Why is it so hard to change what we pay attention to? Because you perceive identity in your attention pattern. You recognize self not in what you are, but in what you perceive. So any change feels like death of self.

Reality is much fuller in dimension and depth than any single track can make available to us, and our minds are not even limited to a simple linear progression. More like an I-pod we can skip whole tracks, even shuffle and reshuffle our tracks of attention freely.

There’s that “self” stuff again. Multiple selves then, or no self? The paradox comes in here, because both conclusions are true. Nature loves the golden ratio. Reiteration and spirals play out everywhere. DNA spirals, whirlpools in moving water spiral, atoms spiral, but they also jump. The fixed state we try to confine our attention to is itself a living death sentence.

We remain unfulfilled in this “familiar” life because our inner being recognizes this circuit as incomplete, out of touch. But our attention isn’t even limited to a two dimensional orbit. We tend to think as if our perception works across a plane and extends out to a horizon, but our attention can shift on any and all possible axis.

No “center” and no “edge.” Yes. They say god is a presence with its centre everywhere and its circumference nowhere, and like a Rubik’s cube you don’t really have to change every aspect of your attention pattern. The blue will stay blue and the red will stay red, but with a simple rotation what seems obvious and immutable reveals itself to be needlessly complex.

This controlled perceptual shift is the basis of the efficacy of spiritual and magickal ritual. The ritual presents foci to your attention, and you either realign your attention to a proscribed orientation or world view, or you deliberately engineer the ritual to shift your attention into non-ordinary awareness.

How is it a magical ritual? Perception. Ones man’s magic is another man’s delusion, but how do we recognize any delusion?

How come magic = delusion? Well, magic sets up an artificial belief, selectively chosen to re-orient ones awareness according to a preselected goal to shift ones frame of mind away from perceived problems.

How do we know wisdom when we hear it? We judge wisdom based on a criteria set up by an accepted band of attentional focus. Magic being an isomorphic algorithm defined by the structure and thus the limitations of our perception and attention. The same patterns are reproduced across cultures even before they ever established contact with each other. The reason being, they are working from a beginning nature that we all shared in living as human beings in this world of all worlds. You will not escape illusion, because there is no illusion to escape from, and yet you live in an ongoing process of illusion. As for everything you attend to, some other set of elements must of necessity remain unperceived.

I’d rather “suffer from illusions.” I would rather not suffer from illusions, just as I would rather not eat paint. But I do love painting, and I do seek to refine my art, change my angle, frame the structure differently, and all the while exploring the feeling of life and living in this art of illusion.

Matter is an illusion of energy? As is perception. Even our perception of something as basic as where we are located in space is an illusion. It’s easily distorted.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~