Chaos Magick and the Multiverse

by

Marik

(Mark Defrates)

marik@aol.com

New Smyrna Beach FL 2003
 

Chaos Magick and the Multiverse

This essay is a speculative romp through magick, quantum
mechanics, cosmology and neurology.  I don't pretend to be more
than an educated lay reader in the last three fields.  As for
magick, expertise is a subjective assessment. Cosmology and
neuroscience, in particular, are undergoing a revolution.  The
last five years have remade our understanding of the
macrostructures of our universe and the microstructures of our
brain. Quantum mechanics, almost a century old now, is so counter
intuitive (but so conclusively proven by experimentation) that
we're still trying to understand it.  I've tried to make this
essay relatively easy to understand, but without some grounding
in these sciences, you might find it heavy going.  Not as heavy,
you'll be happy to know, as many scientists would find the
theoretical bases of Chaos Magick.
 

Multiverse Theory

This essay deals with the modification, for magickal uses, of a
cosmological and quantum mechanical theory known as Multiverse or
Many Worlds theory.  The original theory is credited to Hugh
Everett III, a graduate student. In 1957, concerned with the
differences between the Newtonian and Quantum Mechanical models,
Everett suggested the Many Worlds theory.  The Many Worlds, or as
I'll now refer to it, the Multiverse Theory helps to solve a
problem with the quantum wave function.

We can understand the Quantum Wave Function by analogy.  A
fundamental principle of quantum mechanics (Heisenberg's
Uncertainty Principle) states that you cannot know the position
and velocity of a particle at the same time.  In other words, you
can know how fast an electron is moving or its whereabouts but
not both.  If your friends call you from Columbus, Ohio, and you
live in New Orleans, Quantum Mechanical Uncertainty, in an
extreme analogy, means that they can't tell you how long it will
be before they arrive because they only know where they are, not
how fast they're driving.  If your friends call and say we're
heading towards you at 75 miles an hour but they don't know where
they are, you're not much better off. The usual argument is that
my analogy refers to the macro level, where Newtonian Physics
operate, not the micro, where quantum mechanics does.  This is
kind of a pathetic fudge by modern scientists. I'm meant to
believe that the laws of physics are different at the levels of
the very small and the very large than they are at the level of
the everyday. In fact, even in the simple driving analogy your
friends only have a rough estimation of where they are or how
fast they're traveling.  Only if they stopped moving could they
tell you exactly where they are.  Only if they checked their
speedometer would they be able to report how fast they're moving.
But by the time they'd reported how fast they were driving they
would no longer be exactly where they said they were.
Fortunately your friends, like the rest of us, deal in
approximations.  If you know they've just left Columbus you can
get an idea of the time they'll reach New Orleans.  Science is
less forgiving but in much the same way as our guess of when your
friends will arrive, the Quantum Wave Function is a formula based
on the probability that a particle moving at a certain speed will
end up in a certain place at a certain time.

It is, of course, very much weirder than that.

Here's a fine definition of the Quantum Wave Function:

The wave function, also called Schrodinger's Equation, is a
mathematical description of all the possibilities for an object.
For example, we could imagine the wave function as a deck of 52
cards where each card is a yet unobserved quantum state.  The
deck has 52 possibilities so the wave function has 52 humps.

In quantum theory, all events are possible (because the initial
state of the system is indeterminate), but some are more likely
than others. While the quantum physicist can say very little
about the likelihood of any single event's happening, quantum
physics works as a science that can make predictions because
patterns of probability emerge in large numbers of events.  It is
more likely that some events will happen than others, and over an
average of many events, a given pattern of outcome is
predictable. Thus, to make their science work for them, quantum
physicists assign a probability to each of the possibilities
represented in the wave function. (1)

By analogy I know that it takes me around 10 to 12 hours to drive
from my house in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, to my friend Gary's
house in New Orleans.   I make this prediction because patterns
of probability have emerged as a result of the number of times
I've made the trip, the map trip mileage guide suggests it, my
friends who've made the trip tend to concur, etc.  In other
words, because I can draw data from a sufficiently large series
of events I can make a prediction based on statistical
probability.

So far so good.  Unfortunately, the equations of the Quantum Wave
Function only work if all other probabilities of a given event
are also real.  Quantum Mechanics has proved in experiment after
experiment that the universe does not act according to the
Newtonian model.  Quantum Mechanics  also suggests that for a
probability to manifest itself in the universe that humans
observe, the existence, somewhere, of all the other probabilities
is required.  In the universe revealed by Quantum Mechanics,
switches are both on and off; electrons are in more than one
place at the same time; subatomic particles do communicate
instantaneously (apparently violating Einsteinian physics); a cat
could be both dead and alive. In fact all these events have been
empirically proved, except, alas for cat-haters and the curious,
for the last. Proving these anomalies in the lab was not only
counter-intuitive but deeply problematic, undermining both the
Newtonian and (to a lesser extent) the Relativistic view of the
universe. In other words the possibilities, to continue my
Florida to Louisiana driving analogy, that there are universes
where I never get to Gary's house in New Orleans, where it takes
me 24 or 36 hours, or where I say, Fuck it, I'm flying, and get
there in a couple of hours, are all actualities.  These aren't
exactly strange possibilities and I can easily imagine them.
Quantum mechanics can find no reason why these probabilities (and
much, much weirder, ones) should not exist, and some compelling
ones why they should.  Not the least reason is that String Theory
strongly suggests the universe is fundamentally a mathematical
construct. String Theory is an attempt to develop a theory of
quantum gravitation which would bridge the problems between
Quantum Mechanics and Relativity allowing a TOE (Theory of
everything): the Scientific Holy Grail.

Scientists are fond of Occam's Razor;  they dislike an
unnecessary multiplication of entities, or in normal language
they prefer simpler to more complicated solutions.  So, for many
years, quantum scientists, particle physicists, cosmologists, and
neuroscientists, have attempted to shift discussion of the
problem of the unimaginably large series of universes that
quantum wave function equations require  to abstractions
hopefully too complicated for anyone to examine them, such as
Hilbert space.  Hilbert space is an infinite, abstract and
(usually said in a mumble) real dimension within which all the
probabilities allowed by the quantum wave function formulae
exist.  Decoherence is the term used to describe the process by
which events present themselves in our quantum branch of Hilbert
Space. Events somehow decohere into this particular dimension,
the dimension of the real, in other words, the dimension of the
observable.  Because quantum mechanics has been such a rich field
in the practical development of modern technology, only recently
have investigations into quantum states, that is, other parts of
Hilbert space, become more popular, despite the generally
repressed recognition that we exist in a subset of Hilbert space.
 The notion is slowly slipping into the public consciousness,
appearing even in popular movies like Men in Black.

In addition, why a particular probability manifests appears
chaotic.  Science, and our perception of life, is rule based and
ordered. To state that a particular probability manifests because
we observe it is circular and doesn't get us too far. The entire
universe has to be both chaotic and ordered, but ultimately based
on rules.  Even Chaos Science, which enjoyed a brief but
interesting vogue, defined Chaos as order at a level of magnitude
too great for (current) instrumentation. Chaos Magick, despite
the name, is built around this concept (otherwise its techniques
could only work on a purely random basis). True chaos, non rule
based phenomena, is no more possible than absolute order.
Consequently an initial assumption in science is that the
universe is a rule based phenomenon.

The kludge around the contradictions between Quantum Mechanics
and the Newtonian world view rests in the proposition that events
differ between the subatomic and the real world. This
intellectual sleight of hand presents a problem:  it splits a
unitary universe into macro and micro events running on
contradictory rules. Actually it's worse than that as
cosmological data start to support quantum observations, it's
micro, macro, and cosmological. The quantum wave function, which
determines which event will be observable out of an infinite
series of probabilities, is inherently ordered and deterministic,
rotating through time in an abstract infinite and real dimension:
Hilbert space.  An event is just one probability which decoheres,
or becomes observable through our instrumentation.  Everett
suggested that the solution to what happened to all the other
probabilities, which, according to the quantum wave function are
real, even though not observed, is to recognize the universe, or
more precisely Hilbert space, (of which our universe, at this
instant, is a subset or  quantum branch), as infinite.

Everett's theory has been assailed repeatedly but, in one form or
another, is what most quantum physicists now believe.  There is a
close to infinite (approximately 10 to the 10th to the 118th)
number of universes, all coexisting in one instant. They contain
all possible arrangements of matter allowed by quantum mechanics.
Each universe contains the manifestation of a probability. Time
is a way of arranging these universes in sequence.  Each universe
is also static.  It is a snapshot of a particular arrangement of
matter. Change does not really occur but the enormous number of
ways that the universes can be sequenced makes the multiverse
endlessly interesting.  What appears real is only a small slice
of the entire multiverse. With the mind of a Buddha, a Creator
God, or a Cosmic Consciousness, all possibilities would be
simultaneously observable.

Curiously enough, cosmology has also come out in favor of an
infinite universe. When Everett wrote, the universe
cosmologically appeared to occupy a much smaller space.  The
Hubble Deep Space photographs have shown a mind boggling number
of galaxies and a great deal of data suggests the distribution of
matter in the universe is uniform.  This means that it is
unlikely that there is some point where the galaxies thin out to
nothingness or some wall appears, with graffiti scrawled across
it: THE END OF THE UNIVERSE. Einsteinian physics suggests space
might be curved, which would  certainly allow for a finite
universe but there has been little proof offered.  In an infinite
universe, again, all probabilities, all arrangements of matter
allowed by the laws of physics must exist.  The main difference
between the cosmological theory and the quantum mechanical is
only in the distance your copy resides from the you you know.  In
the cosmological theory the copy lives beyond the observable
universe.  In Everett's theory your copy lives in Hilbert Space
and might even be occupying the same physical space as you do.

There are two more arguments in favor of the multiverse theory.
I suggest you check May 2003's Issue of Scientific American,
appropriately entitled - Infinite Earths in Parallel Universe
Actually Exist. (2) The ones I've mentioned are the least
controversial.

Magick, Buddhism and Many Worlds

So, most physicists now believe that we each have multiple
copies, most quite similar to us, some radically different.  The
particular flavor of Chaos Magick I currently practice uses this
theory to actualize magickal intentions.

Magick as is a method of shifting probabilities in one's favor.
In multiverse theory the successful outcome of a magickal act,
the actualization of a desire, is  just shifting an existing
outcome into observable space or shifting my perception from one
probability line to another.  I exist, as do we and all other
phenomena we see or can imagine, in a series of copies, stretched
out across vast sequences of universes.  Of course there are many
universes where I don' t exist at all (nor you) but there are
enough close enough to my desires to fulfill most magickal
actions.  Being conditioned by the narrative of my life, or the
way that I have chosen to observe a particular sequence of
universes, I am less likely to visualize universes in which I,
for example, phase shift into vapor, than one in which I get up
and put the kettle on.

People who are really bad at magick, are so conditioned by their
personal narrative that they can't imagine the outcome they
desire.  Magick is a method for deconditioning ourselves from our
own stories. There is also a world narrative, a grand story
crafted and modified by human beings. A lack of sensitivity to
that is another reason for failure at magick.  Plunging the world
into darkness by putting out the sun with a wink is only
effective if you can persuade others to turn on the lights.  It
is theoretically possible, but so far beyond consensual reality
that it's difficult to imagine.  Consensual reality is a series
of generally agreed upon rules for observation.  Consensual
reality creates the universe in which we live by large scale
agreements on the conclusions we make from our generally similar
instrumentation, that is the sensory apparatus of our human
bodies.  There are arguments that other sentient creatures, for
example dolphins, may perceive a much larger slice of Hilbert
Space.  I'd argue that we routinely use Hilbert Space more than
we think we do.

We already do work with Hilbert space routinely, when we choose
between a number of possible actions.  We don't usually recognize
that each of the imagined outcomes exist, but according to
multiverse theory they do.  Our relation to the perceived
universe is limited by the instrumentation of the organic
machines of the optic pathways, olfactory, auditory, and tactile
senses.  But the higher cortical  functions that  interpret these
inputs do so by pattern-matching likely templates.  The language
of the mind is symbolic; patterns of neurons firing.  The
patterns of these neural impulses, which are both chemical and
electrical, are matched rapidly with abstract templates at higher
cortical levels. The neural  pathways that move output in
obviously move input out. The sensory events that we see with
eyes closed, asleep or visualizing, are examples. Quantum
multiverse theory suggests these are not mere imaginings but are
somewhere as real as so called real life, a phrase for a set of
mutually agreed upon definitions for external objects and events.

So the way that a magickal desire actualizes, according to this
theory, is through observation of a chosen probability.  Out of
the multiplicity of universes available for any particular
outcome the magician chooses one.  By observation I include
interaction, belief, will, the whole panoply of sensory and
intellectual instrumentation that creates the world I see. The
desired outcome decoheres. Hopefully. The gestalt of the self
narrative and the general consensual belief structure may limit
or prevent the desired outcome.

The general consensual belief structure is individually perceived
and matched against the self narrative that each of us rattle on
in our minds.  Information from our senses has to make sense to
these templates.  Since these templates are colored with
emotional resonances we develop both emotive and rational
responses.  Chaos Magick asserts that both personal and
environmental change are limited by the paradigm or belief
structure we possess and that the paradigm can be changed at
will.

It is hard to grasp what exactly happens when a magickal
intention actualizes by using multiverse theory.   Does an
entirely new universe come into being? According to multiverse
theory it does. Does the magician then become his copy in an
alternate and parallel universe or the copy become the magician?
I don't think it matters either way, but this is really a
Buddhist perspective.  As a friend recently said of me, many
people are uninhibited, but Mark is uninhabited.  I can't justify
a fundamental difference between me and any other arrangement of
matter, let alone my copies on parallel earths.  That is to say
the question is one of identity.  Is the me in the universe where
my desire has actualized the same me as the one in which the
desire was formulated? Questions of identity quickly revert to
the problem of essentialism and the inability to define any
entity in the absence of its relationship to other entities.  I
find the idea of Mark being anything more than a certain
arrangement of matter and energy truly strange.  The core
theories of Quantum Mechanics, Newtonian Physics and Einstein's
Relativity have been repeatedly proved.  The theory of an
essence, a soul or an atman, remains a matter of faith.

Buddhism, with its belief in a beginningless endless universe and
its assertion that an infinite number of probabilities actually
exist, predates the findings of Quantum Mechanics and modern
Cosmology by thousands of years.  I've used Buddhism and Magick
as complementary methods of viewing my reality for nearly 40
years. I am always delighted to discover associations between
these two modalities: Buddhism and Magick, Quantum Mechanics and
Cosmology.  Chaos Magick, by its nature, does not provide a moral
basis for living one's life. It is also technically oriented.
Chaos Magick does not provide answers to substantive
philosophical questions.  Buddhism does all of this and does not
exclude Chaos Magick (unlike most religions which view magick not
absorbed into their own ritual structure with suspicion).  The
many armed, many faced deities of Hinduism and Buddhism refer not
only to the multiple powers of these gods and goddesses but also
to their interdimensionality, their presence in an infinite
series of worlds.

One way of looking at godforms is to declare that they live
consciously in Hilbert Space and manifest or decohere at will in
different quantum branches. This is one of the great advantages
of working with godforms (or Buddhas and Bodhisattvas).  Godforms
are a means to communicate across the multiverse. They facilitate
probability shifts primarily through relieving the magician or
devotee of the imaginative limits the general consensual belief
structure creates.  The devotee might not believe that he or she
can perform a miracle but they do believe that a deity, working
through them, can.  Magick in general, and Chaos Magick in
particular, is a method for deconstructing the general consensual
belief structure, and sidelining the discursive, ego driven mind
which tells the magician that he or she cannot actualize a
magickal intention. Sigils, servitors and magickal rituals also
help the magician to communicate across the multiverse in the
same way as godforms.  All these magickal techniques can be said
to operate by facilitating conscious, though unusual movement
through the static universes of probability in Hilbert space.
Hilbert space is accessed by relaxing the rigid left brain
definition of the real and the possible.

Wild Speculation

Maybe I should say wilder speculation.  Over the last five years
cosmologists have discovered that the universe is primarily
composed of dark energy and dark matter, with visible matter
amounting to merely 10 per cent of the universe. Dark matter is a
non-radiating form of matter that creates the underlying
structure of galaxies and galactic sheets.  What dark energy is,
is anybody's guess.  It does comprise most of the universe and
within the last seven billion years has created the curious and
dramatic expansion of the universe. Everything is moving away
from each other, being filled, in other words by dark energy.
Here's my wild speculation:  dark energy is Hilbert space.  The
advent of sentience at some point within the last seven billion
years is arguably a result of increasing complexity.  Sentience
in my terms is really just another term for life.   3 billion
year bacteria old have been reliably found on Planet Earth.
Extraterrestrial cellular life much older is hardly a leap of the
imagination. Sentience creates an observational matrix, which
accelerates expansion by increasing the number of probabilities,
in other words making Hilbert Space,  the Multiverse,
increasingly larger.  Even more felicitously, the development of
increasingly more sophisticated instrumentation results also in
the expansion of the visible or observable universe.  I like the
fact that the universe, so far, has appeared to be isotropic and
homogenous.  I also like the fact that the human brain has more
neural connections than the number of particle in the visible
universe.  The old saw that we only use ten per cent of our
brains discounts the amazing number of neural functions directing
events not observable by the conscious mind, or higher cortical
functions.  Phenomena like blindsite, phantom limbs, and Charles
Bratton syndrome show small sectors of the enormous amount of
work the neural patterns perform. (3)  I believe that the
complexity of human brains are integrally connected with the
complexities of the multiverse in ways that we dimly perceive,
mostly because these connections occur at non conscious levels.

A Practical Technique

I'm a fan of complex theories but easy techniques that work,
fortunately, whether you understand the theory or not.  It is
axiomatic in Chaos Magick that it is the mechanism of belief that
matters, and vigorous discussions have been had over whether any
sincerity in belief is necessary for a successful outcome. I
believe that the mechanism is, in fact, the suspension of
disbelief - of whatever!  But a great deal of Chaos Magick is
involved with psychological or personal transformation.  Chaos
Magick tends to think that environmental factors may need to be
changed and so tends to look askance at the discrimination of
magick into white, grey and black.

Magickal techniques are, according to multiverse theory, methods
by which you convince yourself that what you've done has created
(or brought into observation) the outcome you want.  I've  found
that there appear to be times when I'm more likely to convince
myself than others.  Generally those times have to do with a
rational belief that unforeseen consequences will be limited.

In a current particular case I'd felt a reduction in
possibilities and a general sense that my life was veering into a
dead end.  My original intention was to develop clarity, to
change my point of view, to become more open to other narratives
for myself.

I suspect I did routine banishing rituals, the Gnostic Pentagram
probably, but I don't remember.  I do banish routinely.  Whether
you need to or not depends on the extent to which it is important
to your belief structure.

I like to use music to develop an altered state.  The last time I
did this ritual I used 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' but I'd
imagine you'd use whatever gets you into an altered state where
the never ending prattle of your self story shuts up long enough
for magickal actions work. My magickal intention was to trade out
personalities with a copy, one with a clearer-minded self
narrative.  I visualized colored streams of force around me and
drew elements of it towards me and pushed others away from me.

That's pretty much all I did.  I knew what I was doing, but I
can't tell you what it was because it really wasn't the type of
action that can be described in words.  Like most effective
magick it was non verbal.  If you've seen the electrical arc
lamps where putting your finger on the  shade changes the
patterns of electrical energy in the lamp, you'll have an idea of
the visualization.

In any case the idea is easy enough.  Consider that there is a
copy of you that inhabits the type of universe in which you have
what you want. Swop places with said copy.  Your recollection of
your own history might be a bit fuzzy, but it probably already
is.

Did I actually end up trading places with a copy?  Or did I just
convince myself that I had?  In Chaos Magick, I'm happy to
report, it doesn't matter. Chaos Magick is  results oriented.

My partner, Pam, was out on an errand.  When she returned she was
surprised and pleased with the change. Since the ritual I've had
a great number of events designed to bring clarity into my life,
most of which have been positive.  I've been very busy , quit
smoking, started target shooting, started writing, and generally
have been more open to alterations in behavior and self
narrative.  I consider the ritual a success but it was wide
ranging and we'll see.

*****************************

I suspect any type of magickal technique in one way or another
could be modified to benefit from multiverse theory. Sigils,
servitors, and godforms can all be methods of communication
through Hilbert Space to create certain sequences of universes, a
certain multiverse, a life you live and observe.

Multiverse theory as applied to magick answers a number of
questions.  How does magick work?  By bringing another
probability or another universe, if you like, into observation
either by trading places with a close copy of the magician or
through selection.  Is ritual necessary?  Only to the extent that
it helps you change your belief structure, or properly, your
observational position.  Do demons from a palpably fictitious
world like the Cthulu Mythos really exist? With as much validity
as you do.  Arguably, since more people believe in the Cthulu
Mythos than believe in you, they might, if the sheer mass of
observers makes a difference, be even more real! I don't actually
believe that. I suspect quality of observation wins out over
quantity of observers most of the time. At any rate the common
argument as to which is more real magickal or so called real
events is about as valid as asking que es mas macho (pineapple or
light bulb)?  Is one form of magick better  (has a higher success
rate) than another? Only to the extent that one form fits your
personal observational biases, not in any absolute sense.

There is no reason to believe that magick and science are
exclusive.  Science is quite large enough to include magick, even
if some scientists are not.  A more interesting question, from my
point of view, is whether magicians are ready to lay down the
tired old arguments over the reality of magick or the success
rate of one form or another.  If multiverse theory does anything
it should at least ease conflicts like these.

Marik 06/17/03

Endnotes

(1)http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/wave_function.html

(2)http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000F1EDD-B48A-
1E908EA5809EC5880000

(3) V.S. Ramachandran, coauthor of Phantoms in the Brain, gave
the Reith Lecture 2003 on the topic of The Emerging Mind.  You
can hear the lectures here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/

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marik@aol.com

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