Dr.

Marco Paret

The Magnetic
Gaze
What is and how to acquire it
Applications of Fascination to Hypnotic Practice
Self Fascination and other techniques

ISBN13 978-0-935410-65-5
2011 International Academic Productions

Preface
Can we not see that a stronger force is exercised by the
human eyes which, through a mere look, almost bring about
life or death, cause blood to flow away and come back, wrest
away strength and restitute it, and, even more remarkably,
corrupt the judgment of human minds
(Sonnet by Lorenzo de Medici, known as Il Magnifico 1)
Who would not like to prove attractive and to fascinate?
To fascinate bears the connotation of producing a
spellbinding effect or enchanting through ones look or
speech.
The present book is devoted to the power of the eye and the
secrets which are correlated to it.
By means of this organ, in fact, astonishing results can be
achieved. The influence exercised by man over another
member of the species is no doubt the product of a multiplicity
of causes, yet no one of those underlying causes is comparable,
in terms of its potency, to the one possessed by the look. Our
thought, too, is influenced by the look. The very phrase vision
of the world is traceable back precisely to that reality. After
all, even in the most mundane aspects of human life, we are
accustomed to judge on the basis of the outward appearance.
We create a certain opinion of one person firstly on the basis of
his physiognomy and, secondly, on the basis of what dress he
is wearing. For sure, speech helps fashion ideas and beliefs,
but what happens when such action is not validated by ones
look? When one listens to a person without seeing him, the
content of what he is saying is only understood by creating

1 Cf. Works by Lorenzo de Medici known as Il Magnifico,

Volume 4, at p. 109.

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

some mental images, imaginary mental images. Words gain in
potency when they are backed up by the look.
A proficient orator deliberately trains the way he looks at
the audience in order to lend greater force and persuasive
efficacy to his verbalizations.
In the course of this book, we shall discover how such a
force is susceptible of being developed by recourse to a selfdisciplining method. Indeed, already when we limit ourselves
to looking around without any specific purpose, even without
any specific instructions, we are in fact communicating a
myriad of different messages.
If, however, we develop conscious awareness of what we do,
we will manage to ultimately learn how to subjugate these
energies possessed by the look. Indeed, in extreme
circumstances, the ability we will have gained thereby is going
to extend, in the sphere of interpersonal relationships, to the
power to enchant whoever watches us, to create an
instantaneous hypnosis; at the same time, from the viewpoint
of the receptive side of looks, we will understand and perceive
many more things than those we would otherwise regard as
possible.
The present work is the worlds most profoundly
comprehensive text on this subject. It has its roots both in
practical experience and in the attentive study of all the
relevant literature we have been able to lay our hands on. We
have accordingly referred, in the course of our footnotes, to
hundreds of varied historical, scientific and experiential
sources.
An other result, one more closely connected to everyday life,
is to learn to use the power of the eye so as to develop your
Presence, Status, Prestige, Charm, Self-caring, Charisma, and
Leadership, up to the point that you literally become capable
oh hypnotizing and magnetizing whichever person is watching
you.
4

Attractive charm, according to the ancient way of looking at

things, is in fact a far-reaching power that is exercised by a
look over another look, one charged with such a force that
whoever was subjected to it was unable to extricate his self
from it, and was accordingly compelled to be fascinated by it.
We are able, in this context, to record an age-long
uninterrupted sequence, running across centuries, of
witnesses first-hand descriptions of how such force would
materialize. This ongoing chain of consistent records spans the
medieval, Roman and pre-Roman ages without exception.
The most recondite aspects of such tradition appear to have
been incessantly transmitted in Italy more than in any other
part of the world, though such transmission took place within
the most exclusive elites of special affiliates.
This ancient mode of looking at things has in fact always
been practiced on the basis of a direct transmission from
master to disciple, without resorting to written texts, other
than, at the most, some allusive documents carrying meanings
which were concealed from non-adepts, and odd systems of
arcane symbols.
In order to lend efficacy to this force, it is essential for us to
develop awareness of the strength inherent in our look, as well
as to develop a different vision. Though this is a practically
orientated tradition, in order to understand and, even more, to
put this art into practice, what is indeed required is an
approach to reality which opens up to different and allencompassing dimensions. They have to differ, in other words,
from the linear and limited dimension of modern man. For
modern man, the eye is a mere passive organ. If we, however,
desire to appropriate the power inherent in the eye, we have to
actively employ it and draw close to quantistic physics, which
teaches us precisely that the observer influences the
observed.
In fascination we detect transformation, both the
transformation of the one who actively inspires it and the one
5

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

who is the passive recipient thereof. Fascination is additionally
able to confer a scientific basis on the otherwise inexplicable
thereapeutic ability possessed by several healers.
The original sources of our interest in the subject
Everything originated at first in our odd encounter with
the last of the fascinators: Virgilio T. 2, who currently lives in
a state of deliberate obscurity by the valleys of Piedmont. He
appears to be the last custodian of one part of the secrets of
this most ancient school.
During a series of subsequent meetings, spread over a
period in excess of twenty years, he has gradually introduced
us to the strange and arcane power of the gaze, and has passed
onto us increasingly more mysterious and secret exercises.
The first one to meet him was actually a friend of mine,
Max, who, having approached him in order to seek
information on what hypnotism was, received a very practical
reply to his inquiry.
Virgilio T., who at that stage worked as a barber, asked
those who were present at the barbers shop whether they
agreed to take part in an experiment. Once he received a
positive reply to his said request, he closed the door of the
shop and firmly fized his gaze on one of the customers, who
had moreover assumed a somewhat defiant look. His defiant
posturing only lasted for a very short period. Within a few
seconds, in fact, that customer took on a livid appearance.
Virgilio told him that the cigarette was bad. The customer thus
addressed began to cough so much that Virgilio was forced to
slap him in the face a few times in order to bring him back to
his senses.

2 The surname is abbrievated at the relevant persons specific

behest, since he (now aged 80) only desires to be visited by friends.

When it came to the second customer, he did not even utter

a single word to him. He fixed him closely, and this other
customers look turned pallid and diaphanous as if it was made
of wax. At that point, Virgilio carried out a facetious probative
exercise: Faced with the question on what his name was, such
customer answered by mentioning a womans name which had
not even been verbally suggested (to him by Virgilio), only
through the power of thought.
Virgilio thereupon woke him up.
Moved by his curiosity, Max took to Virgilio a number of his
friends, and witnessed similar events on several other
occasions.
Even I succeeded in experiencing on my own skin the power
of this seemingly quiet person who, besides the ability I have
just described, had also developed a special sensitivity to
energies, to such an extent that he was a capable medical
diviner equipped with the talent to retrieve an object concealed
inside a room.
Where does all of this originate?
Having intuitively realized that recourse to such technique
might have stretched even beyond what we had been witnesses
to, and that this power might be used for the additional
purpose of making people feel better, we resolved on
becomingVirgilios students and intimate associates, to whom
he could have confided his secrets. We then realized that, in
order to attain such power, what is needed is a disciplined
work upon ones own self, which is also grounded on a series of
techniques and exercises encompassing self-control as well as
self-development and self-improvement.
Virgilio is not, however, the only exponent of such school
which we owe our knowledge of the subject to.

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

A contribution to the completion of this work was also made
by the late Prof. Erminio from Pisa 3. He used to refer to
fascination by the term of instantaneous hypnosis.
In spite of the fact that both Virgilio T. and Erminio from
Pisa were consummate masters in this art, the former, albeit
capable of producing rapid results, operates only by leaving a
superficial and short-term imprint, at a time that the work
carried out by the latter pushes this technique onto a different
level, one that has a deep effect and succeeds in healing
plentiful pathologies on an enduring basis. In so doing, it
traces itself back to a long tradition of therapeutic fascination.
After all, Virgilio, fully aware as he was of his limits, made
use of his brand of hypnosis, never mind how spectacular, only
as a game or for theatrical effect, whereas Prof. Erminio from
Pisa was accustomed to assiduously cure dozens of people on a
weekly basis, within his study, as part of his regular
professional activity. Most of these persons would get cured in
a single session lasting ten seconds or so. Even those who were
most amenable to recurrent relapses, needed no more than 2
to 3 sessions before the beneficial effects of fascination
accomplished through the look embedded themselves firmly in
their organisms. Prof. Erminio was a person marked by a
forceful personality. In his work methodology, as was the case
with the ancient people, he always strove to be in a state of
balance with the universal harmony, which he used to discern
as a result of his astrological studies.
It is thus from him that we have learnt how to employ this
art for healing purposes. This is a technique that we are going
to lay out in the second part of the book.
Prof. Erminio, too, had been directly introduced to this
discipline by an existing master: Prof. Caravelli. The latter was
a masterful expert in the so-called art of bi-location, so much
3 He is the author of a manual on Practical Hypnomagnetism
published by the Meb.

so that he could be simultaneously perceived in two different

places.
That is how we have made our acquaintance with this
technique, which is as ancient as it is beneficial.
These keys had remained hidden up to now. Indeed,
although, since the days of the most remote past, testimonies
had been adduced of people who were able to exercise a
powerful influence with the look, the true method of bringing
that about had in fact always been kept secret, or at least
transmitted only on condition of maintaining a high degree of
confidentiality.
Even a very committed devotee of this type of subjects such
as William Atkinson, who is one of the few people to have
consecrated an entire book to the subject, one that bears the
title of Mental Fascination 4, deals with it from the outside,
in the process mentioning that he had interviewed some
people, while clarifying the fact that had not been personally
initiated to the technique.
Likewise, Seligmann, a German ophthalmologist who
authoured in this regard a monumental work comprising more
than 2500 literary sources he had quoted therein, had never
been let in the art from inside. Accordingly, as with many
authors in the field, he offers us a puzzle without however
being able to provide us with a true solution to it.
It does not end here, however. Though we have been
introduced to the technique, we can personally attest to the
fact that there are still many obscure points in need of
clarification, as regards the degree of potency of this hidden
and extraordinary power.
4 Cf. William Atkinson, Mental Fascination. The Italian title of
the book is La Fascinazione Mentale, Ed. Bocca. The book is
additionally available in a free of charge online format from our
school,
simply
by
requesting
it
at
the
address
[email protected].

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Fields of utilization of fascination

Fascination is actualized by a lucid and subtle virtue which
the heat of the heart gives birth to as one equipped with a
purer blood. This heat is emanated in the form of rays which,
emitted by open eyes fixing their gaze with strong
imaginative power, ultimately produce a wound in the object
of their look, touch the heart, and succeed in afflicting the
other persons heart and spirit, either with love or hatred,
with envy, melancholia, or some other kindred emotional
force. Feeling the attraction of love is a phenomenon which
takes place when two people frequently eye one another
through a direct, intense look. In that case, visual rays,
mutually radiating, meet one another, and light is wedded to
light. It is at that point that spirits are conjoined together,
and that the superior light, by indoctrinating the lower one,
shimmers through the eyes, and races to penetrate into the
inner spirit, the one that is rooted in the heart; it is in that
fashion that an amorous conflagration is stirred into being.
If, however, you do not want to fall into the spell of
fascination, you must be extremely cautious, and guard your
eyes specifically, as the eyes are largely the only windows of
the soul when it comes to love. That is the reason behind the
famous saying: Averte, averte oculos tuos! 5. Let this
instruction suffice for now!
[Giordano Bruno 6].
Fascination is the technical term which is used to indicate
the capacity of captivating people through the eyes. The image
of the Medusa which petrifies by the look is certainly the
metaphorical transposition of such a reality. It is the
5
6

Literally, deflect, deflect your eyes away!.

Cf. Giordano Bruno Opera, p. 27.

10

equivalent of the action we were able to notice in Virgilio T., as

he literally turned his subjects into statues.
Though it might be deemed strange that merely through the
use of the sight it is possible to freeze a person by placing him
in a state of incantation, the action exercised by this on the
brain is given greater intelligibility if we were simply to pay
notice to what happens after all to simple animals when they
are dazzled by light. They stop dead in their tracks, as if
immobilized in a state of astonishment, no longer able to
decipher the situation they find themselves in. Mosquitoes go
as far as incinerating themselves, a typical feature which is
exploited by people in order to spend their summer without
suffering too many bites.
A possible way of explaining the phenomenon is that a
direct look produces a restriction of the attention field in
respect of the recipient of it, whence the gamut of different
uses of the technique as applied in daily actions of persuasion.
So long as, therefore, you keep some person under the grip
of your look, you will learn that he will gain a greater capacity
to perceive emotions and feelings. You will, at the same time,
increasingly reduce the force of his subjective judgment and
will 7.
7

That is due to some experimental proofs which show how

refraining from deflecting ones eyes (and thereby keeping ones look
firm) diminishes a persons critical ability. See in this connection
http://www.psychology.stir.ac.uk/staff/lcalderwood/GazeAversionR
esearch.htm. You can further refer to "Physiological Aspects of
Communication via Mutual Gaze", by Allan Mazur, Eugene Rosa, at
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2778851: This series of experiments
evinces 1) how reciprocal looks occasion responses at a physiological
level, 2) the fact that a person can bring about changes in somebody
elses physiology through his look, and 3) the truth that look is linked
to facets of domination accruing to one side to a conversation in the
course thereof.

11

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

In order for the eye to be endowed with an effective
strength, however, it is necessary to educate it through a
specific training, and to attain an alert cognizance of its power.
You ought to train yourselves, fundamentally, on how to
acquire a fixed, interested, sweetly penetrating and expressive
look. Once you have succeeded in doing so, you will be able to
hold the first key among those which, provided they are used
correctly, are going to open for you new doors in life.
It is imperative that your vision should be simultaneously
panoramic and incisive, such that it can encompass both the
totality and the detailed particulars. This state occurs to many
people during moments of enthusiasm. In order for you to
bring it about at will, however, self-training is a mandatory
duty.
The practical benefits of that are manifold. In the field of
persuasion, for instance, the eyes can produce an irresistible
effect, and practical experience teaches us that such effect will
be even stronger if we learn how to keep them open in a
motionless state, studiously avoiding to deflect our look, albeit
for a split second, away from the base of the other persons
nose, and simultaneously having a clear idea of what we desire
to achieve.
The exercises, apart from having the capacity to powerfully
develop your eyes, will additionally sharpen your attention and
evolve other indispensable faculties in life.
An essential requirement is that you should learn to achieve
firm power over your own selves. The first level of exercises
which help develop this power properly is in fact based on
mastering ones own body and its impulses, emotions, violent
desires, and the mental plane with its characteristic
digressions and instability. The aim behind it is that all of the
aforesaid should submit to the higher self and should
transform into a positive instrument that guides our strengths
and our eye in a conscious fashion, one which is not
12

abandoned to dependence on mere instinctiveness. The ability

to enchant, indeed, is not only human, yet only man is capable
of steering it toward positive and delopment-bound purposes.
Animals capture prey through the look as well, but only in an
unconscious manner. There have always been tales of snakes
gifted with special faculties to cast their charm upon their
victim and thereby disable it from shunning its spires; their
power reaches such an extreme degree that they cause birds to
step down, draw closer, and let themselves be grabbed without
being able to offer any resistance in an attempt at selfprotection. A similar narration had also been reported to us by
our master. The protagonists of that story consisted in a fox
and some hens 8. A friend of his owned a hen house, and was
astounded by the fact that some of the hens would go missing.
Imagine how much did his astonishment escalate when he
realized that such hens used to climb over a branch, while
underneath, on the ground, a fox used to look at them and
wave its head in the process. It appears as if, on their own
initiative, the hens would then throw themselves underneath,
where they would be devoured by the fox.
Fascination is also the historical basis of the classical give
me your eyes, please of the hypnotizers of yesteryear. Though
such a personage is still alive in popular perceptions, he has
effectively become extinct by now, given that the techniques of
hypnosis which are currently utilized on a preponderant basis
are both lengthy and based on the use of words. They mostly
derive from a practice strand of American origin which is
disconnected from the ancient tradition 9. No one among
8 We are unaware of whether Virgilio used to recount it for the
purpose of teaching us something, in other words, as something of
metaphorical value, or for merely narrative reasons. Virgilio is in fact
fond of spinning stories as opposed to relating concepts directly.
9 Most of the hypnotic techniques that are currently practiced
base themselves, according to the Americans, on the works of L

13

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

present-day professional hypnotists, not even among the most
celebrious ones, is really capable of making use of the look.
Nevertheless, look might, if and when it is understood,
function as a valuable aid to any hypnotic influence, due to the
fact that it engenders by itself a suspension of certain critical
faculties, and does so in a totally natural manner.
Summary of the methods of utilization of the technique
1. In everyday life and in the sphere or relationships: The
reason why a certain person makes an impact on us, and seems
to us alive, lies in the self-confident mastery exuded by a look
which seduces, attracts, enchants. Our eye can be educated in
this respect and guided to the attainment of those effects.
2. Within the therapeutic field: Since ancient times,
healing power has been attributed to the look. Both
Hippocrates 10 and Dioscorides 11, as well as Theophrastus 12,
forcefully maintain that healing power could be exercised
through the look, gestures and specific rituals. Our own master
Erminio from Pisa 13, therefore, perpetuated such tradition by
causing the instant healing of pains of the muscles and the
skeleton, tinnitus, and several other disorders. A theory that
might provide justification for such results is the one set out
here under: The mind is sometimes caught in the grips of what
is usually referred to as fixed ideas. We keep on thinking the
same things, and we let ourselves be constantly chased by the
Milton Erickson, Dave Elman and other individuals, and essentially
rest on the use of verbalizations.
10

Cf. Hippocrates, De Sacro Morbo de Magis.

Cf. Dioscorides, Book ii, chapter 10.
12 Cf. J Theophrastus, De Histor. Plant, Book IX, chapter 4.
13 At our institute, we keep a very beautiful video which shows
how, within the space of a few seconds, he was able to remove pains
and a wide array of blocks.
11

14

phantom of old thoughts and go round and round the same set
of concepts. The charming attraction of the look, therefore,
smashes such deeply engrained ideas. It is as if through the
means of fascination, moreover, we succeeded in entering the
other person. Every persons world is fenced off by a limiting
boundary consisting in the narrow space of what his sight
encompasses and reaches up to. Accordingly, by meeting such
persons look we simultaneously penetrate inside the
interpersonal reality of our interlocutor, and we are then able
to help him from within. Even the phase of concentration
and meditation techniques that one passes through with the
aim of strengthening the eye contains within itself a practical
usefulness in the field of personality reinforcement.
3. Within the arena of personal growth: We must possess
awareness of the look. The exercises that are utilized for the
sake of fascination might additionally prove to be of great avail
if one seeks to acquire a clearer, neater and more magnetic
personality, as well as to attain greater "Presence".
4. To induce a hypnotic trance in a natural way.
Fascination might represent the key to develop a specific form
of instant hypnosis. Besides, all hypnotic techniques are
speeded up by prior recourse to the use of fascination.
Fascination in the relationship between the two sexes
Fascination is also a fundamental component of the forms
which the relationship between man and woman take. What is
it that, ultimately, makes a man distinguish a woman from
thousands of unknown members of her sex who cross his way
in the streets? Why is it that this man who, notwithstanding
the fact that he has witnessed countless eyes staring at his,
directs his look only to these particular eyes? It was but a flash,
and yet that flash has unveiled to him an ocean of happiness
and mystery. The relevant man, spellbound and enraptured, is
forced to retrace his steps so as to meet again that look which
15

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

has made his restless, which has unleashed into his soul a
storm that is unable to subside unless he can again look out
from the thresholds of this divine enigma. The reverse is
likewise true: Man, with his look, captivates the woman, gazes
at her, and she, in turn, lowers her gaze in order to attract him
14.
The modern world is saturated with a plethora of social
conventions, and no one can really attempt to make a loud
confession of the feelings that are dearest to his heart, or give
voice to the aspirations buried in his innermost being. Even
though a person might wish to love and be loved, he can often
do nothing other than reconciling himself to a state of wait.
There is, however, a magical tool of communication, a hidden
accomplice: The look, the silent lamp in ones eyes. The eye
caresses, the eye invites, the eye promises, exasperates desire
and vanity, and is capable of throwing one into despair or
suddenly thrusting one back to the pinnacle of human joy.
Through the look, we communicate ourselves and our
idiosyncractic reality. It is in our look that the person facing us
discerns the truth of who we are and where we are heading for.
Eye in the Tradition
The eye has always been at the heart of human culture,
transmuted into a symbol, at the center of ritual ceremonies,
and a protagonist in metaphors.
It is the most precious sensory organ in the human body: It
allows us to become aware of the surrounding environment,
and assists us in creating the three-dimensional perception of
space.
The eye has been perennially linked to knowledge, owning
the world and dominating it.
14 Inspired by Occhi Fascinatori, a book authored by an
anonymous writer, 1920, Hermes, Milan.

16

The eye is, moreover, the sensory organ that is most closely
related to light, which is an element that is fundamental to life
15. The eye is an essential organ of man, both as regards his life
and his distinct individuality.
We can discern both the following in the traditions that
relate to this organ:

An attention that is extended to each one of the two

eyes, which are related to pairs of opposite principles (sun and
moon, male and female, etc);

An attention which is focused on the point between the

two eyes, seen as a central locus and as the point in which
intuitive faculties might be developed.
In the practice of fascination through the look, both these
elements are of significance, due to the fact that the median
point between the eyes is one of the points which were
traditionally used in order to observe this point itself.
We are now going to pay notice to how we are capable of
coming across these very same elements in different
civilizations.
According to the ancient Egyptians, for instance, the eye of
Horus might be both the right eye and the left eye.
Traditionally, the right eye is linked to the sun, while the left
one is connected to the moon 16.
15 The sun is also the irradiating eye of heaven, the eye of Jupiter,
Zeus, Wotan, (among Germanic nations), Osiris and Horus (in
ancient Egypt), Mitra, Varuna and Agni (India), Ahura-Mazda (in
Persia), Maui (in New Zealand), Ama-terasu Oho-mikami (in Japan),
Pan-ku (in China), etc.
16 In terms of an ancient Egyptian legend, the sun and the moon
were the eyes of a large divinity, Hor-jerti, i.e. Horus of the two
eyes. This pair of eyes is similarly linked to two snakes as part of a
tradition reminiscent of the Indian tradition which is part of
kundalini, and in accordance with which ida and pingala are the
names of the two lateral channels around the sushunna. This
tradition about the two lateral parts of the body sill goes on even in

17

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

In the East, Shiva is often depicted with three eyes: Two
such eyes, which correspond to the sun and the moon, are
directed towards the outside world, towards the things, which
accordingly seem to exist in a state of duality. There is yet a
third eye, centrally located, a unifying eye which faces a
different dimension, one of self-consciousnes and selfintuition, which is symbolized by a spiral in the drawing set
out here under.

From an anatomical point of view, we can notice how in

man the location of the right eye and the left eye corresponds
to the two hemispheres of the brain, and are often related to
rational value (linked to the masculine principle) and
emotional value (which is more feminine).
The eye in the middle or third eye, therefore, is neither
masculine nor feminine.
At a physiological level, this point corresponds to the
epiphysis, which is where the pineal gland regulating mans
day / night cycle, and which secretes melatonin, is situated.
Such pineal gland has a relation with intuition.
The eye lying on the median point between sun and moon
might bring to mind the importance of a higher vision and the
possibility of attaining thereby a superior vision.
A concept which is shared by plentiful traditions is the
reawakening by the third eye, which signifies an opening that
gradually leads to an amplification of consciousness.

the fascination school of Virgilio T., as it confers special importance

on the two hemispheres.

18

A link might be established between such phenomenology

and factors which are both physiological and purely connected
to percepton.
A French researcher, Dr. Lefebure 17, used to observe the
fact that this central point of the third eye corresponded to a
certain physiological position where the normal threedimensional vision was suspended. In theory, we could then
simultaneously discern an object placed on that point from
every side. Dr. Lefebures hypothesis was that such a
suspension of the ordinary mode of perception might have a
significant impact on the brain, by steering it beyond space.
According to many traditions, such a third eye is also
portrayed as being contained inside a triangle which functions
as a symbol of fire as well. Fire is in fact the element endowed
with the highest level of vibration 18.
This link between the triangle and the eye is similarly
present, in Europe, in both medieval and renaissance
iconography, in terms of which the eye, often inserted within a
triangle, was after all seen as an explicit image of the trinity.
We find a similar symbolism in the East, where Buddha
(often called "the eye of the world") is represented in the form
of a triangle known as Tiratna or threefold gem.
It is important to understand that such an intuitive center
or third eye, though already quite present as perceptive centre
in man, and recognized by for instance the Indians as ajna
chakra, is nevertheless in a state of slumber in most cases.
Being in a stage of embryonic development, it has to be
fashioned through development and opening itself up in
17

Cf. Lefebure, Initiatic Techniques.

An illustrating example of that is the eye depicted even on US
dollars. The eye as represented in it, moreover, is placed in such a
manner as to form the summit of a pyramid, almost as if to complete
it and symbolically allude thereby at the fact that the building is
incomplete without such a superior vision.
18

19

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

consonance with the appropriate rhythm, which varies from
person to person.
Our own interpretation is that, essentially speaking, it is as
if this physiological point was occupied, at least
physiologically, by the task of delineating a specific identity
and mental constitution, engaged, that is, by the
conceptualizations which engross the mind, and by the
dualistic vision of the world.
It is only when this type of mental block is released, that
intuition is able to wake up again and be harmoniously
reactivated, thereby enabling a correct development of
consciousness.
In this connection, we can observe the fact the various
hypnotic pratices 19 resort to the method of touching that area,
due to its capacity of facilitating the task of letting go of oneself
and precipitating into a state of hypnosis, as the process is in
fact disturbed in that manner.
The full reawakening on the part of the third eye is
connected to a development of ones consciousness that is
achieved over a period of time, as the consequential fruit of
individual effort and working on oneself.
The more one progresses in the practice of fascination, the
more one can discern a greater sensibility in that area.
Finally, as far as the level at which the eye operates is
concerned, the Kabbalists are of the view that it acts on an
ethereal plane, the universally shared book, where all the
19 In an even more ancient epoch, Abbot Faria used to inter alia
resort to touching that area as a hypnogenous method. More
recently, we have personally been able to notice how Jerry Kein, an
American hypnotist, used to repeatedly touch that point so as to
facilitate the inducement of a hypnotic state. Various French
hypnotists and magnetizers at the start of the 20th century (cf.
Moutin, Le Magntisme Humain) make mention of this point as an
important one to press in order to let go of the personality and
thereby ease the fostering of a hypnotic condition.

20

instances of mans conduct are recorded in writing, namely,

the ether. In it, all the units of human behaviour are inscribed,
including the look of the eyes, or whatever nice or evil is said
20.
It is odd that this theory antedates the more recent one of
Rupert Sheldrake (1998-1999-2000) that concerns morphic
fields, i.e. the theory of resonance fields which are not directly
perceptible but which have a tendency to thrust forms into a
particular direction 21.
In terms of an ancient Egyptian legend, the sun and the
moon were the eyes of a large divinity, Hor-jerti, i.e. Horus of
the two eyes. This pair of eyes is similarly linked to two snakes
as part of a tradition reminiscent of the Indian tradition which
is included in the kundalini, and in accordance with which ida
and pingala are the names of the two lateral channels around
the sushunna. This tradition about the two lateral parts of the
body sill goes on even in the fascination school of Virgilio T., as
it confers special importance on the two hemispheres.

20

Cf. Esarah Maimeroth, 49.

Cf. Rupert Sheldrake, The sense of being stared at. This book
also quotes many interesting experiments where people react to a
look even when they are stared at from behind. Refer in particular to
the following articles Sheldrake, R. (1998): The sense of being
stared at: Experiments in schools, in JSPR 62, 311-323; (1999) The
sense of being stared at confirmed by simple experiments, in Biology
Forum 92, 53-76; (2000a) The sense of being stared at does not
depend on known sensory clues, in Biology Forum 93, 209-224;
(2000b) Research on the feeling of beng stared at (submitted to
Skeptical Inquirer).
21

21

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

The art of conferring fascination on the

eyes
Let us now talk about the practical art of making eyes
strong, attractive and regaled with charming attraction. This in
fact represents the central phase of the method. As several
elements need to be coordinated, this part of our work is
divided into 3 sections:
1. Fixity of the look;
2. Rapidity of the look;
3. Expression of the look.
It is recommended that our prescriptions should be
scrupulously followed, as they will quickly lead you to a truly
surprising result. In no other work than this text of ours are
you in fact going to come across so many exercises with so
much power at the same time.
I. FIXITY OF THE LOOK
As we know very well, the capacity to maintain a fixed look
is one of the main prerequisites of a proficient fascinator. In
addition to developing the fixity of your look, these exercises
will also gift you a resolutely decisively and potent will.
Exercise 1
While in front of a mirror, you should fix your gaze on the
third eye without batting your eyelids. You should pursue this
exercise gradually, until you can manage to extend its
duration. Refer in this regard to the instructions applicable to
the next exercise.

22

Exercise 2
Take a business card and, at the back thereof, sketch the
contour of a large coin. Thereafter, blacken the whole of the
inside with some China ink leaving a strong mark, save for a
minuscule little circle in the middle you are going to leave it
white. Thereupon, affix the small cardboard piece onto the wall
at your eyes level, while you remain seated. You should set
your self at a distance of some half a metre, which will then
need to be increasingly reduced. Focus your look firmly upon
the central white spot for a minute. During this period, no
effort should be spared to avoid lowering the pupils of your
eyes. In the event that you are gripped by an irresistible desire
to lower them, you ought to engage in the opposite muscular
effort, that is, striving to lift the pupils. Once you have
mastered how to effortlessly stare at the disk for half a minute,
you should then gradually extend the session until you can
manage to fix your gaze on the disk for 15 to 20 minutes. It
must be clearly understood that the eyes should not limit
themselves to look at the small white dot, but should actually
see it; throughout such period, your mind must refrain from
wandering absent-mindedly, and must rather concentrate,
with the greatest possible energy, on the thought that you are
carrying out this exercise for the purpose of strengthening your
eyes.
By pursuing this exercise on an ongoing basis, you will discern
a series of effects:
a) After a while, the strain will diminish, and you will feel a
surge of calm and tranquil stillness inside your self;
b) The white dot might disappear, it will turn grey, it will
undergo a change, and it will stretch into the black area;
c) The black space is going to acquire a distinct splendour, and
you might go as far as feeling a kind of fine sand under the
eyelids;
23

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

d) You will experience a most potent inducement to close
your eyes, but that is something you must studiously avoid to
do at any cost.

Exercise 3 The exercise of the luminous ball

Get yourself a crystal ball of the type that stationery shops
sell as paperweight. If you cannot find such a ball, you can
settle for a round crystal container filled with clear water.
Thereafter, place the ball or the round container on the table,
in such a manner that the surrounding light is going to
concentrate on a precisely demarcated and shining spot.
Thereupon, as you are comfortably seated in front of the
object, half a metre away from it, you should fix the luminous
point, at first for one minute, and then for a progressively
longer period that eventually reaches up to a quarter of an
hour.
Exercise 1 The glass
Create in yourself a state of relaxation and calmness. You
might even look at the aforesaid crystal ball, or alternatively at
a glass. Take that object and, as you look inside it, issue the
following instruction to your self: My look is getting strong.

24

Exercise 2 The mirror

Implement now the very same exercise in front of a mirror.
Keep in mind, as you proceed with it, that you should always
retain self-consciousness. 22
Exercise 3. The oblique disk
Affix the cardboard disk onto a mirror. After you have sat
down in front of the cardboard, you should slowly turn your
chair (it would be even better for you to use a swivel chair)
without taking your eye off the central white spot, all the way
until you succeed in seeing it clearly. At that point, you ought
to keep on staring at the disk for increasingly longer periods.
After you have originally turned the chair to your right, do so
to your left as well.
NB: It is the chair that must turn under you, as opposed to
your body or head, which must in fact remain throughout in
the right position against the back of the chair. 23

22 It is necessary to look at a mirror in a state of selfconsciousness, lest some people might lose themselves in the
mirror, as it occurred to Narcissus. As stated by Baron Karl von
Reichenbach (1788-1869), who carried out a number of experiments
in this regard, there are some people on whom looking at
themselves in the mirror confers ... an imppression of weakness ...
Such people do not usually look at themselves in the mirror, and in
fact cannot even stand their own look (Cf. Reichenbach, Briefe, p.
6). In several German and Hungarian traditions, it is believed that
children below the age of 1 year should abstain from looking at
themselves in a mirror (Cf. Seligmann, p. 285).
23 The exercise might even be carried out by affixing the small
piece of cardboard onto the wall. The purpose of this exercise is to
develop lateral vision, as that makes ones look even stronger.

25

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Exercise 4
While you look at the spot which lies between your eyes,
draw closer and more distant as you incessantly look at the
same spot. This exercise develops a persons magnetic look
even if he is in motion.24
Exercise 5. The oblique luminous ball
It consists in repeating the motion-related exercise in its
different positions, with the sole variation of replacing the
black disk with the shining ball.
Exercise 6 The needle of the watch
Place in front of your self, no more than 40 centimetres
away, your pocket watch, and then begin to fix your look on the
needle that indicates the seconds, following its head as it
rotates clockwise, without your sight letting go of it. By means
of this exercise, you will become capable of maintaining
automatic control over the increasing resistance of your look.
Exercise 7. The wall
Sit comfortably in the middle of a room in such a way that
you are freely capable of observing the four corners of the wall
in front of you. Once that preliminary step has been taken (and
while you unerringly keep your self still), you must then begin
to stare for a minute at the top left corner. You follow that up
by staring at the top right corner, whereafter, once more for
the duration of one minute in each instance, you should fix
your look on the bottom right corner and the bottom left
corner respectively.
This exercise, too, which avails a far-reaching extension of
the shape of the eyes and the strengthening of the orbicular
muscles of the eye, must be progressively stretched time-wise.
24 The present exercise might additionally be done together with
the close-far exercise which is going to be described a bit later.

26

Exercise 8. The rotation of the look

This exercise ought to be carried out in some open space by
the countryside, or else in a place boasting a vast horizon. As
you unflinchingly keep your head motionless, you should then
begin, starting from either a real or an imaginary point in front
of you, to trace with your look a gradually expanding spiral,
until you are eventually able to encompass the largest possible
portion of earth and sky, to your right and to your left, above
and below you.
Once you have accomplished that, you should move back to
the central point and then begin to trace a new spiral, though
in an opposite direction compared to the first one. We can
discern that all the exercises requiring us to move the pupil of
the eye possess a mental benefit alongside their mental
usefulness.
The different positions of the eye, in fact, tend to
correspond to different points of access to the brain. 25 By
motioning the eyes in every direction, we accordingly confer on
the brain a global stimulation.
Exercise 9. The central point
Using a pen, draw a small black dot at the base of your nose
which is situated between the eyelashes, whereafter you should
place yourselves in front of a mirror, comfortably seated, and

Refer, for instance, to Bandler, Dilts, Grinde, Programmazione

Neurolinguistica, edited by Astrolabio, or else to the EMDR
technique followed by Shapiro. Many problems are solved by means
of ocular movements. Dr. Lefebure, too, makes mention of an
exercise based on motioning the head, which is aimed at more
thoroughly activitating ones cerebral faculties. Cf. Linitation de
Pietro.
25

27

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

intensely fix your gaze on that point for growingly longer time
periods.
Exercise 10. The oblique mirror
Turn your right shoulder in the direction of the mirror and,
as you keep your head straight ahead of you in a motionless
state, you must then attempt, by turning the eyes, to meet your
own look. If you fail to bring that about, turn your head as little
as possible, until you have managed to meet your look. At that
point, you should stare at your eyes intensely for progressively
more extended time spans. Repeat the exercise by your left
side. Lift the mirror or sit in a low position, so that, for you to
meet your own look, you will be required to lift up your eyes as
high as you can.
In front of the mirror, you should analyse the various
possible blends of combinations, in such a way that the pupils
respectively turn to the right top, the right bottom, the left top,
and the left bottom. The exercise is implemented more
comfortably in the event that you have at your disposal a
revolving mirror which turns around a fulcrum, or, better still,
a psyche (which consists in the combination of three
different mirrors that cast their reflections from different
angles).
Exercise 11. The exercise of the line
Stare at the corner of a table, and then go through one of its
edges with your look, all the way until you reach the opposite
corner, whereupon you move backward. You then keep
following this process.
The ocular itinerary must be gone through in a gradually
slower manner, by being careful neither to let your sight halt
at any one specific point nor to jump any one point with your
look. The most thorough consistency is an imperative must.
Repeat then the exercise verticall,y along the seam of a
wardrobe, window, tent and so on.

28

Exercise 12. The exercise of the book

Take a book and begin to run through its lines with your
sight, in such a way as to cover every alternate page in an
opposite sense, as was the case with the ancient Greek script.
In other words, once you have run through the first line
normally (from left to right), you should proceed in the
contrary direction with the next line, i.e. from right to left, and
so on and so forth. While doing that, you ought to lower your
look constantly. Repeat this exercise by covering an
increasingly larger number of lines.
N. B. What is of course required is not to understand what
one is reading through.
Exercise 13. The policemans look
This exercise, which is the consequential fruit of all the
previous ones, is so called because it tends to bestow on
policemen the special prerogative of watching objects from
right to left, while making as if they are not actually seeing
them.
You must thus walk along the road while you keep your
head down, as if a stiff neck precluded you from turning it in
any direction.
As you keep still in the said fashion, you should strive to see
and recognize the people walking to your right or to your left,
read the posters, count the windows and the trees, etc.
This exercise is of a capital importance, and it should be
adopted as an invariable norm. It is after all the secret of the
mobility and variety of ones look.
Exercise 14. The farewell look
While on the road, a bus, a train compartment, a railway,
stare at any object that has popped up in front of you (ahead of
you, to your right or to your left), and, while you unceasingly
keep your head motionless, begin to fix it as the vehicle draws
you close to such object. When you are about to move past it,
you should not let go of the object with your sight. Rather, you
29

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

should follow it all the way until some intervening hindrance
wrests it away from your sight. It will be good if you can
alternate the exercise by fixing objects on your right as well as
on your left, so as to train both eyes.
Another option is for you to implement the exercise by
staring at the objects moving around on the road while you
yourself keep still.

II. THE RAPIDITY OF THE LOOK

. Repeat now, this time at the highest possible
speed, the previously mentioned exercises that are
based on motion.
Such exercises, which are taught in order to train the fixity
of ones look, must be carried out afresh, save that this time
they will aim at achieving a quite different objective, namely,
training the rapidity of the look.
Here is how it should be done: In the exercise of the wall,
the look will be required to race as fast as possible from one
corner of the wall to the other; as regards the exercise of the
rotation of the look, the spiral will need to be traced at an ever
growing velocity; when it comes to the exercise of the line,
such line will still have to be followed backward and forward,
but no longer with increasing slowness, rather, at a constantly
accelerated pace; and finally, as far as the exercise of the book
is concerned, the lines must be covered very quickly, as if in a
the flash of a lightning.

30

Exercise 15. The restless eyes

As we emulate we would be tempted to say a suspicious
individual, you should move your eyes continuously and
restlessly, thrusting your look upwardly, to the right and to the
left, indeed, in every possible direction, and you should do so
as rapidly as you can possibly manage, for a time span of 5 to
10 minutes.
It is however imperative that the look should really settle on
the objects which it turns to for a sufficiently long period to
enable it to recognize them, whereupon you should detach
your look from any such object at once in order to direct it
firmly, in the selfsame manner, on some object situated on the
opposite side.

III. EXPRESSION OF THE LOOK

It is by now an empirically demonstrated fact that the
intense and constant desire to perfect some demarcated
sensory organ or specific faculty is truly capable of
substantially improving it.
If such reality might seem to be dubious with regard to the
lower senses, it is nevertheless indisputable and even
intelligible when it comes to the sight, and even more when we
turn to the expression of the eye.
The expression of our eyes reflects, in a precise and
unconscious manner, the state of our inner cores, exactly as a
placid surface of water reflects the condition of the sky above.
As a result, whereas the lip is capable of a lie, it is quite
difficult for the eyes to lie.
When we fix our gaze on something that is ardently desired
or vehemently loathed, our eyes naturally become expressive.

31

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

It is at this juncture that the problem emerges: How can we
possibly perpetuate the expressiveness of our eyes?
To a great extent, this question is solved by the exercises
that we have been listing up to now. A pair of healthy, vigorous
and fast-moving eyes is full of charm on that ground alone.
This is nonetheless insufficient. We want to regale our eyes
with that inward fire which is a telling indicator of a fervent
soul.
It is here that the problem defines itself. It is clear that a
young lady might not desire a dominant, Napoleonic look for
herself, at the same time that a soldier or a businessman will
certainly have no inclination to possess a normally voluptuous
look. Every one should accordingly pose the following question
to his or her own self:
Which expression am I going to bestow upon my eyes?
The said question might in turn be subsumed under the one
set out hereunder:
Which is the expression of the look that accords best with
my physiognomy, my profession, my condition, the purpose I
am seeking to accomplish?
Each one of us can easily solve such problem, whereupon
his efforts will be fully concentrated on acquiring the desired
expression.
What is particularly helpful in that regard is self-persuasion
by ones suggestive will.
Persuading oneself bears the connotation of counselling
oneself, giving oneself to believe that one is found in the
specific physical or mental state that is desired by such a
person, and then acting accordingly. We plead with our
readers to reflect properly about the import of that definition.
The one who, for instance, desires to persuade himself in
order for him to acquire a shiningly radiant and expressive
look, ought to begin by deeming himself already in possession
of such a look.

32

But how can self-persuasion be accomplished? The

following exercise will help you.
Exercise 16. Suggestive persuasion
Here is the simplest system to actualize it. Self-persuasion
might take place at any time of the day, but the most
propitious moment is in the evening, as one is lying in bed
prior to catching sleep. We are thus going to start by you
forcing your thought into a state of tranquillity, by making sure
that you forget the events and worries of that particular day.
When you eventually feel you are immersed in a state of
perfect calm, you will have to focus your mind on the thought
that your look becomes exquisite, luminous, glowingly bright,
and that in future other people cannot but concur that what
you are busy thinking in that connection is actually true.
You will have, in other words, to perceive yourself as
already endowed with a particular look, whichever one you
might happen to crave for.
Take care to fall asleep with this thought. In the morning,
when you wake up, you will undoubtedly still recall the selfpersuasion of the previous night. You are encouraged in that
instance to confirm it to your own self, in the invariable sense
we have alluded at, i.e. not merely desiring for yourselves, but
rather believing yourselves to be already factually endowed
with the look you prefer, and thus imagining its manifold
effects, agreeable consequences, etc.

33

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Exercise 17. Always keep the eyes wide open 26
While following the said advice especially at home one
must make sure that the eyes are not opened widely with an
astonished look. On the contrary, the sight must be sharp and
expressive. The purpose behind the exercise is to automatically
enlarge the shape of the eye. While keeping the eyes open,
therefore, take care not to cross the eyebrows, and to leave
them instead in their normal position.27
Exercise 18. The spot on the mirror
This is an adaptation of the preceding exercise, which is
however carried out for a different reason. By resorting to a
pen or a pencil, you should draw a large black spot over the
surface of a mirror. Place then yourself in front of the mirror,
in such a manner as to perceive that spot by the base of your
nose rather than on the mirror.

26 As we have remarked in a previous footnote, Tommaso

Campanella used to take notice of how the impact by the eyes
manifested more easily in wonderment and love for a person or a
thing. Tommaso Campanella accordingly advised to keep the
eyebrows lifted up and the eyes opened, so that the spirit might flow
out (Campanella, De sensu rerum, Book IV, chapter XV, 326).
Other writers, too, had discerned that truth, as well as the fact that,
for instance, people in love tended to enlarge both the spirit and the
eyes (Cf. Fracastor, Sympath., Chapter XXIII, 139). In our own
practice, we have always noticed that the greater is the white part of
the eyes, the greater is the influence that is perceived. A larger
opening of the eyes, moreover, enables more elements in the pupil to
get reflected.
27 Each person has a specific configuration of eyelids and
eyelashes. Every one among us, accordingly, possesses a position of
the eyes which best suits the beauty of his eyes, comparatively with
all other positions. You have to devise clever ways to discover such
position, and turn it into one which is instinctive and familiar to your
own person.

34

You ought to simultaneously inject your look with an

intense expression, in so doing striving to be truly permeated
by that feeling which you want your eyes to give expression to.
Exercise 19. With one eye only
Repeat now the immediately preceding exercise, only that
this time you shall carry it out by using one eye only, covering
with your hand, alternatively bandaging, the right eye or the
left one at alternate times.
Exercise 20 Gather your attention in the middle
Take a makeup mirror, and fix the black spot within the
white circle with such an intensity that it is as if through it you
were looking at the brain. Do that with each eye in turn for
four seconds, whereafter you will stare at the median point
situated between your eyelids.
Exercise 21. The vowel eee
This particular exercise lends the sight a magical strength.
It is sufficient if you were to calmly look at yourself in the
mirror and then breathe deeply and slowly, until you
eventually feel calm and harmonious, at which point you
pronounce the vowel "eee"28 so long as there is air in your
lungs. You must feel the sensation that your whole head is
oscillating at once. This exercise massages the nerves of your
eyes and the whole skull in a very powerful manner.29
Exercise 22. The look of the glands
Erase the spot you had previously drawn on the mirror, and
fix the look on your own self, moving ever more closely
forward. In doing so, you should look at yourself by the corners
of your lachrymal glands.
Eee should be pronounced ih or as the I at the begin of italy
See in regard to this exercise Peter Livers, Deine
Wesensaustrahlung. Unlike the previous exercises, the origin of this
specific one is found in Yoga.
28
29

35

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

This is the very same method in terms of which you are later
going to look at people you deal with.
Looking at the pupils, as every one is aware, will tire you
very quickly. By contrast, looking at the point we have
demarcated can be prolonged indefinitely (the more so if one
keeps on shifting the look from one gland to the other), and
that has the effect of compelling your interlocutor to
unfailingly lower his own eyes and feel perturbed by yours,
without being able to understand why that is so.
Exercise 23. Exercises combining rapidity with
massage
An alternative practice is to shut your eyes as firmly as you
can, in order for you to open them widely to the maximum
possible extent while you squeeze your temples with the palms
of your hands by pulling toward the ears, as indicated in the
illustration here below.

36

You must alternate your looks between your right and your
left as much as it is feasible. Repeat the action 12 or more
times.
Look down as much as possible, while you squeeze your
temples in the above-illustrated manner.

37

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Look up as much as you can manage as you keep on

squeezing the temples.
Lift your eyes to your right to the greatest possible extent,
and then let them trace a full circle. As you engage in this
motion, the palms of your hands, similarly to the preceding
exercise, must press firmly against your temples.

38

Exercise 24. The look on the road

We are going now to teach a rule aimed at impressing
whoever happens to approach you on the road.
If you want to make him take notice of the power of your
look, you cannot begin by fixing your gaze on him from afar.
You should rather figure out the most appropriate point at
which you will start fixing the look of your eyes on his person.
This point coincides with the moment in which your pupils
are bound, in order to meet his pupils, to cover the largest
space in their motion. This is something which confers on the
eye a special and unforgettable glow.
Accordingly, if the relevant individual were to stand right in
front of us, we would only lift up our eyes to his person, in a
flash, precisely when he is close to us. If, on the other hand, he
happened to accost us from the side, we might safely begin to
fix our look upon him a little earlier, but only on condition that
you have first turned your head in the opposite direction. The
look will thus be projected out twice: Firstly in order to reach
39

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

the other persons eyes, and secondly in a persistent manner,
while turning the head slightly, for the purpose of watching
him further in a more comfortable and intense fashion.

40

Comprehending ocular expressions

The eyes provide a clear idea of the feelings ensconced in
our heart and soul. By looking into the eyes, we can discern the
most intimate emotions, the eye appears to be in a direct
relationship with the soul, and it appears as if it touches the
soul and shares all its impulses. It is on account of such reason
that Galen termed the eyes divine organs. In his view, the head
was made exclusively for them. Pliny deemed the eye to be the
residence of the soul and its natural dwelling, whereas others
defined it as the wrist of the reasonable soul.
In love, eyes open up along their median line: The white
part remains still, and the pupil sparkles. When desire grips
the eyes, they light up, become more lively and comely, and the
pupil spurts out fire as it is normally put . If they are
steeped in intimacy, shame, or reticence, the eyes are lowered;
whereas the pupil is stirred up by a disquieting motion in a
state of joy and satisfaction. As for moments of merriment or
when one is laughing, the eye, too, is worried, sad, it does not
shine, it is as if switched off, and it fixes the ground, nearly
shut, or else looks ahead without really seeing. In anger, when
eyes redden, the agitated pupil is set into motion in every 30
sense.
The position of the eyelid
We have spoken about the importance, for the sake of
exercising a captivating charm, of keeping the eyes open. There
are essentially three ocular postures which are the most
significant, and which are shaped by the position assumed by
the eyelid vis--vis the eye:
30 Refer also to the booklet published in the 20s by the Milanbased publishing house Hermes, titled Fisionomia.

41

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

At the eyes level: It normally indicates a pensive state. It is

quite common among the majority of people. It is indeed
the condition of the average person
By the edges of the iris: It is characteristic of emotional
liveliness, and it is useful even in respect of a glance
Above the iris: It indicates a strong emotional involvement,
and it is one of the pointers of fascination

The eyelid
The pupil, too, corresponds to a large extent to the attitude
of a person, thereby identifying his approach to the world.
Contracted Pupil (needles eye). It is typical of the act of
observing, be it detached or attentive, as well as of the
electrical profile of the person concerned. The person is
imposing his own reality.
Enlarged Pupil (mydriatic profile). It is characteristically
representative of the attention to the here and now. It
typifies a magnetic and attractive profile. The person
concerned is entering the world of the other human being.
In the image set out here below, the woman evinces a clear
mydriatic profile, which is precisely what makes her eyes
particularly magnetic.
Methodical study of the expression of the eyes
Look consists therefore in a two-fold reality: It is the way of
laying ones sight upon a subject, but it is also a vehicle of
expression which, independently of any act of seeing confers
life on the totality of the face, under the influence of some
feeling, thought or state of being. It is in the eyes that one
instinctively attempts to read, to guess the thoughts, the state
of being and the intentions of the people in whose presence he
42

happens to be. That is so because of the fact that it is in the

eyes that the reflection of ones inner life, feelings, passions,
signs of approval or disapproval, attraction or repulsion,
exteriorize. The eyes speak.
In order to acquire firmer possession of the impression we
transmit outwardly, and with a view to practically attaining
that goal, we are now going to utilize a series of images. This
study, which is pregnant with most rapidly achievable results31,
has to be conducted by adhering to the following instructions:
a) You ought to hide every image other than the one you
are studying at any given time;
b) You should sit yourself in a comfortable position, as well
as in a thoroughly serene state of being;
c) You must have a mirror in front of your person, so that
you can control the expression you eventually manage to
attain;
d) You are required to analyse in detail each image we are
going to provide and its relevant explanation, whereupon, as
you stop looking at it, you should strive to reproduce the same
expression by putting yourself in the spiritual condition
indicated by the title which accompanies the pertinent image;

31 This study is taken from the book Occhi Fascinatori by the

anonymous Italian author who has been mentioned by us in the
historical notes on the images, as well as, in other respects, from
Luzys work titled La puissance du renard. As regards our master
Virgilio T., it should be remarked that he was a painter who had
amply studied the expressions which a look can take.

43

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

e) Every exercise will have to be repeated until you feel you
have achieved the perfect imitation of the original;
f) It is necessarily incumbent to repeat these exercises
systematically, until such a point where each and every
expression detailed in them is capable of being instantly
reproduced.

Scrutinizing look.

Eyebrow following a normal line, eyes opened half-way, pupils

turned upwardly through an angle.

Fluffy look.

Eyebrows slightly lowered, eyes half-shut a little, pupils

centralized.

44

Pensive look.

Eyebrows following a normal line, eyes opened, pupils lifted

up.

Haughty look.

Eyebrows lifted up, the pupils fix their glance ahead of

themselves without actually seeing any specific point.

45

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Investigative look.

Eyebrows slightly raised upwardly, eyes half-open, very fixed

and energetic look.

Shining look.

Eyebrows slightly upwards, eyes half-opened, pupils set in an

angular position.

Absorbed look.

46

Eyebrows shaping a normal line, eyes open, fixed but

indeterminate look.

Meditative look.

Eyebrows lifted up, straight look fixated on one particular

point.

Reflective look.

Normal eyebrows, lowered pupils, look turned to the ground.

47

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Sarcastic look.

Eyebrows lifted up, pupils turned upwardly at an angular

shape.

Pure look.

Eyebrows turned upwardly, pupils in a normal position, look

spreading out.

The sketch here above encapsulates its essential features.

48

Infantile look.

Eyebrows raised upwardly, eyes most enlarged, straight look.

When that is combined with a slight movement of the eyes,

as in the sketch here above, it might even inspire tenderness.

Ironic look.

Eyebrows forming a normal line, eyes half-closed.

49

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Astonished look.

Eyebrows lifted up very much and spread out, pupils tracing a

normal line. The sketch which is provided hereunder
emphasizes some of the essential aspects in a different variant
which we might define as flabbergasted.

Proud look.

Eyebrows raised upwardly, pupils turned up in a slightly

angular shape.

50

Protective look.

Eyebrows slightly turned up, look cascading from on top.

Contemplative look.

Eyebrows set in an upward position, pupils turned upwardly.

Desirous look.

Eyebrows forming a normal line, drawn slightly together,

pupils turned upwardly.

51

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Voluptuous look.

Eyebrows following a normal line, slightly drawn together,

pupils turned upwardly.

Imperious look.

Eyebrows tracing a slightly arched line, angular look lifted

upwardly.

Dejected look.

52

Eyebrows shaping a normal line, straight pupils slightly turned

upwardly. Japanese people bestow a special attention on this
type of look, by virtue of which it is possible to notice the white
part of the eye both laterally and from underneath. They call it
sanpaku, a term which might be literally translated as three
(san) whites (paku). This look accordingly evidences an
imbalance.32

Another illustrating example of this type of look can be

found in the above sketch.

Lustful look.

Eyebrows slightly lowered, pupils slightly upwards.

32

Cf. Marshall Evan, The eyes have it.

53

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Ironic look.

Eyebrows in a normal line, eyes crushed, straight look.

Additional Exercises
The one who has the good fortune of having, within his
retinue of elite associates, some person gifted with
extraordinarily expressive eyes, should never tire of fixing him
in his eyes, so as to try and emulate their expression, steal, so
to speak, their secret.
The eye belongs to the soul more than any other organ of
the body. The eyes are in fact the window through which the
soul looks at the world. 33 Even when you are in a road or at
some other place, if you meet two beautiful eyes you should
not neglect to carefully analyse their specific expression, while
firmly holding inside that suggestive will which urges us, too,
to acquire an equally lovely look, as previously laid out by us.
Besides, by adhering to the norms clarified in this work, we
might perfect the study of expression by collecting models
(photos, postcards, etc).

33

Cf. Buffon, quoted by Luzy in La puissance du regard.

54

Utilization of Fascination in Therapeutic

practices:
Therapeutic treatment by the look
Let God bless my eye,
And my eye will bless all I see;
I will bless my neighbor
And my neighbor will bless me
(Incantation from the Isle of Skye) 34
Look is a natural form of hypnotic inducement (Shore) 35.

One of our masters, Prof. Erminio from Pisa, was able

to heal diseases and overcome physical problems even
through the look alone.
He was gifted with an unbelievable rapidity, so that,
within the space of a few seconds, he would succeed in
extirpating every symptom of such disorders.
He had been left as the only surviving practitioner of
such a bewildering technique in the whole of Italy.
Moved by curiosity, we have then discovered a
particular form of utilization of fascination in the
therapeutic field: Therapeutic treatment by resorting to
the look.
34 Cf. Mackenzie 1895, at p. 39. Gaelic Incantation of the Island of
Skye in the Hebrides, which is to be recited in the morning while
washing oneself.
35 It is natural beacause the foundational basis of the attachement
(Shore 1996) quoted in Wolinskys work "Trances people live", is
biological in character.

55

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

During the Middle Ages, the word bewitcher was

used to refer to a person who was acquainted with the
technique of magnetism and fascination. In those days,
the expressions looking upon favourably and treating
well or giving a gift were interchangeable synonyms.
They literally meant to look with the intention of doing
some good".36 The eye can also perform healing deeds.
The various concentration levels

The techniques of hypnotic healing which are presently

in greatest use consist in concentration techniques. They
channel attention into a specific direction which has a
more positive impact on the patient. Besides them, there
are also non-prescriptive techniques, such as the
techniques developed by Milton H. Erickson, which
endeavour to steer attention in such a manner as to lead
the subject into a naturally therapeutic condition.

36
Quoted by the knighted author Brice in La revue du
Magntisme.

56

Concentration in India
If we turn our look to the East, we will notice that in
Yoga, too, one works on the aspect of concentration.
There are three distinct levels of concentration. The first
level is called dharana, and it consists in directing ones
concentration to an inflexible point. This initial phase is
then succeeded by the one termed dhyana, being a phase
in which concentration becomes a single continuum.
Lastly, we have the so-called phase of samadhi, the one in
which the object-subject relationship finally ceases to
exist. This last state presents a number of nuances,
although its defining characteristic is the fact that the
individual loses every inclination to be identified with the
contents of the mind, and he then enters a state of
freedom.
Comparison with Western methodologies

The work that is carried by several modern hypnotists

is similar to the phase called dharana, that is, the minds
first concentration level, whereas the phase of dhyana
bears a closer resemblance to the first level of therapeutic
practices.
Lastly, in what is referred to as the state of Samadhi,
one gets a sense of flux, a sense of perceptions which
come and go. Milton H. Erickson used to call that state
being in the middle of nothing.
These states are obtained through the eye far more
easily than through words. By means of the eye, we can
gain access to a pre-verbal dimension of man and reach
57

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

into deeper dimensions. The opportunity of utilizing

fascination in the field of self-improvement is in fact the
result of a paradoxical consideration: The more we
gather the fire of attention, the more we can, once a
certain point is attained, expand our perspective and
access unconscious dimensions. The phenomenon is
comparable with what occurs to a person who is
meditating on a koan or a mantra: At some point, the
mind opens up.37
Beyond daily trances

When we implement a certain therapeutic technique

which makes use of the eye, many problems seem to be
solved at once, almost in a miraculous fashion. The
reason behind it is the fact that, through the attractive
hypnotic moment, we end up retrieving a state which is
identical to the one during which the imprint of
obedience to mental conditioning was first created,
37 Moreover, in the ancient Western symbolism which was utilized
to indicate processes of magnetism, this was symbolyzed, as
previously mentioned in the chapter devoted to alchemy, by the four
succesive operations: 1) Coagulation (which the ancient alchemists
used to symbolically represent by the sign of the Taurus
), that
might be viewed as the equivalent of the first concentration of the
look; 2) Fixation (depicted by the old alchemists, in a symbolical
fashion, by the use of the sign of the Gemini ), which denotes the
moment when our attention flows; 3) Dissolution (alluded to by the
ancient alchemists by the sign of the Cancer , which additionally
corresponds to the stomach). It stands for the state of trance, for
the enlargement of attention; 4) Digestion, which the ancient
alchemists used to equate to the heart and the sign of the Leo (). At
that point, transformation is complete.

58

whereafter we had fallen asleep, imprisoned by our

thoughts.
If we happen to be either healers or counsellors, on the
strength of this technique we can wrest our patients out
of the trances which they had stumbled into in the past
and which now rule their lives, and empower them to
transcend the emotional states which accompany or
invade existence at certain defined moments.
We in fact often think of being awake, whereas, in
reality, we go through life as if piloted by our automatic
reactions. Even the psychosomatic states of tensions
escorting our daily life, the ones characterized by specific
forms of muscular rigidity, or by inward reactions we are
unable to loosen on our own, represent trances.

59

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Instant Fascination
One of the most spectacular manifestations is provided
by instant fascination. This technique has the ability to
immediately eradicate physical pains, muscular tensions,
headaches, tinnitus, and a whole assortment of additional
ailments.
We owe this methodology to Erminio from Pisa, who
was accustomed to call it Instant Hypnosis. He was its
sole practitioner throughout Italy. Once, he gave us an
astounding demonstration of it in the presence of three
hundred people in Milan. He did so by working on each
of those persons in attendance for some twenty seconds,
thereby producing results which in most cases endured
through the following days, while in other instances they
actually proved conclusive in their effect. In certain cases,
a single intervention is enough to engender a permanent
result. In other instances, it is necessary to apply the
technique twice or thrice in a row, whereupon a more
than highly satisfactory overall percentage of 98% of
healed people will be actualized. At our institute, we keep
a number of videos which corroborate what we have
stated in this connection.
The methodology is rather simple. After we have
caused the patient to indicate to you where he is
experiencing pain, we fix him intensely so as to fascinate
him, for the explicit purpose of taking him beyond the
point, that is, beyond rigid positions and mental habits
which represent the sum-total of his personal problems.

60

At some stage, one feels intuitively that the patients

pain has vanished. He is then woken up by a simple rapid
knock of the hand over his shoulder.
The most positive aspect of it all is that the person is
feeling better!
That seems impossible to the person who is merely
watching. From a technical point of view, it is on the
contrary very natural. The pains and the other problems
we have referred to represent fixed realities. The
moment we look at the subject, we settle his attention
upon some other space. We would say that we are now in
direct contact with the unconscious, if we wished to
borrow Ericksons terminology. The unconscious, indeed,
always works for the persons wellbeing and in his
interest.
We are not dealing here with some mere hypnotic
suggestion, so much so that on some occasions (albeit
rarely) it is necessary to operate two or three times before
the right moment can be grabbed. If it had been no
more than a suggestion, the third attempt would be
bound to emulate what happened to the previous ones. As
that is not the case, however, it means we have actually
guided our patient to a new life dimension.
Our further studies

Our own Nice-based school has scientifically examined

the phenomenon.
A key aspect of the look-centred therapy is letting
ourselves be observed and observing in turn the patient
while we give him a chance to recollect the state that
caused him problems. Thereupon, we shall lead the
61

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

person into a state of fascination without any recourse to

words. Such method, indeed, allows us to transport him
into a state of non-thinking where the symptom
disappears. It is the equivalent of resetting the mind.
Within that context, for a period of time that might last
longer or otherwise, the fascinated person attains a state
which is devoid of consciousness of the ego, that is, the
totality of our mind and our automatic mental programs.
The person concerned would then be beyond the
trance. The Fascination which is carried out on a
person is indisputably something that acts at an ocular
level, by creating a kind of trance for the subject on
whom one is operating.
However, we are in a state of trance even in other
situations. We might for example be captivated by objects
or by persons, or even by our thoughts in which we
drown. The majority of people is indeed totally gripped,
fascinated" by their own mental mechanisms. This is the
reason why the same mechanisms are invariably
reiterated, and why the problem is preserved and
perpetuated.
By means of the look, we thus intervene in the very
mechanisms which produce the fascination by means of
ideas or concepts that beset the subject via these
mechanisms themselves.
There is yet another way of proceeding: This second
method consists in contacting the symptoms
directly.
The process is termed by some people curing through
the symptom. Through the patients total concentration
on his symptom, in fact, we can carve out a path allowing
62

us to talk with that part of the brain which generates such

symptom. We thereby give effect to a mechanism which
some healers have already resorted to, namely,
"utilizing the crisis as a cure".38 What at that point
helps the efficacy and, in particular, the rapidity of the
process, is the re-enactment of the problem itself. As
stated by Rossi (1986), "by asking the patient to
experience the symptom (alternatively, even by
increasing it, as was for instance Ericksons wont), we are
probably switching on certain processes in the right
hemisphere which are gifted with a more immediate
access to the encoding of the problem that is related to
the state itself ".39
A further scientific support for this theory and the
useful benefit of re-enacting the symptom, to be
immediately followed by a state of void where such
symptom is no longer extant, being a result that can be
achieved through fascination by the look, is provided by a
research in the US we are going to make mention of. It is
proven in this research that it is indeed possible to
eradicate traumas without needing to intervene through a

This was the methodology used by for instance Franz Anton

Mesmer (Cf. Thorie du Monde). Even the celebrated American
hypnotist Milton Erickson, who used hypnosis as a therapeutic
instrument, was accustomed to rely on a similar system.
39
Rossi says: By asking the patient to experience the
symptom, we are presumably turning on right hemispheric processes
that have a readier access to a state-dependent encoding of the
problem.
38

63

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

drug, opting instead to write once more over such trace

of the memory and erase it.40
Published in the Nature magazine, the successful
realization of that research has been achieved by
Elizabeth Phelps of New York University. In an earlier
study, she had successfully tested the method on a
number of small mice.
It has been shown in the experiment that all one needs
in order to wipe out an awfully frightening memory is by
first recalling it. Thereafter, within a six hours time
window, one writes over it a memory other than a scary
one, exactly as it would happen if we were to tape over an
existing recorded base. The important thing is to do it
within six hours from the moment when the memory is
recalled, as it is within such a time span that fear
becomes entrenched again.
Anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress are linked
to bad experiences which become rooted in the mind.
Whenever a certain stimulus reminds one of the
experience which he had gone through, fear resurfaces
and anxiety grows, even though the stimulus is not
dangerous per se.
Let as illustrate it with an example: If a man from
Abruzzo in Italy, who had experienced the earthquake
which shook that region, senses some minor
readjustment shakes, it is highly probable, in spite of the
fact that such negligible shakes pose no danger, that he is
going to feel panic and hasten to take shelter in a tent,
We have drawn on parts of the relevant news from ANSA
(http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/scienza/2009/12/09/vis
ualizza_new.html_1644482542.html).
40

64

merely through his recollection of the tragic night of the

past 6th of April.
Muscular tensions, too, are purely reminiscences of
significant events which have become embedded in the
body, in the light of the fact that a tension of the body
might correspond to any mental tension.
The said study has been carried out by inducing a state
of fear in some volunteers who chose to be tested. That
state of fear was engineered by showing them some
coloured squares and by associating with them a light
electrical shock by their wrists, a shock which was merely
annoying without being painful.
The subsequent day, fear was recalled to any such
patients mind by showing him the coloured squares once
more. Thereafter, within the space of a few hours from
the creation of the said stimulus, the researchers showed
them the squares quite a number of times, but now
without accompanying them by the electrical shock. At
the end of this training, fear is removed.
The disappearance of the symptom only takes place if
the action which is engaged in so as to extirpate it takes
place within a short period from the moment when the
patient is presented again with the scary symptom; if
such symptom is not reintroduced, or if the fear-erasing
training is conducted many hours later, the volunteering
patients retain a trace of the fear. Put it in other words,
they retain their fear of having to see the squares again.
According to the researchers, this fact is explainable on
the basis that when the fear is recreated, the memory
associated with it crystallizes once more, precisely at that

65

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

very moment where the memory is fragile and can be

removed.
It is important to observe the fact that the
transcending of the ego which activates the fascination is
an even more powerful tool, as it not only frees and
eliminates a symptom, but, in several cases, makes room
for a total rebalancing. If we want to express it in simpler
terms, we might define the therapy of the look as the
positive fascination which chases away the negative
fascination derived from life experiences.
The origin of problems

It is the fears and anxieties which are intrinsic to man

that create the negative fascination. Man in fact
possesses an ancestral fear of the unknown, which thing
pushes him into creating thought mechanisms aimed at
concealing and overcoming this fear. The fear, however,
is still there in his underlying being. Essentially put,
therefore, man, in order to try and release himself from
fear, becomes captivated by external concepts.
Usually, the moments in which such fascination is born
are interpersonal moments. The human personality is
made up of a fear to lose the objects of its own
fascination.
The personality of the average man is a blend that is
founded on the fear to lose ones beloved, money, the
house, etc. All the psychological categories we are able to
discern grow out of some fundamental fear.
Through the medium of fascination, therefore, we give
birth to a state of void in which a spontaneous selfreorganization can occur, one that is facilitated by no
66

longer concentrating on the outside, but rather on the

inside and on the operator who then turns into a
resource.
Further comparisons with Eastern techniques

The usefulness of being detached from involvement

and from external fascination is something evidenced
even by the comparison between the technique of
fascination and some techniques of Trataka (that is, the
prolonged staring at an object without flapping ones
eyelids) which are practiced in the East in order to
engender a mental void. We can observe that sometimes,
in the course of such practices, an image gets crystallized,
thereby allowing one to appropriate its qualities.
These practices have the further result of distancing
one even physically from being involved with the outside.
One of these techniques, for example, consists in fixing
the so-called third eye. Another, preparatory technique, is
based on staring at ones nose. It has been noticed by
some people that, given the excessive closeness of the
point thus fixed, adjustment generally proves insufficient
to enable a clear vision, notwithstanding the contraction.
The surrounding objects end up occupying only the
peripheral part of the retina, due to the central part
thereof being occupied. Peripheral sensations are weaker
than those that are felt at the centre. In those conditions,
the subject turns almost blind to the outside world, and
the more the internal deflection of the eyes is increased,
the more the process gains effectiveness.

67

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

The void

One might be tempted to ask why so much effort

should be put on casting the outside objects out of ones
focus. It is however possible to detect a useful aspect in
that endeavour. It paralyzes ones will. It also paralyzes
the attention which, if it happens to settle on one object
only, is inclined to forget the others.
Through the assistance of ocular concentration, the
yogi is not just able to remove the vision of external
objects, but also to empty his thoughts, whereupon it
becomes easy for him to meditate in the void.
In an analogous manner, when fascination is resorted
to, the subject enters a state of void where an automatic
rebalancing might occur, and where one can rid himself
of limiting thoughts. The process is as mental as it is
physical, so much so that one can fascinate even while he
is standing quite far from a person.
Mental attitude

This type of therapy encompasses an inward

dimension as well. In order to achieve the best possible
results, it is imperative that first and foremost your inner
being should be open. Your intention plays a very
important role. Life, indeed, offers countless occasions in
which you can practice this ability.
Exercise 25
Try and calm down a raging person with your look, or make
someone who is sad laugh, etc.
Undoubtedly, the best exercise is represented by lightening
the pain of some one who is suffering.

68

Exercise 26
When you meet a sick person or one who is suffering either
physically or mentally, direct your look in such a manner as to
alleviate his pain. In order to accomplish that, address him
mentally, by making use of calm and stimulating words.

69

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Change of the Vision in Hypnotic States

and Related Therapy
We can enhance the results of the therapy founded on
the look through the concept of presence.
We might get a clearer understanding of how the two
methodologies are interconnected by paying heed to the
story of Franz Anton Mesmer.
Mesmers first therapeutic method consisted in
passages making use of the hand, passages which might
be localized or general depending on the problem. He
simultaneously consolidated these steps by fixedly staring
at (= fascinating) the subject. Mesner used to assert that
in that manner he was capable of restoring tonic force to
the nervous system, suppressing pains and manias,
anomalous movements and tensions, and re-establishing
the sound functioning of the mind. Spurred on by his
successful accomplishments, he began to devote himself
to general diseases and to the specific ones affecting the
sensory organs. This first method is very similar to the
one we have described at the stage of mentioning instant
hypnosis within the field of providing solutions to a series
of symptomatic signs.
There is, nevertheless, an even more complete system,
one which is accessible to one who works on himself. As
regards Mesmer, after he moved to France he further
expanded his working methodology. In order for him to
achieve that, he pursued a program of working on his
own self which he implemented for a period of three
months, and which he described as "thinking without
70

words". That way, by abandoning conceptualizations, he

discovered how senses become sharper and the form of
objects renews itself, and he felt a powerful calm and
the conviction of having been successful. It is precisely
here in France that he began to talk of sixth sense,
mentioning in the process the fact that such sense could
only be understood by experiencing it.41
If we want to translate it into modern terms, we would
assert that he reached a different state of consciousness
in his work, such that his patients were able to detect it in
his look and access it themselves in turn.
There is always, in fact, a close rapport between
consciousness and vision. Some scholars have put
forward the theory that the actual ocular pathologies
which we can observe are often the reflection of our
models of thinking. Kellum, for instance, says: The eye
responds to the way in which we live.
The Varieties of daily Trance

The sight, as with all the other senses, is susceptible of

erring. Errors of observation happen frequently, since a
persons look perceives merely one side of the things,
and, by blending with imagination, it ensures that we
focus on some aspects of reality rather than others, such
aspects being guided by modes of interpretation adopted
by the reality of our mind.
Some examples of these illusions are indeed very clear.
That is the case, for instance, of the illusions which might
befall a night traveller when he finds himself by some
41

Cf. Durville, Le regard magntique.

71

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

isolated place, one where uncertainty, and possibly fright,

bring about in him the thought that he is seeing some
people moving, though in truth there are only trees, or
which might seize a nocturnal fisherman who, in the mist,
might perceive the lunar rays turning into ghosts.
In the course of hypnotic demonstrations, one might
produce some visual aberrations which make the subject
believe that, out there, there are some beings and objects
that are non-existent in the view of everyone else. It is for
instance possible to persuade a subject that ahead of him
runs a river where he can thus fish, whereupon he will
automatically adopt the attitude that is congruent with
such belief.
Yet perceptive aberration is not solely confined to
hypnotic demonstrations. Several modifications of our
perception of reality are less quotidian in their incidence
and thus less pervasive, even if we might fail to realize
them.
Take, for example, the so-called projection as defined
by psychology, as it is precisely one such illusion. The
possible consequence thereof is that a person, instead of
seeing a traffic cop in front of him, that is, a human
person exactly like him, might well be seeing the image of
his father. He accordingly reacts by acquiescing in a fine
exactly as he used to be the recipient of some shouting
when he was small.
Another frequent occurrence which psychologists have
noticed is, for example, the fact than an anorexic person
does not perceive herself to be what she is, and in fact,

72

even when she is in front of a mirror, she has the

impression of being fat.
These are but a few illustrations from the numerous
examples of how imagination pervades everyday life,
whereupon we do not perceive reality but only our
personal image thereof.
Exactly as in the example we have mentioned earlier of
the nocturnal traveller who saw the trees as being
dangerous persons ready to assail him, there might be the
human type who sees any person he meets as a danger.
This person, therefore, is not perceiving reality: He is
perceiving his own image of reality.
Every person, as he wakes up in the morning, is
convinced that he is awake. The truth is however
different. It is the fact that imagination mixes with our
mental mechanisms that keeps us in a state which is as if
a dreamy one, and in which we only discern what we
want to see.
Most people are captured by their own mental
mechanisms, their own pensive reflections, and the inner
atmosphere of incessant self-talk. Some people have
indeed contended that each one of us churns out fiftythousand thoughts on a daily basis. Every one of those
thoughts that we formulate influences us, and alters our
mental images as well as our peculiar perception of
reality.
What would happen, moreover, if these thoughts are
negative? The reality is that a subject who is worried is
less aware of the surrounding environment. Even if
positive elements are found in it, he is often oblivious to
their existence. He is in a state of trance with his own
73

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

self, immersed in what might be described as an

"intrapersonal trance", a trance, that is, which is
internal to his own person (intra = inside). It is as if this
state interposed itself between his person and the
environment in which he moves. In an essential way,
such interposing trance acts like a veiling cloak, with the
result that he does not directly react to the environment,
but rather filters its input and finally responds to it on the
strength of models he has learnt in the past.
Let us for instance observe an anguished person: He
does not seem to pay attention to the external
environment, so caught as he is in his private anxieties.
Average man fears the unknown and prefers to live
inside a prison cell rather than opening himself up to the
uncertainty of what is novel.
Such a person will then live cocooned inside his own
world which, though often disagreeable, is at least
familiar. There is an intrinsic tendency in man which
urges him to escape chaos, the unknown. The reason why
people, therefore, walk into a state of "intrapersonal
trance" is essentially related to self-defence from the
outside environment and the desire to avoid facing
reality.
This dream inclines to self-manifestation, on account
of the fact that by shunning the task of confronting reality
we are also barred from changing. In an essential sense,
we go on behaving in conformity with schemes which
have been learnt in the past. An example of that might
consist in a child who learns how to relate to his parents
in a specific manner, and who, as he grows up, insists on

74

behaving himself with all and sundry in the same

manner.
Assuming for instance that his parents were
accustomed to shout at him and that he used to react by
entering a state of block, he might then display an
identical reaction vis--vis a traffic policeman who wants
to issue him with a fine for a road-related infringement.
Traditional psychology sometimes refers to this form
of conduct by the term projection. In the example we
have just mentioned, such variety of psychology would
contend that the subject projects onto the member of
the traffic cops the image he had of his own parents.
We can observe that the initial comportment is born
within an interpersonal ambit, or, said it in another
manner, it is as if a model of perceiving reality were to
become solidly enrooted in the relevant person.
When we are small, we have a greater tendency to be in
reality than at a more adult age. Our patterns of
behaviour often originate in the shape of interpersonal
trances, and later transmute into intrapersonal
trances. In other words, we learn behavioural modes
and reactions from other people and from the
surrounding milieu in which we grow, and we
subsequently appropriate them as part of our own modus
operandi.
If, at this later stage, we have become divested of
control over such trances and unable to prevent their
occurrence, we can safely affirm that they are now
unfolding themselves automatically.

75

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

The effectiveness of the look-based therapy

The therapy which is founded on the look accordingly

represents a tool to cause the subject to retrace his steps
from an intrapersonal trance to an interpersonal
one, i.e. one which is piloted by the operator.
We put this therapy into practice by observing the
patient as he clues us with his personal situations, while
we simultaneously encourage him to gaze at us.
By letting our patients describe their symptoms while
they keep on breathing and looking at the operator, we
succeed in interrupting their internal trance, and we
convoy them to an interpersonal trance. This
development brings about a change in the context of the
problem, and adds to the picture the operator (=
we ourselves as we are busy talking to him) in his
capacity as a resource. If we want to express it
basically, we would say that we enter the mental scene
of our patients. The most effective therapeutic processes
use that resource in an unconscious manner (by adding
the healer as a resource). What simply occurs during the
therapy based on the look is that such concept is made
even more concrete via the recourse to the sensory faculty
of sight.
An undoubted efficacy is indeed ensconced in relating
our problems to a third person, which is something that
takes place in every type of therapeutic approach. What
might nevertheless still happen is that the subject sneaks
out mentally and detaches himself at the crucial
moment.
This is something which often materializes through
pensive reflection, the creation, that is, of ones own
76

mental thoughts. It has a physiological correspondence in

the motions of the eye. When we step inside our thoughts,
in fact, we perform certain movements of the pupils in
specific directions, whereas, in other cases, we defocalize.42
Neuro-Linguistic Programming, for instance, notices
that when a person bends his pupils toward the top left
side, he is often accessing constructed images, whereas, if
he performs that motion to his left, he is accessing some
reiterated patterns. In an analogous fashion, horizontal
movements stand for hearing-based constructs, while
downward motions denote gaining access to our own
inner dialogue or possibly to our own sensations.
When the eye adopts such positions, the client is then
inside his own self and is recreating the problem.
By requesting from our client a direct and sustained
eye contact, we actively intervene and melt away those
parts of automatic trances which serve as defence
mechanisms within the depth of his being. We thereby
transcend the reactions which help our client defend
himself from the intensity of interpersonal contact, and
which allow him to recreate the symptom.
Acting on the symptom

By establishing eye contact while our client lives out

his state, moreover, we place ourselves in a position to
operate in another manner as well. We can in fact
This type of motions are those which are for instance observed
by Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Cf. Bandler, Grinder
Programmazione Neuro-linguistica, edited by Astrolabio.
42

77

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

increase the symptom in order to develop at that stage a

two-phase process, one which first begins with an
escalation and is subsequently followed by a change in
the state of consciousness.
Intensifying the dynamics which give birth to the
relevant cluster of symptoms, in fact, is paradoxically of
assistance in leading the person to a more expanded
state. In other words, the more we restrict the fire of
attention in the course of a therapeutic trance, the
more we rise to a level from which we are later capable of
enlarging the perspective. It is the as if the mechanisms
which guide attention, taken to some extreme level, were
to give up and thereby enable the actualization of an
expanded, vaster attention. 43
The process concerned resembles what happens at a
muscular level when a tension is followed by a relaxation,
which normally occurs at a higher intensity level than
what would have been the case had we simply initiated a
phase of relaxation without its being preceded by an
earlier contraction.
In terms of the praxis, this expanded state corresponds
to a moment in which we move beyond the dualistic

43
The phenomenon has been noticed by other disciplines as
well. Within the camp of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, for
instance, Steve and Connireae Andreas mention the concept of
breaking through the threshold. According to our way of looking at
things, however, the vision they provide, while being valid, is marked
by incompleteness, insofar as the process is interpreted by them as a
form of no longer recognizing the stimulus. In cases of extreme
concentration, that might be more correctly defined as transcending
the conceptualization of the stimulus.

78

distinction between things, in which we transcend, that

is, the distinction between this and that.
This phenomenon is a common feature of various
quantic therapies, and it is already implied in the process
of the Gestalt. It is a similar phenomenon to the one we
can ascertain during a meditation on a Japanese koan or
a kindred one on some mantra.
The Japanese koan is a statement, often bearing a
paradoxical meaning, to which the mind seeks to provide
an intelligible connotation, e.g. what is the sound
produced by a single clapping hand?. Reflecting over the
paradox, in fact, makes the conscious mind weary.
The effect of the mantra is analogous. The mantra
is a constantly repeated word. Here, too, a similar
phenomenon involving the weariness of some cerebral
mechanisms is produced.
In the instances described above, the koan or the
mantra is utilized as single point of the contemplative
focus. Step by step, this type of concentration turns
into an automatic process. The moment the mind
concentrates, we can reach a specific instant in which our
mind releases itself, whereupon we experience a
collapse on the part of the previous system of thoughts,
or possibly even a moment of deep change. When that
point is reached, the mind is ready for a spontaneous
experience of accomplishment, that is, it is ready to
perceive non-duality.
To recapitulate, a trance is accordingly a daily
phenomenon, in spite of the possibility that we might fail
to realize that, due to the fact that, normally, our
conscious mind denies the reality of such phenomenon.
79

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

The daily trance

As stated earlier, hypnosis is part and parcel of the
normal process of daily communication. The only
difference between self-hypnosis and daily hypnosis is
that, when you carry out some procedure of self-hypnosis,
or you voluntarily empower a trained hypnotist to
hypnotize you, it is your person who chooses the ideas
which you allow your mind to react to, whereas, during
daily hypnosis, by virtue of the sheer quantity and
multiplicity of the sources from which the messages
reaching you originate, you enter a state of trance in
respect of something where your control over the quality
and amplitude of the ideas that pervade your minds is
inferior.
We refer, by the term "daily trance", to the
phenomenon whereby, at some moments in our life, our
perception of reality is altered by our internal filters,
whereupon we no longer perceive reality, but only our
specific vision of the same.
There is a close link between trance and hypnotic
phenomena. Let us provide an example to clarify the
understanding of the concept. Let us take the
phenomenology relating to amnesia. In the course of a
hypnotic show, one can get a demonstration when a
participating subject might be asked, say, about his name
or a particular number. Thereafter, that person, on being
posed the question what is your name?, might not know
what to say in reply. The circumstance is seemingly
80

amazing, but in actual reality it is no more than the

simple elucidation of a natural human mechanism. This
type of spectacular phenomenon is essentially possible
because it also occurs daily in a very subtle manner: We
meet for instance an obese lady, with a habit of eating a
lot, who utters the promise that, from the following day,
she is no longer going to eat chocolate sweets. This obese
female appears to be persuasive when she articulates that
promise. Nevertheless, two seconds later she walks in
front of a confectionery, moves in, takes two such sweets,
and eats them. How is that possible?
Such a kink of phenomenon is a "behavioural
occurrence of daily trance". 44 If we were to examine it in
detail, we would actually unveil the truth that, rather than
being merely a single trance, the aforesaid example
evinces the existence of a series of micro-trances. The
first trance that takes place is part of a phenomenology of
amnesia. Our subject, despite having told us a short while
earlier that she would have restrained herself, no longer
remembers the promise she made. The second trance
consists in a time regression to an earlier age: Why, in
fact, does she eat the sweet? She is behaving like a child
facing a table fully laid out with food, and so on. Our life,
which we believe to be fully conscious, is saturated with
such kinds of phenomena.
Some people, in order to indicate this concept, are
accustomed to state that most of human beings are
asleep instead of being inside reality.

44

Cf. Rossi, Wolinsky and Milton Erickson.

81

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

For the purpose of defining the selfsame phenomenon,

other scientific disciplines, such as Neuro-Linguistic
Programming, refer to the idea that we do not perceive
reality, but only a map thereof, which has been
constructed in conformity with the concepts of
distortion, generalization and cancellation.
In terms of our specific approach, however, we are
going to resort to another viewpoint which is equally
useful for analysing the phenomenon of fascination. In
accordance with that approach, we shall view these
phenomena as trances.
What is, then, a trance?

What we mean by the word trance is an overall state

in which we are plunged, even though we fail to realize
that.
In fact, each one of the phenomenological realities we
are now going to examine possesses, over and above the
objective aspect (cancellation or modification of reality),
a specific subjective aspect as well.
In that way, through the comparison with the
corresponding hypnotic phenomena, we might become
more capable of understanding the situation.
Recapitulation of the most frequent trances

The following can be enumerated as among the most

frequent alterations of reality happening on a quotidian
basis: 45
45 The abovementioned classification is the one derived from that
which was adopted by Stephen Wolinsky in Trances People Live.

82

1. Dissociation. In a state of dissociation, we detach

ourselves from one part of us. We might, for instance,
be unable to feel our own sensations. An example
from daily life of a person in such a condition is one
who cannot experience emotions at all.
2. Positive hallucination, which might for instance
cause us to perceive people around us being different
from what they really are. In that event, such
phenomenon will coincide with the one which is
termed "transference".
3. Progression in the future, to wit, one which, in its
pathological varieties, corresponds to imaginations
distancing us from reality.
4. Daily imaginations, being the type which keeps us
fixed in another dimension. It is the hypnotic dream
preventing us from being in the here and now: The
relevant person is lost in the clouds.
5. Hypermnesia, i.e. focusing in an excessive manner
on past moments. This occurs for instance in cases of
traumas when a person declares himself unable to
forget.
6. Temporal distortion, which makes us lose
awareness of the fact that time passes, and which
precludes us from accomplishing our objectives. It
seems to us as if time is flying away too quickly.
7. Sensory distortion, which is present in several
compulsive habits wherein the subject does not
realize the consequences of his actions upon his own
self.
The latter, in turn, is drawn from the most fashionable forms of
classification which are utilized when talk is made of hypnosis.

83

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

8. Amnesia, meaning to shelve aside or cancel certain

elements of our past. We can for instance be unaware
of our mistakes and keep on repeating them.
The role of language

Due to the fact that our mental reality is conditioned

by language, language itself might act as a tool that
facilitates these processes.
There are for example some people who always use
conditional verbs when they talk, such as I would do, I
would like, but who never act.
Once we understand that, we might easily produce
hypnotic reactions through the use of the conjunctive or
the conditional forms, given that they, in their nature as
potentialities, are able to take our interlocutor, or even
our own selves, to fantasize and perceive possibilities as
opposed to reality. You can observe that the majority of
these trances go along with a change of look.
Exercise 27: Changes in the way of looking

Let us observe our interlocutors reaction to such a

statement as how lovely it would be if .... Thereafter, as we
keep on using a nice and exciting phrase, we are going to
frequently notice how his pupils tend to become enlarged and
his look to disperse around.

84

Relation between the vision of the world

and hypnotic states
Regression in time (look BEFORE)

Most frequent effects when this condition is excessive:

Infantile streaks of conduct, fears, emotional blocks,
anxieties bereft of any clear origin
Regression in time to a younger age is a common
phenomenon. The subject behaves like a child. If we
were to pay attention, we would notice that, when he is
engaging us in speech, he is not looking at us. It is as if
his look is staring at some point in space which lies
between him and us. He in fact focuses his attention on
memories of the past, and reacts in a way which is similar
to the one he has learnt in the past. In certain instances,
we might even discern a phenomenon of daily trance
acting as a pointer to such an extreme form of retracing
his steps to the past that the voice of the relevant
individual is replaced by the voice of the child
personality.
Exercise 28: Paying attention to the voice
Pay attention to your interlocutors, as well as to the times at
which they change voice and their ways of doing so. You would
then notice that there are specific response models which steer
the phenomenon.
Focalization characteristics: The person concerned is not
focused on the present. When he reminisces about past
episodes, he is gazing with his look at some point in space, one
85

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

where he sees the moments of the past re-enacted again. Such
point is spatially located BEFORE the objects that surround
him.

Treatment
In order to help him, we should ask the patient to
recollect the past moment, and, at that point, we should
request him to look at us. In order to give effect to such
re-enactment by the memory, we might even resort to the
use of some linguistic formulas which are capable of
conjuring up the memory of the image. Examples of such
verbal expressions would be, Are there any past events
which justify this behaviour?. Even if the subject is
unable to remember them, his unconscious will be
reignited, and at that moment he will also meet your look.
By fixing our look on him, we become at such stage an
integral part of the process 46, and we, too, are included
among the resources. We might then proceed to act in
one of several manners:
We might stare at him and lead him, through the
use of words, to extend his visual field by noticing
other elements in the picture which have an
intrinsic ability to alter his automatic reaction. We
would then say to him, Extend your look, cant
you see around elements that might instead lend
you tranquillity or stability?. Note: This type of
technique might even be practiced independently,
on ones own. We might bring back to mind, as a
form of re-enactment, a particular scene which
We cause our patient to shift from an intrapersonal trance
(existing inside him) to an interpersonal trance (which he experience
with us).
46

86

instils fear in us, and we then extend our look

widely. Oftentimes, in fact, we merely concentrate
on a few significant elements, for example, the
faces of the people who used to talk to us. By
expanding ones look, everything takes on a
different perspective.
We might identify a certain symbol or carry out a
certain action that proves to be particularly
effective, owing to the degree of concentration we
have managed to establish. A gesture, too, is
included within what is meant by symbol, for
example, a movement which is implemented with
the hands as a gesture that signifies distancing the
negative state away.
We might also compartmentalize: Discovering the
point where the emotion is felt more strongly,
paying heed to such point alone, and further
enhancing the symptom in that area, if need be
repeating the process until we can switch to a
different perception mode. This last-mentioned
process, however, is rather complex and as such
recommended for use by expert operators only.

Progression in time (temporal pseudoorientation) (look BEYOND)

Most frequent effects when such progression in time is

pervasive: Lack of a concrete approach to reality,
anxiety, fear of the future, and fear of the possibility of
improving ones volitional resolution and action

87

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

The person who is immersed in a constant temporal

progression" is the eternal dreamer, who at the end of the
day might fail to accomplish any practical result in the
present. His look, in extreme forms of this trance, is lost
in a void, as if he was busy observing a distant point. It is
the look of the dreamer. He speak by making recourse
to a vocabulary consisting of such expressions as, I am
going to do, I am going to be, etc ... The risk faced by
such a personality type is to live too much in the future,
without being however able to relate it to actions and to
the reality of the present time, and without actually
embarking on any practical steps in the present which
aim at realizing his dreams.
When we succeed in unravelling the underlying
mechanism, we might be able to help the person suffering
from such a modification of reality be more firmly
anchored in the present, and, accordingly, effectively
manage to accomplish some things in life. The lookcentred therapy represents a powerful tool to take him
back to the present and enable him to re-establish contact
with it. This therapy empowers the switch from
dreaming to being active and orientated toward the
future.
Daydreaming is not negative per se. On the contrary, it
might even be useful: A positive image, for instance,
occasions positive emotions 47. It is the first stage of the
47 Such a trance might even be intentionally self-generated. There
are in fact occasions in which, by utilizing the future time, we might
in fact facilitate a "progression in time to a subsequent age of our life
(pseudo-orientation in time), and replace the present time with an
imaginary future.

88

mechanism by which motivational urge is brought about.

A young lad, for example, might presage the taste of the
moment in which he is going to graduate.
Future visual impression (the person, e.g. imagines his
graduation)
positive sensation.
The problem is that it is befitting, in order for the
person thus motivated to engage in tangible action, that
this first step should be conjoined to an additional
second step: This is the practice which invariably uses
the present as its departure point.
By means of fascination, we as the operators might
prove to be an important resource of the present for our
patient, one that is indeed capable of activating the said
link 48.
Technical characteristics of this state: We can often
notice in it a hyperopic attitude, which is focused on what
is distant. The visionary gazes at some distant point 49.
Treatment
The standard application of the relevant technique is
extremely simple: We should fix our look on the patient
and, at the moment in which we have reached the stage of
fascination, we are going to conjoin the future state to the
present one by uttering some encouraging words and by
asserting that the subject shall henceforth work towards
accomplishing his own goal. One might say for instance,

48 He will be motivated due to the fact that: Dissociation from

the future imagine
lack of positive sensation
desire to gain
renewed access to it.
49 Hyperopia means to look beyond, to see what lies at a distance,
to move beyond ones own head with a forward thrust.

89

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

From now on you will act with confidence. Every day you
should take a new step towards your ultimate objective.
What would otherwise happen is that this type of
persons will fail to act in the present, and will only live
out their particular dreams.
Treatment in the event of fear of the future (anxiety)
Even what is called anxiety is linked to time 50. The
anxious person is in fact always bent on creating for
himself negative images of the future.
A technique which yields almost immediate results
consists in making the subject imagine the future in a
positive guise, by saying to him, while we stare at him,
Feel yourself achieving whatever you wish to achieve, feel
it as something which is already real. In doing so, we will
lead him to experience the feelings associated with a
successfully actualized result. For the sake of increasing
the efficacy of such technique, the accomplished result
might be depicted in the form of a symbol. This symbol
might be absorbed by the patient while he is accordingly
brought back to the present, where the look retains an
ongoing awareness of it.

50

Additionally termed pseudo-orientation in time.

90

Dissociation and Hyper-association

(Small Pupil and large Pupil)
Most frequent effects when the state of dissociation is
pervasive: Frigidity, absence of emotions, muscular
stiffness, difficult interpersonal relationships, imaginary
pains, gelid eyes
In the state of dissociation, the person shelves aside
one part of experience. A very frequent example of this
state is represented by the person who is only marginally
alert to his own physical perceptions. We in fact come
across some people who are for example unable to feel
one part of themselves, such as their own emotions. They
often have small pupils, and their look is then described
as being ice-cold. They are the individuals who in
common parlance are referred to as cold. Emotions
flow out through the body and, frequently, the inability to
experience feelings reflects a denial of the sensations
experienced by the body. Some exemplars of this human
category are so detached from their own selves that they
are even unable to experience such primary feelings as
hunger or pain.
It is indeed significant that our current society
nurtures the quality of coldness, and that at times it
fosters in that regard an urge to be hyper-rational, i.e.
dissociated from feelings and associated with thoughts
(rationality).
We also get the opposite of dissociation, which is
sometimes simultaneously present with it, and that is

91

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

hyper-association 51. Indeed, we find in the personal

history of cold persons that there are moments in the
past where they have suffered traumas which they still
experience at a physical level. When they recover their
spark, their look undergoes a transformation, and the
pupil widens. Those persons who feel a certain pain more
intensely than usual are defined as being hyperassociated: Hyper-association materializes when a person
focuses a lot on a negative sensation in one specific area
of the body and is oblivious to the rest of his body.
A similar phenomenon to this one is found in other
states where we encounter discrepancies in how different
parts of our bodies are perceived. We might for instance
detect cases of dissociation from inward states or from
certain parts of the body. This occurs in those persons
who, for example, have highly negative attitudes. It is as if
they were unable to realize the impact that such attitudes
have on the body.
Technical characteristics of the state: When a person
is too focused on what is logical (when, in other words, he
is excessively rational), we can notice how such
physiological state is characterized by restrictions of the
visual field and by a limited foveal vision. A small,
myopia-style pupil, but not only that ... Myopia is indeed
often associated with an excessive focus on rationality
and the desire to catalogue things. Priority is thus
conferred on the vision of what lies near. In states of
dissociation, it is sometimes possible to get a tunnel
51 It is the selfsame phenomenon, save that in this case it is viewed
from another visual angle.

92

(foveal) vision escorted by an imaginary impression of

distancing (probable dilatation of the pupil).
Treatment of dissociation and hyper-rationality
based on the look
A method of dealing with Hyper-rationality

1) Gradually teach the subject to get in touch with

his body. Practice some relaxation techniques
which result in the fire of attention being
enlarged to the whole of his self. In this
manner, even the body becomes bit by bit an
integral part of the life experience. Note: This is
a method which can even be practiced on your
own. When you relax yourself, try and nurture
an attention which is spread to the entire body.
Let go of yourself deeply.
2) A practical method which can be resorted to in
the field of therapy is to stare at the patient and
simultaneously touch him with the left hand on
his shoulder, by laying the thumb and index
fingers close to the junction of the shoulder
blades. You might even request him to keep on
rationalizing whilst he is in such a state, under
observation. What will be ensured by this is
that, paradoxically, he will tire out one part of
his mind and enter a state of increasing
abandon, which happens, however, within an
interpersonal context (involving him with the
93

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

operator). Shortly afterwards, he will be unable

to sustain the situation any longer and will
spontaneously fall into your arms.
3) There is, lastly, another methodology, which
consists in catching the subject suddenly. In
that instance, we will inquire from the patient
how he is feeling, and at that very moment we
will look at him with intensity. After a short
while, we will reach a so-called threshold
point. When that stage is attained, the subject
will automatically switch to a state of hyperassociation and will release himself.
Excessive attention to sensations

There is also a contrary situation. Oftentimes, in fact,

excessive focus on inward sensations makes sure that the
relevant person feels his emotions more intensely. It is
then easy for such a person to fall into emotional bursts,
reactions, and other related phenomena. The pupil is
expanded. At that moment, the person is hot. If,
however, the emotions such a person is associated with
are negative in nature, he lives in a world of suffering. In
order to transcend it, one can resort to expanding the
context. In cases of hyper-association with a bodily
sensation (meaning that the person is victim of the
attentive focus on one part of the body), an effective
method is to cause such sensation to spread throughout
the body. We will initially fix our gaze upon the patient,
and we will recommend the expanding of such sensation.
Thereafter, we are going to act in accordance with a
94

methodology of magnetic steps, whereupon the lateral

vision will grow, and there will no longer be a tunnel
vision, as that is in fact going to be replaced by an
enlarged vision.
It is possible to pursue, in this regard, the same path
which is treaded in relation to regression into a past age
in the event that images were to appear. By solving the
regressions, in fact, we would bring the subject back to
reality.
Post-hypnotic suggestions (incongruence)

Most frequent effects when such suggestions are

pervasive: Mental rigidity, finding it difficult to change
and adapt, asymmetrical movements of the body
We call by this name the automatic reactions which
many people have learnt in their young age. Many posthypnotic suggestions are in fact linked to the parents
behaviour and correspond to what Freud had described
as the super ego, that is, those inner voices which tell us
what to do and what not to do. In this case, the child had
been asked to see reality from the viewpoint of the
parent. The parent had imparted peremptory
injunctions to him, such as do this, you must, or it
is obligatory. In due course, these automatic reactions
act as blocks to the mind and to ones own spontaneous
responses.
Technical characteristics of this state: One hypothesis
which has been put forward in this respect is that what
enables a suggestion to endure in the mind is the
circumstance that it is not adequately processed. What
95

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

essentially occurs is that the mind receives an idea, and

such idea becomes rooted in it. This kind of phenomenon
is often the spin-off of traumatic events. Due to the fact
that the information is not processed, it is as if it remains
blocked in one area of the brain. Some people speak in
this connection of compartmentalized parts. In the field
of interpersonal contexts, what happens is that one eye is
utilized in order to perceive reality directly, while through
the other eye the other persons way of seeing reality is
imagined. This explains why various schools of thought
often relate each of the two eyes to a specific parent (the
right eye, moreover, is frequently linked to the concept of
doing).
Treatment and technique aimed at imparting
suggestions:
One available method is to cause the injunctive
statement to be processed by both hemispheres of the
brain, thereby bringing the interrupted process to
completion. Stephen Wolinsky 52 is the one who
developed a certain technique in terms of which the
operator looks first at one eye and then at the other, so as
to impart post-hypnotic suggestions which are equally
pronounced for the two eyes. This technique might be
particularly effective in respect of verbal expressions
which include the use of a non.
We might accordingly unleash a non upon one eye,
while letting the verbal expressions go ahead on the other
eye.

52

Cf. Stephen Wolinsky, Trance people live.

96

Erminio from Pisa, once he had placed the relevant

individual in a state of passive consciousness, would then
lead him back to the past, whereupon he would impart
direct suggestions, thereby playing the role of a
resource for the fascinated subject.
Amnesia (large look)
and Hypermnesia (fixed look)

Most frequent effects when the pair of them is

pervasive in nature: As regards amnesia, memory gaps
and erasures of reality; and as regards hypermnesia,
hyper-excitation.
Amnesia technically means not to remember.
Hypermnesia, by contrast, bears the connotation of
remembering everything.
This pair of conditions is connected to the need to
know. If this need is excessive, such states might further
be modified by acting on the related sensations of fear.
Sometimes a person might display amnesia vis--vis
traumatic episodes, whereupon the person does not
want to remember. Through recourse to fascination, it is
indeed possible to cause a subject to retrieve the material
he had removed, until he is able to see it again with the
most thorough attention to detail. Fascination, in fact,
has the effect of creating a trance which is similar to
that amnesia, inasmuch as fascination is normally
characterized by hyper-vigilance followed by amnesia.
Fascination is accordingly in a position to act directly on
the above-described phenomenology of daily trance,
97

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

thereby yielding excellent therapeutic results. It is enough

to fix the look on the subject and ask him to revert to that
past episode. What the subject would normally be unable
to accomplish in a normal state might then be actualized
by whim while in a state of fascination.
Negative hallucination
(deflection of the look)

Most frequent effects when it is negatively pervasive:

Finding it difficult to identify resources in ones own life.
An illustrating example of this state might be
encountered in a depressed person who says, I have
never been happy!, even though we saw him laughing
only on the day before. How is it possible that he does not
remember? What he says probably originates in a
cancellation of a part of reality. Indeed, this
phenomenology is also termed "cancellation" by NeuroLinguistic Programming, and consists in failing to
perceive one part of reality.
Technical characteristics: It is often as if a small filter
(time regression-like) were to drop down before the eyes
of a person, who, as a result thereof, is thus prevented
from accurately focusing upon the scene. Even the shortsighted attitude of the one affected by myopia might be
related to the concept of negative hallucinations, as do
some phenomena of astigmatism.
Treatment: A modus operandi that might be resorted
to in this context consists in suggesting variations to the
type of mist surrounding the person. Possibly divide that
mist into quadrants. All of this should take place as the
98

patient is urged not to drop his look. It has the effect of

changing the structure of the phenomenon which the
patient is suffering, and of altering the entrenched state
of trance.
Passages the treatment should go through:
1 Encouraging the negative hallucination to reach its
maximum potential (while it is in a state of
entrenchment)
2 Causing it to turn even stronger
3 Modifying the structure thereof
4 Suggesting positive hallucinations
5 Expanding it further, in order to encompass even
things which were either not perceived (because they lay
beyond the original visual field) or whose contours were
vaguely indecisive
Positive hallucination
(mydriasis large pupil)

The concept of projection is strongly linked to the

concept of positive hallucination.
Technical characteristics: A phenomenon of positive
hallucination we have often come across might be
observed by focusing the eyes on the spot that is located
immediately after the person we are looking at (as if we
were looking behind him). It might even be carried out
before a mirror with a view to lending voice to the
unconscious.
Note on the treatment: In order to avoid transference
phenomena in the event of positive hallucinations, we
might request the patient to observe something enabling
him to distinguish the operator from his past memory.
99

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Temporal distortion (Long time and short
time)
(Tension and Retention)

It appears that longer time is escorted by muscular

resistance and the retention of ones breath. It often goes
along with a narrowing of the attention field. One can
further notice that it is accompanied by a lack of
conceptualization: An unexpected route seems to be
longer than a previously known road.
Confusion
(strabismus)

One can discern, under this heading, phenomena of

confusion, by observing a person through the medium of
diverging strabismus. That is accomplished by looking at
two spots behind or beside the relevant person. Divergent
strabismus produces confusion, in that one needs to
combine two distinct images.
Treatment
In order to overcome confusion, it might prove
beneficial to individually separate and clarify the single
parts of the experience.

100

SELF-FASCINATION
We use the term "self-fascination" to describe that type
of hypnotic fascination which is done on our own selves
by looking into a mirror.
It is an extremely potent system of self-development,
and, at the same time, it is one that is very easy to
implement. Through the medium of your own
concentration by the mirror, you might be able to give
yourselves a series of useful suggestions.
Exercise 29: Simple self-fascination
As you face a mirror, focus on your own image. Place
yourself at a distance of around forty centimetres, and then
look at where the nose is attached to the front. Stare at your
own self. Try not to flap your eyelids.
Exercise 30: Mental suggestions
Concentrate on your own image while in front of a mirror,
and simultaneously impart some mental suggestions to your
own self (come forward, move backward, the arm is lifting
up, etc.). You then realize that you will come to reply to
yourselves unconsciously.
Exercise 31: Positive suggestions
Carry out the two immediately preceding exercises (i.e.
simple self-fascination and mental suggestions). Thereafter,
in front of a mirror, and after implementing the two previous
exercises, you should impart to yourselves a series of positive
suggestions.

It is important that, as you put this sequence of

exercises into effect, you should adopt the suitable kind of
mental voice. You must be direct and commanding, and
101

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

the tone of your voice ought to ooze confidence. If you so

wish, you might make use of the following exercise in
order to improve the tone of your voice.
Exercise 32: Aimed at attaining confidence in ones
tone of voice
Say something which you are utterly certain of (for
example, I am ... (your own name), or else, I live in (your
street). Take notice of the tone of voice which you are mentally
going to use.

By working on your own selves, you will be able to

discern the different impact which the look might
exercise. Slowly, you will develop a better understanding
of the dynamics of fascination even as they apply to other
persons in whose company you happen to be, since you
will become aware of the different states through which
you are going to pass, and are accordingly going to
comprehend that such states might belong to the people
you are going to captivate.
The three-stage dynamics of persuading
yourselves through self-fascination

One way which has been indicated to us by our master

Virgilio includes the method of giving oneself a series of
mental suggestions by facing a mirror and making use of
the so-called three-phase dynamics":

On the first occasion, give yourselves

suggestions by utilizing the pronoun I

102

During the second stage, give yourselves

suggestions by making use of the
pronoun you

In the third and last instance, give

yourselves suggestions by using the
pronoun he

This sequence of passages from a perceptive

position to another might occasion a much more
immediate absorption of the suggestions you send
out.

103

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Use of the light

Let us mention at last a particularly pleasant exercise
which is called taking the sun into the Saturn.
This exercise is going to augment your presence and
will have the effect of making you more stable, calm and
able to act.
What we mean in this context by Saturn is the top
part of the head (the higher chakra in the Indians
nomenclature). The ancient researchers, in fact, had
detected a correspondence between such point and the
related region of the skull. The mythological aim is to
enable Saturn to be reborn as god of the golden epoch53,
that is, for your body to be enlivened by a sensation of
inner light.
Exercise 33
Look at some light. Close your eyes and then gaze firmly at
the top area of the skull, at the same time bringing the eyes
into a position of ocular convergence. Through experience, you
will discover that there is a point where, aside from the
residual luminous trace, you can at some stage discern the
development of a sensation of inward luminosity, as well as a
profound inner calm.

Meditation carried out on a source of light, followed by

visualizing its image while we are in a state of ocular
convergence, assists the distribution of the luminous
spectrum across the body, thereby energizing the
different areas thereof. It further engenders harmony
53

Cf. Evola, The Hermetic Tradition.

104

between body, mind and soul, since both the hemispheres

are energized. In the course of our meditation on the
light, we should think that light is magnetic, and that it
represents a source of power. It ensues from it that
working with a source of light is both energizing and
tranquillizing 54.

54
The concept of light as an element which fortifies magnetism
is encountered in Maxwell: Spiritus vitalis in consideratus partes
heterogeneas non habet, sed totus ubique lucis instar sibi simillimus.
c. 11 concl. 10.

105

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

APPLICATIONS OF FASCINATION TO
HYPNOTIC PRACTICE
Hypnotic fascination and Instant Hypnosis

Through the use of fascination, one can produce a high

state of receptiveness which is geared towards a
subsequent actualization of hypnotic phenomena or
towards paving the way for some lethargy-type hypnosis
where the subject appears to be sleeping
That is not all, however. Some people believe, in so
doing following Braids view, that the eyes represent no
more than two shining points which entice the subjects
attention. The truth is that the effect produced by the
eyes is far more extensive than the mere observation of a
physical object. What one is in fact dealing with is a state
on its own.
In the past, the state of fascination, which is not
recognized as being a distinct state by many authors, has
been also referred to by the phrases state of credulity
and suggestions while the eyes are wide open. If we
proceed to analyze it, nevertheless, we will realize that we
are dealing with a phenomenology which is quite
detached from the idea of hypnosis that is ordinarily
linked to sleep and which, in the view of some people, is a
cultural construct.
Energy

The most widespread hypnotic techniques in use at

present are verbal. If, by contrast, you choose to utilize
106

fascination in hypnosis, you will not be restricted to

operating at a psychological level in a traditional way, but
you will further operate through the medium of energy
and through presencing. "Hypnotic fascination"
establishes a link with the power of the present moment,
and with the energy we might be able to perceive in the
moment of the now.
Exercise 34 Being in the present.
Try and be in the present. Apply a sensory methodology: Be
consciously aware of your body and your sensations. FEEL
your being in the particular environment you find yourself in.
If you do as we have suggested, you will notice that, as you
pursue such a practice, you will develop a specific energetic
sensation.
The practice further shows that, even in order to effectively
practice hypnotic fascination, believing in the idea of energy or
fluid might prove beneficial. At the beginning, this consists
mainly in having a receptive frame of mind. As one delves
deeper into it, this mode of thinking opens itself up to the
possibility of a communication which additionally takes place
at levels differing from the immediately perceptible ones.
Exercise 35 Create an energetic image.
Observe one point on the wall and imagine yourself capable
of hurling small arrows in the direction of that point (Do not
move your eyelids). You will eventually discern that this
exercise helps you intensify your volition.
What is essentially necessary is the idea that our thought
and our speech might impact on those around us, and in any
event exercise an influence on the flow of their thoughts. As a
way of helping you evolve such a state of being, it would be
useful to observe that, irrespective of anything else, this
concept likewise represents simple healthy psychology.
107

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Indeed, thinking that we are able to transmit some energy

places our whole body and spirit in a state of favourable
mental predisposition.
Quantic dynamics might offer an explanation for that.
If we adopt such a vision, in fact, we realize how it is
perfectly possible for a correspondence between our
mental images and the reality which surrounds us
to exist.
Let us now make mention of some practical exercises
wherein fascination is conjoined to hypnosis. The first
such exercise might be carried out before any one else. It
is also given the name of establishing a contact on the
subject. 55
Exercise 36
Keep standing up in front of the subject who is seated, and
look at his eyes fixedly and yet with sweetness: Your feet will
have to graze his, and your knees will have to touch his. You
will hold his wrists with your hands. Eventually, your will has
to turn active: I establish my ascendancy on this person, I
saturate him with my only influence; I want him to perceive
my influence distinctly; he will have to obey my injunctions,
etc. It is not a case of whispering these formulas, which have
nothing intrinsically Kabbalistic about them, and which do
not possess any power per se. Rather, it is an issue of forcibly
exalting your spirit by representing to yourself whatever the
words you have pronounced signify. Depict in your mind an
image of the subject being pervaded by an irresistible
hegemonic force. Have an anticipated perception of how the
subject is eventually going to be, once he has turned into a

55 Cf. Practical hypnotism, published by Hermes. It is a booklet

from the 30s which can be obtained from the author of this book.

108

passive recipient of your suggestions. Firmly retain this mental

representation.

If we desire this exercise to have positive results, you

ought to resolve on the fact that since the beginning of
your experiences, you are going to exert yourself in an
energy-related effort, and you are going to accompany the
external procedures by an intense inner will56. All of that
should by no means impact on your outside: You should
on the contrary retain your calmness, fully in charge of
your own self. When the will truly originates in the depth
of consciousness, it not only avoids being translated into
restless agitation, but also manifests along with an
impeccable self-control.
Fascination and hypnotic Attraction

It is possible to operate purely through the look by

leading your subject to emulate your gestures,
alternatively to remain glued to your eyes. Thus is the
phenomenon of the invincible hypnotic attraction. As
an ancient author says:
As you look at the subject brusquely and from a very
close distance, you should advise him to stare at you as
fixedly as possible. In that manner, you shall attain the
so-called appropriation of the gaze. Very soon, the look of
the person who is susceptible of being captivated attaches
itself to yours and no longer moves away from it. The
subject then follows your look everywhere: By you
56 Refer to what has already been stated with regard to the energy
of the Aries . This is in fact the attitude one should have.

109

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

stepping back, he moves forward, and by you stepping

ahead, he moves back. If you bend lower, he lowers his
position, just as he rises the moment you stand up. Some
people will imitate the whole range of your gestures, and
execute all the suggestions you would like to impose on
them without them retaining any memory that it is you
who issued those suggestions. By repeated attempts
which you are going to make on the sane subject, the
state of fascination will alight at him with growing
intensity, and susceptibility to suggestions will be
enhanced. In order to bring this state to an end, all you
need to do is to blow into the eyes of the subject. By
placing one hand in front of the eyes of a charmed person
and by directing him onto another individual, the subject
is going to attach himself ineluctably to the look of such
third party.
In order to achieve the state of fascination more easily,
the operator might keep his own hands horizontally and
let the subject lay his hands over them, coupled with the
recommendation to the subject to press as strongly as he
possibly can57.
Other Methods

Virgilios Method: The essential element is to observe

the person. The facial tension reveals the effort one
makes in the process of transmission. The whole body
gets into a state of tension, into a total effort of
57
Cf. Jean Filiatre, LIpnotismo Illustrato, which we have
made available to the public at the following website address:
http://www.pnlnlp.org/courses/ebooks/page.php?pid=46&bid=46&pageid=617

110

transmission, until ones breathing nearly comes to a

halt.
Asymmetrical hypnosis by looking through one eye
only. Lastly, it is possible to deepen hypnosis by exerting
pressure on the ocular globes, inasmuch as such
movement directly acts on the vagus nerve and on the
parasympathetic nervous system. The compression of the
ocular globe generates a slowing of the wrist, due to an
ocular-cardiac reflection. If, therefore, we press on one
eye while we stare at the subject from the other eye, we
will occasion the so-called asymmetrical hypnosis,
namely, a state of hypnosis which is different for the two
halves of the body.

111

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Various methods of staring at the

subject for the sake of hypnosis
Methods based on a fixed look

The central look: Among the methods of fixing ones

look on the subject, the most common one is the look
directed to the centre, between the eyes 58.
Look through one eye only: As for the Baron of
Reichenbach, he had noticed how fixing the left eye on
the operators right eye was particularly effective 59. The
very same method is suggested by Eliphas Levi. Ormond
Mc Gill, too, reports a similar methodology 60.
Backward look: Yet another efficacious method
consists in staring at the back of a person61.
Methods that adopt a look in motion

The methods using motion are of very ancient origin.

The eyes might even tremble, which is a phenomenon the
ancient people termed equi effigie (image of a horse) so
as to indicate the rapid motion like the one which a horse
This is the most common method.
In Reichenbachs view, the right eye was charged with negative
Od (which was Reichenbachs own name for energy), while the left
eye was charged with positive Od (Cf. Reichenbach, Odische Briefe,
at pp. 158-9).
60 Cf. Ormond Mac Gill, Secret of stage hypnotism.
61 By doing so, they accordingly become divergent in relation to
the face. We likewise have a vast literature on divergent eyes. This is
Atkinsons method, which is called Mental Fascination.
58
59

112

engages in 62. Pliny, indeed, recounts the fact that some

nations hypnotize whilst having an image of a horse in
their pupils. Such an interpretation is corroborated by
Seligmann 63, who was a professional ophthalmologist.
Seligmann observes that, in Greek, Hyppos, i.e. the
word for horse, was in fact the noun by which the
ancient Greeks used to call the nystagmus. Even among
the Assyrians, the power of the eyes was linked to their
motion 64.
Rotational look: Erminio from Pisa used to rotate the
eyes in connection with divergent strabismus.
Look based on a horizontal movement: Prof. Hoehn
advices the operator to look to the right and the left of the
subjects nose depending on what is most suitable.
The way the eyes should be kept

An effective method is to keep one eye more open than

the other 65.
62 There were however some people who, due to translationinduced problems, believed that the image of a horse was truly
present.
63 Cf. Seligmann, op. cit.
64 The Assyrian word to denote evil eye is i-nu li-mut-tu. Its
literal translation means the rotational movement of the eyes (Cf.
Lehmann, Abergl, 41, 1898 edition, as quoted by Seligmann on
page 231).
65 This is Virgilios method. Eyes have in fact different powers.
After all, the concept of different degrees of ocular opening is present
in many traditions. According to Naphtali Katz, a scholar of the
Talmud, an eye desiring to make an impact must necessarily be
closed. If the eyes are both open, in fact, there is balance and man is

113

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Pupil

Even the dilated pupil (mydriasis) is quite effective

when it comes to the purposes sought to be achieved by
fascination. This method, too, is an ancient one that is
probably quoted by Pliny, who refers however to people
with a double pupil. Given that having a double pupil
is a most rare genetic anomaly, we deem it more correct
to refer such expression to the size of the pupil.
Normally, it is possible to notice that, by focusing on
the detail, the pupil turns smaller, and that, when strong
emotions are experienced, the pupil widens.
White part of the eyes

The amplitude of the white part of the eyes is likewise

an element which facilitates fascination. Eyes are often
enlarged during emotional situations.
Other aids

The finger: It is very useful to indicate a person with a

pointed finger. From a mental point of view, you have to
think as if the finger is perforating the subject.
Motion of the head: It resembles the way a snake
approaches its prey. A method utilized by Virgilio T.
consisted in bringing the subjects face close. By contrast,
an image of god, whereas closing one eye alters the balance. This
might be the origin of the fear of one-eyed people, which is
widespread among several peoples (Arabs or Bulgarians, though
similar traditions are present in Veneto as well Cf. Seligmann, op.
cit., at p. 232). Petrarca, too, narrates that as he was staring intensely
at his beloved Laura, an arrow was thrown by his right eye.

114

at the time of imparting advices, the head then moves

away 66.
The spiral: Our master Virgilio often looks toward a
person and rotates one finger at the level of the third eye.
Such practice helps the operator create a bit of confusion,
but at the same time it assists one in hypnotizing. In fact
Virgilio, who is particularly adept at mental imagination,
conjures up in his mind the idea that there is a true spiral
rotating in front of him.
Exercise 37
Point your finger towards the front of the person you want
to hypnotize. Turn that finger clockwise, in so doing imagining
that a spiral is rotating as you turn the finger. Thereafter, you
should stare at the centre, between the eyes of your subject. As
you engage in that, you ought to give one intense look. You will
moreover feel that a change has occurred in your subjects
perception.
This method is further endowed with a physiological value.
Special receptors located in the visual cortex (at the back of the
brain), which are called detectors, are thus stimulated up to a
straining degree. For example, the detectors in charge of the
clockwise movement will get tired, and, when you turn to look
from a distance at the detectors which are responsible for the
opposite (= anti-clockwise) motion, the latter will get into
action and thereby create the illusion of an expanding world
(or else the illusion of an aura). By virtue of this phenomenon,
66
This is probably the source of the Sicilian tradition
according to which the person with a long neck possesses a greater
power of fascination (Cf. Seligmann, op. cit.). By drawing close, the
subjects visual field becomes occupied by the charmers face, while
the outside elements are set at a greater distance due to an ocular
effect.

115

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

we encourage consciousness to expand, in an aware fashion,
beyond the physical form 67.

The same kind of rotation can be carried out at the

level of the various plexuses: The throat, the heart and
the epigastrium, with different effects depending on the
points that are aimed at. In the field of magnetism, this is
considered to be an effective way of assuming control
over these areas of the body. Even the so-called circular
magnetic steps are linked to it.

67 Cf. Chakra & Kundalini workbook: Psycho-spiritual techniques

for health, by Jonn Mumford.

116

Gypsy Hypnosis
It us related that the great esoteric practitioner Hanussen,
who lived during the age of the Nazi regime, had succeeded in
avoiding incarceration simply by looking their jail wardens in
their eyes and causing them to turn stupefied 68.
At times, fascination might also be utilized for negative and
illegal purposes. In Italy, testimonies in that sense date back to
the medieval period 69.
A similar phenomenon which is widespread nowadays is
called robberies through hypnosis. In the course of such
robberies, the subject is left in a state of passive consciousness,
while the fascinator acts without any obstacle.
We have gathered various testimonies in that regard. Such
phenomenon consists in a specific form of application of
fascination. A very peculiar method is what has been reported
68 Herschmann Chaim Steinschneider (1889-1933) acted in the
theaters of a large number of European countries (as well as in the
Middle East and the United States) under the pseudonym of Erik Jan
Hanussen. He enjoyed widespread fame in the 1920s and 1930s. A
controversial figure, a Jew affiliated to the Nazi party who later
converted to catholicism, he personally knew Hitler, who had a good
opinion of him, though he foretold the fall of the Third Reich, which
was seemingly the reason why he was eventually disposed of. Works
of his which have been published in Italian are Manuale di lettura
del pensiero and Il mago di Hitler.
69 Bartolus di Sassoferrato (+1357), one of the most celebrious
jurists of the Middle Ages, talks of a witch from Orta di Riparia
within the diocesis of Novara, in the process asserting that this
womam was able, with her eye, to cause damage to humans or
animals and to kill them. This represents the first testimony
attempting to carry out a juristic analaysis of the effects of the look,
one which additionally reveals the existence of an uninterrupted
historical continuity as regards the occurrence in some localities of a
certain category of events.

117

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

by the researches conducted by Dr. Tira, which we might
legitimately catalogue under the name of the gypsy woman of
Castellamonte, as they are based on a whole number of
testimonies adduced in respect of such character. She would
lead a person she targeted, in the space of a few seconds, into a
very deep state which she would then exploit in a negative
fashion.
Her modus operandi consists in drawing close to the
subject, seating him in the same way as she sits in front of him,
and saying to him, If you so desire, I can read for you your
future ... Give me your hand .
Meanwhile, as she utters those words, she shakes the hand
of the person backward and forward, until his hand is left in a
raised position (Essentially, therefore, she produces a form of
catalepsy of the arm, as it would be defined by recourse to
hypnotic terms).
At the same time, she says the following, Think of
something you want to see actualized, either for yourself or for
your children , followed soon thereafter by the other
statement, Look at me in the eye if you want it to actually
occur. As she is busy uttering that, the gypsy woman, with the
other hand, makes some gestures aimed at drawing attention
to her own eyes.
At that point, she proceeds by saying, Concentrate, soon
after which she gets up and declares, In the meantime, I am
going to get up. As for you, keep on dreaming what you wish to
see happening to your children.
The subject does not stop staring into the void, now plunged
into a state of full passive consciousness. This is what allows
the gypsy woman to get up and start acting undetected, while
she leaves the subject in a state of complete incantation.

118

Utilizing the Lexicon of hypnotic

fascination:
The most classical form of mental fascination is also
endowed with its specific lexical quality which is based on
mental words and imagery:
Modal verbs which are limited to one possible
form, such as I ought to. They correspond to a single image.
These verbs facilitate the process of charming attraction. In a
similar vein, all generalizations help that process. Modal verbs
such as I can, on the other hand, correspond to a plurality of
mental images, and they can prove useful in order to break the
charming pull of a concept. Leaders have always possessed an
ability to make use of such words as it is necessary or we
must in order to arouse a crowd, while they punctuate such
process by the escorting use of suitable generalizations.
Words of presence: NOW, HERE

119

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

120

Index
PREFACE................................................................................................. 3
FIELDS OF UTILIZATION OF FASCINATION...................................................... 10
THE ART OF CONFERRING FASCINATION ON THE EYES ..................................... 22
I. FIXITY OF THE LOOK ................................................................ 22
II. THE RAPIDITY OF THE LOOK ................................................... 30
III. EXPRESSION OF THE LOOK .................................................... 31
COMPREHENDING OCULAR EXPRESSIONS..................................................... 41
The eyelid ...................................................................................... 42
Methodical study of the expression of the eyes............................ 42
Additional Exercises ...................................................................... 54
UTILIZATION OF FASCINATION IN THERAPEUTIC PRACTICES: THERAPEUTIC
TREATMENT BY THE LOOK ............................................................................... 55
The various concentration levels .................................................. 56
CONCENTRATION IN INDIA ....................................................................... 57
Comparison with Western methodologies.................................... 57
Beyond daily trances ................................................................. 58
INSTANT FASCINATION ............................................................................ 60
Our further studies ........................................................................ 61
The origin of problems .................................................................. 66
Further comparisons with Eastern techniques.............................. 67
The void ........................................................................................ 68
Mental attitude............................................................................. 68
CHANGE OF THE VISION IN HYPNOTIC STATES AND RELATED THERAPY .............. 70
The Varieties of daily Trance......................................................... 71
The effectiveness of the look-based therapy ................................ 76
Acting on the symptom ................................................................. 77
THE DAILY TRANCE.................................................................................. 80
What is, then, a trance?................................................................ 82
Recapitulation of the most frequent trances............................. 82
The role of language ..................................................................... 84
RELATION BETWEEN THE VISION OF THE WORLD AND HYPNOTIC STATES ............ 85
Regression in time (look BEFORE) ................................................. 85

121

THE MAGNETIC GAZE

Progression in time (temporal pseudo-orientation) (look BEYOND)
............................................................................................................ 87
DISSOCIATION AND HYPER-ASSOCIATION (SMALL PUPIL AND LARGE PUPIL) ...... 91
A method of dealing with Hyper-rationality ................................. 93
Excessive attention to sensations ................................................. 94
Post-hypnotic suggestions (incongruence) ................................... 95
Amnesia (large look) and Hypermnesia (fixed look) .................... 97
Most frequent effects when the pair of them is pervasive in
nature: As regards amnesia, memory gaps and erasures of reality;
and as regards hypermnesia, hyper-excitation. ................................. 97
Negative hallucination (deflection of the look)............................ 98
Positive hallucination (mydriasis large pupil) ............................ 99
Temporal distortion (Long time and short time) (Tension and
Retention) ......................................................................................... 100
Confusion (strabismus) .............................................................. 100
SELF-FASCINATION .......................................................................... 101
The three-stage dynamics of persuading yourselves through selffascination ........................................................................................ 102
USE OF THE LIGHT ................................................................................ 104
APPLICATIONS OF FASCINATION TO HYPNOTIC PRACTICE .............. 106
Hypnotic fascination and Instant Hypnosis ................................ 106
Energy ......................................................................................... 106
Fascination and hypnotic Attraction........................................... 109
Other Methods............................................................................ 110
VARIOUS METHODS OF STARING AT THE SUBJECT FOR THE SAKE OF HYPNOSIS ... 112
Methods based on a fixed look ................................................... 112
Methods that adopt a look in motion ......................................... 112
The way the eyes should be kept ................................................ 113
Pupil ............................................................................................ 114
White part of the eyes ................................................................ 114
Other aids ................................................................................... 114
GYPSY HYPNOSIS ................................................................................. 117
UTILIZING THE LEXICON OF HYPNOTIC FASCINATION: ................................... 119
INDEX ................................................................................................ 121
WHERE TO LEARN MORE? ...................................................................... 123

122

Where to learn more?

You can participate in our free course on fascination
disponible on our website www.mesmerismus.info
Our school organizes periodically training in Mesmerism
and Fascination techniques. We do both personal coaching as
group training.
We call our teaching Mesmerismus . We invite you to
visit us and discover, from the source, this ancient technique.
Come Learn real Hypnotism Fascination and Mesmerism in
France! What we want to teach you is a large system which
connects the inner preparation of the hypnotists and
mesmerist to inner rejuvenation techniques that work for
strengthening the character.
Write us at
[email protected]
Website:
http://www.hypnotisme.com
English page at
http://www.hypnotisme.com/hypnotisme/hypnotismmesmerism.htm
and
www.mesmerismus.info

123

124