Book Report: Practical Psychomancy and Crystal Gazing by William Walker Atkinson (c) 1908

Background Information: The Publisher, The Yogi Publication Society is a press started by William Walker Atkinson at the turn of the 20th. century to promote his writings on "New Thought," which was the New Age movement of the time. Atkinson himself was quite a character. He was a prolific writer, with over 150 books to his credit, often under any of several pen names. He rose to prominence at the beginning of the 20th century, but seems to have become forgotten in the following decades, though he and the Yogi Publication books are experiencing a new renaissance at the beginning of the 21 century.
Many of the books were written by Atkinson, but they also published other prominent metaphysical works by other authors. The company has changed hands a number of times, so many that the original history was lost to the current owners, but the books are still in print, and still inspiring spiritual seekers. 
While he used other pen names for his books on Yoga and other esoterical, he usually reserved his own name as author of books on psychic sciences. 

This is another little booklet published by the Yogi Publication Society, slightly less than 6 inches tall but containing over 90 pages of information for developing your psychic skills. The first chapter describes the scientific theory behind psychic phenomena and the human aura ans well as telling you about the five psychic senses, which are the same as our physical senses, but operate on the psychic plane. He goes on to offer basic ways to develop you abilities though concentration and visualization and includes us of the crystal ball, or an inexpensive substitute, which, as with most authors on the subject, he considers primarily a tool to help focus and strengthen your mental concentration. 

Despite it's small size, the book covers all the basic psychic skills including clairvoyance, clairaudience, crystal gazing, astral projection, past and future seeing and even dream psychomancy. 

Of interesting note is the description of The Psychic Tube. I don't know whether this is a creation of Atkinson, but it was also included in several prominent courses in meditation and mental development. In a nutshell, once you've developed your psychic abilities and you want to send a message to someone far away, or perhaps you just want to take a look atd what's going on there, you imagine a tube of psychic power stretching from your mind to your target and send or receive through it.  Does it work? I'd love to hear your experiences! 

This book is out of copyright and reprinted by a number of presses. You can still find the Yogi Pub version currently on sale, as well as vintage copies for your collection. 

Book Report: Mind Control by Emilio Guzman (c)1976

Emelio Guzman appears to be a Mexican experimenter in the field of psychic communication who came across Jose Silva's famous Silva Method mind control course, and became a strong supporter and, we can assume, teacher. This book is his English translation of his original 1972 Spanish title, Control Mental. 

This book is an introduction to the methodology behind The Silva Method. Back in the 1970s, The Silva Method, was a very, very popular discipline, taught all over the world in week-long seminars, variously known as Silva Method, Silva Mind Control and Silva ESP. 

Through a series of meditation techniques similar to self hypnosis, the students learned how to live a more stress-free life, how to improve their thinking skills and day-to-day activities and even how to develop their ESP skills. The courses are still being taught. 

This book is a discussion of the science and methodology behind the Silva method, and a number of the areas that the Method claims to be able to improve. It also touches on some of the specific techniques, but isn't a study guide. I guess you have to take the course, in person or one of their recorded courses, to learn the specifics. 

To learn more, you can go to the website:
https://www.silvamethod.com/

Book Report: Mental Dominance by Julien Ochorowicz (c)1990-1887

Mental Dominance by Julien Ochorowicz (c)1990-1887

Background information: This was originally published in 1887 as "La Suggestion Mental" ("Mental Suggestion").
The author, Julien Ochorowicz, was a leading psychologist, inventor and philosopher of his day. At the time, psychology was a budding science, and included more philosophy and spiritualism than what we think of as psychology today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Ochorowicz

If you have an interest in telepathy this will offer both some interesting scientific discussions and also practical theories and exercises to try for yourself. It's also very interesting a a view into a slice of hypnosis history when "modern" Braid-style hypnosis was taking over from Mesmerism.

The current edition (1990) mentions that it's been "updated," so I can't say for sure how much of the book is the original, and how much has been "updated." (There are a few references to telephones and television which made me highly skeptical of it's authenticity, but according to the Ochorowicz Wiki page, he experimented with early forms of telephone and television in the late 1800s!). 

Before we go farther, it's useful to get the historical context in which the author was working. More modern, suggestion-based hypnosis was beginning to dominate the psychology world, but older Mesmerism would still have been very common. What that means is that while there was more of an acknowledgement that trance and other mental states could be brought about by verbal suggestions as is practiced with hypnosis.. Mesmerism, the older science, believed that the trance was produced in the subject by the force of the Mesmerist's will which was projected into the subject's body via a magnetic fluid that was a kind of invisible psychic energy. Telepathy and other forms of psychic communication and healing were common parts of Mesmeristic belief and practice.

According to the author's Wiki bio, he worked with a number of the members of the Society for Psychical Research, which included some of the top scientists and thinkers of the day, and seems to have been a mix of skeptics and true-believers, united in applying the latest scientific methods to psychic phenomena. So it's presumable that he pulled his data from a fairly large and well documented pool of information and experiments. 

A big part of this book, or this edition, since I don;t know how closely it relates to the 1887 edition, is to identify a working methodology for mind-to-mind communication. It's pretty thorough, and offers plenty of exercises to experiment with. 

From the top, it's interesting that, presumably after experimentation, he identifies the ideal mental state as a "monomaniacal trance" which is a trance state resulting from focusing on a single thing to the exclusion of all else. This would be the kind of "modern" hypnotic trance that was used by James Braid (who suggested the term "monoideaism" --focusing on a single-- as a better name for hypnosis). Orochowicz further designates two degrees of this monomaniacal trance-- a slightly deeper, more passive one for recieving, and a slightly more active one for transmitting. 

Different scenarios are described, but it is particularly interesting that he observes that while a suggestion may be received, it may take some time for it to emerge from the subconscious of the receiver and be perceived or acted upon. He feels that a strong, persistent suggestion will be transmitted more effe3ctively than an overly intense one, and that combining the mental suggestion with some kind of physical action will be more effective than the mental suggestion alone. 

The Fourth part of the book offers exercises to strengthen one's "Animal Magnetism," which include things like visualizing and moving energy through the body, controlling your sensations of cold and heat, self-discipline and controlling emotions, etc. 

In an interesting procedure for psychic persuasion of others, the author distinguishes two parts of persuasion: Preparation and Ultimatum. (The procedure involves preparing by cultivating one's energy for a long time before your expected encounter with the person you want to persuade. When you meet them, hold overwhelmingly positive feelings, and hold your desired idea in your mind the entire time, and even imagine hugging them in you mind. Finally you make a definitive statement (mental, presumably) and they should be persuaded!). 

Another interesting observation is that these kinds of suggestions can take a longer amount of time than most other authors indicate. For a simple suggestion, this author advises 3-4 weeks of preparation, while a meaningful change of behavior may take 6 months of daily hour-long suggestions. Presumably this was backed up by some experimental data(?). 

There's a big section on finding and influencing your soulmate. I find it rather hard to believe that this was part of Ochorowicz' original manuscript, but most likely a contribution of the 1990 edition. Still, it is an interesting discussion and follows the Authors basic methodology. And again, a much longer commitment is recommended-- 40 daily sessions, with a minimum of 15!

Finally, there are a number of visualization exercises to strengthen focus and imagination, and, hopefully, one's psychic abilities. 

I can't say I've had the level of discipline to try these techniques as recommended, but if you have had results, I'd love to hear about them!

Book Report: Secret Mental Power: Miracle of Mind Magic by Frank Rudolph Young (c)1973

Secret Mental Power: Miracle of Mind Magic by Frank Rudolph Young (c)1973

Background Information: Frank Rudolph Young ("F.R.Y.") is a bit of a cult figure, an author who wrote a number of books on health practices, psychic powers and self-development. Many were published in hardcover by Parker Publishing. What distinguishes Young's books stylistically is the hyperbole. He must have been a naturally intense individual and he really tries to impart that, while presenting his material as mysterious and exotic. It makes the books a lot of fun to read!
Trying to find reliable biographical material is a bit difficult, partially since he seems to have presented several different stories about himself. The Legend is that he and his other family members traveled the world, ferreting out mystical secrets of longevity and occult powers.
According to some diligent researchers on the internet, he was born in Panama in 1911 and lived in Chicago (Chicago was a major center of the "New Thought" movement). He may have been a dentist, a chiropractor, and a body builder. From his published works it's safe to assume he was an avid yoga practitioner, at least.
You can find much more research here: https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/64281/what-biographical-information-do-we-know-about-author-frank-rudolph-young

The kind of "magic" the author discusses in this book are powerful, practical, mental habits of reasoning, decision making, projecting confidence, making friends, pain control, improving one's health, and so forth. Each skill gets at least a chapter of it's own, with a lively discussion, clearly defined how-to instructions and further hints and a few "testimonial" type stories. He writes with incredible enthusiasm and encouragement as you'd expect from a pop-psychology book of the 60s.

His approach to achieving success lies in combining logical methodologies with a powerful emotional intensity, and you'll find variations of this idea in all of his books, and he usually has a specific exercise to develop it and a specific bit of hyperbolic terminology. In this book he calls the practice of developing the required intensity the Miracle Mind Magic Stimulator, which consists of visualizing your goal with increasing detail to the point of being "savagely real." The subsequent exercises for decision making, confidence, making friends and so forth mostly all employ the Miracle Mind Magic Stimulator in some way. (in other books of his, you'll find the same or similar techniques with different names).

One of the interesting principles of this book are what he considers the use of the conscious mind to make the changes you want to, rather than the subconscious because he feels you're more resent and able to make needed decisions. I suppose this puts him more in the camp of the New Thoughtists who felt one could overcome all obstacles with will power.

Despite the over-the-top style, it's really a very practical book for improving emotional self control, achieving goals, dealing with others and more. Not all of it may be the best or most current approach, but he puts forth a workable approach. And I've noticed that somebody must be making good use of FRY's books. He seems to have a growing fan base on line, and while I used to be able to pick up his hardcovers for about 6 bucks, some of them are now going for ten times that.

Book Report: Psycho-Kinesis by Adrian Clark -- Metaphsyical c.1973

 Psycho-Kinesis: Moving Matter with the Mind (C) 1973 by Adrian Clark, Parker Publishing

Background Information: The publisher of this book is Parker Publishing, a company that specialized in self help and metaphysical books in the 60s and 70s (they're still around and still selling the same titles: https://parker-publishing-company.myshopify.com/) I have to say that I'm an avid collector of these books! I used to find them for a few dollars in used book stores and on line, but recently they seem to have become much more popular (and expensive). They're a lot of fun to read, and most follow a standard format--an irresistible title, a series of inspiring anecdotes how various people made their dreams come true with whatever the book is teaching, and usually a nice recap at the end of each chapter.

This book is a bit of an oddity. The book is less about Psychokinesis than it is about the author's theory of psychic powers in general. So if you're passionate about moving things with your mind, you'll have to be patient with this book. Nevertheless, you'll still get some interesting and unusual thoughts and theories about psychic phenomena, and, of course, some pointers for your own experiments. 

The author is clearly very religious, and feels that faith is a cornerstone of all psychic abilities. It's vital that you have faith in your abilities, but also that asking for help from higher powers will greatly enhance your abilities. At the same time, he works in the aerospace sciences. He tries to reconcile psychic phenomena with physics by crediting psychic energy to photons, which, at the time of his writing, were known to be powerful, massless and spring in and out of being spontaneously, and for that reason, are worthy of scientific research. It also seems to reconcile with some biblical concepts about light. He has clearly done a lot of research and discusses various other theories on the subject, including Kundalini energy and something called "Vol" energy. 

Around about Chapter 6 he offers several exercises and discusses the necessary qualities to cultivate for success, including faith, confidence and concentration. If you're looking for the how-to section, this is it. 

I tended to get the feeling that this book was actually made up from various lectures of articles that the author had presented elsewhere and compiled for the book, since there's a bit of redundancy, and some terms that seem to apply to universal themes through the book occur only once. 

Interestingly, and I guess in an attempt to fuse his religious perspective with a scientific one, he regards many of the bible stories in terms of his photon theory and even views Jesus as an extraterrestrial. Of further interest is that he and his fellow experimenters were also NASA researchers! 

Book Report: The Power of Hypnosis by Hans Holzer -- Hypnosis discussion and Some How-to

The Power of Hypnosis, How Mind-to-Mind Communication Works (c)1973 by Hans Holzer

Background Information: Hans Holzer, a tireless researcher of the paranormal, is the author of over 100 books on various aspects of the paranormal, and has been the inspiration for a number of TV shows about the paranormal. He often worked with well known spirit mediums, including Sybil Leek, who was quite popular in the 1960s. Most recently, his work with various mediums and haunted houses, has been revisited by the 2019 TV show, The Holzer Files (fittingly, 13 years after his death).
You can read more about Holzer on the web and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Holzer

This book, The Power of Hypnosis, is a fairly slim volume of under 100 pages. 

As a hypnotist, I have to say I found parts of the book a little bit silly. I'm not sure if he's playing to the public fear of hypnosis, or whether he just had an antiquated view on the irresistible power of hypnosis. (old time psychologists feared that hypnosis had the power to easily control and even harm the unwary. This was probably based on Freud's belief that the subconscious mind was a kind of wild animal that the conscious mind was always fighting to keep under control, and hypnosis might allow that wild animal to slip the leash). So the book opens warning the public of "involuntary" hypnosis in the form of advertising, and you should constantly examine yourself for covert influences (to buy more oatmeal, perhaps?).

He recommends hypnosis for pain control and to help with mediumistic trances, especially to remove residual spirits after the seance, and gener4ally for therapeutic purposes, but not for past-life regressions or other psychic phenomena. (about a third of the way into the book, he finally admits hypnosis isn't really dangerous when done correctly). 

There is  fair bit of discussion of how to apply hypnosis and for what. He describes his own method of hypnotizing people, which is a simple, authoritarian narrative induction (he tells a story that puts people to sleep). He distinguishes three levels of trance depth with the second and third suitable for suggestions.Before discussing other, non-hypnotic phenomena, like reincarnation, Deja Vu and "time slips" where someone physically slips into another time and place! 

The chapter on Emotional Hypnosis is actually fairly interesting, in that he describes how emotional states can access the subconscious to dissociate the consciousness and facilitate trance, and how various practices like tribal drums, incense and even Frank Sinatra's singing can lead to a dissociative trance. 

BTW, despite the subtitle, "mind-to-mind communication" isn't mentioned until the last few pages of the book, and then only to say that hypnotic suggestions must bev persuasive to be effective. 

Worth mentioning is his chapter on "Silent Hypnosis" where he discusses how the eyes can project a beam of energy particles that can influence another person's mind directly! Ah, if only it were true! I presume he got this from some olde tyme mesmerists. He suggests experimenting with it by projecting commands silently with your eyes to get others to do things. 

Overall, this is a fun book about psychic phenomena. The approach to hypnosis is limited and antiquated, but his observations on the power of emotional suggestions as well as his extensive knowledge of practices around the world are thought provoking.

Book Report: Wehman's Bros Practical Hypnosis and Mesmerism (c.1900's) -- Hypno History

 Wehman Bros Practical Hypnosis and Mesmerism, no author or copyright date listed. 

Background information: Wehman Brothers was a pulp publisher at the turn of the century located at Park Row in NY, the publishing center of the city in the 19th century, with an extensive catalog of titles on nearly every topic imaginable, including sports, letter writing, stage skills, and jokebooks. Their books were usually inexpensively printed on newsprint, sized to fit in a back pocket and sold inexpensively. This volume is printed on glossy paper and bears the "Zone Code" of "New York 3 NY" indicating it is probably from the 1940s, since our 5-digit "Zip Code" didn't come into use until the early 1963. Wehman Brothers Publishing appear to have survived from the 19th century and are still working in some capacity as an intermediary publisher. 

If you're interested in the historical evolution of hypnosis from Mesmerism to the present day, this booklet is a great place to start. Many books put out by Wehman Bros. were taken from other sources, and this book is literally taken from someone else's work--for one thing, the first page in the booklet is marked page 35. 

The author of this work was apparently working at a time early in the 20th century when hypnosis was being to displace Mesmerism, and he was clearly well experienced in both arts. (FYI: in a nutshell, hypnosis induces trance though verbal suggestion and fixed attention, and occasionally some other elements, while Mesmerism believes it induces trance through the projection of "Animal Magnetism" from the practitioner to the subject via "magnetic passes" of the hands and the "Magnetic Gaze" of the eyes. It's something like Chinese chi-gung therapy, or laying on of hands). 

The first part of the book describes the characteristics of mesmerism, including the best qualities for a mesmerist and for a mesmeric subject, how to cultivate the mesmeric aura and transmit it to a subject. In addition to describing his method, the author quotes several other experts, who I presume were well respected mesmerists of their day, for additional advice and insight. 

He closes the discussion of mesmerism by warning the practitioner that Mesmerism is slow and unspectacular, and if one is performing for an audience, it is better to employ the new science of hypnosis. 

The hypnosis portion of the book is pretty basic, and of more interest for historical purposes. The author include the methods of some of the leaders of the early 20th century, including James Braid, Albert Moll, and James Coates. 

There is a discussion of phrenohypnosis (phrenology and hypnosis, something I've never read about elsewhere!), medical mesmerism, charging water with mesmeric power, and hypnotizing animals.

Despite the small size of this book, it does contain a lot of information and attempts to earnestly present useful information and aspiring mend control enthusiast can practice.

TRY!

There are some words that are dear to the hypnotist's heart, and few as much as the word TRY!
"Try to keep your eyes open.."
"Try to remember the number.."
"Try to feel the pain of your injury.."

But what makes it such a power word? Well, yes, it implies failure, and it's a sneaky command to do the opposite of what we seem to be asking the client. We don't say "Keep your eyes open" when we want the client to close his eyes, even though that is usually how the client perceives it. (And isn't it terrible that when a kid is having trouble in school we tell him to "TRY HARDER!!" Think about it).

On a deeper level, though, it's more than a covert reverse-suggestion.

When we use the word TRY, we're really telling the client to begin to substitute our suggestion for their own empirical experience. "Try to open your eyes, and you'll find you can't." Words like try reprogram, for a little while, the clients perceptions of his own experience in a way that make those experiences seem to support and reinforce the truth of OUR suggestions.

Powerful stuff.

What other treasured words can you think of that will also encourage the client to accept our suggestions over their own experience?

The Strongest Induction?

Recently I was talking to someone about the strongest hypnotic induction. What do you think it is? Dave Elman talks in his book about getting clients into a trance in 90 seconds that was so deep they could do dental surgery without pain and with minimal bleeding. Milton Erickson specialized in getting in possible results with impossible clients.. You can go to youtube.com and search for "rapid inductions" and you'll see people being dropped right off their feet and into deep trance in a number of different ways. So what's the strongest way? For me, the answer is NONE of them. when I first started studying hypnosis, I was perplexed as to how Elman could get such a deep state of trance so very quickly. The clue was there, but I was making a mistake that a lot of people make when they first start. I thought it was something in the induction. It's an understandable mistake. Fans of direct suggestion talk about the power and authority, prestige, of the direct suggestion, while fans of Ericksonian hypnosis talk about the irresistible subtlety of those language patterns. But the bottom line, the real power in the induction is YOU. The confidence and the experience that you exercise is what really determines how deep and how consistently you can get people into trance. The secret is touched on by Elman in his book "Hypnotherapy." At the time the book was written, he was only teaching hypnosis to doctors and dentists, and he tells the story of how he insisted that his students practice on a certain number of their patients every single day. One dentist/student, who didn't begin to actually practice until several week into the class drew Elman's ire, and he explained that without the consistent practice he'd never get good at hypnosis. No matter how much studying you do in hypnosis, your strength will come from the amount of practice, with different people and in different situations, that you do. You have to do it with awareness, but also consistency. Experience is a big ingredient in your confidence and control. Now there are some people who want to learn hypnosis because they feel it will give them greater confidence in social situations, and it can be a tool for gaining confidence. And it will be, IF you go out and practice. Push your boundaries! Because for real power in hypnosis, that's something you have to bring to the situation from inside you. Sure, some people are natural hypnotic subjects, with good intelligence and great imagination, and they'll drop as easily and deeply into trance as you want them to go. But you can't rely on the client always being able to go, no matter how much they want to. You have to have strong skill, and for that you need confidence in your own ability to hypnotize, and also confidence in being able to motivate your subject to get to the place you want them to go. That means being well familiar with different levels of trance, and well familiar with the different ways to communicate that trance in a way the subject can relate to. Then the induction becomes the magic spell that the uninitiated think it is.