Adding Blinders For Outsiders

1. Omission

Let’s say you always place a bowl of roses on your altar for your entity of choice, and that entity responds by surrounding you with the smell of lavender instead. This becomes an established ‘thing’ between the two of you: You place roses, they place lavender. Instead of writing that, however, you instead say that you place the roses and the air fills with “that welcoming scent”.

By intentionally leaving out an uncommon detail and allowing your readers to follow the lead you have given, you’ve created a password between you and your entity. And if anyone is trying to claim they have personal information about / from your beloved entity, you can use that to vet them; anyone trying to impersonate your beloved entity is most likely going to return the smell of roses in return for the roses you have placed. Wrong response- and anyone trying to say they are speaking on your behalf without having that tell (AND your explicit permission) is someone that needs to be called out.

Other types of omission: If there is a certain number of things that are always present when you are doing a thing, leave that specific number out. If there is a specific thing that is always present but is not necessary to talk about when discussing the topic (smell, the way the candle flame moves, a particular way the horsing person moves when ridden, any consistent observation that proves to you that this is happening), then don’t talk about it.

If something is highly personal to you, no matter how mundane and droll you may think it is, then don’t talk about it. You reveal only as much of yourself as you want to. It is not your responsibility to entertain the world or to be an example to those that try to follow you.

2. Distraction

Sometimes you can’t help but mention an important and personal thing if you are writing up your experiences. But all the audience knows of that thing is what you say of it, so if you downplay its importance to you while placing something else on the pedestal instead, and you can create a distracting tell.

So now my assistant is going to plunge this dagger into the top of the box! Oh, that’s a hard box to pierce, isn’t it! (Assistant agrees.) Let me put this very important bauble in my pocket and help keep the attention on the not very important box! And if someone’s going to use your words against you, they will choose those things that you have identified as important, here. And if they say they have knowledge of what is inside the box, then you know they’re full of shit because the box is the prop you placed.

Just in case someone guesses lucky and identifies the bauble as important, combine Distraction with Omission and withhold a detail about the bauble as you turn attention to the box. Then, because you didn’t divulge the bauble is really a set of three stones, that lucky guesser will exhaust their luck and say it is only one.

3. Substitution

You leave white roses on the altar, write that you left red instead. If you are told to eat a spoon of honey, write that you eat a spoon of sugar; it doesn’t matter if the thing you are substituting is effectively minor and insignificant. If it bothers you that much, don’t reveal it at all.

4. Direct Falsehood

Just like how certain map makers will create a fictional town and look for it in their competitor’s maps to see if the data was stolen- or how dictionary apps have fake words for the same purpose, add a false detail to your rendition: If you take three steps, make a certain gesture, then take three more as you approach your altar? Write that you start with another gesture, or that you turn around before walking forward, or that you prostrate yourself in the middle gesture.

The lie you insert has no real bearing on the overall impact of what you have written. Instead it acts as a reverse passcode. Only those that know to leave it out will proceed correctly, and everyone else trying to use it to gain entry will fail. Who will know to leave it out? Only those you trust with it- and you should choose who you trust carefully.

That being said: If you are oathbound to say the thing plainly, then say the thing plainly. If you are oathbound to not reveal a thing, then DO NOT REVEAL THE THING- not even in code and cumbersome words. And if you are unsure if to write about it at all, then simply don’t. Keep it silent, and keep it safe.

All in all, though, it is your choice what to write publicly, if you write at all. But you are never required to reveal everything you know about everything you have experienced. You are never required to strip yourself naked to prove anything to anybody. Think carefully then, what you choose to write about, and what means of challenging would be imposters and intruders you will have to defend yourself with.