I had a unique experience with ?credibility.? It came from reading an article about a man from India who could ?see? with-out using his eyes! He would have someone put dough over his eyes and tinfoil and wrap his head in a scarf and then he would ride his bike through New York traffic! He put on shows and demonstrations. He also wrote about how he had acquired this phenomenal power. I read EVERYTHING about his life with fervor! The gist of it was this: When he was a child he was very poor and had nothing to look at but an old calendar on his wall. He stared and stared at it and one day he saw it with his eyes closed! He practiced until he could accomplish this feat at will, and went public.
Okay. I had dabbled in ESP and after watching him on the TV I decided to try it. I had just been through a break up (which seems to engulf people with power of one sort or the other!) I stared at a picture on my wall each day. I wiggled my scalp muscles, strained my neck and gave myself horrid headaches day after day in an attempt to ?see?.
(This was before I had sat Za-zen and understood the ?emptiness? concept or ?the quiet place? of witchcraft concept or had accepted that magick is not a tool of the mind, but of the spirit..)
So one evening as I relaxed and 'gave up' for the night and it happened!
POW!! All of a sudden I was floating about 5 feet above and to the side of my body! I was canted over at an odd angle, no sense of up or down! No sense of mass! But ?YES? I could SEE the picture on the wall! BUT at the same I also was SEEING the floor, the ceiling and the other walls including the ones behind me! It was in no way like ?normal looking?! I ?SAW? all around with-out moving my eyes. I don?t believe I even had ?eyesight? during this episode!
After a very few seconds and I ?popped? back inside my body. I broke into a sweat, a panic, racing heart and when I tried to sit up I fell over! I was COMPLETELY disorientated and my body-mind was in shock!
When I finally calmed down I told myself ?No way I could even walk let alone ride a bike! I could not believe I could gain enough of a joining of ?Out-of-body? and ?corporeal body? to do anything! I then fell in lust and stopped trying.
Then a few years later I read that the man was a phony! Like Houdini he used tricks and gimmicks and helpers! Pin holes in strategic places, etc. (Remember Dr. No with his jade eyelid grommets?)
So! CREDIBILITY! Because I believed He was a CREDIBILE person I had a rare and wonderful experience. It didn?t matter that he was nothing but a charlatan living a phony, albeit profitable, life of trickery and deceit.
Can your ego stand to be fooled a few times? Can you stand to be called an oddball or dreamer? Because being open and believing in the phenomenal is a large part of any Magickal system, and a powerful tool. Sadly our ?much adored ego? is usually our worst enemy when it comes to the Elder Arts!