So You Think You're Special., You sure? Options

I believe, or at least I hope, that i have a reputation here for being pretty patient in general, and being a decent fellow who rarely if ever loses his temper over stuff. I rarely have a reason - after all it's just a forum for all that it represents to me, and hopefully to others here as well; in the end how could I take anything here personally? I'd like to maintain that, and towards that end let me preface this just a bit.

I'm not angry. If anything, I'm amused, perhaps even amused at my own irritation - like when you see something that really gets under your skin, but is funny at the same time, and even funnier when you really lay into it. So, it's all in good humor, and I will continue to maintain an open 'door' policy to anyone who thinks they need help with a werewolf stalker, a thousand year old demon, an ancient evil mage from a past life, or aliens who are exacting a bloody price for the secrets they teach you while you sleep. That said...

...Stop it. Just stop it. It's as simple as that. You all know who you are. I'm tempted to pin this so you'll all see it. If you came here to find out how to best the black magician (who is a year older than you, 17) attacking you during math class, or here to learn the magic words that will give you control over the girl of your dreams, or how to enchant a sword to strike someone down without leaving a wound, or how to uncover your past life memories from when you were a grand high magus of the seventh circle of the super secret occult powers that were-are-and-will-be, press the back button, and go somewhere else. If you absolutely must post about your drama somewhere, go to occult forums. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/evil.gif)

Now, despite the fact that each and every one of you - save those that are actually clinically psychotic, in which case maybe you just don't know better - knows that you're just fantasizing and trying to get us to get involved with it, you are all none-the-less wondering, "Well how do you know? Maybe I am in an eternal conflict with a black witch/mage/sorcerer/werewolf/demon/warlock/darkelf/insert-evil-here! Maybe I am a werewolf and I'm trying to cope with the inherent conflict in my life! Maybe my best friend really can conjure fireballs and won't tell me how!"

I'll tell you how. I was you. I was a crazy teen. Like many of you, I had a broken family, I didn't get the attention I wanted, I had a hard life and wanted an escape, and so I fantasized. Like you, I got my hands on a book 'about magicK' and met a couple of other preteens who were into magicK as well, and before you knew it we were having disco parties on the astral plane and discussing the adventures we had in our past lives. I had a friend who was a werewolf, who insisted that spending the night on a full moon was too dangerous, a friend who was a vampire, who insisted that vampires being unable to endure sunlight was a myth (they were however light sensitive, which is why she wore gaudy black sunglasses everywhere she went, inside or out). And me? Well I was the scion of an ancient order of protectors who were reincarnated over and over into the same role in order to safeguard the very consciousness of humanity. No no, I couldn't possibly get into the details, our lives are very secret, and anyone could be an enemy and NOT EVEN KNOW IT. Including you, my parents, my teachers, and anyone who suggested otherwise.

Like you, my parents didn't pay enough attention, and when they did it was mostly to disapprove of my choice of interests. Like you, all I had mostly were cheap books off the 'occult section' shelves at barnes and noble. Like you my friends reinforced my fantasies by pretending to believe in them as long as i pretended to believe in theirs. Unlike you, I didn't have a forum like this. Unlike you, I didn't stumble into a group of serious, mature occultists who could slap the sense into me. Instead, I had to just grow out of it. Let me tell you something, when you don't have a handful of mature adults who can just forgive you your senseless drama and say "Look, you know your faking it, just let it go and we can move forward, and I won't judge you for it," getting over that crap can take a long time, and be a painful process. Oh I know, I know very well. It becomes painful to let it go. After all, this is who you are, according to your own design. This is literally the freedom to be who you want to be, regardless that you have overshadowed who you really are completely.

Those of you who've been here long enough know this isn't the first time I've had to rant like this. But, we get a few dozen new members every week and the Gods know, we get a regular stream of ridiculous posts in kind. So it can afford to be said again.

So, to those of you just getting here, drop it at the door. I'm going to be a lot more frank and a lot less patient about that from now on. Because I realized, when I thought about it for a while, that patience on that matter wouldn't have done me any good. If I'd had the right person come and slap me around a little, with no patience for my teenage angsty BS, who knows where I'd be now. As it is, I have seen, and felt, and been witness to, fantastic things that make my old teenage fantasies pale and withered in comparison. Because they were real, and I earned them, and they taught me something, made me more whole, rather than simply covering up the incomplete me that I was unsatisfied with. And I was impatient when I started, just like you are now, and I wanted the short path. But the short path turned out to be the long path in disguise.

To those of you who have already spread your angsty drama, yours is a more difficult bit. Now there's no guarantee that those of you that have already posted this nonsense will read this particular post - but if you do: just say it here and now - "I know that was BS, but I'm ready to let that stuff go, because I want something real." I can't speak for everyone here. But as for me, I will not hold it against you, I will not boot you off the forum and I won't let the other mods/admins boot you either - as for me, you get a clean slate. As for others, well, who knows. I'm known to be particularly patient.

There is also a chance you were redirected here from whatever BS post you made. If I don't hear from you - and I'll seek admin approval for this - I'll boot you myself. You're gonna have to learn the long and hard way. Because this is a forum for discussion, exchange, and learning, of experience, theory, belief, and interest, based on the real substance of human curiosity and need for growth. Not a place for you to find faceless people to join you in your narcissistic fantasy brigade. I'm tired of seeing trash fill up the pages of this forum, because this is a respectable place for honest inquiry.

peace

EDIT: PS I'm using Vagrants Post to add this PS...I support his assessment(s) and wish to Thank him for a nicely worded statement. Not wanting to 'mar' his post with another 'reply' I piggybacked (forgive me Vagrant). PAY ATTENTION!
-Bym, Admin

Although this thread is bit dated and I kind of forgot about it, some new thoughts came to mind reading through it. First off:

@ Valkyrie: You most certainly were never anyone I personally thought of as a fluffy new age teenager who has no business on this site. You have contributed a ton of knowledge and asked very real and legitimate questions. Plus I've always enjoyed interpreting your dreams when you post them from time to time. So I appologize if something I said gave you the wrong impression.

@ Wiggs1992: I personally have no problems with you either (you'd hear about it if I did (IMG:style_emoticons/default/angel.gif) ). Certainly it is important that people try to stay in touch with their inner child and embrace that concept of the innocent learner who is just getting his feet wet and who is most likely going to make mistakes as part of the learning process. Every occultist, whether they are members of an order or not starts off as an "initiate" or "novice". In that way we all have to learn to fly on our own or own way even if our teacher is telling us to do it another way. Its how people learn.

But for example awhile back we had a topic about willingly induced schizophrenia for occult purposes - fine thread by the way. Nothing wrong with it, some valid points were made. But being a psychologist and knowing a thing or two about schizophrenia, I felt that it was important to set the record straight so to speak. Then another member comes in saying that they actually did willingly induce schizophrenia, I pointed out that maybe they induced something else and, in short, they got butt hurt about it and acted like a little kid and threw a hissy fit over my disagreement. Another example we had even further back was some guy who posted some kind of rant and I don't even remember what it was about, it was just a waste of people's time. Then somewhere between those two threads we had a member who asked questions that made red flags go off in my mind that he was either jerking us around, or genuinely mentally unstable. I had to actually express my concern with the site's staff and ask that no one contribute to that person's games or possible delusions.

With all that said, I think I need to correct myself from my original post to this. I think I made the impression that we were going to come down on younger members who may just be misguided or misinformed. Age in and of itself is not what I was aiming at (I don't think Vagrant Dreamer was going that direction either). A 10 year old can have a mature out look on the occult.

My main concern was more about bloated egos, nonsense, spell begging, rhetorical questions that have already been asked a dozen times, one liners and fluff. Age, passion or creed has nothing to do with it. But we're not a fan site for Charmed, Buffy, Angel or any other TV show or movie and the stuff in those shows (however entertaining) does not reflect an accurate view of the occult. And bringing that fluffy stuff here as though it were real or posting rants, diatribes or asking for a spell to fly or learn telekinesis or what ever else that is just crap hurts this site's credibility. At any rate, fortunately the vast majority of members on this site are all awesome! And I'm glad that all you guys are apart of this place. The regular members here make this site truly an enriched and interesting place that I will probably continue to visit until is no longer around. Although I rarely ask questions, I think I have learned more from this site than I have actually shared.