empathic induction of various psychic phenomena

"Here we shall begin to describe the process by which individual consciousness may be transplanted outwards. We must understand how to shift our consciousness optionally into every object, animal and human being. 

Similar to the concentration on objects, put some objects which you are using every day in front of you. Sitting in your habitual position, fix your eyes for a short while on one of the objects, and inculcate the shape, colour and size of it firmly in your mind. Now, mentally feel as the object itself and adopt all it's properties. You have to be quite certain of the fact that you are fastened to the spot you have been put, unable to abandon it except through an outside influence. You should even be capable by intense concentration to regard your surroundings from the point of this object, and to grasp its relationship to other objects. For example, supposing the object happens to be on a table, you feel the relationship to this table as well as to all the other things on the table. Having managed this exercise with one object, you can gradually turn to the others. The exercise is fulfilled if you have managed to connect each object you selected to your consciousness so that you have adopted the shape, size, and quality of the object, and that you remain in it for at least five minutes without any interruption. It must be possible for you to overlook and forget your body completely. Having managed this task, you can choose simple living objects (such as plants or fish) for your concentrative transmutation of consciousness. 

Consciousness knows neither time nor space; it is consequently a metaphysical principle. No individual should be deterred by the rather unusual practice of these exercises and by eventual failures at the beginning; patience, perseverance and tenacity will soon lead to the success aimed at. The initiate will learn later what significance these preliminary exercises have, if they are not immediately apparent. As soon as one is able to manage transplanting consciousness into inanimate objects or simple living ones, the exercises with more complex living objects will follow. It has been said before that consciousness is timeless and spaceless, and it is not necessary, while doing the exercises with living creatures, to have the object concerned directly before our eyes. By now the initiate should be trained so far as to be able to imagine any creature he should wish with clarity. Let him therefore transplant his consciousness in the imagination of a cat, a dog, a horse, a cow, a goat, etc. The kind of experimental object does not matter; it might as well be an ant, a bird, or an elephant. At first one begins with the imagination of the animal in the motionless condition, later on walking, running, creeping, flying or swimming, corresponding to the kind of object in question. The initiate must be able to transmute his consciousness in any form he likes to without interruption if he wishes to regard this as being mastered. 

Adepts who have been practicing this exercise for years are able to understand any animal and handle it by their will power. In connection with this fact, it is important to remember the legend of werewolves and other tales in which sorcerers adopt the form of animals. There is no doubt many of these legends are cases of the so-called black magicians, who adopt all sorts of animal shapes in the invisible world to accomplish various ego-driven tasks. Such actions must always be guarded against, lest great imbalance be introduced in this world. These preliminary exercises do not serve to introduce the initiate to means with which to accomplish wicked deeds, but to prepare him for the higher magic, where he will have to adopt higher, non-physical forms into which he will transplant his self-consciousness.

If one has been trained during the exercise to the point of being capable of adapting any kind of animal shape with the consciousness, and if one can manage to maintain this imagination for five minutes without interruption, then the same exercise has to be practiced on human beings. For the beginning, select acquaintances, friends, members of the family, whose imagination you are able to keep in mind, without discrimination of sex and age. One always has to be very sure about how to transplant the consciousness into the body so that one feels and thinks oneself as being the imaginary person. From well-known people one may turn to strangers never seen before, and therefore to be imagined. The exercise is ended if you manage to transplant your consciousness for at least five minutes into one of the imaginary bodies. The longer the spell of this achievement, the more profitable it will become.
 

It should become apparent from these facts why the eastern scholar bestows the highest worship to his master. By worshiping the master, he connects himself instinctively with the master’s consciousness, and so being influenced indirectly, his progress will be far more certain and faster as well. It is quite obvious that the traditional eastern training methods regard a master (guru) as absolutely necessary for the development of the initiate. The Tibetan ankhur is based on the same fundament, but in the inverted order: the master connects himself with the scholar’s consciousness and transplants power and enlightenment to him. The same thing happens in the case of the Greek mystics, the point in question being the pneuma-transfer.

This particular exercise gives the adept the power to connect himself with every human being in an advanced empathic manner. Such knowledge of others opens one to many new modes of perception and ideation, all of which have dangerous repercussions if used improperly. However, such action impedes the ability of an adept to connect with other beings on a selfless, empathic level. And without that fundamental ability, this exercise is not possible. Let it be known that without this ability, further progress on our path will be impossible as well."

conscious eidetic ideation/inducing hallucinatory phenomena

"In the first step of our process, we have learned how to control and master our thoughts. Now let us go on to teach you how to raise the capacity of mental concentration in order to strengthen the willpower.
 
Put some objects in front of you, say, a knife, a fork, a pencil, and a box of matches, and fix your eyes on these objects for a while. Try to remember their shapes and colors exactly. Then close your eyes and endeavor to imagine a certain object plastically, in exactly the same form, as it is in reality. Should the object vanish from your imagination, try to recall it again. In the beginning you will be successful in this experiment only for a few seconds, but when persevering and repeating this exercise, the object will appear more distinct, and disappearance and reappearance will take place more rarely from one exercise to the next. Do not be discouraged by initial failures, and if you feel tired, change to the next object. 

At the beginning, do not exercise longer than 10 minutes, but after a while you may extend the exercise little by little up to 30 minutes. In order to check disturbances, use the string of beads or knots described in the lesson on autosuggestion. Move one bead at every disturbance or interruption. Thus later you will be able to tell how many disorders happened in the course of an exercise. The purpose of the exercise is completed if you can hold onto one object for 5 minutes without any interruptions. If you have gotten to this point, you may pass on to imagining the object with your eyes open. Now the object ought to make the impression of hanging in the air and be visible before your eyes in such a plastic shape as to seemingly be tangible. Apart from the one object you imagined, nothing else of the surroundings must be noticed. Check disturbances with the aid of the string of beads. If you have succeeded in holding on to any object hanging plastically in the air for 5 minutes without the least incident, the task of this exercise has been fulfilled.
 
After the visual concentration, let us make an inquiry about the auditory concentration. At the beginning, the creative imagination has to perform a certain role. It is, as it were, impossible to say, “Imagine the ticking of a clock” or something like that because the concept of imagination generally involves a pictorial representation, which cannot be said about auditory exercises. For the sake of better understanding we ought to say: “Imagine you hear the ticking of a clock”. Therefore, let us employ this kind of expression. Now imagine that you are hearing the ticking of a clock on the wall. You will succeed in doing so only for a few seconds at the beginning, just as in the previous exercises. But by persisting in your exercise, you will hear the sound more and more distinctly, without any disturbance. The string of beads or knots will be beneficial here also for checking the disturbances. Afterward, try to listen to the ticking of a pocket-watch or a wristwatch, or the chime of bells in various harmonies. You may also practice other auditory concentration experiments such as the sounding of a gong, the different noises of hammering, knocking, scratching, shuffling, thunderclaps, the soft rustling of the wind increasing to the howling of the storm, the tunes of a violin or a piano or other instruments. When doing these exercises, it is most important to keep within the limits of auditory concentration, not allowing for pictorial imagination. Should such an imagination emerge, banish it immediately. The chiming of the bell must never evoke the imagination of the bell itself. This exercise is completed as soon as you are able to keep this auditory imagination for 5 minutes.
 
Another exercise is the sensory concentration. Try to produce the sensations of cold, warmth, gravity, lightness, hunger, thirst, and tiredness, and hold on to this feeling for at least 5 minutes without the slightest visual or auditory imagination. You will most likely find this exercise to be significantly easier than the previous. If you have acquired the faculty of concentration in such a degree as to be able to produce any sensation you like and hold it fast, you may pass on to the next exercise.
 
Now let us throw some light upon the olfactory concentration. Imagine that you are smelling the scent of various flowers such as roses, lilacs, violets or other perfumes, and hold on to this imagination without allowing a pictorial image of the respective flower to emerge. Try to practice with disagreeable smells of different kinds, as well as more enjoyable ones. Exercise this kind of concentration until you are able to imaginarily bring about any scent at will and keep it for at least 5 minutes.

Our last exercise will deal with the taste concentration. Without thinking of any food or drink or without imagining the same, you have to concentrate on taste. Choose the thumping sensations of taste such as sweet, bitter, salty and acidic to begin with. Having attained some certain skill herein, you may carry out an experiment on the taste of diverse spices, at your discretion. If you have succeeded in producing any sensation of the chosen taste and holding onto it for at least 5 minutes, the purpose of this exercise is fulfilled.
 
One or another initiate will meet with smaller or greater difficulties in practicing these concentration exercises. This means that the cerebral function with respect to the concerned taste has been neglected or imperfectly developed. This merely means these areas must be given extra attention and practice. Remember, patience is key. Concentration exercises performed with all the five senses strengthen your mind, your willpower, and you learn not only how to control all senses, but also to develop and finally temper them perfectly. An adept’s senses must all be developed equally, and he must be able to control them. These exercises are of paramount importance for self development, and therefore should never be omitted."

autosuggestion: secrets of subconscious

"In every individual that is in his right senses, the normal sphere of consciousness is intact, i.e., he always and at any time is capable of making use of the functions of normal consciousness. As it results from our investigations, there is no power in the universe nor in man that does not vary between opposites. Hence we may consider subconsciousness as the opposite to normal consciousness. That which in normal consciousness we subsume by the concepts of thinking, feeling, willing, memory, reason, and intellect is reflected in our subconsciousness in a contrary way. Practically speaking, we can regard our subconsciousness as our opponent. The incentive or the impulse to all that is undesirable, such as our passions, our failures, our weaknesses, originates just in this very sphere of consciousness. To the pupil now falls the task of introspection to disclose the work of this subconsciousness. This is a satisfactory task in as much as the pupil will acquire self-reliance by his own reflection or meditation.

Hence, subconsciousness is the incentive of all we do not wish for. Let us learn how to transmute this, so to speak, antagonistic aspect of our ego, so that it not only does no harm, but on the contrary will help to realize our desires. Subconsciousness needs time and space in the material world for its realization, two basic principles valid for all things that have to be transmuted into reality from the causal world. Withdrawing time and space from the subconscious, the opposite polarity will cease to bring its influence to bear upon us, and we shall be able to realize our wishes through the subconscious. This sudden elimination of the subconscious offers the key for the practical use of autosuggestion. If, e.g., we inculcate in the subconsciousness the wish of not giving in tomorrow or any other time, to any of our passions, say smoking or drinking alcohol, subconsciousness will have time enough to put some hindrance, directly or indirectly, in our way. In most of these cases, mainly, in the presence of feeble or underdeveloped willpower, subconsciousness will nearly always succeed in taking us by surprise or causing failures. On the other hand, of we exclude the concepts of time and space from subconsciousness while impregnating it with a desire, only the positive pole of subconsciousness will affect us, normal consciousness being equated, and our impregnate desire must have the success we are expecting. This knowledge and the possibilities related to it, are of the greatest importance for the development and have, therefore, to be considered as far as self-suggestion is concerned.

The phrasing to choose for autosuggestion must always be expressed in the present or imperative form. You should not say: “I shall stop drinking or smoking or whatever”. The correct form is: “I do not smoke, I do not drink”, or else, “I do not like smoking or drinking” and so on, according to whatever you wish to suggest in  a positive or negative sense. The key or clue to self-suggestion is to be found in the form of the phrasing. It is that which, always and in every respect, has to be considered if you wish to practice autosuggestion through subconsciousness.

Subconsciousness is acting in the most effective and penetrating way during the night, when one is asleep. In the state of sleep, the activity of normal consciousness is suspended, subconsciousness working in its place. The most appropriate time for autosuggestion receptivity, therefore, is the moment when the body is resting drowsily in bed, i.e., immediately before falling asleep as well as immediately after waking up, when we remain still half-awake. That does not mean that a different time would be quite unsuitable for self-suggestion, but these two moments are most promising, subconsciousness being most responsive then. That is why the adept will never go to sleep in an emotional attitude such as anger or depression, worries which would have an unfavorable influence in his subconsciousness, going on in the same train of thoughts with which he had fallen asleep. Always go to sleep with peaceful and harmonious thoughts or ideas about success, health and pleasant feelings.

Before you practice autosuggestion, it may be useful to make up a small chain of 40 beads. A knotted piece of string also will do fine. This expedient is only meant to avoid counting when you are reiterating the suggestive formula over and over, so as not to divert your attention. This little gadget also will serve to make sure how many disturbances happened when you were practicing concentration and meditation exercises. All you have to do is move a bead or a knot at every interruption.

The practical use of autosuggestion is very simple. If you have worded that which you want to achieve in a precise sentence in the present and imperative form, such as: “I feel better and better every day”, or “I do not like smoking [or: drinking, etc.]”, or “I am healthy, content, happy”, then you may proceed to the real practice. Immediately before falling asleep, take your string of beads or knots and, whether in an undertone, softly, or in your mind, according to your surroundings, repeat the phrase you have chosen and move one bead or knot at every repetition until you arrive at the end of the string. Now you know for sure that you repeated the formula 40 times. The main point is that you imagine your wish as being realized already and having actual existence. If you do not yet feel sleepy after the 40 repetitions, engage yourself for a while longer with the idea that your wish has been accomplished, and keep doing so until at last you fall asleep with your desire still in mind. You must try to transfer your desire to the sleep. Should you fall asleep while reiterating the formula, the purpose will be achieved. In the morning, when you are not quite up and have some time to spare, you ought to reach for the string of beads and repeat the exercise once more. Some people get up several times during the night to urinate or for some other reasons. If so, they can repeat this exercise as well, and they will attain their desires all the sooner. A more modern practice is to use a repeating tape cassette deck to accomplish this automatically. 

Now the question arises: what kind of wishes can be accomplished by self-suggestion? Principally, every wish can be fulfilled as far as mind, soul and body are concerned. For example: refining of the character, repression of ugly qualities, weaknesses, disorders, recovery of health, removal and promotion of various aptitudes, development of faculties, and so on. Certainly, desires having nothing to do with the personality, such as lottery numbers, can never be fulfilled."

thought control

"Take a seat in a comfortable chair or lie down on a settee. Relax the whole body, close your eyes and observe the train of your thoughts for five minutes, trying to retain it. At first, you will find that there are rushing up to you thoughts concerning everyday affairs, professional worries, and the like. Take the behavior of a silent observer toward these trains of thoughts, freely and independently. According to the mentality and the mental situation you happen to be in at the moment, this exercise will be more or less easy for you. The main point is not to forget yourself, not to lose the train of thoughts, but to pursue it attentively. Beware of falling asleep while doing this exercise. If you begin to feel tired, stop instantly and postpone the exercise to another time, when you intend not to give in to tiredness. The Indians sprinkle cold water on their faces or rub down the face and upper part of their bodies to remain brisk and not waste precious time. Some deep breathing before you begin will also prevent tiredness and sleepiness. As time goes on, you will find out such little tricks yourself. This exercise of controlling thoughts has to be undertaken in the morning and at night. It is to be extended each day by one minute to allow the train of thoughts to be pursued and controlled without the slightest digression for a time of 10 minutes at least after a week’s training.

The attentive disciple will realize how, at the beginning, thoughts rush on to him, how rapidly they pass before him so that he will have difficulty to recollect the lot of manifold thoughts. But from one exercise to the next, he will state that thoughts come up less chaotic, moderating little by little, until at last only a few thoughts emerge in his consciousness, arriving, as it were, from a far distance. The keenest attention ought to be given to this work of thought control, as it is very important for development, a fact that every initiate will realize in time.

On no account go further before the preceding exercise is perfectly under control."