Personal & Social Development

Part 8.0 : Foreword

It has been almost six years since the original Section 8 material was written for the Handbook/Mindbook, so few of our current Members have copies of it. Also, there has been such a lot of progress in the psychical sciences and arts and my own personal development, so I decided to update the section. This also "puts it into the computer" for the next edition of the Handbook/Mindbook, which I hope to publish this year a section at a time.

I recognize that there are still many controversial and open aspects, so that this is still experimental to a degree, so any and all comments and constructive criticisms will be welcome for adding to this section. I favor the attitude that the final truth of its value is how well it helps people develop. I suggest that you should always take the attitude that whatever works best for you is best, not necessarily taking everything in this Handbook as "gospel". Whenever you do have an idea you'd like to share, please do send it in for adding into this Section.

This section is intended to provide general information to you, the reader, as a student, who is interested in both understanding and applying the psychical sciences and arts. I'm going to assume that you are new to the psychic, so, if the material seems too easy or slow, bear with me - somebody will probably want it as easy and as simple as possible.

This section is intended to complement Sections 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the Handbook/Mindbook, insofar as that the detailed procedures covered in them are presented in a rather straightforward, impersonal, "stand-alone" manner for understanding the particular subject area in depth. Since you began with the Section 3, which is general background, and then went into the specific areas in Sections 4, 5, 6, and 7, this section then brings you back to the general. It's expected that you'll be going back and forth between the various specific subject area sections and this section as you progress.

This section is intended to provide both continuity between the various subject areas and an in-depth look at what they mean to people as regards their personal growth and development.

Part 8.1 The Sequence Pattern

Although there does not seem at this time to be a rigid sequence for the development of the psychically functional person, at any particular level of expertise, a pattern is generally seen as evident from readings and experiences of SIG Members. The pattern generally runs from the easiest- to- assimilate (for the average interested, intelligent person with a high school education) to the more advanced, rare, and different notions which require more background as regards your understanding and experience.

This approach has been tested in classes taught by the writer and is generally compatible with course outlines of other instructors and teachers.

The overall pattern is to use your conscious mind to work with your psychical mind or Psyche in a harmonious, integrated manner, so that you can both think and feel better about what you're learning.

Another aspect of the pattern in this section is that it's more eclectic than the others, that is, I've looked at things from more viewpoints and brought them together more. As you go through the specific subject areas in sequence, you'll probably notice that each one has its own distinct character, whereas we'll be looking at a more general character in this section.

Some of the information in the literature for the various areas traditionally seems to imply that the writers assume that the particular psychical person performing the function has a fairly distinct personality that goes along with the function. We'll look at things in this section with less emphasis on that aspect and more on the aspect of a well-rounded, intelligent, regular person such as yourself learning all of them eclectically. I'm sure that you do have a distinct personality and you'll have some areas you like more than others, but bear in mind that this is written for others. You'll want to pick out what you like and work to develop a more rounded viewpoint with those you don't care about at first. Much of what you'll learn will really be about yourself as well as about the psychical development, simply because you'll be developing in general as you develop psychically, if this works for you. This Self-understanding aspect is really the most important reason for developing psi talents.

Another aspect that we'll look into more here than in the specific areas is that of how people in general regard the psychical sciences and arts. A lot of your personal development will depend on your social and interpersonal developments, I'm sure, so we'll look at some of the things that usually go on in this regard.

The one single thing that's most important, I believe, is that you appreciate that the best definition I've found for learning is that which says that learning is Changing How You Do and What You Are, so you're doing and being better than you were before you learned. If you're really Willing to change, then you're on your way to improving, but, if you aren't willing to Be Different , then it'll be more difficult, but you'll still understand others better.

The notion of Will is very important in learning the arts that go with the sciences. A very important aspect of learning about the psychic for many folks, and this may mean you, is that a lot of un learning is needed, to open up any mental blocks. The hard part is the discipline that you may require to keep on working and playing with it when it doesn't seem to be working the way you want it to.

I take the attitude that this section may encourage you to do something in the other sections, mainly using your own Psyche, but it's really up to you to actually do it. I take the attitude that, as a psychical person, I will not try to do it for you beyond the point of trying to show you the best way to go. So, here is where we'll try to answer the general question,

"What's in it for Me ?".

The main thing I can say about learning to be psychical is that almost everyone I've known who tried it liked it, although some had difficulty with some aspect of the phenomena and were "turned off" or could not assimilate it into their world view. I suppose that it's similar to the general population of people and that developing psychically enhances one's basic personality, whatever that is to begin with. Social people will become more sociable, while anti-social people will likely run into problems in some areas. Certainly, if you're having problems in this area, I'd suggest you not try the actions of learning.

If you have difficulty with any of the learnings, please ask for more discussion or let me know what the trouble seems to be or what's bothering you, as there is a whole lot more to this than will appear in these few pages.

Somewhere along the way, no doubt, you'll experience several more-or-less standard reactions or syndromes; you should expect them and take them in stride, without being alarmed. The feelings of "cognitive dissonance", when what you're learning conflicts with what you've learned in the past and felt to be true may lead to self-questioning such as, "Why am I trying to do this?... It's silly!.. People will think I'm off my rocker for even trying this stuff!".., and so on and so on. This is sure to pass as you practice and are more successful and feel it working and recognize it when it's happening. When you do succeed, people such as your friends may look at you as being really super special - contain your success and realize that being able to do some psychical things doesn't make you an Angel. Nor are those who do not perform to be thought of as poor, ignorant, benighted souls. Keep in touch with others who are developing to help maintain your sense of value balance.

Needless to say, almost, there is no stigma attached to any failure to comprehend or perform, nor any scorn to be shown anyone who fails to become a Master Psychic in three easy lessons - in most cases, it's a matter of "to each his or her own way". I've been at it for the last 20 of my 56 years and still have a long way to go. I really do not intend to merely show you how to become a "Master Psychic", although you may just develop as one. Rather, I expect that, like most folks, you'll simply develop a better appreciation for it and understand it a little better and be able to perform a few areas better. As regards personal development, I'm sure you'll be much the better off for knowing more and being more, as a person.

Generally speaking, most of the psychically functional folks I've met and known are what you'd call "regular people". Admittedly, I tend to avoid problematical folks and we have received a few letters from what might be referred to as "disturbed people", but the psychic is not considered to be the source of their disturbance, only an aspect that is affected by it.

Many of them exhibit a characteristic that might tend to put you off, so to speak, so I'd best mention it before you run into it, if you haven't already. You might feel that they tend to "pontificate", that is, to issue pronouncements as if they knew everything; this is because they tend to clearly concentrate and block doubting and they tend to pass on or channel information from Guides just as their Psyches or Guides give it to them, which is oftentimes dictated as a style of communication. Also, some psychics tend to give up the usual social amenities in favor of truth that sometimes hurts, since, otherwise, the information and value may be lost. You yourSelf will very likely experience this syndrome as you gain confidence and as you "know" things more certainly.

I'm sure there are very few people who can actually understand and perform in more than a few areas; I more or less specialize in psychometry, as an example, although I've also done telepathy, dowsing, clairvoyant distant vision, map dowsing, aura dowsing, a tiny bit of PK, a tiny bit of healing, a little mediumship, some astral travel, some communications with other lives, and contacts with more developed entities or Psyches or spirits. I'll be writing a lot more about personal experiences in this section, from the aspect

of what they meant to me, what I thought about them and how I felt about them, and what I think it might mean to you as a person. This will try to answer the general question,

"What's it really like to be psychical?".

(Answer: You feel more complete and less limitted.)

One aspect in particular has always fascinated me, that of seeing what a more psychically developed society might be like and exploring how to make one. It should be noted that our highly materialistic culture in the U.S. has not generally kept up with the less commercialized nations in this regard.

While many of us who have experience and "talent" in the psychic would not attract attention in most situations, I'm sure most of us look forward to a time when it's more generally accepted and understood and used. After all, it does work and it is nice to do and it is useful and even fun a lot of times. My most pleasant and enjoyable times have been sharing experiences with friends who are also slightly psychic or at least interested in it. Several friends have told me that they also have very good feelings while being involved with it, so you can look forward to actually being involved.

The sequence pattern is set up so that, like the special sections and parts. you can progress a step at a time, typically taking an hour of your time for each step. The main difference between the special parts and this section is that we'll look at the personal aspect here.

If you already have had the experience or think you know it, I suggest that you read it over anyway. I take the view that you'll probably specialize in whatever suits your personality and disposition, but you'll still want to know what other folks say it meant to them.

Part 8.2 Beginnings

At the outset, you're probably wondering if this psychic business really works, and if so, why more people don't use it or talk about it, or why it's often considered to be a matter of fraud or foolishness, or worse.

I really think there are two aspects to this, mainly; confusion and problems.

In the area of confusion, there is the simple fact that nobody can really explain how "it" works", in terms of basic physics. I'd simply observe that nobody really knows how to explain anything in terms of basic physics and that huge sums of money and great amounts of effort are even now being spent to find out what they are. It may be a matter of some "fifth force", or some extra dimension - nobody can say for sure at this time. But then, we, as a society, constantly use things we do not understand, so I really do not consider this to be a problem nor a source of confusion.

The kind of confusion that many people seem to be burdened with, and this may include you, is more in the area of what is meant by "psychical". There certainly is no lack of similar names for it, ranging from noetic science, religious science, transpersonal psychology, parapsychology, psychotronics, transcendental meditation, scientology, mind control, self-regulation, and so on, without even attempting to go into the historical files or the international scene.

As an example, a friend of mine in Mensa once tried to give me a book on Black Magick, because he though that was what I was interested in. Many folks lump astrology and numerology in with the psychic, although I've never heard anyone say why they thought there were any connections. Same goes for witchcraft, or the religion of Wicca, or the other more ancient disciplines of the occult.

Some folks are turned off because they think it's scary or "evil", yet the only "bad psychics" I've come across were really phonies pretending to be psychic. I once was told by a postmistress who was mailing my SIG items that a psychic had told her that she was going to die, which obviously upset her very much. I bit my tongue to stop my natural reaction, "What, you planned on being immortal? Of course, you're going to die, someday."

Some folks distinguish between "spiritual" and "psychical", even though most dictionaries define them as synonyms. The main difference seems to be that "spiritual" is somehow regarded as "better" or "nicer" or "more respectable", no doubt due to the more-or-less religious connotations of the former and the associations with store-front palm readers and gypsies with the latter.

Some folks will even try to quote the Bible as a reason for not becoming involved with the psychic (the witch of Endor and the admonition to avoid fortune tellers), even though the Bible clearly admonishes Christians to learn and do things which are the same as psychical functioning and the One who was called Jesus or Yeshua performed many psychical functions routinely.

So there is this confusion that you may encounter as you discuss the psychic in social settings such as Mensa gatherings, so you may expect reactions from a keen interest and sharing to repugnant judgements.

As regards the problems, there are the simple communication problems associated with using the English language, but there is a peculiar problem that's almost unique to studying the psychical sciences and arts and that is that "it" seems to be largely non-verbal function, so almost all of it will be a matter of second-hand symbols for written or pictorial communications.

Social problems, aside from the confusion aspects, are mainly in the area of having a competitive society that places high values on materialistic aspects. What I'm getting at here is that many, many people really are afraid of the stability of their very insecure society and do not want nor tolerate any change that threatens their stability or power base. Certainly, the organized crime people would not want any psychics looking into their affairs. Hostile military security, or any security organization, would be solidly opposed to any use of psi that would threaten. Many communication organizations would disfavor telepathy. Medical organizations would be very anxious about the healing aspects. Stock brokers and investors would be leery of prophets. Schoolteachers are very reluctant to teach it.

The average citizen would be highly suspect of potential violations of privacy. Many religious, or pseudo-religious, to be more accurate, would see psychical development as disturbing. In short, there are really hardly any organizations or people who really want to have psi used, in general. If you think about it, the few socially acceptable instances are where a well must be located or a lost child is to be found, or similar instances that have been identified in APPLIED PSI . Even then, the well-diggers oppose the dowsers, as a matter of fact. So don' t expect any of your acquaintances to see you as a potential advantage to their social or economic stability; chances are, they'll perceive you as a threat.

The aforementioned seems to be important as far as it affects your keeping up your confidence and courage - as we used to say in the Air Force, "Non Illegitimus Carborundum!"

Section 8.3 The Big Picture

Just so's we get an idea of where all this is going and how you'll change as you learn, let's revisit an article that we printed in Psi-M for March 1980, titled "Becoming Your Own Mystic", to get another slant on what you might expect. It gives one view of the overall process as follows. The article was contributed by former PSI SIG Member Marilyn Skiba and consists of an essay by noted psychic Vern Tomkins. Following the article is an example of an enlightening or cosmic consciousness experience that has all of the essentials of a typical experience and is very similar to my own example of my "initiation" deep guided meditation experience.

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¯ Becoming Your Own Mystic

The age old path of developing your own mystic Self comes with many different labels. Some might term this as finding God. Some would term it as a Shamanistic Initiation, or Initiation into the Priesthood or Priestesshood. Still others would call this the process of raising the Kundalini. From reading and my own experience, I can see a set of developments you can do to become your own mystic.

The first stage is to develop devotion. Your devotion is the ability to do something many times without asking the question of "How many more times do I have to do this?". You merely do this until you get results.

The second stage may go on with the first stage. This is the visualization beyond the physical. The "seeing" happens by seeing auras, ghosts, and images in meditation. We can dream end results of ideas we wish to energize. We can also do some healing. The fear of seeing Unity in All will block the sixth chakra and keep us from seeing our vision.

The third stage is reclaiming your total body. This has to happen in a couple of

ways. The first is reclaiming both your maleness and your femaleness. Our missing half will not be found in someone of the opposite sex, but within ourSelves. The male can develop the femaleness by using meditation and psychic healing. The female can reclaim her maleness by using the logical side of her mind. The logic could be in "going to work", "making it on my own", or "creating a reality without a male person". Without meaning you have to be single, you can develop devotion to your cause, visualizations, and reclaim your body more easily if you aren't looking for your other half in one of the opposite sex.

The second way of reclaiming your body means to re-experience all of the functions of the body. The body functions beyond the "mind thinking" and "genital pleasing or reproducing". The body also functions beyond the process of "eating to satisfy ourSelves". Sports, yoga, and massage seem to be excellent ways of getting in touch with our bodies.

A person will feel energy flows in the body while meditating in this stage. We can also change the flows of energy at will. The raising of the Kundalini is energy flows and/or body heat. Having done your homework, you are now ready for the fourth stage.

This fourth stage will be the grand stage of Mystical Visions, Heavenly Voices, and where you will SEE your vision or message. This is where Moses received the Ten Commandments along with his burning bush. Saint Francis of Assisi went out and built his church. (Remember, he took off his rich garments in front of the village - was he hot from his own body heat?) Joan of Arc also discovered her vision to lead her people thru the process of visions. The fear of the Universe not being friendly will keep us in our physical bodies and limit our Visions and Self.

The fifth stage of becoming a Mystic is facing your own fears and/or death. The Christian will be tempted by Satan. Early Egyptians faced their fears while out of body. If they failed, they didn't come back to body. Arctic Indians will tell you to go deep down the dark tunnel to the bottom of the sea. There, you will see two old walrusses. You go between them and come to a very old, scraggly, unkempt woman. You are to brush her hair. If you fail, then her guards, the walrusses, will not let you return. If you pass, she will turn into the most beautiful thing you have ever seen.

After you pass your death/fears, you come to the sixth stage of your path. This is the process of becoming regrounded. The regrounding means you are to come back to earth, come off the mountain, climb ashore again, or return to the culture. Yogis will say that you can eat meat in excessive quantities (as Americans generally do already) to do this. The real thing, though, is to become at ease in the physical plane as well as in the mystical plane.

** note that his explains why there are no obvious master mystics or Avatars; they're just regular people, to all outward appearances**

The final or seventh stage is to become useful. This will be to heal the sick or know when to plant, if you are a Medicine Man. You can find the fish, if you are a Shaman. You can also teach and give hope to those who are ready to grow, if your culture doesn't plant or fish. The final step of being useful does not demand riches nor eliminate the laws of prosperity.

There is no table of time to this mystical development. Some steps will take days, while others will come in years. There is no sliding by . Many people think they have received their visions and abort the final steps. This will hold them in their second stage, not experiencing their full potential.

Yogis tell us not to deal with the psychic. The use of the psychic can hold us in the "visualization, or seeing" stage and keep us from our True Self. I might add, excessive body use (sexual, or sports) or extreme body positions (in yoga) will keep us from our Mystical Self.

Finally, you will be able to tell the Mystic. They will not tell you what they are. They are only concerned with growth and the awareness of others. They make themselves useful. Remember, there is a place where you cannot turn back. I can't tell you where this is for you, but be assured that it does exist. Be sure you wish this path before you reach this point.

Editor's comment: In summary, this reduces development to seven stages:

(1) devotion;

(2) visualization;

(3) reclamation of the whole body;

(4) mystical visions of purpose;

(5) overcoming of fear;

(6) regrounding in the physical plane; and

(7) being useful with the learning and teaching.

If we set aside the references to chakras and the examples and then examine the bare bones of the process, it does appear reasonable, up to a point. One would have to have some form of commitment to seek and then accept new information in any case, such as any student enrolling in and paying fees for a course, with the expectation that considerable time and effort will be required to attain the course objectives and peer approval. At this point, one might propose a "zero" stage, preceding the first stage, wherein the desire and expectations are formed, which, after reflection, lead to the active, conscious, fully aware seeking. Perhaps this is to be included in the first stage as a subset. My point is that the expectation is the primary motivator, as contrasted to simply curiosity.

On the other hand, you might question whether or not this is a natural developmental process, a kind of reaching of "mental/psychical puberty" or a kind of maturation. This might be equivalent to reaching the stage in life where things like material gain, conspicuous wealth, or the list of items in Maslow's hierarchy of needs fail to satisfy you, and you instead have a need for more Self-knowing. Surely, there is more to life in the

developmental sense than, say, Shakespeare/Bacon's abbreviated progression of infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, judge, pantaloon, and oblivion, but you might wonder just what it is.

The recent book, PASSAGES , attempts to lay out the female life in stages, but the stages are merely described in terms of roles and role-models, rather than in terms of development.

It has been said by others that intelligence provides for androgenity, that is, as men become more intelligent, they become more feminine and women become more masculine. C. G. Jung calls it knowing the anima and animas. I tend to look at as a matter of men becoming more generalistic and sensitive while women become more specialized and analytical.

While life stages are quite obvious in retrospect to those who have experienced them, those who have not and are still involved with any given stage are apparently oblivious to the influences and actions. So, let's take the other stages in the path with the thought that there may be some tie-in to either natural life stages or cultural roles.

Psychical visualization, or various forms of ESP, seem to be a matter of spontaneous occurrence with many people. The sixth chakra is the so-called "third eye", or "ajna", for psychical vision. Although some speeding up may occur in some cultures, most of those in the Western world seem to discourage recognition of this natural talent, as a matter of maintaining the status quo in the power structure(s).

The third stage seems rather interesting. Notice that Vern's pattern does not follow the numerical progression of raising the Kundalini, in that if someone having opened up the sixth chakra, or mode of operation, next appears to be going back to the other five in reclaiming the body.

Notice that the second energy center or chakra of sexuality, in particular, and that the notion of total or androgenous sexuality is not mentioned in the usual literatures on the chakras. One might consider this stage as being the opening up of modes that are culturally defined as sexual, such as men using their visual right brain hemisphere and women using their left hemispheres more and, in general, relieving themselves of restrictions in modes of thinking and the messages conveyed by the modes.

The third stage seems to imply that one has already adopted some awareness of continuity of life, as regards incarnating in either sex and having both sexes involved in the OverSelf. I don't mean to imply that an Overself, per se, has two sexes, or that it is at all sexually-oriented. My point is that there is more to life than physical family and community. At this stage, I'd also add in the notions of harmonizing the body, (Self-) healing, controlling aura, and similar areas of preparing for astral travel.

The notion of the mystical vision is the single high point of the paper, and for those who have joined since the last example (my initiation was not known to be an example of this

at the time it happened), let's look at a typical experience from a Member who submitted it anonymously.

" I was in darkness, then I saw what seemed to be a big, eye-shaped object. It was lit up and I could see through it - I saw two men and a brick trough. It was long; flames were in the trough. It seemed to me that this was some kind of religious place. The men were putting dirt on the flame. I said, "This is awful!", but, then I saw an invisible flame. It was growing and reaching to the ceiling. Then, the door of this room opened and I saw a wall; there were unusual things on it, some were like paintings, but I couldn't make them out.

I saw a long object; I was placed in it - it was like a chute. I lay down and then zoomed down a long passageway. About halfway down, I seemed to change into an eagle, then a Phoenix. As I finished the trip and slowed down, I changed back into myself.

(Note: dreams of houses often mean that the houses are representing personalities)

I was in a very large room and I saw men from India or the Far East wearing white fur robes, with animal horns in their headgear. They were on their knees in front of casket-like objects. The objects were covered and had symbols on their covers. It was a huge place with lots of caskets in it. I rose up, flying, above the room and saw it was in a larger, glowing dome, covered with many paintings of Indian or Egyptian origin.

While looking at the paintings, I realized that I was wearing glasses that were glowing. A light from a jewel in one of the paintings hits my glasses and it seems as if the beam of light is somehow in the form of a compartment opening up. Hands extend and give me three books and I put them in my skirt.

Then, I find that I'm holding in my hand a rectangular box with a transparent covering over it. In it are three little trees with domes over them, with little triangles in them. I see another box with more trees in it, then others. I see my big toe extended and a plant is put on my foot. I see a green sprout coming out and blossoms with flowers. Then, the petals are covered with a golden crust.

Then I saw a nest with some strange, spotted birds in it. Their tail feathers have savage-looking Phoenix birds in them. One of the Phoenix birds took me in its talons and flew up to a high mountain and set me down there. I wandered around and came upon a small boy herding some camels, a group of men in colorful robes in a circle, another group in white robes with bowls of food and drink, and a young woman with a bouquet on her head. I think to myself that it doesn't look very attractive, but I tell her it looks lovely. It changes to a beautiful bouquet of white and pink roses and comes down over my head and I feel a great change as if I'm purified, as if new clothing had been put on me. Then I was taken to a place higher in the mountains.

The place looked like a chair and had been carved out of the rocks.

The men in white were there with the bowls of food and drink and I was given some. The men in the circle were gathered around a large symbol on the ground, a circle of black and white. One of the men points to a symbol and I am given a gold staff, wide, heavy gold. He points to another symbol and I'm given a book. Then, I'm escorted higher up the mountain to a place with snow-covered steps.

While waiting on the steps, two men come down to meet me. Each has a wand with a glowing ball on the tip. They say they are pleased with me. I ask them what I am wearing and they reply that it's a white, purple, blue, and golden robe."

With this kind of experience to relate to, with the assurance that it may give, then the developing student may approach deeper feelings of fear with greater confidence. In this manner, the Self-healing is also carried to a deeper level of the subconscious and the Psyche/Self. Instinctive fears of death seem to be greatly reduced, along with the stresses they induce, so that a person may then challenge the basic fear , per se, which then turns out in some reported cases to be a recognition of a notion that says fearful experiences are merely a form of learning and testing, to be approached with confidence and expectation of progress.

The fears may be encountered in various forms of mental or psychical imagery, such as monsters of various kinds, or other visions involving unpleasantness, such as falling and so on. It's reported that in the raising of the Kundalini, ther is a temptation to doubt

and so lessen the commitment through various primitive animal forms blocking the path. This was then interpreted as the goddess Kunda showing herself, very similar to the old woman at the bottom of the sea or many other myths.

In short, it would seem useful to use this as a basic reference for building up a more comprehensive sequence of development.

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As I look over the piece, several more thoughts come to mind on each stage. And further stages, too.

In general, the path seems to match the description of knowledge structure given by Dr. Huston Smith in his invited lecture to the Parapsychological Association a few years back. He described four levels set up as a pyramid of tiers.

*

* *

* *

* MYSTICAL *

*****************

* RELIGIOUS *

************************

* PSYCHICAL *

******************************

PHYSICAL

********************************

At the bottom was the physical world, overlaid by the psychical, which was then overlaid by the religious, which was capped by the mystical. His admonishments to the scientists generall was that:

"You cannot understand the physical until you understand the psychical that controls it;

you cannot understand the psychical until you know how the religious reigns over it; and finally, you cannot comprehend the religious until you know the mystical. Seems like an excellent way of relating the four fields.

The "devotion", I now see as a matter of confidence, courage, and heart ( ya gotta have heart!). During the past three or four months, as I look back at it, I seem to have gone into a period of lapsed confidence, which severely affected my working on the Psi-M and other things. I still don't understand completely how or what happened, but I suppose that it was a combination of several things in my life. I do know that my regular work got more absorbing and stressful, that I had a lot of dental work done ($3,000 worth!), a son got married, a lot of PSI SIG Members lapsed, a few speaking engagements were cancelled, I got involved with a professional society as chapter president, and so on and so on. The net effect seems to have been that I "lost it", that is, I was totally unable to perform even the simplest psychical function, such as predicting card cuts or getting into a really good meditation. Then an odd thing happened as I was working on the Psi-M that changed all of it and got me back on track in very short order.

Recall the words above about psychics seeming to be so certain about things. As I was writing it, I had been mentally searching for the right adjectives and had thought of "Self-centered, confident, and apparently conceited.", when a hunch struck me that I ought to look up the word "conceit" in the dictionary, just to assure that I was using it properly. Well! Not only did I find other totally different meanings of the word, but a message that explained what had happened.

To save you the time of looking it up, I'll quote from the book. "Conceit" as a noun used to be, originally, a description of a concept , such as the conceit of the psychical world. Conceit as a verb meant to imagine , as in the person "conceited" a new idea. A person who was conceited was considered to be full of ideas and imaginative. The example given was, "The strong man who conceits himself to be weak is rendered inactive ." Coincidence? If you can say, "I will learn to do it.", then you can do it.

I thought about it briefly, then took out the deck of cards (my favorite deck is a "Texas" sized deck, about twice regular size for using at talks. I cleared for a few seconds and then psyched out a dozen cuts in a row successfully and easily. Again, you must believe in yourSelf almost to the point of hypnotizing and controlling your conscious Self to suppress any doubts that might block or dissuade you from accepting your talents from your subconscious Self.

This brings up a very common syndrome that will probably disturb you throughout your development, that of "cognitive dissonance". By this we mean that your worldview as determined by your conscious mindset will tend to block any learning. The accepted four stages of accepting new information is popularly known as the "4-D" syndrome: Denial, Delusion, Doubt, and Decision. It has been described in depth by W. Grey Walter, of EEG fame, as a process wherein the subconscious mind acts as a statistician by comparing the pairs of input stimuli and predicting the probabilities that they will be paired. When 23 pairs are perceived in succession (such as telephone rings and someone is on the line), the "Aha!" reaction appears and we are sure that the pairs will continue. This was the basis of the notion of conditioned response and is also the reason that we need sleep so that the subconscious mind can do the work of absorbing the daily inputs into the memory. It is the basis for the need to sleep, since the increasing doubts about predicting when the daily inputs are not absorbed leads to anxiety and indecision. This is the scientific explanation for the old adage to "sleep on it", I 'm sure.

Bear this in mind as you practice and notice that, if the 23 successes in a row doesn't appear, your doubts will increase and you may lose confidence or "devotion" unless you analyze the reasons for non-success and so make a separate set for successes.

This implies a lot in the way of answering the question of "How long does this take to learn?", doesn't it? I'd say at least a month, and more likely two months, of daily sessions will be required for us to learn any specific technique to the point of having an "Aha!" reaction and being sure of our abilities.

Now, looking back over the path piece, I'd like to bring to your attention that there is a very significant difference between Vern's path and our sequence as regards the later stages. Vern indicates that the peak experience is the height of the path, from which one then comes back to normalcy. This is also the theme of Bucky in his COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS and Maslow in his FARTHER REACHES .We tend to look for a greater development, in that the contacts with other realms are strengthened in more stages that they do not discuss. I really think it's mainly a matter that they got stuck in their perceptions and didn'T get to the rest of it. I tend to view it as a matter of continuous development up to and beyond the Avatar stage.

The ancient Yoga- Siddha- Buddha development path describes the control of the body, the mind, and the soul for the three stages, respectively. This parallels the Huston Smith stages very closely, you'll notice. The things that we call the psychical arts are almost exactly the same things that the Siddhas practiced. Some references list Siddha abilities such as: powers of becoming lighter or heavier (levitation ans anti- levitation), including walking on water; illimitability, touching things at a distance; becoming invisible; space travel; and passage through matter. In addition to the Siddhis, the common psi talents of the divine eye, divine hearing, knowledge of another's thought and recollection of previous existences are often listed. The main difference again is that we tend to emphasize a growing community of persons rather than a singular personal development.

The Christian "Gifts of the Holy Spirit" are also very similar", but the implication to go towards community development seems a little more strongly implied, with emphasis on the vine and body as a means of unifying persons and the notion of brotherhood being stronger. The book of Paul lists and ranks some of the Christian gifts: lowest is the gift of tongues (limitted because it doesn't communicate anything to others); interpreting inspired wisdom and instruction for the benefit of others; healing; miracles; and prophecy. It's interesting that Paul's use of "prophecy" included psychometry and remote vision as well as precognition. He goes on to explain in depth that all of the works are only useful if they are founded and based upon love. He also gives an interesting insight by contrasting two kinds of talents and their use as regards applications. The obscure or occult practices of the tongues and esoteric insights are mainly useful only for those with advanced understanding, since those who have no experience are simply baffled by them, whereas the simple, practical talents are useful for those who are just beginning to learn, such as prophecy.

So, in summary, the long-term development seems to be pretty much in line with the short-term objectives involved in the psychical sciences and arts that focus on people getting to know their own minds and Psyches and Selfs. I like a simple "one-liner" that I got in meditation once: "The Self is the Bridge to the Soul." So we do need to use the psychical for bridging the gap and giving a way of communicating and unifying the two aspects. Reasoning points to developing the conscious mind to the level of the subconscious as the way to go upward and onward.