E-PRIME AND CHAOS MAGIC ~ Or alternatively titled: OCTARINE LANGUAGE TO GO!

"The false concept of 'being' acts as a word virus, scrambling our thoughts, for nothing consists of other than what it does. I think, therefore I think that I think, nothing more!" -- Peter Carroll, PsyberMagick.

"E-Prime and Chaos Magic": an article on the Whys and Hows of using EPrime (English Prime) as a language medium for those operating in Chaos magic by Su Leybourn (Sor. Wile_e_Chaote).

1) CONSIDERING E-PRIME: In the convoluted, cascading memes of Chaos magic, you might come across the occasional mention of the term "E-Prime", or English-Prime. A quick use of ye olde arte of Googlemancy reveals that E-Prime relates to language and some manipulation of grammar where the verb "to be" gets tossed out the proverbial door. Boring! We hear you say. Why bother? You might well ask. Do you want to exploit the nature of your mind to the max? Do you want to boldly go where you have never gone before? Do you want to DO magic with a flexible, fluid mind that can warp speed, or turn to tango? Well settle back, make yourselves comfortable, and let us take you on a magical ride that just might shift your thinking into warp drive. Consider the following quote by Peter Carroll from his "PsyberMagick": "Some philosophers and psychologists bemoan the disintegration or fragmentation of the self in the contemporary world. We celebrate this development. The belief in a single self stems from religious monotheisms having only a single god. Let us throw the baby out with the bath water. If you consider yourself an 'individual', in the sense of 'indivisible', you have

not lived. If you merely consider yourself as a single being capable of playing various roles, then you have yet to play them in extremis. The selfs must allow each self a shot at its goals in life, if you wish to achieve any sense of fulfillment and remain sane." Does this message from Pete Carroll resonate with you? IF you want to explore the meta-selves potential within ... then E-Prime might just place you on the fast track. IF you have yet to explore the multiple aspects of the selves in extremis ... then E-Prime might just hold the key. Now some folk have noticed that we write in a very particular (some might say peculiar) form of English language known as E-Prime or English-Prime. In the simplest of terms, we use a form of English that excludes the verb "to be", which basically means "am, is, are, was, were, be, been" and their contractions. Bizarre, do we hear you say? Why on Earth would anyone do this? Ignoring such flash thoughts as lunacy; masochism; eccentricity; wanting to stand out from the crowd or a sadistic bent to torture folk with ripples of subliminal content ... let us first explain a little about E-Prime:

2) A POTTED HISTORY OF E-PRIME: The idea for E-Prime started back in the 1930's by Alfred Korzybski who felt that our language structures often led to muddied thinking ... shades of Star Trek's Mr Spock and Vulcan logic in the making, we suspect. However it got left to Korzybski's student, D. David Bourland, Jr. to eventually create this new form. He proposed the exclusion of the verb "to be" in an attempt to remove vague and misleading concepts from our language. Academic papers and theses would improve for getting written in E-Prime. To date, a significant number of physicists have adopted this medium for written communication, and we wait on other disciplines to get the picture. One hypothesis, known as the Sapir-Whorf-Korzybski Hypothesis, might come in handy to keep at the back of your mind. Given the premise that a change in language can alter our perception of Life, Universe et al, as powerfully as some hallucinogens, we feel that E-Prime must have more to it than meets the eye.

In magic terms, enter R. A. Wilson with articles like "Quantum Psychology" and "Towards Understanding E-Prime". NOW the field goes for warp drive. Peter Carroll writes an enigmatic magical work called PsyberMagick ... written using (you guessed it) ... E-Prime. Read these works, and then decide whether you want what they have. Enter ... stage left ... E-Prime.

3) WHY E-PRIME: Consider whether any of the following statements interests/intrigues you. 1. The use of E-Prime brings us back to what we do best i.e. observe, think, perceive, deduce and theorise. 2. Problem solving seems easier when the mind flips into E-Prime. 3. When operating in this language medium, the ability to cheat, deceive, impress, or convert someone does not happen so easily. This means that no way in hell would marketing companies want to write their slogans in this format, we muse. Imagine "Coke is it" (Coca-Cola) and "A diamond is forever" (De Beers Consolidated) re-written as "Coke seems it" or "A diamond equates to forever" and selling so well! 4. Perhaps we could even say, quietly, that E-Prime equates to an ethical stance in language usage. Here, we refer to "ethical" as "balanced", as in fluid, and able to move, manoeuvre, negotiate and change. 5. E-Prime, when used to the max, removes the stultifying little box/prison that we could call I AM i.e. the Chaoist's anathema. In space/time, the old adage, "I am my own worst enemy", produces a new shiver to the hairs on the back of the neck. 6. E-Prime seems to activate a wide-angled lens to mind. 7. We find that we can use the expression "Eureka!" more often, in all its fiery, expanding, glory. 8. Many people get caught up in the glamour of "Being" and end up seemingly encased in glass houses of their own devise, raising their arms to the sun, metaphorically speaking. We, on the other hand, who bypass

this snare, have the power to use diversity of role to its nth degree. Operating in chaos magic, we might find that useful in the achievement of results to the nth degree.

Theoretically, you can write virtually anything in E-Prime. You can talk using E-Prime. You can even think in E-Prime. These aspects can, and do, connect, in a somewhat dot-to-dot fashion, with a lot of practice and determination thrown in. Once connected, you can experience levels hitherto unimagined to your thoughts, your perceptions, and beliefs. This would seem a far cry from the old well-worn, solitary, fortress-bound, id of self. One word of warning though ... E-Prime takes you more and more into the scientific model of actual experience, rather than permitting you to wander off into New Age fluffy thinking. This would make doing research easier, and probably useless as pick-up lines at the local pub. It might just come down to exploring and using a little magical formula that looks like this: Being-OUT < -- > E-Prime < -- > Doing-IN

Interested? Want to learn more in just three easy lessons? Now if you stay focused in the next ten minutes, or so, we shall send to you, ABSOLUTELY FREE, a reading list for additional information, and all this for the amazing low cost of your current attention!

4) MASTERING E-PRIME IN 3 EASY STAGES: Contrary to what you might expect, we shall avoid getting down deep and dark into linguistics and go for the K.I.S.S. treatment (Keep It Simple Stupid). Given that adopting E-Prime only equates to a slight alteration in language, albeit with gargantuan effect, we shall start with the writing aspect, where you can see, in front of you, the emerging E-Prime form. Please note: The following exercises do NOT require you to punish yourself if you slip up. We shall leave such antiquated responses where they belong i.e. in the capable hands of the ceremonial magicians with a bias for Aleister Crowley. We anticipate that if you take up the challenge to explore E-Prime, that you shall do so to examine its potential advantages, and because you know your own determination.

4a) STAGE 1 WRITING: 1. Decide that you shall remove the following words from your vocabulary: a) be; being; been; b) am; is; isn't; are; aren't; was; wasn't; were; weren't; c) I'm; you're; we're; they're; d) he's; she's; it's ("it is"); e) ain't 2. Make a list of these words, and keep that list handy when you type or write, for reference purposes. 3. Read articles on E-Prime to gain familiarity of the basic concepts. See the Bibliography at the end of this document, for starters. R. A. Wilson suggests, when reading, to pencil in quotation marks around any use of the word "is" so that you can examine the confusion that such a word can cause. 4. Use E-Prime for all your journal and/or dream diary entries. Construct rituals and guided meditations in E-Prime. Note that an effective choice of wording for magical Intent, using E-Prime, could look like this: "We Do Now Will to " (insert your specific target/goal). 5. Likewise, try this format in e-mail and whenever participating on electronic discussion forums. 6. One of the most efficient ways to practice E-Prime happens when one starts engaging others in electronic chat via typing messages i.e. Messenger, chat-rooms etc. Why? The language chunks generally remain very short and therefore manageable. You also get repeated practice to develop speed and fluency. 7. Observe and make notes of words that you might overuse, in this first level of exploring E-Prime. We found that the words "seems" and "equates", for example, appeared very frequently in our early efforts. 8. We would estimate that you should feel reasonably proficient in the rudiments of E-Prime within 3 months or so. In 6-12 months you should hardly need to think about the words that you use at all. You might also notice that your writings have a tone of authority about them.

4b) STAGE 2 SPEAKING: 1. Continue writing in E-Prime, wherever possible. Attempt a variety of styles, from short essays to stories, anecdotes to humour etc. 2. Retain the same word list as per Stage 1, but now begin the task of speaking without these same words: a) be; being; been; b) am; is; isn't; are; aren't; was; wasn't; were; weren't; c) I'm; you're; we're; they're; d) he's; she's; it's ("it is"); e) ain't 3. "Slow and steady" makes the best maxim. Start with 20-60 minutes daily allotted to speaking in E-Prime and increase as you feel more confident. 4. Keeping the language chunks short helps. 5. For anyone working alone on these practices, you could utilise telephone calls; talking monologues; chatting with the cat (or any other available creature); talking whilst you type etc. 6. It seems interesting to note that the brevity of speech allows for effective nonverbal communications to happen at the same time. 7. Curiously enough, people conversed with do not seem to notice when it gets used. This means that you can stop worrying now about whether you appear, to others, as some blithering idiot, or not. 8. Switch to E-Prime when you have a problem to solve and see what happens. Communicating in E-Prime conveys meaning and intent more readily.

4c) STAGE 3 MINDSET: 1. Continue with the writing and speaking as given in the earlier two levels. 1. Extend your list of omissions with the removal of the words "I, me, my, mine" from your vocabulary. Now we begin the task of raising the metaselves aspect. 3. Additional studies in auric magic and the eight magics (see Peter

Carroll's "Liber Kaos", Part 2 The Psychonomicon, for starters) would come in handy, at this point. If you have not worked with this already, check out the modern magical language, Ouranic-Barbaric. This has an E-Prime base and function. 4. Examine the Who, What and How of anything. Where has all the Paradox gone? 5. Why does E-Prime seem to heighten empathy? 6. Start thinking in terms of probabilities instead of identified facts or certainties. 7. Consider quietly translating the speech of other people and exploring the nuances of what they attempted to communicate. 8. Look at what happens when you use E-Prime to negotiate, or arbitrate. "By your belief in singularities, in granular absolutes, you deny movement, even the movement of evolution! When things change, your absolute universe vanishes no longer accessible to your self-limiting perceptions. The universe has moved beyond you." -- The Atreides Manifesto, Frank Herbert, Dune series.

5) LAST WORDS: When we started using E-Prime we took this up as a challenge. A very seasoned operator in Chaos Magic pushed all the right buttons. We would learn that Chaoists generally used E-Prime for writing out their Intent and when working with Ouranic-Barbaric, but that very few actually communicated in this medium. Underneath the words came the challenge. It actually impacted at a deeper level than we envisaged. If we thought that our thinking seemed fluid before, it has taken a quantum leap. We find problem solving easier. We can analyse more effectively. Now, with EPrime at our command, our thoughts seem faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap anything we set our mind to do.

This document, "E-Prime and Chaos Magic", owes a debt to the catalyst that opened our eyes to the wondrous hidden potencies of language for

magic. Choyofaque Frater Shazdat-Hadaka!

6) BIBLIOGRAPHY: Carroll, P, 1992, Liber Kaos, Samuel Weiser Inc, New York. Carroll, P, 1995, PsyberMagick, New Falcon Publications, Arizona.

Electronic Retrieval: Bourland, D. D, To Be Or Not To Be: E-Prime as a Tool for Critical Thinking, first published in "ETC: A Review of General Semantics", Vol. 46, No. 3, Fall 1989 http://esgs.free.fr/uk/art/epr1.htm E-Prime, from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-prime Scorpio, D, E-Prime Tutorial, http://www.angelfire.com/nd/danscorpio/ep2.html Hilgartner, C. A, E-Prime and Linguistic Revision, http://www.hilgart.org/papers_html/091S196.B07.html Kellogg, E. W. III, Speaking in E-prime, first published in "ETC: A Review of General Semantics", Vol. 44, No. 2 (Summer 1987) http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:PWT2nKn1qzMJ:learngs.org/library/etc/44-2-kellogg.pdf+Kellogg+Speaking+in+E-prime&hl=en Kellogg E. W. III and Bourland, D, D, Working with E-Prime http://objectz.com/columnists/eandd/ Kenyon, R. E, E-prime: The Spirit and the Letter http://www.xenodochy.org/gs/e-prime.html Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis Wilson, R. A, Quantum Psychology, http://www.rawilson.com/quantum.shtml

Wilson, R. A, Towards Understanding E-Prime http://www.nobeliefs.com/eprime.htm "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" -Arthur C. Clarke Medusa161 -This is great, Su - having done an Enlish degree at university this stuff really interests me. When I have more time i'll have a closer look and see if I can get my head round this more. Case -Su, A while ago lived in a commune where we tried to combat gender assumptions by using the new pronoun 'co' instead of she he it. found that easy as was only one thing to think about and lots of peoepl trying it out. Some years ago my partner was studying philosophy and we both got caught up by Gilbert Ryle and I guess what is called e-prime we thought about it a gret deal and made a lot of experiments with changing languageMostly with using adverbs rather than nouns - as in Lovingkindnesses? Catingness mattingness- showing that things were actively beingness The problems we found were mainly of inelegance; the language we first leared has a sense of (false?) rightness about it which we negotiate I guess in terms of rythm and flow. There is a staccato quality to change which needs some seasoning to make it feel right so have often thought that there needs to be some inclusions in order to maintain a sense of rhythm, but havent quite got the head for working on it. One of the best language experiments we made was of not saying anything pointless but saving up words for whatever was necessary or meaningful. Still stumble over words as communicate with others who like selves, have multiple systems so personal pronouns are useless.

The best have found is using a system of different pronouns which are inclusive. Mewe theewe Uswe - The feel of the words sometimess makes alluswe start to write in gemanic/archaic form - ie- hast theewe? Thinking that language really is important but that maybe e-prime for mewe doesnt reach critical mass in terms of change - soemthing needs to happen about the fixation with nouns as well. laura