this is not to be a topic of negativity. but a legitimate question
does it ever seem like some people who turn to magic start to lose their mind or go insane?
I been watching and reading posts form folks (not here) on social media and it looks like these people are bat shit or so filled with anger
Good question. I've heard about cases where people got into Satanism and then got mad. Since that included LaVey 's book, it included rituals I suppose. So that gave me food for the thought.
So to start Peterson style: What is insanity? And what causes it?
Insanity I would define as your mind and thinking being programed in a way that is dangerous to yourself and others. It's pretty poor definition, but it's the idea. You've lost the touch with reality and see things the way that they are not.
My favorite example is Reinfield's syndrom - that is just like in the novel when person eats animals (and might even try humans) to preserve his life by eating them and therefore gaining their lives. That is dangerous because by eating animals alive it is dangerous because of diseases and parasites one can get from eating raw flesh. Also makes living in society pretty difficult, if not impossible. For more spiritual examples take messianic complex, or dozen other nonsenses some Christian groups fall into. Just watched a video where people believed in god so much that they lat small gril with diabetes die because the inzulin was witchcraft and God could heal her if they prayed hard enough. Quite out of touch with reality.
And what causes insanity? Reprograming. Both self-inflicted as well as inflicted by others. Self-reprogramming often happens through trauma. You face some truth you cannot handle or wish to erase and your mind makes up a tale that is way more acceptable, one where you are a good person. Human mind and even memory is moldable. Made up example from a book: a man happens to get through tragedy, his wife and daughter killed by murderer and he finds and kills him - then when he is found he thinks himself to be an alien from k-pax.
Reprogramming from others happens too, just look around the cults, there are so many dangerous cults out there that it's relatively easy to watch few dozens and look into studies of them and their mechanics of brainwashing. I recommend finding text "Born Again Brainwashing by Dick Sutphen," that shows pretty interesting info on this matter.
So now to magic and madness. Can practicing magic cause madness? No. If you do things like Channeling or other ways of contacting the spirits for information, it can accelerate already evolving issues, but magic doesn't cause them. But if you use it as a way to reprogram yourself, then you can inflict madness on yourself, because you are the one who breaks your mind or reprograms it into state that is not right.
