Welcome to Butterflies and Incantations: A podcast about all things weird and magical. I'm your host, Vanessa.

	Do what thou whilt shall be the whole of the law.

	As you have no doubt noticed at this point, the website for this podcast has changed. The blog is no longer located thereupon and has now been moved to my website Vanessa's Domain. This new website serves as a creative hub for all of my projects sans this podcast alone. The reason this podcast will be located on its existing website and not moved over to the new domain is simply the fact that in order to maintain compatibility with the podcast agrogate sites and apps that use them it is imperative that I maintain my existing site so the links do not go dead. Additionally having a website separate for this podcast is advantagous as it allows me to segment off the things that are related to the podcast and my other various creative projects.

	At this point I have reached an impasse. As you have certainly noticed by now my podcast has paused its production for a good long time and the reason for this is simple; I ran out of people to interview or converse with that I hadn't already done, that were available, that I had things to talk about. The project has sat dormant for a number of years and I have considered many different ways to continue this podcast as I don't want it to die and I find that there's plenty that I could say but I find it difficult to do so up to this point. However this episode marks the first in a series I will be doing covering my various blog posts on the hew website Vanessa's Domain and giving voice to them. Firstly it continues the podcast and eliminates the stop-gap that has been persistent for several years now but it also gives voice to the blog for those who are visually impaired or simply unable to read, or willing to read, or uninterested in reading the text form. I will do my best to read these entries and provide commentaries where relevant. This can therefore be considered a second season. The first of these episodes is going to my blog post entitled Antipsychotics.

	Do what thou whilt shall be the whole of the Law.

	A parable:
	Two men and two women with amnesia are admitted into a medical facility for an experiment. They are each given a pill and then placed in a room. The administrator then tells them, one of you has schizophrenia and was given an anti-psychotic medication, one of you has schizophrenia and was given a placebo, one of you is neurotypical and have been given datura and one of you is neurotypical and have been given a placebo. Your task is to determine which of you have been given what. You are not allowed to leave this room. Your first instinct may be to declare the ones who’s experiences seems to match up might be the pointer to a solution…that is unless it’s folie à deux.

	I accept for the sake of this incarnation the presuppositions required to manage existence here. However, I recognize the constant possibility they could be wrong, or change at a moment’s notice and that I have no way of reliably distinguishing them from psychosis beyond their apparent consistency. As Philip K Dick once said “Reality is that which when you stop believing in it doesn’t go away.” Psychosis and reality are indistinguishable by the observer.

	But that’s where modern medicine swoops in to save the day.

	Antipsychotics are a modern marvel. The weight they lift can’t be properly expressed in words. If you’ve never experienced disordered thoughts you can’t truly comprehend just what they do for a person. It seems almost miraculous. Throughout human history psychosis was just a tragedy. Now it can be treated. That’s way more a big deal than it is recognized as. It’s a way more important invention than is ever appreciated except by those taking them.

	For that matter, psych meds in general mean so much for the people who are on them because they can dramatically change one’s quality of life. Yet the general public will never be truly aware of what that means because it’s kinda a taboo topic given the social stigma. Beyond that also the relevant symptoms that they treat are largely invisible because they just seem “normal”. To those who have never experienced what it’s like to not do that it’s hard for them to fathom just what it means for a person and their state of mind.

	Love is the law, love under will.
	
	Thank you for listening to Butterflies and Incantations. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and follow me on social media. This is Vanessa reminding you that magick is everywhere, you only need to know where to look.