Magus Maximus - The Power To Get What You Want.pdf

PART 1: THEORY

1. Upward T h e purpose of this work is to take the reader upward; upw ard and forward. Instead of sim ply functioning day to day at the m ercy of circum stances to feel calm, controlled and purposeful. T his work will show the reader how his or her spirit can soar, no m atter how debilitating the circum stances. T his is not a flight of fancy, nor escape from grim reality. O n the contrary, it is to face reality and soar in spite o f it. T h e purpose of this work is to unshackle the reader from the bonds of lim ited thought and negativity. I repeat: this is not escapism. T h e reader m ay have m any real problem s, problem s th at are threatening. T h is work is w ritten to stop such threats. R eading this will obviously not m ake one’s problem s go away, b u t it will certainly lim it th eir power to intim idate, and this is the first step to solving them . You can solve your problem s one by one, step by step. It will also seem as if your problem s are being solved for you. For this work is about your unseen partner, a constant guardian and friend. T his work is about unknow n power, an unknow n presence. I am here to show you how to let this power take over. A nd w hen it takes over you are free, your spirit will be uplifted, your soul unbounded. You are going to go forward - and keep going forward.

2. Gullible A wom an rem arked to m e th at she felt ‘gullible’ for believing the k in d of things th at I w rite about, th at she should know better th an to th in k that such can be true. She im plied I was a charlatan, taking advantage of people’s vulnerability. I found her com m ents odd, for if she was correct, then I, too, have been ‘gullible’, for I becam e interested in these things long ago by reading such books. T here was a tim e when I couldn’t get enough of self-help and spiritual books and I never for a m om ent doubted anything the authors said. I never ever th o u g h t I was being ‘taken in ’. I believed the advertisem ents for them : I wanted to believe in them , for if there was only a fraction of tru th in their content, th eir prom ise was indeed still w onderful. M y desire to believe m ade these books work for me, and the m ore I read the m ore I believed. So if anyone was or is gullible it is me. Now I am w riting such m aterial m yself and I believe im plicitly in everything I say. If my readers are ‘vulnerable’ then I m ust have been too. T h e fact is that this wom an was blam ing me for her lack of faith. It is always convenient and easy to blam e another. O ut of the countless such books I have read I have never blam ed the author for m y failings, and it never even occurred to me th at any of them could be charlatans. So I repeat, if anyone was/is ‘gullible’ it is me. Such books are w ritten because there is a need for them . Is it ‘gullible’ to w ant to believe in som ething better th an our present life? Is it ‘gullible’ to hope? A nd when it comes to vulnerability we are never so vulnerable as w hen we lack hope. W hen hope is present we are ready to be taken to a higher level and taken we are. Now, if a teacher or w riter tells a desperate person som ething w hich he him self has absolutely no faith in, and does it m erely to extract a fee or sell a book then th at is despicable. T h a t said, I have m et m any w riters and teachers of the spiritual and the occult and have yet to m eet one who didn’t believe completely.

3. Experience Fortunately there is no need to take any w riter’s w ord for it, for you can readily experience these principles. T his confounds the allegation of ‘gullibility’. You are going to experience the Power described in these pages and you are going to know it cannot be any kind of confidence trick. Yet for many, confusion and disillusionm ent reigns, for they study so m any 3

books and ideas and yet feel no further forward. It is hard not to end up sceptical. I u n derstand scepticism , for it is a m ost natural reaction and is p roof indeed th a t one is not m erely ‘gullible’. T he basic idea beh in d all inspirational and spiritual teachings is that there is a great invisible power th at can elevate us if we can tap into it. T he nature of this Power varies according to the teaching, b u t in whatever form it is described it rem ains w ondrous and inexhaustible. M any say th at this Power is within us; b u t w hether ‘w ithin’ or ‘w ith o u t’ it rem ains m ysterious and unknow able. ‘M ysterious’ and ‘unknow able’ because we are failing to experience it. We becom e frustrated w ith ourselves because w hatever we do we fail to experience w hat was prom ised. T h e purpose of this present work is to lift the reader out of the impasse and take him or her up and forward. T hose readers who do experience this Power will find their life im m easurably enriched by it. Some readers w ant m ore of it and could be said to be ‘in love w ith’ the experience. T his is a w onderful condition. W hatever you feel now I can tell you you are going to feel better by the tim e you have finished reading this volume. You are going to go forward. B E LIE V E IT. T h is is n ot to be ‘gullible’ because it is som ething you w ant to experience.

4. Confusion W hat is this spiritual essence, this th in g th at hum ans, be they C hristian or Pagan, Jew or M uslim , believe in? W hy are there so m any different versions o f it? For at face value it is im possible to reconcile, say, the Jewish or Islam ic view of God w ith the ‘horned god’ of w itchcraft. How does one equate the ‘Cosmic M in d ’ or ‘Infinite M in d ’ principle of m etaphysicians and m ystics w ith the m ultitude of gods of paganism or the God o f the Catholic C hurch? Is there in fact a ‘G od’ at all, let alone a ‘G oddess’ and sundry angels, spirits and bogeym en? Fortunately we don’t have to w orry ourselves about such questions. Religion is always the product of the culture it springs from: as there are so m any different cultures it is inevitable there will be so m any different beliefs and concepts of deity. Obviously a person born and raised in the jungle of the Congo is going to have a different view of divinity to som eone raised in San Francisco. B ut the com m on denom inator is the need to believe. People, whoever they 4

are and w herever they’re from , sim ply need to believe. A nd believe in something they will, even if it is totally irrational. T here are, of course, atheists who ‘don’t need to believe’, so they will tell you. T hey are the product of th eir sophisticated urban societies, again a product of culture, a m aterialistic cynical culture. They, too, need to believe in som ething, a need expressing itself in some odd ways. T he atheists I know regularly read their horoscopes. Surely that is irrational, for astrology is knee-deep in the pagan gods w hich supposedly don’t exist. I have never know n an atheist who didn’t celebrate Christm as. Surely this is irrational, or at the least inconsistent. O f course m any people w ith no religious or philosophical sentim ent whatsoever also celebrate C hristm as - but that, too, is irrational. W hat atheists and m aterialists fail to acknowledge is the human need for the irrational. T h e experience of hunger im plies that food exists - otherw ise we would never feel hungry. If we th irst, the im plication is th at water exists to quench it. So if we feel the need to believe in som ething greater th an ourselves th at im plies that there is som ething greater than ourselves. Yet w hy is this greater som ething so elusive? W hy doesn’t it reveal itself openly and unam biguously? W hy are we always seem ingly left guessing and w ondering? We may, however, be asking the w rong questions. W hat if it IS revealing itself, m aking itself heard - b u t we are not listening? W hy does its existence - or non-existence - depend so m uch upon our perception of it? T he atheist is in a way correct: he says there is n o thing because he is not aware of anything. T h e believer, on the other hand, looks and finds. T h e difference betw een the two, of course, is in their approach. T he atheist says he has looked - b u t has he? H e says he has listened - b u t was he deaf, so n o thin g was heard?

5. Amoral M ost assum e that this power - w hatever description or nam e we care to give it - is m oral and good. N ot so. But then neither is h u m an k in d m oral and good. We are a part o f th at whole. H u m an k in d does not behave m orally and in a good m anner, for if it did there w ould be no need for laws, rules, 5

regulations, and so on. N either would there be any need for governm ents and other authorities. H u m an k in d is not a benevolent species. In Rom an tim es there was tho u g h t to be about ten m illion people on this planet. Today it is seven billion, and for this grow th to have been achieved count­ less forests and anim al species have been destroyed. T his is abom inable. Advanced beings from another w orld w ould give us short shrift. No one th in g in this universe of ours is m oral and good; b u t n either is it intrinsically evil. We frown at the cruelty and savagery of nature w hilst overlooking th at of our species. We are not a nice lot. T he power th at we seek to be in tune w ith is neither ‘good’ nor ‘b ad ’: it is sim ply there. A m an who had won on the G rand N ational three years ru n n in g told me th at he felt a sense of guilt. H e p u t his gam bling luck down to asking his subconscious m ind to reveal the w inners just before he w ent off to sleep. H e did this each year on the night before the event. T h at n ight the w inner would appear in a dream and he placed his bets accordingly, no m atter w hat the odds were. W hen he asked his sub­ conscious m ind he said it was a kind o f prayer, so for him it had a spiritual dim ension. But because of his M ethodist upbringing he felt th at anything that m ixed spiritual w ith m oney had to be wrong. I explained to him that there could be no contradiction here. I explained that the subconscious unlike the conscious m ind - knows neither ‘rig h t’ nor ‘w rong’. T he religious notion th at spirituality and m aterialism are m utually exclusive is a falsehood. L et me give you a striking exam ple of the am oral nature o f this unseen power. A dolf H itler. As a youth he was a voracious reader of anything occult. H e was fascinated by the gods and goddesses of the pre-C hristian era and he developed the belief that there was a guiding power in his life. H is rise from obscurity to m aster o f continental E urope was spectacular, and he continuously alluded to his ‘deep inner conviction’. We know, too, that the Nazi hierarchy engaged in secret occult invocations of the old G erm an gods. T his was in stark contrast to th eir official position as endorsers of the Catholic C hurch. T h e C hurch was for the masses, the pagan gods for the initiated. Even m ore spectacular was their leader’s good fortune in avoiding assassination. T hough not know n at the tim e H itler was continuously the target of assassination attem pts. A lot of G erm ans w anted to see him dead. Tim e and again he w ould avoid death by a h a ir’s breadth, bullets and bom bs never h ittin g th eir target. T his deepened his occult confidence yet further, for indeed he m ust be the ‘Chosen O ne’ for unseen powers were m iraculously protecting him . In the end, of course, it w ould be only H itler who could kill Hitler.

H is Russian m isadventure, like others before him , resulted from over­ confidence. W here was ‘G od’ w hen H itler was pursuing his ‘deep in n e r’ conviction? D aily I pass th e rem ains of a church destroyed by the Nazis in 1942. T h e C hristian God could not save his own church. A nd w here was the Jewish God when m illions of his ‘chosen people’ were being dow ntrodden and exterm inated? T h e universe is n ot on the side o f ‘good’ and is accessible to both light and dark agencies. T h e only ‘good’ universe is the one we seek for ourselves.

6. Universe T h e cruelty and injustice in the w orld is enough to tu rn anyone into a b itter sceptic and an atheist. T h e religious construct of m orality cannot circum vent the cruel realities of life and hum an behaviour. Why, even Jesus C hrist, the ‘m ost perfect m an’ was tortu red and crucified! T h a t is why I find C hristianity - and indeed organized religion - so unappealing. O rganized religion is too bound up in negativity and suffer­ ing. It serves a valid social purpose, in bin d in g a com m unity together with shared values. But the hopeful, aspirational individual deserves som ething better, som ething that will m ake his or her spirit soar. Positivity is our aim, and a life full of the positive is certainly possible. We can accept th at the objective universe is a cruel and m erciless place but the subjective universe of our own m aking can be a w onderful place. T his is not a flight of fantasy, but a very real and tangible possibility and a proven fact for those who actually experience it. F irst we m ust look at the w ord ‘universe’. These days w riters on the m ystic refer to the universe in personal term s, e.g. you ‘can change your universe’, but, of course, we know th at ‘the universe’ is the sum total of everything there is, our E arth and the totality o f all other worlds and space. Com pared to all th at we are not even a speck, individually seem ingly of no relevance whatsoever. A nd this is utterly true. Yet by the same token each individual is a com plete w orld - o r cosmos - in his or her own right, con­ sisting of billions of atoms. T his is an im pressive thought. O ur conscious­ ness and physicality is of such breadth and com plexity th at if one single atom in us could th in k and speak it w ould say, ‘T his organism is so vast and unfathom able and I am only one out o f billions!’ Secret m ystic 7

doctrine has taught down th rough the ages th at m an is a m icrocosm of the universe, the hum an body itself being a replica of the solar system w ith the sun represented by the heart at its centre and the organs representing - or ‘ruled by’ - the planets. It is extraordinary - alm ost inconceivable how each of the body parts are influenced by heavenly constellations, beginning w ith Aries at the head and Pisces in the feet, Aries being the first sign of the zodiac and Pisces the last. Scientists refuse to believe this is so, for the notion seems preposterous, yet we know it is true from sim ple observation. Astrology is the absolute proof th at we and the heavens are interconnected. So m odern talk of ‘the universe helping you’ is not New Age psychic babble b u t an absolute truth! In any event the universe for us is the sum total o f our experience, both physical and spiritual. Each person has his own universe. You are the universe. Yet how can the universe help us if we are it? Isn’t this a contradiction? O n the contrary - you and the universe are only separate for as long as you perceive it that way. T h e m om ent you see th at there is no distinction, no separation, then everything changes. At that m om ent you becom e a magus - a w ord m eaning priest or priestess o f the M ysteries - a m agus in the profoundest sense of the word. ‘T h e F ather (the universe) and I (the individual person) are one’, the saying attributed to Jesus, is the synthesis of this idea. T his changes everything.

7. Value If we are ‘of the F a th er’ we are therefore of the same essence. T h e m ysterious power we spoke of earlier is not only ‘T he F ath er’ b u t also us. It is consciousness of this fact w hich m akes us a magus. But how do we do it? We shall presently see. It is not enough for me to explain it: w hat is im portant is to establish if you are ready for it. Just because you are reading this doesn’t necessarily m ean th at you are ready for it. W hat you th in k and the reality m ay not coincide. In this chapter 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 purpose. I th in k if there is one fundam ental flaw in m ost hum ans it is th eir lack o f a sense o f value. M ost people seem not to value w hat they have, or put

another way, take so m uch for granted. A nd they are not even aware o f it, it doesn’t even cross th eir m ind. M ention ‘value’ and they can only th in k , ‘How m uch do the things I own cost?’ as if m onetary purchase was the sole barom eter of value. You cannot place m onetary value on fresh air, w arm th, affection, com panionship, a pet, a child, and so m uch else. U sually these things are taken for granted. T he only tim e any concept of value emerges is w hen som ething is lost, or w hen som ething or som eone is taken. At th at m om ent they are devoured by th eir own paucity of value. It is im possible to be truly happy and fulfilled w ithout a highly developed sense of value. W ithout it the ‘m agic’ you will learn here will be, pardon the pun, valueless. Trying to explain this to m ost people is an uphill task, for the concept is com pletely beyond th eir ken. You, dear reader, will have to grasp it for a reason th at will soon becom e apparent. I believe a great deal of society’s problem s can be sourced to people’s lack of value. If they en masse truly valued w hat they have discontent and crim e w ould vanish. T he ubiquity of litte r in public places is a m ost telling instance of no sense of value. It tells you th at some people sim ply do not value their surroundings; to them th eir environm ent doesn’t count. W hen I see som eone casually discarding som ething in a public place they are subconsciously saying, ‘It doesn’t m atter; I don’t care anyhow.’ T he discarded litter is not th eir problem , w hich is another way of saying, ‘It’s your problem . You deal w ith it!’ I get on a train and find a seat sprawled w ith the previous occupant’s litter. H e or 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, w hat is m ost definitely evident is th eir disregard for th eir surroundings, w hich have no value to them . A nd it doesn’t stop there, one finds th at alm ost everything else doesn’t m atter - has no value - to them . T hey don’t value or respect relationships, th eir health, their work, their hom e, and so on. E verything is taken for granted, com prom ised or expendable at a whim . To me they seem alm ost like zom bies - alive but not alive - for everything th at should be of value to them is not registering. L e t’s rem ain w ith trains for a m om ent. I m arvel at the speed, efficiency and punctuality of m odern trains. It wasn’t always like this. But are passengers any happier? Does such speed and efficiency give them pleasure, things w hich once could n ot be taken for granted? I th in k not, judging by their dem eanour. In other words, no th in g is going to m ake 9

them happy. Since a boy I have always travelled by rail and I have never know n a tim e w hen people didn’t habitually com plain about the service. T h e greatest com plainers are always those w ith the acutest lack o f sense of value. Superm arkets are another source of w onder and efficiency. So m uch product, such variety and choice, and never have prices been so low in com parison to purchasers’ incom e. Pensioners who today com plain about superm arket prices should speak to pensioners o f a generation ago and realise how lucky they are! But each succeeding generation th in k s it is m ore hard done by than the earlier. In the 21st century we are all so blessed and fortunate in so m any ways and yet it is all taken for granted. If only a magic b u tto n could be pressed so that people could be im m ediately transported back to the 1940s. To live just one day would m ake them crave to be back in the m odern era! T here are no ‘good old days’, be it any era; those who believe it are those who do not value the present. In today’s W estern w orld even the poorest have refrigeration, m obiles and laptops. W hat k in d o f ‘poverty’ is that? Today’s ‘p oor’ enjoy luxuries and privileges th at even kings and queens o f old couldn’t even imagine. Yet only a fool cannot possibly fail to realize th at few people seem happier as a result. To value w hat you have is to m ake your life m ore m eaningful. N ot to value w hat you have is to considerably increase the chances of you losing it. All good things are to be treasured and cherished. Taking things for granted is a cardinal sin against the soul. T h e w orst is to take others for granted. It poisons relationships. A nd you cannot fail to notice - unless you are a fool - that others are also takingjw u for granted. A nd there is not m uch you can do about that. W hen you have a profound sense of value you open yourself to a positive flow of good from the universe. You are liberating yourself. H e who takes all for granted and is devoid of a sense of value is in bondage.

8. Gratitude To some this m ay seem boring, to go on about ‘value’ and now ‘g ratitude’. Some readers m ight th in k 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 present era w ith so m any conveniences and opportunities. G ratitude for the wealth of one’s society, a society whose poorest live in a m anner envied by the genuinely poor - w ithout light or 10

ru n n in g water, uncertain of the next meal, etc. - of the T h ird World. G ratitude for one’s surroundings even if they are not ideal, for you know full well they could be worse. E verything could be worse b u t it isn’t. Be grateful for your health, even if it isn’t th at good, for you surely know it could be so m uch worse. I f you th in k it is ‘easy for you to say th a t’ then th in k again. For as long as you cling to ingratitude you are sh u tting the door to progress in your life and worse. Ingratitude is a poison, slowly destroying the soul, eventually ru ining one’s health. It is an extraordinarily expensive state of m ind. T he ungrateful know full well in advance th at if asked to w rite on a sheet of paper two colum ns, one for the good things they have and the other for the bad the first colum n w ould be longer. I shall not labour this point, b u t you shall presently see why it is so im portant.

9. Huna A 41-year-old H aw aiian was dying from tuberculosis. All m edical treatm ent had failed. H is m other called a K ahuna - a pagan m agus native to the islands - to see if he could help. For an hour the K ahuna, hands placed on the m an’s throat and chest, prayed and chanted. Im m ediately afterw ard the m an got up and declared him self totally healed. T h e follow­ ing day he was back at work. T he experience transform ed his personality, filling him w ith a gratitude th at has never left him . Over six decades later, at the age of 104, he is still w orking and is im bued w ith a zest for life that is the w onder of those around him . H e said th at w hen the K ahuna told him th at he w ould be healed he believed him completely. K ahunas are practitioners of huna magic, a discipline w hich astonished A m erican psychic researcher M ax Freedom L ong who wrote a book about it, The Secret Science Behind Miracles, in the 1940s. W hat amazed him was the sim ilarity of K ahuna beliefs w ith the Berbers o f N o rth Africa, m any thousands of miles away. M oreover, w hen C hristian m issionaries came to Haw aii in the 19th century they were flabbergasted to find th at the K ahunas already knew the stories in the O ld Testament! T hey couldn’t get the K ahunas to abandon th eir religion because the K ahunas felt C hristianity had no th in g to offer th at they didn’t already have. M oreover, 11

they possessed a system of spiritual psychology th at had sim ilarities w ith m odern W estern psychology M ax Freedom L ong was particularly im pressed w ith th eir concepts of different levels o f consciousness before F reud discovered them ! T h e prefix ‘Ka’ m eans ‘keeper’ and ‘huna’ m eans ‘secret’. So a K ahuna is effectively ‘a keeper of the secret’. T hey believed that each hum an possessed not one self b u t three: a Low, a M iddle and a H igh. T h e Low they said was in the solar plexus and corresponded to the subconscious m ind. T hey called it Low because it has no intellectuality and can be influenced by the M iddle, located in the brain, w hich is the conscious self - the self th at we are conscious of, w hat we call ‘m e’. A nd finally, in the rig h t side of the head, the intuitive part of the brain, there rises an ethereal silver cord w hich reaches five feet up to the H igh Self. Called ‘T he Great P aren t’ by the K ahunas it corresponds to the ‘F ath er’ taught by Jesus. It is also the G uardian Angel. It is the H igh Self, say the K ahunas, th at creates w hat we call ‘m iracles’. T he Low Self is the anim al being w ithin us, the M iddle the hum an, and the H igh the divine. At death the silver cord is severed from the brain, the two lesser selves dissolve w hilst the H igh rem ains, being indestructible. At this p oint it is ‘G od’, or whatever nam e or description one wants to use for the Suprem e U niversal Intelligence. It is clearly the H igh Self w hich intervenes in tim es of emergency. In his The Help I Received When I Most Needed It (Finbarr, 2009), Jack H em pstead cites several examples. M ountaineer F rank Sm ythe, vanquished by the th in air of the Everest peak, suddenly came face to face w ith a stranger who reassured him th at he w ould survive and n ot perish. Joshua Slocum, sailing around the w orld in his sloop was guided by an ‘invisible helper’ through the m ost ferocious waters. M ost rem arkable of all and I will quote from the book: ‘Ron D i Francesco was one o f only four persons on the floors above the 81st of the south tower of the W orld Trade Centre to survive the infam y of “9/11”. T he emergency stairway was blocked w ith debris, he and others crouching for protection. T h en an authoritative voice called out, “Ron! Get up !” W ithout th in k in g he got up, spellbound by the voice: he described ‘a definitive physical presence’ w hich was cer­ tainly not th at of any of the terrified people around him . It told him to keep going down, he struggling and fighting his way through the dust and debris, doing exactly as told, not questioning anything. T here was no question of “logical th in k in g ” : to th in k logically w ould be to th in k the inevitable and becom e another one o f the 3000 who perished on that terrible day. T h en he came to a raging inferno: he could descend no further. 12

T h e voice said, “Go through it.” Forearm s covering his head, he dashed down the stairs. W hen he got to the 76th floor he was “safe” - if th a t’s the rig h t word, for the whole building was to collapse w ithin 30 m inutes there was no m ore voice, no guiding presence.’ I am rem inded o f a sleepwalker I once knew. O ften she w ould arise in the dead of n ight - still fully asleep - have a snack and then drive in her car to some distant location. W hen daylight came she w ould awake, frightened and bew ildered to find herself sitting on a river bank in her pyjamas. It happened tim e and again. How on earth did she drive her car at all, let alone safely, w hilst unconscious? Clearly another consciousness was in control. T h e m ystic concept o f ‘the universe’ can also be equated to the theory of the universal Collective Consciousness postulated by Carl Jung: a great sea o f consciousness in w hich all thoughts, all knowledge, and all ‘archetypes’ are stored. Yet the ‘p rim itive’ K ahunas had such theories of consciousness long before Jung, and F reud came along. W hilst W estern civilisation was trying to find its spiritual compass long ago the ‘prim itive’ Polynesian priesthood already knew! A nd w hen the C hristian m ission­ aries tried to convert them to the teachings of C hrist th eir response was, ‘So w hat else is new? Is th at all you have to offer us?’

10. Subconscious For m any there is confusion about the ‘subconscious’ and ‘unconscious’ m inds. Are they one and the same or different entities? Some o f the confusion can be ascribed to the lack of inform ation on the subject, for little, if anything, m ore is know n today th an in Ju n g ’s tim e. O stensibly they are different ‘entities’. In essence they are theoretical concepts. T h o u g h t to exist b u t hard to prove. In particular the unconscious, for ‘unconscious’ m eans just that, not conscious. How do you dem onstrate som ething th at is not there? F reud specifically used the term to describe a repository of m em ories o f w hich the conscious m ind is unaware, hence a person is ‘wnconscious’ of them . T hese are m em ories from the in d i­ vidual’s distant past, especially childhood, m em ories w hich have faded into the background or as is frequently the case, deliberately shut from consciousness at an early stage because they contain som ething painful, forbidden or taboo. Now this is quite different from the subconscious. As the prefix suggests, this is a state w hich lies just below the surface. It is a 13

consciousness just one step, or one layer, rem oved from the conscious m ind. It is a consciousness th at is not suppressed, it is hidden yet acces­ sible. It is a pool of knowledge, containing m em ories or inform ation which the conscious m in d has forgotten. M ore intriguingly, is the subconscious m in d ’s store of knowledge not yet registered. In other words it has access to inform ation as yet unavailable, know ing w hat is yet to happen. T he m an who won on the G rand N ational in successive years had proof positive of this aspect of the subconscious. In this respect its activity is a function of the D ivine M ind. T h e subconscious is also the power operating and controlling the m yriad workings of the body. To confuse m atters further the subconscious is som etim es referred to as the SMperconscious w hich in tu rn can be equated to H igher or D ivine Consciousness. It is hard indeed to draw clear lines of distinction. T he only th ing certain is th at ‘subconscious’ or ‘unconscious’ either is definitely not the conscious m ind. We can only be sure of 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 practical art o f influencing the course of events by com pelling the agency of spiritual beings, or by bringing into operation some occult controlling p rinciple’. T here is ‘low’ magic w hen a practitioner in his or her own privacy lights a candle, recites a spell or chant, nam ing some spirit or god, for the purpose of som ething extraordinary, either spiritual or m aterial. T here are enough books on the subject, few, if any, offering any explanation as to w hy such-and-such spirits should be invoked. A nd just who are these spirits, w hat are their histories and origins; w hy are no stories or m yths attached to them so that they convey some m eaning? T hey invariably carry lofty and bizarre titles. We m ay be blandly told that so-and-so is the ‘prim e m in ister’ of a certain realm , but why does such a place - and w hat is this place - need such a figure? Do these spirits m eet to discuss m atters concerning this realm? No explanation is ever provided as to how and why they have the powers attrib u ted to them . In addition to ‘prim e m inisters’ there are ‘dukes’, ‘princes’ and the like. T he practitioners are expected to tru st entities w hich appear entirely fictitious and have done so, it seems, for centuries. B ut so far I have not yet encountered any attem pt to explain it all. I have no 14

difficulty, however, w ith gods and goddesses, for they have biographies and the an tiquity of cult tradition. Yet it cannot be dism issed as ‘rubbish’. I have practised cerem onial m agic and got results. W hen I told one wom an, greatly interested in all spiritual m atters, that I had invoked pagan gods such as W otan, H erm es and D ionysus she was horrified. Such gods, unlike the seem ingly m eaning­ less nam es of spirit-dem ons who are otherw ise totally obscure, possess fully developed personalities and m ystic lives, so in invoking them I know I am draw ing on a considerable psychic reservoir w hich already existed. But m y 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. T h e pagan gods were supplicated and invoked for thousands of years before any o f today’s m ajor religions took hold. These gods represented divine consciousness in its m yriad form s, though not always ‘divine’ - the diabolical was always close at hand. T h e divine, the secret, the unknow able cannot be contained in one single concept, ‘the universe’, ‘the In fin ite’, ‘the Cosmic M in d ’, or sim ply ‘G od’ - or w hatever nam e we give it. T h e O ne cannot be bound by the singular. Each god represents a different facet just as every hum an has various facets o f character and personality. D ifferent 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 person; there are ‘m any’ different versions of you, yet there is only one you. Carl Jung saw gods as archetypes of the Collective U nconsciousness, each representing a potent psychic force. W hen we seek un ity w ith the One th at does not exclude the m yriad different expressions of th at One. T he O ne is also the Many. Every god, every goddess, is b u t a different facet, a different expression of the Eternal. ‘M agic’ is not ‘rubbish’, b u t we could say it is irrational. O ur souls will not be placed in peril by practising magic, b u t if we ignore the irrational not only in ourselves b u t also the universe then we could eventually be in peril. Some folk are repelled by some of the bizarre religious practices o f the ancient Egyptians, in particular the veneration of particular anim als. All cats were tho u g h t o f as incarnations of the Great Goddess in her feline aspect. Statues represented her as a seated cat or a standing wom an w ith not a hum an head b u t a cat’s, in this form she was called Bastet am ongst other names. W hen invoked as ‘H a th o r’ the Great Goddess appeared as a cow, her priestesses w earing bovine masks. A nd how about Sobek who appeared as a crocodile or Taurt the hippopotam us. 15

Are these conceptions of deity sim ply crazy or are they a sim ple acknow ledgem ent of the D ivine Presence in creation and its creatures? In ancient Egypt the diabolical co-existed w ith the divine and again m odern ‘rational’ readers m ay be disturbed at the E gyptians’ veneration o f the truly diabolical ass-headed Set - usurper, m urderer, oppressor, destroyer. H e was the tem plate for the Devil of m odern religion b u t whilst Jews and C hristians loathe him ancient Egyptians paid him homage, erecting m any great tem ples in his honour. Set is the m ythical dweller of barren inhospitable places, perhaps a m etaphor for us o f unacceptable and destructive thoughts banished from our conscious m ind. Set em bodies another aspect of existence, for life cannot only be o f the acceptable and not the unacceptable. ‘M agic’ is about exploiting consciousness in w hatever form it takes, according to the need and aspiration of the magus. I u n derstand th at m ost readers will not w ant Set or any dem on-god in their life, b u t these forces rem ain w hether we like it or not.

PART 2: PRACTICE

12. Night I m ust confess a feeling of some reluctance before w riting this as I regard it as m ost personal. H ere is w hat I actually do, and because it actually works I know I m ust im part it. Yet at the same tim e there is n othing 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 that I know it works. I am not w riting hypothetically or m etaphorically: T H IS W O R K S F O R REAL. Yet I m ust say that w hat I know and w hat I have experienced is not definitive and final: it rem ains unfolding and continuous. I am telling you w hat I know as of now. I repeat: T H IS W O RK S. It works for me and countless others. IT W IL L W O R K IF YOU W A N T IT T O W O R K ; w hich I know m ost of you do. Follow carefully w hat I say and do not fret if you do not at first understand, for you should read it again and again. Also the practice o f it will enable you to u n derstand w hat is going on. 16

H ere is the starting point, and so easy and pleasant is it it m ay also rem ain your ‘finishing’ point. It all revolves around relaxing in bed at night, prior to sleep. T h is is the tw ilight tim e betw een consciousness and unconsciousness; so it is potent and magical. You should be lying on your back, arm s at side or over your torso if you wish. Take two or three gentle deep breaths. T his, and the following, is certainly w hat I do each and every night. I th in k for a m om ent o f the day, hom ing in on anything I should be grateful for and I allow m yself there and then to be truly grateful for it. There is not a single day that I cannot find something in it for which I am thankful. Even if it was ‘one of those days’ I give thanks th at I rem ained patient and did n ot lose m y cool. If it was an atrocious day I am sim ply grateful th at it is over! I f it was a day w hen things could easily have gone against me, b u t everything tu rn ed out m y way, I allow my gratitude full sway, letting myself be swept away by it. Because I fully realize the consequences if things had gone badly. Som etim es the gratitude swells to such an extent that I feel a disintegration o f consciousness and a glorious liberation of spirit. I know at this very m om ent the U niverse is w ith m e and w hat I am about to ask for will be granted. Once you have experienced this for yourself you will realize just why I place such em phasis on the value of gratitude. Rem em ber, the gratitude m ust be genuine and heartfelt, it cannot be m anufactured or ‘faked’. To feign g ratitude w ould be to shut yourself off from the Universal 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 hour o f every day. L et gratitude constantly inform m y thoughts. L et me live in gratitude.’ T h e phrase ‘L o rd ’ suits me fine, b u t you m ay choose som ething else. T h is is not the ‘L ord Jesus’ of the C hurch. T h a t holds no resonance for me and m ay not for you. I know th at to whom ever I am speaking it is a Being greater than I. It is w orthy to be addressed as ‘L o rd ’. It could also be ‘L ady’. Indeed, w hen this Power com m unicates w ith me it is invariably as a lady. W hat the orthodox-m inded cannot grasp is th at there cannot be a ‘G od’ w ithout a ‘G oddess’, nor O ne w ithout the Many. I am explaining w hat it is I do, b u t as you apply m y instructions you m ay intuitively vary them , w hich is perfectly fine. I always begin m y ‘conversation’ - or prayer - w ith gratitude. To repeat: gratitude opens in n er gateways of power. It becomes a channel through w hich future blessings will follow. ‘U nto him who has it will be added; to him who has not it will be taken.’ It heals and liberates. It opens the body’s psychic centres, it puts ego in context, allowing freedom and 17

space, and through this ‘freedom ’ and ‘space’ the M ystic U niverse reveals itself. After expressing g ratitude I ask for ‘the faith I need’ that m y desire will be accom plished. I affirm th at ‘I and the F ather are O ne’. T his is very im portant. T his phrase is attrib u ted to Jesus b u t you can be sure th at the idea b eh in d it is very ancient. Sim ilarly - although I do not suggest you speak it - the phrase, ‘W ithout the F ather I can do n o th in g ’, an acknow ledgem ent of the incom pleteness of our conscious m ind and its lim itations. We feel helpless to change things - bu t w ith the help of the ‘F a th er’ we can change everything. T he F ather is the H igh Self, the G uiding L ig h t or Power, H oly G uardian Angel, or whatever nam e or representation strikes a chord w ith you. It is not m ake-believe or wishful th in k in g , there is a Suprem e Power: it is both universal and unique to you. T h e purpose of this work is to enable you to harm onize w ith it. We have spoken of conscious, subconscious and unconscious m inds, b u t m iracles happen in D IV IN E CO NSCIO USNESS. T his is w hen lim ita­ tion is transcended and the ‘im possible’ happens. G reat m asters live in divine consciousness. I aspire to it and so should you. You need only a glim pse of divine conscious to becom e elevated and renewed. In a practical context ‘I and the F ather are O ne’ m eans th at if you do the best you can to get w hat you w ant the F ather will do the rest, in other w ords, supply it. You will know th at ‘the F a th er’ is w orking for you, providing you continuously affirm it, not only at n ight b u t daytim e too. M ore of that presently. So I lie there asking to be given faith and that I may tru st uncon­ ditionally and w ithout reservation. It could be said th at one is entering a state of w orship of the Great Self: the little self, my ego, is inconsequential and there is a definite awareness th at ‘o f m yself I can do n o th in g ’. I realize th at the Great Self is everything. So I go on asking for faith, trust, and the power to believe. Then I ask for the thing I want. It can be just one th in g one asks for; but if asking for several they should all in some way be connected. T his is not so unlikely as it seems. W hen we have several problem s sim ultaneously, if we study them carefully, we will find th at they all tend to revolve round a central issue. So if th at one core concern didn’t exist the others probably w ouldn’t either. If your objectives or problem s are unrelated to one another then you should focus on just one, obviously the m ost im p ortant or pressing. Simply ask th at ‘I receive so-and-so’. Affirm ‘it is m ine now ’. T his is not the little 18

self affirm ing but a H igher Power w hich at th at m om ent is inform ing you. At th at m om ent your wish is sealed and delivered in the ether, ready to m anifest physically m aterially at the appropriate tim e. Say these words at some other tim e, out o f context w ith your com m union w ith this H igher Power, and you w ould be com pletely foolish. ‘O f m yself I can do n o th in g ’. After speaking m y wish I give thanks and picture for a m om ent th at I am already in possession of w hat I seek or th at the problem is solved. T hen I tu rn over and go to sleep. However, at no tim e do I ever kid m yself that anything is going to just fall into my lap or th at any problem is sim ply going to vanish. I know I am going to have to do som ething about it: I still live in ‘the real w orld’. T h e difference is th at I know I am going to be successful, for I know I have ‘a silent p a rtn e r’.

13. Daytime I have explained w hat I do at night. It takes only about ten m inutes, som etim es less if I am particularly tired, or longer if I am m ore alert and m y need m ore pressing. Occasionally I m ay go to bed exhausted in w hich case I don’t do anything at all as m y concentration is w orth nothing. D uring the day one lives w ith one’s problem s, problem s w hich at tim es seem overw helm ing. So at the occasional m om ent close eyes and say, ‘H elp 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 upw ard to the ceiling or the sky if outdoors and unobserved and declare, ‘I know w hat I w ant’, or some other positive statem ent. It takes only a m om ent and gives you an in stant lift. T h is is n ot m ere auto-suggestion - you are heard and the U niverse is acting for you. If you can take one or two deep breaths first it helps (but is not essential). W hen rid in g a bus or train, close eyes and say m entally, ‘Be w ith me, Father, be w ith m e now.’ H ere’s som ething else th a t is good, b u t you will need privacy. Seated or standing, adopt the arm s crossed pose of the ancient Egyptian gods. Place your rig h t hand on your left shoulder and your left han d on the right shoulder. Close eyes, take a deep breath, look upw ard saying, ‘F ather grant m y desire. Be w ith me, guide m e.’ It takes only a m om ent and im m ediately connects you w ith the Divine. You are always heard. T his is not m ere auto­ suggestion. 19

I find these little daytim e gestures help enorm ously, som etim es bringing immediate help at tim es of crisis. Once you are in the habit of following these form ulae, once they becom e a part of your daily life, you will know exactly the m eaning of everything I have thus far said. You will not need anyone to explain the ‘D ivine’ to you for you will be experiencing it. You can only go forw ard and upw ard. A nd so it is.

14. Materialism I am criticized by the ‘spiritually m in d ed ’ for suggesting that m ystic forces can be em ployed for m aterial gains, gam bling wins, seduction of another person, and other ‘unw orthy’ aims. Such m inded see me as ‘cheapening’ or ‘p ro stitu tin g ’ the spiritual. T his is nonsense o f course. I don’t know w hat w orld such ‘spiritually m in d ed ’ folk live in: it cannot be the same one that I live in w ith all its pressures, dem ands and m aterialism . Besides, there is no contradiction betw een the spiritual and the m aterial. W hat is touched and felt is good; w hat is pleasurable to the eye is gratifying. Pleasure o f the senses is good for the soul. Life is to be enjoyed. T h e point of life is surely to live\ I will have no truck w ith self-denial and abstinence; deprivation, m onasticism , etc., is based on a tw isted vision of the D ivine. T h e U niverse is so abundant, so sensual - how can it possibly be rig h t to deny its very nature? A new car, a new stereo system, a new suite of furniture, a luxury cruise, super duper technological devices - all bring pleasure and satisfaction, so long as we value them . If we take them for granted we not only dim inish the pleasure b u t dim inish and devalue ourselves. W hatever m aterial thing you desire can be w ithin your grasp, if you are prepared to get it w ith the aid of the Father. T h e D ivine L ig h t w ithin wants you to flourish, to prosper. L acking for things is not ‘spiritual’, it indicates not only m aterial im poverishm ent but also im poverishm ent o f the soul. Im poverishm ent is not the way o f nature: all life teems w ith abundance. You can partake in this abundance and w hen you do you should relish it and give thanks. Recently a m an from M arseilles told me th at he m ade a fortune w hich he attributed to his absolute tru st in the In n er M ind. H e told me th at every n ight he affirm ed for about ten m inutes the following, ‘W ealth is m ine, w ealth is m ine now.’ H e w ould repeat this over and over before drifting off 20

to sleep. Im pregnating his subconscious in such a way, he believed, gave him the ‘M idas touch’: everything he tu rn ed his h an d to m ade money. O n one occasion he won 1,200,000 euros in a lottery. H e sincerely believed in the power of the subconscious m ind to guide, direct, heal and inspire him , and it responded according to his belief. W hat we expect is w hat we get. T his Power always provides. T h e U niverse never fails. Trust com pletely and do your best to achieve your goal and and it will deliver. Your pu rsu it o f the m aterial through the D ivine in point of fact increases your spiritual awareness, not dim inishes it! For you will always rem ain conscious o f the w ondrous Power beh in d your accom plishm ents! You will be continually aware of the presence of your ‘silent p a rtn e r’. You will never feel alone again, know ing th at you are surrounded and protected by a Power th at seeks only your good. Can anything be m ore w onderful to know?

15. Everything! E verything can be provided by this great Power! W hatever you need - it can be met. If your health is poor it can be im m easurably im proved. You can be healed, renew ed, regenerated, and live m uch longer than you ever thought! T his Power is constant and inexhaustible, always renew ing, forever vitalizing. O pen yourself to it and let it in! Just ask for it to enter and let it in! You can lead a tru ly w onderful life. No m atter w hat the obstacle you will have the power to cope; you will continually overcom e and realize w hat it is to be trium phant! All th at holds you back are your own concepts o f limitations. A young m an’s rig h t arm was badly ulcerated. It was not responding to m edication and am putation was increasingly looking like the only option left. H e prayed for a m iracle but no th in g happened. Instead his arm got worse. Positive th in k in g didn’t help. E ventually his spirit sank to an all tim e low as he dreaded w hat m ay lay ahead. I knew there had to be a deeper reason for this situation. I asked a pertin en t question, ‘Is there anything you have done in the past w ith your rig h t arm that causes you regret now ?’ ‘Yes, I feel very bad and very guilty about punching a fellow a few years ago. I over-reacted in a silly row over a girl’. ‘Is th at som ething you w ould do again, th at is, throw a punch in an argum ent?’ I enquired. 21

‘O h no!’ he fired back. ‘I w ould never do a th in g like th at again.’ ‘So w hy go on feeling this guilt?’ I asked. ‘Because it was wrong. Besides, the girl wasn’t w orth it.’ I then gave him m y analysis of the situation. ‘You did som ething bad years ago w hen you were not the same person you are today. You w ould not today react violently to provocation. Also every single atom in your body has changed m any tim es in the intervening years. So physically as well as m entally you are a different person to the one who threw that punch. T he old you is dead, so w hy not accept and em brace the “new you” instead of clinging to the past?’ I added th at he had been acting as judge and jury against an innocent m an - himself. ‘Gosh, I had never tho u g h t of it th at way’, he said. ‘Well, start th in k in g in a different way’, I replied, ‘and start forgiving yourself. Tonight in bed ask the U niverse for forgiveness - w hich in tru th is not actually necessary, for you are already forgiven - so th at you can th en forgive yourself. Believe completely. Do this every n ig h t.’ A fter seven days he reported a dram atic im provem ent in his arm. F ourteen days, he was com pletely healed. D octors were flabbergasted, and so they w ould be. (Such stories are absolutely true. T hey are not here for entertainm 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 the case o f the m an w ith the ulcerated arm . Psychology is always bound up w ith the magical. It is also the key to understanding w hen we don’t get results. E verything this young m an tried didn’t work. O nly w hen he realized th at guilt was the cause of his condition and the realization th at it was founded on a false prem ise was he able to be cured. T hose 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 her despair at how badly she was doing at college. She feared the disapproval of her parents w hen she failed - as she expected to - her exams. H er concentration was poor and she found it exceedingly difficult to rem em ber and retain w hat was taught. I asked her a few questions about her background and it came to light th at as far back as she could recall she w ould hear her father rem ark to h er m other th at she w ould ‘never am ount to anything’. ‘T h a t’s the source of your problem ’, I said. ‘How do you 22

5

m ean?’ she asked, perplexed. ‘T h e In n er M ind, the subconscious m ind, or even “G od”, whatever one chooses to call th at som ething other w orldly in our consciousness, is not a m oral agent. It is am oral, it m akes no distinction betw een rig h t and wrong. All existence is like that, if you look around and observe. T here is no such thing as “justice”. W rongdoers go unpunished, evil people flourish, the innocent are at the m ercy of the guilty. N ature is cruel and ruthless. ‘But we are different’, I continued. ‘A lthough m ost people choose to be am oral them selves the fact is th at we have the power to be otherwise. You can dictate to your Inner M ind,you can dictate to the Universe, w hat you w ant.’ ‘But if it’s am oral, why m ust I fail rather than succeed; why can’t it be the other way round?’ she asked. ‘Because your In n er M ind did not decide for you; it was decided by som eone else’, I replied. ‘A nd who was th at?’ she asked. ‘It was your father who decided for you. H e decided you were no good and your subconscious m ind autom atically accepted it as fact, having no power of judgem ent, not know ing w hat’s rig h t and w hat’s wrong. T h a t’s why no m atter how hard you try w ith your studies there will be conflict. You w ant to succeed, b u t your subconscious is w orking to the agenda set by your father.’ ‘So w hat do I do?’ ‘You m ust see your father’s rem arks for w hat they are: the utterings of a sm all-m inded man. T here is absolutely no reason you should not succeed in your studies if that is w hat you want. Your father’s vision, like th at of so many, is obviously extrem ely lim ited. Perhaps at an early stage he noticed th at you were not a quick learner so im m ediately assum ed you w ould never am ount to m uch. T h e m an’s a fool and ignorant, for some of the w orld’s brightest and m ost successful people are not the quickest learners: and then there are those who catch on very quickly and seem very sm art and yet am ount to little in life. ‘You m ust now dictate your own agenda. Reject your father’s opinion w hich is ill-conceived and worthless. B eginning to night before going to sleep ask the H igher Power for w hat you seek. Indeed affirm that you will be a better student, th at you will absorb and rem em ber w hat you learn, and th at you will pass your exams. Say “I reject w hat D ad says, I reject it completely. I am the m aster of my own m ind and the m aster of my destiny. I shall be successful and accom plished, no m atter w hat anyone says!” ’ T his young lady passed her exams and subsequently w ent on to better things, m uch m ore confident and self-m otivated than w hen she first saw me. 23

Illness is m ore a product of psychology than of bad diet or lack of exercise. Illness is usually a form of self-punishment. Take the case of another young wom an. She couldn’t get rid of a sore throat w hich together w ith a fever was getting her down. A ntibiotics didn’t help and her doctor was puzzled. Com ing to me about this, I asked her, A p art from this w retched throat condition, w hat else in life is getting you dow n?’ ‘Well, as a m atter of fact’, she replied, ‘it is m y m other. D on’t get m e wrong - 1 love my m other - b u t she is continually trying to organize and control m y life. Now she wants me to go out w ith a m an who she th in k s is rig h t for me. I just hate her constant interfering.’ T he two things getting her down, the bad th roat and the difficult m other, had to be connected. She loved her m other b ut was beginning to hate her and this in n er tension was creating guilt, m ade worse by the fact th at the young m an her m other w anted her to go out w ith was o f an extrem ely am iable disposition, but she knew she could never love him . N one of this was helped by the fact that she was - at age 28 - still living w ith her m other. I suggested she find her own accom m odation and that she m ust m ake her feelings absolutely clear to her m other. I also suggested she say the following every night as the Great P rotecting and H ealing Power will definitely come to her aid. ‘D ear L ord, show me the way forward. I realize that I can love m y m other and still have my own independence of m ind. Please show this to her. Please help me. L et me be freed, let me be released.’ She repeated this several tim es, usually in her head, for her throat was so tender. She spoke to m other calm ly and w ithout rancour, m other not taking the offence that m ight have been expected. T here was a rem arkable change in her attitude, she adm itting that she had been overbearing and th at she didn’t w ant her to leave. T he question of the young m an never arose again and she was determ ined she w ould choose her own boyfriend. Seven days later her throat was com pletely healed. A religious wom an confided in me th at no m atter how m uch and how often she prayed her prayers were never answered. H er life was being m ade a m isery by ulcers, and m edication was of little help. She tried different doctors but no th in g changed. She was not a happy wom an. Upon enquiring I learnt th at she was at loggerheads w ith her in-laws and was full of resentm ent. T his was m aking her feel guilty for well she realized th at she was falling short of Jesus’ injunction to ‘love thy enem ies’. I explained to her th at trying to suppress her rage w ould m ake her ulcers worse and that if she w anted to get rid of them there had to be changes in her m ental 24

attitude. T h e reason she got no answer from God, I continued, was that she was praying to some far-off being in the sky and not to som eone as close to her as her own skin. M oreover, ‘Your ulcers will not let go of you u n til you let go of your rage, be it w ith your in-laws or anyone else.’ ‘B ut they are such awful people!’ she retorted. ‘T h a t’s neither here nor there’, I replied, ‘you’ve got the ulcers, not them .’ I then gave her the following to affirm every night. ‘Please, L ord, let peace prevail. L et harm ony prevail. Free me from the chains o f negativity. Replace everything negative w ith the positive. I radiate good to all, for my own good. Oh L ord, teach m e gratitude, teach m e love. ‘L et the Life Force flow freely and joyously through my body. M ake me whole and in perfect h ealth.’ I m et her again about a m onth later. N ever 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 light and energetic, her dem eanour buoyant. Needless to say, her ulcers had disappeared, and even her in-laws were suddenly being nice to her! T he H igh Self is the Healing Self; the Universe is both the source of your ills and your cure. You have the power to choose which you really want. Sickness cannot dwell in a joyous, positive soul: the two are entirely incom patible. Ask the H igh Self to fill you w ith joy, power and gratitude. Open yourself to its lim itless abundance. Ask it to cast out all doubt and nega­ tivity from your thoughts. D o so with all your heart. T his Power will not fail you, C A N N O T fail you. You are lim ited only by your belief. Believe w ith heart and soul and everything is possible. Failure is the price you pay for yielding to negativity and self-doubt. Sickness is the price for suppressing anger, for guilt, and other m alignant conditions. Ask to be freed of all these unhealthy states - doing so w ith all your heart - and believe you will be answered, as you surely will.

17. Sin M ost people’s - especially the religious-m inded - idea of sin is illusional. T h e word itself is derived from the ancient Greek m eaning ‘wide of the m ark’. So to sin is to be ‘wide o f the m ark’, or to ‘miss the m ark’. P ut another way it is a failure to grasp w hat is right for us. T h e dogm atic religious view th at money, m aterialism , physical love are ‘sinful’ is rubbish. It is a falsehood and is contrary to the Spirit of U niversal 25

A bundance. N ature teem s w ith life, riches, the m aterialistic, all of w hich are there for our enjoym ent and participation. W hat gives us pleasure cannot possibly be ‘wide of the m ark’, so long as it is valued. Life is to be enjoyed, relished, and the m ore of it the better. Jesus C hrist never ‘died for our sins’; nobody can die for our sins. T he ‘sins’ we com m it are transgressions against ourselves. Ideas of guilt and regret about self-enjoym ent are based on a false prem ise. If you live and are guided by the Cosmic Power there can be no guilt, for you will bear no grudge towards another; you will have no need to envy others and no w ish to harm them . N egativity disappears from your outlook. Get rig h t - h it the m ark - w ith your own best higher in tu itio n and all else falls into place. D aily affirm the following: I am O ne w ith the Father. I am O ne w ith the H igh Self of the Universe. All positive energy flows through me. I focus on my own good, and w hat is good for m e is good for all. Affirm w hen you need it, repeat as m any tim es and as often as you wish. Im pregnating the layers of your consciousness, it is quite im possible for negativity to rem ain: it literally dissolves before the L ig h t contained in these words. W anting the best for yourself is n ot negative selfishness. Speaking for myself, I w ant the best for everyone. I enjoy seeing others happy and successful. I feel no envy or covetousness, for I realize th at these are utterly pointless and self-defeating em otions. By w anting the best for everyone I am open to the best for myself. W hilst I wish the best for others I also recognize th at so m any are negative, petty and childish. I m ay wish the best for them , b ut the tru th is they can never have it! T h a t is not my concern: my concern is th at all spiritual doors shall be open to me. A nd they are. A nd so they shall also be for you.

18. Healing T h e w onderful Power w ithin us knows no boundaries. T he H igh Self is not alone and isolated, b u t connected to the U niversal H igh Self (‘G od’) w hich connects all consciousness. There are no barriers to divine consciousness. 26

T h e subconscious, too, w hether or not we th in k it is the same th in g is also not lim ited by boundaries. The subconscious minds of two different people can work in unison as one functioning entity. H ence the ‘m iracle’ o f spiritual healing. A very good friend of m ine, a young m an who shares the same interest in all m atters spiritual and m ystic was saddened w hen his m other, alm ost overnight, becam e crippled. She was taken to hospital w here she was told she w ould spend the rest o f her life in a wheelchair. H e then recalled som ething he had often heard her say when he was a boy, ‘I guess th at one o f these days I’ll end up arth ritic and crippled like m y m other and grandm other.’ Being a child he took no notice at the tim e, b u t now he was struck by the recollection. W hat she said w ould happen has now happened b u t he couldn’t grasp why it should be so inevitable despite his forebears’ condition. T he bogeym an o f ‘hereditary illness’ is a certain self-fulfilling prophecy. H e asked her to take p art in an experim ent. She, appreciating his interest in all things spiritual, agreed to take p art w hilst acknow ledging the sense of his rem ark, ‘You kept telling yourself you w ould end up a cripple and it happened. W hat else did you expect?’ T his is yet another example of the im partiality and am oral nature o f the inner m ind. It doesn’t judge or challenge - it m erely accepts. Keep saying ‘I am going to be ill’ and sooner or later ill you will be. Keep telling yourself th at all will be fine ensures a positive outcom e. The subconscious mind blindly accepts. It acts upon whatever it is told; it doesn’t come back and say to you, ‘W ait a m inute, that can’t be right. Do you really w ant th is?’ W H A TEV E R T H O U G H T S W E H A B ITU A LLY K E E P ARE A C C EPTED U N C O N D IT IO N A L L Y A N D W IT H O U T RESERVA­ T IO N BY T H E SUBCONSCIOUS M IN D . T his same m ind w hich lives and functions th rough every cell of your body, called by the K ahunas the ‘Low Self’. T he crippled lady was asked to say every n ight and at intervals during the day the following: T he Life Force runs through me. I am a vessel for free flowing joyous energy. I accept only life, vibrancy, enthusiasm , vitality. I reject all notions of disability and negativity. I affirm life and m ovem ent. I will th in k only positive thoughts. I allow the U niversal H ealing Presence to perm eate my whole being, continuously and exuber­ antly. I refuse to entertain negative and unhealthy thoughts. I affirm only the good and the positive. T h e L ig h t is in m e and I am in the L ight. 27

Likewise her son m ade sim ilar affirm ations for her each night and day. A lthough she retu rn ed hom e in a w heelchair they were determ ined to continue the experim ent. A bout a m onth later she no longer needed the wheelchair, no r any aid. She was a new person, fit and vital. She declared she hadn’t felt this energetic since she was a teenager. M y young frien d ’s faith w ould be tested by another crisis, one of far greater m agnitude. H is child was w ith a high fever from an extrem ely rare condition. W hatever the doctors did it didn’t help. T hey told the ch ild ’s father to prepare for the worst. Refusing to accept this he appealed to the H igher Power th at he m ay rem ain calm and focused on a cure. H e was im bued w ith a sense of peace and received a w onderful sense of certainty th a t everything w ould be all right. W hen one needs faith and reassurance sim ply ask for it and believe it will come and surely it does. H e then repeated the following continuously: ‘O h Great Life of the U niverse, you are the life of my child. T h e G reat River of Life courses through her. T he w onderful life-giving perm eates every atom of her being right now. She is the receptacle for free-flowing life and energy.’ H e believed w ith his whole heart that at the same tim e he prayed to the U niversal M ind these very same words were being absorbed by his child’s subconscious m ind. T h e child m ade a rapid recovery and all sym ptom s of the illness disappeared. ‘T h is is the work of G od’, said the baffled doctors. T h e child’s father had surrendered ego to the H ealing Power so that his anxious lim iting conscious m ind w ould not get in the way. W ith all m ental obstacles rem oved the child’s recovery was inevitable. A doctor friend o f m ine - a rare physician who also believed in the healing power of in n er consciousness - told me of the tim e he was called to the hom e of parents of a sick girl whose religious beliefs did not acknow ­ ledge illness or recognize doctors. H er high fever no doubt challenged these beliefs. U pon exam ination he could not find anything particularly w rong w ith her and reassured the parents that there was no danger of death. She, however, asked if he would pray w ith her for a full recovery, w hich he did. She w ould not take any m edicine as it was against the fam ily’s religious beliefs. H e reassured her that he thought she w ould be perfectly all right and th at he im agined her as glowingly healthy. T his story now takes a surprising turn. It transpires that this girl’s older b ro th er - who had broken w ith the fam ily’s religious sect and had become, of all things, a m edical doctor - got in touch w ith m y doctor friend about a m onth later asking w hat therapy he had given her. ‘W hy do you ask?’ enquired my friend. ‘Well, for years she’s been suffering severe epileptic 28

seizures two or three tim es every week and has now becom e free of all sym ptom s and attacks.’ H e added th at for years he had tried unsuccessfully to get her to take anti-epilepsy drugs. M y friend explained th at he had given her no particular therapy b u t prayed w ith her followed by his rem arks th at she w ould m ake a com plete recovery and that he saw her as perfectly healthy. H e was am azed at the revelation of her epilepsy, for had he know n, he w ould never have reassured her of a recovery for the condition is ‘incurable’. B U T SHE - OR M O R E SPECIFIC A LLY H E R SUBCONSCIOUS M IN D - H A D A C C EPTED U N C R ITIC A LLY A N D U N C O N D I­ T IO N A L L Y T H A T SH E W O U L D ENJOY P E R F E C T H E A L T H , for previously no-one had ever suggested a cure was possible because of the taboo on epilepsy. BECAUSE PE O PL E BELIEVE A C O N D IT IO N IS UN TREATA BLE OR INCURABLE SO IT IS. We are lim ited only by our thoughts. W henever circum stances take a tu rn for the worse and im provem ent seems im possible we convince ourselves w ith the belief, ‘Well, th a t’s it. I’d better m ake the m ost o f it’ then th at becomes BECAUSE W E T H IN K IT SO. Circum stances do not im prove and we m ake do the best we can. To retu rn to the epileptic young lady. A year passed and she had no sym ptom s whatsoever. T h e ‘m iracle’ of her healing enabled her to lead a norm al young w om an’s life. Now she can drive and becam e engaged to be m arried. H ealing operates through the aegis of faith and belief. ‘A sk the F a th er’ to give you faith and belief. Faith and belief dissolve obstacles and open doors. T h e subconscious believing w hat it is fed has no choice but to deliver. Believe th at you can heal yourself, both soul and body. A sk for healing from your inner mind. Ask for faith and belief w hich w hen received you give back to yourself! You both receive and give to yourself! Now your conscious m ind becomes a force for healing in conjunction w ith your subconscious. ‘I and the F ather are O ne’. W hen the Life Force flows illness cannot resist; it dissolves and is washed away. G uilt is expunged: power and not weakness prevails. You becom e a new person, full of potential, living in a spirit of expectancy and joy. Allow yourself to be open to the Spirit o f A bundance - th at lim itless flowing expanse of goodness, life, vitality and energy. A sk that you may be open. A nd open you will be. Do not th in k th at to be open to this Power is to leave you vulnerable: this cannot be. O n the contrary you will be protected. W hen aware o f and 29

in the L ig h t you cannot be vulnerable to attack or exploitation by anything greater. Instead you are irresistibly propelled forward to accom plishm ent and fulfilm ent: anytim e you feel depleted, sim ply ask to be renewed. Ask and believe th at there will be a response. T here always is. T h e U niversal Supply is available to all at the tu rn of a tap. It is always available. We don’t have to struggle to m ake it work, we only have to believe th at it works. Belief deepens w ith experience and eventually becomes second nature. All doubt and self-criticism evaporate com pletely as the L ight-G iving Spirit perm eates your entire being. T his is not arrogance or false self-confidence b ut is w hat the ancients called ‘gnosis’, the certain knowledge th at the Power is w ithin. We can all be healed. H ealed of conflict, m elancholy, doubt, worry, and all other negative conditions. O ur bodies can be renew ed, vitality restored. We can all live abundantly. Simply learn to let it happen.

19. Inequity All about is inequity; life is no th in g if not unfair. I have just heard of a m an who had a staggering lottery win, a m an who has apparently several prison sentences for breaking and entering and grievous bodily harm ; a m an w ith a history o f violence against wom en and the father of num erous unw anted children. Yet he has been handsom ely rew arded by the u n i­ verse for his efforts. H e will certainly squander every last penny of his spectacular win, for his life has no purpose and he has no concept of value. M oney, w hich should always be an instru m en t for the good and the positive, will in his hands ultim ately cause grief, as the rest o f his life has. A young lady came to me b itterly com plaining about her circum stances. For years she had struggled to get her P h.D and yet has w ound up less well off th an her sister. H er sister is in an occupation she would rather not discuss - an occupation needing no qualification! A ngrily she declared that ‘the system ’ is corrupt and th at society’s priorities are ‘tw isted’. I explained to her that trying to change society is the stuff of politics and politics itself is corrupt. W hen politicians seek to regulate society to m ake it fairer the end result is always yet m ore inequity. All politics is m ade of make-belief. Inequity cannot be eradicated from life: life is inequity. T h e U niversal Power is not a dispenser of ‘fairness’. It is im partial, uncritical and w ithout judgem ent. W hen the Jehovah ‘G od’ of the Old Testam ent declared that the righteous shall be ‘rew arded’ and the unjust 30

‘p u n ish ed ’ this is pure m ake-believe, the w ishful th in k in g of sm all-m inded bearded old m en. T h e ir God n either rew ards or punishes. Ideas of m orality and guilt are things we inflict on ourselves. N ote earlier my com m ents on H itler: he was com pletely amoral and w ithout conscience, yet he got what he w anted because he believed passionately in a Power th at guided him . If his G erm an contem poraries had held a sim ilar deep conviction and occult purpose H itler could never have succeeded. But th a t’s life. T he sun shines equally on the bad 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. D on’t waste precious energy dwelling on your sister’s high income or the other injustices of “the system” as you call it. “T he system” is the product of all: for those who create and propagate it cannot do so w ithout the cooperation of the masses.’ (H itler could not have succeeded w ithout the aid of the Germ an electorate. Nobody 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 undisturbed. Instead of bem oaning the universe that you see create the universe you want. ‘T he only “universe” that m atters’, I continued, ‘is the one w ithin yourself. All else is irrelevant. It is you that has to live w ith your feelings and experiences. N ot 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 than any external economic or political system. All wealth and well-being will ultim ately come from your inner world: not any employer, banker or politician. They are not responsible for your life and your happiness: the responsibility lies squarely w ith you. ‘By channelling your m ental energy into your own desires and aspira­ tions you can beat the standards of lim itations of the “mass m in d ” of the species, w hich perpetuates unfairness and inequity. You can beat the law of averages. You do n ot have to be at the m ercy o f the status quo. All you have to do is each n ight before you sleep is repeat w ith conviction, “ Success is m ine. I am w orthy of success; it is m y b irth rig h t. I am a channel for A bundance. T he Spirit o f Inexhaustible A bundance dwells in me; the River of A bundance flows through me. W ealth is m ine; wealth is m ine now.” You can repeat this in the daytim e, too, w hen the opportunity presents itself. Each tim e you th in k of your sister or th in k of anyone who seems unfairly better off than you then repeat w hat I have just given you. T hese positive words will im pregnate your subconscious m ind w hich transm its them to other subconscious m inds. Beyond the lim itations of 31

our own individual conscious m ind is a vast pool of consciousness con­ necting all m inds. W hen speaking such positive phrases also im agine yourself as being well off and having plenty of spare money. D on’t concern yourself w ith how this can come about, just do it. Im agine yourself en j oying the luxuries and extravagances of life. Give emotion to your im agi­ nings, feeling all the joy and pleasure you can m uster from a richer lifestyle, all o f w hich will m ake a great im pression on your subconscious m in d .’ She followed m y advice. A bout a m onth later she was offered a position that paid alm ost double her existing salary. An extrem ely gifted young w om an and an expert in her field, she was later offered a publishing contract to w rite a series of serious texts for d istribution to libraries and universities around the world. At the tim e of w riting, m any m ore exciting opportunities have opened up to her. I joked w ith her, A t this rate, there will be those envying you, com plaining how “un fair” life is. W hat you once com plained about is now w orking for you. Be grateful for it!’ T h e subconscious m ind is like a goldm ine and can be m ined w ithout lim it. A very successful businessm an told me recently how he b u ilt his fortune on repeating every night, ‘I am rich now. W ealth is m ine now ’ before falling asleep. H is subconscious thus im pregnated he had convinced him self th at he w ould only be rich; there was no room in his thoughts for any other condition. So as a consequence he m ade the rig h t decisions, m et the rig h t people, and the rig h t opportunities presented them selves. T he ultim ate difference between the successful and unsuccessful person is always one of belief. Belief - b u rn in g conviction - opens doors and makes things happen. I t’s uncanny b u t absolutely true. B ehind 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 b u t rotting the body. Yet it can also work for one, if channelled constructively. For exam ple a person m ay m arvel at the success of someone, a success he wishes he could em ulate if only he could get ‘the breaks’. Such ‘constructive envy’ can m otivate that individual to equal the o th er’s success, and by asking and telling the U niversal M ind w hat is w anted ‘the breaks’ will appear.

20. Dreams T h u s far we have been concerned w ith supplicating and invoking this Power to help us; the com m unication being one way, from us to it. But it 32

also com m unicates w ith us. T he m ost com m on line of com m unication is th rough dreams. T h e trouble w ith dream s, however, is trying to u n d e r­ stand them . So m uch o f the tim e they sim ply m ake no sense. We can get around this. F irst, you m ust keep a notebook by your bedside so that you w rite your dream down im m ediately upon awakening. T his came in extrem ely useful for one m an at the tim e of m y w riting this. A few m onths ago he was suddenly awakened by a voice calling out a series o f num bers. As fast as he could he w rote them down, for a few seconds later they w ould have vanished from his thoughts. H e 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 had w innings. ‘I am sure the num bers were given to you for a purpose’, I said. ‘These m odest w ins are a herald for som ething m uch bigger. Stay w ith these num bers, for they are directly from ‘Cosmic M in d ’. W ho knows w hat he m ay have won by the tim e this is published. W ithout a handy pen and paper at your side we m ay forget our dream s quickly. W riting them down can also help us to in terp ret them or clarify th eir m eaning. T h a t said, m ost dream s in fact have no m eaning, being jum bled and confused. A dream th at is particularly vivid or holds a p a rti­ cular resonance or logic should certainly be w ritten down. T h e In n er M ind m ay be trying to tell you som ething particularly im portant. Ideally we need our dream s to be less symbolic and m ore literal so that they can be easier to u n derstand and interpret. Before falling asleep say som ething along the lines of the following. ‘Please let my dream s m ake sense. Please let m e dream in literate term s rather than symbolic so th at I m ay u n derstand the m eaning when I awake.’ As you have dream t all your life in crazy im agery it m ay take some tim e before your dream s becom e m ore logically form ed, so you will need to keep asking every night. Once your dream s do take on a m ore logical and u n d e r­ standable shape they could be of inestim able benefit to you. Rem em ber - the Inner M ind already knows everything you need to know about anything. It is a lim itless storehouse of knowledge; only the true m agus can access it regularly, confidently and w ith benefit. You can becom e such a magus. You can have access to this inexhaustible fount of knowledge and power. To th e average person it will always rem ain out of reach, b ut not so to the magus. You will get better results by being specific. W hilst the deeper con­ sciousness knows everything it cannot tell you everything, not because it is ‘lim ited ’ b ut because your conscious m ind is. It can only cope w ith one or two revelations at a tim e w hich is in p o in t of fact quite adequate at any 33

given tim e. H ere is how you proceed. Before sleep say, ‘O h L ord, O Holy One, reveal to me in no uncertain and definite term s w hat I should do about (state the nature of the situation). L et my dream ing be clear, lucid and literal. L et it be easy for me to u n d erstand.’ Repeat once or twice w ith conviction. T his works if you have patience. Rem em ber, the unconscious functions through symbology: asking it to be less symbolic and m ore literal m ay not happen autom atically. Even so, your dream s should start to m ake sense after a short tim e. We will now look at some practical examples of this process at work. F irst it should be understood th at dream s are m ore decisive in m atters of advice and choice than they are in m ore general m atters. A ‘m ore general’ m atter is the typical, ‘How can I acquire m ore m oney? How, where and in w hat can I get rich?’; also ‘H ow can I find true love? W here is the rig h t person for m e?’ and so on. D ream s do help in such m atters, but m ay still rem ain hard to understand. T he subconscious is m ore helpful w ith prac­ tical advice and decisions because these are m ore im m ediate in one’s life. L e t’s suppose you have to change accom m odation. You have seen a room, flat or house that you particularly like - but should you take it? As you lie in bed th in k about the place and then ask, ‘Should I take it?’ Repeat this question a few tim es - for the pow er o f repetition is very im portant when dealing w ith the 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 about this place.’ H opefully your dream will be helpful, m ore literal than symbolic, in w hich case it will be easier to u n derstand and you will get the straight­ forward answer you seek; b ut m ore likely, in your early days of trying these ideas, it will be quasi-sym bolic or entirely sym bolic yet the symbolic im agery will invariably explain itself! Perhaps you m ight dream of a rich cornfield. It is early m orning, the sun is rising and there is a glorious b ird s’ chorus. Such a dream hardly needs m uch interpretation. A new start is at hand. You are going to be very happy in this new place. On the other hand you m ight dream of standing at a bus stop, b u t no bus stops or every bus is full. E ither way you are stuck in the same spot. T he dream is telling you this accom m odation is already taken; or sim ply th a t you should give it a miss. It is clearly not for you. O n the other hand you m ay have a dream th at leaves you com pletely confused, in w hich case you will need to ask again the following night. However, such a vague initial dream is not prom ising. M y experience of dream s w hich are vague concerning im portant m atters is that the In n er 34

M ind is advising a reappraisal o f the situation; in other words my present course is not the rig h t one. L e t’s suppose th at a lady has m et a m an. She finds him attractive and agreeable and can easily im agine a flowering relationship w ith him . However, she is sensible enough to realise th at ‘all th at glitters is not gold’, so she turns to the In n er M ind for guidance. She need only ask, ‘Is he right for me? Please let m e know one way or the o th er’. She should picture his face and im agine his voice in her head, and ask again, ‘Is he right for me - yes or no?’ She dream s of three beautifully m ade cups or goblets on a nicely laid out table. T hey appear to contain some sweet or otherw ise very pleasing drink. T h is is clearly a heart-w arm ing scenario and if she were to ask me about such a dream I w ould have no hesitation in telling her to proceed w ith this m an. T h e im portant thing is that the In n er M ind is not warning her against anything. At worst, this budding relationship is not going to tu rn out a fiasco; in fact the In n er M ind is suggesting the very opposite. Now let’s suppose th at instead she dream t of clim bing stairs and she’s out o f breath. It seems she’ll never get to the top. I w ould in terpret this as a relationship th at could be h ard work. Is this w hat she wants? Or she m ight dream of two anim als fighting or of some other discordant scene. T his, m an, for all his charm , should be given a miss. How m any people cultivate a veneer of charm w hen they are trying to woo another? Once the bait is taken the mask is dropped. If she dream s no th in g at all night after night th at suggests to me a ‘n othing relationship’: she won’t find it satisfying and it will not go anywhere. Some people declare th at they ‘do not dream at all’. T h is cannot be so. Consciousness does not cease. W hilst awake, our conscious m ind thinks in pictures, a process continued in sleep by the subconscious; so daytim e thought-im agery becomes dream-imagery. W hat ‘non-dream ers’ actually m ean is th at they have no recollection of dream ing; the unconscious im agery has vanished, so as far as they are concerned they have not dream t. W hy their dream s should rem ain so hidden from sight I don’t know, b u t it is a m atter of ongoing investigation by me. I m yself dream vividly and dram atically, and receive a constant flow of - invaluable - inform ation from In n er M ind. Yet there are occasions w hen I am surprised to awake realizing I hadn’t dream t at all. I th in k h ard and then it comes to me that I did dream , but the images were so fleeting and obscure th at they seem to be from a deeper level of the psyche. W hat these ‘shadow s’ from the deeper reaches of consciousness represent rem ain a m ystery to me for the present. If you cannot recall your dream s then ask th at you do. Say: ‘Please let m e dream vividly and clearly. Please let me rem em ber m y dream s 35

w hen I wake up’. D o this n ight after n ig h t u ntil you are satisfied w ith the results. D ream s are a peculiar phenom enon and you should be wary o f attaching any significance to m ost of them . M ost are nonsense, just as m any o f our daytim e thoughts are nonsense, for we keep th in k in g of things of no real value to us. We continuously waste precious m ental energy on im agined things that never happen (and the things that do happen we never thought of!). We dream not only of the living b u t also the dead. In the dream world the living are side by side w ith the deceased and there is no awareness that anyone is ‘dead’. D ream ing of the departed is not a sign th at they are trying to contact you, unless the dream is unusually vivid and striking - th en you should take note. M ore usually, dream ing o f the departed is a balancing m echanism of the psyche. T h e deceased does not exist in your daily world, creating a vacuum , a vacuum w hich is filled in the dream state. T his is in p oint of fact therapeutic for the psyche. I dream of people I didn’t like w hen they were alive so I know they cannot have any good or significant m eaning for m e in the present. I am also puzzled by recurring dream s of certain prim e m inisters. To dream of a prim e m inister or some other powerful figure usually suggests a need for authority in one’s self, yet m y unconscious chooses figures w hich have no authoritative significance to m e whatsoever. T hey m ay be prim e m inisters b u t I see these particular individuals as cheap and self-serving and w ithout scruple. I do not tru st politicians in general and I am puzzled as to why my subconscious should w ant to inflict on me images and stories of people w hom I care little about, persons who I in fact dislike. But I expect to eventually u n derstand the m eaning of all this. D ream s are not, however, always ‘dream s’. O ccultists speak o f the ‘astral w orld’ w hich is a kind of invisible double of the physical, so everything, say occultists, th at exists physically also exists astrally. Occasionally our astral body can be separated from the physical and this can be experienced as w hat one may call a ‘dream ’ - b u t it isn’t: it is a genuine experience of elevated consciousness, a deliberate and decisive step by the soul to tem porarily transcend the norm . If it happens you will definitely know you have experienced no ordinary ‘dream ’. O n num erous occasions I have visited ‘places’ that seem ed like Paradise, places w here everyone and everything seem ed as ‘real’ as the physical. W hen I awake I realize th at it was n o t in fact a physical experience, feeling bew ildered, con­ fused, disorientated. I certainly do not feel like th is after usual dream ­ ing. T his disorientation springs from the dislocation of two bodies. Even though the two bodies are realigned in an in stant I still find it hard 36

to adjust consciously, for I m uch prefer the ‘other place’ w here I’ve been; a place far m ore w onderful than this. I realize I have been not only in locations th at I know is the physical w orld, b u t locations som ewhere else, too, w here I do not know. ‘Paradise’ is an apt word. Som etimes I am in the com pany o f persons know n to me who are trying to persuade m e on a particular course of action. T his, too, is an ‘astral experience’, for w hat in effect is happening is th at I am in conversation w ith the astral form s of these people. These persons are invariably occultists or black m agicians whom I know in ‘real life’. W hat has probably happened is that earlier the m agician w ould have placed a spell or projected a certain th o u g h t to me. E ither way I am the recipient of a projected psychic energy from them . W hilst this w ould alarm m ost, I am not disturbed. In m y line of endeavour I m ake the acquaintance of people of all kinds of m ystic and magical persuasion. I th in k it is inevitable th at the ‘black ones’ m ay now and then try to influence m e magically to take part in some project they have. I do n ot feel threatened by any of this, and w hilst T heosophists and ‘w hite w itches’ m ight abhor those who do such things I regard it as just p art and parcel o f occult life. We all have our own ‘guardian angel’ to protect us, and th at is the H igh Self, th at eternal essence o f our being, im perishable, just and pure. Should you fear ‘psychic attack’ or the astral m achinations of others you only have to re-affirm the protective care of ‘the F a th er’ - the H igh Self. Before sleep sim ply repeat a few tim es: ‘O h Father, protect me this n ight and protect me tomorrow. Place your shield about me. No evil can befall me, for I am safe in your Infinite Presence.’ T his indeed is a potent form ula for anyone living in dangerous or threatening circum stances, real or perceived. Repeat it during the day. Believe it implicitly. Finally, I will close this chapter on dream s w ith a strange b u t absolutely true story of a young m arried wom an w ith an unshakeable belief and faith in this G reat Power. Each n ight she asked it to lead her to the ideal hom e she wanted. For seven consecutive nights she dream t o f this hom e, walking through each room , up and down the stairs, into the attic and into the garage. She awoke each m orning startled by the experience, for it was so intensely real and vivid. T h en one day soon afterw ard w hile driving w ith her husband in a nearby neighbourhood she saw a house th at looked just like the one she dream t of. O utside was a sign, ‘For private sale by owner. Please view’. But w hen she knocked on the door and the owner opened he shuddered. T h e dog growled, its h air standing on end. W hen the ow ner’s 37

wife appeared she trem bled. T hey regained their com posure and apolo­ gized, the owner saying, ‘We have seen a wom an just like you roam ing through our house in the early hours. T h e dog howled and barked terribly and we saw th en this ghost.’ Taken aback by this, the young wom an felt she had to explain herself, th at her intense spiritual belief and conviction had given her vivid dream s of this house w hich she saw in her dreams. T his story is a lengthy one but I have given you the m eat of it. T h e sale of the house proceeded harm oniously and w ithout difficulty, unlike m ost property transactions. Infinite M ind was w ith 'th is young wom an all the way.

21. Signs Signs and portents are another m eans by w hich the U niversal Consciousness com m unicates w ith us. Now it so happens th at m any of those o f a m ystic and spiritual persuasion dism iss signs and portents, or m ore specifically the belief in them , as belonging to the realm s of ‘superstition’ and ‘w itchcraft’. T hese are invariably the same people who dism iss polytheism , the belief in m any different gods and goddesses. T his is abject nonsense, for they contradict their own belief in the in te r­ connection of all things. In point o f fact the U niversal Consciousness bom bards us continuously w ith signs, portents, om ens: these are not threats but proof positive that our individual existence is connected w ith everything else going on around us. A m ongst the spiritual and m ystic inclined you find as m uch dis­ agreem ent and argum ent as in politics. It is squalid and hardly ‘spiritual’. U niversal Consciousness cannot be confined to anyone’s particular con­ cept or experience. W hatever path you follow binds you to it. Because you follow it does not m ean there are no other paths. T here are as m any different ‘p aths’ as there are hum ans. L im itation and bigotry are inappropriate. If you w ant to get ahead let go of the shackles of lim ited, prejudicial, thought. T h e old saying th at ‘one m an’s m eat is another m an’s poison’ can also be read as ‘one m an’s god can be another m an’s devil’. If you live by the principle ‘Live and let live’ you will live m ore abundantly. T h e following account occurred years ago b u t I rem em ber it vividly. M y niece was very excited by the prospect of her first date w ith a young 38

m an that she was very keen on. As she drove out of the driveway on her way to m eet him another car at speed alm ost h it her. I regarded this as a certain sign that her date was fated. I kept this thought to myself, for I w ould be laughed at for it. In any event it was a successful date: she had a w onderful tim e. So m uch for my superstitious m ind. However, I did not forget this ill om en, for it had to m ean som ething. T h e U niverse may not be fair, b u t it is n ot stupid. E verything has its reason. She w ent on to see this fellow m any tim es u n til one night, worse for d rink, he h it her and h it her hard. Bleeding profusely she had to be rushed to hospital. H e begged her forgiveness, prom ising ‘it w ould never happen again’ (how m any tim es have we heard that one?). F ortunately m y niece’s good self­ esteem and (un)com m on sense enabled her to recognize th a t she did not have to accept this type of behaviour from anyone, and if he did it once he would surely do it again. She knew th at there was no such th in g as a m an w ho’s violent once and never again, so she lost no tim e in term inating the relationship. If you are on your way to an im portant appointm ent and a gorgeous Golden R etriever runs to you w ith wagging tail you can be certain th at this appointm ent is going to be very satisfactory. However, if a dog barks at you prepare for a disappointm ent; or if the appointm ent is successful you may yet need to exercise caution. Likewise a rude person bum ping into you is an ill om en. If in a busy thoroughfare I see a person walk betw een a couple I m ust surely be the only one w ith the observation, ‘T h is couple will soon fall out or argue w ith one another.’ Even w hen I have found it unavoidable but to pass betw een two people I realize that I am a sym bol of com ing discord betw een them . I am obviously not the cause o f discord, but this is the way U niverse is choosing to express the inevitable. If som eone passes betw een me and another I choose to T H W A R T the otherw ise inevitable. I m ake up m y m ind there and then to create a different reality. I know that I m ust not allow m yself to be provoked by anything the person says and equally im portant I m ust watch my own words and actions lest I unw ittingly cause offence. If th at had been me driving to m eet som eone and a car alm ost collides w ith me I w ould have then and there m ade up my m ind to cancel the m eeting - creating any excuse I could to say I couldn’t m ake it - or, if it was already too late or im practical to cancel I w ould proceed know ing full well n othing good was going to come of it. No m atter how pleasant the m eeting or whatever its purpose I would not agree to anything or follow it up in anyway. Creating the reality you want as opposed to the reality you are stuck w ith 39

it is w hat being a M agus M axim us is all about. You choose your own destiny and your own fate. O ver 99% of people let destiny decide for them . T hey take w hat’s coming. T h e M agus M axim us does not take w hat’s com ing: he or she decides the outcom e required. O ver 99% of people are the victim of their own stupidity. T h e M agus M axim us is not a victim . M ost people accept w hat life deals out. No m atter w hat your age, for it is never ‘too late’, you can create your own desired reality. It becomes a certainty w hen you becom e ‘O ne w ith the F a th er’. L E T M E M AK E IT ABSOLUTELY CLEAR: TH IS IS FACT. I HAVE E X PE R IE N C E D T H IS FACT. O T H ER S HAVE TO O. SO W H Y N O T YOU ALSO? T his works; I repeat, it works. I am not w riting this m erely to m ake you feel better. You can truly experience this wondrous Power and all the benefits it confers for yourself. By know ing exactly w hat you want, by staying focussed on it, by constantly affirm ing through U niversal M ind, you are creating your own route to success w hich cuts through all obstacles, distractions and h in ­ drances. Signs and portents act as guide posts along the way: they are not the superstitious im aginings of a prim itive m ind b u t the certain know ­ ledge th at U niversal Consciousness is in touch w ith you just as surely as you are in touch w ith it. Signs, like dream s, however, can be unfathom able, even m isleading. T hey can also m ake you paranoid. I could w rite a book alone on this subject, for the wisdom o f the U niverse sits side by side w ith its m ischievousness. But for as long as you ask for guidance you will not be m isled. Your tru st will never be betrayed. T his is not wishful th in k in g but fact.

22. Negativity E arlier I com m ented on the negativity of people, to w hich I now retu rn for I know it is o f great concern to m any of the spiritually-m inded. T he ‘spiritually-m inded’ we will define for our present purpose as any person who is aware of, and who wants to be in harm ony w ith, the dim ensions beyond the physical senses. T his will include m ost of m y present readers. Such people are, alas, always in the m inority; yet even they, as we have seen, can be negative w hen they sit in judgm ent on one another. 40

Yes, the vast m ajority of the w orld’s population is am oral, petty-m inded, and so on. Daily, by the m inute, they are pouring trillions of negative thoughts into w hat some occultists call the ‘Mass M in d ’ or ‘Race M in d ’. T his adds up to one horrible entity w hich not only feeds off negative thoughts b u t gives back negative energy in equal m easure. A nd each one of us can easily get caught up in it, w ithout even realizing it is happening. I rem em ber as a lad hearing th at ‘the w orld was going to the dogs’ and that ‘you can’t tru st anyone’, notions w hich I could not have appreciated at the tim e were readily accepted by m y subconscious m ind. Later, w hen I realized th at the w orld had n ot gone to the dogs and th at it is not true th at nobody can be trusted I felt I had been m entally poisoned. Since th at tim e my life has been a long process of m ental detoxification. We all need, ‘m ental detoxification’. We are continuously bom barded by negative com m ents, negative images, negative behaviour. In sim ple everyday conversation it is h ard not to be infected by it. Someone says, ‘Soand-so has just gone up in price. T h e re ’s no end to these price increases.’ It is tem pting to agree, b u t I will shoot back, ‘I can rem em ber w hen inflation was 27%. If anyone had told m e then th at there w ould be a tim e w hen inflation w ould be a m ere 3% (as it is in 2013) I w ould have thought they were having m e on! N o m atter w hat the increases we have so m uch to be thankful for today!’ Som etim es I will give like for like. Someone rem arks, ‘Young people are so rude.’ I retort: ‘But not h alf as rude as some of the pensioners I encounter!’ (W hich is sadly true.) W hen we speak of a ‘H igher Pow er’ or ‘U niversal M in d ’ or ‘Infinite Intelligence’, or any num ber of sim ilar phrases for this inexhaustible source o f love and energy, we are referring to the Power we seek. It is both subjective and yet as real as the ground we stand on. You are its doorway. No m atter how m any billions of people have walked this earth you are yet the encapsulation of all Cosmic Energy. You may feel like a drop in the ocean, b u t no ocean can exist w ithout th at drop. So you are the ocean too. T he th in g is to m anifest this ocean o f Cosmic E nergy in your life, w hich you have already begun to do m erely by reading this. By allowing yourself to be inspired in this way you are p lanting seeds of success for the future. T h e M ass M ind is no less real - b u 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 ‘m ake believe’. Once you accept it, it becomes true (it was always true anyway, but you didn’t know it). T h e news in w hatever m edium it takes, newspapers, radio, TV, internet, is a m enace, for you are m ade to accept negative events about w hich you 41

cannot do a thing. You are told o f the governm ent’s incom petence. But th ere’s n o thing you can do about it, in fact it m akes you feel worse, for it still takes your taxes anyway. You hear of corruption, deceit, coverups. N othing you can do about any of that. You read o f a terrorist who escapes charge on a ‘hum an rig h ts’ technicality. N othing you can do about it. It is revealed th at a convicted rapist had in fact raped countless others. N othing you can do about it. T he governm ent sends troops to some distant hell-hole th a t you didn’t even know existed, fighting a war you don’t understand, a war w hich has absolutely no th in g to do w ith the defence of your own country, b u t still you have to pay for it in your taxes. N othing you can do about it. A nd so m uch for democracy: I could go on and on. W hat 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 things I can do absolutely n o thing about. T he m edia gives you only the depression, b u t not the cure. T his is not to say that one should rem ain ignorant of w hat is going on in the world. I take note of certain political and econom ic developm ents, for ultim ately they may affect m e at a personal level and it is possible I m ay be able to do som e­ th in g about it. I am careful, too, to get m y inform ation from certain sources, for I realised long ago th at the general m edia only gives you the news it considers im portant and relevant, w hich doesn’t actually m ean it is. I am careful to distance m yself from horrible and sordid news. I don’t need to be daily rem inded of the terrible deeds com m itted by the evil against the innocent, and even worse, the fact th at there are people who will move heaven and earth to protect and defend the ‘rights’ of those so evil. Surely we need to protect ourself from such vileness. W hen the need takes you or at various tim es of the day take a deep breath, place rig h t hand on left shoulder, left han d on rig h t shoulder, close eyes and affirm w ith conviction, ‘I create my own U niverse of Love, Power and A bundance. I reject negativity and I affirm the best in m y life. M y life is my own and I will only allow good into it.’ Speaking and believing this does not m ake you selfish and insular; but unless you are careful you will find yourself subm erged in em otions that are of absolutely no value to you and w ith the power to drag you down, com prom ising your power to achieve your goals. O nly you are responsible for your own well-being. You cannot change the w orld - nobody can - you m ould your own. 42

23. Summary T he story has not ended. In fact it never ends, just as life never ends. Sure enough you die, b u t consciousness doesn’t. For as long as consciousness continues the story continues. W hat you have read here is a glim pse of this Power. Follow my words and you will benefit immediately from it. C ontinuously asking of and affirm ing 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 prom pting from the H igh Self, the H oly G uardian Angel, or whatever nam e we attach to the E ternal Presence, th at you will be okay. A sk to be reassured, ask to have faith; ask th at you m ay trust each day and you will feel answered. T h a t feeling will grow stronger and you will have an inner glow. T h e tem ptation is always there not to believe any of it. I have been tem pted likewise. N ot anym ore. I live w ith this Power as a daily reality. It is not in m y im agination. Just because it is so sim ple and child-like the shallow -m inded cannot accept it can be true. I will very briefly sum m arise w hat has gone before, although you should really read everything again and again. Simple or not, repetition pays off. I have described this Power in various ways. I have outlined distin c­ tions: subconscious, unconscious, etc., yet these distinctions often blur and evaporate. T he fact of the m atter is th at no m atter w hat any psycho­ logist or occultist says th ere really is no clear u n d e rsta n d in g or defini­ tion of this Power. We can only experience it, and th at surely is all that m atters. To access this Power just ask. N ight tim e is best. Just ask. Pray or plead, w hatever moves you. Believe an answer is possible. If you find it h ard to believe then ask th at you can. Belief will be given to you. W hat on earth have you got to lose by trying any of this? If it didn’t work I w ould have dropped it long ago. W ho needs selfdelusion? T he only ‘universe’ th at m atters is the one you create for yourself. You m ust follow your own path and find your own goal. If you don’t know w hat your path is ask to be shown. Follow ing others always leads to a dead end. Ask th at you are shown w hat is right, to be shown w hat will work for you. T his is not ‘m ake believe’ b u t profoundly real. You are always heard. T here is n othing m ore real than w hat you feel and w hat you think. T his is your w orld, your universe. By inviting a H igher Power into it you can change everything, and it begins imm ediately. You will have no cause to look back 43

M agus is the m agician. Magic. M axim us is the best you can get. T he magic occurs in your consciousness, by allowing the H igh Self to prevail. If only you could possibly im agine w hat is in you, w hat a w orld of potential, healing and abundance. Once you realize this you will be on the path of the M agus M axim us.

44