming? Sorry if this sounds like an absurd question but it's been bogging me for a while now. Thanks for your help !

@An young being @Evelyna aren't your 2 views conflicting with each other ? On the one hand, it seems to me (but correct me if I'm wrong) that on @An young being's view, imagination (creating a character in a work of fiction, or even maybe just involuntary daytime imagination ?) can't actually create conscious entities, while on @Evelyna's view, it can (though maybe not the same kind of consciousness that we possess). I'm asking because it actually causes me much distress to think that creating works of fiction may actually cause the events and characters in that fiction to pop into existence ; at first sight it seems to me that this may have the moral implication that we should actually refrain from creating just any kind of fiction that we want, which would be quite depressing to me actually. Thanks again for your help, this is quite emotionally loaded for me actually ^^

Hi all, and thanks a lot for your responses. @Evelyna what cultures do you have in mind ? Would they consider that, for example, the characters in their stories/myths were created by the person who created the story, and with that, some kind of consciousness for them two ? @An young being what would you think about, say, a horror movie ? In this view, do the people who imagine the scenario, and then film it with actors, have actually given birth to actual beings with a limited form of consciousness, and thus with a limited ability to suffer the pains portrayed in the movie ? What would be your moral position on creating, and watching, such movies ? Because in some horror movies, what you describe - actual scenes of suffering with detail - is very much present. @Sugarcoat would you say the characters in stories exist prior to the stories, and the stories are actually just an imitation of their experience, or does the story actually creates those characters, which didn't exist before ?

Hi everybody, I'm 24 and I've had a crush for a girl for four years now. We went to the same college for three years and I basically almost never spoke to her then. However all that changed at the beginning of 2019 when she was searching for a flat and me and my flatmate (one of my best friends) offered her to stay with us until she found one (a common friend told her there was room for another person in our flat). She ended up staying with us for three months and we got to know her a little bit - and my attraction for her only increased - all while learning she'd had a boyfriend for several years. Now fast forward to now. After she moved to her new flat, my flatmate and I kept communicating with her through messages, and occasionally we spent some evenings together too. The problem is, she's been acting in a more and more friendly way towards my flatmate, being more tactile with him, sending him more messages, etc. I know these are probably just friendly signs of affection, as she still is with her boyfriend, but nevertheless I'm feeling more and more jealous, fearful, sad and angry. I'm especially angry when she doesn't answer my messages "quick enough", even if I know my anger is totally unjustified (I can't force her to be interested in me) and is actually just a way for my ego to not be overwhelmed by the sadness of knowing she's not interested. Anyway long story short, how do I deal with this anger ? I know it's silly, but I can't control it for the moment. I also know the whole thing about liking someone who's already in a relationship isn't great to begin with, but this I cannot help but still do for now (help on addressing this root cause would also be appreciated). Thanks a lot!

Are all the gods of all religions that ever existed real ? What is their ontological status ? @Matt8800

What's your opinion on backwards causation ? Is it possible to act causally upon the past by performing certain kinds of advanced magick in the present ? @Matt8800

Why are magickal spells/rituals so specific ? I mean why would certain precise ingredients and words be needed to ensure the success of a spell ? Why isn't the force of will sufficient ? Does it have something to do with ingredients/words being symbols in the mind of the practitioner, thus helping him to believe in his magick more, thus rendering it more effective ? As opposed to the ingredients/words having an objective, inherent power ?

Isn't the unconscious the primary way by which things are being manifested ? I get the part about worrying too much though; I've just begun to realize I've always had this problem and I'm starting to work on it.

I fear causing the death of other people more than my own death. Should I face this fear ? What if people die because of me manifesting things due to the beliefs I have ?

@Matt8800 I have indeed very little control over my OCD beliefs, and adding the new belief that magick can actually happen due to OCD just reinforces the beliefs already there for years. Will removing the fear generated by these beliefs make these beliefs somehow fade ? Will accepting the fears produced by my OCD, whithout reacting to them with rituals, be sufficient for their stopping manifesting ? Or should I additionally reprogram my mind with new beliefs, that would be the opposite of the beliefs created by the OCD ? To sum up: is magick manifesting through thoughts + fear, or only through fear ? Thanks

@Matt8800 Hi and thank you for your answers, they helped me. Here are some further questions about those answers: 1. What do you mean by manifesting placebos ? Also, what are those occult principals ? Could you make a short list for a beginner, so that I can reduce the harm I could cause on me and others ? 2. If there is no God that punishes, are there not nevertheless malevolent gods or spirits that could manifest the fears of an OCD sufferer into reality to torment them ? Could that have happened in my case ? I'm very concerned about what harm all these years of OCD could have done, and also how to stop these manifestations it if necessary ? 3. Through all my OCD years, I have never actually wished someone to get hurt; all I felt was fear they would get hurt because of me. Can fear of something happening trigger magick too ? What are the chances of this to be true as opposed to actual will for the people to get hurt ? I really wish to become conscious of precisely what stuff I have been (unwillingly) doing in my life so far that could have had bad consequences in reality, and how to stop it. Thanks

Hi, If there is no real metaphysical distinction between dreaming experience and normal, "awake" experience, is it somehow unethical to dream about people suffering, violence, etc ? I mean even after realising oneness, even if there are no "others", the sage doesn't go about hurting the people he's imagining when he's awake. Is he supposed to stop imagining hurting people when he sleeps ? Thanks for your answers

Hello and thank you for this topic. How do you distinguish between magic and false correlations ? I have struggled with magical thinking OCD since childhood and I have always tried to reassure myself that it was "just my brain", but as I've learned more and more about spirituality over the past years, and "side effects" such as siddhis, law of attraction, etc, I am getting more and more afraid that I may have actually manifested some of my fears (mainly hurting/being the cause of the death of random people if I failed to accomplish certain rituals) into physical reality, and that I will continue to do so if I do not change my behaviour/do some counteracting magick. So here are some questions: -Is it possible that my OCD-based fears could have morphed over the years, into actual manifestations ? Is it likely that my fears may have attracted/created a spirit or something, whose aim is to just make sure the fears are being realized, just to make me unhappy somehow ? -Also, at some points in my childhood I made "oaths" to the Christian God, mostly about restraining from certain material pleasures, as I was feeling somehow I did not deserve certain things (which now I find silly). I have since broken some of these oaths, and this has actually led to more OCD, since I then started believing that God would punish me for breaking them. I basically feared that God would punish me by doing what I feared the most... that is hurting people, so that I would feel guilty. What are the consequences of breaking oaths, if any ? (I remember swearing on a book of prayers and on an icon). And to finish with, a more general question: -What are the chances of people having hidden magickal powers which they are not aware of ? What are the chances of these people causing harm unintentionally through these powers ? What should they do about it first ? I've seen you recommended some books, but I am not (yet) interested in doing magick, apart from the fact that I want to make sure in some way, using magick if needed, that I'm not hurting anyone. Thanks a lot for your answers, it would mean a lot to me to eliminate these concerns from my life, as they have basically been the number one cause of emotional suffering for about ten years.