Popular post

Popular Posts

medusa-snow1I'm not going to go into great detail on this here because I need to sleep soon.  But I'm going to get it off my chest before laying down for the night.  Maybe I'm the only one ...

2009-06-26 00:17:09

My Newest Pet Peeve: The Anti-Wicca-ites

Popular Posts

brew-purpleI was reading the CNN website last night and found this article about this month's issue of Glamour magazine in which a plus-sized model poses nude for the camera.  Of course, plus-sized is now considered 12 and ...

2009-08-27 06:00:07

[BREW-HAHA] Body Of A Goddess

Popular Posts

brew-purpleSince Pagans are a fairly opinionated bunch, it's not surprising to find them dishing about politics.  Most of the Pagans and Wiccans I know are quite liberal -- very common as we are minority and, in current ...

2009-09-01 06:02:21

[BREW] Pagans And Politics

All content (c) Sitara Haye, 2008-2009.
All rights reserved.
 

[BREW] Violent Media and The Witch Mind

August/14/2009

brew-purpleI don’t have cable TV and I seriously dislike horror movies.  Suspense I’m okay with, action is fine as long as it isn’t gory.  But when you cross that line into sick and twisted things that humans do to other humans, I can’t take it.

I remembering trying to watch the first SAW movie, and I was okay until they got to the part where the man’s wife and little girl were handcuffed/tied to the banister.  Considering that little girl looked an awful lot like mine (about the same age, dark hair), I just couldn’t take it.  Once you’re a parent, any child in pain or suffering is, by extension, your child to an extent.  It’s hard to disassociate.

However, it got me to thinking… there is a great deal of talk with quantum physics and the power of the mind that the things which we think, we create.  Considering that we, as magickal practitioners, utilize our minds and visualize and project that which we desire to attain/obtain, how much greater is our responsibility to use our more focused minds in a positive way?  It’s one thing to just watch a TV show or violent movie as “eye candy”, but is it really so benign and harmless?  Does it feed our dreams?  And worse, should we have an emotional reaction to that violence and cruelty, are we not adding more fuel to the fire of our thoughts?  What kind of reality are we creating by allowing this images of wanton destruction and savagry free passage into our conscious and subconscious minds?

Do we have a responsibility to keep the temple of our minds clear of this kind of input?

Categories: Author's Blog, Daily Brew-HaHa!

12 Comments

  • The L | Reply

    Friday, 14th August 2009 at 6:49 AM
     

    I think the issue with violence in movies is related to violence in novels and video games. If the violence is there as the only remaining option for the hero to save the day (think Zelda, most fantasy novels, Braveheart), that’s one thing. When it’s clearly just violence for the sake of violence (Shoot ‘Em Up, Grand Theft Auto, half of what John Ringo writes), then it poisons the mind and soul.

     

  • EileenDalla | Reply

    Friday, 14th August 2009 at 9:41 AM
     

    I agree with The L. If the violence is part of the story and is needed to complete the picture, then I see no harm in it. If we had to stop reading books and watching movies because they contained some violence, there really wouldn’t be much out there to to read or watch.
    But violence for the sake of violence is not entertainment. If we watch a movie or read a book because of the hacking and killing it contains, then we need to back up and take a good look at ourselves and maybe change a few things about our way of thinking.

     

  • Myrna | Reply

    Friday, 14th August 2009 at 11:45 AM
     

    Historically humans are violent. The Romans used to watch people kill each other and the loins eat them and called it entertainment. Gladiators were considered heroes but they were not ’saving the day’. They killed, literally, for entertainment. The people did put a stop to it though and rebelled. So yes, we should monitor our forms of entertainment. From video games to books to movies and TV, as long as it’s making a buck, things will continue to get more graphic as it has to have the ‘SHOCK’ factor. This gets everyone’s juices flowing…. as they sit in front of the idiot box. Yes, our actions are a mirror of what is accepted in society and if our books and movies reflect dispassionate violence, then we will surely emulate. Just as the people in the history had great literatures of their times that reflected their society, our time will reflect who we are as well.

     

  • Millie Fee | Reply

    Friday, 14th August 2009 at 12:46 PM
     

    I personally do not watch that much TV or movies…I am totally turned off by the gore. I’ve seen enough of it in real life-why would I want to “Go There” in movies. There’s a saying that goes something like ” As the eye sees so too the mind and hand follow. If we continually bombard ourselves with violence in TV, games, Music; real-life is sure to take on those real qualities. It’s a sad state of affairs when we view violence and destruction as everyday occurences and even use it to amuse ourselves.

     

  • Colin Bondi (bodhidude.wordpress.com) | Reply

    Friday, 14th August 2009 at 4:00 PM
     

    I feel that violence on TV and in the movies has a very significant negative effect on the watcher whether it be conscious or unconscious. In the last few years I’ve stopped watching TV and the news and don’t really engage mainstream entertainment much. The result has been a much more peaceful state of mind, less fear and anxiety and much less stress. It wasn’t until removing this influence from my life that I truly realized the effect that it had on me and how destructive it really was.

    Now when I do rarely go to the movies I’m blown away by just how much intensity and violence is all over it, not just in the movies but in the advertisements as well. Its quite a reflection of the collective consciousness of the society. Violence is a normal part of life and there are of course stories where its presence is needed to communicate something but I feel we go so far beyond that.

    You could say the mind becomes what we put into it just as the body becomes what it becomes based on what we feed it. There are serious consequences of feeding the mind a diet of violence, unconsciousness and propaganda and it is powerful to realize we can choose to feed our minds things that will nurture them instead…….

     

  • Avren | Reply

    Friday, 14th August 2009 at 8:00 PM
     

    I have been laughed at because I don’t like watching movies that show such horror, terror, suffering and violence. Don’t get me started on rape scenes!*Shudders* how is that entertainment? I refuse to read ar watch negativity like that. Sitara you are right. Your thoughts are power and it is true quantum mechanics show that we manifest our realities. Why fill it with garbage?

     

  • Katie Bond (hathorsdawn.wordpress.com) | Reply

    Saturday, 15th August 2009 at 1:02 AM
     

    I don’t enjoy horror movies at all. They deeply upset me. I don’t understand why people enjoy them. People always tell me that it’s not real, and why can’t I understand that? Well, it creeps into my mind. I don’t like end of the world movies either, because I don’t like to think about the end of the world. I don’t enjoy a lot of violence. I even skim over it in books. Call me overly sensitive, but I just don’t like it. There are some theories floating around that the amount of violence in mainstream media does directly affect those who watch it. Those who are familiar with Bandura’s experiments with the Bobo dolls may remember his theories on modeling and learning. To me, the people who imagine these terrible things may need to be examined by professionals. Humans may be violent, but I don’t believe that we are cruel by nature. That level of cruelty scares me when I see it being spread so widely.
    On the other hand, my cheerful, gentle SO loves horror movies, like The Mist and Saw, and watching them doesn’t seem to have done a thing to him. He’s still cheerful, sunny, and wants the cat to kiss him. So the moral of this is if you don’t like it, why watch it?

     

  • Heartsong (heartsongshymnal.blogspot.com) | Reply

    Saturday, 15th August 2009 at 11:34 AM
     

    I’ve often wondered why we give XXX ratings to pornography but allow any 17 year old with a willing adult or a fake ID to watch images of bloody dismemberment. At least pornography, no matter how skewed, depicts a somewhat natural act of love and passion.

    Ahh, but I digress.

    To the point…I believe that with awareness comes responsibility. The magickal mind begins with awareness of the power of thought, imagination, and visualization. Is it reasonable to think that the same power that fuels our intentional magickal acts is ever in a true “off” state? If thoughts are things, if they have power, do they not have power all the time?

    Consider the idea that everything and everyone is really energy, that we are all made of the same stuff and exist on the same “web.” If my mind is filled with horrific images of violence and torture, ESPECIALLY when depicted in a context of crazed torture and cruelty, is my mind not connected to the web mind? Might I not be contributing to the violent world by feeding my mind with violence, even if I never lift a finger to harm another?

    The world has always experienced violence. There are some who say that it is part of our evolutionary task as a race to move away from our violent response and into a more loving space. Whether that is true or not, I know that I do not wish to live in fear of violence, nor do I want that to be my response. To acknowlege that our current realities require violent response from time to time does not mean that we have to embrace and accept that as the only reality, nor does it mean I have to embrace it as a form of entertainment.

    Someone told me once that society needed violent entertainment to harden them against the real violence in the world; without it, the real violence would be too overwhelming, so painful and shocking that we wouldn’t be able to function. My answer was then and is now, violence should be overwhelming, painful, and shocking. And the fact that we can watch the evening news and not throw up is a sign that we’ve become too hardened, too jaded to violent acts. When we allow cruelty and violence to become anything less than sickening, we allow it to grow and to become our reality.

    Better to be laughed at for not watching and even to make a few people mad by not allowing it to be shown in your home or to your children than to contribute to a violent world.

     

    • Avren | Reply

      Saturday, 15th August 2009 at 11:50 AM
       

      Amen Woman! There has been many thoughts as to whether violent video games and school shootings are related. My humble opinion is that they are. I recently had a debate with my step-son about this. He is allowed to play adult video games at home. Does it freak anyone else out that an 11 yr. old plays games where you sneak up be hind someone, slit their throat and take their money? (assassin’s creed) Don’t get me started on Grand Theft Auto. If he thinks this is “fun” and ” cool” isn’t this making it okay to think that violence is normal? In our debate I told him that at the Columbine shooting there were reports that witnesses overheard the boys saying ” this is just like Doom.” My step sons reply was that in Doom you kill Aliens not innocent people. I said how do you know the aliens weren’t innocent people? Are they less because they are different and therefore a threat? I also told him that the boys who did the shooting were picked on routinely and probably viewed everyone at the school as a threat. Does that make it okay to kill them? To say the least, it is a frustrating topic and one I WILL not back down from. Anyway Sorry to run on! LOL

       

  • Aimee (maekom.net) | Reply

    Saturday, 19th September 2009 at 9:11 PM
     

    I totally agree with this! As someone wiser than me said (I believe it was Robert Anton Wilson), if you don’t think that movies influence you and are real to your body and mind, either look at the movie theatre full of scared and wound-up people screaming together–or try watching a pornographic film and see exactly how real your body thinks it is!

    As a video game household, I actually found that the most disturbing part of the Grand Theft Auto games was the rampant stereotyping involved in the story. Violence I can deal with when teaching my children, but the subtle clues that lead them to assume things about someone because of ethnicity and social status are things I don’t want in my house.

     

Leave a Reply