Marcus Aurelius's Emotionally Strengthening Practice

[Megistomedes]

I have had heard that Marcus Aurelius often imagined bad situations and strengthen himself by this. I don't remember where I heard this, years passed, but as far as I remember, it was like for example, he envisioned his soldiers betrayed him out of nowhere, so he was emotionally prepared for bad situations, because he already envisioned insofar he don't get disturbed by these possibilities.

But if I remember correct, HPS Pythia said that "bad affirmations bring bad events." Of course, she said this for "verbal" statements, not visualizing. Can someone enlighten me, does envisioning bad events happening make them come true? If that's not the case, do you think this practice can be practiced by Zevism? Thanks in advance.

 

[High Priest Zevios Metathronos]

This is just on a purely imaginative level/day dreaming tier of imagination, not really creative magical practice.

It's not on a level where desire or will is applied. It's like a mere fantasy. Mere fantasy doesn't manifest and only does so rarely if one isn't in check of things. The intention has to be clear that one is merely exploring an idea, desire must not be applied.

That won't procure serious changes, but one has to be careful regardless, as dwelling on certain ideas for abnormally big amounts of time, can create problems.