Invocation Dangers to Selves

"I believe there are many selves within us; that we are all cases of multiple personality-though generally unafflicted with the amnesia which is the hallmark of clinical manifestations of this condition. Sanity is a state in which our component selves love and trust each other and are prepared to let each other assume control as circumstances demand." Peter J. Carroll

This is probably an oversimplification, but generally correct. It is more accurate than the oft-heard mystical rhetoric which generally goes: "the self is an illusion", often an opener for some lecture on uniting with the "Divine", as it is assumed by said mystic that all IS the "Divine", and thus any distinction is but an illusion. If someone gives you that line, reach down and remove your shoe, swing it upside their head, and ask them if that felt like an illusion. A digression, I know...

The context of the sub-chapter from which the above quote is taken deals with the subject of invocation from the perspective of a Chaoist, or, perhaps simply from the perspective of Mr.Carroll. In particular, the dangers of invoking for the purpose of strengthening a particular self, as there is the danger of that self or adopted form overwhelming the others and causing a (sometimes drastic) narrowing of the personality and perspective at best, or eventual schizophrenia at worst.

Seem far-fetched? Watch someone who makes a drastic recovery from drug or alcohol addiction, only to devote their life to the service of God, or Jesus Christ, or Allah. They will generally become more stable people in the outset, since they have strengthened a personality through a particular godform which helps them achieve the goal of sobriety. But once they realize they've kicked the addiction, they typically carry that ladder with them everywhere they go (if they're generally successful in maintaining sobriety) in fear they will fall off the wagon if they abandon God or whoever, and along with that particular god comes the associated baggage and conflicted and sometimes unnecessary moral modifiers. Not to say there's anything terrible about this, as they're no longer destroying their health and bankrupting their families. But it illustrates a point: one can become dependent on an adopted symbol, whether knowingly or unknowingly, and at the expense of previously useful selves.