Spiritual Tripping

Spiritual Tripping (霊的蹴たぐり, Reiteki Ketaguri^?) is a form of Magic which is a specialty of Aleister Crowley and his master Allan Bennett.

Etymology

The Japanese term ketaguri (蹴手繰り) is a sumo term referring to a type of ankle sweep.

Principles

Spiritual Tripping is a technique which links the user's body to a target's body in a way similar to a voodoo doll and synchs up their motions. However, rather than similarly manipulating their body, it allows the user into their target's mind. Using their gestures to indicate weapons, the users forcibly drives images into the target's mind along with the power associated with them, allowing them to manifest illusionary weapons which cause the same effects to the target as real ones.

When utilized, the user forms a gesture relating to the weapon they wish to use against their target. The visual is used to drive an image into the target's mind and create a foothold to influence their thoughts, having them picture the weapon. Several small numbers scatter from their hand like sparks, then the indicated weapon manifests, though it is only visible to the one who is being targeted. A certain degree of skill is necessary in order to convey the image through the gesture, with extremely skilled users such as Aleister Crowley being able to instill an image with details which would be normally be impossible to tell from a simple gesture, even if the image is that of something that the target has never seen before. In order for Spiritual Tripping to be effective, the target has to witness the gestures the user makes and has to be able to 'picture' the image in their mind. The technique uses mime and astrological suggestion to bind the user to the target, but it also takes advantage of the way the brain fills in gaps when it receives limited information. If the target's perception is distorted, there is a chance that Spiritual Tripping may not function properly.

The illusionary weapons only affect the intended targets and as such, will not affect or be affected by obstacles or surroundings (for example, if a gun is used to shoot a target inside a building from the outside through a window, the physical distance and atmospheric conditions won't change the accuracy of the shot, and the shot will pass through without breaking the window), through the movements of the target as a result of the attack will affect their surroundings as normal. Even if a Spiritual Tripping attack hits a target with enough destructive power to destroy the world several times over, only they will be affected by it. Normal obstacles won't impede Spiritual Tripping attacks but it is still possible to intercept them through magical means and Imagine Breaker.

Rooted in the target's imagination, Spiritual Tripping draws out destructive power from their own mind. As such, it works well with the Blasting Rod, which amplifies magic to ten times what the target imagines it to be.

Known manifested weapons and their associated numbers include:

• Twisted silver wand (mimicking the Blasting Rod): 28, 4, 29
• Flintlock pistol: 32, 30, 10
• Claymore: 1, 27, 5
• Rapier: 13, 5, 32
• Shields, Bows: Numbers not known.
• Big Bang Bomb (ビッグバン爆弾, Bigguban Bakudan^?): Number not known. An imaginary aerial support weapon with the destructive power found at the creation of the universe, used by Aleister through the gesture of raising a hand to mime peering through a pair of military binoculars used to designate attack coordinates via laser or GPS.
• Gamma knife: Number not known.
• Gold staff with a spherical head: Number not known. Symbolizes the sun.
• Silver scythe: Number not known. Symbolizes the moon.

Aside from the aforementioned weapons, Aleister Crowley suggested the forcibly implanted imagination from Spiritual Tripping could be used for surgical tools and methods, such as X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, blood tests, gas chromatography, ultrasound, centrifuges, transmission electron microscopes, polymerase chain reaction DNA tests and a cyclotron particle accelerator.

Background

During Aleister Crowley's time in the Golden Dawn, he was taught this form of magic by his teacher Allan Bennett. When he decided to destroy the cabal in order to change the fate of his future daughter, on his teacher's prompting, he shot him using a weapon manifested through the very magic he taught him. In the subsequent conflict which Aleister started through the Battle of Blythe Road, he used Spiritual Tripping to strike down the members of the Golden Dawn, cursing them to either die or live a life with all of their choices doomed to failure. In accordance with the rules he set, he would eventually turn his own blade and the curse upon himself.

Chronology

Toaru Majutsu no Index

World War III Arc

Main article: World War III Arc

During his attack on Fiamma of the Right, when Aleister brought out the Blasting Rod, the mime-like motions he made and the narrative's description of how Fiamma saw the staff seep out where nothing should be, described as not existing in the real world but an illusion seen to the point of seeing silver due to unclassified information sources such as feeling presence or atmosphere, strongly suggested the use of Spiritual Tripping, though it wasn't specifically revealed at the time.

Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index

Aleister Crowley Arc

Main article: Aleister Crowley Arc

On December 11th, shortly after Kamijou Touma's group entered the Windowless Building, Aleister made use of a Spiritual Tripping-based attack to scatter them. Aleister Crowley made extensive use of Spiritual Tripping, supporting by the power of the Blasting Rod and his technique of using 'sparks' produced by phase collisions from his magic, during his subsequent battle with Touma.

Processor Suit Arc

Main article: Processor Suit Arc

Aleister made skilled use of Spiritual Tripping during the confrontation with A. O. Francisca (a Coronzon-possessed Karasuma Fran) and her Mimetic Predators. After annihilating the Mimetic Predators with a Spiritual Tripping Big Bang Bomb, Aleister made use of the magic to surgically remove Coronzon from Fran mid-fight.

Coronzon Arc

Main article: Coronzon Arc

Aleister faces Kanzaki Kaori and the Knight Leader, using Spiritual Tripping.

Aleister made extensive use of Spiritual Tripping during his return to the United Kingdom. During the battle against Isis-Demeter, possessing Orsola Aquinas, Aleister refrained from using Spiritual Tripping as Orsola's perception was distorted, meaning that it probably wouldn't have the intended effect. After Orsola rejected Isis-Demeter when Touma got through to her, Aleister used Spiritual Tripping against the rapidly diminishing Divine Mixture but wasn't able to form a proper link.

Side Stories

Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Stiyl

Main article: Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Stiyl Magnus

When Stiyl Magnus diagnoses Patricia Birdway using the smoke of his cigarette touching her skin to reproduce her mental condition inside his own mind, Spiritual Tripping is referenced (though not by name) as a similar high-level method used by Crowley.

Necessarius Special Admission Test SS

Main article: Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Necessarius Special Admission Test

When Itsuwa, fighting Cynthia Exment, manages to match her opponent's attack patterns correctly and counter them, she mentions that she could only do that due to being an Amakusa Christian and not any spell, referencing Spiritual Tripping by stating that only Crowley could have done that with no preparations to knock people to the ground.

Trivia

• Spiritual Tripping is based on a story about an incident in Crowley's life that took place in New York City, and written by American journalist William Seabrook, who befriended Crowley in New York towards the end of the First World War. In his book Witchcraft: Its Power in the World Today, Seabrook reports strolling down Fifth Avenue with his magician friend one afternoon. As they crossed 42nd Street, in order to prove his powers by a demonstration of 'sympathetic magick', Crowley pointed out a businessman just ahead of them. Crowley fell into step with the man, a few feet behind him, and began to mimic the man's walk and movements exactly, becoming an "astral ghost of the other". Then he deliberately buckled at the knees, dropped into a squat, bounced back and continued to walk. The businessman went flying "as if his legs had been shot out under him", and he sprawled on the sidewalk until solicitous passers-by, including Crowley and Seabrook, helped him back to his feet. The unfortunate victim looked for a banana peel and checked his soles, but there was nothing to suggest why he had fallen. Puzzled, he thanked Seabrook and Crowley, and carried on. Seabrook tried to explain Aleister's powers in some rational way, but in the end concluded he might have really possessed a genuine power after all.
• The numbers accompanying weapons manifested through Spiritual Tripping have all been between 1 and 32, and in groups of three. Assuming that order is important, there are 32,768 combinations which can be produced by these values.
• There are a few magical concepts connected to the number 32. Whether or not any of them are linked to Spiritual Tripping in any way is unknown.
  • In Kabbalah, there are 32 'Paths of Wisdom' and the sum of the sephira and the paths between them on the Sephiroth (excluding Daat) is also 32.
  • The above concepts and the number 32 are also used in the structure of the large correspondence and equivalency table in Aleister Crowley's Liber 777.
• In describing Aleister's use of Spiritual Tripping, the narrative compares it to the Japanese urban legend 'Purple Mirror' (紫の鏡, Murasaki no Kagami^?), involving a cursed phrase which will kill a person if they remember it until they reach 20. Just like how someone may try to forget the phrase and end up only focusing on it more, the target may try picturing another image to avoid picturing the implanted one but end up narrowing it down and being unable to escape.
• Spiritual Tripping has been compared and contrasted to the Imagine Breaker in the narration, described as being in a completely different direction as a completed method which gives physical form to illusions and sends them out into the world.