was not
produced by an act of will. As we proceed to consider the various forms
and phases of clairvoyant phenomena, in these lessons, you will notice
this fact. There are but few recorded cases of voluntary clairvoyance in
the books of the investigators--the skilled clairvoyants, and more
particularly the advanced occultists, avoid the investigators rather than
seek them; they have no desire to be reported as "typical cases" of
interesting psychic phenomena--they leave that to the amateurs, and those
to whom the phenomena come as a wonderful revelation akin to a miracle.
This accounts for the apparent predominance of this form of
clairvoyance--the secret is that the net of the investigators has caught
only a certain kind of psychic fish, while the others escape attention.

All this would be of no practical importance, however, were it not for the
fact that the average student is so impressed by the fact that he must
learn to induce the trance condition in order to manifest clairvoyant
phenomena, that he does not even think of attempting to do the work
otherwise. The power of auto-suggestion operates here, as you will see by
a moment's thought, and erects an obstacle to his advance along voluntary
lines. More than this, this mistaken idea tends to encourage the student
to cultivate the trance condition, or at least some abnormal psychic
condition, by artificial means. I am positively opposed to the inducing of
psychic conditions by artificial means, for I consider such practices most
injurious and harmful for the person using such methods. Outside of
anything else, it tends to render the person negative, psychically,
instead of positive--it tends to make him or her subject to the psychic
influence of others, on both the physical and astral plane, instead of
retaining his or her own self-control and mastery.

The best authorities among the occultists instruct their pupils that the
state of clairvoyant reverie may be safely and effectively induced by the
practice of mental concentration alone. They advice positively against
artificial methods. A little common sense will show that they are right in
this matter. All that is needed is that the consciousness shall be focused
to a point--become "one pointed" as the Hindu Yogis say. The intelligent
practice of concentration accomplishes this, without the necessity of any
artificial methods of development, or the induction of abnormal psychic
states.

If you will stop a momen