Magic 501: Belief
Belief is often discussed in a way that hides its nature. In various religions, it is something considered fundamental to participation: a motivation to act, etc. It is considered a tithe due deity because we are created, or a coin spent on creating (or maintaining) something. It is something cultivated, defined by the absence of proof. In many religious discussions, it is considered most beautiful where it is unwise, uninformed, and has no obvious form of support.
This makes things a lot easier for spiritual entities, priests, and spiritual workers. It’s a lot easier to do what you need to when people cultivate, romanticize, or seek ignorance.
In magic, belief is a weapon. Most often, it is a weapon pointed at the priest, spiritual worker, or other humans by various spiritual entities. The power of suggestion that spiritual entities wield so easily—to suggest an emotion, a pattern of thoughts, a prompt for a fantasy, etc—also gives them the opportunity to suggest to the mind that something is true, causing the person to behave accordingly. For spiritual entities attempting to control a priest or spiritual worker, suggesting illness is a useful way to attempt to distract or punish that priest or spiritual worker when they behave in a way the spiritual entity does not like. The effectiveness of that suggestion depends on the relationship between the entity and the person, which is another reason to be careful what entities you associate with, if you’re a priest or spiritual worker. Even with a ‘subordinate’ relationship, those entities can and will suggest illness when displeased.
They can be very subtle, so the priest or spiritual worker may not even know they have been made ill by belief used as a weapon by something they think they have a good or acceptable or well-understood relationship with.
People say as a truism your mind can make you sick, which is a description of this basic mechanic. If you believe yourself to be ill, you can make yourself ill. Or to put it in magical terms, anything that can successfully suggest to you that you are ill, can make you ill. This is not the only mechanic which can be at work to make someone ill. Physical exposure to a virus works just fine. Belief is, however, a tipping point in the experience of being ill, a place that demonstrates the relationship between cognition and body is a bit complicated.
Belief does not require physical exposure to simulate symptoms.
Awareness of the mechanics of belief requires considerable personal development—the healing and elevation work necessary to understand what belongs to the individual and what does not. It requires the capacity to have clarity, the work to be and stay clear, and the capacity for spiritual sight. It cannot be done alone.
