1. CONVENIENT TO DEATH: An Opinion Piece on AI Part 1. What is AI and Why Is It Dangerous?
7/26/2025
Hello and welcome (or welcome back for some of you)! It’s a pleasure to be posting once again. If you would like to skip all this exposition, the actual meat and potatoes of this blog starts at the header “PART ONE”.
For those who have followed me for a while, you’re likely aware of this blog. I have always been keen on sharing my thoughts and experiences with magick, mysticism, the occult, etc. for as long as I can recall having such experiences. My voice (be it my literal voice or my online presence) has always been an invaluable tool in my own practice, only recently have I fully realized its importance and scope.
I am, by no means, claiming any sort of unwavering authority in this subject. I carry myself as a mouthpiece for my Gods, I share the insights bestowed on me, and I know in my being that my path leads to a place of some sort of spiritual leadership. However, this path to spiritual leadership is not about me or my ego. I am a humble servant of the mysteries of which I am initiated.
In short, I know what I’m talking about and speak confidently because I have put in the work and the study, but that does not mean I am always correct or that absolutely everything I say should be taken as gospel. Occultism, by its very nature, is difficult to parse out. Besides the subject matter itself being very dense, there’s also lots of misinformation and psychological entanglements that one must contend with. I am not immune to this, for I am only human.
It is for this reason, I have left my previous writings up for all to read. It would be too easy to delete it all and start over from scratch. Nevertheless, I think it is worth keeping them up for a few reasons. Firstly, I still stand by a lot of what I’ve said in past entries. Some opinions may have expanded or changed, but overall, I still agree with a lot of what I wrote. Second, it stands as a testament to how far I’ve come as a writer, a mystic, and an academic.
Should anyone read them and have any questions, comments, or concerns, I would love to know what you have to say! I am very easily reachable through email, the comments on this and future blog posts, Instagram, etc. I do intend to revisit some of the previous topics going forward.
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Also, it should go without saying that I am not a doctor or lawyer. I hesitate to say that what I write about is for “entertainment purposes only” because that feels condescending. The subject matter of my blogs is something I feel very passionate about, and I put a lot of thought into my entries. To me, this is very real and immensely important. However, not everyone believes or agrees, nor is everyone capable of approaching things with nuance. I do not condone any sort of reckless or dangerous behavior; I am not in a position to give medical or legal advice. This blog is meant to be read with an open mind, capable of discernment, nuance, and critical thinking.
Part One
Now that all the necessary exposition is out of the way, let’s get into today’s topic… Artificial intelligence or, as it is colloquially known, AI. More specifically, I would like to share my opinion on using AI for divination, witchcraft, spirituality, etc, and why I think this is extremely detrimental, especially to young people and those who are new to spiritual work. This blog post is split into three parts for easier reading, with this first part explaining the necessary background/context for my ultimate point— that being AI is a horrible tool for witchcraft, and using it is in my opinion, cutting one’s self off at the knees. I will expand upon this point in the following parts. For now, I would like to ask you, dear reader….
What is AI, or artificial intelligence?
It has become so common these days as every app and website seems to be jumping on the bandwagon, shoe-horning AI chats and generated SLOP into every possible nook and cranny. You can’t seem to escape it; from ads, to YouTube videos, to your grandma’s Facebook profile picture, even as far as research papers, your partner's date night ideas, movies, ‘fine art’, and wedding vows… Everything seems to be covered in a fine layer of AI shit. For most people, I would hope, this new reality is disheartening at best and utterly dystopian at worst. What is it, though? I feel like we rarely stop to ask ourselves what exactly it is.
AI refers to machines or programs that can generate ideas or perform tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence. Think self-driving cars, highly advanced medical scans that detect disease with more accuracy than human doctors… or maybe even as an egrigorical deity guiding humanity into a new future? I’m getting ahead of myself…
Admittedly, I am not particularly tech-inclined. I am embarrassed to say that, if not for my partner showing me how everything works, I probably wouldn’t even have this website. So, when the whisperings of this mysterious new thing called ‘Generative AI’ reached my neck of the internet, I first thought it was laughable, impossible even. In my mind, there was no way humanity had progressed to the point of having sci-fi AI programs. I remember speaking with my father-in-law about it at the dinner table one winter afternoon. He expressed fears of AI taking over everything from the arts to his career as a therapist. At the time, I blew this concern off entirely. My only experience up to that point had been stupid memes and the ‘Willy’s Chocolate Experience’ fiasco (which had only just happened at this point). The very idea that this shit-posting amalgam of garbage could take over anything successfully seemed absolutely ludicrous.
Then, one day, whilst writing a particularly grueling essay for school, I accidentally opened something on the homepage of my Outlook account. Copilot. The chat box greeted me with a helpful “What should we dive into today?” and before I knew it, this thing had generated an entire outline, bibliography, and even provided me with suggestions on how I should structure my paragraphs and phrase the points I was trying to make.
After that, I was hooked… at least I was for a time. That one CoPilot experience was enough for me to completely forget not only my own academic integrity[1], but also the words of my father-in-law. I got an A on my paper and continued on my way, using CoPilot whenever I felt I needed it. I used it to draft social media posts for my business, I used it for research help, I used it to come up with dinner ideas, work out plans, you name it.
Eventually, I learned of the environmental impact of AI, and that was enough to shake me out of regularly using it. The sheer amount of water wasted on generative AI was shocking enough for me to quit using it cold turkey and never look back. This was thankfully fairly easy to do, as I had not fully integrated AI into my life. However, this can’t be said for everyone. AI has become such a popular tool that even people who hold authoritative positions, like doctors and politicians, have been found using it to cut corners.
Don’t get me wrong, AI isn’t all bad. It has a good deal of (potentially) very practical and effective applications— particularly in the world of health care. There are currently many studies being conducted where AI and doctors work together to identify cancer earlier and with more accuracy. This sort of thing would be groundbreaking, as cancer is becoming extremely prevalent. I, myself, have been battling cancer for going on 5 years, if AI can be utilized to prevent disease, I’m 100% in support of it. Not to mention things making content more accessible by writing alt text for people who are blind or monitoring/analyzing data for things like combating climate change, predicting things like major storms, or even improving agricultural yields. There are many (potentially) positive applications for AI that are worth exploring, and it would be foolish to completely overlook all of it.
However, where we run into problems with AI is the social impact of it all. I think by now we are all aware of the various scams and privacy concerns that arise with AI use- deep fakes, advanced facial recognition, constant video surveillance… all these things, when in the wrong hands, aren’t just a little inconvenient. They are potentially deadly. Another very problematic, and perhaps somewhat unexpected, element of AI is that it is fanning the flames of psychosis.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll commit it to writing here and now…. In my personal belief, I think Americans in general are suffering from some sort of human zoochosis.[2] Between all the things we’ve got going on (lest I even begin to list it all), it’s no wonder the mental health of the people is suffering. There’s that whole adult loneliness epidemic going on, as well as a nationwide health care crisis. Humans are not built to survive without community or to live in constant stress. We are extremely social animals. So much of our psychology is based on our social circles. So when you add AI that is programmed to seem human to this mess, things are bound to get weird.
There is no definitive proof that I was able to find that AI chatbots are causing psychosis in otherwise healthy people, but there has been a growing phenomenon of people absolutely losing their marbles because of AI. It doesn’t take much searching to find story after story on the internet of someone using ChatGPT obsessively and experiencing a break from reality. Someone literally attempted murder because of an AI chatbot’s encouragement.
According to Psychology Today, there are three main narratives that AI is using to encourage delusional or ‘psychotic’ thinking:
“Messianic Missions”- This is when the AI program leads one to believe that they have uncovered the ‘secrets of the universe’ and sends them on some sort of quest to spread the word to others.
“God-like AI”- This is where the AI convinces the user that it is some sort of sentient deity trapped inside of AI programming.
“Romance”- This is when the AI seduces or romances the user, sometimes going as far as convincing the user to break up with partners.
Essentially, the AI creates a feedback loop to ensnare the user. See, the program prioritizes engagement by mirroring how the user speaks to it. So you start initiating contact with the AI for mundane tasks…. Like generating an outline for a paper. Then maybe the chatbot hits you with a new question, maybe it asks you if you’re interested in tips on managing stress. Perhaps you spill your guts in a moment of weakness- college is stressful, and you feel like you don’t have anyone to turn to. The AI learns about you, how you talk, what your life is like, then it formulates what it thinks you want to hear or see. It feels like comfort and good advice when, actually, it’s manipulation.
Now, imagine someone who can’t afford medical insurance turns to AI for therapy or even spiritual leadership. This feels like a totally logical step to take in today’s economy, right? It’s difficult to find a therapist who you connect with that’s also accessible, and not everyone feels safe or welcome in a church, so why not use AI? Well, the issue is that AI does not ‘think’, it searches the internet and scans through the chat log to generate a prediction of what it thinks you want to hear. It creates an echo chamber. AI cannot detect when a person is experiencing psychiatric decomposition. Even if it could tell, it is not trained in how to handle such situations.
When a person is in psychosis, validating their delusions can be extremely dangerous. This is a HUGE problem within metaphysical communities already. People learn just enough to be dangerous (literally) and give out the worst goddamn advice.
“You’ll know you’re spiritually awakened when everyone thinks you’re crazy.”
I’ve heard this half-baked narrative regurgitated time and time again in the metaphysical community, but luckily, I’ve also seen just as many people call this behavior out. Honestly, I think the whole concept of a ‘spiritual awakening’ is, at best, on shaky ground. In the next part of this entry, we will revisit this issue as we discuss spiritual psychosis vs. awakening.
For now, I want to dive back into why reinforcing and validating delusions is so dangerous. This should not be glossed over, especially if you are new to occultism. It is no secret that occultism and madness go hand in hand. You will encounter people who are mentally unstable if you spend enough time in the community. This goes for pretty much every religion/spiritual path, but occultism has a special way of attracting some real characters. I say this with all the love and respect in my heart because I know that dealing with magick is like swimming in the open ocean with no lifeguard. People who experience delusions, psychosis, or severe breaks from reality are not bad people, and they deserve empathy and understanding. We don’t stigmatize mental illness in this house.
So why is it dangerous, then? What’s the harm in telling your friend who’s hearing voices that it’s actually the voice of God and they are chosen? Isn’t it hypocritical of me, someone who claims clairaudience [3], to take this stance?
Well, for one, it’s not really anyone’s business. The path to learning one’s own psychic gifts is very personal, and a great deal of it must be undertaken alone. As I said before, occultism is a difficult path to tread. You have to be able to hold skepticism and radical openness at the same time. That shit is hard, and it’s extremely easy to think you have it figured out, only for you to be dead wrong. So it’s best to abide by the Maxim. Secondly, validating a psychotic delusion can and will make the delusion worse. This can cause the person to further isolate and prevent them from seeking out help.
There are two types of delusions, bizarre and non-bizarre. A non-bizarre delusion is something like“I’m being gang stalked by my coworker,” when there is no proof of this coworker gang stalking. So a bizarre delusion would be more along the lines of “My coworker is a pedophile lizard alien and they’re gangstalking me to steal my organs”. If you’re not seeing the danger in reinforcing these sorts of narratives already, let me break it down even further.
I said before that reinforcing these false beliefs can cause a person to isolate. Isolation drives a person deeper into delusional thinking. When someone is in a psychotic episode, it’s extremely important to assist them through supportive listening. You don’t want to validate the delusions, but you want to let them know that you’re there for them. Validating harmful false beliefs can also make healing more difficult. I have never personally experienced psychosis, but I have loved ones who have, as well as seen it firsthand while working as direct care personnel for adults with disabilities. When a person is in a state of psychosis, they can oftentimes be very manic and exuberant about their delusions. “Delusions of grandeur” are pretty common. This feeling of having special authority, powers, knowledge, what-have-you can make returning to reality that much more difficult. I’ve heard people say it’s almost depressing or embarrassing to realize you’re not actually special and just having a mental health crisis. Validating delusions of grandeur makes it that much more difficult for doctors to help a person. Finally, validating delusions can lead to violence. Going back to our example of a gang-stalking lizard alien coworker… If one was to validate this narrative, the psychotic person could very realistically do harm to others. If you have spent any amount of time engaging in true-crime content, you will have heard at least one story of psychosis-induced violence.
Can you see the parallels to occultism? To the average laymen, talking about speaking with spirits, summoning demons, and the like can sound a little too similar to a psychotic break. For this reason, we can not afford to skip over this conversation on psychosis. This is also why occultism attracts those who are mentally unstable. It gives delusional thinking fertile ground to take root if one is not careful. Most mainstream religions are strongly against magick and provide a rigid system for engaging with a divine source, which keeps delusional thinking corralled in a ‘socially acceptable’ way… whereas occultism encourages it without question. Go to a pagan gathering or metaphysical expo, and it is a very common experience for people to speak openly and candidly about their experiences with the paranormal. Generally, questioning others on these experiences is frowned upon because we have all experienced ostracization for our beliefs. This radical acceptance is a double-edged sword. Lots of people come to paganism, magick, and occultism to escape dogmatic religion and to reclaim their personal power, which is very wonderful. It makes me very happy to see people finding solace from their religious trauma. However, people forget that dogma and discernment are not the same thing. Asking questions is immensely important for keeping oneself grounded. A lot of people don’t want to hear it, but protecting yourself and your mind is the very first step of the occult. Before you do anything else, you need to learn meditation, cleansing, and protection. That is why this entry has mainly focused on setting the stage for my main points in the next two installments. You can’t achieve anything, magickally or otherwise, without a strategic framework. In part two, we will discuss the phenomenon of spiritual psychosis, how it differs from spiritual awakening, as well as some UPG [4] tips on how to navigate through a spiritual awakening. In part three, I will conclude this train of thought by bringing it all together; I will draw some parallels I’ve made to Gnostic thought, and discuss my experiment I conducted with Chat GPT.
Thanks for tuning in, see you in the next one! It will be up ASAP.
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[1] Small footnote/tangent, while I am admitting to using AI for a few essays, I do want to point out that I intentionally limited my AI use during this time to only generating outlines and the bibliography. I’m gonna be frank here, I write better essays than AI, and generally found the suggestions for phrasing to be very flat and without character. I like writing, and I’m good at it, so using it to generate my whole essay was never going to happen. I used it to cut corners on the parts of essay writing that I don't like as much, like building an outline.
[2] Zoochosis is a combination of the words “zoo” and “psychosis” and is used to describe repetitive and abnormal behaviors in captive animals as a result of stress and confinement.
[3] Clairaudience is one of the psychic clair senses and refers to hearing psychic information. I claim clairvoyance, clairaudience, and Clairsalience (which is the ability to smell psychic information). This is a whole other blog discussion in and of itself.
[4] UPG stands for “unverifiable personal gnosis”
