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Subheadings:   Suggestions During Childhood    Moral Conduct    Wisdom and Morality are the Same    Resolving Conflicts    Four Ways of Meeting Temptation    Attention Gives Tremendous Temporary Energy to a Desire    Movement is Always Toward the Image Which Gains Attention    Applying Suggestion

Birth Charts:  Nikola Tesla Chart    Madame Schumann-Heink Chart

Chapter 7

How To Apply Suggestion

ALL the various activities of the body which are not specifically directed at the time by objective consciousness are directed by the unconscious mind. When we blush, tremble with excitement or fright, speed up the heart action through anger, bring innumerable muscles to bear each pulling just the right amount against another to enable us to stand or sit, digest our food, or to go to sleep, the unconscious mind—which is the sum total of the stellar-cells and thought organizations within the astral body—has given the proper commands to produce the indicated condition. It has the ability to accomplish many, many things that are beyond the power of the objective mind. And the proper application of suggestion is merely the employment of a method to reach and get the assistance of the unconscious mind.

The unconscious mind throughout its whole past has been Conditioned to give its orders to the various physical functions on the basis of the impressions it receives from the environment. If the image of a snake is presented to it by objective consciousness, it does not stop to argue whether this is the image of a real snake or a piece of rope that in the dim twilight, as it lies in the path, merely looks like a snake. Whatever its conditioned reaction to the image of a snake as derived from the past, those orders instantly are conveyed to the groups of thought-cells that have thus been associated. The person gives an involuntary start, jumps to one side, screams, stands frozen with terror, or merely smiles with pleasure. Whatever action is taken is not due to the presence of the snake, but is due to the image of a snake being accepted by the unconscious mind.

The voluntary actions likewise are governed by the images accepted by the unconscious mind. When we think of moving to a given place, that image connects up the thought-cells Associated with such movement, and the release of the energy of their desires causes us to walk or otherwise act so that we go to the designated place. But if, before we have made the movement another image, that of remaining where we are, reaches the unconscious mind, this constitutes a counter command and we do not move.

What our actions are, and what the four-dimensional activities of the thought-cells are, is not determined by what is actually present in the external environment, and not by what our reason and conscious thoughts command. They are determined by only two things: How the stellar-cells have been Conditioned to act when a given stimulus, or image, was presented to them, and what stimulus or image thus does reach them.

Certain images that are presented to the unconscious mind have been subjected to some critical analysis as to their truth and nature. In the process of thus accepting or rejecting them, the conscious mind has presented to the unconscious a variety of somewhat contradictory images. In fact, everything that reaches the unconscious mind by the way of reasoned thought presents these contrasting images. This process of exercising discrimination, through setting one image against another, is not conducive to concentrating the desires of the thought-cells all toward a single activity. Some pull in one way and some in another.

A suggestion, or image to which the objective consciousness pays little or no attention, and thus to which no counter images are opposed, may have a far greater power to enlist the desire energies of the thought-cells and stellar organizations within the astral body. If at the same time a large volume of emotional energy is associated with the image, it may easily build up a power which any reasoned thought is unable to overthrow. In this manner the various complexes are formed with which the psychiatrists wrestle in their endeavor to cure psychopathic patients and those who suffer from less severe complaints, such as nervous or mental breakdown.

Suggestions During Childhood

It is because in early childhood experience is lacking for a proper critical appraisal of an idea or situation, and therefore no counter images are present to offset those received by the unconscious mind, that suggestion plays so important a part in that period.

The importance of a situation is easily exaggerated, and an emotion generated in connection with it out of all proportion to its real seriousness. This emotional energy, nevertheless, Conditions the thought organizations associated with the image of the situation so strongly that other images received later in life are powerless to cause actions either of the thought-cells or of the body, other than in the manner they have thus originally been taught to release the powerful desires then built into them.

A situation accompanied by the emotion of shame is potent to build such a complex because that emotion is Associated with the Drive for Significance. A situation accompanying sexual thoughts is potent to build such a complex because the emotions are Associated with the Drive for Race Preservation. A situation accompanied by fear is potent to build such a complex because that emotion is Associated with the Drive for Self Preservation. Not that there are no other emotional accompaniments of situations which are at times powerful enough to build complexes into the astral body; but these three Hereditary Drives have acquired so much energy in their biological past that any image which becomes closely Associated with them has an available energy supply of tremendous power.

It should now be apparent that a Suggestion is merely an idea, image, impression, thought or feeling which through some avenue reaches the unconscious mind. Its acceptance by the unconscious mind depends upon the images of an opposite tendency already in the unconscious and those entering at the time of the suggestion.

As the mind can give its attention completely to only a very limited field at any one time, to the extent it is fully occupied by one thought, one image, or one sense impression, are all other thoughts, images and sense impressions temporarily cut off. They have not ceased to exist, but it is the function of attention to give temporary dominance to that which is its object. Attention focuses the energies in one direction. That is, the unconscious mind has been Conditioned to divert energies so that they flow in the direction of the image before the attention.

This fact is made use of in the proper application of suggestion; and it plays an equally important part in the improper application of suggestion.

Much of the old time religion and much of the old time parental training given the young were based on fear. The emotion of fear is painful, it Conditions the thought-cells with so much discord they work energetically to attract into the life disaster, and it releases adrenaline into the blood stream as if an emergency were present requiring a complete mobilization of the body’s forces for getting away from the painful condition. In an occasional real emergency the body can afford, to prevent being destroyed, the disarrangement of its normal functions and the presence of hormones in the blood stream that are foreign to its normal welfare. But these same emergency chemicals if present in the blood stream too often, as effectually poison the individual as if the poison had reached his blood through being administered by an enemy in his food.

Think of the thousands of invalids who owe their infirmity to nothing but the belief in a literal hell! Think of the innumerable maladies arising from the doctrine of eternal damnation! The licentiousness of ancient Rome through excess of sensual emotion no doubt developed many malignant maladies; but as a student of the reaction of the endocrine glands to painful images, I am sure they brought fewer maladies than the long-faced doctrine that to be happy is to be evil.

Whatever the images are which are accepted by the unconscious mind, to the extent they are not blocked by opposing images, and to the extent they can gain from emotion or from the desires of the thought-cells already present energy for action, and to that extent do they cause actions on the four-dimensional plane that attract events, and to that extent do they affect the health and efficiency of the physical body.

Realizing that pain Conditions the thought organizations to work on the four-dimensional plane to bring into the life misfortune, and that it invariably causes chemicals to be secreted in the blood stream that are inimical to its welfare, it is hard to conceive of a more pernicious belief than that joy is a sin. Let any person try to eat amid sordid surroundings, with the food in grimy dishes, even though in reality they be clean, and unless very hungry the appetite will depart. The same food tastily arranged in bright artistic dishes when served in a pleasant room will taste entirely different. And not only will it taste different, but because chemical secretion is different, it will be assimilated far better.

The artistic and the beautiful, through the power of suggestion, have an important function in human life. When reduced to its primitive elements pleasure expands and pain contracts; though this not so apparent in some of the more complex forms that may be observed. What then is the result of a religion of painful duty? It inhibits activity, brings mental and physical stagnation, causes inimical chemicals to enter the blood stream and poison the body, and leads toward inefficiency and general dissolution.

Pleasure Conditions the thought organizations to work on the four-dimensional plane to bring good fortune into the life, and it causes chemicals to be secreted in the blood stream that build up and give vigor to the bodily tissues. From practical experience the Greeks knew the value of recreation. They spent much time in sports, in music and in dancing and thus increased their efficiency.

Moral Conduct

As in Chapter 5 (Serial Lesson No. 60, “Why Repression is Not Morality”) we found how desires could be directed into predetermined channels, and in Chapter 6 (Serial Lesson No. 61, “How to Rule the Stars”) how the energies from the stars could be utilized to attract events such as were considered beneficial, and now we are finding how suggestion can be utilized to give our lives efficiency along predetermined lines, it seems most appropriate that before going further we should decide just what lines of conduct should be followed. That is, we should now decide, once for all, what conduct is immoral and what conduct truly Moral.

There is an old fallacy that if we but listen to conscience it will always tell us what is right and what is wrong. What conscience really tells us gives voice to the Civilized Desires. When these Civilized Desires have not been strong enough to prevent being overcome by the more primitive desires, and these express in action, the discomfort of the Civilized Desires at thus being thwarted is felt as the Pangs of Conscience.

Society has formulated, according to the knowledge it possessed, such ideas about conduct as it deemed necessary for its well being and protection. Children are taught, and receive the suggestion from infancy through the reaction of their elders to certain situations, that there is something sacred about these ideas which are accepted by the group as moral. Often they are even taught that they are in the nature of a deific command.

The society to which we belong, as an example, for its own protection, has formulated the conditions under which it is permissible to express primitive desires in the manner of their original promptings. It sanctions the expression of the sexual desire, for instance, only after a wedding ceremony and the providing of a wedding ring.

The equally primitive desire to kill an opponent is also permitted, but only under conditions imposed by society. It is sanctioned in self defense; while in war in every way it is encouraged.

But society in different regions of the earth has been confronted with different problems, has had different experiences, possesses knowledge in different degree, and consequently has formulated different conceptions of what is, and what is not, moral.

In some regions, doubtless because in the olden time it was customary for so many males to be killed in battle that without polygamy the race would have been exterminated through lack of children, it is still considered at least a misfortune for a man not to possess numerous wives. In Tibet, where men are frequently away from home for long periods of time, a woman without several husbands is considered unfortunate. Yet in the U. S. A., to have more than one wife or husband is not only considered immoral, but is a penal offense.

A Roman gladiator not only had no conscientious scruples about killing an opponent in the arena, but had he felt reluctance to strike the fatal blow his conscience would have reprimanded him for his weakness. The old Calvinists were conscience stricken when a child was not baptized before its death. To them such lack of baptism was immoral; for they believed and taught that there were infants in hell a span long damned to eternal torment for not thus accepting Jesus as their savior.

Conscience depends upon what the unconscious mind has accepted as moral and immoral; and what is considered moral has been Conditioned by the social group in which the individual has been raised. In parts of India it is considered a sin to permit the shadow of a low caste person to fall upon one’s food. For a woman’s husband to die in some regions of that country is another sin, and it must be atoned for by the wife being burned on the funeral pyre.

To be a spirit medium in the days of Cotton Mathers1 was a sin punishable by death. To eat meat other than fish on Friday is considered a sin by some. To eat pork on any day would trouble the conscience of a Mohammedan or an orthodox Jew. Some suffer from their conscience until they can attend confessional, after which they trouble no more about the transgression.

Society in its different groups came to believe that certain actions were beneficial to the group, and that other actions were in the direction of disaster. To protect itself from injury it formulated such beliefs into a code of morals. As a group is composed of individuals anything considered detrimental to the individual, unless it was at the same time beneficial to the group, was also considered immoral. The taboos of primitive peoples are even more strictly observed, although to us they appear perfectly absurd, than are the precepts of orthodoxy among civilized church members. Because, through lack of correct information primitive peoples have come to consider certain quite trivial actions as the cause of misfortunes that were in reality caused by other things, these trivial actions are considered immoral, and the tribe punishes drastically any who resort to these, to us, trivial actions.

Thus must it be apparent that what is considered moral in a particular locality depends entirely upon what is there believed to be in the interest of the welfare of society. That is, those actions are truly moral which benefit society and those are truly immoral which harm society; and the code of conduct recognized as moral by any people is truly moral or lacks in true morality to the extent it really benefits or harms that people.

Wisdom and Morality are the Same

A people can approach true morality only in so far as they have correct knowledge as to which actions are beneficial to the group and which are detrimental. True morality, therefore, like the best religion, must rest upon as inclusive knowledge as possible. Many of the teachings of past and present as to what benefits the individual and the race are found through scientific experiments to lead to harmful actions. Yet there is a great amount of evidence to indicate that one old teaching is true; that any action beneficial to the race, is also in the long run, beneficial to the individual who takes that action.

Wisdom dictates, from as wide a scope of information as can be acquired, those actions which are most beneficial to the individual and to the race. Such actions, to the extent there is wisdom are truly moral. In other words, true Wisdom and true Morality are the same thing.

What actions are taken by the individual are determined by how his desires are conditioned and the stimuli furnished by his environment. Therefore, any true moral system must include instructions on how the individual can condition his desires so that his actions will be in the direction dictated by wisdom.

The desires of the thought-cells in his astral body, which when given additional energy by a temporary stellar aerial mapped by a progressed aspect, attract to him fortune or misfortune are equally as important to the welfare of society as are the desires which lead the individual to some physical action. His value to society is often influenced as much by what happens to him in the way of opportunities or obstacles, good luck or disaster, as by the actions he takes. If he starts a venture, which when it fails drags down most of the members of his community, society is hampered. If he undertakes some work which in its success adds greatly to the welfare of others, that is in the direction of morality.

To lead a truly moral life knowledge must be at hand, such as astrology affords, as to the most valuable thing an individual can do, and how through conditioning the thought-cells in his astral body and taking advantages of planetary energies afforded by aerials mapped by progressed aspects, he can thus live to his maximum usefulness.

Resolving Conflicts

If the individual is thus to reach his highest, he must learn to Resolve his Conflicts. That is instead of imposing one set of desires to thwart and repress another set of desires, he must learn how to reconcile the various desires so that, both on the four-dimensional plane and on the three-dimensional, they will pull together. Yet for thousands of years so-called moral education, as well as the education of children by their parents and teachers, has followed the method of creating conflicts; one desire set pulling vigorously against another.

Suppose a child is forbidden to touch a knife. He sees it, nevertheless, as a pretty plaything. Thus the image of knife is associated in his mind with the Conditioning of pleasure. He has had no experience associating pain with the knife. The only painful Conditioning has come from the parent who has forbidden him to touch something that he feels will give him pleasure. The image parent has become Conditioned by experiences with pain; for he has been chastised in the past when he failed to obey.

So long, therefore, as knife and parent are together the painful Conditioning is dominant; that is, the desires to escape the pain associated with parent successfully oppose the desires to have the pleasure associated with the knife. But when the parent is called away the painful image becomes so remote that it no longer successfully prevents the pleasurable image of knife from gaining the supremacy; and the child plays with the knife, and perhaps sustains a serious injury.

Had the parent understood psychology, the child would have been permitted to experiment with the knife sufficiently to become convinced of its painful qualities, yet restrained from injury. By feeling the sharp edge and the painful prick of its point he would have associated the pain with the knife rather than with the parent. Or, better still, he would have played with it cautiously in the parent’s presence and thus learned its proper use.

Later in life the ignorant parent forbids the child to go swimming. The child associates the danger of water with the threatened whipping. Therefore, when he sees opportunity of escaping detection he goes, induced by his chums, to the “ole swimmin’ hole,” and runs the risk of drowning. Yet had the parents taken the child to the swimming hole, and permitted him the experience of becoming strangled in deep water, he would have learned a wholesome respect for dangerous depths. And furthermore, he would have had both the opportunity and the incentive to learn how to overcome the danger by learning to swim.

The boy who has had some experience with the stomach ache does not need to be threatened with a whipping to keep him from gorging on green apples.

Why is it that many children, in spite of a deep sense of duty, grow up with a feeling of resentment towards their parents?

It is because their parents, in ignorance, have transferred to themselves the image of pain and suffering that should have been associated with certain objects. They have forced the child to do this and not to do that, until the image of pain and repulsion arising from disappointment to realize a thousand little desires is indissolubly associated with the parent.

Why does everyone like to hear a story in which a policeman is discomfited? Because each person looks upon a policeman as a bar to the realization of certain desires. All thus more or less detest policemen. But the stronger the desires that policemen have frustrated the greater the dislike. Not because policemen are bad, but because they are more directly associated in our minds with non-realized desires than are the laws which they are employed to enforce.

The race has been taught its morals in much the same manner that children are taught by ignorant parents and teachers. Some book, called sacred, or some priest, medicine man or preacher, has assumed to interpret the will of Deity. It has been taught that if certain primitive desires are permitted to express in action that the Deific Parent will become violently angry and mete out severe punishment. Commandments have thus been imposed by a Divine Being Who will take summary vengeance upon all who break them.

A lie is not Conditioned by its effect upon society and its reaction upon the welfare of the liar; but is associated with some superhuman Being Who is jealous and demands: “Thou shalt not lie.” And so it is with all the other ideas of morality. They are not Conditioned by their association with some natural law, but by their association with some arbitrarily imposed command that seems to deprive mankind of what otherwise would be a pleasure. Thus is built up the desire, not to refrain from sin, but to escape the punishment imposed by the Heavenly Parent.

Such a system of morals sets one group of desires in deadly conflict with another group of desires. Have we not often wondered why some people considered very wicked remain in full vigor of body and intellect, while many of our most virtuous acquaintances suffer neurosis, forgetfulness, morbid anxiety and even migraine and lameness? It is because, as the thousands of examples cited by Freud, Jung and Adler thoroughly demonstrate, sensual gratification, unless quite excessive, is less destructive than the internal conflict of desires. And wicked people are not troubled with such suppressions.

Instead of thus developing conflicts which invariably detract from efficiency and work from the four-dimensional plane to attract misfortunes, the proper teaching of children and the proper teaching of morals should take whatever pains are necessary to reconcile desires. When all the facts of a moral conception are known it will always be seen as the line of conduct which, in the long run, will result in the most pleasure to the individual. So with the child, in the long run, the things he should do will give him the most pleasure. The problem is to so engage the more immediate desires that they will lend their assistance to this course of action.

Their cooperation is never gained through fighting them, or suppressing them. They must be Conditioned in some way to find pleasure in the proposed course of action. In the case of the child with the knife, when he had learned both its painful and pleasurable qualities it no longer would be dangerous to him, and he could employ it usefully as a tool. And in like manner when man knows enough about anything, this knowledge will indicate to him what his own line of conduct in reference to it should be that, in the long run, he will gain the most pleasure. In other words, it will show him how it can be handled to the best benefit of himself and the best benefit of society.

Knowledge and discrimination indicate the actions which are in the direction of Morality. Everything in the universe has its use, and we may be sure everything contacted by man is capable of abuse. Thus when we are called upon to meet temptation, which is merely the urging of the less civilized desires, we can exercise discrimination and condition these desires clamoring for expression to find their pleasure in channels that are beneficial to ourselves and to society, or we can handle it in less successful ways.

For instance, take the matter of reading novels. One of the fossilized notions fostered by Puritanism is that all novel reading is sinful. And the technique advocated is complete suppression. That is, the longing for reading fiction is met by a flat refusal. Thus one group of desires—that to conform to this Puritan standard of conduct—is set against the group of desires that strive for this particular pleasure. If the Puritan group is stronger it manages to keep the others from expressing. But their energy is still there. They are in a state of rebellion, and the internal conflict is neither conducive to physical efficiency nor to attracting, through the four-dimensional activities favorable events.

Another method of meeting this problem is merely to permit the desires to express their energy spontaneously. Yet the reading of sentimental trash, and stories appealing only to the primitive emotions, may build into the character still other desires, and condition those already there, in a manner that ultimately leads to serious errors of conduct.

Still a third way of handling the situation is alternately giving the Puritan desires control, then when the conflict becomes too severe, permitting the primitive desires to triumph for a time. Thus there would be indiscriminate reading for a time, the primitive desires temporarily winning the fight, and then a time when no reading would be done, as the Puritan desires again assumed the ascendancy. Dissipation would be followed by remorse. But to the discords of the conflict already in progress, such a course adds the painful Conditioning energy of remorse. Remorse is simply an added volume of discordant energy fed into the image of the action causing it, and thus making its repetition so much the more certain.

The fourth, and correct way of meeting this situation is to learn all the facts regarding both the good and the evil of novel reading. When the full details are understood it will be recognized that certain kinds of fiction stimulate undesirable qualities, while other kinds of fiction cultivate the higher impulses, add to the ability to use language, impart valuable knowledge, and conduce to healthful pleasures. Thus will it be recognized that some fiction reading is beneficial and other fiction reading is detrimental.

Four Ways of Meeting Temptation

I have used the attitude toward novel reading merely to illustrate the ways in which any Temptation, whatever it may be, can be met: 1. The Desire may be suppressed by blocking it with stronger desires. 2. The Desire may be gratified 3. The Desire may alternately be gratified and suppressed. 4. Information about it can be collected and analyzed, and discrimination used to determine the line of conduct which alone is Moral.

Often, the perception of the effects of permitting the desires to express in different ways is sufficient to Recondition them so that their energies then strive for release in the line of conduct determined by Discrimination. That is discrimination of what each set of desires, if permitted to have its own way, will bring to the individual often is sufficient to reconcile them, so that both sets pull together to realize the line of conduct Discrimination has decided upon.

But with still stronger desires, such as have been subject to much past conditioning, additional inducements need to be used to get them thus to cooperate. That is, as explained in Chapter 5 (Serial Lesson No. 60, “Why Repression is Not Morality”) each set should be associated with as many pleasant things as possible so its desires, instead of being antagonistic to the decided upon action, will find greater pleasure in this action than in that type of conduct it previously strove to realize. When two previously opposing sets of desires in this manner have been Reconditioned so that they both find greater pleasure in expressing through the channels determined by Discrimination, they no longer strive against each other. The new avenue of expression, which is acceptable to both, is a compromise on their differences. Their old antagonism is forgotten in their mutual effort to realize the new, and more pleasing, line of conduct.

This matter of conflicts, and how they can be reconciled, is a necessary prelude to any comprehensive study of the proper method of applying suggestion. Suggestions, and that type of suggestions called affirmations to be discussed in detail in the next lesson, are images or ideas to which the attention of the unconscious mind is drawn. Such an image constitutes the direction in which action will be taken, unless other images interpose sufficiently to draw the attention to them. If such other images are more powerful they will attract attention to themselves and the action will be in the direction of their desires. Thus, if a suggestion is to be effective, it must not be opposed by nor brought into conflict with, thought groups which afford a contrary auto-suggestion.

Attention Gives Tremendous Temporary Energy to a Desire

The desires of the thought-cells and thought organizations within the astral body are the source of both the three-dimensional and the four-dimensional activities of man. To the extent they are energetic do they attract the attention of the unconscious mind; and to the extent the attention is thus called to those images by which they can be realized are their energies released in that direction.

A sensation arriving from the external environment, an emotion released by a thought, a statement received as a suggestion, Associates with certain thought-groups already in the astral body, giving them temporarily new energy, and temporarily thus increasing the power of the desires in the group to such an extent that action, both three-dimensional and four-dimensional, results. That is, whatever desire is temporarily dominant determines what images shall be presented to the attention. Desires which at the time have less energy, perhaps through not connecting up with some external source such as an objective thought, or visual image, receive proportionately less attention.

Throughout its biologic past the unconscious mind has been Conditioned to release desire energy in the direction of the image, or thought, which was the focus of its attention. In fact, attention is the focusing of desire energies. To the extent past Associations permit the thought-cells and thought-organizations within the astral body to be connected up with the image then present, are their desire energies temporarily diverted into an attempt to fulfill that image. That is, whatever image is the subject of attention, both the three-dimensional activities and the four-dimensional activities tend in its direction. They strive for movement to make the picture a reality, whatever it may be, because throughout all its past the soul has given orders to its various parts and to its physical organs and function by using, as explained in Chapter 3 (Serial Lesson No. 58, “Language and the Value of Dreams”), this kind of language.

Movement is Always Toward the Image Which Gains Attention

It is of the utmost importance not only in the application of suggestion, but in the use of thought for any purpose, to realize that to the extent a given image is able to attract the attention of the unconscious mind, is there three-dimensional and four-dimensional movement toward that image. The desire energies are diverted into the image irrespective of whether it is something beneficial or destructive. It is not for the thought-cells and thought groups to discuss the merits of the matter. They have been trained to release their energies in the direction of whatever was before the attention, and this they do. Only to the extent other and contrary desires are able to capture some portion of the attention of the unconscious mind are they able to release their energies in activity. But if they are strong, they keep continually tugging to get some share of the attention, and thus enough supplementary energy to enable them to work.

Resemblance closely associates opposite images. Black is thus associated with white, sweet with sour, pain with pleasure, moving forward with running away. So that unless a suggestion is applied with some consideration for the manner in which the unconscious mind has already been Conditioned, instead of bringing the suggested image, or course of activity, to the attention, the previous Associations may readily bring before the attention the opposite image. Suggested bravery thus may bring to the attention of the unconscious mind the image of cowardly actions that have been taken in the past, and still further Condition the individual in the direction of cowardice. Suggested health may bring before the attention of the unconscious mind the various images of illness in the past, and Condition the individual still further in the direction of illness.

Applying Suggestion

In the application of suggestion, therefore, that it may not have the opposite effect from that intended, a technique must be employed that will insure that the attention is directed to the proper image. This technique should be such that little conflict is developed. And it should as completely as possible hold the image vividly and persistently before the attention of the unconscious mind.

The most satisfactory condition for getting the complete and undivided attention of the unconscious mind to an image or idea is when, through some process, the objective mind is placed in a state of quiescence so that the reasoning process is stopped. Reasoning brings a succession of images, the process requiring a weighing and comparing of different viewpoints. To the extent, therefore, that the critical faculties are thus active, is the attention moved from one image to another.

Furthermore, in reasoning the energies of the unconscious mind—the desire-energies of the thought-cells and stellar organizations—are connected by energies with the brain cells and flow strongly outward. This outward flowing of the energies, commonly called being positive, is unfavorable for permitting any image vividly to impress itself upon the thought organization. That is, when the energies are flowing strongly outward, as they tend to do in objective thinking, that activity hinders the reception of a thought or image by the unconscious mind. But when the objective mind is relaxed, the thought or image meets no such outward energy. The person then is said to be in a negative state, and the image or thought, meeting no resistance is able strongly to impress the unconscious mind. Thus it attracts a large amount of the unconscious attention.

Objective attention can not be directed steadily to a single point for any length of time. The attention moves and must be brought back to the center of interest. Experiments demonstrate that attention waxes and wanes, reaching its maximum at intervals of about three seconds. But if the attention is directed steadily to a single point without wavering the consciousness fades. Objective consciousness depends upon movement, and when it ceases to move there is no longer objective consciousness.

If a bright and glittering object is placed in front of a person’s eyes, and slightly above them, it will form a focus of attention that thus tends to cause the consciousness to fade. Strict attention to the droning talk of the operator tends still further to lull the activity of the objective mind. Close attention to so limited a set of sensations causes the subject to fail to register other sensations, and the brain becomes blank except to the voice of the operator. His suggestion that the subject is sinking into a profound sleep thus finds an open avenue to reach the unconscious mind, and sleep ensues. Such is the method of the hypnotist.

During natural sleep, also, it is possible to reach the unconscious mind of a person and give him audible suggestions, being careful that the voice does not cause him to awaken. And the suggestions received in this manner will be acted upon just as if he had been hypnotized.

But it is not necessary that a person should be asleep or hypnotized to be open to suggestions. The hypnotist gives his commands, once his subject is asleep, in a forceful and positive tone of voice. And because they thus are positive and forceful they more surely register and attract the attention of the unconscious mind. Yet when a person speaks to himself in such a forceful and positive manner he is almost sure to be exercising his objective mind. That is, his energies are radiating outward, and he is not in the state of reception.

Instead of being so vigorous, if the individual will relax and permit himself to become drowsy, or at least in a dreamy state of consciousness which is on the borderline of sleep, and repeat the suggestion to himself in a droning sing-song voice, or think it over and over with barely enough energy to keep the thought present, and thinking of nothing else in particular, just let the mind drift, he will be using the best method to cause suggestion properly to register.

At night, just before going to sleep, while in that state when objective thought has almost entirely eased, or in the morning while between the sleeping and the fully awakened state, is commonly the most convenient time to attain this negative condition in which the unconscious mind is most receptive to suggestion. As long as thoughts about the day’s work flow through the mind, or as soon as they commence in the morning after waking, the energies are radiating outward, and the receptivity to the extent is hindered.

The psychoanalyst in the employment of the method of free association, uses the same relaxed state of mind, in which the radiating outward of objective thought has almost ceased, not to give suggestions, but to bring to light memories and desires that are buried in the unconscious mind. That is, in addition to the dreams of sleep, which he also employs in his uncovering of the strong unconscious desires, he gets the patient to mentally drift, stop reasoning, and merely to express such thoughts and images as flow spontaneously from the unconscious.

Even under hypnotism the subject will not convert into action suggestions which are opposed by strong groups of thoughts already organized in his astral body. To get him to commit a crime, he must have no strong objections to being a criminal, or he must, over a long period of time, be Reconditioned so that the moral group of thought organizations can be overcome by those which are suggested.

Clinics where suggestion is employed therapeutically have found that suggestion commonly can be applied quite as effectively without inducing the hypnotic sleep. And by observing the necessary conditions, such as avoiding statements that set up conflicts or such as encourage an image which is the opposite of the effect sought, and by applying the suggestion while the mind is free from radiating thoughts but instead is on the borderline toward the sleeping state, the individual can apply suggestion to himself quite as effectively as it can be applied by another.

Suggestion gains its force through the age old habit of the unconscious mind to divert as many desire-energies as possible into the performance of the act, or into the establishing of the condition, which is held before the attention. To the extent other images or desires claim the attention of the unconscious mind is energy drained from the one image into them. Thus the proper application of suggestion requires a technique in which the image decided upon is presented to the unconscious mind connecting up, or bringing to the attention, images or desires which are not opposed to its realization. The more completely the image is able to dominate the attention of the unconscious mind, the more desire-energy from non-opposing thought groups are made available for its use.

True morality consists in living so as to contribute the utmost to universal welfare. To contribute his utmost, an individual must develop his abilities to the highest extent and must use these abilities under favorable circumstances. Either to develop his abilities, or to attract to himself opportunities for their use, as well as to avoid those events which hinder happiness, usefulness and spirituality, he must Recondition the desires within his unconscious mind. And in the Reconditioning of the more obvious desires, which lead to three-dimensional activities, and in the Reconditioning of the thought-cell compounds, and the thought-cell organizations, which determine the events which, through their four-dimensional activities, will be attracted into the life, suggestion can be effectually employed.

Birth Charts

Nikola Tesla Chart Chart July 9-10, 1856 midnight L.M.T. 20E00 46N00. 1882, invented rotating field induction motor and alternating current system of power transmission: Mercury trine Jupiter r. 1884, came to America: Jupiter, ruler of 9th, square Saturn; Sun, ruler of home, semi-sextile Venus r. 1891, invented Tesla wireless system: Jupiter P Pluto (radio) Mercury, ruler of messages, square Uranus p. 1897, invented telautomatics: Mercury trine Pluto r. 1899, discovered terrestrial resonance: Sun sextile Mercury r. 1934, discovered “Death Ray,” reputed to be extremely potent, yet an invisible, agent of warfare: Mars inconjunct Pluto r.

Madame Schumann-Heink Chart June 15, 1861, 1:32 a.m. L.M.T. 14E00 50N00. 1864, sang and danced before family friends: Venus semisquare Jupiter r in house of entertainment (5th). 1872, to convent: Sun sextile Saturn r in 5th (school). Played truant to perform with circus: Mars semisextile Jupiter p in 5th. 1875, first visit to theatre: Sun semisquare Jupiter r in 5th. 1876, sang first in theatre: Venus semisextile Jupiter r in 5th. 1898, debut and ovation in Chicago: Sun conjunction Mercury p, semisextile Jupiter r in 5th. 1915, sons fighting on opposite sides in World War: Mars conjunction, Jupiter r, ruler of children (5th).

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