(When Jane went back to the poem this afternoon, her heightened sensations returned in a considerably intensified form. [They began to approach those described in the 639th session in Chapter Ten, and the 653rd session in Chapter Thirteen, to name but two such instances mentioned in this book.] Finally she called me at 3:30 p.m. as I was painting in my studio, and read Silver Brothers to me. It still wasn’t finished. “But now I don’t know what to do,” she said several times, looking quite bewildered. “I’m getting it so fast mentally, in Sumari, that I don’t have time to write it down — let alone do it in English — before I go into the next concept….

There is no magic in hypnosis. Each of you utilize it constantly. (See the 620th session in Chapter Four.) Only when particular procedures are assigned to it, and when it is set aside from normal life, does hypnotic suggestion seem so esoteric. Structured hypnosis merely allows the subject to utilize full powers of concentration, thereby activating unconscious mechanisms.

With the distortions present in organized procedures, however, and the misunderstandings of the practitioners, the phenomenon seems to show a different face indeed. The subject agrees to accept the beliefs of the hypnotist. Since telepathy exists (as described in Chapter Three), the subject will react not only to verbal commands but to the unspoken beliefs of the practitioner, thereby “proving,” of course, the hypnotist’s theory of what his profession is.

Think of the present as a pool of experience drawn from many sources, fed, in your terms, by tributaries from both the past and the future. There are an infinite number of such tributaries (probabilities), and through your beliefs you choose from these, adjusting their currents. For example: If you constantly focus on the belief that your early background was damaging and negative, then only such experiences will flow into your present life from the past. It does no good to say, “But my life was traumatic,” therefore reinforcing the belief. You must in one way or another modify that conviction, or preferably change it entirely — or you will never escape from its effects. This does not mean “lying” to yourself; but if it seems to you that your background held no joys, accomplishments or pleasures, then you are lying to yourself now. You have concentrated upon the negative to such a degree that anything else seems invisible. (See the 644th session in Chapter Eleven.) From the present you have hypnotized yourself, viewing the past not as it was to your experience, but as it appears now in the light of your current beliefs.

End of chapter. I said that would be a short one.

1. See the 639th session in Chapter Ten for material on the life and death of our cat, Rooney. Seth mentioned probabilities in connection with Rooney, too.

CHAPTER 16

And give us a moment. (Pause at 10:46.) Chapter …

The repetition, verbally or mentally, is important because it activates biological patterns and reflects them. Do not strain. This exercise should not be done along with the point of power exercise given earlier. (See the 657th session in Chapter Fifteen.) One should not run into the other, but should be carried out on separate occasions during the day.