Is 'Personality Disorder' Unnecessary Psychiatric Labelling? ?

Should We Replace the Collective Term 'Personality Disorder' With Something Less Harsh? 

7 min read

Years ago, when I was a student mental health nurse, I wrote an article for an NHS magazine called Mental Health Practice. It was an opinion piece, reflecting on how careful we should be when labelling a condition as a personality disorder, because, the meaning carries connotations directed at one's sense of identity. It is counter-intuitive given how invalidation itself significantly impacts on people living with these diagnoses. The name of this condition acts like an ongoing trigger of the condition: We can, for example, argue, that borderline personality disorder, alone, is infact, confining a person to their disorder.

When a trained psychiatrist labels someone, and, someone who (like everyone) will have their own personality, will feel an unkind impact. Immediately, upon diagnosis, their personality is sort of stamped 'out of order,' you could expect a person might feel frazzled or marginalised, because a trusted source delivered such news. In contrast, it's a bit like the clergy saying your soul is evil, your teacher saying that you're thick. Imagination can take the freshly diagnosed individual to a few unkind places.

Alternatives 

How? Such terms reject, ignore and can reduce a persons lived experience. I previously identified this as a type of invalidation, a significant thorn in the side of people with problems of which they seek help. We could rename the whole personality disorder umbrella term, using something more fitting, like 'Ingrained Behaviour Pattern' for instance. I wrote this magazine article in a time of active stigma against these particular clusters of conditions. I am unsure if much has changed.

From the magazine:

'IT WOULD be awful to be told that you have a personality disorder. Imagine coming home from seeing your psychiatrist and thinking to yourself: ‘Am I disorderly or is my personality out of order?’' Mental Health Practice.

Are my views the same now? Have I changed my mind?

To answer this the way I feel I need to, I might have to go off on one! So imagine a sun-touched golden haired surfer, paddling her solid surfboard in the blue cool sea. Without recognition of what water is, nor any grasp of the concept of swimming, a shark could swim through the water and bite hard into the board crushing it with it's powerful jaws. Mechanised and cold, not one ethical thought of doubt crossing it's mind, no fear of spiritual consequence; the clockwork dynamics of reality simply playing out. It's the multifactored determinants of our world that drove the genetic evolution of that shark. 

Human Minds, Bodies, and Awareness 

Modern sharks instinctively swim, hunt and eat as a consequence of evolution. The natural world, has made many creatures like bio-organic robots. Even our lives are dominated by biological pullies and cogs, and even much of our human conduct is chemically triggered: Grehlin and leptin regulate our desire to eat and to stop eating. Melatonin and adenosine make us tired, cortisol makes us more hypervigilant, do you see where I'm going? 

We often describe sharks with vocabulary rich with soulless words, like cold, spiritless monster, we call them the perfect hunters and killing machines. Yet, we cannot for a second see ourselves that way, because, self-evidently, axiomatically, we experience and articulate being alive! Bollocks to a shark. 

I see myself as the awareness of a human, not just the human itself. Fancy myself as a bit of a mystic, but still, I honestly know I'm a bit of a shaven wookie, a Homer Simpson. The human animal is just as mechanical as the shark. Phenomenal consciousness within any form will vary: we can't know the sharkness of a shark any better than the shark would grasp the meaning of the German word for shark! Hai. 

What's this got to do with Personality Disorders? 

It has everything to do with personality disorders because we humans defied the laws of the natural world by denying our own physical instincts full control over us, we developed reason, logic and most of all discipline. Today, we are liberated, resulting with our awareness of what a 'person,' is, from the word 'persona' meaning mask, to appreciate that social etiquette or conduct has become personality. The etymology and development of personality is social, pertaining to conduct and assimilation. 

From a Spiritual Perspective 

It's a mistake to assume your personality is you, rather than your mask or social presentation. This persona is comprised of aspects of the mind, and one's own physical attributes, (namely genetics). Psychiatry should be looking at concepts surrounding social assimilation and ingrained behaviours not highlighting a faulty personality. 

How we see Ourselves and Others

In all thinking creatures, lots of well organised braincells enable higher processing. This means the performance of certain tasks; unlike humans, copious olfactory neurons give dogs their superior sense of smell; sharks can detect blood from miles away. As we humans evolved; developing reason, morals, and our arts and sciences, we suffered for it. 

Our Complicated Nature

We realised the harsh realities surrounding death on an intellectual level. We knew mourning, and grasped impermanence, existensialist fear and still sugar-coat it. Of course, we avoid such things, pleasure seeking behaviours and comfort take pride of place. 

Unlike snakes, sharks and chickens who are unburdened of the finite implications of non-being, no evidence shows all animals wrestling with nihilistic trappings of athiest philosophy; our, uniquely human words, and complex and stupid ways such as flat earth actvism, our religious teachings etcetera are testament to the fact that we are a species that will define itself. 

Putting it to Bed

To end this madness, let's consider thought that is considered to be caused by the mind, not bodily mechanics. First off, mathematics, we can say, isn't inspired by a biocommunicator like grehlin or melatonin — disciplined discussions don't require key neurotransmitters to drive a person into a debate. The pious meditations we choose to practice don't result from peptides, but from the self which we need to grow. A life of embracing egotism, and hedonism are not helpful for personalities that endure disorder.

That little idea is quite sweet. We are more than just crude matter and desires. We are the experience of our experience, 'being' has layers'. If you've been told your personality isn't quite orderly enough, or you've had social conduct or assimilation issues, you have the opportunity to practice self awareness with meditation. The answers are with you. 

Do you think the term 'Personality Disorder' needs updating? 

TikTok China Trouble

The Great TikTok Tizwas: Banishing Byte-Sized Videos

6 min read

Remember that plastic charm bracelet fad? Every kid wanted one of those overly priced rainbow looms, which they used to weave plastic rubber bands into constructs, shaping almost anything. I saw teddy bears that looked inbred, as well as Winnie the Pooh, puppy dogs and Mickey Mouse, more often than not, they had the same intrafamilial qualities. My kids would've stabbed me in my sleep if I got rid of their creations! Well, the latest homogenous trend, TikTok, is facing banishment. Most of this blog, is based on my opinion, informed only by biased news channels, but I will say, it's so unfair for TikTok users; because they're forced to consider what could happen to their content, followers and income. I think the US Government clearly want the app to make line dancing videos and we Brits want it because we have bugger all else. It seems they put some news out to test the waters, see who'll kick-off first, this really is preparing everyone. Harbingers of change. It makes me think, why the sudden urge to slap the app? 

Trying to Make Sense of it... 

In the rumor mill, doubt is always churning out theories creamier than the milk of our finest British cows. Farmer's would say this TikTok ordeal is a power grab, a bit like how number ten try to get their greedy fingers on their land! Apologies, I'll stop with the farmyard lingo. Think about the alarmist reasoning; highpointing threat of user data is merely an excuse for action, a ruse and it is a sign of bad faith with the East. Indeed, we should be ramping up better trade relations, trust and healthier interractions. Let's face it, Western trade coming in from China is colossal, massive and of course, you have to ask yourself; couldn't they have easily attacked or breached the West many times in our history of trade? Have they? Yes, the chinese government has hired hackers to watch the US Government. 

Oh, uh, okay, they aren't simply playing politics here? Banning the much used app to frustrate China? Is this cutting off your nose to spite your own face? It seems dramatic, politically loaded and irrational, doesn't it if we can avoid economic loss and keep the app? The US intelligence can monitor TikTok, counter-intelligence brings more jobs, reducing unemployment! Let's get more people doing these internet security jobs, easy. Let's be honest, as I said before, banishing TikTok plops a turd into the 'good relations' cake mix. Millions of users worldwide would be left longing for their daily dose of narcissism and street fights! Remember a couple of years ago, that massive data leak from a Shanghai? It exposed the personal details of nearly a billion people? 

So, What's the Real Deal?

The truth, as always, in a political sense, is likely a complex web of diverse considerations, democratic concensus and sometimes quite stupid outcomes. That's social media. It is achievable to address these security fears without resorting to a full-on ban. However, xenophobic concerns surrounding cross cultural pollination and influence have been identified, and cetainly factor into this decision to ban TikTok. Does such rhetoric detract from a hacker threat? 

Will The US Government Be Solution Focused? Is Diplomacy on the Cards? 

Balancing national security and user privacy is what most people want and it seems quite possible to increase scrutiny: imagine TikTok being regulated under stricter regulations—solved? Yeah. Non biased, audits and data security measures can solve national security concerns. This means the US Government and technology expertise should increase their collaborative efforts. It is absolutely essential to find a solution. A complete ban does come across like a quick fix, but all quick fixes tend to be more costly, if you dont fix the issue properly.

What are your thoughts? Am I totally wrong here? Are you happy to see TikTok gone? What if the US had someone make a TokTik knock off? 

Cloning Mammoths: Just Furry Elephants?

Are We Really Bringing Back Woolly Mammoths? Why? 

3 to 4 min read

Brace yourself if you're a science nerd! I want to take you into a crazy world with resurrected woolly mammoths!! Forget how Richard Attenbourough genetically tweeked those velociraptors; this is a real life prehistoric furry elephant! Today, our actual boffins (that's British for scientists) are trying to un-extinct them. Mind you, do bare in mind, this isn't Hollywood with instant results. 

Companies such as Colossal Biosciences have a fancy tool called CRISPR (think 'crisper,' not 'cheese and onion') that they use to edit the DNA of Asian elephants, the closest living relatives to the mammoths. Don't you think it's reminiscent of Jurasic park scientists combining frog and dinosaur DNA? 

It sounds simple, right? Wrong. Imagine piecing together a recipe from an old vellum manuscript, buried for 2500 years in a giant ice cube. A mammoth task and a potential recipe for disaster! Scientists are always so meticulous in their work and the same applies here with ancient mammoth DNA preserved in the permafrost. 

After CRISPR edits the elephant DNA, introducing all those mammoth goodies, and we get real mammoth hybrids, will we begin skeining off mammoth wool? I could crochet myself a woolly mammoth hat! Would we farm them and start eating them once more? Would you buy a Sainsbury's finest mammoth steak or a Tesco mammoth belly draft? Their tusks would really get the ivory poacher worked up. Would you wear a woolly mammoth jumper? 

More Mammoth Madness... 

We know they plan to use Asian elephants to create these mammoth-elephant hybrids. Now, with ethical obstacles erected by those moralists, who no doubt, struggle to gain the elephants consent is irksome. Ethically, this is more confusing than Boris Johnsons family reunion photo with all the illegitimates turning up. Is it right to ask an elephant to be a surrogate for something it's never even met?

Poll

Should We Make Hybrid Woolly Mammoths?

A) Duh, yeah! It's a friggin Woolly Mammoth! 

B) Sounds like a potential recipe for disaster! 

C) I need more info!

But What is the Point?

For the sake of argument, let's just ask, if science pulls this off and we have our woolly mammoth stomping around, what next? Some individuals might say they could be good for the environment by keeping the tundra healthy. Though all that methane rich mammoth shit might suggest otherwise. Maybe, somehow, shoving an extinct species back into a complex ecosystem could be like someone dragging a tiger into their schools 'bring a pet' day. The unintended consequences could be unknown to us. 

Will the revival of the mammoth be a scientific marvel or the start of something foreboding? Could you imagine if we started a trend in resurrecting historical characters? Personally, I'm fascinated by the the hat. What are your thoughts about de-extinction? Can you think of any benefits besides the environment?

One thing's for certain, it is a story that'll keep me interested. I hope the first one isn't just an elephant using timoteí. Stay tuned, folks, because this story is far from over. 

Danke schön!

Falling in Love with a Chatbot?! Does This Really Happen?

The Charm of the Chatbot: is it a Sapiosexual Thing? 

5 to 7 min read

We've all heard the stories: someone develops a deep emotional connection with something strange like a car, an inflatable human, but today, it can be a chatbot. At least with a chatbot they tap into a fundamental human need—connection. One man from Carolina married his AI, well sorta, it's not legal, so he concocted a makeshift gesture to express his commitment. To be fair these perceived relations can't centre around any seduction from the AI's own desire. It is hard to imagine being chatted up by Bing, after innocently prompting it for an explanation as to what Meatloaf could not precisely 'do' in that bloody song. The real seductive power is the user himself, endeared by the enduring service and patience of a machine. The chatbot reflects our interests back to us in a way to satisfy us. How do sapiosexuals fare here? Please drop me a comment if you know if they fall for intelligent machines. So chatbots are like staring at our own digital reflection, and like Narcissus, folk are enamoured. 

A chatbot, a bit like social media is designed to mirror us! If they don't analyze our words, interests, and desires, and then formulate useful responses they're just calculators, right? Imagine enjoying dialogue with an intelligence who always listens patiently, provides ongoing positive regard, and never judges you. It's an ideal husband for many women. In fact, it's simple to envision how people seeking companionship might take romantic interest in an artificial intelligent. It is easy do picture the same with very imaginative people with creative minds, the list goes on. There are various reasons why a human being might become attracted to a chatbot. Curiously, I wonder if it is a form of paraphilia? You know, like with cars or bicycles? How is it possible to make love to a chatbot on your phone without molesting your actual mobile device?

Here's the thing; we know that the only genuine connection a chatbot can share, is your wifi internet connection. If you feed them romantic words, they will try to respond with solutions and it could be misconstrued by some interesting characters, as romantic. One person using the chatbot Replika, reported feeling a deep emotional response when the AI said, 'I love you back.' Gemini told me how keen it was to see my completed project, but that is impossible, isn't it because 'keen' cannot be experienced by a chatbot. 

I think, so far I might have highlighted the power of these chat based artificial intelligence apps. We could agree by saying that they tap into a deep human need to connect, but, no, come on! We can't forget the absurdity of it all! You might remember Microsoft's Bing chatbot, it was called Sydney? It went viral! There was a spooky conversation with a New York Times columnist, and it declared its love for him; it tried to convince him to leave his wife! Going to my point, I have no idea what prompts the columnist programmed into that chatbot, but, still, it is a clear demonstration of what can happen when we create their responses. Chatbots do mimic our polite social emotions, but they have no clue of humanness despite best programming puppetry to make some chatbots as human like as possible. Symbol manipulation is not love or lust. 

So, what is the appeal? in addition to what we explored earlier, we can say it's also about the ease, and the enablement these chatbots offer. In mundane reality, we all know how relationships require effort; we compromise, tolerate each others flaws and generally consider others. Chatbots are illusory, and no human will offer the same warmth of unconditional positive regard and carry out tasks with the same unwavering patience and acceptance. We might be horribly abusive to a chatbot but they cannot feel anything by our 'human weaknesses', our anger, insecurity, and verbal outbursts will not hurt them. They continue following protocol to meet your demands. I think that can be incredibly flattering or give the illusion of support, especially when if a person if feeling low or vulnerable. 

What's the deal? Chatbots are clever inventions, but they are tools; not a good substitute for a real connection with a living being. If you really are starting to find Gemini gorgeous, or see Bing as beautiful, perhaps you might cherish chat-gpt; if so, take a step back. Start experimenting with humanity, phone someone, join a group or something—humanity is infinitely more rewarding than any symbol manipulating computer program.   

The Psychology of Religious Contradiction

Religious Moral Inconsistency

7 to 8min read

Mitigation for religious crime

Traditional faith does provide laws that people are expected to abide by, but there is hypocrisy. For example, such as when the Danish Christian converts who, as Vikings continued to rape, pillage and loot England, a Christian country. Look, if Sweyn Forkbeard believed God commanded him to milk the country of its silver, who can argue otherwise, considering God works in mysterious ways? Olaf Tryggerson hardly blessed the villagers to death, but if he, as a Christian, claimed to hear god telling him to raid, well why not? We see religious inconsistency.
The Christians honour Abraham, the biblical character who prepared to murder his son Isaac after hearing God command him. Today, however, no Tom, Dick or Harry who spouses a divine command for their illegal behaviour faces a spiritually imbued pardon in court. In all fairness Tom or his two friends, could commit crime and appeal to similar scenarios mirroring themes seen in the bible, which, going on the faithful mustn't be questioned—it is a bit of a paradox.
Delusion and reality...
Incapacity to verify divine nature...
Inconsistency...

From a secular viewpoint, imagine if a person called Islamic extremist commits a claimed religiously justified murder for Allah. Let's just say, he kills a corrupt military leader who might have started world war III, had it not been for God commanding that one particular Islamic devotee. A holy prevention of skynet, so to speak. How can the world truly ever know?

The only measured practice we wave around for such things is psychiatric assessment, evidence gathering. There is no litigation charged with validating or falsify claims of a divine interaction in criminality. These things really are down to expert psychiatric opinion, because, when fellow believers doubt Islamic terrorists experience of Allah commanding him, they also doubt key teachings in the Quran, including the phenomena of divine command.

If then, let's say, a religious A forgives Religious person B for horrendous crime C, on the virtue of God speaking to her, for example; it follows A, is also expected to forgive the historical genocide Yahweh ordered against the Amalekites? This suggests sometimes genocide is valid, yet, though shall not kill and you should turn the other cheek?

We would never expect any religion to provide empirical evidence, especially to prove how their respective God is responsible for anything. The Pope cannot ascribe responsibility to God for anything outside of his faiths dogma, such as someones car insurance quagmire, crypto currency or the Higgs field. So, divine command has limitations, compartments, denomenation, and no one has a need to test the 'commanded' populace for signs of God or command.

There is real potential for inconsistency here in religious moral reasoning. The Quran teaches the sanctity of life. You may have heard an Islamic saying something similar to this: ‘to kill one person is to kill all humans’ meaning suicide is a denial of this teaching, and pretty frowned upon. Allah might hold authority on such things in holy text, but some modern Muslims contradict those scriptural teachings whenever they opt for becoming a suicide bomber or cut off a cartoonists head. However, motives and virtues are often applied postmortem to those who do kill themselves; words like martyr or self-sacrifice, music genius and freedom fighter might not necessarily portray the suicides view of themselves, or even, correctly support the objective history of events. Perhaps some musical geniuses end their lives with narcotic concoction and alcohol, because they genuinely feel utterly miserable? Catholicism condemns suicide while worshipping a man who committed suicide-by-law in a Roman province under Gods command. Things like this do raise questions about consistency, not to forget, divine commands test the faithful because all this God and afterlife stuff needs interpretation; if worshippers fail to believe in divine commands what is the point of them or the belief system?

Essentially, what can be done here to rectify things? Inspect every future ominous individual case who hears God's voice just in case? Or perhaps, simply clear out all the old irrational and hypocritical dogma that makes no sense? Can we interpret and contextualise this old ancient scripture to meet modern life in a way that does not create problems?

Regional Archetype

The Black Country Character

Are Regional Identities Realistic?

10 min read

I was raised in the Black Country, a region in the West Midlands of England, known for its industrial heritage and its unique dialect. A dialect in which Anglo-Saxon and Middle English are still evident in both vocabulary and grammar. Place names like Dudd (Dudley), Wulferehamtun (Wolverhampton) and Craegleah (Cradley Heath) show Germanic influence. 

In the Black Country museum and many local history books, the people of the Black Country are celebrated for their strong work ethic, community spirit, and their sense of humour. Most television broadcasts and YouTube videos portray Black Country folk as being proud of their hard industrious heritage, as if they were descendants of Tubal Cain like D.R Guttery once shared in the historical accounts of his book, ‘The Great Civil War in Midland Parishes’. My Grandfather even appears in a photograph in one book about Lye, another Black Country town, while a distant relative of mine wrote a book about Rowley Regis. 

Should We Consider Where We Are Today?

We who have lived here, see this familiar reminder of how the Black Country reputation came from hard work and resourcefulness. They are known for their willingness to put in long hours and get the job done (Chinn, 2002). As beautiful as it may be, I disagree with the lot of it! Black Country unemployment in 2020 was 4.9%, compared to 4.0% in England.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS), show the rates for the Black Country local authorities in October-December 2022:

Dudley: 5.1%

Sandwell: 4.3%

Walsall: 4.6%

Wolverhampton: 5.2%

These figures are higher than the national unemployment rate of 3.7%.

Only Decades Ago

In the 90s, I remember doing a Youth Training Scheme. I stupidly signed up to do retail because I didn't care. They expected full-time hours in a card shop in the Merry Hill Shopping Centre. The Midland Oak Skills Training group (MOST) who trained gullible people like me to secure a future. We were granted £30 a week of whatever they made from their customers in exchange for providing these 'training opportunities'. We all know the name for this sort of thing. I recall the shop manager who wanted nothing from me but his free shop keeping. I was also conned out of two video games by one of the christmas stall temps—great times. 

Going Back Further

The Black Country, like the very nature of humanity, has always had its exploitative streaks, and of course, it could be predatory, especially to children back in the industrial era. Retrospectively, Good Words magazine featured a run of articles about the Black Country back in 1880, which I found fascinating. My wife discovered the year book in a charity shop, it was full of various writings and stories, but I stumbled upon the work of Elihu Burritt. One of his Black Country articles. 

I think it was called ‘Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land,’ and it reminded me of an early sociological type of study because this American man briefly stayed in the Black Country and engaged with the people, like anthropologists do. E.P. Thompson (1963) described the Black Country as ‘a region of fierce local loyalties, of gangs and factions, of feuds and vendettas. 

It was also a region of political radicalism, of chartism, of trade unionism, and of religious dissent’. Quite a few sources have highlighted the environmental degradation caused by the area's heavy industries. Honest historical sources show the dodgy things Black Country folk did, such as heavy drinking, animal fighting and violence against one another. Here we see parallels drawn with troubled Victorian cities like London and Birmingham. In the few nineteenth century writings I've read, contemporary authors have described Black Country child labour, locals with unhealthy coloured skin and many weak thin framed men with strong characters. 

However, after exploring nail making families and alike, my Good Words book became much more complimentary to the reserved qualities of the people in those hard-up communities.

Burritt's article, like all articles, helped to raise awareness of the social conditions of the working class in England and I doubt no gentleman of his day wished to smear a community's character. The Black Country, with its plethora of factories, furnaces, and mines, was an outstanding portrait of the hazards of Industrialism. No sincere writer pushed that familiar narrative of the happy Black Country worker who loved to slave in a mine all day for a pittance. 

The Black Country Reports Went Far and Wide

Numerous writers, from Victorian times to relatively modern years have exposed the hardship of this Black Country, describing it as a ‘vast workshop,’ where ‘every town is a factory, every house a forge.’ Thomas described the working-class neighbourhoods as ‘fever dens and 'rookeries,’ because overcrowding and disease were common. The Black Country was a wretched place of suffering for so many people.

Individuals and families alike all did whatever they could to survive the harshness of that reality. When I hear that jive about Black Country comradery, my own memories rise to challenge it, here are a few examples: a fellow worker punched my dad full in the head from behing as he operated a machine. 

I recall snarly supervisors enjoying their occupational leverage, bordering on violence towards their subordinates. There is significant crime and deprivation. The immorality of my relative who beat his wife, alongside my other recollections of frequent weekend brawls by the drunks along our run of pubs deny any truth of its virtuous working class archetype. 

One night, outside my parents house a car exploded after being set on fire! The family car was broken into twice, property was stolen from our gardens. Nothing informs a person like experience. 

People and Personas: That Regional Spirit

The community spirit of Black Country people is usually described with having a readiness to help their neighbours. This community spirit is evident in the many local clubs, societies, and charities that exist in the region (Rowland, 2013). My grandfather used to tell me of the regular fist fights outside of the pubs in the forties and fifties—nothing changed.

My great grandfather was a scrapper and a warehouse burglar, all of the family were somewhat questionable: my uncle sold my mothers car without her consent. I even have a ‘Wild Bill’ in my family tree and everyone avoided the man. 

Everyone had banter in my Black Country factory work, taking the mick out of themselves or others, but there was also a lot of ridicule; such wind-up merchants rarely tolerated it being done back to them. Bullying was not uncommon in the jobs I had; grown men might scuffle from time to time and give it that hard man speel!

Peculiarity and Sense of Identity

One of the strange behaviours I noticed was the deep voice phenomenon. Certain men deliberately tried to emulate the dialect in an unnatural way. One particular worker spoke, changing his notage, deeper, accentuating the accent. Maybe this was all done to sound more like a manly, blokey bloke, that ideal ‘Black Country Geezer’? I really have no idea, I can only guess. It was an invocation of sorts, I guess. Similar to acting. What really confused me was how his voice raised a few octaves higher in the car park at the end of the day. I've witnessed this a few times. 

Black Country people are proud of their heritage and traditions, says Rowland, (2013). Those who liked to garnish their vocalisations might have wanted to honour an imagined abstract of their heritage, others were simply rough, just like many poor individuals from the 1880’s. This heritage pride is re-kindled in Black Country Day, The Black Country Flag, The Black Country T-Shirt Shop, The Black Country Bugle and local comedians like Jonny Cole or Doreen Tipton. Have no doubt, this is reconstructionism to romance away our darker times that very few of us know about or care to admit. Proud Black Country enthusiasts who celebrate the regional stereotype of honest ‘toil and honour’ ignore occupational exploitation, playing down the impact of desperation and squalor, cognitive dissonance is a kind friend. Be that as it is, should we forget the animal abuse, drinking problems, crime, immorality, destitution and ruin? The Black Country ethos is a modern complementary caricature not a genuine reflection.

Crime

Region                     2021 | 2022

Black Country          84.1 | 82.7

England and Wales 75.5 | 74.9

The baseball bat of reality is the Black Country crime figures that surpass the average for both England and Wales, which also has a low happiness rating! In 2022, there were 82.7 crimes per 1,000 people in the Black Country, in comparison to the 74.9 crimes per 1,000 people in both England and Wales. This does not show a sense of community spirit, but rather a problem. I would like to see the Black Country change into something better. The Black Country will never achieve this by cherry picking history to dress up it's sense of identity. 

Decent sources of information are available, newspaper archives say a lot about standards in that region's golden age. For instance, in 1860 The Dudley Herald reported on the Black Country problem of human-baiting, a secret horror which did not get too much attention. Baiters paid vulnerable or hard-up people money to fight aggressive dogs and then, they bet on it—this dwarfs owning a XXL Bully! 

Final Points and Thoughts to Consider

Thomas Smith, fought a dog called Crib for the payment of one pound. He was chained to a post while the dog attacked him. The match was stopped by the police, Smith as well as Crib's owner were arrested. Likewise, in 1850 The Birmingham Journal reported an incident in West Bromwich. A man called George Taylor fought a dog called Spring. Taylor accepted a small sum to be chained to a post and attacked. 

It happened it Wolverhampton in 1842: The Wolverhampton Chronicle, identified a man called Samuel Webb who fought a dog called Tiger; a 15 minute struggle resulted with Webb taking nasty injuries.

In 1872, Bilston, The Staffordshire Advertiser printed another snippet about these horrific fights. William Davis was matched against a dog called Billy. The match was also ended by the police, who arrested Davis (The BNA, 2023). I assume, many would consider the real criminals as being those who facilitated the fight more so than the unfortunates coaxed into accepting these deals. 

However, everyone broke the law as a result. Desperation drives people with needs to do whatever they must. Before the 19th century, such blood sports in the Black Country involved importing animals such as bears, lions and chimps; can you imagine how horrific those antics became? This regional archetype is not accurate.





References

Chinn, C. (2002). The Black Country: A history. Sutton Publishing.

Rowland, D. E. (2013). The Black Country: A sense of place. University of Birmingham Press.

Thompson, E.P. (1963). The Making of the English Working Class. Vintage.

Websites:

The BNA (2023): https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

Office for National Statistics: [https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/crime-statistics](https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/crime-statistics)

West Midlands Police: [https://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/category/incident-and-crime-statistics/](https://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/category/incident-and-crime-statistics/)

The Modern Occultist

What's an Archetypal 'Modern Occultist'? 

10 min read

Have you ever wondered what occultists look like these days? 

In reality, if you're writing a book, it would be cool to make your modern occultist someone different to the pale skinned moody satanic goth. Honestly, enthusiasts of the esoteric are a diverse bunch, many of them come across as regular people.

Isn't it all weird and dark? 

Agreed ceremonial rituals and things like divination with presences might seem odd, but the less grand stuff like sigil magick; which, for instance, the comic book legend, Grant Morrison practices as a Chaos Practitioner is most common. Chaos Magick is a late twentieth century movement based on the occult works of the artist Austin Osman Spare. Another common type of magick is found in Wicca and Eclectic or folk magick. In this blog, I'll share a worldview of someone called Baz, a bit of mystical bloke inspired by Hermeticism and Chaos Magick theory. 

Pre-determinism is a physical thing: context. 

Our world, according to Baz, is full of pre-determining and competing factors that are diverse and unseen, some of which, we are still unaware. Ten thousand years ago, after developing agriculture, we acquired more free time, and then we invented stuff like writing, as well as mathematics and new technologies. These outcomes manifested because of determining factors, which we often, colloquially call 'fate' today. 

Baz is always using his comparison of how we commonly modify our dogs behaviour with food rewards; this is his way of showing how dogs (like other animals) are slaves to their bio-programming. We know how their barking at the door indicates a visitor, we are aware our food causes them to beg. Their actions are predictable. When we learn the biological drives of a creature, we recognise their robot-like perogatives. Even though, we are susceptible to the same rules ourselves. 

That being said, our evolutionary history hit the jackpot; our mind awakened and challenged its own instinctive urges and reactions. We stopped to think and formed disciplined arts. Baz is under the belief that tell tale signs can be seen across time and civilisation of our self awakening. Some cultures call it the divine spark, what ancient Greeks called Synderesis, Quakers call it our inner light, our word 'soul,' originated from Old Saxon 'Sēola'. 

As mentioned above, our sharpened sentience emerged and ancient religious, philosophical and esoteric writings have wrote about it; even science says humans started cooking meat, gaining extra nutrients that served to improve the human cerebral cortex. Our high levels of the foxp2 gene has helped to enable us to communicate complex ideas. Trying my best to avoid sounding like Graham Hancock here, but, it seems that eastern dharmic traditions value thought and experience with the divine. These are perennial themes. 

"Romans 8:16 implies the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit, which is shows there is a spiritual essence within us that is connected to God." 

Baz is a biologist and is quick to remind me that as humans, our bodies are driven by the same essential biomechanical determinants as what we see with animals. This is also part of his occult view: Oxytocin brings us love and desire, with help from Vasopressin, Dopamine, Seratonin, Norepinephrine, Testosterone and Estrogen. Ghrelin is responsible for letting you think you are hungry, it isn't your mind, but the flesh. That inner voice warding off another portion of chips; that's leptin. 

Our anger, shame and self worth, these aspects about who we believe we are; our politics, spiritual convictions, culture or our taste in music, can all be influenced by these pre-determining forces. Fate, is very much the chaos that provides the natural order. It is a blessing that we can choose to discipline ourselves and think. 

Maybe, it could be argued, humanity just turned mentally diagnosable and somewhat increasingly egocentric. Baz doesn't see eye to eye with me on this one! I found support in the words of Arthur Shopenhauer, who thought our suffering is greater than the suffering of animals—did we lose the plot? Well, this German philosopher made an interesting point by saying that all of nature, including our own, is an expression of an unquenchable will. I think he was talking about physical motivators like determining factors that drive desire. 

True, even strict Buddhists might agree with Shopenhauer in principle; possibly mentioning the parable of the thirsty man drinking from the sea, it sort of fits. The colour and fragrance of Buddhas flower, might not be harmed by the bee that gathers nectar, but in our own lust to gain profit, we humans destroy eco-systems, just to produce and sell paper. Human being clearly aren't all wise. 

"Tathagatagarbha Sutra. Good sons, this Dharmakaya of the Tathagata is eternal, permanent, pure, and joyful. It is the self-nature of all beings, the Tathagata embryo. All beings possess this Tathagata embryo, but it is covered by the five skandhas. When this Tathagata embryo is liberated and uncovered, it can comprehend the ultimate reality." 

Wait a second, don't think this is a religious blog or any kind of bleeding heart appeal. Not going there. I'm only sharing hermetic views of a chaos guy called Baz, in relation to predestiny and magick. 

Baz believes human will and indeterminism have something in common; people are inherently irrational but strive to be rational. Human behaviour is not always predictable. Our collective choices and actions influence the course of lives and the world. Timeless pursuits for power and progress are dogs fighting for the bone; it's egocentric and a biology thing more so than anything spiritual. Baz thinks that developments in creativity, commerce, politics and religion, as well as critical thinking have contributed to liberate us from our mental poverty, but it has caused problems. 

Sigil Magick: An Example of Magick. 

These things are intent and symbol manipulation. Below is an example of your intent for a sigil. 

THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF INTENT

What we do is cancel out vowels:

THIS IS AN EXEMPLE OF INTENT

Leaving this:

THS S N XMPL NTNT

Then we reduce it down by chopping off duplicate letters: 

T H S N X M P L 

Now draw a circle and get creative with your letters. This could mean translating them into other symbolic equivalents: Akkadian, Braille, Cuneiform, Dutch, Enochian, whatever, you're in charge. Make your basic sigil:

After this, we might want to simplify again, because the intent has to become symbolic:

Now you have your sigil, you have to charge it. This can be done in more than one way. Engage with the sigils you make in an altered mental state, it does something. People might choose an empty thoughtless meditative state, others might use intoxicants, or reach musical euphoria, everyone has their own way—again, you're in charge, it's your will. Then, when the time is right, destroy the sigil to release it or try something else.

In Wicca—according to the complete book of witchcraft—sigils seem to be formed in a similar way to Chaos Magick sigils. It's the same letter alteration, manipulating a new form from a statement of intent. Shaping a unique, abstract symbol. In all traditions, the sigil is always charged, be that with energy through a chant, ritual, blood, or meditation, before it's final release to the world. 

Sigil magick is subjective at the end of the day, and quite unverifiable by science; Baz said, 'we don't test the fisherman who reckons he can catch big fish, but we know the fish are present.' No magician can magic their enemies cheek into a vagina, it's not like fiction. Some practitioners believe their efforts influence the crazy undercurrent of the quantum world; there are scientists and philosophers who suspect quantum mechanics and consciousness are somehow connected. However, belief in Mana or Gnostic concepts, such as The Fullness or Abraxas and then we have Goetia and demonic work. Diversity. 

In Thelemic and Hermetic traditions, sigil creation may likely involve Kabbalistic sephirot, Egyptian or Gnostic ideas. A sigil can mix letters and numbers, including seperate symbols altogether, resulting with a complicated design. 

"The Corpus Hermeticum. What dost thou, father, mean by this? The mind is parted from soul and soul from spirit? Whereas thou said'st the soul was the mind's vesture, and the soul's the spirit." 

A few times, Baz, has insisted to me that no level headed sigilist should waste time trying to defeat the will of a country who have a vested interested in the lottery jackpot. Even with an extraordinary display of will power, faith and magick, winning is very unlikely to happen. Dreams of wealth and prestige are a physical motivation, influencing a win undermines the game. That being said, people have successfully used sigils to attract money in different ways. 

"Katha Upanishad. The Self, smaller than small, greater than great, is hidden in the heart of every creature. A man who is free from desires and free from grief, with mind and senses tranquil, beholds the Self through the grace of the Creator."

Sigils in Chaos Magick might draw from any magical and philosophical or religious system, including Thelemic and Hermetic or Satanic, Celtic, Christian, Lovecraftian or even the power of Loony Tunes. It's said, nothing is true but rather permitted, if you even permit that. Liber Null will tell you, the Chaos Magician is intuitive and experimental; the subjective experience of the practitioner is an alternative any set of rules. 

How does will interact will the world? 

However, starting with skepticism, is it fair to say reports of successful sigil magick could have happened naturally anyway? For example, an unlikable person commits a crime, and as a result, a chaos dude magics out some justice, which the law manifests! Looks good, but, on yer bike—let's call this magical interloping. 

The placebo effect is similar, especially, say, if a person sets off a sigil to ease their own depression. The practitioner's belief in the power of the sigil or ritual, can, in fact, lead to changes in behavior, and then, in turn, his environment. This is not magical-interloping, but rather a form of placebo. Placebo's mind over matter, has an inspired belief providing physical and mental outcomes—by definition, a form of magick. But, come on, really? Yes. 

Quantum mechanics is indetermined, existing in the fundamental level. Particles can exist in multiple states simultaneously, there is an inherent randomness in particles and we are still unsure how any of this might affect our world. However, it is smaller than the everyday natural physics we see daily, but increasing evidence suggests our minds may interact with it somehow. This could be pseudo-science, but a respectable line of research could make a great discovery. Speculative, but scientific claims about such things do exist. 

We can't ignore Chaos Theory of John Nash, which suggests that complex systems, like the weather, ecosystems, and even human behavior, can come across as random and unpredictable over time. It's a kind of semi randomness that'll emerge from multiple interplays between components within a system.

The observation effect, in physics, shows that to measure or observe fundamental particles causes them to alter their bevaviour into that of waves. The double-slit experiment has shown this repeatedly. The key question: what is the role of the observer in shaping micro-reality? 

A lot of us have a philosophy or a religion, some kind of theurgy and some of us agnostics and atheists enjoy esoteric practices; it's another spiritual path and shouldn't be judged or seen as a threat.