Overload
Befuddling
Category: Actions
Type
Voluntary
Introduction and description

Befuddling is a method which overloads the reasoning system. Interestingly, it is overloaded so much the overall effect is that the reason system is actually suppressed by this technique, because it is presented with so much input of a confusing nature that it gives up.
I originally had befuddling in the 'suppression' section because of this, but the objective is overload, so I have moved the activity here, where it more logically fits.
To befuddle means to confuse or perplex, to confuse the function of Reason, to do something which makes it difficult for someone to think clearly. So it is a very odd combination – the input itself is made so confusing that the system of Reason doesn’t even bother to try to reason – and this is the key.
The key is to not try to reason but let the confusion wash over you and completely befuddle you. It also of course defeats the Learning system too, because the Learning system says – ‘I can’t be bothered with this nonsense’. And this is why Lewis Carroll was so very fond of nonsense – aaah what a wise man he was!
Background

I am going to provide a whole load of suggestions for how to befuddle and you will see that the technique has an almost worldwide usage in various religions and practises.
Within the Hindu system for example, the alternative name for this group of techniques is samadhi pada yoga. There is a branch of Yoga called Raja Yoga and Samadhi pada is one of the practises within this yoga discipline.
Raja Yoga is the branch geared towards mind exercises - and is in contrast to Hatha Yoga which is more geared towards the use of physical exercises.
Exactly the same techniques are present and were used in Sufi practices, Christian mysticism, Platonic and Neoplatonic practises, by Pythagoras and his disciples, in Zoroastrian practises, in Chinese thought, Buddhism, Shintoism and so on.
There is not a single mystic branch of a religion that does not use this approach. The observations will show this.
Method

The following have all been used with some success, I have provided observations to show what happened in each case.
Within this list are methods which rely on there being no meaning at all to the input you are using. For example, the repeating of meaningless koans, poems or an attempt to solve riddles that have no solution. Over and over and over again!
By studying the silly, incomprehensible and linguistically meaningless, the mind is gradually stilled, lulled into a state where the words, because they are meaningless, become meaningless and the mind is opened.
In all cases you can see that the methods are different from those that use repetition of words, for example chanting. Chanting stills by repetition, boredom!, riddles koans and nonsense work via confusion. This is the key – confusion.
I suspect that at the grammar school I went to, listening to my teachers had much the same effect on me, I was certainly with the fairies most of the time, anything to get away from the illogical rubbish that was being dolled out. Listening to politicians has the same effect too.
You have no need for repetition with koans, riddles or any of these sorts of methods, the more the better, the faster the better. If you have a book of them, you read them one after another.
- Puzzles, ciphers and encodings
- Playing chequers with yourself
- Playing certain computer games
- Extended use of computer packages – I have provided an example where the use of one computer package for a very extended period had the same effect as game playing. It works in the same way, it is absorbing and can be confusing
- Looking at confusing pictures
- Haiku
- Zen poems and koans
- Reading nonsense –here the master was Lewis Carroll but Aleister Crowley comes in a close second. Some of Aleister Crowley’s books are wonderful examples
- ‘Solving’ riddles with no answer
- Reading meaningless poems
- Sutra reading
- Nursery rhymes - There are many nursery rhymes that are not meant to be used in this way and contain some quite profound spiritual truths, however, there are a few that can be used – particularly the more repetitive ‘nonsense’ ones
- Talking or reading jibberish
- Mirror gazing
- Hall of mirrors
- Looking at shiny objects
- Looking at patterns and spirals
- Scrying
These are all techniques that can be used by a person on their own, but there are techniques that can be used by another person – preferably a trained hypnotherapist, psychotherapist or other qualified honest person, which are intended to confuse. They use the techniques on you, you just sit back and get more and more befuddled by what is going on.
- Confusion by breaking patterns
- Confusion by Contradictory acts
- Word repetition with small irregularities
- Confuse by using oddly constructed sentences
- Confusion created by questioning the person's sense of what is reality
The befuddling techniques – and there are a lot of them, are notoriously difficult to achieve, requiring months of practise without help – and ultimately how do you know you are doing the right thing?
One way is to use biofeedback – the use of instruments to monitor the brain waves and thus to see whether you are reaching the right ‘state’. If you look at the list of befuddling techniques, you should be able to see that practically all of them might benefit from being used with a biofeedback instrument of some sort. The only problem with some of them is the practicality of having a machine monitor you when doing some of the techniques.
The machine I suggest may be of most use as a training aid is the EEG. An electroencephalograph (EEG) measures the electrical activation of the brain from scalp sites located over the human cortex.
How it works
It knocks out the function of Reason and by doing so helps still the Will, as the Will only has the emotional input left to work on. If this technique is combined with Sensory deprivation there is very little for it to work on, so the results can be more dramatic.
See also the more generic description of How spiritual experience works.
Advantages
- It works
- It can cost you nothing
- You can do this by yourself, so even if you lose your reason there are no dangers involved from ‘outside sources’
Disadvantages
Some of the methods can take months and months to work. You have to practise.Related observations
Healing observations
- Cannabis - counteracting the pain of Hawaian Baby Woodrose poisoning 015578
- Charles Wilkes - Native American Indians - Healing ceremony 001182
- Gurdjieff - J G Bennett is healed 010720
- Hypnotism - G. C. Barnard – Relieving pain and anesthesia 026734
- Korean mystic shamanism – Methods – Chanting, mantra and prayer 027157
- Korean mystic shamanism – Methods – Music, ritual, chanting and dance as healing methods 026991
- Mudang spiritual experiences – The healing of Dr Chongho Kim by Sutra chanters 027198
- Stockhausen - Text zur Musik - The benefits of music therapy 003599
Hallucination
- Cannabis - counteracting the pain of Hawaian Baby Woodrose poisoning 015578
- Chrysostom John - Murders a princess 000532
- David Thompson playing chequers with himself 001238
- Excel user gets hallucination 001241
- Goes, Hugo van der - Death of the Virgin 022282
- Luther, Martin – A hallucination of Jesus on the wall 026029
- Playing computer games 001239
- Project MKUltra 023388
- Scotland, Harris - The Testimonies of Ann Macneil & Angus Macleod 013981
- Spider dreams 'so frequent that I'm not really even afraid anymore' 014435
Wisdom, Inspiration, Divine love & Bliss
- Alice in Wonderland - Ch 07 - 1 A Mad Tea Party 001567
- Concept - Korean mystic shamanism – Psychopomp 027152
- Crowley, Aleister - Book of Lies - The Glow-worm 012911
- Duchamp, Marcel - Rotorreliefs 1935 016107
- Eno, Brian - The Shutov Assembly - Full album 021936
- Escher - Day and night 004525
- Escher - Ascending Descending 007585
- Escher - birds 007571
- Escher - Bond of Union 007573
- Escher - Circle limit 007574
- Escher - crystal ball 007266
- Escher - Eye in colour 007578
- Escher - Magic mirror 007579
- Escher - Metarmophoses II 007577
- Escher - Pegasus 007570
- Escher - red ants 007575
- Escher - Ripples 007580
- Escher - salamanders 007569
- Escher - spirals 007576
- Escher - Swan infinity 007572
- Escher - The Four Elements 007581
- Escher - The Three Worlds 007583
- Escher - thread and cord 007582
- Escher - whirlpools 007584
- Fleetwood Mac - Tusk 021535
- George Harrison - Living In The Material World 2 015382
- Green, Lennart - Close up card magic TED 014233
- Gurdjieff - And De Hartmann - Songs of Sayyids and Dervishes 012920
- Gurdjieff - Beelzebub's tales to his grandson - Schools and Caesarian section 012925
- Gurdjieff - Beelzebub's tales to his grandson - The Brotherhood 012923
- Gurdjieff - Beelzebub's tales to his grandson - Three brains 012921
- Gurdjieff - De Hartmann Piano Music 012922
- Jainism - Namōkāra mantra 017076
- Joshu - from 101 Zen stones 016348
- Master Naong - Song of the Pure Land 027075
- Panin, Ivan 004950
- Rumi - Quote - Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment 001236
- Saint Thomas Aquinas - On the dangers of spiritual experience 006375
- Stockhausen - On 'sounds' 1972 012156
- Stockhausen - "Helicopter String Quartet" 012153
- Stockhausen - Gesang der Junglinge 003631
- Stockhausen - Kontakte 012154
- Stockhausen - Mantra 1 003629
- Stockhausen - Momente 003630
- Stockhausen - On Human evolution 1972 012155
- Stockhausen - Text zur Musik - Music and inspiration 003598
- Symbolism - Korean mystic shamanism - Path or road 027141
- The Means of achieving spiritual experience - Shaivism – 06 Enacting ritual and ceremony 022496
- Turner, Tina - Private Dancer 023856
- Tyaga the Road of Fire - 10 004304
Out of time
- A young boy - Questioning and doubting one’s existence 023115
- Andrew Lang - Malagasy far seeing 001250
- Cannabis - counteracting the pain of Hawaian Baby Woodrose poisoning 015578
- Cognitive experiments 001263
- Fairfax, John – Rowing Alone Across the Atlantic – The ‘UFOs’ and an OBE 023801
- Hill, Damon – Watching the Wheels – Out of body and possessed by the spirit of Ayrton Senna. ‘ It gave me an insight into a dimension I never knew existed ‘ 023662
- Mircea Eliade - On caves and labyrinths 006586
- Mirror gazing 001265
- Misc. source - The Lines of Nazca and Pampas de Jumana 006596
- Nursery rhymes and out of body 001244
- Out of body from computer use 001240
- Out of body watching traffic lights 004286
- Professor Arthur Ellison - Goes out of Body 010930
- Project MKUltra 023388
- The Great Egyptian complex 006621
- Tyaga the Road of Fire - 06 003965
- Using koans 001243
- Walter K Paul – OBEs from the Muller Mantra system 023143
Enlightenment
- Higher spirit help 001044
- Hypnotizing circle dance by Sufi Zikr 028145
- Ruzbihan Baqli – The Unveiling of Secrets – Seek me in the Station of Love 017024
- Tennyson, Alfred Lord – The loss of personality far from being an extinction, was revealed to me as the only and true life 027937
- Tyaga the Road of Fire - 03 003962
- Tyaga the Road of Fire - 04 003963
- Tyaga the Road of Fire - 07 003966
- Yassawi - 03 HIKMET 6 022645
In time
- Andrew Lang - Malagasy far seeing 001250
- Andrew Lang - Native American Indians - The Apache crystals 001249
- Andrew Lang - Remote viewing using crystal balls 001253
- Andrew Lang - Sick bed scene 001254
- Cannabis - counteracting the pain of Hawaian Baby Woodrose poisoning 015578
- Chrysostom John - Murders a princess 000532
- Dionysos - Villa of Mysteries Pompei - The crystal ball 001248
- Enochian magick 001183
- Enochian vision magick 001184
- Escher - Reflection in puddle 002768
- Goes, Hugo van der - Death of the Virgin 022282
- Goes, Hugo van der - The Adoration of the Magi 022283
- Green, Lennart - Close up card magic TED 014233
- Higher spirit help 001044
- Hill, Damon – Watching the Wheels – Out of body and possessed by the spirit of Ayrton Senna. ‘ It gave me an insight into a dimension I never knew existed ‘ 023662
- Korean mystic shamanism – Methods – Kuts, Koris and Rituals 026992
- Korean mystic shamanism – Methods – Music, ritual, chanting and dance as healing methods 026991
- M A Czaplicka - Siberian magic 001185
- Miss A Goodrich-Freer uses her crystal ball 006518
- Mudang spiritual experiences – The healing of Dr Chongho Kim by Sutra chanters 027198
- Nabokov, Vladimir - Pale Fire 003967
- Nastatia Filipovna and the crystal ball 001376
- Osty, Dr Eugene - Supernormal faculties in Man – Mme Jean Peyroutet explains the reasons for the broken engagement 025563
- Osty, Dr Eugene - Supernormal faculties in Man – Mme Jean Peyroutet explores the life and death of Lieutenant C 025569
- Osty, Dr Eugene - Supernormal faculties in Man – Mme Jean Peyroutet reads the life of a colonial manager 025561
- Osty, Dr Eugene - Supernormal faculties in Man – Mme Jean Peyroutet unfolds the sad life story of the woman with the auburn hair 025562
- Out of body from computer use 001240
- Project MKUltra 023388
- Quakers - Holy rollers rolling 004455
- Rayner Garner and the matchbox technique 010842
- Report by AiResearch for the Central Intelligence Agency on 'mind control' 025387
- Sacred sites and the FieldREG experiments 014232
- Shiny objects 001247
- Spider dreams 'so frequent that I'm not really even afraid anymore' 014435
- Sufi use of confusing pictures 001242
- Tennyson, Alfred Lord – The loss of personality far from being an extinction, was revealed to me as the only and true life 027937
- Tyaga the Road of Fire - 05 003964
- Youtube video - Korean Shaman (무당) - Possession by the Spirit of Changun and riding the chaktu 027028
Prophecy
- John Dee and Enochian magic 001237
- M A Czaplicka - Siberian magic 001185
- Osty, Dr Eugene - Supernormal faculties in Man – Mme Jean Peyroutet predicts a house move 025559
- Osty, Dr Eugene - Supernormal faculties in Man – Mme Jean Peyroutet prophesies the visit of a dog 025560
Environmental Influence
- Dr Auguste Stern - The technique used in the Soviet Union to induce human levitation is to enclose the prone subject within a cube of mirrors 026896
- Gibier, Dr Paul - Psychism Analysis of Things Existing - After innumerable invocations to Brahma, we saw with stupefaction that the bowl had disappeared while we were looking at and touching it 028004
- Green, Lennart - Close up card magic TED 014233
- Sacred sites and the FieldREG experiments 014232
- Youtube video - Korean Shaman (무당) - Possession by the Spirit of Changun and riding the chaktu 027028