I use my bath tub, a sleep mask, ear plugs and some rank incense for sensory deprivation. The incense tends to rush the process along. I would not recommend using all of these at once if you have never done sensory deprivation gnosis. You no what, fuck it, do all of them at once. Maybe something kewl will happen to ya.

Anomaly

Ahh sensory dep chambers... I had a conversation about this with a friend of mine the other day. For now I have a bathtub (and a snorkle LOL!!!!!).

I also was moved by Altered States - enough to seek out deprivation chambers. I used to go to a new agey place that had a fantastic float tank which was pretty luxurious compared to the metal box in the movie. Unfortuntely though it was in the days before I had discovered a use for gnosis. And I'll eat my hat if there are any even in existence where I am now. Guess I'll have to make my own.

Anomoly,
I use multiple techs to reach gnosis, but once I have reached it, it is sound concentration alone that brings about the result of the sigil. I didn't mean to say that the entire meditation consisted of only sound concentration.

Never thought much about giving the ball characteristics... its more a moving line than a ball though. It mainly acts as a device to anchor me to my body so my head doesn't float away. And in the concentration of the bodily sensations it helps slow thinking. I have found in doing this I create a "heavier" sensation of aether, from which seems more stable. If science accounts for anything, I would say my previous meditative techs released more DMT, my eyes would flicker as if in a REM sleep, sometimes my eyes floating to the back of my head, releasing massive amounts of endorphins from which the dual nature of causality provides a much deserved hang over, like a long night of drinking or rolling on ecstasy. But still whilst in deep gnosis, these sensations sometimes occur, it is usually then I have my most vivid encounters with what is seemingly another dimensionality, but my current paradigm supports this to be nothing more than the clever cultivations of our own minds.

F to the U... meaningless mantra has meaning. A cup of sorts. But its purpose derives from the meaningless there of it, in that it is not a sigilized form of desire. That is what I meant by meaningless.

DIdn't realize the post was from you at first anomoly, I was all like "Who the fuck is this nig, how do they know me?" hehe

Yeah, the rush after the silence sucks. I'm working on that. But it seems, I need to go slow to balance things out. I seem to suffer some hang over effects from long meditations. Still building those mind muscles and releasing pint up emotion. Lately I have been drawing the sigil for laughter/laugher after meditations and rituals. It has been charged to the point that the tracing of it is sufficient enough to invoke a rage of laughter and non attachment/non disinterest. It has really helped in turning my attention to other things.

I think we are destined to come with all sorts of bullshit to give ourselves a sense of rationality until science and technology finds a way to explore the uncharted universe of the mind. But until then its ground zero, Nothing is true and Everything is Permissible.

p.s. I re-read Auric Magic in liber kaos, it makes enough sense. The imagination is truely a wonderous lil devil.

I beg to differ, it sounds to me like you are using far more techniques than sound concentration. Does not the meaningless mantra become meaningful once you use it for a defined purpose, i.e. entering gnosis?

I feel revelation dawning due to the potential for evocation which your new found technique offers. Have you ever thought about giving the visualized ball of energy characteristics?

I like that you have picked up the cavalier attitude again and started changing up your practices.

After that period of silence everything seems to come rushing forth as though you have been away for a while. (wink wink) Shapes seem unfamiliar and sounds cause the body to quiver. Like an amnesiac whose amnesia fades in and out like the flicker of an erie swinging light bulb. Does either state have more validity? or do we find ourselves destined to wander through them in order to get what we desire?

You seem to have picked up a similar anchoring technique as I. I would suggest pushing the limits each time you use these tools in order to anchor a deeper trance state for your next session. I clairvoyantly discovered an entity whom I consider absolutely essential to the anchor which I created at DEMF. The exact words used by the entity were "so your head does not explode," I think I like him because this does not sound like a desirable result. It exists as a filter of sorts only pushing out as much stored up gnosis as needed for the working. Plus, it doesn't hurt having an anchor around which saves time during ritual workings. My new evocation project took a mere fifteen minutes to perform last night with a consistant state of no mind being reached, maintained and entered with ease. Andrieh's book has some tasty techs which would strengthen the ones you have adopted for this working. And it would help you increase that book collection you hope to have in the future.

Anomaly

Sense my last post I've changed up my method for inhibitory gnosis. In my closet I found some ear muffs, the kind of hearing protection I used when I worked for Northwest Airlines. It is also the same ear protection people use when shooting fire arms. They block out almost all of the external noise. I put the ear muffs on and sit Indian style with my palms resting on my knees, I sit Indian style (indian style because I lack the flexibility to obtain a full lotus or other yogic pose) from there I close my eyes (the room is also dark, aside from a candle), I still my entire body and begin deep breathing. The breathing gets deeper and the breaths farther between as I progress. From there I begin my meaningless mantra (Zisas Zosas) and I visualize or perceive as a feeling an energy going from my throat across the front of my body to my pelvic region and then circling up my back to its original position. As I exhale the perceived energy flows down the front of me and as I inhale it circles around and up my spine. The visualization helps to give me a sense of order and control as I enter the deep trance state. As the thoughts behind the mantra begin to slow I create a second mantra behind (Zisas Zosas). This mantra is (ENTER GNOSIS). The second mantra helps replace the random perceptions that emerge. ( i say perceptions instead of dialogue, because i typically will perceive feelings, images, aether densities, empathic perceptions, and differant forms of clairvoyance or prescience (sometimes delusions there of) as I enter the trance state. From here I typically begin to drop out the visualization of the light in my torso. I continue on until I feel I have completely or at least almost completely silenced all dialogue and perceptions save for the two mantras. From there I fully focus on the first mantra (ZIsas Zosas) and enter gnosis. Often times I will use this state to enter the void, the preconditioning usually helps me maintain a longer "deeper" state of silence. If thoughts arise, I repeat the mantra "enter void" until I feel I can reenter silence. Also, while I enter the void I change my hand positions so that they are shaped like a fist with my thumb resting between my index and middle finger. The gesture is a sigil of its own to enter the void.

I often use this same method to charge sigilized mantras, replacing (Zisas Zosas) with the mantra at hand. I have had a lot of success using this tech for mantra style sigils.

Most of my recent enchantments using this tech have been for self modification. Which have worked wonderfully.
Also, I have had success using this tech to get myself a gift card and get my brother a job.

It took about 2 months for the gift card result to manifest but it only took about a week and a half for my brother to get a job. Not too shabby for using sound concentration alone.

I have used many techs to achieve gnosis, but before using any tech... i tend to start the same way... I start breathing very deeply and rapidly.... most of the time i will make sounds while i do this... when i breath in... ill make shhhhhhhh sounds... at the same time i feel the fast cool breeze entering my mouth... and when I breath out I make a huuuuuuuuu sound. the whole time i feel the fast breeze entering my mouth, between my teeth and tongue. The sensation i feel is associated to me as entering gnosis as are the sounds i make when i breath.... as i continue to breath deeply my body often trembles and i begin to move my hands in and out with each breath... when i breath out, i move my arms out with my index and thumb touching, my other fingers stay up... when i breath in i hold my index, middle finger and thumb out to form an L. so as i breath in and out... my arms move in and out... changing formations with each breath in and out.... sometimes i change the formations... it doesn't really matter... when my body begins to tremble and my breath becomes exhausted I instantly hold my breath... and when i take my last breath in... I make a shhhhhhhT sound... as soon as i pronounce the T... i hold my breath for an extended time... but not to completely loose my breath... during that breath i become motionless and silent... in that breath everything stops... from there i can use whatever tech i desire... silence, sound concentration, image concentration.... etc... Often i begin a ritual in this manner, standing in front of my altar... after is complete I grab my wand and begin my first banishing. I guess you could say its sort of a pre-banishing of sorts...

- chaodiscordia

I would love to have a sensory deprivation chamber. The movie Altered States has always sparked this interest in me.

I have always used meditative methods to achieve gnosis. I do not think I could live without my knowledge of mantras. When I meditate, I begin by relaxing my entire body starting at the toes and ending with the back of my neck. I do not use verbal commands such as, my toes feel relaxed, my feet feel relaxed, etc, to do this. I instead focus intently on the area which I intend to relax and feel a calm energy come over the body part. I have done this since the age of fourteen and have developed a strong relaxing sensation when I perform this exercise. During this exercise, I like to imagine my body becoming stone in order to resist movement after I have finished the exercise.

After the relaxation exercise, I begin by using sound and image concentration. Depending on the aim of the meditation, I will use this to charge a sigil, go on a dream quest or do a ritual mentally through visualization. Many purposes exist at this point.

After around fifteen minutes of meditation, I develop a spinning sensation which sometimes manifests as a jerking sensation. This occurrence allows me to know that I have entered a trance state. I generally resist this phenomenon and focus more intently on the mantra and or sigil until the spinning passes.

At this point, my senses tend to become heightened and the smallest click of some malcontent appliance will startle me. I continue focusing whilst quieting the second monologue which tends to arise behind the mantra using the not thinking technique from MMM. Depending on the pose which I started doing the meditation in, my mind will either shift from the attention drive to the dreaming/unconscious drive while lying down, or into what feels like a widening of the conscious awareness when sitting cross legged. When I shift to the unawareness drive from the attention drive, I tend to only notice the gnosis once I return to the attention drive. If focusing on a sigil and mantra during the transition from the attention drive to the unconscious drive, the sigil and mantra will remain within focus without the aid of the will or perception, or possibly only the subconscious mind perceives them.

I often experience shifts in my awareness of spatial orientation, I will have sensations of sitting on the wall or hovering upside down.
I have recently noticed the potential to move from awareness to unconscious, or awareness to dreams, or awareness to robotic whilst in a state of gnosis. The Gnostic state will carry over as we move between our perceptual functions.

I would like to use excitatory gnosis more often, but I practice within the confines of my apartment most of the time. Drumming late at night tends to annoy the neighbors.

I have used paradox contemplation as meditation with great success. Contemplation of contradiction leads the mind in circles and the thought process shuts down. Focusing on the liars paradox always shuts down conscious deliberation for me.

I hope to hear everyone else's favorite forms of meditation!

I prefer the meditative method: sitting down, usually in the dragon pose (aka 'kneeling') or lying in savassana (aka the corpse pose aka lying on your back aka what I suspect really is the death posture). If I have a hard time keeping my concentration (but before I've totally lost it), I'll switch over to a cross-legged position and perform some Min Zin mudras which seems to help me focus/unfocus better.

One thing I've found that makes a big difference before getting into an inhibitory method is doing some semi-intense exercises beforehand. Making sure to find that spot before you start sweating (as it's winter now and drafty in my place) but when you can feel an increased heartbeat and that warm feeling in your muscles as well as a good stretch.