[ExI] apple mothership

[Amon Zero]

On 14 September 2011 16:42, *Nym* <nymphomation at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Practitioners of 'chaos magic' have apparently been doing something
> like this since the 1970s, the difference being they seem to believe
> the 'prayers' have a real effect..



Well, I wouldn't be putting all my cards on the table (so to speak) if I
didn't point out that in this case, 'they' includes me. I don't tend to use
the term "chaos magic" myself, but instead default to the language of my
dayjob, which is in cognitive science. Most 'chaos magicians', including me,
are relatively sophisticated and will ascribe the effects of such 'prayers'
to well-documented psychological processes. There's room for an awfully rich
worldview which doesn't cross swords with rationality or evidence at any
point, in there. Of course, there are less-sophisticated proponents of this
worldview that resort to superstition, but that's true of many belief
systems.

We must also bear in mind that when thinking about this kind of thing,
definitions become very important. Dave raised the interesting idea of a
'prayer' (we really need a different word for this? Affirmation, maybe?)
which could be legally binding. Anything which is legally binding certainly
has a 'real' effect!   ;-)

- A
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