Looking at Illusion: Pyras Demathos

[Kangleton]

Hypothesis I: An illusion only needs to be a tiny thought, seeded in the mind of the target. An illusion does not need to be a grand, illustrious fabrication -- it doesn't even need to be detailed. All that is required for a masterful illusion is the inception of a thought, and time for that thought to reproduce in the target's mind. A master illusionist does not need to construct an entire paradigm from the ground up, and instead only needs to plant a thought in the target's mind. From that thought, the illusion will grow organically in the mind of the target without encouragement.

Hypothesis II: Receptiveness to illusions increases over time, as people grow more comfortable with their environment over time. People become confident that they know their environment, and so become less cautious and doubtful of the things they encounter. Timing is therefore essential to the master illusionist, as is ensuring a sense of familiarity in the target. If the target believes themselves familiar with what they're looking at it, they will fail to scrutinize it.

Experimental Design:

My assistant, Johanna, will be told that for the duration of one week, she will be barraged with illusions as well as real, paid agents. These agents -- illusory and real alike -- will harass her, disrupt her efforts, deceive her, and impede her ability to function properly during her daily routine. She will need to find a means to distinguish reality from illusion and act accordingly. This is the impression she will be put under, though truly, I will do nothing. I will send no illusion, pay for no agents, and will simply tell her that I have.

I will monitor her over the week and question her at the end of the experiment's duration. I will have seeded her mind with a thought of paranoia and will observe the effect of the mind reproducing that thought, without external assistance. I will have no contact with her over the duration, magical or otherwise.

Reported Findings:

-Heightened vigilance over the first few days of the experiment.
-Decline in vigilance back to base-setting after the first few days.
-Eventual disbelief that there was ever any illusions/agents at all.

Analysis:

It would seem that the old theory that individuals have mental "base settings" holds true. Everyone has a "base setting" level of comfort that their mind tries to maintain at all costs. When this base setting is disrupted by something that causes discomfort, the mind will try to counteract this change to restore the base setting. This is often done by justifying that the cause of the discomfort is unimportant, and that the discomfort is unjustified. This will cause a shift in the mind back to the base setting of comfort.

In the case of this experiment, Johanna was met with discomfort in the fact that she thought she was being mentally assaulted over a span of time. However, as time proceeded, the discomfort receded and she slowly returned to her base setting even while there was no indication that the problem had stopped. This proves Hypothesis II, in that over time, an individual will adapt to an illusion (instead of fighting it) in order to preserve their baseline comfort setting. This may involve accepting the illusion if doing so is the path of least resistance towards comfort.

Hypothesis I is only partially supported by evidence, though enough so that further testing is encouraged. For at least two days, the subject showed an increase in vigilance, reacting to something that did not exist outside of her mind. The thought (that she was being mentally assaulted) was seeded without being affirmed by any evidence. Nonetheless, her actions and routines changed to respond to a fictional circumstance. This seeding effect -- this inception -- proved almost more potent than an actual spell. It would seem that when an individual recognizes a thought as their own, they resist it less severely than when they believe the thought is from an external source.

These findings will need to be accounted for during the formation of new spells.

[Kangleton]

Hypothesis III: When success is perceived to be impossible, all efforts of resistance will stop -- none will be made, at all. It is not the nature of the individual to operate outside of their own beliefs, and if their beliefs include that something is impossible, the individual will not make an attempt. It is the priority of the psyche of an individual to remain consistent with its beliefs.

Experimental Design:

I will present a box to my assistant, Johanna, in which is said to be an object of great importance to her. Three keys will be laid out upon the table, and she will be given one chance to open the box -- she cannot make more than one attempt. She will be allowed a single question to ask me in order to help determine which key is the correct key. Naturally, she will ask "which is the correct key", to which I will answer "none". This is because the box is not locked in the first place, and the situation is an illusion.

Reported Findings:

-She indeed asked the correct question and was told that no key is the correct key.
-Upon hearing this, she gave up and made no attempt whatsoever.

Analysis:

Once put under the belief that no success was possible, Johanna made no efforts. Even when there was no consequence to making an attempt -- when there was no possible harm involved -- she still did not so much as try. The belief of impossibility made impossibility a reality, even when opening the box was entirely, physically possible. This will need to be taken into account for spellwork.

When overwhelmed with a sensation of impossible odds, efforts cease being made; in terms of spells, this could mean that a target would fail to resist an illusion that is extremely imposing, if it could give the impression that it was too strong to be resisted. The experimental findings indicate a clue as to how this can be done:

The experiment involved a problem; how to open a box. The problem was understood to have one solution, which was implied by the presence of keys. The problem was a closed box, the solution seemed to obviously involve keys. However, the keys were not a part of the solution, and were simply there to mislead. When the keys didn't work, however, Johanna did not make an alternative guess.

It would seem, then, that when someone believes there is a solution, and that solution proves to be false, the person's efforts will begin to decrease. When someone feels that their best possible guess was incorrect, it decreases their morale and thus their ability to make future attempts. They are apt to believe that if their best efforts failed, their future efforts must be futile. Therefore, if an illusion could be crafted that provoked an incorrect response to resist it, the illusion would be neigh impossible to resist, for the victim would cease trying.