s [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

shaft penetrating the body from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet. Names are imagined to
vibrate therein, and the combination of thought, sound, and colour awakens these centres to an
equilibriated activity within. Such an activity throws into the psycho-physical system vast quantities of
high-powered spiritual energy. This power, too, can be transmitted from one person to another with the
greatest of ease, and that by a simple manual contact. It is my contention that anyone, sceptic or
otherwise, by following the simple directions so far as the practical instructions are concerned, can
prove for himself the validity of the magnetic hypothesis. Using this method for working up steam, as it
were, as a preliminary to the practical application of the more complex and advanced Atwood
technique, considerable results should be obtained. In this connection it is worth stressing my belief that
on the whole magnetic  passes do not conduce to a satisfactory transmission of power. There is
considerable wastage of energy in so far as the method is not sufficiently direct. The Eeman method as
described in Self and Superman should be studied as being most useful. The technique described by de
Puységur is extremely efficient, and is really a vast improvement on the passes. That is to say, the
operator places one hand over the solar plexus or spleen of the patient and the other on the latter's head.
Linked up in this way, he imagines himself to be a storage battery absorbing power from the universe
and  pumping it into his patient. Within a very few minutes both he and the patient obtain the marked
sensation of such transmission. Accompanying the Middle Pillar technique by rhythmic breathing
enables the operator to absorb enormous quantities of vitality from the atmosphere and the universe
about him, thus rendering fatigue an extreme improbability. So long as the operator definitely realizes,
with humility and a lack of egotism, that he is but a channel through which the cosmic forces may flow,
his ability to transmit energy is never impeded. If we consider the realm of therapy, it is only when
successful cures imbue him with a sense of self-importance that trouble begins. He comes to consider
himself as a powerful healer, stressing his own personal abilities and forgetting that the spiritual power
is not his own. Thus the channels become blocked, and there is a temporary cessation in the flow of the
spirit through him.
With the channels wide open, vitality flows without impediment through the personality, and the
application of the techniques of rhythmic breathing and the Middle Pillar will enable both operator and
subject to fulfil easily the requirements of the Atwood hypothesis. Vitality as ordinarily experienced is
of little value. But the power that invades the personality during the Middle Pillar practice is of such a
nature as will, when transmitted by the hands, ferment the being of the subject. If, after some time, the
subject changes his rôle and becomes the operator and throws back the vitality to the former operator,
who now becomes the subject, a considerable psychic change develops.
The common assumption that mesmeric methods are dangerous does not require much
consideration. All forms of therapy in one sense or another are dangerous. The whole of life is
dangerous. The mere attempt to cross a modern street is an undertaking which is fraught with the utmost
danger when one considers the extreme probability that the turbulent surge of traffic may find yet
another victim. All the hypnotic authorities refute the charge that the practice of hypnotism has a
deleterious effect upon the patient. Many of them cite subjects who have been hypnotized hundreds of
times without the least injurious result. On the other hand, it is easy to see that in the hands of an
unscrupulous and dishonest operator serious harm may be effected. Nevertheless, this latter argument is
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Israel Regardie - The Philosophers Stone
true also of medical and psychological practice. One has to be certain of the integrity and
trustworthiness of one's physician or psychologist before submitting to treatment.
A second objection is likewise without foundation. It asserts that the practice of mesmerism
interferes with the free function of the will, which faculty is precisely that which should operate in the
study of occultism. Hypnotism has been defined as an artificial method of obtaining a concentrated or
abstracted state. It thus resembles meditation or concentration, when consciousness or the attention has
been withdrawn from the outside world and is focused upon one solitary idea. The difference is that in
the former case the meditator is assisted by a second person, whilst in the other the state is self-induced.
Thus, from one point of view, it is said that the latter is infinitely superior in that one is not dependent
upon any other person, being self-reliant and capable of controlling both the mind and the psychic
faculties. One advocate of this point of view, Dr. Evans Wentz, writing in his most recent book, asserts
that European critics of Yoga have thought that such practices induce a sort of self-hypnotism. If, in
some degree, the criticism be well founded, we must, nevertheless, take into account the fact that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]