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 SEVEN STEPS IN PRACTICAL OCCULTISM

Lesson Two

Your life on earth began with the union of two tiny cells. One carried with it the essential
history of your father's ancestry. The other summed up the life story of your mother's family
tree. When these two cells united, subconsciousness took command of the development of
your body. Subconsciousness has controlled every function ofyour organism from that day to
this.

We call this mode of life-activity subconsciousness because whatever it does occurs below
the level of our conscious awareness. By carefirl study of the results of its work,
psychologists have accumulated a fund of exact knowledge about its marvelous powers. In
this lesson you will find a concise statement of certain salient features of that knowledge.
This information will enable you to proceed intelligently toward the attainment of the
objective you chose as a result ofyour study ofLesson 1.

lr.fter centuries devoted to the examination of the life processes of the human body, the
sciences of biology, physiology and organic chemistry are yet in their infancy. We know very
little about what happens when the heart beats, when the liver makes sugar or manufactures
bile, or when food is transformed into living cells. An action apparently so simple as the
raising of one's arm is actually so complex that it would take thousands of pages to list what
has been recorded conceming the chemical, mechanical and physiological transformations
involved in its performance. Yet all that might be written would be but apartial account of
what really occurs, and it has been said that in all probability, continuous research for the next
two centuries will not suffice to exhaust the analysis of this one simple action.

Subconsciousness knows all about these processes. It makes finer adjustments than any
machine devised by man. No chemist can duplicate some of the wonders that ababy's glands
perform daily. Subconsciousness does this just as well for an infant savage as for an adult
scientist. None of these marvels of body control depend on our conscious knowledge.

Subconsciousness cures every disease. Medicines do not cure. They merely set up a
chemical action to which the real healing power reacts; and whatever that is, it is hidden in
subconsciousness. Surgery does not heal. Neither do mechanical adjustments. They simply
remove obstacles to the free manifestation of the hidden curative power.

This power may be aroused by purely mental methods, which often succeed where drugs,
surgery and adjustments have failed. Do not misunderstand what has just been written.
B.O.T.A. has no wish to be responsible for another healing cult. Yet it is known that mental
metirods have cured every disease when other methods of therapy have been tried without
success. Shall we, then, incontinently abandon other systems of therapy? By no means. But

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SEVEN SIEP.I: 2

undoubtedly you will be glad to learn practical, sane ways to ltilize the mental curative force,
so as to be able to help yourself and others.

The subconscious healing power is not Iimited to the cure of functional and nervous ills.
Not long ago, the medical profession were practically unanimous in denying the possibility of
mental healing. Then the doctors began to admit that such methods might occasionally
relieve a few nervous and functional disorders. Today, such leaders as the Mayos, and many
others, frankly acknowledge that stubborn organic ailments are sometimes cured by mental
means without the use of drugs, adjustments, or surgery.

If sometimes, why not always? The honest answer to this question is, "'We do not know." In
this course, we aim to tell you what we do know. From reports sent in by persons who have
used mental methods to change their emotional attitudes, thereby stimulating the
subconscious healing power, we know that organic heart disease, abnormal growths, piles,
eczema) asthma, and other ailments which often baffle ordinary physicians, have been cured.

This, however, is not a lesson on mental healing. Subconsciousness can restore your body to
health and keep it we1l, but it has other wonderfrrl powers. Experiments have shown that it
keeps a perfect record of all our experiences. Whatever afFects any of our senses leaves a
subconscious impression, and when right conditions are provided, any detail of this cornplete
story of our past may be recalled. Thus the secret of a good memory is not really a matter of
relriningirnpresqions. but oftrr4kine qlqar qngs,tel4linglheq! Broperlyjogelhq, aqd_bueging
them to the surface of consciousness when needed.

When oae knows this secret of recollection, he has at his disposal tle wealth of experience
stored in his mind as a result of his acts of conscious attention. Practice, moreover, will
enable him to make use of the grcater treasure consisting sf an immense number of
impressions which have been recorded without his conscious knowledge.

Furthermore, subconsciousness affanges and works upon this mass of mental records, and
seems to have power to tlrink on its own account. This subconscious reasoning, however, has
certain limitations. It is restricted to deduction, that is, to drawing conclusions from
premises. Apparently the subconscious thought processes tend to elaborate every logical
conclusion from a given premise. This deductive process, however, will elaborate false
premises just as logically as it will develop conclusions from true ones. This is why there
are so many false doctrines, so many strange superstitions. However logical a series of
deductions may be, they are worth nothing unless the initial premise be correct. You will learn
how to guard against this tendency of subconsciousness to accept false premises. Thus you
will be able to use your subconscious thinking processes, safely and constructively.

Our instincts and our intuitions come to us by way of subconsciousness. Instincts, so to

say, come from below and are part of our subconscious inheritance from the past. Intuitions,
on the other hand, come through subconsciousness, but from Superconsciousness,
conceming which more will be said in another lesson.

!
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 SEVEN Sf EPS: 2

When Zerah Colburn, at the age of eight, could instantly give the square root of a number like
106,929 or the cube root of one like 268,33 6,125 without stopping to think, superconscious
perception of mathematical truth was transmitted to his conscious mind through the channel
of subconsciousness. The records kept by experimental psychologists afford many instances
of similar prodigies.

Children have been able to play the most difficult pieces almost as soon as they could sit at a
piano. Others have excelled in musical composition before reaching their "teens". It may be
objected that these are the inexplicable manifestations of genius. Yet the fact remains that
leaders in every field have testified, again and again, that "something tells" them the most
valuable things they know in their own special lines of endeavor.

For example, the texts of the Sumerian language, in the cuneiform characters, were
deciphered because Rawlinson had "guessed" that a phrase like "king of kings" would occur
frequently in the inscriptions. The phrase was isolated and its decipherment led to the
recovery of the whole system of writing. Such guesses come to us from something outside
the range of our ordinary mental processes.

For all practical pu{poses, that something is subconsciousness and it can be controlled.
Persons who develop unusual skill of any kind soon learn that this is true. The best billiard
shots, the most spectacular plays in golf or tennis, the brilliant flashes of genius displayed by
a master of chess, are such manifestations of subconsciousness. So many of the best things
said by public leaders are straight from subconsciousness. Here, too, a writer finds his best
inspirations.

This is not all. The mere selection of some definite aim, with determination to realtze it,
starts the operation of hidden activities which provide us with the necessary materials, and
puts us in contact with those persons whom we need to meet in order to attain our goal.

Not long before his death, Edison gave im interview in which he said, speaking of the
spectacular success of his friend, Henry Ford: "Henry? Why, Henry taps the subconscious."
Mr Ford himself said he was certain that whenever we determine to do something and stick to
our determination, we send out mental entities which put us in touch with other people and
bring us the materials we need for the execution of our plans.

As yet, no completely satisfactory explanation of this hidden operation of our

subconsciousness has been advanced. There have been many attempts to account for the
facts. Books on New Thought and Mentalism have put forward a theory called the "Law of
Attraction". There are other theories, some plausible, and apparently reasonable, others
highly fantastic. What we really know boils down to this:

Something in us below the surface makes connections for us with whatever we need in order
to be what we want to be, do what we want to do, and have what we want to have. This
something can be put in operation by any one who will learn and practice the necessary
technique.

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SEI/EN ST.EPSr 2

All these subconscious operations are manifestations of the force described in the preceding
lesson. Modern psychology, infant sciencs though it be, has discovered enough about how
our minds behave to show us that ancient occult methods for directing our hidden powers rest
on a fum basis of natural law. Anyone who can understand the teaching of certain books
written long ago soon perceives that the art of directing and using this inner force is no new
thing. In every age there have been some persons who understood this art, and they have left
records of which you will get the essence in this course of instructions.

Some of these records have strange forms, but we have keys to their meaning. Thus it is
possible to give you a series of clear, specific instructions which will show you just what to
do in order to make your mind and body effective instruments for realizingyour aim in
life.

This technique will be explained in language you can understand. It constitutes apractical art
of life which has been subjected to rigorous tests. Modem science explains some of it, but not
all. A child may learn to swim even though he has no scientific knowledge of the laws of
physics which enable him to do so. You can leam how to manage your latent po$/ers even
though you may not yet be able to understand 'Just why" your practice produces the results it
does.

F_ixyour att94!qn on polilers y_ou can use immgdi@Lyln elde-r tq19a1-1_ze yofllltgsgq
objective. Know that when you direct subconsciousness you employ forces which can enable
you:

1. To keep your body functioning efficienfly;

2. To develop your intuitive knowledge of the laws of nature you must employ to achieve
your One Aim;
3. To get in touch with the persons and things you need in order to reach your chosen goal.

Now do you begin to see that the statement you wrote out when sfudying Lesson 1 means a
great deal more than you may have realized at first? When you say, "I will apply all my
powers," you are including these mighty subconscious forces described in this lesson, as well
as any other powers of personality of which you may have been aware when you wrote out
your statement of purpose. In choosing your specific object, you have already set in motion
the mighty agency which has aided thousands of other persons to grow in wisdom, power,
happiness and true spirituality.

You can learn more about this Great Magical Agent, as Eliphas Levi called it. You can direct
its currents. You can learn to use it for every conceivable good end. It is yours to command,
yours to employ for the production of revolutionary changes in your personality and your
circumstances. You are now part of an organized movement which utilizes these potencies of
subconsciousness every day, and every hour of the day. Some of the achievements of persons

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 SEVEN SIEPS: 2

connected with this movement have been simply astounding. Yet they have been
accomplished by persons in no essential respect more gifted than you.

Devote a fulIweek to the study of this lesson. Continue making your declaration of purpose
every morning and overy night. As you say the words, remember that they are planting potent
suggestions in your subconsciousness to which it will certainly and fully respond.

{<*{.*****

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