Submitted by BRENCIS CYRUS -... on
Overall, this is a circumstance that affects thousands of people every year on a constant basis. It is not something to joke about, nor is any phobia, because to the person experiencing these things, it is absolute terror and a constant hindrance in finding any peace within life. Some may crack jokes, or tease people who suffer from these conditions, so all I ask is that like all of my articles, you read seriously and approach the topic with an open mind. Obviously, I have some beliefs that are completely out there and not many people would share these opinions. I can respect that, and only ask that the severity of these topics be addressed with that same respect. So, with that being said, let’s embark on this intellectual journey.
Eisoptrophobia: An abnormal and persistent fear of mirrors. Sufferers experience undue anxiety even though they realize their fear is irrational. Because their fear often is grounded in superstitions, they may worry that breaking a mirror will bring bad luck or that looking into a mirror will put them in contact with a supernatural world inside the glass.
Now, that may sound or seem absurd to you, but imagine going throughout life without being able to ever glance into a reflective surface. That means that you would never be able to check yourself out before leaving the house to see if you look alright, or you would never be able to drive a vehicle because you rely on mirrors to see. It also means that you would have to dish out top dollar for any electronic devices you own such as a television, a computer monitor or laptop display, or even cellular phones, because you would have to get anti-reflective coating applied to all of these things. You would never be able to look at a clock, or into a picture frame, or even window at night, because in each of these instances, a reflection will occur. Now, I only gave a brief idea of the few every day items a person encounters without really taking into affect the impact these items may have on someone with Eisoptrophobia. There are countless items out there that would, could, and do cause people afflicted with this phobia amazing amounts of strife on an every day basis.
And that doesn’t even consider the supernatural aspects of these surfaces.
MIRRORS & THE SUPERNATURAL
Above, I mentioned the very basics of Eisoptrophobia, but now, I will go more in depth about the uses that mirrors have had throughout the world of the supernatural. Most dominantly, mirrors have been used by witches, warlocks, and the practitioners of magick for many, many centuries. Mirrors date back to the times of the caveman, when they were made out of volcanic rock known as obsidian. And even then, these items were treasures that only the most esteemed villagers had. From the advent of mirrors in general, practitioners or magick have used in a technique called “scrying”, which is a practice which enables the individual to physically see things in a medium, in this case, the mirror. Scrying has been used for obtaining spiritual visions mainly, and fortune-telling. Occasionally, this process is also used for divination, and in many cases, it is used as a “window” to contact demons in order to obtain information from them and to obtain their services or assistance for a particular matter. While mirrors are most preferred in these rituals, other surfaces such as crystals, reflective stones, plain glass, water over a reflective or dark surface, and even fire and smoke are also used in scrying.
Now, each culture is different, and this is no shock. There is a very simple belief that most theologians share when it comes to supernatural entities left on this earth. I am familiar with these beliefs due to my studies of exorcists and demonic possession. Basically, the theologians believe that in this lifetime, if you are a generally good person and do good during that time, your essence or soul will be placed immediately in Heaven upon the expiration of your physical body. If you are a particularly bad person who uses their time to commit negativity, or even if you just simply don’t want to be forgiven, then your essence or soul will go immediately to Hell once the physical body expires. All those in between who were both good and bad during their time will go to Purgatory, because they didn’t commit or engage in enough good or selfless acts before they died or refused a life of the sacramentals. SO, using that theory and mentality, the way the Roman Catholic Church feels about the topic is that since Lucifer and all of his rebelling angels were banished to earth (not hell, as many believe) then any supernatural or paranormal presence which affects this world/realm is strictly that of the devil or his minions. Anyone who engages in magick, period, is enlisting the services of the devil because there is no such thing as good, or “white” magick, because all magick calls for the intervention of supernatural forces or entities, which are in essence, evil because they are the only ones in this realm which have the power to affect the physical world or perform “miracles“. These actions are strictly temporary, and are most usually considered illusions.
Still with me?
Back to the topic of each culture being different, some cultures think that scrying will put you in touch with god, gods, devils, demons, loved ones who have pass on, ancient people, so on and so forth. Above, I described the Roman Catholic point of view, but there are also Wiccans and Satanists who use these practices quite frequently. Even Walt Disney may have may these practices somewhat acceptable, due to his child’s cartoon “Sleeping Beauty”. “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?“. Yes, that was said by the main villain of the movie, who happened to be… yep! You guessed it! A witch. Some people throughout history who you may have heard of were also “scryers“. In fact, the most famous “scryer” in history was Nostradamus. He used a technique that involved a bowl full of water or a “magic mirror” to see into the future so that he would record his ‘predictions‘. He used a method where he placed himself into a self-induced trance before conducting the method of scrying, in which he opened himself up to many other possibilities during the process. And we all know how that turned out.
And just a quick reference, in modern culture, scrying is also still very much alive. For example, a recent movie which incorporated this was “The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring“. When Frodo is with Galadriel in Lorien, and she has him look into the ‘mirror’ of water over a reflective silver surface, guess what? That was a form of scrying.
Another superstitious aspect of mirrors is that it is said that mirrors simply cannot lie. So if you see something in a reflection that should not be there, or is not there, then that is supposedly an extremely bad omen. And speaking of omens, there is an urban housewives tale that claims children should avoid seeing their own reflection until their first birthday. The reason for this is because mirrors, and eventually later, photographic cameras, display and capture the soul. And since the newborn infant child is still new to the world, that child’s soul, like it’s body, is still in a process of development. The legend states that if that child sees it’s own reflection, it will die a sudden death.
There are also certain creatures that are prevalent in ancient cultures in which the best possible description of them is “mirror demons“, or “mirror walkers“. They ‘travel‘ by going from one mirror to another, to another, and then affecting the world around those mirrors, sometimes even the people as well. I wish I could say more about these entities, but there is simply not very much known on the topic. If I happen to find more, I will update this post.
Yet another famous superstition is that it is not only bad luck, but it could potentially be catastrophic to have two mirrors facing each other.
Some Buddhists believe that evil or wicked spirits will enter a home particularly if the roof is shaped in the form of a 3 pointed triangle. To combat this, they suggest putting a small, circular mirror near the front door inside your home. That will supposedly be enough to prevent the negative entities from entering.
Now that we have successfully gone through the methods of scrying, let’s talk about yet another practice of the supernatural that involves mirrors. This technique is called Psychomanteum. This is the practice of setting up a room of mirrors specifically for the purpose of contacting the spirit realm. Just two paragraphs above this one, I have mentioned how it could be a very bad idea to have two mirrors facing one another. Well, this technique completely abolishes that theory, because as far as it is concerned, this is simply what needs to be done to successfully use this practice.
This is where shit gets bad, people. One famous technique of psychomanteum involves taking blood and pouring it into a small pool or puddle, usually in a concaved object. Then, once the blood settles and levels, and all surface blemishes are gone such as bubbles or even foam, practitioners will use that as the “mirror” to contact the spirit realm. This personally, is some bad shit. While some people obviously use water, there is no ‘good‘ way to obtain blood. Even if its from an animal, guess what? That animal has to die. However, when using blood, there are two methods that have supposedly garnered noteworthy successful ratios: the blood of a virgin, or even your own blood. These are obviously from human beings. While we all know that it is possible to lose a large amount of blood and still live, you would STILL need a small pool to be able to ensure that the medium used is correctly situated and set up properly to contain that blood as a reflective, even surface. But, this is supposedly an extremely successful method, as I mentioned above, and the rate of completion allegedly skyrockets when this method is used.
These rooms are set up in such a way that they are completely designed to work off of your own psychological affects, one of those being that you can actually easily put yourself in a form of trance without any assistance from an other person. The reason that the lights are dimmed is because this is supposed to represent a mild form of sensory deprivation, which makes it easier to engage in a trance affect. Another method involved would include a candle to provide mental stimulation by utilizing moving, indirect light. This provides a way to see undifferentiated color without the view of a horizon, which results in a form of momentarily ‘blindness‘. This is also known as the ‘Ganzfeld Effect’. The result of using candle light above is used because it also assists in causing hallucinations, and in combination with the indeterminate depth or darkness which the mirror reflects, it assists in reducing your ability to remain alert and aware. You are quite literally, as far as your mind is concerned, staring into infinite and engulfing darkness.
BROKEN MIRRORS AND THE MYTH OF SEVEN YEARS
Everyone has heard the myth that if you break a mirror, you will be plagued by seven years’ bad luck. The most commonly accepted theory for the origins of this deal with the fact that many people, as I mentioned above, believe that the mirror is believed to reflect a piece of your soul. In some cultures, the soul is said to regenerate itself every seven years, so it is very likely that this is where that myth originated from. I personally have issues with souls. I believe mine to be severely dysfuntional, and I do not believe that every soul is created equally. My soul is a very dark one, and it is a constant battle every day not to simply lose my shit and unleash hell upon whoever is closest to me at the time the dams break. However, I do believe in salvation, I just don’t believe that I can obtain it. I also believe that the ‘soul‘ is the essence, the energy of a being. I believe that in this life, at birth, a chosen energy simply possesses the newborn vessel (infant homosapien body) and lives and grows through this vessel. Since physics dictates that no energy can be destroyed, only converted into another form of energy, my belief is that our souls/essences/energy forms a symbiotic relationship with our vessels, and that we don’t even know it. Upon death, once the physical vessel expires and is no longer able to function, the soul/essence/energy leaves the body and wanders, eventually entering a new vessel. This is very similar to the theory of reincarnation, which Roman Catholics vehemently deny. So when breaking a mirror supposedly gives you seven years of bad luck, this is where the myth goes a little bit wonky for me. Once again, energy cannot be destroyed, only converted. Maybe its possible to have that piece of your soul shattered, in which case, that I could believe, but having it broken and ripped from the whole entirety of the soul, that is the part that I don’t believe.
MIRRORS AND THE DEAD
Certain religions, most famously the Jewish religion, have certain superstitions that involve covering up the mirrors in their home for a minimum of seven [7] days. The reason for this is because if a mirror was left uncovered, the soul of that person may become trapped inside that mirror for eternity if it were to return to visit or say its final goodbyes to loved ones who are still alive. This is a risk if it returns at any point, in fact, because mirrors in general are supposedly very good at ‘catching‘ the essences around it. A general belief is that normally, these souls are confined within our bodies, and that these bodies are the very thing that prevent the soul from being trapped inside these mirrors. When there is no longer a body to prevent this, the soul is then subject to confinement to the mirror. This practice is still in effect in many other countries and it extends to all reflective surfaces, not just mirrors. Very much like my first paragraph up top, all reflective surfaces are covered to assist the dead in their transition.
This is also the same reason that vampires are said to have no reflections – it is because vampires allegedly have no soul anymore, because it was taken from them upon the moment of their death. This is an entirely different post, and trust me, that is coming.
Supposedly, it is also extremely precarious to have mirrors in the presence of the recently deceased because it is said that the devil himself could eventually appear in the reflection with the body, thus claiming that soul to an eternity of torment and pain and anguish in Hell.
MY OWN EXPERIENCES
Needless to say, when I was young, I had many experiences with mirrors, and still do to this day. The fact of the matter is that I am never alone. Even when I am not near mirrors or reflective surfaces, I am still never alone. There are always moving, living shadows that I constantly see out of the corner of my eye. When I lie down in bed, these shadows visit me, and when I am near mirrors, it is that much worse. To be clear, I do not suffer from Eisoptrophobia. That is just the closest explanation that I could find to what my apprehensions are. I have seen creatures manifest in dark mirrors. Even in fully lit rooms, I have seen things which make me question reality in general, such as the fact that I will turn away from the bathroom mirror, and for just a split second after I am no longer facing the mirror, out of the corner of my eye, I will see my reflection continue to look at me. I have used mirrors in the past to channel – or attempt to channel – the supernatural. I have heard and felt physical responses while using these mirrors. I have seen things with my own two eyes that would make the average person pee themselves.
Mostly though, I am fearful only around real, glass mirrors. Little, bullshit plastic ‘dollar store’ mirrors do absolutely nothing. It only seems to be real glass for me. I do not have these problems in most reflective surfaces either. While I do occasionally see large shadow figures behind me in my ‘reflection’ when I turn my 55″ HDTV off, I suspect that is only because the surface of the television is large enough to capture the actual entities. I know that mirrors are the gateways to the supernatural, much like a door way or a window. Many, many times, I have seen instances of my own reflection where I will be staring at myself (reflection) in the mirror. Physically, everything matches up. Everything is as it is supposed to be. Except for the eyes in my reflection. The eyes are not mine. Physically, they match in color and pattern, but it is what is behind the eyes. It is the persona of the thing watching me that slips through every so often. Like a glimpse. And once again, they say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. And the soul I see in the eyes of my reflection does not belong to me.
Now, about my youth, I did dabble with Satanim, and Wiccanism. I DID attempt to scry, and I have experimented with mirrors in a supernatural sense. I have also utilized certain rituals in the past that didn’t work. I have partaken in seances, and fortune telling. I at one time attempted to summon both the dead and demons directly. I even once offered for myself to be used as a physical vessel. While my life may have changed, and I rescinded my offer, as well as turned away from magick or even the attempt of magick, I would be ignorant to assume that none of it had ‘left its mark‘, or ‘imprinted me‘. I know exactly what I have done, and when I stared into the darkness, I know that it started to stare back.
To this day, my wife has a very, very large mirror that she keeps in my mother-in-law’s house. This mirror is approximately eight [8] feet tall, and about four [4] feet wide. It is approximately 200 years old, and comes directly from Russia, where her family used to live. It has been revealed to me that her family in particular has been involved in the “white” side of occultism, which they simply refer to as mysticism or superstition. This mirror has made me feel extreme discomfort for all 11 years that I have known her, and it has appeared in ‘dreams‘ of mine in which horrible, horrible shit has happened. To this day, I refuse to look at it, and I have to mentally prepare myself to sleep in that room when we stay over at that house.I will not look into it at night, because I know that if I do, I will see finally what is watching me.
- 681 reads