We all have bias; it’s a natural thing in humans. Bias is formed due to our brains needing to make models of how the world works to enable greater efficiency. It would be difficult to get things done if we have to consider anew every operation prior to performing it. Bias has its benefits but it also has its dangers.

It is one of the goals of the chaos magician to examine their own bias and how bias impacts them personally. Many of our biases go unnoticed as it’s so ingrained into our culture and our brains that we fail to identify it. We often assume that a bias is just the way things are, without taking it apart and examining it.

Belief shifting in chaos magick is not merely about say, doing a Norse ritual followed by a Greek pantheon ritual, switching between magical paradigms. However, that is an essential thing to do, to encourage your brain to start thinking in different ways. Belief shifting is mostly about examining the beliefs that we hold in life, taking them apart and asking the question, do these beliefs serve me well? Are there other beliefs that would work better for me? Chaos magick is about examining how you operate in the multi-universe; delving deep into the very core of your own understanding and reforming it.

It is through this process of belief metamorphism, that we can free our minds from the beliefs and assumptions preventing it from achieving oneness with the creative and destructive forces of the universe that we call chaos. In other words uniting with the divine/chaos is more likely to happen if one examines the nature of belief and questions the validity of one’s own assumptions.

I have seen in the occult and pagan communities that there is frequently an encouragement to question everything which I applaud. Sadly, I have also seen on a few occasions that this questioning can take the form of a personal attack on another practitioner.  When the practitioner complains about the attack they are then gas lit with words such as “but I was only questioning, pagans are supposed to question, Right?”

This type of questioning, which to me looks more like interrogation, misses the point. Yes, we are supposed to question but who we are supposed to question more rigorously and determinedly than anyone else is our self, not other practitioners.

Part of this is considering our bias. There are some biases in the world, in our culture, that most of us are well aware of. Racism, ageism and gender bias are three examples of that. We know about these forms of discrimination, there are laws in the UK that seek to redress them. There are groups and societies challenging these types of discrimination. What I am looking at here are the subtler biases that can go unnoticed. There is less awareness in society about the subtler forms of bias; there are no laws against them.

Bias is often seen as a negative assumption about a group of people but it can also be a positive assumption. One of my personal biases is that I have a tendency to automatically think well of a person with a certain accent. I lived in an area of that regional accent when I was in my 20’s. I had a great time there, I hear the accent and it brings back all those good memories. I also like the sound of that accent, it’s an auditory preference. Therefore I am aware I may positively discriminate and show the person with this accent favouritism. This is a natural human thing to do, we all do it, but that does not mean that we should not challenge it in ourselves.

The chaos magician can also benefit from looking closely at how bias impacts directly on them. Being female I am well aware of the gender bias but strangely I have found myself more impacted by accentism and the extrovert bias than I have by my gender. These are subtler forms of bias. I am aware that having a strong welsh accent means that I am sometimes considered less educated and that people who are introverts are sometimes considered less intelligent, less skilled and less plausible than their extroverted friends.

What to do with this? Bias is natural and yes you can be angry about how bias serves to oppress you and seek to educate others, these are positive and necessary things to do. If there are human rights issues then definitely challenge. With subtler forms of bias that do not impact on your basic human rights, I think the first stage is to still continue to examine your self.

Here comes the difficult question. How complicit am I in my own oppression? Have I held the same biases?  For me the answer is “Yes”. Have I, in my life been guilty of accentism and the extrovert bias?  For me the answer is “Yes”. Have I thought less highly of my self because of these things? Again my answer is “Yes.”

Then the spell of the bias is broken, you have seen through it, within your self, and without your self.  You know that the bias is false. While you may still have issues with others applying the bias to you, you will never apply it to yourself again.  You have achieved a degree of liberation. You have changed your self-belief.

Now, that what I call belief shifting. Hail Chaos.