PART 1: THEORY
1. Upward T he purpose o f this work is to to take the reader upward ; upw ard an d forward. Instead of simply function ing day to to day at the mercy of circumstances circumstances to feel feel calm, co ntrolled an d purposeful. T his w ork will will show the reader how his or her s pirit can soar , no m atter how d ebilitating ebilitating the circumstances. circumstances. Th is is no t a flight flight of fanc fancy, y, nor escape escape from grim reali reality. ty. On the contrary, it is to face reality and soar in spite spite o f it. it. T he purpo se of this work is to unshackle the reader from the bon ds o f limited thou gh t and negati negativi vity ty.. I repeat: repeat: th is is no t escapism. escapism. Th e reader may have man y real real problems, pr p r o b le m s t h a t a re t h re a te n i n g . T h i s w o rk is w r i tt e n to sto st o p su c h th re a ts . Re ading th is will obviously no t m ake o ne’s ne’s prob lem s go away away,, bu t it will certainly lim it the ir power to to intim idate , and this is the first step to solving solving them. You can solve your pro blem s o ne by one, step by step. It will also seem seem as if your prob lem s are being solved solved for you. yo u. For this work is about your unseen partner , a constant guardian and friend. This work is about unknown power, an unknown presence. I am here to show you how to let let this power pow er take over. over. A nd w hen it takes over you are free, fre e, your spirit will be uplifted, your soul unbounded. You are going to go go forward forward - and keep going forward. forw ard.
2. Gullible A woman rem arke d to me th at she felt ‘gu llible’ for believing the k in d of things that I write about, about, that she should know better than to think that such can be true. She implied I was a charlatan, taking advantage of pe p e o p le ’s v u ln e ra b ilit il ity y . I f o u n d h e r c o m m e n ts o d d , for fo r i f s h e was c o rr e c t, the n I, too, have been ‘gu llible’, llible’, for I became in tereste d in these thin gs long ago by reading such books. There was a time when I couldn’t get enough of selfself-help help and spiritual books and I never for a m om ent dou bted an ything the auth ors said. said. I never ever tho ug ht I was bein g ‘take ‘take n in ’. I believed believed the to believe believe in them , for if ther e was only advertisemen ts for for them : I wanted to a fraction fraction o f tru th in the ir con tent, their prom ise was was indeed still wonderful. My desire to believe made these books work for me, and the m ore I read the m ore I believed. So if anyo ne was or is is gullible it is me. N o w I am w r it i n g s u c h m a te ri a l m y s e lf a n d I b elie el iev v e im p l ic it ly in ev eryth ing I say say. If my read ers are ‘vu ‘vu lner ab le’ the n I m ust have been too. too. T he fact fact is is tha t this w om an was blam ing m e for he r lack lack o f faith. It is always convenient and easy to blame another. Out of the countless such bo b o o k s I h a v e re a d I h a v e n e v e r b la m e d th e a u t h o r for fo r m y fa ilin il in g s, a n d it never even occurred to me tha t any of them could be charlatans. charlatans. So I repea t, if an yo ne w as/is ‘gu ‘gu llib le’ it is me. Such books are written because there is a need for them . Is it ‘gu llib le’ to w ant to believe believe in so m ethin g be tter th an ou r presen t life? life? Is it ‘gu ‘gu llible’ to hope? A nd w hen it comes to to vuln erab ility we we are never so so vulnerab le as as when we lack hope. When hope is present we are ready to be taken to a hig he r level level and taken we are are.. Now, if a teacher or w riter tells tells a desperate pe p e rs o n s o m e th in g w h ic h h e h i m s e l f has ha s a b s o lu te ly n o f a it h in , a n d does do es it merely to extract a fee or sell a book then that is despicable. That said, I have met m any writers and teachers teachers of the sp iritual iritual and the occult and have yet to m eet one who did n’t n’t believe complete completely. ly.
3. Experience Fortunately there is no need to take any writer’s word for it, for you can readily experience these principles. This confounds the allegation of ‘gu llib ility ’. You are going to exp erience th e Pow er desc ribed in these pages and you are going to know it cannot be any kind of confidence trick. Yet for many, confusion and disillusionment reigns, for they study so many 3
2. Gullible A woman rem arke d to me th at she felt ‘gu llible’ for believing the k in d of things that I write about, about, that she should know better than to think that such can be true. She implied I was a charlatan, taking advantage of pe p e o p le ’s v u ln e ra b ilit il ity y . I f o u n d h e r c o m m e n ts o d d , for fo r i f s h e was c o rr e c t, the n I, too, have been ‘gu llible’, llible’, for I became in tereste d in these thin gs long ago by reading such books. There was a time when I couldn’t get enough of selfself-help help and spiritual books and I never for a m om ent dou bted an ything the auth ors said. said. I never ever tho ug ht I was bein g ‘take ‘take n in ’. I believed believed the to believe believe in them , for if ther e was only advertisemen ts for for them : I wanted to a fraction fraction o f tru th in the ir con tent, their prom ise was was indeed still wonderful. My desire to believe made these books work for me, and the m ore I read the m ore I believed. So if anyo ne was or is is gullible it is me. N o w I am w r it i n g s u c h m a te ri a l m y s e lf a n d I b elie el iev v e im p l ic it ly in ev eryth ing I say say. If my read ers are ‘vu ‘vu lner ab le’ the n I m ust have been too. too. T he fact fact is is tha t this w om an was blam ing m e for he r lack lack o f faith. It is always convenient and easy to blame another. Out of the countless such bo b o o k s I h a v e re a d I h a v e n e v e r b la m e d th e a u t h o r for fo r m y fa ilin il in g s, a n d it never even occurred to me tha t any of them could be charlatans. charlatans. So I repea t, if an yo ne w as/is ‘gu ‘gu llib le’ it is me. Such books are written because there is a need for them . Is it ‘gu llib le’ to w ant to believe believe in so m ethin g be tter th an ou r presen t life? life? Is it ‘gu ‘gu llible’ to hope? A nd w hen it comes to to vuln erab ility we we are never so so vulnerab le as as when we lack hope. When hope is present we are ready to be taken to a hig he r level level and taken we are are.. Now, if a teacher or w riter tells tells a desperate pe p e rs o n s o m e th in g w h ic h h e h i m s e l f has ha s a b s o lu te ly n o f a it h in , a n d does do es it merely to extract a fee or sell a book then that is despicable. That said, I have met m any writers and teachers teachers of the sp iritual iritual and the occult and have yet to m eet one who did n’t n’t believe complete completely. ly.
3. Experience Fortunately there is no need to take any writer’s word for it, for you can readily experience these principles. This confounds the allegation of ‘gu llib ility ’. You are going to exp erience th e Pow er desc ribed in these pages and you are going to know it cannot be any kind of confidence trick. Yet for many, confusion and disillusionment reigns, for they study so many 3
bo b o o k s a n d id ea s a n d y e t feel fee l n o f u r t h e r fo rw ard ar d . I t is h a r d n o t to e n d up sceptical. I understand scepticism, for it is a most natural reaction and is p r o o f in i n d e e d t h a t o n e is n o t m e re ly ‘g u llib ll ib le ’. The basic idea behind all inspirational and spiritual teachings is that the re is a great inv isible power th at can elevate elevate us if we can tap into it. it. T he na ture o f this Power varies varies according to the teaching, bu t in w hatever form form it is is described it rem rem ains won drous an d inexhau stible. stible. M any say say that this Pow er is within us; bu t whe ther ‘w ‘w ithin ’ or ‘w ‘w itho ut’ it rem rem ains m ysterious an d u nkno wab le. ‘M ‘M ysterio us’ an d ‘un ‘un kn ow able ’ because we are failing failing to experience it. We become frustrated with ourselves because whatever we do we fai faill to experience what was was promised. T he purpo se o f this presen t work is to to lift lift the reader out o f the impasse impasse and take him or her up and forward. Those readers who do experience this Power will find their life imm easurably enrich ed by it. it. Some readers readers want m ore of it and could be said to be ‘in ‘in love w ith’ the ex perience. Th is is a w ond erful co nd ition. W hatev er you feel feel now I can tell you you are are going to feel feel be tter by the tim e you have finish ed re adin g this volume. You You are going to go forward. forward. B EL IEV E IT. IT. Th is is no t to be ‘gu ‘gu llible’ because it is som ething ething you want to experience.
4. Confusion What is this spiritual essence, this thing that humans, be they Christian or Pagan, Jew or Muslim, believe in? Why are there so many different versio ns o f it? Fo r at face face value it is im po ssible to reconc ile, say say,, the Jewish or Islamic view of Go d with the ‘ho rne d go d’ of witchc raft. How does one equate the ‘Cosmic M ind ’ or ‘Infinite ‘Infinite M ind ’ princ iple o f m etaphysicians etaphysicians and m ystics ystics with the m ultitude ultitude of gods gods of paganism paganism or the God o f the Catholic Church? Is the re in fact a ‘G od ’ at all, all, let alone a ‘G ‘G odd ess’ an d s un dr y angels, spirits and bogeymen? Fortunately we don’t have to worry ourselves about such questions. Religion is always the product of the culture it springs from: as there are so many different cultures it is inevitable there will be so many different be b e lie li e fs a n d c o n c e p ts o f deity de ity.. Obviously a person b orn and raised raised in the jungle of the Congo is going going to have a different view of divinity to someone raised in San Francisco. But the common denominator is the need to believe. People, whoever they 4
are and wherever they’re from, simply need to believe. And believe in will, even if it is totally irrational. something they will, There are, of course, atheists who ‘don’t need to believe’, so they will tell tell you. you. Th ey are the pro du ct of the ir sop histicated ur ba n societies, societies, again again a product of culture, a materialistic cynical culture. They, too, need to be b e liev li ev e in s o m e th in g , a n e e d e x p re ss in g it s e lf in so m e o d d ways. way s. T h e atheists I know regularly read their horoscopes. Surely that is irrational, for astrology astrology is knee-d eep in th e pagan gods which suppo sedly don ’t exist exist.. I have never known an atheist who didn’t celebrate Christmas. Surely this is irrational, or at the least inco nsisten t. O f course man y people with no religious or philosophical sentiment whatsoever also celebrate Christmas - bu t that, too, is is irrati irrational. onal. W hat athe ists and m aterialists fail fail to acknowledge is the the hu man needfor the irrational. T he experience experience of hu nge r implies that food food exist existss - otherwise we we would would never feel feel hungry. If we thirst, the im plicatio n is th at wa ter exists exists to to qu ench it. So if we fee feell the need to believe believe in som ethin g gre ater tha n ourselves ourselves tha t implies that the re is something greater than ourse ourselve lves. s. Yet wh y is this g reater som ethin g so elusive? elusive? W hy doesn’t doesn’t it reveal itself openly and unambiguously? Why are we always seemingly left guessing and wondering? We may, may, however, however, be asking the w rong qu estions. W hat if it IS revealing revealing itsel itself, f, mak ing itself heard - bu t we are are no t listening? listening? W hy does does its its exist existence ence - or non-existence non-existence - depend so much upon our pe p e rc e p tio ti o n o f it? T h e a th e is t is in a w ay c o rre rr e c t: h e says say s th e r e is n o t h in g be b e c a u s e h e is n o t aw are ar e o f a n y th in g . T h e be liev li ev er, er , o n th e o t h e r h a n d , look lo ok s and finds. finds. The difference between the two, of course, is in their approach. The atheist says says he has looked looked - bu t has he? He says says he has listened - bu t was was he deaf, deaf, so so no thin g was heard?
5. Amoral M ost assume assume that th is power - whatever de scription scription o r name we care care to to give give it it - is moral and good. good. N ot so so. But then ne ither is hu m an kin d m oral and good. We We are are a part o f tha t whole whole.. H um an kin d does does not behave m orally orally an d in a good m anner, for if it did th ere w ould be no need for laws, laws, rules, rules, 5
regulations, and so on. Neither would there be any need for governments and other autho rities. H um an kin d is not a benevolent species. In Rom an times there was thought to be about ten million people on this planet. Today it is seven billion, a nd for this grow th to have been achieved c ou nt less forests and animal species have been destroyed. This is abominable. Advanced beings from another world would give us short shrift. No one thing in this universe of ours is moral and good; b ut ne ither is it intrinsically evil. We frown at the cruelty and savagery of nature whilst overlook ing th at of our species. We are no t a nice lot. T he p ower th at we seek to be in tun e w ith is ne ithe r ‘good’ no r ‘ba d’: it is sim ply there. A m an who ha d won on the G rand N ational thre e years running told me that he felt a sense of guilt. He put his gambling luck down to asking his subconscious mind to reveal the winners just before he w ent off to sleep. He did this each year on th e n igh t before the event. That night the winner would appear in a dream and he placed his bets accordingly, no matter what the odds were. When he asked his sub conscious m ind he said it was a kin d o f prayer, so for him it had a spiritual dimension. B ut because of his M ethod ist upbring ing he felt tha t any thing that m ixed spiritual with m oney had to be wrong. I explained to him that there could be no co ntradiction here. I explained th at the subconscious unlike the conscious m ind - knows ne ither ‘righ t’ nor ‘w rong’. Th e religious n otion tha t spirituality and m aterialism are m utually exclusive is a falsehood. Le t me give you a striking example of the amoral na ture o f this unseen power. A dolf H itle r. As a youth he was a voracious reader of anyth ing occult. He was fascinated by the gods and goddesses of the pre-Christian era and he developed th e be lief tha t the re was a gu iding power in his life. His rise from obscurity to master of continental Europe was spectacular, and he c ontinu ou sly allude d to his ‘deep in ne r con viction’. We know, too, that the Nazi hierarchy engaged in secret occult invocations of the old German gods. This was in stark contrast to their official position as endorsers of the Catholic Church. The Church was for the masses, the pagan gods for th e in it ia ted. Even m ore sp ecta cula r was t h eir le ader’s good fortune in avoiding assassination. Though not known at the time Hitler was continuously the target of assassination attempts. A lot of Germans wan ted to see him dead. Tim e and again he would avoid death by a h ai r’s breadth, bulle ts and bom bs never h ittin g th e ir ta rg et. T h is deepened his occult confidence yet further, for inde ed he m ust be the ‘Cho sen O ne’ for unseen powers were miraculously protecting him. In the end, of course, it would be only Hitler who could kill Hitler.
His Russian misadventure, like others before him, resulted from over confidence. W here was ‘G od’ wh en H itler was pur suin g his ‘deep in n er ’ conv iction? Daily I pass the remains of a church destroyed by the Nazis in 1942. The Christian God could not save his own church. And where was the Jewish God w hen m illions of his ‘chosen peop le’ were being dow ntrodde n and exterminated? T h e univ erse is no t on the side o f ‘goo d’ and is accessible to both light an d dark agencies. Th e o nly ‘good’ univ erse is the one we seek for ourselves.
6. Universe The cruelty and injustice in the world is enough to turn anyone into a b itte r sc ep tic and an ath eis t. T h e religio us con str uct of m orality cannot circumvent the cruel realities of life and human behaviour. Why, even Jesus C hrist, the ‘m ost perfect m an’ was tortu red an d crucified! T ha t is why I find C hristianity - and indeed organized religion - so unappealing. O rganized religion is too bou nd up in n egativity and suffer ing. It serves a valid social purpose, in bin din g a com m unity toge ther with shared values. B ut the hopeful, aspirational individu al deserves som ething better, som ethin g th at will m ake his or h er spir it soar. Positivity is ou r aim, an d a life full of the positive is ce rtainly possible. We can accept tha t the objective universe is a cruel an d m erciless place b u t th e subje ctive univ erse o f o ur own m akin g can be a w onderf ul place. T his is no t a flight of fantasy, bu t a very real and tan gible po ssibility and a prov en fact for those who actually experience it. First we must look at the word ‘universe’. These days writers on the mystic refer to the universe in personal terms, e.g. you ‘can change your un iverse ’, bu t, of course, we know tha t ‘the u niv erse ’ is the sum total of everything there is, our Ea rth and the totality o f all other worlds and space. Com pared to all that we are no t even a speck, ind ivid ually see m ingly of no relevance whatsoever. An d th is is utterly true . Yet by the same toke n each individ ual is a complete world -o r cosmos - in his or her own right, con sisting of billions of atoms. T his is an im pressive tho ugh t. O ur conscious ness an d phy sicality is of such b read th and complexity tha t if one single atom in us could think and speak it would say, ‘This organism is so vast and unfathom able a nd I am only one o ut of billions!’ Secret mystic 7
doc trine has taug ht down th rou gh th e ages tha t man is a microcosm o f the universe, the hu m an body itse lf being a replica of the solar system w ith the sun represented by the he art at its centre and th e organs representing - or ‘ruled by ’ - the planets. It is extraord inary - almost inconceivable how each of the body parts are influenced by heavenly constellations, begin n in g w ith A ries at th e head and Pisce s in th e feet, Aries bein g th e first sign of the zodiac and Pisces the last. S cientists refuse to believe this is so, for the n otio n seems prepo sterous, yet we know it is true from sim ple observation. Astrology is the absolute pro of that we and th e heavens are interconnected. So m od ern talk o f ‘the u niverse help ing you ’ is not New Age psychic babble b u t an absolu te tr uth! In any event the universe for us is the sum total of our experience, bo th physic al and spir itual. Eac h person has his own univ ers e. You are th e universe. Yet how can the universe help us if we are it? Isn’t this a contradiction? On the contrary - you and the universe are only separate for as long as you perc eiv e it th at way. T h e m o m en t you see th a t th ere is no distin ctio n , no separation, then everything changes. At that m om ent you become a magus - a word m eaning priest or priestess of the M ysteries - a magus in the profoundest se nse of th e word. ‘The Father (the universe) and I (the individual person) are one’, the saying attrib ute d to Jesus, is the sy nthesis of this idea. Th is changes everything.
7. Value If we are ‘of the F ath er ’ we are therefore of the same essence. T he m ysterious pow er we spoke of earlier is no t only ‘T he F ath er’ b ut also us. It is consciousness o f this fact which makes us a magus. B ut how do we do it? We shall presently see. It is not enough for me to explain it: what is im po rtan t is to establish if you are ready for it. Ju st because you are reading this doesn’t necessarily mean tha t you are ready for it. Wh at you th ink and the reality may not coincide. In this ch apter I am going to concentrate on som ething th at is not fashionable - you won’t find it often in self-help books - yet it is vital to our purp ose . I thin k if there is one fundam ental flaw in m ost hum ans it is the ir lack o f a sense o f value. Most people seem not to value what they have, or put
an oth er way, take so m uch for granted . A nd th ey are no t even aware of it, it doesn’t even cross their m ind. M en tion ‘value’ and th ey can only thin k , ‘How m uc h do the thin gs I own cost?’ as if m on etary purc has e was the sole barom ete r of value. You cannot p lace m on eta ry v alue on fre sh air, w arm th , affection, companionship, a pet, a child, and so much else. Usually these thing s are taken for granted. T he only time any concept o f value emerges is when som ething is lost, or when som ething or someone is taken. At tha t m om ent they are devoured by th e ir own paucity o f value. It is impossible to be truly happy and fulfilled without a highly developed sense of value. W itho ut it the ‘m agic’ you will learn here w ill be, p ard o n th e p u n , va lueless. Trying to explain this to most people is an uphill task, for the concept is completely beyo nd th eir k en. You, dear reader, will have to grasp it for a reason that will soon become apparent. I believe a great deal of society’s problems can be sourced to people’s lack of value. If they en masse truly valued what they have discontent and crime w ould vanish. Th e u biqu ity of litter in p ublic places is a m ost telling instance o f no sense of value. It tells you th at some people simp ly do no t value the ir surroundings; to them their environment doesn’t count. When I see someone casually discarding something in a public place they are sub con sciou sly saying, ‘It do esn’t m atte r; I don ’t care anyho w.’ T he discarded litter is not their problem, which is another way of saying, ‘It’s yo ur pro blem . You deal w ith i t!’ I get on a train an d find a seat sprawled w ith th e previo us o cc up an t’s litter. He o r she has left a clear message, ‘ You clear it up !’ You can read an awful lot into a person’s character from such observations. However, what is most definitely evident is their disregard for the ir surro und ings, w hich have no value to them. A nd it doesn’t stop there, one finds that almost everything else doesn’t m atter - has no value - to them. T hey don’t value or respect relationships, th eir health, the ir work, their hom e, and so on. Ev erything is taken for granted, com prom ised or expendable at a whim. To me they seem almost like zombies - alive but no t alive - for everything tha t sho uld be o f value to them is not registering. L et’s rem ain w ith train s for a m om ent. I m arvel at the speed, efficiency and punctuality of modern trains. It wasn’t always like this. But are passe ngers any happie r? Does su ch sp eed and efficien cy give th em ple asure, th in gs w hic h once could n o t be ta ken for g rante d? I th in k not, ju dgin g by th eir dem eanour. In o th er w ord s, n o th in g is goin g to m ak e 9
them happy. Since a boy I have always travelled by rail and I have never know n a time w hen people did n’t ha bitually complain about th e service. T he greatest com plainers are always those with th e acutest lack of sense of value. S uperm arkets are an othe r source of wo nder a nd efficiency. So m uch produ ct, such vari ety and choice, and never have prices been so low in com parison to purcha sers’ income. Pensioners who today comp lain about supermarket prices should speak to pensioners of a generation ago and realise how lucky they are! But each succeeding generation thinks it is mo re ha rd do ne by th an the earlier. In the 21st centu ry we are all so blessed and fortu na te in so ma ny ways and yet it is all taken for granted. I f only a magic button could be pressed so that people could be immediately trans po rted ba ck to th e 1940s. To live just one day would m ake them crave to be back in the modern era! There are no ‘good old days’, be it any era; those who believe it are those who do no t value the presen t. In today’s Western world even the poorest have refrigeration, mobiles and laptops. W hat k ind o f ‘pov erty’ is that? T oday’s ‘po or ’ enjoy luxuries and privileges that even kings and queens of old couldn’t even imagine. Yet on ly a fool ca nn ot p ossibly fail to realize th at few peop le seem ha pp ier as a result. To value what you have is to make your life more meaningful. Not to value what you have is to con siderably increase the chances o f you losing it. All good things are to be treasured and cherished. Taking things for granted is a cardinal sin against the soul. The worst is to take others for granted. I t poisons relationships. A nd you ca nno t fail to notice - unless you are a fool - tha t others are also taking jwu for granted . A nd the re is not m uch you can do about that. W hen you have a pro fou nd sense of value you open y ourse lf to a positive flow of good from the universe. You are libera ting yourself. H e who takes all for gran ted and is devoid o f a sense o f value is in bondage.
8. Gratitude To some th is m ay seem bo ring , to go on ab out ‘valu e’ and now ‘g ra titu de ’. Some readers m ight th ink I am slipping into platitude. However, value and its next-of-kin gratitude are vital com ponents in becom ing a magus. G ratitude for living in the presen t era with so m any conveniences and opportunities. Gratitude for the wealth of one’s society, a society whose poorest live in a m an ner envie d by th e genuin ely poor - w ith o ut ligh t or 10
run nin g water, unce rtain of the next meal, etc. - of the T hir d World. G ratitude for one’s surro und ings even i f they are not ideal, for you know full well they could be worse. Everything could be worse but it isn’t. Be grateful for your health, even if it isn’t that good, for you surely know it could be so mu ch worse. If you th in k it is ‘easy for you to say th at ’ the n th in k again. F or as long as you cling to ingratitude you are shutting the door to progress in your life and worse. Ingratitude is a poison, slowly destroying the soul, eventually ruining one’s health. It is an extraordinarily expensive state of mind. The ungrateful know full well in advance that if asked to write on a sheet of paper two colum ns, one for the good things they have and the othe r for the bad the first column would be longer. I shall not labour this point, but you shall presently see why it is so important.
9. Huna A 41-year-old Hawaiian was dying from tuberculosis. All medical treatm en t had failed. His m othe r called a Kah una - a pagan magus native to the islands - to see if he could help. For an hou r the K ahun a, hands pla ced on th e m an’s th ro a t and chest, pra yed and chante d. Im m edia te ly afterward the man got up and declared h im self totally healed. T he follow ing day he was back at work. The experience transformed his personality, filling him with a gra titud e th at has ne ver left him . O ver six decades later, at the age of 104, he is still work ing a nd is im bu ed w ith a zest for life tha t is the won der of those arou nd him . He said that when the Kahuna told him that he would be healed he believed him completely. Kah unas are practition ers o f hu na magic, a discipline wh ich astonished Am erican psychic researcher Max Freedom Lo ng who wrote a book about it, The Secret Science Beh ind Miracles, in the 1940s. W ha t amazed him was the sim ilarity o f K ahu na beliefs with the B erbers o f N orth Africa, m any thousands of miles away. Moreover, when Christian missionaries came to Hawaii in the 19th century they were flabbergasted to find that the K ahun as already knew the stories in the Old Testament! T hey couldn’t get the Kahunas to abandon their religion because the Kahunas felt C hristianity had n oth ing to offer that th ey d idn’t already have. Moreover, 11
they possessed a system of spiritual psychology that had similarities with modern Western psychology Max Freedom Long was particularly impressed with their concepts of different levels of consciousness before Freud discovered them! T h e prefix ‘Ka ’ m ean s ‘ke ep er’ an d ‘hu n a’ m eans ‘secre t’. So a K ah un a is effectively ‘a keeper of the secret’. They believed that each human poss esse d n ot one self b u t th re e: a Low, a M id dle and a H ig h. T h e Low they said was in the solar plexus and corresponded to the subconscious mind. They called it Low because it has no intellectuality and can be influenced by the Middle, located in the brain, which is the conscious self - the self th at we are co nsciou s of, w hat we call ‘m e’. A nd finally, in the right side of the head, the intuitive part of the brain, there rises an etherea l silver cord which reaches five feet up to the H igh Self. Called ‘T he Great Pa ren t’ by the K ahu nas it corresponds to the ‘Fa the r’ taug ht by Jesus. It is also the Guardian Angel. It is the High Self, say the Kahunas, that creates what we call ‘miracles’. The Low Self is the animal being w ithin us, the M iddle the hu m an, and the H igh the divine. At death the silver cord is severed from the bra in, th e two lesser selves dissolve whilst the High remains, being indestructible. At this point it is ‘God’, or whatever nam e or description one wants to use for the Supreme U niversal Intelligence. It is clearly the H igh Self wh ich in tervene s in times of emergency. In his The Help I Received When I Most Needed It (Finbarr, 2009), Jack Hempstead cites several examples. Mountaineer Frank Smythe, van quished by the th in air of the Everest peak, sudd enly came face to face with a stranger who reassured him that he would survive and not perish. Joshua Slocum, sailing around the world in his sloop was guided by an ‘invisible helper’ through the most ferocious waters. Most remarkable of all and I will quote from th e book: ‘Ron D i Francesco was one of only four pers ons on th e floo rs ab ov e th e 81st of th e south to w er o f th e W orld Trade Ce ntre to survive the infamy o f “9/11”. T he eme rgency stairway was blocked with d ebris, he and others crouchin g for protection. T he n an autho ritative voice called out, “Ron! Get up !” W ithout th ink ing he got up, spellbound by th e voice: he describ ed ‘a defi nitiv e physic al pre sence’ w hic h was cer tainly not th at o f any of the terrified people aroun d h im. I t told him to keep going down, he struggling and fighting his way throu gh the d ust and debris, doing exactly as told, not questioning anything. There was no question o f “logical think ing ” : to thin k logically would be to think the inevitable and become an othe r one of the 3000 who perished on that terrib le day. T h en he came to a raging inferno : he cou ld descend no further. 12
The voice said, “Go through it.” Forearms covering his head, he dashed dow n the stairs. W hen he got to the 76th floor he was “safe” - if th at ’s the righ t word, for the whole bu ilding was to collapse within 30 m inutes there was no m ore voice, no guiding presence.’ I am rem ind ed o f a sleepwalker I once knew. Often she wou ld arise in the dead of nig ht - still fully asleep - have a snack and then drive in her car to some distant location. When daylight came she would awake, frightened and bewildered to find herself sitting on a river bank in her pyjamas . It happ en ed ti m e and aga in. How on earth did sh e drive h er car at all, let alone safely, whilst un con scious? Clearly ano the r con sciousness was in control. T he mystic concept o f ‘the un iverse’ can also be equated to the theory of the universal Collective Consciousness postulated by Carl Jung: a great sea of consciousness in wh ich all thou gh ts, all know ledge, and all ‘arche types’ are stored. Yet the ‘pr im itive ’ K ahu nas had such the ories o f consciousness long before Jung, an d Freu d came along. W hilst Western civilisation was tryin g to find its sp iritual com pass long ago the ‘prim itive ’ Polynesian priesthood already knew! And when the Christian mission aries tried to convert them to the teachings o f C hrist the ir response was, ‘So what else is new? Is that all you have to offer us?’
10. Subconscious Fo r ma ny there is confus ion ab out the ‘subc onscio us’ and ‘un con sciou s’ mind s. Are they one an d the same or different entities? Some of the confusion can be ascribed to the lack of information on the subject, for little, if anything, more is known today than in Jung’s time. Ostensibly they are different ‘entities’. In essence they are theoretical concepts. Thought to exist but hard to prove. In particular the unconscious, for ‘un con sciou s’ mea ns just that, not conscious. How do you demonstrate something that is not there? Freud specifically used the term to describe a repository of m emories o f which the conscious m ind is unaware, hence a perso n is ‘wnconscious’ of them . T hes e are mem ories from the i n d i vidual’s distant past, especially childhood, memories which have faded into the background or as is frequently the case, deliberately shut from consciousness at an early stage because they contain something painful, forbidden or taboo. Now this is quite different from the subconscious. As the prefix suggests, this is a state which lies just below the surface. It is a 13
consciousness just one step, or one layer, removed from the conscious mind. It is a consciousness that is not suppressed, it is hidden yet acces sible. It is a pool of knowledge, contain ing m emories or inform ation which the conscious m ind has forgotten. M ore intriguingly, is the subcon scious m ind ’s store of knowledge not ye t registered. In oth er words it has access to inform ation as yet unavailable, know ing what is yet to happen. T he man who won on the G rand N ational in successive years had p roo f positive of this aspect of the subconscious. In this respec t its activity is a fun ction of the Divine Mind. The subconscious is also the power operating and controlling the m yriad workings of the body. To confuse matters further the subconscious is sometimes referred to as the SMperconscious which in turn can be equated to Higher or Divine Consciousness. It is hard indeed to draw clear lines of distinction. The only thing certain is th at ‘sub con scious ’ or ‘un con sciou s’ eithe r is definitely no t the conscious m ind. We can only be sure o f this, for the conscious m ind is the only consciousness we are actually aware of. T h e rest is conjecture.
11. Magic T h e Oxford Dictionary defines magic as ‘the p ractical art o f influe ncin g the course of events by compelling the agency of spiritual beings, or by b rin g in g into opera ti on so me occult contr olli n g p rin c ip le’. Th e re is ‘low ’ magic whe n a pra ctitio ne r in his or her own privacy lights a candle, recites a spell or chan t, nam ing some s pirit or god, for the purpo se of som ething extraordinary, either spiritual or m aterial. Th ere are enough books o n the subject, few, if any, offering any explanation as to why such-and-such spirits should be invoked. And just who are these spirits, what are their histories and origins; why are no stories or m yths attached to them so that they convey some m eaning? T he y inv ariably carry lofty and b izarre titles. We may be bland ly told that so-and-so is the ‘prim e m iniste r’ of a certain realm, but why does such a place - and w hat is th is place - need such a figure? Do these spirits meet to discuss matters concerning this realm? N o expla nation is eve r provid ed as to ho w and w hy they hav e th e po wers attr ibu ted to them . In ad dition to ‘prim e m inis ters ’ the re are ‘du kes’, ‘prince s’ and the like. Th e p ractitioners are expected to trust entities which appe ar entirely fictitious a nd hav e don e so, it seems, for centuries. B ut so far I have not yet encountered any attempt to explain it all. I have no 14
difficulty, however, with gods a nd g oddesses, for they have biog raphies and the an tiquity of cult tradition. Yet it cannot be dismissed as ‘rubbish’. I have practised ceremonial magic and got results. When I told one woman, greatly interested in all spiritual matters, that I had invoked pagan gods such as Wotan, Hermes and Diony sus she was horrified. Such gods, un like the seem ingly m eanin g less names of spirit-demons who are otherwise totally obscure, possess fully developed personalities an d my stic lives, so in inv ok ing them I know I am drawing on a considerable psychic reservoir which already existed. But my friend was appalled, suggesting my soul could be in peril. Well, I felt no such thing, on the contrary I felt enlarged by the experience. The pagan gods were supplicated and invoked for thousands of years before any o f to d ay’s m ajo r religio ns to ok hold . T hese gods represente d divin e consciousness in its my riad forms, thou gh no t always ‘div ine’ - the diabolical was always close at hand . T he divine, the secret, the unk now able cannot be contained in one single concept, ‘the universe’, ‘the Infinite’, ‘the Cosm ic M in d’, or sim ply ‘G od’ - or whatev er nam e we give it. Th e One cannot be bound by the singular. Each god represents a different facet just as every hu m an has various facets of cha racter a nd personality. Different people see you in a different way, you revealing yourself according to the relationship and the situation. Yet for all these varieties you are still a single perso n; there are ‘m an y’ different ve rsions o f you, yet ther e is only one you. Carl Jung saw gods as archetypes of the Collective Unconsciousness, each rep resenting a po tent psychic force. W hen we seek un ity with the One tha t does not exclude the m yriad different expressions of tha t One. Th e One is also the Many. Every god, every goddess, is but a different facet, a different expression of the Eternal. ‘M agic’ is no t ‘ru bb ish ’, b u t we could say it is irratio na l. O ur sou ls will not be placed in pe ril by practising magic, bu t if we ignore the irrational not only in ourselves bu t also the universe th en we could eventually be in peril. Some folk are repelled by som e of the b izarre religious practices o f the ancien t Egyp tians, in particular th e ven eration of particu lar animals. All cats were thou gh t of as incarna tions of the Great Goddess in her feline aspect. Statues represented her as a seated cat or a standing woman with not a human head but a cat’s, in this form she was called Bastet amongst othe r names. W hen invoked as ‘H ath or ’ the G reat Goddess appeared as a cow, her priestesses wearing bovine masks. And how about Sobek who appeared as a crocodile or Taurt the h ippopotam us. 15
Are these conceptions of deity simply crazy or are they a simple acknow ledgement o f the D ivine Presence in creation and its creatures? In ancient Egypt the diabolical co-existed with the divine and again m ode rn ‘ration al’ readers may be disturbe d at the Eg yptians’ veneration of the truly diabolical ass-headed Set - usurper, m urderer, oppressor, destroyer. H e was the temp late for the Devil of m odern religion b ut w hilst Jews and Christians loathe him ancient Egyptians paid him homage, erecting man y great temples in h is honour. Set is the mythical dweller of barren inhospitable places, perhaps a m etaphor for us of unacceptable and destructive tho ugh ts banished from ou r conscious m ind . Set emb odies an oth er aspect of existence, for life cann ot only be of the acceptable and n ot the unacceptable. ‘M agic’ is abo ut ex ploiting con sciousness in w hatev er form it takes, according to the need and asp iration of the magus. I un de rstan d th at m ost readers will not want Set or any demon-god in their life, but these forces rem ain w hethe r we like it or not.
PART 2: PRACTICE
12. Night I m ust confess a feeling of some relu ctance before w riting th is as I regard it as m ost personal. H ere is what I ac tually do, an d because it actually works I know I m ust im part it. Yet at the same time there is noth ing particularly new, so far as I know, here. I am following a well-worn path and some of you at least will walk the same one. W hat I can assure you is tha t I know it works. I am not writing hypothetically or metaphorically: THIS WORKS FOR REAL. Yet I must say that what I know and what I have experienced is not definitive and final: it remains unfolding and continuous. I am telling you w hat I know as of now. I repeat: THIS WORKS. It works for me and countless others. IT WILL WORK IF YOU WANT IT TO WORK; which I know most of you do. F ollow carefully what I say and do no t fret if you do n ot at first understand, for you should read it again and again. Also the practice of it will enable you to und erstan d w hat is going on. 16
Here is the starting point, and so easy and pleasant is it it may also rem ain yo ur ‘finish ing ’ poin t. It all revolves arou nd relax ing in bed at nigh t, prior to sleep. Th is is the twilight tim e between consciousness and unco nsciou sness; so it is po ten t and magical. You sho uld be lying on your back, arm s at side or over your to rs o if you wish. Take two or th ree gentle deep breaths. T his, an d th e following, is certainly wha t I do each and every night. I th ink for a m om ent of the day, hom ing in on an ything I should be grateful for and I allow m yself ther e a nd the n to be tru ly grateful for it. There is not a single day that I cannotfin d something in itfor which I am thankful. Even if it was ‘one of those days’ I give than ks tha t I rem ained pa tient an d did no t lose m y cool. If it was an atrocious day I am simply grateful that it is over! If it was a day wh en th ing s co uld easily have gone against me, bu t eve rythin g tu rn ed out m y way, I allow my g ratitud e full sway, letting mys elf be swept away by it. Because I fully realize the conseq uences i f thing s h ad gone badly. Sometimes the gratitude swells to such an extent that I feel a disintegration o f consciousness an d a glorious libera tion of spirit. I know at this very moment the Universe is with me and what I am about to ask for will be gran ted. On ce you have expe rienced th is for you rself you will realize just why I place such emphasis o n the value of gratitude. Remem ber, the gratitude m ust be genuine and heartfelt, it cannot be m anufactured or ‘faked’. To feign gr atitud e w ould be to s hu t yo urself off from th e U niversal Power. After this reverie I place m yself in a state o f absolute belief as I pronounce, ‘O h L ord , teach me to be always grateful every hou r o f every day. L et gratitude constantly inform my thoughts. Let me live in gratitude.’ T he phrase ‘L ord ’ suits me fine, bu t you m ay choose som ething else. T his is not th e ‘Lo rd Jesus’ of the C hurch. T ha t holds no resonance for me and may n ot for you. I know tha t to whom ever I am speak ing it is a Being gre ater th an I. It is w orth y to be addres sed as ‘L o rd ’. It cou ld also be ‘L ad y’. Indeed, when this Power communicates with me it is invariably as a lady. W hat the o rthodo x-m inded c anno t grasp is tha t there can not be a ‘G od’ w ithou t a ‘Goddess’, nor One w ithout the Many. I am explaining what it is I do, but as you apply my instructions you may intuitively vary them, which is perfectly fine. I always beg in m y ‘conv ersation’ - or praye r - w ith g ratitude. To repeat: gratitud e opens in ne r gateways of power. It becomes a chann el throu gh which future blessings will follow. ‘Unto him who has it will be added; to him who has no t it will be taken .’ It heals an d liberates. It opens the b od y’s psychic centres, it puts ego in conte xt, allow in g freedom and 17
space, and thro ug h this ‘freedom’ an d ‘space’ the M ystic Un iverse reveals itself. After expressing g ratitud e I ask for ‘the faith I ne ed ’ tha t m y desire will be acco m plish ed. I affirm th a t ‘I and th e F ath er are O n e’. T h is is very im portant. T his p hrase is attribu ted to Jesus bu t you can be sure that the idea beh ind it is very ancient. S imilarly - although I do not suggest you speak it - the phrase, ‘W ithou t the Fath er I can do noth ing ’, an acknowledgement of the incompleteness of our conscious mind and its lim itations. We feel helpless to change things - bu t with th e help of the ‘F ath er’ we can change everything. T he Fa the r is the H igh Self, the Guiding Light or Power, Holy Guardian Angel, or whatever name or representation strikes a chord with you. It is not make-believe or wishful thin kin g, there is a Supreme Power: it is bo th univ ersal and u niq ue to you. T he purpose o f this work is to enable you to harm onize w ith it. We have spoken of conscious, subconscious and u nconscious m inds, b u t m iracle s h appen in D IV IN E CO N SC IO U SN ESS. T h is is when lim it a tion is trans cen de d an d the ‘im poss ible’ happ ens. G reat masters live in divine consciousness. I aspire to it and so should you. You need only a glimpse o f divine conscious to become elevated and renewed. In a practical co ntext ‘I and the F ath er are O ne ’ means tha t if you do the best you can to get what you want the Fa ther will do the rest, in o ther wo rds, supply it. You will know th at ‘the F ath er’ is wo rking for you, provid ing you continuously affirm it, not only at night but daytime too. More of that prese ntly. So I lie there asking to be given faith and that I may trust uncon ditionally and w ithou t reservation. It co uld be said th at one is enterin g a state of wo rship o f the Great Self: the little self, my ego, is inco nseq uen tial and there is a definite awareness th at ‘of myself I can do no th ing ’. I realize th at th e Great Self is everything. So I go on a sking for faith, tru st, an d th e pow er to believe. Then I ask for the thing I want. It can be just one thin g one asks for; bu t if asking for several they should all in some way be connected. This is not so un likely as it seems. W hen we have several problem s sim ultaneously, if we study them carefully, we will find that they all tend to revolve round a cen tral issue. So if th at one core conc ern d idn ’t exist the others pro bably wouldn’t either. If your objectives or problems are unrelated to one an other th en you should focus on just one, obviously the m ost im po rtant or pressing. Simply ask th at ‘I receive so-an d-so ’. Affirm ‘it is m ine no w ’. T hi s is not the littl e 18
self affirming but a H igh er Power wh ich at tha t m om ent is informin g you. At that moment your wish is sealed and delivered in the ether, ready to man ifest physically m aterially at the approp riate time. Say these words at some other tim e, out of context with your comm union with this H igher Power, and you would be c om pletely foolish. ‘O f m yself I can do n o th ing ’. After speaking my wish I give than ks and picture for a m om ent th at I am already in possession o f what I seek or tha t the pro blem is solved. T he n I tu rn over and go to sleep. However, at no tim e do I ever kid m yself tha t an yth ing is going to just fall into my lap or that an y problem is sim ply going to vanish. I kno w I am going to have to do som eth ing ab out it: I still live in ‘the real wo rld’. T he difference is that I know I am going to be successful, for I know I have ‘a silent p artn er’.
13. Daytime I have explained what I do at night. It takes only about ten minutes, sometimes less if I am p articularly tired, or longer i f I am m ore alert and my need m ore pressing. Occasionally I may go to bed exhausted in which case I don’t do anything at all as my concentration is worth nothing. D urin g the day one lives w ith one ’s problems, problem s which at times seem overw helming. So at the occasional m om en t close eyes and say, ‘Help me; sustain me now.’ Say - or th in k - w ith belief. T h a t’s all you do. Particularly effective is to look upward to the ceiling or the sky if outdoo rs and unobserve d an d declare, ‘I know what I w ant’, or some other positiv e sta te m ent. It ta kes only a m om ent and gives you an in sta n t lift. T his is not mere auto-suggestion - you are h eard an d the U niverse is acting for you. If you can take one o r two deep breath s first it helps (bu t is no t essential). When riding a bus or train, close eyes and say mentally, ‘Be with me, Father, be with m e now.’ H ere ’s som ethin g else tha t is good, b ut you will need privacy. Seated or standing, ado pt the arms crossed pose of the ancient Egyp tian gods. Place your right hand on your left shoulder and your left hand on the right shoulder. Close eyes, take a deep b reath , look upw ard saying, ‘Fa ther g ran t my desire. Be w ith me, guide m e.’ It takes only a m om ent an d im m ediately conn ects you with the D ivine. You are always heard. T his is no t mere au to suggestion. 19
I find these little daytime gestures help enormou sly, som etimes bringing immediate help at times of crisis. Once you are in the ha bit of following these formu lae, once they become a pa rt o f your daily life, you will know exactly the m eaning of eve rything I have th us far said. You will no t need any one to ex plain the ‘D iv in e’ to you for you will be expe riencing it. You can only go forward and upward. And so it is.
14. Materialism I am criticized by the ‘spiritua lly m ind ed ’ for suggesting that m ystic forces can be employed for material gains, gam bling wins, seduction o f ano ther pers on, and oth er ‘un w o rth y ’ aims. Suc h m in ded see me as ‘cheapenin g’ or ‘pr o stitu tin g’ the spiritual. This is nonsense of course. I don’t know what world such ‘spiritually m ind ed ’ folk live in: it cann ot be the same one th at I live in with all its pressure s, dem ands and m ate ri alism . Besides, th ere is no co ntr adic ti on betw een th e spir it ual and th e m ate rial. W h at is to u ched an d felt is go od; w hat is pleasurable to the eye is gratifying. Pleasure of the senses is good for the soul. L ife is to be enjoyed. T he po int o f life is surely to live\ I will have no truck w ith self-denial and abstinence; deprivation, monasticism, etc., is based on a twisted vision of the Divine. The Universe is so abu nd ant, so sensual - how can it possibly be righ t to deny its very nature? A new car, a new stereo system, a new suite of furn iture , a luxu ry cruise, supe r dup er technolog ical devices - all bring pleasu re and satisfaction, so long as we value them . I f we take them for gran ted we no t only dim inish the pleasure bu t dim inish and devalue ourselves. Wh atever material thing you desire can be with in yo ur grasp, if you are prep ared to get it with th e aid o f the Father. T he D ivine L igh t within w ants you to flourish, to prosper. Lack ing for things is no t ‘spiritua l’, it indicates not only m aterial im pov erishm ent bu t also impo verishm ent o f the soul. Im pov erishm ent is not the way of nature: all life teems with abu ndan ce. You can partake in th is abu nda nce an d when you do you should relish it and give thanks. Recently a m an from M arseilles told me tha t he m ade a fortune w hich he attributed to his absolute trus t in the Inn er M ind. H e told me that every night he affirmed for about ten minutes the following, ‘Wealth is mine, wea lth is min e now.’ H e would repea t this over and over before drifting off 20
to sleep. Impregnating his subconscious in such a way, he believed, gave him the ‘M idas touch ’: everything he tu rne d his ha nd to m ade money. On one occasion he won 1,200,000 euros in a lottery. He sincerely believed in the power of the subconscious m ind to guide, direct, heal and insp ire him, and it respo nd ed ac cordin g to his belief. W ha t we expect is what we get. T his Power always provides. Th e Un iverse neve r fails. Trust com pletely and do you r best to achieve your goal and and it will deliver. Your pu rsu it of the m aterial throu gh the D ivine in p oin t of fact increases your spiritual awareness, not diminishes it! For you will always remain conscious o f the wo ndrous Power beh ind your accom plishm ents! You will be conti nuall y aw are o f th e p re sence o f your ‘silent p a rtn e r’. You will never feel alone again, knowing that you are surrounded and protected by a Power th at seeks only you r good. Can any thing be more wonderful to know?
15. Everything! Ev erything can be provide d by this great Power! W hatever you need - it can be met. If your hea lth is poor it can be im m easurably improved . You can be healed, renewed, regenerated, and live mu ch lon ger than you ever thought! This Power is constant and inexhaustible, always renewing, forever vitalizing. Op en y ourse lf to it an d let it in! Jus t ask for it to en ter and let it in! You can lead a truly wonderful life. No matter what the obstacle you will have the power to cope; you will continually overcome and realize what it is to be trium ph ant! All tha t holds you back are your own concepts of limitations. A young m an’s righ t arm was badly ulcerated. It was not resp ond ing to m edication and am pu tation was increasingly looking like the only option left. He prayed for a miracle but nothing happened. Instead his arm got worse. Positive thinking didn’t help. Eventually his spirit sank to an all tim e low as he drea ded w hat m ay lay ahead. I knew there had to be a deeper reason for this situation. I asked a p e rtin e n t questi on, ‘Is there a n y th in g yo u have done in th e past w it h your righ t arm that causes you regret now?’ ‘Yes, I feel very bad an d ve ry guilty ab out p u nc hi ng a fellow a few years ago. I ov er-rea cted in a silly row over a gi rl’. ‘Is that something you would do again, that is, throw a punch in an argu m ent?’ I enquired. 21
‘O h n o!’ he fired back. ‘I wou ld ne ve r do a thin g like th at a gain .’ ‘So wh y go on feeling th is g uilt? ’ I asked. ‘Because it was wrong. Besides, the girl wasn’t w orth it.’ I then gave him my analysis of the situation. ‘You did something bad years ago w hen you w ere not the same person you are today. You would no t today react violently to provocation. Also every single atom in your body has chan ged m any tim es in th e in terv en ing years. So phy sically as well as m entally you are a different person to the one who threw that pu nch. Th e old you is dead, so why not accept and embrace the “new you” instead of clinging to the past?’ I added tha t he h ad been acting as judge and jury against an innoce nt m an - himself. ‘Gosh, I had never th ou gh t of it tha t way’, he said. ‘Well, start thin k in g in a different way’, I replied, ‘and start forgiving yourself. Ton ight in be d ask the U niverse for forgiveness - which in t ru th is not actually necessary, for you are already forgiven - so that you can th en forgive yourself. Believe completely. Do this every night.’ After seven days he reported a dramatic improvement in his arm. F ou rteen days, he was com pletely healed. Doc tors were flabbergasted, and so they would be. (Such stories are absolutely true. They are not here for entertain m ent.) T his is the power of the m ind. T his is the power of insight.
16. Psychology We can see psychology at work in th e case of the m an w ith th e ulcerated arm. P sychology is always bo un d u p w ith th e magical. It is also the key to un de rstan ding w hen we don’t get results. Everything this youn g man tried did n’t work. O nly when he realized th at g uilt was the cause of his cond ition an d the realization t ha t it was found ed on a false prem ise was he able to be cured. Those who ‘cannot succeed’, everything they touch turns to rust, are those who deep down believe they are not worthy o f success. A young lady confided in me h er d espair at how ba dly she was doing at college. She feared the disapproval of her pa rents wh en she failed - as she expected to - her exams. H er co ncen tration was poor and she found it exceedingly difficult to remem ber an d retain w hat was taught. I asked her a few questions about her ba ckg roun d a nd it came to light th at as far back as she could recall she would hear her father remark to he r m other tha t she would ‘never amoun t to an yth ing ’. ‘T h a t’s the source o f you r prob lem ’, I said. ‘Ho w do you 22
5
m ean?’ she asked, perplexed. ‘T he I nn er M ind, the subconscious m ind , or even “Go d”, wha tever one chooses to call that so m ethin g oth er worldly in our consciousness, is not a m oral agent. It is amoral, it makes no distin ction betw een rig h t and wrong . All ex iste nce is like th at, if you lo ok arou n d and observe. There is no such thing as “justice”. Wrongdoers go unpunished, evil people flourish, the inn oc en t are at the m ercy of the guilty. N ature is cruel and ruthless. ‘Bu t we are differe nt’, I co ntin ue d. ‘A ltho ug h m ost peop le choose to be amo ral themselves th e fact is tha t we have the pow er to be otherwise. You can dictate toyour Inner M in d,you can dictate to the Universe, wh at you w an t.’ ‘But if it’s amoral, why m ust I fail rath er than succeed; w hy can’t it be the o ther way roun d?’ she asked. ‘Because your Inn er M ind did not decide for you; it was decided by som eone else’, I replied. ‘An d w ho was th at? ’ she asked. ‘It was your fa ther who decided for you. H e d ecided you were no good and your subconscious mind automatically accepted it as fact, having no power o f ju dgem ent, n ot know in g w h at’s rig h t and w h at’s w rong. T h a t’s why no matter how hard you try with your studies there will be conflict. You want to succeed, but your subconscious is working to the agenda set by your fa th er.’ ‘So what do I do?’ ‘You m ust see your fa the r’s rem arks for wh at they are: th e u ttering s o f a sm all-min ded m an. T he re is absolutely no reason you shou ld not succeed in your studies if that is what you want. Your father’s vision, like that of so many, is obviously extremely limited. Perhaps at an early stage he noticed that you were not a quick learner so immediately assumed you would never am oun t to much. Th e m an’s a fool and ignoran t, for some of the world’s brightest and most successful people are not the quickest learners: a nd th en there are those who catch on very quickly and seem very smart and yet amount to little in life. ‘You must now dictate your own agenda. Reject your father’s opinion which is ill-conceived and worthless. Beginning tonight before going to sleep ask the Higher Power for what you seek. Indeed affirm tha t you will be a b ett er stud ent, th at you w ill absorb and re m em ber w hat you le arn , a nd that you will pass your exams. Say “I reject what Dad says, I reject it completely. I am the m aster of my own m ind and th e m aster of my destiny. I shall be successful and accom plished, no m atter w hat any one says!”’ T his young lady passed he r exams and subsequen tly went on to better things, m uch more con fident and self-motivated th an w hen she first saw me. 23
Illness is m ore a produ ct o f psychology than of bad diet or lack of exercise. Illness is usu ally a form of self-punishment. Take the case of ano ther young wom an. She couldn’t get rid o f a sore throa t which together w ith a fever was getting her down. Antibiotics didn’t help and her doctor was puzzled. Com in g to me about th is , I asked her, A p a rt fr om th is w retc hed thro at c on dition , wh at else in life is getting you dow n?’ ‘Well, as a ma tter of fact’, she replied , ‘it is my m other. D on ’t get m e wron g - 1 love my m oth er - bu t she is continually trying to organize and con trol my life. Now she wants me to go out with a man who she thinks is right for me. I just hate her c onstant interfering.’ The two things getting her down, the bad throat and the difficult mo ther, had to be connected. She loved her m other b ut was beg inning to hate he r and this in ne r tension was creating gu ilt, made worse by the fact that the young m an h er m other wanted h er to go out with was of an extremely amiable disposition, but she knew she could never love him. N one of th is was help ed by th e fact th at she was - at age 28 - still livin g with her mother. I suggested she find her own accommodation and that she m ust m ake he r feelings abs olutely clear to he r mo ther. I also suggested she say the following every night as the Great Protecting and Healing Power will definitely come to her aid. ‘Dear Lord, show me the way forward. I realize that I can love my mother and still have my own indepe nde nce of m ind. Please show this to her. Please help me. L et m e be freed, let me be release d.’ She repeated this several times, usually in her head, for her throat was so tender. She spoke to mother calmly and without rancour, mother not taking the offence that m ight have been expected. T here was a rema rkable change in her attitude, she admitting that she had been overbearing and that she didn ’t want h er to leave. Th e q uestion o f the you ng m an never arose again and she was de term ined she wou ld choose her own boyfriend. Seven days later her thro at was comp letely healed. A religious woman confided in me that no matter how much and how often she prayed h er prayers were never answered. H er life was being made a m isery by ulcers, an d m edica tion was of little help. She tried different doctors but noth ing changed. She was no t a happ y woman. Upon enq uiring I learnt that she was at loggerheads with her in-laws and was full of resentm ent. T his was m aking h er feel guilty for well she realized tha t she was falling sh or t of Jesus ’ inju nc tion to ‘love thy enem ies’. I explain ed to her th at trying to suppress her rage would m ake her ulcers worse and th at if she wanted to get rid of them there had to be changes in her mental 24
attitude. The reason she got no answer from God, I continued, was that she was pray ing to some far-off bein g in the sky and no t to some one as close to her as her own skin. Moreover, ‘Your ulcers will not let go of you un til you let go of you r rage, be it with you r in-laws or an yone else.’ ‘Bu t they are such awful people!’ she retorted . ‘T h a t’s ne ithe r he re no r the re’, I replied, ‘you’ve got the ulcers, n ot the m .’ I then gave her the following to affirm every night. ‘Please, Lord, let peace p re vail. L et harm o n y pre vail. Fre e me fro m th e chain s o f negativity. Replace every thing n egative with th e positive. I radiate good to all, for my own good. O h Lo rd, teach me gratitude , teach me love. ‘Le t the Life Force flow freely and joyously throu gh my body. Mak e me whole and in perfect he alth.’ I met her again about a month later. Never had I seen such a transfor m ation in a person. Instead of a frown she wore a beam ing sm ile, her walk was ligh t and en ergetic, her d em eano ur buoy ant. N eedless to say, he r ulcers had disappeared, and even her in-laws were suddenly being nice to her! Th e H igh Self is the H ealing Self; the Universe is both the source of your ills and your cure. You have the pow er to choose wh ich you really want. Sickness cannot dwell in a joyous, positive soul: the two are entirely incompatible. Ask the High Self to fill you with joy, power and gratitude. Open yourself to its limitless abundance. Ask it to cast out all doubt and nega tivity from y our thoug hts. D o so with all yo ur heart. This Power will not fail you, CANNOT fail you. You are limited only by your be lief. Believe w ith heart and so ul and ev ery th in g is poss ible. Failure is the price you pay for yielding to negativity and self-doubt. Sickness is the price for suppressing anger, for guilt, and other malignant con ditions. Ask to be freed of all these unh ea lthy states - doing so w ith all you r he art - and believe you will be answered, as you surely will.
17. Sin M ost peop le’s - especially the religious-m inded - idea of sin is illusional. T he word itself is derived from th e an cient G reek m eaning ‘wide of the m ark ’. So to sin is to be ‘wide o f the m ark ’, or to ‘miss th e m ark ’. P u t an oth er way it is a failure to grasp wha t is right for us. T he dog m atic religious view that money, materialism , physical love are ‘sinfu l’ is rub bish . I t is a falsehood and is con trary to the Spirit o f Un iversal 25
Ab undance. N ature teems w ith life, riches, the m aterialistic, all of which are there for our enjoyment and participation. What gives us pleasure can not possibly be ‘wide of the m ark ’, so long as it is valued. Life is to be enjoyed, relished, and the more of it the better. Jesus C hrist nev er ‘died for our sins ’; nob ody can die for our sins. Th e ‘sin s’ we co m m it are transgressions against ourselves. Ideas of gu ilt and re gret ab out s elf-enjoym ent are based on a false pre m ise. If y ou live and are guid ed by th e Cosm ic Pow er th ere can be no gu ilt, for you will bear no grudg e towards a no ther; you will have no need to envy others an d no wish to harm them . N egativity disappears from your outlook. Get righ t - hit the m ark - w ith your own best higher intu ition and all else falls into place. Daily affirm the following: I am One with the Father. I am One with the High Self of the Un iverse. All positive en ergy flows thro ug h me. I focus on my own good, and what is good for me is good for all. Affirm when you need it, repeat as many times and as often as you wish. Im preg nating the layers of your consciousness, it is quite impossible for negativity to remain: it literally dissolves before the Light contained in these words. Wanting the best for yourself is not negative selfishness. Speaking for myself, I want the best for everyone. I enjoy seeing others happy and successful. I feel no en vy or cov etousne ss, for I realize th at thes e are ut ter ly poin tless an d self-d efe ating em otions. By w an ti ng th e best fo r every one I am o pen to the be st for myself. Whilst I wish the best for others I also recognize that so many are negative, petty and ch ildish. I m ay wish the best for them , but the tru th is they can never have it! That is not my concern: my concern is that all spiritual doors shall be open to me. And they are. A nd so they shall also be for you.
18. Healing T he w onderful Power w ithin us knows no boundaries. T he H igh Self is not alone and isolated, but connected to the Universal High Self (‘God’) wh ich con nects all consciousness. There are no barriers to divine consciousness. 26
T he subconscious, too, w hethe r or not we thin k it is the same thin g is also not lim ited by bound aries. The subconscious minds o f two different people can work in unison as one fun ctionin g entity . H enc e th e ‘m iracle’ of spiritual healing. A very good friend of m ine, a young m an who shares the same interest in all matters spiritual and m ystic was saddened w hen his mother, almost ov ernig ht, became crippled. She was take n to hosp ital where she was told she would sp end the rest of her life in a wheelchair. H e th en recalled som eth ing he h ad often he ard h er say wh en he was a boy, ‘I guess tha t one of these days I’ll end up arthritic and crippled like my mother and gran dm other.’ Being a child he took no notice at the tim e, bu t now he was struck by the recollection. W hat she said would happe n has now happ ened b u t he could n’t gra sp w hy it should be so in evit able despite his fore bears ’ condition. The bogeyman of ‘hereditary illness’ is a certain self-fulfilling pr ophec y. H e ask ed her to ta ke p art in an experi m ent. Sh e, appre cia ting his interest in all things spiritual, agreed to take part w hilst acknowledging the sense of his rem ark, ‘You kep t telling y ours elf you w ould en d up a cripple and it happen ed. W hat else did you expect?’ Th is is yet another example of the im partiality and amoral nature o f the inn er m ind. It doesn’t judge or challenge - it merely accepts. Keep saying ‘I am goin g to be ill’ an d so one r or late r ill you will be. Keep t elling y ou rself th at all will be fine ensures a positive o utcome. The subconscious min d blindly accepts. It acts upon wh atever it is told; it doesn’t come back a nd say to you, ‘Wait a minute, that can’t be right. Do you really want this?’ WHATEVER THOUGHTS WE HABITUALLY KEEP ARE ACCEPTED UNCONDITIONALLY AND WITHOUT RESERVA TION BY THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND. This same mind which lives and fu nctions th rou gh every cell of your body, called by the Kah unas the ‘Low Self’. T he crippled lady was asked to say every nig ht a nd at intervals d uring the day the following: T he Life Force ru ns thro ug h me. I am a vessel for free flowing joyous energy. I accept only life, vibrancy, enthusiasm, vitality. I reject all notion s o f disability an d negativity. I affirm life an d m ovem ent. I will think only positive thoughts. I allow the Universal Healing Presence to permeate my whole being, continuously and exuber antly. I refuse to enterta in n egative and unh ealth y thou ghts. I affirm only the good and the positive. The Light is in me and I am in the Light. 27
Likewise her son made similar affirmations for her each night and day. Although she returned home in a wheelchair they were determined to continue the experiment. Ab out a m on th later she no longer needed the wheelchair, nor any aid. She was a new person, fit and vital. She declared she hadn’t felt this ene rgetic s ince she was a teenager. My young friend’s faith would be tested by another crisis, one of far greater ma gnitude . H is child was w ith a high fever from an extrem ely rare condition. Whatever the doctors did it didn’t help. They told the child’s father to prepare for the worst. Refusing to accept this he appealed to the Higher Power that he may remain calm and focused on a cure. He was imb ued with a sense of peace and received a wo nderful sense of certainty tha t everything would be all right. W hen one needs faith and reassurance simply ask for it and believe it will come and surely it does. He then repeated th e following continuously : ‘Oh Great Life of the U niverse, you are the life of my child. T he Great River of Life courses thro ug h her. Th e won derful life-giving permeates every atom o f her be ing rig ht now. She is th e receptacle for free-flowing life and energy.’ H e believe d with his who le heart that at the same time he prayed to the Universal Mind these very same words were being absorbed by his child’s subconscious mind. The child made a rapid recovery and all symptoms of the illness disappeared. ‘This is the work of God’, said the baffled doctors. T he ch ild’s father ha d su rren dere d ego to the H ealing Power so that his anxious lim iting conscious m ind w ould no t get in th e way. W ith all men tal obstacles removed the child’s recovery was inevitable. A doctor friend of m ine - a rare physician who also believed in the healing power of inn er consciousness - told m e of the tim e he was called to the hom e o f pare nts of a sick girl whose religious beliefs did n ot ack now ledge illness or recognize doctors. Her high fever no doubt challenged these beliefs. Upon examination he could not find anything particularly wrong w ith her and reassured the paren ts th at there was no danger of death. She, however, asked i f he w ould pray w ith her for a full recovery, wh ich he did. She wou ld no t take any m edicine as it was against the fam ily’s religious beliefs. H e reassure d her th at he th o u g h t sh e w ould be perf ectly all rig h t and that he imagined her as glowingly healthy. T his story now takes a surp rising tu rn. I t transp ires tha t this girl’s older b ro th er - who had brok en w it h th e fa m ily’s reli gio us se ct and h ad b ec ome, of all things, a medical doctor - got in touch w ith m y doctor friend about a m on th later asking what the rap y he ha d given her. ‘W hy do you ask?’ enquired my friend. ‘Well, for years she’s been suffering severe epileptic 28
seizures two or three times every week and has now become free of all symptom s an d attacks.’ H e added tha t for years he ha d tried unsuccessfully to get her to take anti-epilepsy drugs. My friend explained that he had given her no particular therapy but prayed with her followed by his remarks tha t she would m ake a complete recovery and that he saw her as perf ectly hea lthy. H e was am azed at th e revela tion o f h er epilep sy, fo r had he known, he would never have reassured her of a recovery for the condition is ‘incurable’. B U T S H E - O R M O R E S P E C IF IC A L L Y H E R S U B CO N S C IO U S MIND - HAD ACCEPTED UNCRITICALLY AND UNCONDI TIONALLY THAT SHE WOULD ENJOY PERFECT HEALTH, for previo usly no-one h ad ev er su ggested a cure was possib le becau se of th e taboo on epilepsy. BECAUSE PEO PLE BELIEVE A CO ND ITION IS UNTREATABLE OR INCURA BLE SO IT IS. We are lim ited on ly by our thoug hts. Whenever circumstances take a turn for the worse and improvement seems im pos sible we convin ce ourselves w ith the belief, ‘Well, th a t’s it. I’d bett er m ake th e m ost o f it’ th en th at becom es BECAUSE W E T H IN K IT SO. Circumstances do not improve and we make do the best we can. To return to the epileptic young lady. A year passed and she had no sym ptom s whatsoever. T h e ‘m iracle’ of he r healing e nab led h er to lead a norm al yo ung wo m an’s life. Now she can drive an d became engaged to be married. H ealing operates thro ug h the aegis of faith a nd belief. ‘Ask the F ath er ’ to give you faith and belief. Faith and belief dissolve obstacles and open doors. Th e subco nscious believing w hat it is fed has no choice but to deliver. Believe that you can heal yourself, both soul and body. A sk for healing from you r inner mind. Ask for faith a nd belief which wh en received you give back to you rself! You b o th receive and give to yourself! N ow you r conscious m ind becomes a force for healing in con junction with y our subconscious. ‘I and th e F ather are O ne’. When the Life Force flows illness cannot resist; it dissolves and is washed away. Guilt is expunged: power and not weakness prevails. You becom e a n ew person, fu ll of po te ntia l, livin g in a s p ir it o f ex pecta ncy and joy. Allow y ourself to be open to th e S pir it o f A bundance - th at lim it le ss flowing expanse of goodness, life, vitality a nd energy. A sk that you may be open. And open you will be. Do not think that to be open to this Power is to leave you vulnerable: this ca nnot be. On th e co ntrary you will be protected. W hen aware of and 29
in the Lig ht you canno t be vulnerable to attack or exploitation by anything greater. Instead you are irresistibly propelled forward to accomplishment and fulfilment: anytime you feel depleted, simply ask to be renewed. Ask and believe that there will be a response. There always is. T he Un iversal Supply is available to all at the tu rn of a tap. It is always available. We don’t have to strug gle to m ake it w ork, we only have to believe that it works. Belief deepens with experience and eventually becomes second nature. All doubt and self-criticism evaporate completely as the Ligh t-Giving Spirit permeates your en tire being. T his is not arrogance or false self-confidence but is what the ancients called ‘gnosis’, the certain knowledge th at the Power is within. We can all be healed. H eale d of conflict, melanch oly, do ub t, worry, and all othe r negative cond itions. O ur bodies can be renewed, vitality restored. We can all live abundantly. Simply learn to let it happen.
19. Inequity All about is inequity; life is nothing if not unfair. I have just heard of a man who had a staggering lottery win, a man who has apparently several pris on sente nces fo r breaking and ente rin g and griev ous bodily h arm ; a m an w ith a history of violence against women and th e father of num erous unwanted children. Yet he has been handsomely rewarded by the uni verse for his efforts. He will certainly squander every last penny of his spectacular win, for his life has no p urpo se an d h e has no concep t of value. Money, which should always be an instrument for the good and the positiv e, will in his hands ult im ately ca use grief, as th e re st o f his life has. A young lady came to me bitterly com plaining about h er circumstances. For years she had strug gled to get he r Ph .D and yet has wo und up less well off tha n h er sister. H er sister is in an oc cupation she would rath er no t discuss - an occupation ne eding no qualification! An grily she declared that ‘the system ’ is co rru pt a nd th at so ciety’s pr ioritie s are ‘tw isted ’. I explain ed to her tha t tryin g to chan ge society is the stu ff of politics an d po litics itself is corrupt. When politicians seek to regulate society to make it fairer the en d res ult is always yet m ore inequity. All politics is m ade o f mak e-belief. Ine qu ity cann ot be eradicated from life: life is inequity. T h e U niversal P ower is not a dispenser o f ‘fairness’. It is im partial, uncritical and w ithou t judgement. W hen the Jehovah ‘God ’ of the Old Testament declared that the righteous shall be ‘rewa rded’ and the un just 30
‘pu nish ed ’ this is pure m ake-believe, the w ishful thin kin g of sma ll-minded beard ed old m en. T h e ir G od n e it h er rew ard s o r punis hes. Id ea s o f m ora lity and guilt are things we inflict on ourselves. Note earlier my com me nts on H itler: he was completely amoral and w ithou t conscience, yet he got what he wanted because he believed passionately in a Power tha t guided h im. If his Germ an con temp oraries had held a sim ilar deep conviction and occult purpose H itler could never have su cce eded. B ut th a t’s life. T he sun shines equ ally on the ba d as well as the good. Everyone breathes the same air. To this young lady I said, ‘Your priority is wrong. You are looking in the wrong place. Don’t waste precious energy dwelling on your sister’s high income or the other injustices of “the system” as you call it. “The system” is the product of all: for those who create and propagate it cann ot do so witho ut the cooperation of the m asses.’ (H itler could no t have succeeded witho ut the a id of the G erman electorate. Nobod y forced him on them.) T he masses are not - and never have been - interested in political and economic change as long as creature comforts are und isturbed . In stead of bem oaning the u niverse th at you see create the universe you want. ‘The only “universe” that matters’, I continued, ‘is the one within yourself. All else is irrelevant. It is you that has to live with your feelings and experiences. Not another single living soul can do that. Only you can live your life, and the quality of life you live will depend on the nature of the thoughts you perpetually hold. You are daily creating your own “system” which is of far greater relevance to you th an any ex ternal econom ic or political system. All wealth and well-being will ultimately come from your inner world: not any employer, banker or politician. They are not respo nsible for your life and you r happiness: the res pon sibility lies squarely with you. ‘By chan nelling you r m ental energy into your own desires and asp ira tions you can beat the s tandards of limitation s of the “mass m ind ” of the species, which perpetuates unfairness and inequity. You can beat the law of averages. You do not have to be at the mercy of the status quo. All you have to do is each n igh t before you sleep is repeat w ith c onv iction, “Success is mine. I am worthy of success; it is my birthright. I am a channel for Abundance. T he Spirit of Inexhaustible Abundance dwells in m e; the River of A bunda nce flows throu gh me. Wealth is mine; wealth is mine now.” You can repeat this in the daytime, too, when the opportunity presents itself. E ach tim e you th in k of your sis te r or th in k o f an yone who seems unfairly better off than you then repeat what I have just given you. These positive words will impregnate your subconscious mind which transmits them to other subconscious minds. Beyond the limitations of 31
our own individual conscious mind is a vast pool of consciousness con necting all minds. When speaking such positive phrases also imagine yo urself as being well off and hav ing plen ty o f spare money. D on ’t conc ern yo urself with how th is can come about, just do it. Imagine y ourself en joying the lux uries an d extravagances of life. Give emotion to you r imagi nings, feeling all the joy and pleasure you can m uster from a riche r lifestyle, all of wh ich will make a great impre ssion on your subco nscious m ind .’ She followed my advice. Ab out a m on th late r she was offered a position that paid almost double her existing salary. An extremely gifted young woman and an expert in her field, she was later offered a publishing contract to write a series of serious texts for distribution to libraries and universities aroun d the world. At the tim e of w riting, m any m ore exciting opportunities have opened up to her. I joked with her, At this rate, there will be those envying you, com plainin g how “un fair” life is. W hat you once com plained abou t is now w orking for you. Be grateful for it!’ The subconscious mind is like a goldmine and can be mined without limit. A very successful businessman told me recently how he built his fo rtun e on repe ating every nig ht, ‘I am rich now. W ealth is m ine n ow ’ befo re fallin g asleep. H is subconsc io us thus im pregnate d h e had convin ced him self that he would only be rich; there was no room in his thoughts for any othe r cond ition. So as a consequen ce he made the rig ht decisions, met the right people, and the right opportunities presented themselves. The ultimate difference between the successful and unsuccessful person is always one o f belief. Belief - bu rnin g conviction - opens doors an d makes things happen. It ’s unca nny bu t absolutely true. Behind the anxiety over the inequities of life lurks a darker feeling: envy. Envy, if not understood and checked, can be poisonous, not only darkening the soul but rotting the body. Yet it can also work for one, if cha nne lled constructively. F or exam ple a person may m arvel at the success of someone, a success he w ishes he co uld em ulate if only he could get ‘the breaks’. Such ‘constr uctive envy’ can m otivat e th at in div idual to eq ual th e other’s success, and by asking and telling the Universal Mind what is w ante d ‘the b rea ks ’ will appear.
20. Dreams Thus far we have been concerned with supplicating and invoking this Power to help us; the c om m unica tion being one way, from us to it. Bu t it 32
also communicates with us. The most common line of communication is throu gh dreams. T he trouble with dreams, however, is trying to un d er stand them . So mu ch of the time th ey simp ly make no sense. We can get around this. First, you must keep a notebook by your bedside so that you write your dream down immediately upon awakening. This came in extremely useful for one man at the time of my writing this. A few months ago he was suddenly awakened by a voice calling out a series of nu m bers. As fast as he could h e wrote th em down, for a few seconds later they would have vanished from his thoughts. He decided to use these num bers in a lottery. Previously he had never won a bean and now for five weeks out of six he has h ad w inning s. ‘I am sure th e n um bers w ere given to you for a purpose’, I said. ‘These modest wins are a herald for something much bigger. Stay with these numbers, for they are directly from ‘Cosmic M ind ’. W ho knows wh at he may have won by the tim e this is published. W ithou t a han dy pen and pap er at your side we may forget our dreams quickly. Writing them down can also help us to interpret them or clarify their meaning. That said, most dreams in fact have no meaning, being ju m ble d an d co nfu se d. A dre am th at is p arti cularly viv id or hold s a p a rti cular resonance or logic should certainly be written down. T he Inn er M ind may be trying to tell you som ething particularly imp ortant. Ideally we need o ur d reams to be less symbolic and m ore literal so tha t they can be easier to understand and interpret. Before falling asleep say something along the lines of the following. ‘Please let my dreams make sense. Please let me dream in literate terms rather than symbolic so that I may und erstand the m eaning when I awake.’ As you have d ream t all your life in crazy imag ery it may take some tim e befo re y our d re am s becom e m ore lo gically form ed, so y ou w ill n eed to keep asking every night. O nce your dreams do take on a more logical and un d er standable shape they could be of inestimab le benefit to you. R e m em b e r - the Inne r M in d already knows everything you need to know about anything. It is a limitless storeho use o f know ledge; only the true magu s can access it regularly, confidently a nd w ith benefit. You can become such a magus. You can have access to this inex hau stible fo un t of know ledge and power. To the average person it will always remain out of reach, but no t so to the magus. You will get be tter resu lts by being specific. W hilst th e deeper co n sciousness knows everything it cannot tell you everything, not because it is ‘lim ited ’ bu t because yo ur conscious m ind is. It can only cope with one or two revelations at a tim e wh ich is in po int o f fact quite a dequ ate at any 33
given time. Here is how you proceed. Before sleep say, ‘Oh Lord, O Holy One , reveal to me in no unc ertain a nd definite term s wh at I sho uld do about (state the nature of the situation). Let my dreaming be clear, lucid and literal. Let it be easy for me to understand.’ Repeat once or twice with conviction. Th is works if you have patience. Remem ber, the unconscious fun ctions thro ug h symbology: asking it to be less symbolic and m ore literal may not happen automatically. Even so, your dreams should start to make sense after a sho rt time. We will now look at some practical examples of this process at work. F irst it should be un derstood that dreams are more decisive in m atters of advice and choice th an they are in m ore general m atters. A ‘m ore gen eral’ m atter is the typical, ‘How can I acquire more m oney? How, where and in what can I get rich?’; also ‘How can I find true love? Where is the right person for m e? ’ and so on. D ream s do help in such matters, but may still remain hard to understand. The subconscious is more helpful with prac tical advice and decisions because these are m ore im m ediate in one ’s life. L et’s suppose you have to change a ccom mo dation. You have seen a room, flat or house that you particularly like - bu t sho uld you take it? As you lie in bed th in k abo ut the place and the n ask, ‘Sho uld I take it?’ Repeat this question a few times - for the power of repe tition is very im po rtant when dealing with th e subconscious m ind - and then say: ‘Please show me one way or another. Please give me a clear-cut answer either in a dream or in a feeling abou t this place.’ Hopefully your dream will be helpful, more literal than symbolic, in which case it will be easier to understand and you will get the straight forward answ er you seek; b ut m ore likely, in yo ur early days of tryin g these ideas, it will be quasi-symbolic or entirely symbolic yet the symbolic imag ery will invariab ly explain itself! Perhaps you m igh t dream of a rich cornfield. It is early m ornin g, the sun is rising an d the re is a glorious bird s’ chorus. Such a dream ha rdly needs m uch inter pre tation . A new start is at hand. You are going to be very happ y in this new place. On the othe r hand you migh t dream of standing at a bus stop, b ut n o bus stops or every bus is full. E ithe r way you are stuck in the same spot. The dream is telling you this accommodation is already taken ; or simply th at you sh ou ld give it a miss. It is clearly not for you. On the other hand you may have a dream that leaves you completely confused, in which case you will need to ask again the following night. However, such a vague initial dream is not promising. My experience of dreams which are vague concerning important matters is that the Inner 34
M ind is advising a reappraisal of the situation ; in othe r words my present course is not th e rig ht one. Let’s suppose that a lady has met a man. She finds him attractive and agreeable and can easily imagine a flowering relationship with him. However, she is sensible enou gh to realise th at ‘all tha t g litters is not gold’, so she turn s to the In n er M ind for guidance. She need on ly ask, ‘Is he righ t for me? Please let me know one way or the oth er’. She shou ld picture his face and imagine his voice in her head, and ask again, ‘Is he right for me - yes or no? ’ She dreams o f three b eau tifully made cups o r goblets on a nicely laid out table. Th ey app ear to co ntain some sweet or otherwise very ple asin g drin k. T h is is clearly a h eart -w arm in g scenario an d if sh e w ere to ask me about such a dream I would have no hesitation in telling her to pro ceed w it h th is m an. T h e im p o rta n t th in g is th at th e In n e r M in d is not warning her against anything. At worst, this budding relationship is not going to turn out a fiasco; in fact the Inner Mind is suggesting the very opposite. Now let’s suppose tha t instead she dream t of climb ing stairs and she ’s out o f brea th. It seems she’ll neve r get to the top. I would in terp ret this as a relationship tha t could be hard w ork. Is this w hat she wants? Or she m ight dream of two animals fighting or of some other discordan t scene. This, man, for all his charm, should be given a miss. How many people cultivate a veneer of charm when they are trying to woo another? Once the bait is taken the mask is dropped. If she dreams no thin g at all nigh t after night that suggests to me a ‘nothing relationship’: she won’t find it satisfying and it will no t go anywhere. Some people declare tha t they ‘do no t dream at all’. T hi s can not be so. Consciousness does not cease. Whilst awake, our conscious mind thinks in pictures, a process continued in sleep by the subconscious; so daytime thoug ht-imag ery becomes dream-imagery. W hat ‘non -drea m ers’ actually mean is tha t they have no recollection o f dream ing; the unco nscious imagery has vanished, so as far as they are concerned they have not dreamt. Why their dreams should remain so hidden from sight I don’t know, but it is a matter of ongoing investigation by me. I myself dream vividly and dramatically, and receive a constant flow of - invaluable - inform ation from Inner Mind. Yet there are occasions when I am surprised to awake realizing I hadn ’t dream t at all. I thin k ha rd and then it comes to me tha t I did dream , but th e images were so fleeting and o bscure th at the y seem to be from a deeper level of th e p sy che. W hat t hese ‘shadow s’ from th e deeper reaches o f consciousness represen t rem ain a mystery to me for the present. If you ca nno t recall your d reams the n ask th at you do. Say: ‘Please let me dream vividly and clearly. Please let me remember my dreams 35
wh en I wake up’. Do th is nig ht after nig ht u ntil you are satisfied with the results. Dream s are a peculiar pheno m enon and you shou ld be wary of attaching any significance to most of them. Most are nonsense, just as many of our daytime thoug hts are nonsense, for we keep th ink ing of things of no real value to us. We continuously waste precious mental energy on imagined things that never happen (and the things that do happen we never thought of!). We dream no t only of the living bu t also the dead. In the dream world the living are side by side with the deceased and th ere is no awareness that anyone is ‘dead’. D ream ing o f the dep arted is not a sign th at they are tryin g to contact you, unless the dream is unusually vivid and striking - then you should take note. More usually, dreaming of the departed is a balancing m echanism of the psyche. Th e deceased does not exist in your daily world, creating a vacuum, a vacuum which is filled in the dream state. This is in p o in t of fact th erapeuti c for th e psy che . I dream of people I d idn ’t like wh en th ey were alive so I know they cann ot have any good or significant m eaning for me in the present. I am also puzzled by recurring dreams o f certain prim e m inisters. To dream of a prim e m inister or some othe r powerful figure usually suggests a need for au tho rity in on e’s self, yet my unco nscious chooses figures wh ich have no autho ritative significance to me whatsoever. T hey may be prim e m inisters b u t I see th ese p articu lar in div id uals as c hea p and se lf-s erv in g a nd w ithout scruple. I do not tru st po liticians in general and I am puzzled as to why my subcon scious sho uld w ant to inflict on me images and stories of people whom I care little about, persons who I in fact dislike. But I expect to eventually un ders tand the m eaning o f all this. D ream s are no t, however, always ‘dre am s’. O ccu ltists speak o f the ‘astral world’ which is a kind of invisible double of the physical, so everything, say occultists, that exists physically also exists astrally. Occasionally our astral body can be separated from the physical and th is can be experienced as w hat on e may call a ‘dream ’ - b u t it isn’t: it is a ge nu ine ex perien ce of elevated consciousness, a deliberate and decisive step by the soul to temporarily transcend the norm. If it happens you will definitely know you have experienced no ordinary ‘dream’. On numerous occasions I have visited ‘places’ that seemed like Paradise, places where everyone an d ev ery thing s eem ed as ‘real’ as the physica l. W he n I awake I realize that it was not in fact a physical experience, feeling bewildered, con fused, disorientated. I certainly do not feel like this after usual dream ing. T his d isorien tation springs from the disloc ation of two bodies. Even th oug h th e two bodies are realigned in an in stant I still find it hard 36
to adjust consciously, for I much prefer the ‘other place’ where I’ve been; a p la ce far m ore w onderf ul th an th is . I re alize I have been not only in locations that I know is the physical world, but locations somewhere else, too, whe re I do no t know. ‘Pa rad ise’ is an a pt word. Som etimes I am in the compan y of persons kno wn to me who are tryin g to persuade m e on a particu lar course of action. T his , too, is an ‘astral expe rience’, for what in effect is happening is that I am in conversation with the astral forms of these people. These persons are invariably occultists or black m agicians whom I know in ‘real life’. W ha t has prob ably ha ppe ned is that earlier the magician would have placed a spell or projected a certain tho ug ht to me. E ither way I am the rec ipient o f a projected psychic energy from them. W hilst this would alarm most, I am no t disturbed. In m y line of endeavou r I m ake the acquaintance of people of all kind s of mystic and magical persuasion. I th in k it is inevitab le tha t the ‘black on es’ may now and then try to influence me magically to take part in some project they have. I do no t feel threaten ed by any o f this, and w hilst Theo soph ists and ‘w hite witche s’ m igh t abh or those who do such th ing s I regard it as just p art and parc el o f occult life. We all have our own ‘gu ardia n an gel’ to prote ct us, and th at is the H igh Self, that eternal essence of ou r being, im perish able, ju st and pu re. Sho uld you fear ‘psych ic attack ’ or the astral ma ch inatio ns o f others you only have to re-affirm th e protec tive care of ‘the F ath er’ - the H igh Self. Before sleep simply repeat a few times: ‘Oh Father, protect me this night and protect me tomorrow. Place your shield about me. No evil can befall me, for I am safe in your Infinite Presence.’ This indeed is a potent formula for anyone living in dangerous or threatening circumstances, real or perceived. Repeat it during the day. Believe it implicitly. Finally, I will close this ch apte r on d reams w ith a strange bu t absolutely true story of a young m arried wom an w ith an un shakeab le belief and faith in this Great Power. Each night she asked it to lead her to the ideal home she wanted. For seven consecutive nig hts she dream t of this hom e, walking through each room, up and down the stairs, into the attic and into the garage. She awoke each morning startled by the experience, for it was so intensely real and vivid. T he n one day soon afterward while driving w ith her husband in a nearby neighbourhood she saw a house that looked just like the one she drea m t of. O utside was a sign, ‘Fo r private sale by owner. Please view’. But when she knocke d on th e door a nd th e owner o pened he shudd ered. T he dog growled, its hair standin g on end. W hen the o wn er’s 37
wife appeared she trembled. They regained their composure and apolo gized, the owner saying, ‘We have seen a woman just like you roaming throug h our house in the early hours. Th e dog howled and barked terribly and we saw then this gh ost.’ Taken aback by this, the you ng wom an felt she had to explain herself, tha t her intens e spiritual belief and co nviction had given her vivid dreams of this hou se wh ich she saw in he r dreams. T his story is a lengthy one b u t I have giv en you th e m eat o f it. T h e sale o f th e house proceeded harmoniously and without difficulty, unlike most property transactions. Infinite M ind was w ith'this young w om an all the way.
21. Signs Signs and portents are another means by which the Unive rsal Consciousness communicates with us. Now it so happens that many of those of a mystic and spiritual persuasion dismiss signs and portents, or more specifically the belief in them, as belonging to the realms of ‘su pe rstition ’ an d ‘w itchc raft’. T he se are inva riably the same people who dismiss polytheism, the belief in m any d ifferent gods and goddesses. Th is is abject nonsense, for they contradict their own belief in the inter conn ection of all things. In po int o f fact the Universal C onsciousness b om bards us con tin u o u sly w it h sig ns, p o rte n ts , om en s: th ese are not threa ts bu t proo f positive that ou r individu al existence is conn ected with every thing else going on aro un d us. Amongst the spiritual and mystic inclined you find as much dis agreement and argument as in politics. It is squalid and hardly ‘spiritual’. Universal Consciousness cannot be confined to anyone’s particular con cept or experience. Whatever path you follow binds you to it. Because you follow it does not mean there are no other paths. There are as many different ‘paths’ as there are humans. Limitation and bigotry are inapp ropriate. If you want to get ahead let go of the shackles o f limited, preju dic ia l, th o u g h t. T h e old say ing tha t ‘one m an’s m eat is an oth er m an’s po ison’ can also be read as ‘one m an’s god can be an o th er m an’s devil’. If you live by th e p rinc iple ‘Live and let live’ you will live m ore abundantly. T he following account occu rred years ago bu t I rem em ber it vividly. My niece was very excited by the prospe ct o f he r first date with a young 38
m an th at she was very keen on. As she drove out of the driveway on her way to meet him another car at speed almost hit her. I regarded this as a certain sign that her date was fated. I kept this thought to myself, for I would be laughed at for it. In any event it was a successful date: she had a wo nderful time. So m uch for my sup erstitious m ind. H owever, I did no t forget this ill omen, for it had to mean something. The Universe may no t be fair, bu t it is not stup id. E very thing has its reason. She went on to see this fellow many times u ntil one n ight, worse for drink , he h it her and hit her hard. Bleeding profusely she had to be rushed to hospital. He beg ged h e r fo rg iv enes s, p rom is in g ‘it w ould never happen ag ain ’ (how many times have we heard that one?). Fortunately my niece’s good self esteem and (un)common sense enabled her to recognize that she did not have to accept this type of behav iour from anyone, and if he did it once he wou ld surely do it again. She knew th at the re was no such th ing as a ma n wh o’s viole nt once and neve r again, so she lost no tim e in term ina ting the relationship. If you are on your way to an im po rtant ap po intm ent a nd a gorgeous Golden R etriever run s to you with wagging tail you can be certain th at this ap po intm en t is going to be very satisfactory. How ever, if a dog barks at you prepare for a d isap poin tm ent; or if th e ap p oin tm en t is su cc essful you may yet need to exercise caution. Likewise a rude person bumping into you is an ill omen. If in a busy th orou gh fare I see a perso n walk between a couple I m ust surely be the on ly one w ith the o bservation, ‘T his couple will soon fall ou t or argue with one ano ther.’ Even w hen I have foun d it unavo idable b u t to pass betw een two people I realize th at I am a sym bol of com in g discord between them . I am obviously not the cause o f discord, bu t th is is the way Un iverse is choosing to express the inevitable. If someon e passes betw een me and an o th er I ch oo se to T H W A R T th e oth erw is e in evitable . I make up my m ind there and then to create a different reality. I know that I m ust no t allow m yself to be provoked by an ythin g the person says and equally important I must watch my own words and actions lest I un w itting ly cause offence. If tha t had been m e driving to meet someone and a car almost collides with me I would have then and there made up my mind to cancel the m eeting - creating an y excuse I could to say I couldn’t m ake it - or, if it was already too late or im practical to cancel I would proc eed k now ing full well nothing good was going to come of it. No matter how pleasant the m eeting or whatev er its purp ose I would n ot agree to an yth ing o r follow it up in anyway. Creating the reality you wan t as opposed to the reality you are stuck with 39
it is what being a Magus Maximus is all about. You choose yo ur own destiny and your own fate. Ov er 99% of peop le let destiny d ecide for them . T he y take w ha t’s coming. The Magus Maximus does not take what’s coming: he or she decides the outcome required. O ver 99% of people are the victim of their own stupidity. T he Magus M aximus is no t a victim. M ost people accept what life deals out. No m atter w hat yo ur age, for it is never ‘too late’, you can create your own desired reality. It becomes a certainty when you become ‘One w ith the F ath er’. LE T ME M AK E IT ABSOLUTELY CLEAR: TH IS IS FACT. I HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS FACT. OTHERS HAVE TOO. SO WHY NOT YOU ALSO? This works; I repeat, it works. I am not writing this merely to make you feel better. You can truly experience th is wo ndro us Po wer and all the benefits it confers for yourself. By knowing exactly what you want, by staying focussed on it, by constan tly affirming throu gh Universal M ind, you are creating your own route to success which cuts through all obstacles, distractions and hin drances. Signs and p orte nts act as guide posts along the way: they are not the superstitious im aginings o f a prim itive m ind bu t the certain k now ledge that Universal Consciousness is in touch with you just as surely as you are in touch with it. Signs, like dreams, however, can be unfathomable, even misleading. They can also make you paranoid. I could write a book alone on this subject, for the wisdom of the Universe sits side by side with its mischievousness. But for as long as you ask for guidance you will not be misled. Your trus t will never be betrayed. Th is is not wishful thin kin g b ut fact.
22. Negativity Earlier I com m ented on the nega tivity of people, to which I now retur n for I know it is of great concern to many of the spiritually-minded. The ‘spiritu ally -m ind ed ’ we will define for our prese nt purp ose as any person who is aware of, and who wants to be in harmony with, the dimensions beyond th e physic al senses. T h is will include m ost of m y presen t re aders. Such people are, alas, always in the minority; yet even they, as we have seen, can be negative when they sit in judg m ent on o ne another. 40
Yes, the vast m ajority of the w orld’s po pu lation is amo ral, petty -m inde d, and so on. Daily, by the minute, they are pouring trillions of negative tho ug hts into wh at some occu ltists call the ‘Mass M in d ’ or ‘Race M in d’. This adds up to one horrible entity which not only feeds off negative thou gh ts bu t gives back negative energy in equal measure. A nd each one of us can easily get caught up in it, w itho ut even realizing it is happen ing. I rem em ber as a lad hea ring th at ‘the w orld was going to the dog s’ an d th at ‘you can’t trus t anyo ne’, no tions w hich I could no t have appreciated at the time were readily accepted by my subconscious mind. Later, when I realized tha t the world had n ot gone to the dogs and th at it is no t true that nobody can be trusted I felt I had been m entally poisoned. Since that tim e my life has been a long process of m ental detoxification. We all need, ‘mental detoxification’. We are continuously bombarded by negative com m ents , negative im age s, negative behavio ur. In sim ple everyday conv ersation it is ha rd no t to be infected by it. Someone says, ‘Soand-so has just gone up in price. T he re ’s no e nd to the se price increases.’ It is tempting to agree, but I will shoot back, ‘I can remember when inflation was 27%. If anyone h ad told m e then tha t there w ould be a time wh en inflation w ould be a m ere 3% (as it is in 2013) I wo uld have tho ug ht they were having me on! N o m atter what the increases we have so mu ch to be than kfu l for today!’ Som etimes I will give like for like. Someone rem arks, ‘Young peop le are so rud e.’ I retort: ‘But n ot h alf as rud e as some of the p ensioners I en cou nter!’ (W hich is sadly true.) W he n we speak of a ‘H igh er Po we r’ or ‘Un iversal M ind ’ or ‘Infin ite Intelligence’, or any number of similar phrases for this inexhaustible source of love and energy, we are referring to the Power we seek. It is bo th su bje ctive and ye t as real as th e g ro u nd we sta nd on. You are its doorway. N o m atter how m any billions of people have walked this earth you are yet the en cap sula tion of all Cosm ic Energy. You may feel like a drop in the ocean, b ut no ocean can exist w itho ut th at drop . So you are the ocean too. T he thin g is to manifest this ocean o f Cosmic En ergy in y our life, which you have already begun to do merely by reading this. By allowing yourself to be inspired in this way you are planting seeds of success for the future. T he Mass M ind is no less real - bu t you m ust choose to reject it. You will only soar ahead by accepting your own vision o f the Universe. Such vision is not ‘make believe’. Once you accept it, it becomes true (it was always true anyway, but you didn’t know it). T he news in whatever m edium it takes, newspapers, radio, TV, interne t, is a menace, for you are made to accept negative events about which you 41
cann ot do a thing. You are told o f the g ove rnm ent’s incomp etence. But there’s nothing you can do about it, in fact it makes you feel worse, for it still takes your taxes anyway. You hear of corruption, deceit, coverups. Nothing you can do about any of that. You read of a terrorist who escapes charge on a ‘hu m an r igh ts’ technicality. N oth ing you can do about it. It is revealed tha t a convicted rapis t had in fact raped cou ntless others. N o th in g you ca n do about it. T h e governm ent sends tr oops to so me distant hell-hole that you didn’t even know existed, fighting a war you don’t understand, a war which has absolutely nothing to do with the defence of you r own country, bu t still you have to pay for it in you r taxes. N o th in g you ca n do about it. A nd so m uch for democr ac y: I could go on and on. What do you need all this for? I do not read newspapers and I don’t watch or listen to TV or radio news. I don’t wish to be burdened by th in g s I ca n do absolu te ly n o th in g about. T h e m edia gives you only the depression, but not the cure. This is not to say that one should rem ain ign oran t of what is going on in the world. I take note of certain political and economic developments, for ultimately they may affect me at a personal level and it is possible I may be able to do some thing about it. I am careful, too, to get my information from certain sources, for I realised long ago that the general media only gives you the news it considers important and relevant, which doesn’t actually mean it is. I am careful to distance m yself from h orrib le an d so rdid news. I don ’t need to be daily reminded of the terrible deeds committed by the evil against the innocent, and even worse, the fact that there are people who will move heaven and earth to pro tect and defend the ‘righ ts’ of those so evil. Surely we need to prote ct o urse lf from su ch vileness. When the need takes you or at various times of the day take a deep b reath , place rig h t h an d on left should er, left h a n d on rig h t should er, close eyes and affirm w ith con viction, ‘I create my own U niverse o f Love, Power an d A bund ance. I reject neg ativity and I affirm the b est in m y life. My life is my own an d I will only allow good into it.’ Speaking and believing this does not m ake you selfish and insular; b ut unless you are careful you will find y ourself subm erged in em otions that are of absolutely no value to you and with the power to drag you down, com pro m ising your power to achieve your goals. Only you are respon sible for your own well-being. You cann ot change the w orld - nobod y can - you mould your own. 42
23. Summary T he story has no t ended. In fact it never end s, just as life never ends. Sure enough you die, but consciousness doesn’t. For as long as consciousness continues the story continues. What you have read here is a glimpse of this Power. Follow my words and yo u will benefit immediately from it. Co ntinuou sly asking o f and affirming in this Power gives one a sense of reassurance. T his feeling is not ‘all in your m in d ’, b u t it is a pro m ptin g from the H igh Self, the Ho ly Gu ardian Angel, or whatever nam e we attach to the Eternal Presence, that you will be okay. A sk to be reassured, ask to have faith; ask that you may trust each day and you will feel answered. That feeling will grow stronger and you will have an inner glow. The temptation is always there not to believe any of it. I have been tempted likewise. Not anymore. I live with this Power as a daily reality. It is not in m y imag ination. Just because it is so simple and child-like the shallow-m inded canno t accept it can be true. I will very briefly sum m arise what has gone before, althoug h you sho uld really read eve rythin g again and again. Simple or not, rep etition pays off. I have described this Power in various ways. I have outlined distinc tions: subconscious, unconscious, etc., yet these distinctions often blur and evaporate. T he fact of the m atter is that no m atter what any psycho logist or occultist says there really is no clear understanding or defini tion of this Power. We can only experience it, and that surely is all that matters. To access this Pow er ju st ask. N igh t tim e is best. Just ask. Pray or plead, whatever moves you. Believe an answer is possible. If you find it hard to believe th en ask th at you can. Belief will be giv en to you. W hat on earth have you got to lose by trying any of this? If it didn’t work I would have dropped it long ago. Who needs selfdelusion? T he only ‘univ erse’ th at m atters is the one you create for yourself. You m ust follow your own path an d find your own goal. If you do n’t know wh at you r path is ask to be shown. Following othe rs always leads to a dead end. Ask th at you are shown w hat is righ t, to be show n w hat will work for you. T his is no t ‘m ake believe’ bu t profo un dly real. You are always heard. T he re is no thing more real than w hat you feel and w hat you thin k. T his is your world, your universe. By inv iting a H ighe r Power into it you can change everything, and it begins immediately. You will have no cause to look back 43
