Reviewing Lessons

I have a question open for whoever can answer it. It is not spawned by any present events, rather I am reviewing lessons of the past and trying to reconcile areas where my experience does not quite match up with the communicated experiences of those whose judgment I respect.

The question is: how does one know when one is experiencing a genuine metaphysical/psychic/magical attack?

In my experience, almost every instance of psychic attack I have seen has been verifiably self-created... a product of the person's own thoughts and fears come to life. As in "Psychic War Syndrome". Essentially the victim is fighting with themselves, which creates very interesting problems when mirror-shields are a common defensive tactic.

My experience aside, I do know people whose judgment and experience I trust who have referred to being attacked in this manner at times. And I do not believe it to be mere Psychic War Syndrome on their part, as the occasions have been very specific, connected to verifiable real-world conflicts with others, and do not repeat themselves with the constant regularity of self-created demons. Also, not every real-world conflict these people has brings up mention of such metaphysical attacks. Self-created attacks would seem to show just the opposite pattern.

But how does one go about telling the difference, when those suffering from self-created attacks usually do not know it?

Attn: YahooGroups Owners

It may be time to seriously start thinking about switching over to Google Groups. I think that they are the future. One of the things that I like the most about them is the ability to search group archives without having to stop every few seconds and hit next when you're not getting any results to begin with, the way you do on Yahoo. Google searches group archives just like a web-search, not bit by bit to get you to view more advertising artificially. For those with very active groups, this is a great blessing.

It also allows you to search all of google groups at once, which will also included membership-restricted archives of groups you are a member of, so if you're looking for an old post but don't quite remember which list it was on, you don't have to search their archives separately, even on private lists.

For this alone, I think I would switch my group over (though I am conferring with group members before making a unilateral decision on this). And this is on a service that's still in beta. I can't wait to see what it evolves into.

PS: Oh, did I mention? Google Groups also come with their own ATOM feeds. For new messages AND for new topics/threads, depending on your preference.

Edit: Wow... I'm definitely thinking that moving wanderingpaths over to google groups is the right thing to do. The features are perfect for my needs, I love the interface, and there's at least one feature that I think several people are going to like that Yahoogroups does not have: the ability to create an invite-only group where ALL MEMBERS have the ability to invite new people, not just the moderators. I like that idea, it has the kind of organic growth potential of gmail and livejournal invites.

Also, I'm feeling strongly drawn to make the first post in the google version of the group an essay I've been working on concerning kinship-bonds that hasn't quite been coming together for a few days but is hovering right on the edge of congealing into something powerful. It fits in a way that really feels down-to-my-bones right as the tone-setting initial post.

A Special Treat

While reading tonight, I came across the recipe for Elven Memory Drink. The original, not the version Adara taught me in 1999. I haven't drank this stuff since about June 2000. I was also moderately surprised to find it was originally an alcoholic beverage, but in retrospect it actually makes a great deal of sense.

I am currently having my own variant of it, a mix of the two recipes and my own inspiration.

It uses chocolate milk mix (the liquid syrup form, because that was all we had), cold milk rather than hot water, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a small amount of Old Saint Andrews Scotch Whiskey.

Alright, to be fair it's just Adara's recipe with alcohol added, and using chocolate syrup rather than chocolate powder. It's still very very good.