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I've experienced something similar that I assume anyone can replicate: Many years ago I was exhausted from a long week of training and had a bath. There was a

I've experienced something similar that I assume anyone can replicate: Many years ago I was exhausted from a long week of training and had a bath. There was a mirror at the end of the bath and I slumped in the water. I was really relaxed and just stared into the mirror. Perhaps the humidity in the air helped me not need to blink for an incredibly long time, but after a while my peripheral vision started to burn away, and then what I could actually see began to pixelate in places, I noticed my face distorting slowly and just kept staring, my face went very dark as described in the article, and then I began picking out details, and I eventually realised I was looking at some sort of devil. Sort of like the one from the Tekken games but much darker flesh and longer ears and witchy nose. I was surprised and moved my eyes a little and it all faded away gently in a second. I am not religious at all and the experience had no religious significance for me, I think devils look lame. I simply haven't repeated this because I don't like taking a bath or staring at myself in the mirror for 20 minutes. I feel the humidity of the hot bath was important for keeping ym eyes moist though, but maybe it can work just say in comfort somewhere else with a mirror.

wruza 2y ago
I had interest in esoterics in my around-20s and one of the “practices” was to see the past self in a reflection, or past someone in their face (the specific term was something like moving your “build point” back in time, I believe it was from castaneda). We did it a few times with a friend and when you stare long enough at someone’s real face, pretty strange things started to happen. Sometimes the effect disappeared even because fear forced us to disfocus. Faces would distort, change skin color, eyes go “snake eyes”, etc. I never experienced much darkening, but in the mirror I’ve seen someone relative to me like e.g. a young grand-grand-…-parent looking at me from a mirror. It felt like he even had its own emotion or ~~interest looking back. So yes, our minds may play interesting tricks when used not as intended.
- pyinstallwoes 2y ago
  Can you describe the exact procedure so I may try it? I’d like to experiment. Thank you!
  - wruza 2y ago
    Apart from self-persuasion that you’re doing something esoteric, it’s just looking at your mirror image with a relaxed gaze (as in looking far away-ish) but focused around some fixed point. You can replace a mirror with a buddy. Distance 0.3-1m face to face, depending on your comfort zone. Few minutes, but may appear sooner. Multiple phases, you can get stuck in one face but then suddenly go further. Once you see a new face, you can carefully examine it, but try not to disrupt this semi-trance by quick movements. Esoterics-wise you should feel like you’re pulled “back” in your skull (not visually). The further you go back, the more ancient incarnation you see. The limit is your first ever appearance. Great mages have thousands of faces, some of them non-human, extinct races. If you don’t see anything, you were just born, cough loser. Upd: just tested it with my phone screen turned off. Whew… same emotions as 20 years ago. Black tint definitely adds to the effect, and it’s quick!
    - pyinstallwoes 2y ago
      So you’re supposed to do it through a reflection though? I’m confused because you say straight on also works? I thought it was through another mirror or peripheral vision? I definitely can “stare into nothingness” and what happens is usually a black pulsing blob or maybe very dark blue takes over my vision like a vortex. Weird, I know but never any faces although I’ve only ever looked at my shower wall or bathroom scenery.
      - wruza 2y ago
        Yes, you have to look straight face to face. Not at a peripheral reflection. The face you’re looking at starts changing. It happens with jumps: first it may become a blob / smeared / blurry, but then suddenly focuses and now you’re looking at a stranger or something non-human. what did you do exactly with your phone? Looked into it for maybe a minute or even less, the screen contained reflection of my upper head - hair, eyes, nose (held it landscape). Blackness got over it first, tossing itself around, but then, and I guess that’s where our face detection kicks in, eyes started to sharpen in and other details. Wasn’t mine and in a black reflection it’s much more eerie than in a regular mirror. Really reminds these christian horrors. If I were medieval, I’d run away and pray for a week. It was angry-featured, with a confident piercing gaze and strange old-or-weathered skin. I know from the past that if you don’t quit, it will sharpen into an ideal no-blur no-tricks face and then later happen again and again but with more pauses between new faces. And they get stranger. Last time I did it with my buddy, I was looking at a man-snake at the end.

wruza 2y ago

I had interest in esoterics in my around-20s and one of the “practices” was to see the past self in a reflection, or past someone in their face (the specific term was something like moving your “build point” back in time, I believe it was from castaneda). We did it a few times with a friend and when you stare long enough at someone’s real face, pretty strange things started to happen. Sometimes the effect disappeared even because fear forced us to disfocus. Faces would distort, change skin color, eyes go “snake eyes”, etc. I never experienced much darkening, but in the mirror I’ve seen someone relative to me like e.g. a young grand-grand-…-parent looking at me from a mirror. It felt like he even had its own emotion or ~~interest looking back. So yes, our minds may play interesting tricks when used not as intended.

pyinstallwoes 2y ago
Can you describe the exact procedure so I may try it? I’d like to experiment. Thank you!
- wruza 2y ago
  Apart from self-persuasion that you’re doing something esoteric, it’s just looking at your mirror image with a relaxed gaze (as in looking far away-ish) but focused around some fixed point. You can replace a mirror with a buddy. Distance 0.3-1m face to face, depending on your comfort zone. Few minutes, but may appear sooner. Multiple phases, you can get stuck in one face but then suddenly go further. Once you see a new face, you can carefully examine it, but try not to disrupt this semi-trance by quick movements. Esoterics-wise you should feel like you’re pulled “back” in your skull (not visually). The further you go back, the more ancient incarnation you see. The limit is your first ever appearance. Great mages have thousands of faces, some of them non-human, extinct races. If you don’t see anything, you were just born, cough loser. Upd: just tested it with my phone screen turned off. Whew… same emotions as 20 years ago. Black tint definitely adds to the effect, and it’s quick!
  - pyinstallwoes 2y ago
    So you’re supposed to do it through a reflection though? I’m confused because you say straight on also works? I thought it was through another mirror or peripheral vision? I definitely can “stare into nothingness” and what happens is usually a black pulsing blob or maybe very dark blue takes over my vision like a vortex. Weird, I know but never any faces although I’ve only ever looked at my shower wall or bathroom scenery.
    - wruza 2y ago
      Yes, you have to look straight face to face. Not at a peripheral reflection. The face you’re looking at starts changing. It happens with jumps: first it may become a blob / smeared / blurry, but then suddenly focuses and now you’re looking at a stranger or something non-human. what did you do exactly with your phone? Looked into it for maybe a minute or even less, the screen contained reflection of my upper head - hair, eyes, nose (held it landscape). Blackness got over it first, tossing itself around, but then, and I guess that’s where our face detection kicks in, eyes started to sharpen in and other details. Wasn’t mine and in a black reflection it’s much more eerie than in a regular mirror. Really reminds these christian horrors. If I were medieval, I’d run away and pray for a week. It was angry-featured, with a confident piercing gaze and strange old-or-weathered skin. I know from the past that if you don’t quit, it will sharpen into an ideal no-blur no-tricks face and then later happen again and again but with more pauses between new faces. And they get stranger. Last time I did it with my buddy, I was looking at a man-snake at the end.