Get to know the Devil and you'll get to know God.
The practical study of domains under the names of magic, sorcery, necromancy, the occult, faith healing, hypnotism, ESP and the like, are just as critical for any spiritual work as the practical study of mainstream religion, art and science.
Why? I need to understand, as broadly as possible, the energies and forces that flow through me to discern what are 'real' as opposed to what is 'illusory' - that is, those phenomena that have a definite effect in terms of quantity, quality and intensity compared to those phenomena that pretend to have these effects.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C Clarke.
When it all boils down to it, the ONLY thing you can learn to consciously control is your 'attention' - and for that, you need all your attention to study all your attention.
The danger in such broad and practical study is fixation or addiction to a specific phenomena or domain because of the practical results that can be acquired. This can lead to a feeding of the egoism that is infatuated with control and power, and all the negative consequences that flow from it.
Any experienced stage performer will tell you that true performance is the ability to read the crowd, harness and focus the energy that is streaming from them to you, and then reflect it back at the right time, with the right intensity and with the right quality.
For the serious seeker, any powers acquired must, at some point, be 'sacrificed' for further progress to occur - otherwise, one gets stuck and eventually 'back-slides', undoing all previous progress. If one can learn to sacrifice, then any real powers gained and given up will come back strengthened and find their rightful place at the proper time.
The science of slight-of-hand, the implementation of deception and the manipulations of people's suggestibility rests on developing the same powers that are also involved with the liberation of consciousness, Soul creation, and the cultivation of a successful communal life.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.1 Corinthians 6:19-20 KJV
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