1910. Contents: Thought and the Brain; The Will; Magnetic Power; Concentration; Personal Magnetism; Breathing and Physical Exercises; The Magnetic Gaze; Diet; Magnetic Healing.

Introduction

IN giving this series of lessons to the public at a nominal fee, I believe I am really doing something that will be of great benefit to all who need a helmsman to guide the rudder of the good boat “Thought” to the harbor of Success.

Thought, unorganized, is so much waste matter; Thought, ORGANIZED, is the greatest power in the world, greater even than the almighty Dollar, for it commands filthy lucre and bids grim poverty farewell – forever? It commands love, which filthy lucre can’t, and it commands all that makes life worth living.

That it is necessary to undergo special mental training to produce this state of mental organization is very apparent, and that people desire daily more light, more knowledge, and for means to overcome their state of ignorance is, as sure as “eggs are eggs,” the reason why Personal Magnetism and the consideration of the Thought Forces have become such a cult.

Personal Magnetism means health, happiness, power and success.

Those who want these things and all they stand for, follow the rules I give you in these pages; read, mark, learn and inwardly digest each lesson, and if you do not live to bless the wonderful force known as Personal or Animal Magnetism; if you do not realize within yourself a new found happiness, because you realize that you are not the weak, downtrodden creature you have so long considered yourself, but a glorified, radiant, happy being; then, I say, my name is not...

O. Hashnu Hara

LESSON I

Thought And The Brain

THAT a course of lessons fully illustrating the action of thought, explaining its composition, and the correct method of using it, would prove a boon to many students of the Occult and mental sciences, who find this a very great drawback to serious advancement, appear almost a certainty.

The methods usually advocated seem to me very impractical; in the first place, how can a man who has never learned to control thought in everyday matters, such as banishing business worries when he comes home, or goes to bed, or in learning to control small habits, suddenly sit down and “concentrate on Spirit,” when probably his very idea of spirit is such as to awaken all his dormant fancies, and to call forth not one image, but hundreds? Then he fondly believes he is concentrating, until the utter absence of results proves that he has done no such thing, and he begins all over again.

It is only what may be expected, and even a general attempt to simplify the matter would be welcome; but I have had so many letters and so many appeals from men and women who cannot master this one subject – quite the most important in the whole school of Metaphysical and Occult teaching – the door, in fact, which will open to them the whole vista held out in books, an entrancing vision of knowledge, of health, of happiness, and the unseen, which too often will remain in books, simply because the initial step is too difficult – that I have made a great effort to meet the demand in a popular and practical form.

First of all I will beg of my pupils to begin at the bottom. Do not try to concentrate your thought on spirit before you are quite sure:

First. As to what THOUGHT is composed of.

Second. That you are able to concentrate your mind on some unimportant mundane matter, to the exclusion of all else.

Third. Do not try to concentrate your mind for half an hour at a time, until you can concentrate for two consecutive minutes.

Fourth. What spirit is.

I advise the student to practice keeping his mind on one subject for a minute at a time, and then gradually increase the time from day to day.

If you intended to train for, say, a foot race, you would not start with a twenty-mile walk after having been out of training for a long time. Nor if a little child is being taught how to read is he given a difficult scientific book to begin with. Yet men and women are put to a task far more difficult than these, without any preparation or gradual initiation into the processes employed.

Take some subject you are very much interested in for the commencement, then for one minute hold this before your mind’s eye, try to see if it in your imagination, and if you fail, wait another hour or so then try again.

By these means you gradually increase the elasticity of your brain, which, by continual exercises, can be expanded and made to perform tasks which were originally impossible. The next thing is to consider the part our brain plays in the matter of thought generation.

Look upon the brain simply as a very delicate machine, a dynamo that generates thought as an ordinary dynamo generates electricity. The construction of this machine needs some consideration for it is known that certain parts of the brain are put to certain uses, and that a brain left dormant grows gradually incapable of anything much above involuntary action, and that if certain parts even of the brain are neglected they in turn become atrophied and are useless.

From the under surface of the brain twelve pairs of nerves are given off, called the cranial nerves; each pair supply some sense to the body, generated by the brain machine, just as a dynamo turns out its streams of electricity. One pair of nerves supply the sense of smell; the next the optic nerves; the third pair move the eyeballs; the fourth supply the skin of the face, the muscles of the lower jaw, and the tongue; the sixth pair are supplied to the muscles which turn the eyeballs outwards; the seventh pair supply fibers to the muscles of the face; the eight pair supply the ear; the ninth pair are mixed nerves and they enable us to taste, and also supply the nerves to the pharynx; the tenth pair are very important mixed nerves which send fibers to her larynx, lungs, hear, stomach and liver; the eleventh pair are motor nerves which supply certain muscles to the neck; the twelfth pair are spending fibers to the tongue. So here we get a clear idea of our thought machine, a good thing to start with, since certainly no other kind of engineer would attempt to drive a machine of which he was absolutely ignorant. This direct arrangement from the brain center explains to a great extent how the form of concentration called mental healing can affect the body, and rebuild the tissues.

For each pair of nerves will carry the message given to them by the brain, and it naturally depends upon the message as to the effect produced. Here we get the machine we have to work with, and having mastered the technical parts of it, we will now proceed to see how thought acts, and how concentration affects thought.

It has long been a matter of consideration and study to me as to where the will really is located, and in this matter of concentration it is doubly important, because without that WILL man cannot possibly concentrate. It is the master of the Thoughts Machine, and I have found that the best way to meet the difficulty is to look upon the WILL as the OVER SOUL, that part of man which never dies, and which is carried on from incarnation to incarnation. I am assuming the theory of reincarnation to be something more that theory. It has been given to me to remember past lives, although only two or three; but even if one can remember any it surely renders the theory a fact.

This OVER SOUL, or will-power, is the force which sets the brain in motion, and which determines what effect the thought generated will have, and also what strength; it rests within ourselves to decide the state we are to reach in each successive incarnation (after we have been through a certain number), yet if we seek the intelligent co-operation of the over soul we can, if we so desire, accomplish in one life what might otherwise take centuries to perform.

LESSON 2

The Will: How Thought Travels – Varieties Of Thought Waves

THE seat of WILL, or the over soul, may, I think, be safely placed in the NERVE AURA surrounding the brain.

The exact nature of thought has not, so far as I have been able to discover, ever been fully explained. There is no doubt that thought is of atomic origin, else I do not quite see how, in accordance with Nature’s law, it could travel through the ether.

In regarding the action of thought in the ether, we are too much in danger of regarding the ether as something outside ourselves, and thought as an unconsidered and unknown quantity, a mistake which must be rigorously guarded against.

The ether permeates our whole body, and because of this wonderful invisible medium, thought, magnetism, and other know substances of a similar nature can attract to themselves matter from throughout the universe; thought, of course, having a greater power of attraction than any other substance. There is nothing in the world, which can prevent this attraction, no matter what may intervene between the thought and the object it seeks. The reason for this may be summed up in one word – ether. This acts as a conducting medium for the light waves which travel form the most distant planets and fixed stars, light which takes ten years to reach our little earth; and it acts as a conducting medium for our thought, whether we desire to send it to the other side of the earth, or to some far distant region in the unknown, or back, back into the long forgotten past, or forward into the yet unexplored future.

I have frequently held forth respecting the nature of that invisible substance called ether, but for the benefit of new readers, at the risk of boring the old, I will repeat myself.

The ether, then, is an invisible medium filling all space; scientists accept it as a necessity to account for the transmission of LIGHT through space where no ordinary medium, such as air, is to be found.

It is said by scientists to be of a smooth, jelly-like substance, and by Rosicrucian’s it is looked upon as living flame: We are at present more concerned with the scientific standpoint of what is called the “aluminiferous ether.” As my readers can readily understand, there must be some substance to fill all space, or we could get light from sun or moon, or the far distant stars.

This light travels through the ether by means of “waves,” that is, the tiny atoms, or particles, travel through space in a series of concentric (that is, from a common center) waves, each particle communicating motion to the next adjoining particle, and so on. Remember, too, that each particle, or atom, becomes, in its turn, a center of disturbance, sending out new waves. These wavelengths are exceedingly minute, and travel at an immense speed. They follow the waveform usual to water when, say, a stone is thrown in to cause a disturbance. There is the crest of the wave and the trough, and although the scientific method of measuring the length of these waves does not affect us at present, measured they are.

We know that light travels through ether by means of waves continually spreading outward; that a RAY of light is really non-existent. Light travels in minute particles, or atoms, and THOUGHT is propelled through the ether and through space in a similar manner to light.

You will consider the brain as a dynamo, only, of course, more powerful than any other known machine, and more delicately constructed. Man, as a race, is in constant danger of under-estimating the power of this machine, simply because he cannot CONCEIVE of such power.

From the central point of the brain, where motion is so intense, it almost appears at a standstill, thought radiates outward, as light radiates from our central point of energy - the sun.

We have seen, first, the machine, which generates thought, and secondly, the medium through which thought is propelled in its journey from one point of the globe to another.

The NATURE of thought is such that it is invisible as far as ocular demonstration is concerned, but its POWER is such that it is manifested in our daily life on every hand.

I assume thought to be of atomic origin, and, as I have already explained, the ether is a smooth, jelly-like substance with the property of transmitting atoms and molecules (a molecule is a group of two or more atoms) through space (which it entirely fills) at a terrific speed, the speed, of course, depending entirely upon the nature and size of the atom. Thought atoms are so infinitesimal that they probably exceed the highest known rate of speed, for the smaller the atom the higher and swifter the rate of vibration.

Whenever anybody thinks, even on the most trivial matter, they at once set up a stress (or disturbance) in the ether, and all around them becomes disturbed. If the thought was feeble, the disturbance will be merely local, and affect nobody, although, if charged with anger, worry, or discontent, it will affect the thinker very much for evil.

Such thoughts upset the ether, recoil upon the internal organism through the brain, and set up a state of irritation similar to the mental process, thus affecting not only the secretions of the vital organs, but surrounding the whole with a negative aura, which destroys the waves of love and good feeling which would otherwise surround that person. Then also, in a slight degree, these conditions will affect others in the immediate vicinity. They may experience feelings of depression, and the sensation of a cloudy atmosphere; but the thoughts are too unorganized to have a lasting effect, unless one is continually living with this species of thought emanation; it will not affect anybody seriously, EXCEPT the THINKER. He, or she, will at once show the work they have been unconsciously performing – bad digestion, sleepless nights, wrinkles, flabby cheeks, and the general inability to enjoy anything. These are the lasting results of such disturbance of the etheric substances.

We are all anxious to obtain success in life, and to help others; but the life success must be so perfectly blended with the spiritual success, that the two are one, else neither will be very lasting. I am aware that certain people may take exception to this statement, but it is my firm opinion that true-life success embraces this dual aspect I have described.

The law of vibration is always traveling from a higher to a lower rate and back again; it follows a free-path motion, and returns upon its journey laden with the errand it set out to perform. Spirit travels at a rate that grows slower and gradually slower, and, of course, denser, until  it is practically at a standstill. This may be interpreted as the procession of spirit through the grosser shades of matter. This etheric flow grows swifter and swifter, until  it again assumes its swiftest rate of speed, and, having shaken off the confining elements of matter, is again merges into pure spirit.

We can trace this as the process of life. All life is spirit, and the entire period from the first separation of the individual from spirit, on its journey through life to the time when, having passed through countless incarnations, it is ready to return whence it came. The reason for this journey is not apparent; it is simply the law of Nature.

The spiritual basis upon which we are all founded, and from which, by the slow processes of evolution, we attain the state of so much gross matter, this state quite nine-tenths of the population of the world are in at present. Then, from here, man’s higher sense begins to crave a higher state of evolution, and at last realizes that he has it in his power to obtain this when he pleases. “We live in the state of development our thoughts create for us.” The higher our mental aspirations, the swifter and purer the rate of vibration we attain. If you live in the dirt you cannot expect to attract anything else; but if you are a child of sunshine, so will you be garbed in light, and draw to yourself all that is your by right.

To retrace our steps a little, we will repeat that the brain center is a medium, a machine for manifesting and creating thought, as a dynamo, only, of course, more powerful than any other know machine, and more perfect.

At the center of the brain, energy is so intense that it almost appears to be still and calm, and from this still center radiates outward thought, the quality and quantity of which depends upon the machine, which generates the power. The generating process takes place through the all-compelling action of the WILL or OVER SOUL, that part of man, which never dies. This action is helped, and often to a very great degree, by correct breathing, which has the most wonderful effect upon concentration of thought.

Thought will proceed under given circumstance. Thought is dynamic, or, properly speaking, kinetic; but, of course, the words apply to the same thing. Under the compulsion of a strong and well-advanced WILL, or over soul, thought travels in a direct line towards that upon which it is concentrated. The more intense this form of concentration, the swifter and more direct the journey of that thought.

We get concentrated thought traveling from the brain center, to the point it is intended to reach. This may be defined as organized thought, a substance of which the vibrations are almost as subtle as the transmitting medium, etheric waves.

Concentration and the Acquirement
of Personal Magnetism
by O. Hashnu Hara

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