>>24687260
>So you expect me to believe on the basis of quite literally no evidence that people in power are secretly occultists and that's why they're in power?
It's very well documented historically, and contemporary people in power regularly expose themselves through symbolism. So I wouldn't say that there is "quite literally no evidence".
>Literally all of it seems to me to be premodern pseudoscientific nonsense that makes claims that can quite literally never be validated or never be falsified.
You just lack the creative spirit required. Not much I can do for you with that problem of yours. You posted some commie picture, so that says everything about you. Your plebeian soul can never accept a domain of knowledge that is not accessible to the profane orgiastic promiscuous masses.
>What sort of history and mainstream science do you recommend to give someone "sufficient conviction of the possibility of 'occult' phenomena?"
Being generally cultured. Having done one's reading on history, ethnology, philosophy, religion. All of this, combined, along with a creative, inquisitive spirit, cannot but help make one wonder. Simply being alive and perplexed at the mysterious nature of one's experience should be enough to set out on the search, but that's too much to ask of you.
At the very least, any intelligent person is struck by the placebo effect, and wonders how far this phenomenon can be taken. At the very least, any intelligent person considers it highly that magic be effective even if only so far as potentially a very potent psychological tool.
>>24687328
>They accomplished absolutely fucking nothing, and I mean that sincerely. Every major occult figure was a burnout loser that threw their life away and the people that follow them are no different.
What about figures such as Alexander, initiated into the Mysteries, you buffoon? The various American (both north and south) revolutionaries, Garibaldi, etc etc. One could name many occultists who have certainly "accomplished something". Perhaps it is your "long line of schizos" who are losers and use the "occult" to cope.
>You'll have a superior "spiritual experience" hitting acid or eating a higher dose of shrooms.
This is all one needs to hear from you. You are an imbecile. Go read "trip reports". Drugs induce nothing but profane incoherent babble experiences out of some normalfag's deep psyche at best, and at worst delude them completely whether spiritually or otherwise. Nothing to do with the ancient use of drugs by shamans and such, the inner and outer techniques of which have probably been lost.
>>24687385
>I don't know much about Buddhism in general, but I do know a lot of former occultists end up there.
Buddhism is basic level occultism.
