people, or those suffering from weakness, particularly if they sip it slowly holding their mind in a receptive attitude, and if possible forming a mental picture of the Prana from the water being taken up by the system and invigorating them.
We will now take up a few experiments in the several forms of Mental Healing, or Psychic Healing as some prefer to term it:
(I) Auto-suggestion consists in suggesting to oneself the physical conditions one wishes to bring about. The auto-suggestions should be spoken (audibly or silently) just as one would speak to another, earnestly and seriously, letting the mind form a mental picture of the conditions referred to in the words. For instance:
"My stomach is strong, strong, strong - able to digest the food given it able to assimilate the nourishment from the food - able to give me the nourishment which means health and strength to me. My digestion is good, good, good, and I am enjoying and digesting and assimilating my food, converting it into rich red blood, which is carrying health and strength to all parts of my body, building it up and making me a strong man (or woman)."
Similar auto-suggestions, or affirmations, applied to other parts of the body, will work equally good results, the attention and mind being directed to the parts mentioned causing an increased supply of Prana to be sent there, and the pictured condition to be brought about. Enter into the spirit of the auto-suggestions, and get thoroughly in earnest over them, and so far as possible form the mental image of the healthy condition desired. See yourself as you wish yourself to be. You may help the cure along by treating yourself by the methods described in the experiments on Pranic Healing.
(II) Suggestions of healing, given to others, operate on the same principle as do the auto-sugges,tions just described, except that the healer must impress upon the mind of the patient the desired conditions instead of the patient's doing it for himself. Much better results may be obtained where the healer and patient both cooperate in the mental image and when the patient follows the healer's suggestions in his mind, and forms the mental picture implied by the healer's words. The healer suggests that which he wishes to bring about and the patient allows the suggestions to sink into his Instinctive Mind, where they are taken up and afterwards manifested in physical results. The best suggestionists are men of vitality, who send forceful thoughts charged with Prana into the organism of the patient, at the same time that the suggestions are given. In nearly all forms of mental healing, several methods are intermingled, as the student will discover for himself, if he takes the trouble to analyze the treatments. The Instinctive Mind often falls into bad habits of attending to the body, by reason of the person having departed from the natural way of living and having caused the Instinctive Mind to take up these incorrect habits. Suggestion, and auto-suggestion bring back the Instinctive Mind to normal functioning, and the body speedily recovers its former harmony. In many cases all that is needed in suggestive treatment, is to relieve the patient's mind of Fear and Worry and depressing thoughts, which have interfered with the proper harmony of the body, and which have prevented the proper amount of Prana from being distributed to the parts. Removing these harmful thoughts is like removing the speck of dust which has caused our watch to run improperly, having disarranged the harmony of the delicate mechanism. Fear, Worry and Hate, with their accompanying emotions, are the cause of more physical inharmony than nearly all the other causes combined.
(III) In what is called strictly Mental Healing, the patient sits in a relaxed attitude of body, and allows the mind to become receptive. The healer then projects to the patient thoughts of a strengthening and uplifting character which, reacting upon the mind of the patient, causes it to cast off its negative conditions and to assume its normal poise and power, the result being that as soon as the patient's mind recovers its equilibrium it asserts itself and starts into operation the recuperative power within the organism of the person, sending an increased supply of Prana to all parts of the body and taking the first step toward regaining health and strength. The prime principle of Mental Healing is to get the mind of the patient into the proper condition, it naturally following that beneficial and normal physical conditions must follow. But the best Mental Healers do more than this they (often unconsciously) send a positive thought strongly charged with Prana right to the affected spot, and actually work a physical change in the organism of the patient, independent of what is accomplished by his own thought - force. In treating a patient in this way, keep firmly in your mind the thought that physical harmony is being reestablished in the patient, and that health is his normal condition and that all the negative thoughts are being expelled from his mind. Picture him as strong and healthy in mind and in body. Picture as existing all the conditions you wish to establish within him. Then concentrate the mind and fairly dart into his body, or into the affected part, a strong penetrating thought, the purpose of which is to work the desired physical change, casting out the abnormal conditions and reestablishing normal conditions and functioning. Form the mental image that the thought is fully and heavily charged with Prana, and fairly drive it into the affected part by an effort of the will. Considerable practice is usually needed to accomplish this last result, but to some it appears to come without much effort.
(IV) Distant healing, or "absent treatment," is performed in precisely the same way as is the treatment when the patient is present. We have given some directions regarding this form of treatment in Chapter XIV, "Science of Breath," which, coupled with what we have just said in the last paragraph, should give an elementary working knowledge of the subject. Some healers form the picture of the patient sitting in front of them, and then proceed to give the treatment, just as if the patient were really present. Others form the mental image of projecting the thought, picturing it as leaving their mind, and then traversing space entering the mind of the patient. Others merely sit in a passive, contemplative attitude and intently think of the patient, without regard to intervening space. Others prefer to have a handkerchief, or some other article belonging to the patient, in order to render more perfect the rapport conditions. Any, or all, of these methods are good, the temperament and inclinations of the person causing him to prefer some particular method. But the same principle underlies them all. A little practice along the lines of the several forms of healing just mentioned, will give the student confidence, and ease in operating the healing power, until he will often radiate healing power without being fully conscious of it. If much healing work is done, and the heart of the healer is in his work, he soon gets so that he heals almost automatically and involuntarily when he comes into the presence of one who is suffering. The healer must, however, guard against depleting himself of Prana, and thus injuring his own health. He should study up the methods given by us, of recharging himself, and protecting himself against undue drains upon his vitality. And he should make haste slowly in these matters, remembering that forced growth is not desirable.
This lesson has not been written for the purpose of advising our students to become healers. They must use their own judgment and intuitions regarding that question. We have devoted the lesson to the subject, as it formed a part of the general subject which we are treating in this course, and it is important that they should know something of the principles underlying these several forms of healing. Let them analyze any form of treatment which they may witness or hear of, stripping it of all the fantastic theories which have been built around it, and they will be able to classify and study it without accepting the theory of the person making the cure.
Remember that all the cults and schools make cures, using the same principle, but attributing the result to widely differing theories and beliefs.
For ourselves, we cling to the principles of "Hatha Yoga," which teaches the doctrine of preserving health by right living and right thinking, and we regard all forms of healing as things made necessary only by Man's ignorance and disobedience of Natural laws. But so long as man will not live and think properly, some forms of healing are necessary, and therefore the importance of their study. The advanced occultist regards the preservation of health as a more important thing for the race than the cure of disease, believing with the old adage, that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." But so long as we may benefit our fellow men, it is well that we know something of the subject of Occult Therapeutics. It is one of Nature's forces, and we should know how to use it.
THE NINTH LESSON.
PSYCHIC INFLUENCE.