[Help] Question on Sigils from a beginner

[Floonth1]

So I was reading Advanced magick for beginners by Alan Chapman and I got to the part about Sigils, he mentioned that once you create the Sigil you should attempt to enter a state of great excitement or calm. He focused on masturbation, with you visualising the Sigil at the point or Orgasm. I pretty much was just curious about some of the other methods that you could use to enter an effective state for this to work (other then Sex or Jerking off). He mentioned pain but how severe would it have to be to become effective? I'm also curious about how feelings of calm could be used to the same effect. I do apologise if this is asked a lot. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[AlfrunGrima]

He mentioned pain but how severe would it have to be to become effective?

This is the experiment you have to do yourself. No other practitioner can tell you how much pain or buildup of excitement is needed for the desired effect. Every person is different, every person has another background, another frame of thinking, another relation with their body thus sensing things different. Gnosis is highly individual. You just have to try things, keep notes afterwards.

Now from the practical point of view. To practitioners who are new with this I will give share the following idea: can you remember in your childhood days that you did games with turning around so long and fast that you become so dizzy that you fall? Just before falling you get that highly excited feeling that you're almost going off the rails, that feeling of almost falling but not falling and that you try to be in tht moment as long as possible? It is that and you have to recreate that feeling in one or another way for yourself. And everyone has his or hers own methods for that.

 

[HoldAll]

In his "Liber Null & Psychonaut", Peter J. Carroll writes:

Methods of achieving gnosis can be divided into two types. In the inhibitory mode, the mind is progressively silenced until only a single object of concentration remains. In the excitatory mode, the mind is raised to a very high pitch of excitement while concentration on the objective is maintained. Strong stimulation eventually elicits a reflex inhibition and paralyzes all but the most central function—the object of concentration.

There is also a table on page 23 where he lists various inhibitory (e.g. sleeplessness, fasting, sensory deprivation, concentration) and excitatory (pain, torture, dancing, drumming, right way of walking = Castaneda trance method) methods. I think the inhibitory methods are less popular because learning how to still the mind, for example, can take years while excitatory methods are, well, exciting; working oneself up to a peak experience of whatever nature is probably easier, too. Here's a method I dreamed up recently, haven't tried in personally yet:

Place your sigil on the floor, get into the plank position (= supporting yourself on both forearms and tips of your toes only) so that the sigil is right in front of your face and close your eyes. Shortly before the inevitable muscle failure sets in and you collapse on the floor, you open your eyes wide open and deeply 'inhale' your sigil, as it were.

It's inspired by Spare's famous Death Posture (whatever that was, people are still bickering). I wouldn't use pain though, the danger is that your pain threshold may mount and that you'll need ever stronger stimuli to achieve gnosis.

 

[Floonth1]

In his "Liber Null & Psychonaut", Peter J. Carroll writes:

Methods of achieving gnosis can be divided into two types. In the inhibitory mode, the mind is progressively silenced until only a single object of concentration remains. In the excitatory mode, the mind is raised to a very high pitch of excitement while concentration on the objective is maintained. Strong stimulation eventually elicits a reflex inhibition and paralyzes all but the most central function—the object of concentration.

There is also a table on page 23 where he lists various inhibitory (e.g. sleeplessness, fasting, sensory deprivation, concentration) and excitatory (pain, torture, dancing, drumming, right way of walking = Castaneda trance method) methods. I think the inhibitory methods are less popular because learning how to still the mind, for example, can take years while excitatory methods are, well, exciting; working oneself up to a peak experience of whatever nature is probably easier, too. Here's a method I dreamed up recently, haven't tried in personally yet:

Place your sigil on the floor, get into the plank position (= supporting yourself on both forearms and tips of your toes only) so that the sigil is right in front of your face and close your eyes. Shortly before the inevitable muscle failure sets in and you collapse on the floor, you open your eyes wide open and deeply 'inhale' your sigil, as it were.

It's inspired by Spare's famous Death Posture (whatever that was, people are still bickering). I wouldn't use pain though, the danger is that your pain threshold may mount and that you'll need ever stronger stimuli to achieve gnosis.

Thank you very much, in fact I was just thinking about the plank idea whilst working out earlier today.