Scorpio for this week:
“”Disabuse yourself of the notion that greatness is somehow inextricably linked with fame, power, wealth, or social stature,” writes one of my readers, Pyrrol Red. “Some of the greatest human beings have been mostly unknown.” This is an important point to keep in mind, Scorpio, as you seek to ascend higher. The essence of your beauty may never be fully appreciated by more than a few people; the gifts you have to offer are so subtle and complex that you might find it hard to encapsulate them in simple forms that gain wide popularity. I’m not saying you’ll never be famous, powerful, wealthy, or high-status. But even if you do win those perks, it will be because of decisions you make and actions you take that are free of all lust for them.”
Oh yes, I’m posing this question to you odd-ones who actually read my journal…
How do you define an altered state? In general? Spiritually? How do you utilize altered states in your daily/spiritual life? What benefits do they provide for you/ for your workings?
Freakchylde's 
lessee…altered state. A shift in thought process, a shift in focus, removal of oneself from mundane stimuli…
I’m having trouble with words tonight. Too many things going through my head. Read my update and you’ll see why. But I think you can figure where I’m going with this.
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Yes, I can see where you’re going. 🙂 You’re along the same lines as me, and feel free to update as the words come to you.
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When you are such a world in yourself, you will become the world in turn if given enough. I hate to use this as an example, but look at Hitler. A man so absorbed in his own world he became something that, by scientific theory, will change the world in millions of directions. Once you think inside yourself, you are both the best and the worst of the world all at once. Every person is the world in and of itself, we are yet to reall achieve it.
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Agreed. But that is how people manage to effect change on the greater world and others. When you can believe in yourself and your capabilities, others pick up on that and will start to see you in the same light.
It does cause a problem when the misguided seek to create something that is not the most beneficial thing in the world, of course, Hitler, when it came down to it, was seeking to benefit himself and viewing the benefit to himself as the benefit to the world. Not seeking to assist the world in benefitting itself.
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I agree with this definition. But to elaborate, it is a shift in thought process and of focus as defined by the stimuli that surrounds the subject regardless of whether or not it is mundane. An altered state is itself a reaction to stimuli that defines our course of action. This can either be done consciously or instinctively. We all have it but is utilized at a subconscious, instinctive level. It is through meditation what we can bring it out of this buried susconscious state to the conscious state and thereby alow aurselves the ability to control it and call upon it when needed.
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So how do you use this to write your music, or in your normal everyday life?
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I have learned to bring my instinctive altered state into consciousness. So when composing and, I, needing to evoke a particular mood, I am able to stay in that state for the period I need to tap into the emotion. This I can activate and deactivate instantaniously, like a switch. This also helps me during performances. Essentially the technique is the same – to centre oneself and go a mental zone that is necessary for a sincere presentation of the music.
So in essence the key for why I use it, is simple sincerity – to be able to empathize with people, to be happy with people, to feel the presence of life, of death, of sorrow…these states I need to tap into in order for me to react towards others and myself truthfully.
Does this make sense to you? I am finding this dreadfully hard to explain.
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a change in the methods of processing incoming information. this allows the person undergoing the altered state to gain a wider perpective on events by providing alternate perspectives.
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Ok, I’m confused on what you’re meaning here. Are you meaning the altered state is a change in the methods of processing incoming information or is it a means of taking individual boundaries out of the way to allow for processing information in a different manner?
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it’s a change in the method of processing incoming information.
in doing so, one is enabled to remove the boundaries that restrict them. a metaphor: when looking through a microwave door, no particular position is very good for seeing through the Faraday cage. however, if one moves one’s head back and forth, from perspective to perspective, then one can build up a better picture of what is inside.
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ok, following you now. thanks. 🙂
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Ok, I can see the brainstorming, but do you use it to manifest a form of shape-shifting and writing as that shape?
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