Hi! I was away from the forum for some days... let's catch up...
Aluqak -> If you're curious, well, I was a member of Dragon Rouge for some time, then moved a bit away. Now I collaborate in some aspects and who knows? Maybe I'll be back for more!
As for "alternative realities" and altered states, well, it's a huge subject. It may interest you to check out some material on "chaos magic". It's one of the most recent views in magic, in which in general the notion is that apart from the "symbolic systems" (be it Hebrew Qabalah, Tantrism, or even Star Trek, whatever makes your motivation move), the key to anomalous interactions with reality (be it our own personal "reality" which we call "oneself" or the "world outside") are some altered states of consciousness. A lot of talk can be done about "how" this works, but what chaos magicians care about is that it actually works. To put it differently, consciousness seems to be able to interact with reality at deep layers. Peter Carroll, one of the creators of the chaos approach, made an interesting "quantum-based" model of chaos magic, it's interesting for those inclined and attracted by that sort of schemes (maybe more rationally-oriented). There's also quite some scientific material in these areas, one interesting source is Princeton's PEAR Lab, they have a web site if you're interested. From my point of view, well, I'm not in a moment in which I'd like to use too precise language, because you eventually turn out to see in which way symbolic/mental representations of the workings of reality can be illusory. My little advice: if you're interested and intrigued, try it, but don't buy any BS that anyone tries to sell you as the ultimate truth for this (and incidentally, this applies to everything). Nobody has the ultimate key for these matters, but some sources can provide you with tools which can be useful. For a specific person in a specific moment a magical order might be useful, for others some more rational or scientific approach, for others a more mystical approach. Eventually, the thing is that reality is not what we're quite used to accept as it. It is far more malleable and what are considered "laws" are not at all unchangable patterns. Based on Pete Carroll's "Chaos Magic Theory", I could say that those so-called "laws" are self-repeating patterns in a general morphogenetic field (check out Rupert Sheldrake's work for more on this) of reality, with a very strong tendency to occur, but which may be twisted or changed. Heck, Pete Carroll even suggests that you can cheat the past and change things occuring now based on changing a "past event", that is, if you can. This may sound as quack to you, but eventually a lot of supposedly accepted things turn out as "quack". I suggest you someting else: Robert Anton Wilson's "Cosmic Trigger I: Final Secret of the Illuminati".
Markus -> Yes, some at least approximate definition is interesting when talking about these things. Although in my experience, if people are "in sync" and sensing themselves and their expressions, it's not necessary to be so stringent on mental concepts. It's like digital or analogic recording. Digital has some preciseness which only 1s and 0s can provide, at high sampling rates, but analogic stuff has something else related to vibration and resonation which is not in digital. As for "natural laws", I wrote something about that in the last paragraph, that's approximately how I see it now. But you're referring to how subjective "beliefs about reality" can induce some changes in one's behaviour. Yes, of course, that's hugely important, but the suggestion is that there's more to it. That if your "consciousness operation" is in some way, and in some states of consciousness, you can actually influence and produce physical effects by non ordinary methods. If you choose to believe that "a stone cannot float in air", ok, that's you, and if it works for you, ok, but I'd suggest you to leave some open doors to possibilities. If you want to do some quick experimenting, try the "Creative Visualization" method. No rituals there, just relaxation and mental visualization, and a clear mind about what you want! Check out for changes in the world around you!
Cheers!!!
Martin
