THE INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIUMSHIP

 THERE are many cults and organizations—spiritualistic, esoteric, and religious—which teach a following of practitioners and chelas, students, neophytes and illuminati, through prescribed exercises in meditation, concentration and aspiration, to open up and develop their psychic powers and sensitize their psychic centers from lower to higher degrees of response.

 Their methods vary but fundamentally they rest upon these simple principles:

 

1. Regularity of effort.

2. A quieting and clearing of the everyday consciousness.

3. Active aspiration for growth and development of power.

4. Submission to instruction and to guidance by an experienced person.

5. Purposive concentration and meditation.

6. Attentive observation and encouragement of glimpses of supernormal consciousness.

7. Group or circle meetings in a class, with an expert leader or teacher, for the exercise of their gifts and for physical manifestations.

Some metaphysical cults and some religious bodies teach the pupil that nothing "psychic" or "mediumistic" is to be permitted but that the opening up of "the psychic powers" or the "seven centers" in the nervous system must be for the pupil's own religious or mystical or esoteric advancement and for control of his own mundane affairs, or for his indifference to them.

 Students of the psychic are not asked to subscribe to any of these schools of thought. Those who come with preconceived theories and notions to sit at the feet of this science find themselves treated with even-handed justice. Saint or sinner, mystic or iconoclast are seen impartially in her light. A humble desire to learn is her only admission requirement. Yet the schools and cults and religious orders have in their own degree succeeded because they have hit upon some of her essentials.

 One desiring to know whether he or she may become an automatic writer, or develop other forms of psychic sensitiveness, by practice, should proceed methodically, somewhat as follows:

 1. Regularity of experimentation is productive of results, no matter what the line of development may prove to be. Set aside a definite time, and keep the engagement.

 We already know that effects of supernormal quality—clair­sensing of any sort—are linked up to supernormal causation. The intelligence that produces a supernormal effect that interests human beings appears to work best when stated times and seasons of effort are observed. If the intelligence is personified, we can readily understand this characteristic. Our everyday experience abounds in examples of what can be attained by regular practice, from school to office, and from golf or tennis to prima-donnaship.

 The period of practice must not be over-long in psychic work. For beginners, a half-hour two or three times a week or an hour once a week is sufficient. To overstrain is harmful and may leave the door open to trouble.

 2. The practice period must be an uninterrupted time, when neither personal demands nor noise and confusion are likely to disturb the attention or make demands upon the bodily energies.

 The reason for this is that in psychic work one must be un-self­conscious, alert to catch impressions, feelings, sounds, glimpses of a sort that do not register through the sensory channels of everyday conscious experience. Self-consciousness is as inhibitory in psychic development as it is in dream; when we fully waken, the dream, stops short and as we occupy ourselves consciously it begins to fade from memory—usually. (There are of course exceptional dreams that so impress themselves upon the mind, even in sleep, that their outlines remain clear and sharp for a lifetime. But these dreams are often probably psychic experiences of a nature quite different from the medley of inhibited thoughts and race-experience that jumble themselves into the usual fantastic distortions of the dream state. )

 In seeking growth of the normal psychic capacities, the effort must be to quiet the thought, clear the mind, take an attitude of attention and await what may present itself spontaneously from within.

 3. The experimenter must safeguard himself or herself by asking definitely to be brought into touch with that which will be beneficial and wholesome, constructive and illuminating.

 The mental attitude and spiritual aspiration actually form a shield, a wall of protection against intrusions of a lowering or destructive character. One is not placed at the mercy of every psychic wind that blows when he or she takes this precaution.

 Failure to follow this procedure often leads to trouble, and becomes the principal cause of any confusion and deterioration of character that may occur in the psychic person's career. Those naturally gifted in psychic ways may be protected thus from harm, and should be taught in their early years to follow this method just as carefully as they are taught to avoid germ-infections by following simple rules of hygiene.

 Depleted persons who have suffered from illness or shock, whether in youth or in age (many of the worst shocks are suffered during childhood and youth) may suffer from psychic bruises where infection by the wrong order of psychic experience can readily be set *up and produce mental and physical twists and malformations, unless they follow this simple rule of psychic hygiene. It should be taught and understood in the ordinary school class-room as a matter of course. Until it is understood we shall continue to have our increasing crop of young criminals and problem children. It is very encouraging to observe the beneficial effects of this one simple precaution of resolute self-protection and aspiration.

 4. Those experienced in psychic work who have made a study of their own best methods and results are able to interpret and educe more rapidly that which comes spontaneously to the pupil.

 Encouragement by the teacher is helpful when the student is in the initial stages of development and feels unsure that his impressions are anything but wandering thoughts. For it is difficult at first to recognize a psychic result for what it really is. Take, for example, my own experiment in telepathy with Mrs. Sanders (Chap. IV): my own consciousness was not quiet enough to avoid interpreting—and therefore misunderstanding—the source of the idea of white light that presented itself to me. I took it to be aspiration welling up into consciousness from my memory of the Biblical words in the book of Genesis. But what actually effected this welling up I should never have known had Mrs. Sanders not informed me.

 How many of the sudden wellings-up in consciousness may occur from such causation it would be difficult to estimate, but a little experience in psychic study and training leads one to conclude that thought and desire are potent powers and. forces in the human world, and often active where least suspected. Ideas are quite evidently as "catching" as the measles or scarlet fever—and many times quite as dangerous, unless the protective wall of lofty desire and aspiration stands in the way.

 Each psychic expert has individual advice to offer his or her students on the basis of his or her own development, because each has in that development Come into relation with certain invisible help which he or she personifies and calls by name, as guide or control. As a matter of fact there is usually a group of several such aides, with one chief guide as a leader, who puts the strongest stamp of character upon the work done and organizes the workers in the invisible for the work to be achieved on the conscious plane of our everyday life. A student must therefore choose a teacher the quality of whose work he respects and admires if he is to come into good rapport for his own development under instruction.

 No one rule of thumb can be followed in all cases. The situation is like that of ordinary life: complex and diverse. The units have to be harmonized and there must be a give and take just as there is in the best social order, so that there may be freedom of expression and action, yet without prejudice to the welfare of the group. The teacher is led to assist each pupil in ways particularly adapted to the individual case, if he be an able teacher.

5. Concentration of interest and meditation upon the line of thought or action suggested by teacher and guides, at stated times and intervals, is conducive to growth in psychic power.

 This corresponds to the place given to prayers in religious organizations and accounts for the claim that many an apparently minor "prayer" is answered—petitions for this or that material gift or opportunity, so limited that it is no wonder we personalize the Answerer. And in so doing we have in a sense come nearer the truth than abstract reasoning concerning the nature of creation is apt to bring us. The attention and cooperation of the invisible and inaudible and intangible range of being is attracted by human projection of concentrated thought, attention and desire.

 After he had abundantly proved his memory and identity, the deceased James Hyslop had this testimony to give from his new experience: [I paraphrase.]

 "I can see your thoughts and ideas, even those only held in mind but not carried out, more clearly and easily than I can see your material environment: so you see, ours is more or less of a thought world, after all."

 Our psychic attunement or synchronization with the next stage of existence is two-fold, then, in the times of concentration and meditation: we touch the supernormal world and receive information or enlightenment from it; and we present to it our own thoughts, desires, aspirations, hopes, ideals, purposes and plans, in a fashion more tangible and real in that stage of life than in our own. Ugly or beautiful, coarse or fine, the shape of our thought registers in that range of life just beyond us and can be picked up and draw to itself associations of like character. This fact as reported by such a communicator as James Hyslop, the psychologist, is enough to emphasize the importance and value of the right sort of psychic development, and the dangers that lurk in low or mean or vicious ways of thought and feeling. Right guidance from supernormal sources must be deserved before it can be a permanent, not merely an experimental, result dependent upon the presence of the teacher or helper.

 6. The student must give attention to the impressions and effects from the supernormal in order to encourage the effort put forth from the intangible.

 If one expresses his impressions simply and endeavors to understand them, the guides and controls from the other end of the line of communication are able to judge of their success or failure in transmitting their ideas or information or feelings. The guiding helpers of the teacher of a psychic student or class are thus enabled to secure suitable guidance for the students, augmenting that of the teacher. They will discover that certain combinations produce direct, harmonious and clear effects, whereas others blur and produce antagonisms or distorted effects. The focus, as it were, varies with different combinations of psychic lenses, and some nullify others altogether. So the right adjustment of guidance is necessary before a clear vision can be secured.

 After a development seance, or any seance, in fact, it is advisable to sit quietly for a few moments to permit an equilibration of forces. The psychic person has been attuned to supernormal conditions and should not be disturbed by chatter or by confusion during the resumption of the normal sensory conditions.

 Confine your efforts to either mental or physical development, but do not try for both at the same time. To do so divides your powers and weakens the effect or nullifies it.

 If you try for the development of your subjective and mental psychic powers, you may do so by yourself or with one other person present, but not more. Both persons must be of one purpose and aim, interjecting no side-issues or distractions, but quietly, though not tensely holding to the line of experimental interest. To try for automatic writing, have either a ouija board, a planchette, or a pad and pencils ready sharpened and not too hard. The pencil in the planchette should be a soft one, of course, if that instrument is used. Hold the fingers of one hand lightly on the planchette or the ouija indicator. If two persons are trying together, each may place a hand lightly on the instrument, so lightly that it can almost slip from under the fingers. If a pencil is to be used, hold it easily in the writing hand, resting the point on the pad, which is preferably of large size and bound at the top to a linen binder that will keep the pages in place. Number the sheet at the bottom right-hand comer before you begin work. Fold them back but do not tear them off, if you wish to keep the record. if the writing is mere fragments or evidently only practice work) keep it nevertheless as a mark of progress.

 It is by the study of such records that the psychology of one's own development can be discerned and compared with that of others.

 Annotate the record as you go along, inserting within parentheses any remark by yourself or the person who may be with you, and noting any questions or suggestions in their place. Do not trust to memory for this.

 Also, at the end of the record, jot down the memoranda that explain the references to various matters in the record. This prevents your I weakening or strengthening the material by erroneous memories, to which everyone is humanly liable now and again, despite every intention and effort to be accurate.

 Date the record with day and hour. It may also be of some interest to note the weather, though we do not yet know just what part the conditions of weather may play in such work. If you watch your own experiments you may discover some relation between the states of the atmosphere and your own failure or success. Note failures as well as successful results.

 Many psychics find it useful to have an open dish of water in the seance room while at work, and most psychics require plenty of water to drink before or after the sitting.