How Did It Begin?

[Rustig]

I assume most people here are believers in some aspect of the occult, be it psionics, magick, a particular religion, ghosts, aliens and all that good stuff. I'm curious though, how did your fascination with the subject begin? What spurred it? What encouraged it to grow?  

[Careening Into Caffeine]

Well, I study some Psychology, loved the study of the paranormal and how it can effect the Mind/Psyche (-Parapsychology-), I'm mostly interested in psionics and ghosts though others are also quite interesting. Psions because it has to do with areas of the brain that are thought to be only a potential. Or possibly a myth, and ghosts beacuse I always found that a human-like presence co-exsisting with us, without most knowing was most definitely cool.

Though I'd love to know more about Magick, etc. I have yet to find a book that I know is a credible source. So if you could give me a list of book(s), that would be much appreciated.  

[Rustig]

The Cavity King

Well, I study some Psychology, loved the study of the paranormal and how it can effect the Mind/Psyche (-Parapsychology-), I'm mostly interested in psionics and ghosts though others are also quite interesting. Psions because it has to do with areas of the brain that are thought to be only a potential. Or possibly a myth, and ghosts beacuse I always found that a human-like presence co-exsisting with us, without most knowing was most definitely cool.

Though I'd love to know more about Magick, etc. I have yet to find a book that I know is a credible source. So if you could give me a list of book(s), that would be much appreciated.

Well, we have a Book List awaiting you in the Library, but lemme say it now: you'll never know for sure if a book is credible or not. The best you can hope for is wether your results match those of another book - and even then, if they don't, it still doesn't mean it's tosh. Everyone's got their own pet theories about how and why magick works, but no-one knows anything for certain.  

[tropireiii]

I got into Tarot when I was about 12 or so... That sort of started it all I guess.

But my main motivation was to try and gain some explanation of why I saw things that people didn't. That started when I was about 16. I'd be alone at home and see disfigured people/not people waiting outside windows and in hallways. It was terrifying, so I turned to the occult to try and control these things from invading my home. I studied a lot, and managed to control it (to some extent). I still suffer from the occasional premonition, night terrors and sleep paralsis. I've been tested at a sleep clinic, and apparently there is nothing wrong with the way I sleep, so I'm quite content with the explanation being non-medical.  

[Ame-no-Insomniac]

Silly as it is, I've always been fascinated by magic and psychics since I was a kid mostly because of all the fun things the world prompts you to imagine, and the times my older sister tried to convince me that she was a psychic. Something about it just kept me curious, and when I heard more about it later in life I looked into it. So... here I am, right?  

[Kimiko no Tenshi]

I've been interested in magick and the paranormal since I was a kid. I've always had a pull toward it, so I just decided to go with it. I earned my degree in Parapsychology, and still continue to want to read and learn and grow. My latest obsession is with the Paranormal.  

[Just Tsuki]

i cant remember when i have not been even vagually interested with the paranormal and superstitions. there is too much evedence of ghosts and things like ESP and PK to be thought of as lies. i got into tarot a couple of years ago after remembering mom's tarot cards and them using them before i got my own to help with problems and decisions.  

[iy8970970607]

I came across a book, a realy realy old book in my dad's garage, It was aboput occult.... It was an overview... I absorbed it, and noticed a few things about myself.  

[Kilgimet]

My interest came from personal experience. I had experiences that couldn't be explained by the religion I was then practicing. As I got older, the moments became more frequent and intense. By the time I was 17, it was pretty much a daily occurrence and there was no one around to explain it to me. I started by reading books on different religions and finally came across a book on wicca. Slowly, through the various books I read, thing began to make more sense. The more I read, the more fascinated I became. That's pretty much it in a nutshell.  

[Larial Istari]

I guess it really started when I got curious about some of the things I'd seen and experienced, and bought two books on the subject. They were Silver Ravenwolf's 'To Ride a Silver Broomstick,' and Goth Magick. redface I read them, then did an internet search that really didn't help matters, then promptly forgot it all, which was probably the most intelligent thing I could have done, under the circumstances. I got back into it, later, with only a modicum more of common sense.  

[Positively Cynical]

Kimiko no Tenshi

I've been interested in magick and the paranormal since I was a kid. I've always had a pull toward it, so I just decided to go with it. I earned my degree in Parapsychology, and still continue to want to read and learn and grow. My latest obsession is with the Paranormal.

Where did you go to school?

 

[Cunning Witch Angus]

Well...let's see. It all started when I was able to read (4-6) and I read a book called Mountains, Meadows and Moonbeams by Mary Summer Rain which was actually a children's book on spirituality. So when I got a little older I began researching Telekinesis and such and Telepathy and as I got older I discovered Wica and such.

Well, after a while of strange occurrences with spirits and such I met a friend who got me on a path of one of those "End of the World" things. Funny thing was it really helped me advance myself in psionics and magic and ritual and what have you.

Then there was a period that I didn't really do anything I just focused on mundane things, but I always felt as though there was this hole that I needed to fill. I still studied the stuff but I never put it into real practice. I came across a friend of mine on here who showed me Traditional Witchcraft and it called to me more than anything else ever could. That was what I had been looking for all along. And then I began listening to a podcast called Shadowdance, which is a wonderful podcast about alternative spirituality and fringe culture and I brought myself back to psi-balls and psionics again.

I have always been interested in the occult, but there is so much to learn all the time and so many books that are just outside of my reach. I learn from people that seem valid though and tend to dismiss the things people say about being elves and faeries and which what.

Be Whole,
Angus  

[Larial Istari]

Offtopic: Yeah, Shadowdance is one of my favorites, too. It's a pity they don't have a larger production rate, I'd really like more of their stuff.  

[Cunning Witch Angus]

Truf.

I really want to know more about Michelle's, I suppose companion, named Ashir because in the Hollow Hill you have a familiar spirit which helps you in journeying and witchery and other such things but I wonder if it can be like a companion that you can talk to while you are sitting at a stoplight or something. As I have not attained mine yet, I really don't know.

Does anyone else have a sort of companion that they talk to while they are just sitting around?  

[Larial Istari]

Yeah, he sounds fun.
I accidentally created a sort of...I don't know what to call it. Some sort of servitor, maybe. Called Asmael (it sounded right. I don't know if it has significance), and it resulted in several very freaked out nights, as I had made him into a terror, specifically designed to make me afraid. (No eyes, needle claws and teeth, spooky voice. In short, the works.) He gradually got more and more of an independent personality until I had to have a sit-down, where I asserted that he was mine (or connected to me), and therefore I had no more reason to fear him than I had to fear myself. I sort of...took the fear-causing out of him, and left the rest in an imaginary box in the back of my head. (I'm very skeptical about how much of this actually happened. I'm nearly certain the servitor existed, but I don't know if I completely destroyed him, or if something else happened, because the 'blueprint' is still in my head, and it turns up on occasion.) Gah, I feel like a loony.
What's the Hollow Hill? Sounds fey-ish, is it a group of some kind?