View source for Bullying, Voodoo and NPMR Assisted Bullying

I do not normally address this subject because it is likely that by doing so in a public forum, much more harm (generation of fear) would be accomplished than good (generation of growth and the ability to defend oneself). The former is immediate, natural to all who are not fearless, and requires no effort; while the second requires significant effort with a long term commitment. Since the risk is low in the venues where I communicate, the decision not to bring this subject up is obvious.

1) Of course, conscious intent can kill. That is often the point of voodoo and other such black arts. Consciousness is an evolving digital information system, not your mother. It is designed to be helpful and supportive toward positive evolution, but can be abused by those on a negative path. Free will bestowed by the LCS is unconditional free will - not " you are free to do whatever you want as long as it is what I want". The system is an equal opportunity employer -- it allows free will to do whatever it does -- and then provides appropriate natural consequences. Remember, the LCS is not a benevolent little old man playing with his pet people. Unconditional free will is a logical necessity of consciousness and the LCS must develop its strategy-to-evolve around that fact. That conscious intent modifies future probability provides the major feedback loop that facilitates self-modification (a condition necessary for evolution), and that feedback loop represents another fact of life that consciousness must live with.

2) You take death too seriously because you have a little picture PMR-based local perspective. The LCS self-optimizes in the big picture and for the long term - not in the PMR little picture short term. Like us, the LCS also has a limited decision space and must make choices to optimize its evolution. It makes those choices based on the probability of entropy reduction along each of the alternative paths. If the overall system will have a higher probability of lower entropy in the long term if Joe wins $100,000 because his family dies in the process of teaching him a valuable lesson, then so be it - remember nobody really dies - a few characters in the virtual reality swap reality frames for a very short time (as seen in the big picture). The down side is a few premature recyclings, the significance of which for those particular individuals (and everyone associated with those individuals) gets figured into the system optimizing process. The system optimizes within its constraints. The outcome depends on what each character was likely to gain or lose for each of the alternative futures. Nobody's evolutionary potential or growth opportunities are seriously damaged. Typically, everybody wins. Remember, there are random components, not everything is planned - the system is probabilistic not deterministic - it works (gets it right) most of the time, not all the time -- it is not a perfect system. It achieves successful optimization at the system level more often than not.

3) Such dramatic happenings are likely rare and such an outcome would not optimize to killing a family very often, but occasionally dramatic things do happen when all the right circumstances come together. Out of ten million events, a one in a million event happens occasionally.

If you enter NPMR as a bully (asserting your power over others for your own benefit) you are setting yourself up for something or someone to take you down a peg. Like all bullies, you had better watch your back. Bullying behavior is self destructive in the long term even if it gets you what you want (serves your ego) in the short term. Dominating and using others is not on the path to successful consciousness evolution no matter what sort of "power" you might wield temporarily.

If you do not enter NPMR as a bully, you could still run into one while there, but that is far less likely. The best scenario is to build your ability within the larger reality such that bullies and negative beings of any sort are inconsequential to you. Though that may take some protracted time and effort, it is not as hard as it sounds since bullying (ego driven intents) create their own limitations on power. Bullies may be a big fish in their little ponds (because they can wield terrifying power among the powerless) -- they may, because of their self-imposed limitations, even believe that their tiny little pond is the whole of reality -- but, in fact, they can never be more than tiny little, mostly inconsequential, fish in the larger pond of consciousness.

I have had to deal with such entities on a dozen or so occasions -- typically shaman or black arts practitioners (voodoo, etc) typically from Africa or Madagascar but sometimes from the West. They usually are very confident and taken with their own power (particularly when combined with others with whom they work (both physical and nonphysical). Often they have one or more nonphysical mentors that they evoke in their behalf when they are unable to succeed or accomplish something on their own. Always, they are completely unaware of just how limited they and their mentors, and their mentors' mentors, really are. Even at its most powerful, such skills and alliances with others (both physical and nonphysical) constitutes a short blind alley in the bigger picture.

If confronted, you should transcend the opposition, which will become impotent/inconsequential in the shadow of your strength.

Avoid confrontation is the first step -- but do not avoid it (stand your ground) if there is good reason to do so (protecting self or others).

Yes, you have the right and should defend yourself if attacked. If your attacker will not stop even though you continually give every opportunity for them to do so, you may destroy them.

By not standing up for yourself and others you are only affirming their power over you. Good must stand up to evil.

However, the above three paragraphs are predicated on you having no ego, especially no ego invested in the altercation. If your ego is involved, then your action is simply affirming negativity and limitation. If that is the case, you are in a lose-lose situation. If you have no ego, you are in a win-win situation. To be an effective warrior, fear and ego must be left behind. To the degree that ego is informing your intent, the result of combat will only accomplish switching from one bad situation to the next.

Generally these practitioners of the dark arts only put out effort (mount an attack) when it is somehow to their advantage. They do not just go around attacking people with high visibility because they can. Though they are into power, their interests tend to be self-serving - if they do not stand to gain in some way (even if that gain were just revenge or a demonstration of their power), they would generally not get involved. Do not be concerned.

Though I have had more than my share of violent encounters with NPMR beings that have nothing to do with PMR dark arts, all my violent dealings with the PMR embodied voodoo types and their NPMR mentors has been on behalf of those who were suffering at their hands, not because they sought me out looking for trouble.

These sorts of things (violent encounters) are not something you are likely to run into as you explore NPMR. I am an unusual case way off the norm. You have a higher chance of getting mugged in a PMR park than getting mugged in NPMR. Don't worry about it. Fear is the enemy.

Good and evil exist because free will exists, not because dualism exists.

Believing that you are good and being good are two different things. Let being good be represented by a zero entropy being -- no fear, no ego, all love.

The concepts of good and evil and free will are all discussed in detail in MBT.

"When you can harm or help as you please" is entirely irrelevant to good. Good does not wish to order things to suit itself -- that is the ego's wish.

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely" applies only to ego -- and thus to almost all of us. Take your stands accordingly.

Our instincts are simply part of who and what we are, they carry no moral judgment. having instincts are like having hands and fingers -- mostly irrelevant to our consciousness quality. It is what we do with what we have to work with that is important.

Sinister purposes do access NPMR for their own advantage all the time. Much of the third world is rife with practitioners of the "black arts".... voodoo comes to mind, but that is just one of a hundred different groups and methodologies dedicated to the manipulation of NPMR for personal gain. Control in the service of power and force can lower its entropy with practice and thus gain some personal power. This is discussed in the trilogy where it is described as growth or evolution in the negative direction. It is unstable in the long run, as well as self limiting and self defeating. It leads nowhere but to problems for the practitioner and others. Its subsequent de-evolution creates a hole out of which a practitioner must climb before being able to evolve positively. Like bad children who never grow up to become adults - these bad children remain 8 year olds and are thus limited in power and effect -- The best often become local bullies -- big fish only within the context of a very small pond. Our Western cultural belief systems suppress such sub cultures while some third world (mostly tribal) cultural beliefs support/encourage them. For more information check it out in, I believe, book 1.

Free will is free will -- the good guys do what they can but they cannot force someone to be other than they are -- forget the bandits, they are in the noise. It is not like evil gets a free ride-- they study hard and put in long hours too. It's just that in the big picture they, because of their efforts, are going backwards. It is because they necessarily do have ego and fear that they are so limited. It is also why you are so limited -- except you can outgrow it to further your positive evolution. they cannot outgrow it and remain negative beings -- they can only control it. You have headroom to grow, finding love and joy while they are stuck in box minus ten in a very unpleasant place. Compared to the power that can be developed on the positive side with similar effort, they are, for the most part, weak and wimpy. As I said, very limited.

Want, need and desire originate from the ego. Intent originates from the core being. The core being can have ego -- thus confusion can arise, but the core being is not the same as ego. Ego is a response to fear. The core being is your fundamental consciousness.

I see no value in an elaborate discussion and examples, but I will tell you that the only people who are at risk from these negative practitioners are those who remain unaware and at or near the bottom rung of the consciousness evolution ladder -- especially those who are fearful. The bad news is that description fits the great majority of humanity. On the up side, it doesn't take but a modicum of awareness and positive growth to become invulnerable to most negative attacks. For example, one can readily have developed enough personal power to easily thwart attacks from most black arts practitioners if you remain fearless. If you don't remain fearless but also don't panic, you would probably still do OK in the long run. Fearlessness and awareness are more important than large amounts of brute force power. The average clueless unaware individual who carries around a lot of fear is at risk in third world tribal cultures. The most common mitigation technique is to keep a low profile (stay out of situations that might bring trouble). In western cultures, the risk to this same individual is present but very, very small -- such a person should worry more about being mugged on their way to work. Mitigation is the same -- don't stick your head in the oven.

You see, there are disadvantages to not growing up as well as advantages to growing up.

Some general comments on power and conflict -- whether the context is physical, social, political, personal, or other:

Awareness provides the knowledge and understanding that allows one to apply what abilities one has to the greatest advantage. Fear degrades one's ability to effectively apply ones knowledge, understanding, power, and skill. Thus, Fearlessness allows one to optimize the application of one's ability.

Awareness and fearlessness, with just a little power at its command, is very formidable while great power cannot be effectively applied without awareness and fearlessness.

Power appears most formidable to those with little awareness and much fear.

Finally, the power of an aware, focused intent fearlessly engaged in right action should not be underestimated -- particularly over the long term.

Without awareness, you may not even know that you are under attack -- or not know until it is too late, much less the nature of attack and the purpose of the attack. Awareness brings to you an understanding of the context of the conflict and how you and your adversary are related to it and to each other. Such big picture awareness and understanding is required to develop alternatives and strategies in support of right intent and right action, as well as assesses all the possibilities. Awareness covers the three basic essentials of successful conflict resolution: Know yourself, know your adversary, be aware of all the possibilities (causal chains) and chose carefully, for the right reasons, those you will try to actualize. That the reasons are right is a critical part of the successful process.

If one feels that control-power-force is the only way to succeed in the rough and tumble PMR reality frame and that success is defined as forcing things and/or people to be the way you want them to be (successfully imposing your will on others) then, if you are successful, you will bring the ravages of control-power-force (violence) down upon yourself. Yes, you are much more likely to get run over if you lead/interact with your fear and ego. Systems or relationships built upon fear and ego are inherently unstable and tend to self destruct.

In the long term, and in the Big Picture, choices driven by fear and ego are counterproductive and unpleasant for all who are connected to them.

When I say that choices driven by fear and ego are counterproductive over the long term, I am defining long term to be when the final results are in (since the word "long" is, by definition, relative, that may take an eon, 20 years, or perhaps a month depending on the situation).

Think of the theoretical field of potential results as a set of possibilities, a chain of causal events, all the possible actions, reactions, influences, and changes (small and large) that might take place in all reality systems due to a series of given individual choices reflecting fear and ego. As time goes on this theoretical field of potential results gets less theoretical as actual results of these choices are recorded and tabulated -- as more time goes by, the nature of the results generated by fear and ego driven choices grows clearer and clearer. Patterns develop around the evaluations of big picture value and productivity that are produced by these choices and before long it is perfectly clear, without a doubt, where making choices driven by fear and ego leads. Look at that last sentence -- however long "before long" is (the time between making the fear and ego driven choices and being able to objectively and accurately characterize the results of those choices) for any particular context or situation, that amount of time exactly defines the beginning point of "long term", which is, I believe, what you wanted to know.

Voodoo is not a myth and access to NPMR can be used both for voodoo and for getting ego-driven wants and needs.

With lots of practice, one can do either, but such efforts are self limiting as well as counterproductive to personal entropy reduction. Furthermore, it is unlikely that such a practioner would develop more than small to mediocre power to force effects. However if they inhabit a small enough pond, they might appear to be a very big fish.

Ted: I have always thought that the interaction between voodoo practitioner and victim was enabled by a shared belief system, even if only partially shared. That someone that was not a believer, in any sense, would be immune. Making the proposed victim aware of the attack seemed to be a necessity to having any success with the attack. The results being a matter of fear acting upon the victim, not a direct result of the symbolism involved in the attack.

Tom: Though this is the case most of the time, a non-believer is not immune. Typically dark arts practitioners (no matter how much they practice) are not very powerful in the big picture and thus most of them need a belief/fear connection to their victims in order to be successful. Hurting or healing can be forced on another who knows nothing of the effort. The good news is that most of the time an individual's natural defense/resistance is sufficient to rebuff most amateur efforts at forcing change. Occasionally, a dark arts practitioner can enlist the help of a negative NPMR being to aid in forcing their will upon another - that often raises the level of the amateur effort but it still generally remains an amateur effort.

The rules provide structure and pattern to the whole. Much is according to plan. Additionally, we are often led to the experiences we need (that provide opportunity to learn grow) on the fly as our growth-needs and abilities to learn change. On top of all that there is some randomness within the system - in terms of interactions and opportunities - for better or for worse - every dog bite or virus caught is not necessarily part of a plan or in reaction to our own state of being - we simply must deal with what comes. Because we all have free will, there is a significant component of randomness in our interactions with others who are interacting with others who are interacting with others that depends upon the consequences of all the freewill choices made.

Perhaps a little wild speculation might be in order to reduce fear a tad. First, let's eliminate "hassles of lesser importance" from consideration and stick with: "percent of US population who will have to deal with serious interference or influence from an NPMR being." Then, lets define "serious" as something that has a lasting negative consequence that significantly interfere with one's ability to secure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Finally let's define "lasting" as lasting for at least a year. With all that I will take a totally unscientific wild, wild guess of less than 1 /10 of one percent (one in 1,000) of the US population being affected under those conditions. Drop the word "influence" and reduce the percentage to 1/100 of one percent (one in 10,000). Put the word "random" between "serious" and "interference" to eliminate historical issues having to do with past encounters (karma et al), or change "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to "a profitable and successful (from the viewpoint of the big picture) experience packet in PMR" and one can reduce the percentage to 1/10000 of one percent (one in a million). Finally, change "US" to "Africa" and "an NPMR being" to just "NPMR" and raise the percentage to 50 %. So you see, the population one picks, is very important. Change the population to only those who regularly interact within NPMR by inserting themselves into NPMR altercations in a pro-active way and the percentages will go up tremendously.

Now, let me repeat, these are unscientific wild, wild guesses that are based on my experience but not based on collected data. Also, it is a good bet that we would all disagree on what meets the criteria of "significantly interferes with one's ability to secure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". In short, these percentages mean very little -- I won't argue if anyone disagrees.

Tom C.

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