"You may be sure I shall not leave you again. Now try to sleep."

He was fast gaining control of himself; as he gained in this respect, she grew more quiet and soon was fast asleep.

The doctors both came in answer to the summons, but James told them that their services were unnecessary, so they returned to their homes. After this episode, knowing the cause of the difficulty, William remained almost constantly with Clarissa, taking a large measure of happiness from the knowledge his presence was necessary to her happiness. He kept her as quiet and cheerful as possible.

As he studied the book she had given him, he discussed many points with her, when she was awake, acknowledging frankly his surprise at her quick understanding. He told her the truth when he said he enjoyed talking science with her better than with any man he had met, for her perception was very keen and accurate, though she had little knowledge of mesmerism, as a practical and demonstrated science.

She proved herself capable to reason, and interpret some points obscure to him, owing to the fact his mind had been trained in a certain groove of thought, and was thus prejudiced and partial; having no certainly defined theories, she could absorb and embrace new and higher facts far more quickly than he. Whenever a new a.s.sertion was presented to him, he could not help but compare it with his past work or ideas, and was prejudiced in their favor when the balance was nearly equal, owing to the fact he had performed such feats of power by following the guidance of former schools of wisdom: on the other hand, Clarissa had supreme faith in every word Alice had given her, so she tried to make William believe all the book contained.

Her will was untrained, while his was, and developed to the highest degree. What she lacked in training, she made up in persistence. She was a staunch ally of Alice's a.s.sertions, striving by every ingenuity of her mind to successfully pit Alice's ideas against William's tried experiments. Both were stubborn;--William, because he felt actual experience was of more value than theory; Clarissa, because she knew both her own and Alice's mind was unprejudiced when the facts in the book were given.

William had entranced Alice every time, and, in fact, brought her out.

Alice had never known for what reason she was entranced and did not now know she had been instigating intelligence to produce a book upon mesmeric influence.

Clarissa knew her mind had not prejudiced Alice in the slightest, as she knew too little of the science to do so; thus when it came to a conflict of faith between William and Alice, she always advocated Alice's a.s.sertions with the full might of her power.

That book had been a work of love, upon their part. Alice had said while in the trance, that the acceptance of those facts would make William a greater and more ill.u.s.trious man. Clarissa believed it, and used all her power of persuasion and logic to make him understand and accept them.

She was successful, far beyond her hopes. He listened to her arguments and reasons as he would have done to no man's. When their ideas clashed, he tried by all the arguments he knew to convince her.

Take a man and woman of equally developed wisdom, and the woman's mind has been acknowledged by the most competent judges to be the more subtle and intuitive, avowing, often, upon the impulse, precepts and a.s.sertions convincing to their listeners, which, if called upon to explain, they would be powerless to do so. This fact has given birth to the axiom "Men reason logically;--women intuitively." Thus it was that Clarissa could confound, perplex and convince William, while the deep basic principles underlying the effects she so strenuously a.s.serted, were entirely unknown to her.

William never acknowledged, even in after times, how much real knowledge Clarissa imparted to him, and as her one thought had been to avouch and do justice to Alice's work, she did not give herself the due amount of praise. When she succeeded in convincing William, upon a point of disagreement, she gave the credit instinctively to Alice.

In this communion and the almost constant conflict of wills both were growing immensely, without their consciousness of the fact, but Clarissa could never hope to be the practical demonstrator of the science that William was, and would be. She could acquire through sensitiveness, knowledge he could manifest, but could never gain originally.

This is a good proof of the law that all finite lives are fallible, one excelling in one branch of knowledge or execution, and another, in other branches. One eternally leans upon and depends upon the other for something, as it is only the Infinite that embraces all there is within itself.

The word "infinite" implies all; therefore, all individual or finite lives are faulty and fallible, furnishing less developed lives with power and knowledge, while they are, themselves, compelled to depend upon other lives still higher in the evolutionary chain of existence for similar favors.

Clarissa and William were both positive and strong souls, and the union of their forces and intellects meant a much stronger power than either could ever hope to reach alone. The very fact they took opposite views of the question was a beneficial factor to both. The conflict of wills drew from both higher wisdom than they knew they possessed. Neither wanted to be defeated, so each tried to bring forth the most persuasive and logical powers. The natural result was that both were benefited and advanced.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

It is unnecessary to give here all the a.s.sertions made by Alice in the trance state. We will simply review and examine the most prominent and salient points, one of which was "Thought, being the offspring or expression of the individual's desire, or, as some persons prefer to state it, the soul's desire; it must partake of all the predominating chemical characteristics animating the generator at the time of its conception and birth; therefore, it was no vague, tangible force, but actual, tangible chemical substance as much as the atmosphere."

One man, if he is in normal condition, can see another one, but he cannot see the potent chemicals that compose the atmosphere; still, the force stored up and vented through the invisible agency (so far as man's sight is concerned), is capable to, and does do much damage to man and all material conditions, by this one demonstration, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt, its superiority as we might say, in chemical substance, as a weaker force can never injure a stronger one.

If there was no substance or substantiality in the atmosphere, it could not affect and destroy substance, for, without tangibility, it would pa.s.s through substances, creating no visible disturbance. Vague nothingness never yet compelled obedience from solid matter. That which disturbs and moves is much more powerful than that which is disturbed and moved.

Thought, upon whatever plane of action we consider life, is the creator and controller of all conditions. There is not, never was, nor ever will be, a type of life so low in the evolutionary scale, as to be devoid of some kind or specie of thought. In the humblest and simplest types, this thought can vent itself in no higher form than a desire for the presence of kinds similar to itself.

Thought is subject to evolution and progression as much as any form of Infinite Life. From this one thought of desire, springs, in diversified and innumerable channels, all kinds and manners of thought. One and all having their primary origin in this humble beginning, the same as all the high achievements and possibilities man can hope to accomplish in the Infinite Ages, lie dormant in the embryo babe.

The babe, while in the state of embryo development, can express very few and limited powers; but its soul, or spirit, must contain all the latent essential powers the man will manifest throughout Eternity. Otherwise, circ.u.mstances, however potent and powerful, could not materialize the effects which are observable.

There is no power, be it ever so strong, that can evoke and bring forth from a life, qualities and characteristics foreign to it. Those same characteristics may be magnified, enlarged or intensified, until their true proportions are lost sight of, but is there a new factor infused into the soul? No.

A hypnotist, or psychologist, when we view them in a scientific light, is nothing but a magnet, which, consciously or unconsciously, influences and controls many, who possess similar innate traits of spirit upon different planes or stages of development.

To the minds of many, a hypnotist or psychologist is one who, by a firm and determined exercise of will, acquires the power, when they choose to a.s.sert it, to influence less self-centered minds. It is, of course, to be understood that many men who call themselves wise, believe not at all in the efficacy of one man's mind to control another man's consciousness, but all students of life know it is not what one, many, or indeed, all men believe to be true, that is the motive power of progression, but what the Infinite Law directs.

Those men who deny the creative power of thought, attributing all favorable results to the fiat dictation of a Supreme Personal Intelligence, are to be pitied rather than censured.

One might as well deny a rose seed will bring forth a rose, if it brings forth any result at all, as to say "thought is not the motive cause of every expressed result." Without a foregoing cause, there would be no motion or action of any kind. Man never moves his limbs without a thought "I want to go to such a place"; he would not have food in his stomach, if there was not the thought of hunger, which causes him to carry food from his hands to his mouth, and so on. There might be the most bountiful of feasts spread before him, and if his desire could not inspire activity and motion in his arms and hands, he might starve with plenty of edibles in sight, unless some person were inspired to feed him. His arms, hands and limbs will not operate until there has been a foregoing thought.

If his thought or desire is strong, the physical members are but humble instruments that obey his will as operator.

Enough of this;--a hypnotist or psychologist influences and controls not only those persons they will to obey their desires, but many others whom they have not the slightest desire nor intention of influencing. They are in precisely the same position as is a material magnet which is surrounded by a large number of negatives; it becomes the centre of attraction to whatever negatives are within the radius of its magnetism or influence. It may not want those negatives, but there is no escape from their vampirage unless there is the conscious knowledge on the part of the psychologist of how to throw off undesirable influences or negatives.

It is possible for so many negatives to attach themselves to a material magnet they draw away, or sap, all the individual magnetism and strength of the magnet, making that which was previously strong and forceful to become weak and impotent itself; so a man who has been a strong and powerful psychologist, may become a centre of attraction to so many negative lives he may be drained of his self-centered energy, thus, instead of being a commanding life, he a.s.sumes the position of a negative himself.

Those men who are familiar with the modes and characteristics of material magnets know that, after a certain number of negatives have attached themselves to it, the magnet must either be recharged from a lodestone, or it will become a negative itself.

Every negative person within the radius of a psychologist's influence feels the same draw toward them, that material negatives do toward a magnet. The reader, of course, understands that both the material magnet and the psychologist can only draw or attract similar natures, or chemicals to themselves. There was never yet a hypnotist so strong he could draw or attract to himself persons who were endowed with varying or opposite characteristics from his own.

You can control another's personality in those qualities or habits you could control, did they come into your own life; possibly you might, by force of will, govern and control, a condition you had never faced nor felt an inclination for in your own life, but you may be sure you cannot control this in another person's life, if you could not have conquered the same condition, had it arisen in your own.

Many persons measure what you may do by what you have done; such is neither fair nor accurate judgment. No man knows surely and positively what he would do under the severe and stern test of temptation, until he has been actually subjected to the same. He may have many theories and ideas, but these dissipate and vanish like mist before the sun, when stern realities appear. The man who thinks he would do best, often does the worst, while he who doubts his ability to rise superior to temptation, will, because he wants to prove himself better than his judgment, rise superior to the wave that wrecks and drowns him who was too confident of his personal abilities.

In answer to the question (from whence flowed the wisdom and knowledge voiced by Alice?): she gave this seemingly ambiguous answer to persons who have no knowledge of the science of thought and creation--(I glean from the highest wisdom generated by man as a ma.s.s, then for higher knowledge I am limited to the kindness and wisdom of those individuals among whom I am thrust by the will of the temporary projector.

If the question is one that is cogent to, and can be answered by embodied man, I am instinctively attracted to him, from his aura or influence, attaining the answer desired; if not, I am compelled to seek higher from disembodied individuals, but by far the strongest factor is the public thought or prejudice. The reason I give higher wisdom to Professor Huskins' wife's thought is, being unprejudiced, but desirous of wisdom, she draws from my spirit more power to probe and penetrate into the aura of those persons who possess the knowledge requisite to answer the questions from a standpoint of experience rather than theory.)

The acquisition of all known facts can only be by the absorption from a higher source.

The height of the plane of absorption depends on the state of receptiveness of the hypnotist more than the subject.

It is impossible to control the consciousness of another individual and not prejudice and limit him to a certain degree by the opinions of the operator.

The operator may have no desire to do so, and may strive to the full extent of his will to leave the subject free and untrammeled by any of his preconceived opinions, but if he did not project a certain amount of his personality into the being of the subject, he could not control him.

The subject therefore cannot hope to rise in execution above the capacity of the hypnotist, provided the hypnotist has developed his full powers.

A mesmerized subject is irresponsible for whatever sentiments he may express in a trance.

In that condition he is no longer a normal person but acts as a sensitive plate to picture and reproduce the strongest influences bearing upon him at a given time.

He is the reflector of the thoughts and opinions of others and no more to be censured for what he gives forth than is a mirror that pictures the likeness of an ugly and exceedingly unpleasant face. The fault is not the mirror's, for another, stopping before it, will reflect a handsome and pleasing picture. The mirror is limited to, and bound to reflect just such peculiarities as the object which is before it may possess, and the mesmerist's subject acts as just such a reflector for thought impressions. Several psychologists, using the same subject equally desirous of obtaining knowledge upon the same lines, can and frequently do receive very dissimilar results; so widely different in sense as to make a.s.similation between them impossible. This is due to the fact each directing will, compelling the subject to go forth in search of knowledge, varies in its capability to send him to a certain point or location.

The magnetism then absorbed which deadened their own consciousness, limits their search for knowledge to just those spheres of action where they find similar kinds and cla.s.ses of chemicals operative. No two men generate precisely the same kind of magnetism; therefore, no two can bring forth the same results from the same subject, unless they, by the exercise of will force, compel them to utter words and a.s.sertions they wish them to.

One must also take into consideration the varying susceptibility of the subject to the influences of different persons. A negative and good subject will manifest very different characteristics under different persons' influence.