CLAIRVOYANCE AND OCCULT POWERS/PART 17
LESSON XVII.
PERSONAL PSYCHIC INFLUENCE
OVER OTHERS
Psychic
Influence, as the term is used in this book, may be said to be divided into
three general classes, viz., (1) Personal Influence, in which the mind of
another is directly influenced by induction while he is in the presence of the
person influencing; (2) Distant Influencing, in which the psychic induction is
directly manifested when the persons concerned are distant from one another;
and (3) Indirect Influence, in which the induction is manifested in the minds
of various persons coming in contact with the thought vibrations of the person
manifesting them, though no attempt is made to directly influence any
particular person. I shall now present each of these three forms of psychic
influence to you for consideration, one after the other in the above order.
Personal
Influence, as above defined, ranges from cases in which the strongest control
(generally known as hypnotism) is manifested, down to the cases in which merely
a slight influence is exerted. But the general principle underlying all of
these cases is precisely the same. The great characters of history, such as
Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Julius Caesar, manifested this
power to a great degree, and were able to sway men according to their will. All
great leaders of men have this power strongly manifested, else they would not
be able to influence the minds of men. Great orators, preachers, statesmen, and
others of this class, likewise manifest the power strongly. In fact, the very
sign of ability to influence and manage other persons is evidence of the
possession and manifestation of this mighty power.
In
developing this power to influence others directly and personally, you should
begin by impressing upon your mind the principles stated in the preceding
chapter, namely (1) Strong Desire; (2) Clear Visualization; and (3)
Concentration.
You
must begin by encouraging a strong desire in your mind to be a positive
individual; to exert and manifest a positive influence over others with whom
you come in contact, and especially over those whom you wish to influence in
some particular manner or direction. You must let the fire of desire burn
fiercely within you, until it becomes as strong as physical hunger or thirst.
You must "want to" as you want to breathe, to live. You will find that
the men who accomplish the great things in life are those who have strong
desire burning in their bosoms. There is a strong radiative and inductive power
in strong desire and wish—in fact, some have thought this the main feature of
what we generally call strong will-power.
The
next step, of course, is the forming of a clear, positive, distinct and dynamic
mental picture of the idea or feeling that you wish to induce in the other
person. If it is an idea, you should make a strong clear picture of it in your
imagination, so as to give it distinctness and force and a clear outline. If it
is a feeling, you should picture it in your imagination. If it is something
that you wish the other person to do, or some way in which you wish him to act,
you should picture him as doing the thing, or acting in that particular way. By
so doing you furnish the pattern or design for the induced mental or emotional
states you wish to induce in the other person. Upon the clearness and strength
of these mental patterns of the imagination depends largely the power of the
induced impression.
The
third step, of course, is the concentration of your mind upon the impression
you wish to induce in the mind of the other person. You must learn to
concentrate so forcibly and clearly that the idea will stand out clearly in
your mind like a bright star of a dark night, except that there must be only
one star instead of thousands. By so doing you really focus the entire force of
your mental and psychic energies into that one particular idea or thought. This
makes it act like the focused rays in the sun-glass, or like the strong
pipe-stream of water that will break down the thing upon which it is turned.
Diffused thought has but a comparatively weak effect, whereas a concentrated
stream of thought vibrations will force its way through obstacles.
Remember,
always, this threefold mental condition: (1) STRONG DESIRE; (2) CLEAR MENTAL
PICTURE; and (3) CONCENTRATED THOUGHT. The greater the degree in which you can
manifest these three mental conditions, the greater will be your success in any
form of psychic influence, direct or indirect, personal or general, present or
distant.
Before
you proceed to develop the power to impress a particular idea or feeling upon
the mind of another person, you should first acquire a positive mental
atmosphere for yourself. This mental atmosphere is produced in precisely the
same way that you induce a special idea or feeling in the mind of the other
person. That is to say, you first strongly desire it, then you clearly picture
it, and then you apply concentrated thought upon it.
I
will assume that you are filled with the strong desire for a positive mental
atmosphere around you. You want this very much indeed, and actually crave and
hunger for it. Then you must begin to picture yourself (in your imagination) as
surrounded with an aura of positive thought-vibrations which protect you from
the thought forces of other persons, and, at the same time impress the strength
of your personality upon the persons with whom you come in contact. You will be
aided in making these strong mental pictures by holding the idea in your
concentrated thought, and, at the same time, silently stating to your mind just
what you expect to do in the desired direction. In stating your orders to your
mind, always speak as if the thing were already accomplished at that particular
moment. Never say that it "will be," but always hold fast to the
"it is." The following will give you a good example of the mental
statements, which of course should be accompanied by the concentrated idea of
the thing, and the mental picture of yourself as being just what you state.
Here
is the mental statement for the creation of a strong, positive psychic
atmosphere: "I am surrounded by an aura of strong, positive, dynamic
thought-vibrations. These render me positive to other persons, and render them
negative to me. I am positive of their thought-vibrations, but they are
negative to mine. They feel the strength of my psychic atmosphere, while I
easily repel the power of theirs. I dominate the situation, and manifest my
positive psychic qualities over theirs. My atmosphere creates the vibration of
strength and power on all sides of me, which affect others with whom I come in
contact. MY PSYCHIC ATMOSPHERE IS STRONG AND POSITIVE!"
The
next step in Personal Influence is that of projecting your psychic power
directly upon and into the mind of the other person whom you wish to influence.
Sometimes, if the person is quite negative to you, this is a very simple and
easy matter; but where the person is near your own degree of psychic
positiveness you will have to assert your psychic superiority to him, and get
the psychic "upper hand" before you can proceed further. This is
accomplished by throwing into your psychic atmosphere some particularly strong
mental statements accompanied by clear visualizations or mental pictures.
Make
positive your psychic atmosphere, particularly towards the person whom you seek
to influence, by statements and pictures something along the following lines:
"I am positive to this man"; "He is negative to me";
"He feels my power and is beginning to yield to it"; "He is
unable to influence me in the slightest, while I can influence him
easily"; "My power is beginning to operate upon his mind and
feelings." The exact words are not important, but the idea behind them
gives them their psychic force and power.
Then
should you begin your direct attack upon him, or rather upon his psychic
powers. When I say "attack," I do not use the word in the sense of
warfare or actual desire to harm the other person—this is a far different
matter. What I mean to say is that there is usually a psychic battle for a
longer or shorter period between two persons of similar degrees of psychic
power and development. From this battle one always emerges victor at the time,
and one always is beaten for the time being, at least. And, as in all battles,
victory often goes to him who strikes the first hard blow. The offensive
tactics are the best in cases of this kind.
A
celebrated American author, Oliver Wendall Holmes, in one of his books makes
mention of these duels of psychic force between individuals, as follows:
"There is that deadly Indian hug in which men wrestle with their eyes,
over in five seconds, but which breaks one of their two backs, and is good for
three-score years and ten, one trial enough—settles the whole matter—just as
when two feathered songsters of the barnyard, game and dunghill, come together.
After a jump or two, and a few sharp kicks, there is an end to it; and it is
'After you, monsieur' with the beaten party in all the social relations for all
the rest of his days."
An
English physician, Dr. Fothergill by name, wrote a number of years ago about
this struggle of wills, as he called it, but which is really a struggle of
psychic power. He says: "The conflict of will, the power to command
others, has been spoken of frequently. Yet what is this will-power that
influences others? What is it that makes us accept, and adopt too, the advice
of one person, while precisely the same advice from another has been rejected?
Is it the weight of force of will which insensibly influences us; the force of
will behind the advice? That is what it is! The person who thus forces his or
her advice upon us has no more power to enforce it than others; but all the
same we do as requested. We accept from one what we reject from another. One
person says of something contemplated, 'Oh, but you must not,' yet we do it all
the same, though that person may be in a position to make us regret the
rejection of that counsel. Another person says, 'Oh, but you mustn't,' and we
desist, though we may, if so disposed, set this latter person's opinion at
defiance with impunity. It is not the fear of consequences, not of giving
offense, which determines the adaption of the latter person's advice, while it
has been rejected when given by the first. It depends upon the character or
will-power of the individual advising whether we accept the advice or reject
it. This character often depends little, if at all, in some cases, upon the intellect,
or even upon the moral qualities, the goodness or badness, of the individual.
It is itself an imponderable something; yet it carries weight with it. There
may be abler men, cleverer men; but it is the one possessed of will who rises
to the surface at these times—the one who can by some subtle power make other
men obey him.
"The
will-power goes on universally. In the young aristocrat who gets his tailor to
make another advance in defiance of his conviction that he will never get his
money back. It goes on between lawyer and client; betwixt doctor and patient;
between banker and borrower; betwixt buyer and seller. It is not tact which
enables the person behind the counter to induce customers to buy what they did
not intend to buy, and which bought, gives them no satisfaction, though it is
linked therewith for the effort to be successful. Whenever two persons meet in
business, or in any other relation in life, up to love-making, there is this
will-fight going on, commonly enough without any consciousness of the struggle.
There is a dim consciousness of the result, but none of the processes. It often
takes years of the intimacy of married life to find out with whom of the pair
the mastery really lies. Often the far stronger character, to all appearances,
has to yield; it is this will-element which underlies the statement: 'The race
is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.' In Middle-march' we
find in Lydgate a grand aggregation of qualities, yet shallow, hard, selfish
Rosamond masters him thoroughly in the end. He was not deficient in will-power;
possessed more than an average amount of character; but in the fight he went
down at last under the onslaught of the intense, stubborn will of his
narrow-minded spouse. Their will-contest was the collision of a large warm
nature, like a capable human hand, with a hard, narrow selfish nature, like a
steel button; the hand only bruised itself while the button remained
unaffected."
You
must not, however, imagine that every person with whom you engage in one of
these psychic duels is conscious of what is going on. He usually recognizes
that some sort of conflict is under way, but he does not know the laws and
principles of psychic force, and so is in the dark regarding the procedure. You
will find that a little practice of this kind, in which no great question is
involved, will give you a certain knack or trick of handling your psychic
forces, and will, besides, give you that confidence in yourself that comes only
from actual practice and exercise. I can point out the rules, and give you the
principles, but you must learn the little bits of technique yourself from
actual practice.
When
you have crossed psychic swords with the other person, gaze at him intently but
not fiercely, and send him this positive strong thought-vibration: "I am
stronger than you, and I shall win!" At the same time picture to yourself
your forces beating down his and overcoming him. Hold this idea and picture in
your mind: "My vibrations are stronger than are yours—I am beating
you!" Follow this up with the idea and picture of: "You are weakening
and giving in—you are being overpowered!" A very powerful psychic weapon
is the following: "My vibrations are scattering your forces—I am breaking
your forces into bits—surrender, surrender now, I tell you!"
And
now for some interesting and very valuable information concerning psychic
defense. You will notice that in the offensive psychic weapons there is always
an assertion of positive statement of your power and its effect. Well, then, in
using the psychic defensive weapon against one of strong will or psychic force,
you reverse the process. That is to say you deny the force of his psychic
powers and forces, and picture them as melting into nothingness. Get this idea
well fixed in your mind, for it is very important in a conflict of this kind.
The effect of this is to neutralize all of the other person's power so far as
its effect on yourself is concerned—you really do not destroy it in him
totally. You simply render his forces powerless to affect you. This is
important not only when in a psychic conflict of this kind, but also when you
wish to render yourself immune from the psychic forces of other persons. You
may shut yourself up in a strong defensive armor in this way, and others will
be powerless to affect you.
In
the positive statement, "I deny!" you have the Occult Shield of
Defense, which is a mighty protection to you. Even if you do not feel disposed
to cultivate and develop your psychic powers in the direction of influencing
others, you should at least develop your defensive powers so as to resist any
psychic attacks upon yourself.
You
will find it helpful to practice these offensive and defensive weapons when you
are alone, standing before your mirror and "playing" that your
reflection in the glass is the other person. Send this imaginary other person
the psychic vibrations, accompanied by the mental picture suitable for it. Act
the part out seriously and earnestly, just as if the reflected image were
really another person. This will give you confidence in yourself, and that
indefinable "knack" of handling your psychic weapons that comes only
from practice. You will do well to perfect yourself in these rehearsals, just
as you would in case you were trying to master anything else. By frequent
earnest rehearsals, you will gain not only familiarity with the process and
methods, but you will also gain real power and strength by the exercise of your
psychic faculties which have heretofore lain dormant. Just as you may develop
the muscle of your arm by calisthenic exercises, until it is able to perform
real muscular work of strength; so you may develop your psychic faculties in
this rehearsal work, so that you will be strongly equipped and armed for an
actual psychic conflict, besides having learned how to handle your psychic
weapons.
After
you have practiced sufficiently along the general offensive and defensive
lines, and have learned how to manifest these forces in actual conflict, you
will do well to practice special and specific commands to others, in the same
way. That is to say, practice them first on your reflected image in the mirror.
The following commands (with mental pictures, of course) will give you good
practice. Go about the work in earnest, and act out the part seriously. Try
these exercises: "Here! look at me!" "Give me your undivided
attention!" "Come this way!" "Come to me at once!"
"Go away from me—leave me at once!" "You like me—you like me
very much!" "You are afraid of me!" "You wish to please
me!" "You will agree to my proposition!" "You will do as I
tell you!" Any special command you wish to convey to another person,
psychically, you will do well to practice before the mirror in this way.
When
you have made satisfactory progress in the exercises above mentioned, and are
able, to demonstrate them with a fair degree of success in actual practice, you
may proceed to experiment with persons along the lines of special and direct
commands by psychic force. The following will give you a clear idea of the
nature of the experiments in question, but you may enlarge upon and vary them
indefinitely. Remember there is no virtue in mere words—the effect comes from
the power of the thought behind the words. But, nevertheless, you will find
that positive words, used in these silent commands, will help you to fit in
your feeling to the words. Always make the command a real COMMAND, never a mere
entreaty or appeal. Assume the mental attitude of a master of men—of a
commander and ruler of other men. Here follow a number of interesting
experiments along these lines, which will be very useful to you in acquiring
the art of personal influence of this kind:
SEVEN VALUABLE EXERCISES
EXERCISE
1: When walking down the street behind a person, make him turn around in answer
to your mental command. Select some person who does not seem to be too much
rushed or too busy—select some person who seems to having nothing particular on
his mind. Then desire earnestly that he shall turn around when you mentally
call to him to do so; at the same time picture him as turning around in answer
to your call; and at the same time concentrate your attention and thought
firmly upon him. After a few moments of preparatory thought, send him the
following message, silently of course, with as much force, positiveness and
vigor as possible: "Hey there! turn around and look at me! Hey! turn
around, turn around at once!" While influencing him fix your gaze at the
point on his neck where the skull joins it—right at the base of the brain, in
the back. In a number of cases, you will find that the person will look around
as if someone had actually called him aloud. In other cases, he will seem
puzzled, and will look from side to side as if seeking some one. After a little
practice you will be surprised how many persons you can affect in this way.
EXERCISE
2: When in a public place, such as a church, concert or theatre, send a similar
message to someone seated a little distance in front of you. Use the same
methods as in the first exercise, and you will obtain similar results. It will
seem queer to you at first to notice how the other person will begin to fidget
and move around in his seat, and finally glance furtively around as if to see
what is causing him the disturbance. You, of course, will not let him suspect
that it is you, but, instead will gaze calmly ahead of you, and pretend not to
notice him.
EXERCISE
3: This is a variation of the first exercise. It is practiced by sending to a
person approaching you on the street, or walking ahead of you in the same
direction, a command to turn to the right, or to the left, as you prefer. You
will be surprised to see how often you will be successful in this.
EXERCISE
4: This is a variation of the second exercise. It is practiced by sending to a
person seated in front of you in a public place the command to look to the
right, or to the left, as you prefer. Do not practice on the same person too
long, after succeeding at first—it is not right to torment people, remember.
EXERCISE
5: After having attained proficiency in the foregoing exercises, you many
proceed to command a person to perform certain unimportant motions, such as
rising or sitting down, taking off his hat, taking out his handkerchief, laying
down a fan, umbrella, etc.
EXERCISE
6: The next step is to command persons to say some particular word having no
important meaning; to "put words in his mouth" while talking to him.
Wait until the other person pauses as if in search of a word, and then
suddenly, sharply and forcibly put the word into his mouth, silently of course.
In a very susceptible person, well under your psychic control, you may succeed
in suggesting entire sentences and phrases to him.
EXERCISE
7: This is the summit of psychic influencing, and, of course, is the most
difficult. But you will be surprised to see how well you will succeed in many
cases, after you have acquired the knack and habit of sending the psychic
message. It consists of commanding the person to obey the spoken command or
request that you are about to make to him. This is the art and secret of the
success of many salesmen, solicitors, and others working along the lines of
influencing other people. It is acquired by beginning with small things, and
gradually proceeding to greater, and still greater. At this point I should warn
you that all the best occult teachings warn students against using this power
for base ends, improper purposes, etc. Such practices tend to react and rebound
against the person using them, like a boomerang. Beware against using psychic
or occult forces for improper purposes—the psychic laws punish the offender,
just as do the physical laws.
Finally,
I caution the student against talking too much about his developing powers.
Beware of boasting or bragging about these things. Keep silent, and keep your
own counsel. When you make known your powers, you set into operation the
adverse and antagonistic thought of persons around you who may be jealous of
you, and who would wish to see you fail, or make yourself ridiculous. The wise
head keepeth a still tongue! One of the oldest occult maxims is: "Learn!
Dare! Do! Keep Silent!!!" You will do well to adhere strictly to this
warning caution.
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