Plural Magic

Shallow co-fronting

Wed, 23 Oct 2013 06:19:22 GMT

Posted by: fuzzyjayling

I struggle a little with coming up with a term for this topic I want to write about today, but perhaps that's a good enough approximation ("shallow co-fronting"). Today's post is all about the this-world end of things, with borrowing/sharing. My language here will be plural-heavy, because that's what I'm familiar with. I should also preface this with a larger than normal "this is just how it works for us, hope it helps"!

What do I mean by shallow co-fronting? Well, let me back up for a moment.

What do I mean by co-fronting? (Or "normal" co-fronting.) In general, co-fronting is when two or more people are very close to front (see above, re: borrowing/sharing). This is like when you are viewing a YouTube cat video, and several people are standing to the side or behind you, looking over your shoulder. They may be commenting to you or to each other, laughing at what you are laughing at (or sometimes things you aren't laughing at, and vice-versa). In the case of co-fronting, the people near you are your guides/Others/headmates. Say you're web browsing, sometimes you might type a comment for them (or they for you), choose a different thing to look at based on their interests, and so on. Just like many people sitting around a computer.

For some, I think co-fronting is the only term here, and it means what I'm about to talk about. For us, there is a distinction, though, which I'll explain below.

For us, when switching, we start out in that place. When we actually want to switch, it moves to something that's a lot like co-fronting, but even closer. In that situation, we are occupying the same "physical" space. Each of us feels as though it's our body, but only one of us is actually controlling it. I call this shallow co-fronting, because of how close everyone is to the surface of this world, in front. And it has a variety of potential uses in ritual!

There will be a lot of analogies following :) because I hope everyone can find something that resonates with them.

An important property of shallow co-fronting is that, with a little practice, all of the people who are candidates for switching to front may hold themselves there. A little like switching, interrupted.

If you've ever had a still basin of water or something similar, and just touched your hand to the very surface of it (but not pushed through), then you have a notion of what this can feel like. If you haven't done that, I recommend it. It is a unique feeling to touch the surface of the water, literally the barrier between the air and water itself, and it may help with understanding.

Other analogies that may resonate with some people better, like toeing a line, or the sun just almost ready to peek over the horizon. Or, to go with my computer analogy above, everyone sitting around a swivelable keyboard and mouse.

For the person in front, going with my water analogy, they probably have a hand plunged into the water. What they will do is the equivalent of backing their hand out of the water until just a few fingertips are pushed through. Anyone else who wants to participate will metaphorically put their hands just hovering over the surface like I described above. If there are several of you along a line, perhaps you will step back to where you have only one foot over the line, and everyone else is toeing it. Perhaps there will be just one person with their hands near the keyboard and mouse.

Once you're there, you and at least one Other hanging out in the same space, everyone but you just hanging on the very edge, the fun can begin! This is like "normal" co-fronting, where you can type something for them, but instead of just doing something for them, let them reach forward and do it. Typing is a good exercise for this. It's not you typing, it's them typing. Then they can draw back again. Different fingertips in the water, the keyboard and mouse moving around to different people. Except it's their presence in this world.

For us, this is a unique sensation, not really the same as "normal" borrowing/sharing. No one becomes anyone else's Other, but rather, we are all here. We all feel present in this world. Because everyone is here, actual switching becomes very easy and fast. We could have a conversation with us and others all interacting at once. This is a pretty fabulous thing if you all want to participate in a conversation or activity happening out here.

And this is, for me, where this crosses over into being very useful in ritual and/or magic. Dove wrote about a ritual she participated in here. She was the main participant, but each of us (myself and Sparrow) all came forth briefly to read a quote in the ritual. Just one or two sentences. It worked pretty well. You could also do things like swapping out who is calling which quarter, or even do a multi-person "solo" ritual. We've used this in the past too, with some things where one of us was a "recipient" of the ritual, and someone else was more of an "officiant". Basically any kind of thing where you could have multiple physical people in a ritual who aren't acting at once, you could do it this way. Or even where multiple physical people would be active, though only you and your Others will hear/see it, probably. (Depends on the magic.)

What does it feel like? Besides my analogies above, it can be an interesting sensation like this body's sense of self melting between several identifications of feeling and appearance. I see myself with darker hair, and Dove sees herself with white hair, and switching between us, there was an almost palpable inner-eye feeling of hair colour melting down from top to bottom, as well as personal energy.

(I should also impart a warning here: This sort of thing has been known to cause headaches until you are used to it. And it's hard to tell whether it's an "ache so good" kind of issue. Please be careful and proceed with caution and sound judgement.)

I hope this helps, and I'd love to hear about other perspectives of how it works/feels or its uses in magic.

For some, this may come naturally, but for me, it's moving a little past "plural 101". :D I'll still file it there though.

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Non-visual ways of being

Sun, 20 Oct 2013 07:33:07 GMT

Posted by: fuzzyjayling

I'm on a roll here. Two posts in one night. :)

A common theme that runs through many of our posts is visuality. You go to a place and you see people and places. Or you see Others nearby. These are all concepts laden with visualisation and sight.

For a variety of reasons, some people don't work this way. For one thing, you may have trouble moving your consciousness to another place to begin with. For another, you may simply not see things that way, for a number of possible reasons. Some people don't have other-worlds.

So I want to take a stab in the dark (har har) at some thoughts on another way of being, doing plural magic.

The basic concept is this: consciousness is a product of a body here, a brain. There is a sense of immediacy, a sense of self, and a sense of a regular passage of time. You can point to something and say, ah ha! I am, and I'm here.

This is a resource that's shared when Others come to the front. As I mentioned in the Borrowing/Sharing How-to, when you switch out, you become their Other. They have that I am, and I'm here; and they're looking at and listening to you from here.

That consciousness can sometimes be moved; this is what I call journeying. You're moving your perspective, your sense of is-ness and view, into the other-world. It's almost like a guided meditation, except that other-place is doing the guiding.

What do you do when you're not doing any of those things? Here are a couple of examples.

Listening. Sometimes you just hear an Other talk. It sounds like when you talk to yourself in your head, hearing your words as if they were spoken. Except you hear their words, their songs, whatever they're doing.

Telepathy. Sometimes an Other's thoughts simply enter your mind whole. It was as if you thought the thought, but it wasn't yours. They tend to have a particular energy or flavour of someone else. They are often gestalts: you don't think out the words "I need to go to the store". Instead you do something like having the feeling of needing to go to the store. If you want to express happiness about being around someone, you feel it first, then you translate it into words to speak. (At least, that's what I do.) Telepathy is sometimes a product of this, your mind translating their thoughts into words for you.

Memory Recovery. This is sort of like telepathy, but instead of hearing someone else's immediate communication, it's simply there like something you remembered. Like remembering having been to the store earlier in the day; perhaps you remember a few fleeting images of what the store looked like, how it smelled, what happened there. You can remember, oh, they had a Halloween aisle right now, without even remembering what it looked like. These can insert themselves into the flow of your normal memories, and are as much about a place as a person. In much the same way, you could find yourself perceiving sensations of various kinds (or even simple knowledge) of something happening in an other-world, or of one of the Others.

This relates heavily to some things that Sparrow wrote here: Recovering memories.

Empathy. This is just like telepathy, but with feelings instead of concrete thoughts. You could feel, for example, the love a caring guide/Other has for you.

These things are all totally valid ways of working it. For me, one of them often proceeds some deeper action. I will sometimes randomly hear wind in trees or have a notion of a place, and I then journey to it. Sometimes, I'll have a thought or memory related to an Other, and they immediately show up after that. It seems like either magic or coincidence, but I personally think that this was my own internal processes announcing their presence.

I also think this is another strong intersection point of what I call plural magic, and basic neo-paganism. People will say things like "I felt the stone's approval to move it" or "I felt a sense of approval when invoking the deity" or "I felt an impression of fire when calling that quarter". Some people will also pray to deities and have a conversation with them. To me, this is a simple application of communicating with an Other. (They are not necessarily "yours" or related only to you just because they're an Other you have contact with. Some more thoughts on this in Gods as Others.)

Play around with these ideas! They can often lead to much smoother and less cumbersome communication. They might also lead the other direction, from something that is surface and cursory, into having full on guides/Others with whom to speak. Here are some exercises you can try:

Speak to an Other. Just say it into your mind, "Hey ____, are you around?" and then listen. Sometimes you'll get an answer.

Use telepathy on an object. Anything, say a banana. Ask it if it's okay if you eat it. You do this by thinking of the concept of eating it, and see if you feel a sense of okayness (or something else). Feeling spirits in things like this and communicating with them is called animism.

Query for memories. Do you have an other-world? You may have one and not realise it. If you do have one, think about a place you've visited there, or know of. Wonder how it's doing, what it looks like, who's there. Sometimes you'll suddenly know the answer. Sometimes it takes a little time, or becomes "filled in" as you wait or focus. If you don't have one, I will say that often strong wishes are an indication of something that's already true. I've heard more than one person say "oh geez, I really wish I was plural". And then they find out they can do it after all. If you let your mind go blank, what sort of imagery comes into it? This could be any sense, too -- sounds, smells, physical sensations. Follow those strands and try to remember more about it like remembering a dream.

I hope to write more on this topic later. But more to the point, I'm planning to try to keep this viewpoint in mind when writing how-to posts.

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What is "plural magic"?

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 18:57:42 GMT

Posted by: fuzzyjayling

I thought I might take a moment to write some more about what exactly is meant by "plural magic".

I assume you know what I mean by "magic" since you're here, but I'll go ahead and give my definition. Basically magic is using your will, calling upon other or higher powers, or even just putting your determination toward effecting change. So this covers anything from the rather mundane "give it your all to change for the better" up to elaborate rituals and years-long working, what is often called "energy" or "chi", or other such forces that aren't measurable by scientific means at this point in time. To me, science is a way of interacting with the universe in a mechanistic, deterministic way, like tapping someone's knee to make their leg jump. Magic is speaking to the universe and interacting in a higher level, more psychological way, and asking for help.

Magic can also serve the purpose of a religious service, to reaffirm one's bond and comfort with the larger world(s). In this regard, even atheists can practice spirituality. (Marvelling at the intricacies of the universe, spending time stargazing, etc.)

The "plural" refers to not being alone in one's personal mental sphere, only during rituals/workings, or all the time. I'll write more about commonly recognised types below.

Spirit helpers / familiars -- This is probably very common and well-understood in the neo-pagan community, and probably even in the wider religious community. Any time you perceive yourself communing with some outside force, for advice, for comfort, for help in rituals, and so on, that might fall under here. Most of the time, at this level of things, you're not doing things like borrowing or switching, but you're sharing a mental space in which you can communicate. IMO, even praying and feeling that you received a response falls under here. Spirit mediums might also fall under this category, with a kind of borrowing possible.

Deities / higher beings -- This is like spirit helpers, but you clearly perceive the one(s) you're working with to be of some higher evolution/wisdom/etc. Some people do "horsing" in which a deity or higher being does borrow their body for a bit, to talk with others directly. This can also include things like people being used by beings claiming to hail from Atlantis or other star systems, and so on.

Shamanic guides -- I use the word "shamanic" loosely, because it's ill-defined and quite possibly cultural appropriation. Perhaps "neo-shamanic" would be better. Anyhow, this is similar to plural systems below, as well as spirit guides above, in that you journey to an other-space and speak with guides and helpers.

Plural systems -- Some people identify this way. The basic description of this is that there are other people who are in frequent contact with each other, and there may also be an inner or other space. (There also might not -- it might be more like spirit helpers in flavour, but more personal.) The others are often like family. This is where we identify, as you can probably guess. :) There are so many variations on this, it's a whole topic all to itself, and these lovely people cover it way better than I could:

LivingPlural FAQ
LivingPlural Etiquette Guide

A short note on the terms DID and MPD ("dissociative identity" / "multiple personality" disorder). Strictly speaking, they refer to a clinical, medical diagnosis that results from a person having trauma, and building "personalities" or "alters" to survive it. However, they are often incorrectly applied to many other plural systems. Some people do go through that and end up there (or here), but many do not. Additionally, many people who do identify with those terms see their people as separate people, not "alters". As is the case with many things doctors come to love and cherish, it is a square hole that many round pegs are often pounded into. Personally, I find the words "disorder" and "personalities" as applied to us to be extremely distasteful. So please do not assume this is the case for every plural system, and be aware that "multiple personalities" is often not the right word for a plural system. (This is a complex topic and I'm just trying for a quick summary here, so I apologise if I'm upsetting anyone. Feel free to comment.)

Case in point, we started out closer to a neo-shamanic context and ended up here. It's just a matter of what paradigm works best for you and feels most comfortable.

Median Systems -- these are much like plural systems, but they are more about aspects of a single person's being than about fully separate beings. As such, there's a pretty different flavour to this. People within a plural system may also be median (I am). I plan to do some posts about working with magic in a median context, too.

It's one of my personal quests to de-stigmatise these terms and concepts. You can see by how I wrote this like a spectrum that I think the distinction (and the relative scale of "crazy") is unfair and hypocritical. One end of this list is common and accepted by magic workers, the other end is often not. But I wish to do two things with this list:

- Show that all kinds of plurality are valid, and can be healthy ways of being
- Legitimise the "less deep" kinds as a kind of plurality, especially in regards to this community

...and of course, to be more inclusive about the scope of this community in general. It may help you more than you think!

Please do write a comment or message me if you have other examples you'd like to throw in!

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Recovering Memories

Wed, 28 Aug 2013 17:38:00 GMT

Posted by: nierika

Hello! *waves* I'm that elusive Sparrow person, and I also go by Allie. A quick introduction, though I don't like to belabour the point: We think of me as something like fae, or that is a good metaphor, anyhow. I like to spend my time out in nature for the most part, but I also have an interest (along with my people) in studying the world, cultures, languages, and so forth. You might call us archivists. We like a good party, too -- fresh food, a bonfire, dancing, chanting, poetry...

I met Fuzzy by way of a sort of merged journeying. What finally brought her understanding that I was separate is actually the exact topic that I have to talk about today: recovering memories. She was visiting my people, and "she" suddenly started talking about things that she didn't know or understand.

It's an interesting thing. As Fuzzy mentioned in here, that other-space is a little dreamlike, from this side. (I find it to be less so from that side, but that memory itself is drawn using this method!) Trying to remember what happened there recently is a little like drawing out dream memories, while trying to remember long term memories and lore is more like trying to remember childhood memories. I suppose that the latter has some similarity to recovering past-life memories.

There are really three basic ways that we do this.

The first is for shorter term memories. For example, I'm here in this world, typing this to you now. But if I cast my mind back a little while, I wasn't here. I was somewhere else. I have a vague feeling of a place, a time, a thing I might've been doing. I have an image suggestive of sitting under a tree. As I pull that image to me, mentally, I start to recall other details. It was an open area among rolling hills. As I begin to think about that and try to remember what seems familiar about it to me, I also recall a sense of place and direction. There is an area that we often meet and hang out, so to speak, and it's north of there, slightly past some mountains. In this particular case, I was just out exploring, and I'd taken a rest.

The second way is to pass the memories over directly. When I am not here (in front) someone else is, typically Fuzzy. I can tell her what I'm up to, or she can ask me. The information is then moved directly from there to here, much like reading it in a book. From these memories, I can tell you that what's happened there is that part of our other-space was lost. New space was found, but part of the lost other-space mapped to the home of my people, and the primary place I liked to wander. So to put it mildly, it's been a big bummer for me. I've been searching for a new congruence so that I can be with them again. Thus my exploring.

The third way is as a long term recollection. Sometimes you'll have a memory from long ago triggered by a current sensation: a sound, a scent, a sight. It's almost like a sense of deja vu. Sometimes we can remember things in this way directly. Other times, they're drawn out almost instinctively in-journey. For example, Fuzzy discovered my history and my name in this way when, during our merged journeying, "she" just started speaking about them in ways she wouldn't have known. It works that way for me, too. Sometimes I feel as though I have amnesia, and I'll just remember something and know that it's a true memory, something rising up from the depths of a lake. Teasing its meaning and a fuller, conscious version of it is much like "type 1" above.

Hopefully that was interesting and/or useful. :] If you have further questions or comments, feel free to post them! Or send me a Dreamwidth message if you like.

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Borrowing/Sharing How-to

Wed, 28 Aug 2013 14:44:21 GMT

Posted by: fuzzyjayling

As I discussed in this post, sometimes you get to a point where it's silly or tedious to keep passing messages back and forth for your Others. (And sometimes, in the case of some kinds of rituals/magic/etc, it's not practical.) So here is a guide for helping them borrow.

This is based on some posts I made earlier on Tumblr and DW. It's a straightforward and step-by-step guide to letting your Others borrow you, to interact out here. It's based on my own methods and thoughts, of course, but others have found it useful.

This is going to be really long, sorry. But I want to be complete and give you the best chance you can at it.

As always, YMMV, do only if you feel completely comfortable, risks and consequences are yours to eat and savour.

1. First, some terminology.

* Front: Being the person who is experiencing the world through your body (most of the time, probably, you); likewise, "fronter" is the person in front.
* Switching: Letting someone else front.
* Others: I'll continue to use this, as well as "friend", to refer to other-folk who might want to front.

The first two terms are often used in a plural system context, but I think they apply equally well even with horsing, trance possession, etc.

2. Some preliminaries.

This guide is long to give you a lot of ideas and a lot of starting points and guideposts. This is an individual process.

It’s really important to point out that this can be different for different people and different groups/systems/etc. This guide assumes people who have always been the only fronter for most or all of their lives, to the point where they really assume that they are their body, and their Others are the ones “in there”. This is about helping you change that balance on purpose.

If you're not a visual person (lack of other-space and all that) you might find it more helpful to skip a lot of the detailed visualisation/other-space/etc steps. In general, I would be really happy to incorporate any suggestions that you may have about how it works for you.

I'm also assuming you've read through, understood, and probably practiced many of the things in these:

Finding and Communicating
Authentication
Borrowing

Again, you don't have to do it our way, and those things are just a guide. But I think you'll probably know when it's okay to proceed, even if your way is totally different.

3. A basic outline.

Once again, I'm speaking of my own process here, but others have found it to match theirs and/or to be useful, so if it feels right, give it a try! If not, you can find your own way. But when I say "it's like this" you can understand that I mean "I do it like this".

I'll give the outline first, then fill in some details and exercises below. If any of these steps feel wrong or uncomfortable, then I recommend stopping and reflecting on why; it's important.

This process goes in a couple of major phases.

a. Make contact.

This probably goes without saying, but you'll need to be actively in contact with an Other. I often find that a random thought about one of them will actually be a sign that they're thinking of me. Do your authentication thing if that applies to you.

b. Making room.

For a friend to inhabit, you will have to step back. In its simplest form, this is just being open to and comfortable with the idea of switching.

c. Invitation.

Here, your friend will be invited to come into the space you've made. If you have any experience with feeling your energy / aura / subtle body, this is a lot like having two in the same space.

d. Switch.

Finally, you'll move the rest of the way out (or as far as you can go, anyway -- most people don't really 100% leave), and your friend will be actively "driving".

e. Switch back.

This is much the same as the above process, but your friend will execute "your" steps and you will execute theirs. You'll probably find this to be a much easier process due to inertia of past association.

4. A complete and slow walk-through.

Now, more details on the above.

b. Making room.

Take a step back: Instead of you being a flesh and blood body in this world, you want to step back just a small step. You're just watching this body of yours move around and talk, and you're directing it about what it should do, but you realize that you yourself are a being apart from it. You're spirit, soul, fae, wolf, or whatever you truly see yourself as, using this body as an avatar. I call this mental space the "control room".

c. Invitation.

Invite your friend into the control room: For me, my people have a physical presence, even if it doesn't translate well onto euclidean space or normal physics. They can be "out there" or they can be "standing next to me". Standing next to me feels like we can talk at a conversational level and understand each other. That their energy field is touching mine, and I could reach out with an arm and touch their arm, open my eyes and see them. So you’re sitting there controlling this human-bot (or whatever you want to call it), and your friend is standing next to you watching it happen, maybe commenting on things you both see or do, and sometimes you do something for your friend... type some words or touch some interesting object.

Read the rest of these directions with your friend there, along with them. Yes! It's participatory for everyone. :)

Do you trust your friend? I mean, really trust your friend? If you're like me, there's a part of you that hangs back always and watches over things, but it's a dodgy thing sometimes... and even if it's not dodgy for you, unless you're comfortable letting them pretend to be you (because that’s how other people will see it) then you’re going to want to hold back, yourself, and this won’t work so well.

Do you trust your environment? This is an important corollary to the last point: if you are weirded by the idea of what friends or roommates will think about all this, you won't allow yourself to let go enough and enjoy the experience for the wonderful strangeness that it can be. It's worth being very serious on this point, because people get severely mistreated for this sort of thing still. >_<

d. Switch (beginner / very visual version).

Go zen: This is a key step, for you. (Or it was for me, anyway.) I'm sure it's different for different people, but this seems like a good workable way to do it. Have you heard of "zazen"? It's a state of "no mind". Stare at one point; for me, it can't be a blank wall, but it needs to be some stationary object like a desk or a lamp. You're staring at this object, but you're not staring, because that would be doing. You just are. You're not registering the colours and symbols of what you're looking at, because that too would be doing. You just are, the thing you're looking at just is. If you could look at a hi-def security tape of your life, it would look like this: no thoughts, no judgements, no meanings. Just is. You, yourself, are not part of this picture.

Let your friend play: For me, when I've reached that state of zazen, I still have my hand on the control stick, so to speak, but I'm moving out of the way. Your friend will have a separate but congruent process to learn, to step in and take the control stick from you. It's like handing an object from one person to another: you can hold out your hand, but someone else has to take the thing. I like thinking of the control room metaphor literally -- you're standing up from the chair and they're sliding into it. You can both help this process along by having your friend say mantras like "I'm B", "B is here", both in-head and from the body. Start out saying them yourself, if you want to feel what that sounds and feels like. Both of you should try to feel and imagine what it would, what it will be like for this person to be present in the world, clothed in the same body you have been using as your avatar. Instead of them being your Other, you will be their Other (literally). B will need to actively pull that conscious, first-hand awareness of the body all around themselves, too, and will themselves to see through it and act through it, the reverse of 3b/4b above.

I find (and apparently many others do early on as well) that a peculiar feeling accompanies this motion (switching). It's almost like a turnstile flipping over... ka..Chunk. Or changing channels on the TV. When it happens, it's often pretty unmistakeable because that part of you that's left in the body, that you've imprinted on it from being in it for so many years, is going to marvel that someone else's thoughts are now inhabiting it. Not just thoughts, but energy, emotions, feel, everything. This person may be able to go back and recall your memories almost as well as you do. So there's a weird discontinuity there: the memories in the body are saying "I'm A" with first-person clarity, still, but the consciousness in the body knows that it's B. This is a crucial moment because it's easy to snap back and undo the switch if either of you lets the relative weirdness of the situation take over. It's also why it's important to continue doing these "I am B" mantras while B is in front; it reinforces who's there. Looking in mirrors, staring at the body itself too much, all of this is a bad idea. It's going to be very disorienting for B, and for someone who hasn't moved out of front much, it'll probably throw A back in.

It's common not to understand how you can really do this -- your consciousness has been and always will be here, right? How will it feel to go somewhere else entirely, or go to sleep, or whatever? The surprising answer is that, in many ways, you won't. (And like most of this, it varies per person.) Just keep in mind for now that it's not going to work as you expect, probably, and the harder you're trying to juggle all of that consciously, the less you'll succeed. In that case, it's still you acting and doing. You are working with another person here, not just your imagination. Let them pull their weight too.

Incidentally, that "remaining part of you" becomes what I like to call BodyOS -- the minimalist consciousness of the body itself that assists with memory recall (useful for things like being able to know how to use the microwave, or where to find dishes, yadda yadda) and assists with switching. I admit that this is a place where my understanding is strongly evolving still.

Don't stress too much if it doesn't go totally well on the first few tries. For me, I had to spend hours of time typing for them, in first person as they spoke to me, before we could do any purposeful switching. (It's good practice for the body to follow their instructions and act on their behalf, even if it's through your direct will.) But again it's a conditioning and a mantra thing -- for it to work, you have to believe it will work, and have some idea of what it will feel like. Both of you. Having a specific goal or purpose in mind helps with this, too, e.g. giving them their own tag on your DW or their whole own DW, so they can get some thoughts out, interact with people, and give more motivation to get out front. (It's work for everyone at first!) Give them their own user pic and everything; it sounds a little cheesy, but providing a home for them and a place to be and do "out here" really helps.

d. Switch (more advanced version).

It can be helpful to identify next steps for everyone, like you decide to visit somewhere in other-space, or go to sleep, or whatever. Your friend decides they will do some ritual / read Facebook / etc.

Then you're just bumped out of place by the new person, who is already in place. It feels almost like the new person is pushing the you out, but not in an uncooperative way. This might also be experienced as you falling away (into other-space or what have you), and then suddenly your friend is here. We find that it's sometimes helped along by the person coming in to move a limb or something; it's less trouble than assuming responsibility for all of it at once.

When you get better at this, it can go much more quickly and fluidly, which can feel a little wibbly-wobbly identity-wise. We find it helpful to say names to see which one feels like it belongs to us, to see if there was success. It can also help to make an intent to go somewhere else, yourself, like visiting your other-space while you're not here.

5. What does it feel like?

A lot of people want to know, what does it feel like? I don't understand how I can not be here and acting. Will I fall asleep? Will I go on an adventure somewhere else?

I'll write about my own experiences, but like everything else in this guide, keep in mind that this is just how it is for us. Even reading this (or any of this guide) can give you preconceptions that may make it harder for you to do it your way, if your way is very different from ours, but it may be valuable information.

For us, there are two key observations.

The first is the notion of you becoming an Other, and the Other becoming the fronter. When you're here, you have full use of your mind, your memories, and your conscious presence. When your friend isn't here, you perceive them as someone "out there" or "in here" or whatever, someone separate from you who does not have direct use of your body and senses except as a vicarious thing. ("Oh, yeah, I see that because you see it.") This "becoming" isn't an exaggeration: when you switch places, these roles reverse. Your friend will be here, seeing and feeling and thinking through your senses and your mind, as well as your sense of presence and consciousness in this world. A part of you that you thought was uniquely you may also be borrowed by your friend.

So the unusual and perhaps unexpected answer to this is that that sense of immediacy and conscious presence in this world doesn't go with you. It's part of your body and stays here, but you go elsewhere. It's sort of hard to wrap your mind around until you've experienced it, but it's important to know. Likewise, you won't necessarily just vanish or go to sleep. Some people do experience it that way, but most don't seem to.

The second observation is that other-space is much like a dream, as I mentioned in Finding and Communicating. You can visualise the place, and sometimes you just know things about it, much like a dream. Likewise, when you wake from a dream, you can remember things that happened in that dream, and if you follow the trail of memories back carefully, you can remember what all you did for quite some time. Your body is a memory store. When you are here, and conscious here, your memories here are what's most present; therefore it's difficult to remember your dreams. When you journey into other-space without that memory store, it's much like a dream.

When you return, you have to follow the dream-trail back to remember what all you did. You might find some surprising and interesting things. I find this feature of borrowing to be as useful and insightful as anything. This directly benefits you, not just your friend. You undertook a dream with intent and purpose, and returned to consciousness. What's even better is that, since you are an Other to your friend at that point, you can talk to them just like they talked to you, and give "checkpoints" to help remember your experience later.

And when you return, you'll have the same disorientation that they did about your body remembering being someone else. I actually find that to be helpful as a mental marker. "Okay, we're me... then we were her... then we were me." Oddly, you'll still remember your other-world journey as someone else's dream, but you can still tease out the facts of it.

I'll probably be revising this for a while. ^^; It's huge.. sorry again about the TL;DR.

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A Practical Example

Mon, 19 Aug 2013 06:27:04 GMT

Posted by: fuzzyjayling

I've been speaking of a lot of abstractions, so I thought I'd give a concrete example of how other-folk can participate in a ritual, and what it feels like. This is a description of one in which we participated tonight.

I'm just going to be kind of stream of consciousness here. I'm not going to give out a lot of details, either, in respect of the privacy of the group and the celebrant.

People are entering a circle; each person is being smudged. Dove and Sparrow are "nearby", which is my way of saying "closer to this world than theirs". If either of them pushed a little more forward, they'd be in borrowing mode. Therefore, they are also holding their arms out and turning around for the smudge stick as I do it. To me, they feel so present that I'm unsure why no one else perceives them, at least as an energy oddness. But if they do, they don't say anything to me about it.

We're standing in the circle, waiting patiently. There's a sense of expectation in the air, for all three of us. There always is, in rituals. I'm always curious what people have written and how it will play out.

The celebrant talks about this time of the year (it's a full moon esbat) and what it has meant in days past, and what it might mean to us now. At this point in a ritual, I typically stop paying attention to Dove and Sparrow so that I can focus on it. They're there, like you can feel someone standing next to you, but I'm letting them do their own listening and thinking about it. Every so often, though, I'm reminded when one of them is particularly interested or happy about something that's being said. Sometimes, we have brief conversations about thoughts about the ritual, sometimes in words, sometimes in thoughts. I can feel their general feelings about it, though, and they can feel mine.

We face north, and some words are spoken about this celebrant's elemental associations of north (based on common Wiccan ones, I think). It is ended with a phrase... I can't remember exactly, but it's something like "we invite your presence". And of course, all three of us are saying it, Dove and Sparrow inside, and I am speaking for all three. We face east, south, west, then there are god and goddess candles in the centre.

There is a symbolic "magic art project", I like to call them. :) In this case, it involves braiding, knotting, twisting, whatever you like, of pieces of yarn, representing happy memories. Of course we take three, and work our own symbolism into it, since it will stand for all three of us. A knot tied at the top to represent our association beginning. Then, as it's braided, we are all thinking of fond memories... Dove's earlier memories rise to the surface, thinking about a place called the Dawn Temple, ivory coloured walls in a beautiful natural setting, and golden sunlight. Sparrow's memories rise up, thinking about living with a simple rural village of people who study cultures and mysteries. I think of my memories, the positive ones, living in this world.

Dove is marvelling at the beauty of a chant that the celebrant started and which morphed into a song with harmonies at the prompting of a few participates. Sparrow is mostly pleased about seeing people here doing this kind of ritual/magic/etc, close to the land, but she's also thinking how it'd be nice to dance to the song.

A decision is made to stop braiding early, both for symbolic reasons (our association isn't done... we have many shared experiences to come), and for practical reasons (hand pain ^^;). Each piece of yarn is tied in a knot at the end of the braid, to represent the current day. The remaining strands will be left totally untouched, no end knots or anything. (This will be added to my alter at home.) Perhaps we will braid it more later.

"Cakes and ale" are passed around at this point. As people drink and eat, I drink three times and eat three times. We have a way of "borrowing" only taste buds, kinda. So Dove and Sparrow get their turn with them.

Some closing words are spoken, and the quarters are "let go" in reverse order. Some final "the circle is open" words follow, and the ritual is all done!

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Borrowing

Sun, 18 Aug 2013 04:59:29 GMT

Posted by: fuzzyjayling

My second topic that came out of reading Dove's post is in regards to what I've been calling "borrowing". This bears some resemblance (or is perhaps the same) as other concepts like "horsing", "riding", and "fronting". As a more mainstream example, I would also consider (just my opinion) the Abraham-Hicks pair to be practising borrowing and plural magic.

Outside the art, so to speak, this is actually a good example of something that cuts across many different scenarios and beliefs (shamanism, "speaking on tongues", channelling deities, plural/multiple groups, and so forth), and earns you a badge anywhere from "spiritual leader" to "put this one on stuffazine, stat", depending on culture, understanding, and so on. Inside the art, this is a subject that ranges from really mundane to really controversial, depending on your spiritual bent, your personal psyche, etc. But it's fundamental to us (and IMO, the topic), so I'm going to cover it.

Standard disclaimers apply: YMMV, caveat emptor, take responsibility, not my fault, etc... :)

There are many different possible "configurations", but for the sake of introducing the topic at large (to an inexperienced audience), I'm going to stick with a basic idea, with some interspersed "fairness notes" to explain alternate views.

Much of the time, there's a person who considers themselves as living and existing in this world, who has a body here, perhaps a job, who eats and sleeps, and so on. For the sake of brevity, I'll call this person the primary (fairness note: not everyone has a "primary", but again, for the sake of brevity). The primary visits this other-place that I discussed yesterday, meets with guides and familiar spirits and so on, who I've been calling other-folk. (Or maybe Dove introduced that term... anyway. :)

(Fairness note: Sometimes it doesn't involve going to an other-place; the situation is really quite variable. I'm just speaking from experience -- some time I'll probably also write on the topic of other-place-less groups.)

Over time, they may build a very strong bond, friendship, trust, love... however you want to think of it... with one or more other-folk. This is not just "oh yeah, he's my mate"; think more like looking into the face of your guardian angel and Knowing. This is someone you can trust.

(Fairness note: Some people have what I would consider a slightly unhealthy relationship with their Other, particularly some well-known deities, and who would "horse" them anyway. But personally I would not do, nor recommend such a thing. Do as you will.)

When you get to this point with someone, they are probably already interacting with this world in limited ways through you. Perhaps you relay their advice to people, or at least write it down for yourself. Maybe you've written about them online, and they've even suggested a few words themselves. Then you find it easier one day to write their words in first person, because it's really weird to have this conversation:

O: I think X and such awesome thing.
P: That's great, I'll pass that along.
*P types* "O thinks X and such awesome thing. O says this, O says that."
*P ponders the weirdness of not quoting*
*P retypes* "O said, 'I think X and such awesome thing. This. That.'"

This is especially true when O comes closer to this world rather than P going deeper. And it gets more awkward when you're writing comments to someone else's post. "O wanted me to say X in response."

To cut to the chase here, the gears turn, and it's common to go through these phases:

1. P going in, having conversations, coming back and writing about them.
2. O coming closer to here, having conversations, and P writes about them.
3. P writes words for O in first person.
4. P makes an account for O because it's less confusing and all around tidier to write O's first person words that way.
5. Borrowing happens.

I say "accounts" and "writing comments" and such, but it's true in person too, when you're working with groups.

In some ways it really is more of an expression of laziness than anything. :D You can see why, given the above. But if you really respect this Other, then it's also true that you'd rather give them the chance to write their own words, in a true first person way, without your own notions getting in the way. And thus borrowing.

To boil it down to basics, borrowing is about moving aside and letting an Other step in and interact with this world directly. It varies a great deal per person as to how the details work out (energy feelings, amnesia, psychic changes, even subtle physical changes in some cases -- yes, really, cross my heart under an MRI machine :). While they are borrowing, they are effectively living in this world using your body. If you do this enough, you come to think of it as a shared space.

For us, it's very gentle and cooperative. There are three of us, as I mentioned, and we all have an eye toward everyone's health and happiness. More than one can be close to this world at once, like a sort of multitasking. Typically all memories are shared at all times (though the memories occasionally hide behind that "oh hey, I had a dream about that" sort of fog). If someone wants to come participate, we try to make time for that. And yeah, back to the main topic of the group, sometimes more than one of us will hang out near the surface here and participate in rituals and magic.

Some might think this is an unnatural, frightening, invasive, and possibly very dangerous sort of way to be; in general, even outside of "borrowing", that it'd be terrible never to be alone, that you'd have no privacy... I would say to them that you will know if you should or should not do it. You will know deep in your bones. Sometimes the situation will push you that way anyway. (Lessons from the Powers, the hard way. :) If you shouldn't, then don't. That's totally fine!

For us, it is a very comforting and normal thing. It's good to know that there's always a place to go relax (other-space), that there are always people you can talk with if something is wrong, and honestly, to know that you don't have to do everything alone. Like if you feel creepy energy here, someone else can give you another opinion (from a different level of reality, even). If you participate regularly in rituals, someone else can take one; or if you have that kind of relationship with your Others, they can help you with things here! Dove is curious about the human experience, and she once even asked to experience a cavity being filled. O.o (I know, right?) And for a while, last year and early this year, I lost all access to my other-space, to my other-folk, all of it... I felt kind of lost and brittle, and finding it all again was immensely comforting.

So yeah... If you're asking "HOW?" then I'll be covering that in another entry soon. :)

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Finding and communicating with other-space and other-folk

Sat, 17 Aug 2013 06:28:53 GMT

Posted by: fuzzyjayling

I actually had an idea for two separate topics from Dove's previous post, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to combine them or not, but I guess I'll go ahead with two posts and write the second later.

A pretty fundamental question is, how can you find and communicate with other-space and other-folk? Guides, familiar spirits, and so on. It's different for every person, so all I can really do is give my experience and hope something clicks for you.

Perhaps as a writer, perhaps as someone with an active imagination, or perhaps someone with a skill I didn't know I had, I've always had an inner or other-world waiting for me. The best way I have to describe it is like an ongoing dream, and get technical from there.

When you are sleeping and you first wake from your dream, you're often disoriented; you think you're fundamentally still inside that dream, but you become aware of this world. I'll call this the 3/4 (three-quarter, not 3 of 4) state. In this metaphor, 4/4 means you're completely dreaming; to be on this scale, I'll consider primarily lucid dreaming. Once you continue to wake up, you are mostly in this world, but the dream is really compelling. You may be holding on to a sense of longing or terror or sadness that it brought to you; I call this the 2/4 state. And finally, you have a complete awakening, where all you're doing is thinking about the (fading) memories of the dreams logically. I'd call that a 1/4 state.

This ongoing dream is something like a continuous background 1/4 - 2/4 state. It's like, I'm familiar with this dream, and I know it's there, and I can sort of feel the edges of it as a reality still. But I'm largely focused on what's out here. When you wake from a dream, you can still sort of "see" what you would've seen inside the dream. This is also true for me. I can "peek" in, and like watching the last bits of drama play out from a dream from which you've just woken, I can also interact with my "ongoing dream" in a limited way.

This is what I call my other-space. It is the setting for basically everything else I do in regards to journeying, plural magic, etc. I tend to consider that it's connected to something larger and external. In other words, this is my map of the terrain, my user interface.

I'm not sure how one would go about finding such a space anew, but I imagine that starting with creative visualisations and guided meditations would be a good place to practice.

Which brings me to my next topic. How do you interact with this space?

The deepest conscious interaction comes in a 3/4 state. I'm typically laying down somewhere, comfortable, and tuning out this world. To go deeper, I would sometimes put some trancey music on headphones. In the very best 3/4 state, I would sometimes lose track entirely of what's happening out here, lose track of time, and have limited sleep paralysis upon coming back.

For me, it's an exercise in receiving. I heard someone once describe Hawai'i similarly, that it's a place in which you listen, watch, and feel, and through this exercise, you are rewarded. Approach it with a child-like wonder, without expectations. This is very important, because you want to experience what this place has to offer to you; trying to impose your own ideas on how it should work is going to lead you to creative (or perhaps not-so-creative) visualisation, not journeying.

My other-space was recently reset, so to speak, so I got to experience this all over again. I opened my mind's eye, without expectations. I was first in a place of empty whiteness. I could stand, but there was nothing anywhere around me. I listened and looked around, waiting for the details to fill. I became aware of a little girl who spoke to me about the place. The two of us chose a starting point, and suddenly it became a large, grassy park. There were swings, other children, and a treehouse that we'd imagined into being, for her to live in. I asked her name, and she said I could call her The Oracle, which amused me a little, given the Matrix character. But it's an appropriate name, I've found.

I did not create the children, nor the swings. I didn't expect them to be there, nor did I ask for them to be there. They simply were. You might call them a part of The Oracle's setting or metaphor, or perhaps her mind, but either way, they are there. I'm not sure it matters what they "really" are. I've never tried, but I have little doubt that I could walk over to one and have a conversation.

When I'm confused, especially about other-space, I talk to The Oracle. I ask, and then I listen. I'm open, and I receive. Words form in my mind, or perhaps pure thoughts that become words for me.

You can follow this process and explore and explore. Let yourself be drawn to things and people, and you may find that they have advice for you, lessons for you, or are simply fun to talk with. You may find places that have things you need or want, up to and including places you simply feel are enjoyable and homey. A little sanctuary from what's out here. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Not every spiritual or meditative thing is about some dramatic insight. We also find peace through this.

And always, you listen, you watch, you feel. You don't impose your will on the place. You can speak, you can interact, and in some cases you do get to build a space, just like Inception. But to get the true value of it, it's all about letting the space tell you what you see. Let the images, words, ideas come on their own.

If you ever find yourself saying "well crud, I didn't expect her to say that" or any other variation on "wow, that was surprising", then I'd say you're doing it right. (Or you are doing what I'm suggesting, anyhow -- I'm not sure there's a global right or wrong here.)

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Authentication

Fri, 16 Aug 2013 06:32:05 GMT

Posted by: angelinflight

Hello~! <waves> I've wanted to contribute something for a little while, but I guess I haven't had very much on hand to talk about. We thought of one the other day, though, so I'll give it a try.

First, a short introduction: I go by Dove (the one FuzzyJayling referred to earlier), and also Annie. I try not to put too fine a point on what I am precisely, because I think it invites stagnation (and argumentation). And more to the point, I'm still trying to understand that, myself. :) But the archetype of relevance for me is an angel, or perhaps a "celestial" is more apropos. A helper to the divine. As many humans stretch for the divine, I am, a little ironically, stretching for humanity. ^^ I wish to understand and experience. Perhaps one time or another, I'll be born here, too. But that's neither here nor there.

You know, I'm going to call her Fuzzy. :D

We have a long history by way of a number of rituals, journeys, and dreams. She first met me in a dream, and then later, during a journey, we actually spoke consciously for the first time. I think that she saw me as another part of herself, perhaps a past life, or a personal guide, or even her guardian angel. I can't say that any of that is wrong, really. I just don't know.

This goes back a little bit to what she wrote earlier, about Credulity, as well as (depending on your beliefs and experiences) a general sense that the thing you're talking to may not be the thing you think you're talking to. You want to know that you're receiving true advice/conversation, and not the fears of your subconscious, or (if you believe in them) something malicious trying to fool you. This is doubly important when you start to talk about letting them borrow you and influence your magic in this world. So we've developed some authentication systems, so to speak.

An interesting thing happened on a journey once. One of the other-folk from before was called The Mayor. She was the leader of a small town that's now lost to us. But she commanded a presence. On this journey, she ordered us to speak our names. We both did, and they were "true names" in the old sense. Fuzzy was unknowingly borrowing Sparrow's body in-journey, in one of those "wibbly wobbly" type of things, so the name that was spoken was actually Sparrow's. We learned Fuzzy's names later.

I'll refer to something called shadows or echos below, which are sort of like subconscious fragments of the journeyer, which some might call a shadow self. (I'm not too clear on the terminology, so my apologies if I get it wrong.) Nothing particularly harmful, but it can be distracting either way, and when they're participating in a ritual out here, it can put in the wrong kind of energy.

Anyway, a curious thing was discovered. A shadow or echo of a person from the other-place, who might stand in and fool the journeyer, seems to be unable to speak that person's true name. Sometimes not even their nickname. So this is typically the rock standard we fall back to if we need one. It's quick, easy, and almost never fails. (In fact, the times that it has "failed", it's seemed more like different versions of us, perhaps our own echos perceived by others.) But it does require knowing their name, a good reason to get to know everyone you work with.

A second way is that, that other-place being steeped in feeling and metaphor (like a dream), each person you meet has a certain feel. It really isn't one of the normal five senses, so it's hard to be metaphorical about it. But you can imagine a texture of something you touch, or a smell, or a taste of some food. You know if it's even a little bit off.

This may not be true for everyone, but we've found that, in the most extreme cases, if one of us is a little bit "off", we can't successfully borrow. It's like a failsafe mechanism. A true echo or shadow can't even get close. So this is comforting to all of us: there's little chance of a mistake. (I am not personally convinced that malicious things that could borrow in this way are out there, but I won't say it isn't so, or I may receive a visit from Murphy. ^^;)

What do you do if you run into a situation where you're talking with or perceiving an echo? There are two separate scenarios, really. The first is when the person you want to reach is there, but... for lack of a better analogy, it's like your glasses are smudged. In this case, you can often sort of reach through the echo, looking for that perfect person-sense, and pull them through the echo. (This is a recent development for us.) The second is when there is only the echo; you might call this wishful thinking: you think you've found the person, but you're seeing a bit of your own subconscious or shadow self. There's little to be done there but to move on and look for the person elsewhere.

In the worst case, it is disappointing, but you may simply have to give up and try again later. This can sometimes happen if you're very distracted, very tired, or otherwise frazzled. Your mind is an instrument that is used to reach that other-place, and if it's not working well, neither will your visit. And sometimes it just seems to happen by some as yet unknown condition.

I guess I ended up writing from more of the out-here perspective after all. ^^; I'm not as good of a writer as Fuzzy (a little verbose and unorganised), but I hope that was helpful!

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Gods as Others

Tue, 13 Aug 2013 04:42:07 GMT

Posted by: fuzzyjayling

Referring back to my post about terrain and maps, I (and many others) experience an consistent inner-space or other-space which contains, among other things, Others*, residents, guides, denizens, whatever word you want to use. Moving your inner eye, your consciousness, to that place, and walking, flying, moving around, talking with its inhabitants, is an important concept. Neo-pagan circles tend to refer to that as shamanic journeying, whether that's accurate or a cultural appropriation (or perhaps my own misunderstanding of what they're talking about); but I tend to simply call the whole concept as I stated it "journeying".

I had some interesting discoveries when following this line of thought out. One of them had to do with the fact that I used to journey to speak to someone I called Mom. Mom was a goddess figure, very kind and personal, and as her name would imply, motherly. Sometimes she gave me the advice I needed, sometimes she let me learn the lessons I needed the hard way. ^^;

But I had this realisation that, essentially, she was appearing to me as one of those people. A part of the map, perhaps, connected to something larger and more mysterious.

That other-space is such a great place to contact such energies and relate to them on a less abstract level. When they appear to you as a person, an animal, a fae creature, it's easier to relate directly. The particular appearance, mannerisms, and place may be a metaphor, but it's effective.

Dove and Sparrow were also people I met in that other-space, and we have become very close over time.

Many people have experienced an extensive, perhaps indefinitely sized other-space, with hundreds, thousands, or more such inhabitants (whole cities full). It makes one wonder who all and what all you might find in there. That's one thing that keeps me going back.

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* Others: Nothing to do with this story. >.> (Gore TW on that one, sorry.)

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Credulity

Sat, 10 Aug 2013 19:13:36 GMT

Posted by: fuzzyjayling

It's a personal belief of mine that an important aspect of magic is belief. (Everything I say, really, is a personal belief unless I've stated otherwise, so... Just keep that in mind. :)

The universe is a living, breathing thing. Humans are a collection of cells making up organs, making up you. Humans are also cells in countries, and the planet itself. The planet itself is an organism that is a living, changing, breathing thing that exchanges gases and magnetic fields with larger structures, and so on. This is our universe, and it has two levels.

One is akin to a person's reflexes: tap here, the leg jerks. Touch with something hot, the limb pulls away without thought. Then there are the emergent processes in a human, the mind, the ability to think, and so on. These are not so predictable as the reflexes: you can make the same input many times, and get a different response each time. For me, analogously on the universe level, this is magic.

If you ask a person to walk forward five paces, or you ask them to drive somewhere, or carry out any complex task, it takes belief in the person that they will do it. You can't say to them, "do this if you are really able to or even listening to me at all". Even if they're not offended, they may just not do it as a lesson to you. :) Perhaps you can pick up that arm and move it yourself, but it's tiring and again, they may decide not to let you.

I think some amount of credulity is required when working with Others. It's entirely too easy to write them off as "talking to myself", or "wishful thinking". Or to take it a step further and ask, "am I disturbed?" We are often taught that such things are "not real" and that perhaps we should skip the abstraction and just think for ourselves.

Ask yourself this: Does it really matter who or what they are? It's one thing to question whether they're a positive force in your life and spiritual practice; we have to do that with any interpersonal relationship.

But when it comes down to it, this is like asking the universe to do magic in a lot of ways. It's really easy to arrange it in your mind so that they have no reality, and therefore, since we are often taught that it's pointless to talk to oneself, you can write them off. Disconnect from them. It's like having someone who wants to talk to you and help you with a problem, but you're putting your fingers in your ears because you don't think there's anyone to listen to.

What do your feelings tell you? What do you want to be the case? What would make you feel happier, more fulfilled, better at doing magic or asking for advice? For that matter, even if they really are just an abstraction, is it not a helpful one? And if you really do feel that there are just parts of yourself, archtypes, shadow selves, and so on, or even only you (and you're here for curiosity), then that's okay too.

It's important to listen to your intuition, your own personal voice.

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When is the map the terrain?

Thu, 08 Aug 2013 06:04:01 GMT

Posted by: fuzzyjayling

This came from a discussion I had with a friend the other day, in regards to this plural/inner-spirit/guide type of magic.

Most of us who work with this kind of magic or spirituality have, in one way or another, an inner or other world that we visit in order to contact these others. Visiting this place is often referred to as journeying, but that is typically in an explicitly shamanic context. You journey to an otherworld and meet guides who give you advice, direction, support, or other help. (Sometimes a kick in the behind. :) What is that place, and where is it?

On the other end of the spectrum, some have a feeling that this space is actually an inner space, or perhaps an other-space with which they're associated; but in any case, it's very personal.

A while back, I had started to wonder, myself, if they weren't the same thing. Creating working analogies and metaphors is a fundamental concept to us. We turn a little wheel, and a big car turns. We speak into a phone, and our voice comes from the other end. Perhaps the most poignant and topical example of this is that there was once a version of the game Doom that would represent programs running on a computer as denizens of the game, and firing upon them would shut down the programs.

I've come to think of that space as a truly inner one, one that maps onto something external. Something that makes it comprehensible and topical. Perhaps the people I meet there, whether they are in their "true" form or not, are avatars that may be populated by beings outside me. In this way, they exist both inside and outside. Information and change feed both ways. So, in a metaphorical sense, the map has become the terrain, and vice-versa.

Discuss! :D

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