Voluntary Mental Influence

Under the category of Voluntary Mental Influence we find much of the

phenomena formerly classed as "Magic"--and by this we mean both White

Magic, or efforts to produce results beneficial to the person

influenced, and Black Magic, or efforts to produce results beneficial to

the person exerting the influence, and often to the positive detriment

of the person influenced.



WHITE MAGIC. Under the category of Wh te Magic may be placed all those

efforts of mental healing, and similar phases of metaphysical

therapeutics; and the accompanying efforts directed toward the general

happiness and welfare of the person "treated." The word "treatment" has

sprung into use in this connection, in America and Europe, by reason of

its employment by the numerous metaphysical cults and schools

flourishing there. We hear on all hands of persons being "treated" for

Health, Happiness, and Prosperity in this way. While in some cases, the

"magic" is worked on higher planes than those of thought-vibrations, it

is nevertheless true that in most instances the entire process is that

of mental induction, along the lines described in the preceding pages

of this book. In such cases the person influenced opens himself to the

helpful thought of the person "treating" him, and thus a co-operation

and mental "team work" is secured, often with the most beneficial

results. This phase of the subject is too well known to require lengthy

consideration in this book, and is more properly the subject of the many

books devoted to this special phase of mental power.



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BLACK MAGIC. It has well been said that there are always two poles to

everything in Nature, and continued experience and investigation seems

to substantiate this statement. Whenever we find a force or power

producing beneficial results, we may usually feel assured that the same

force or power, turned in another direction, or possibly reversed in its

action, will produce results of an opposite character. And so it is with

this subject of "Magic" which we are now considering. While we would be

very glad to pass over this phase of the subject, truth and duty to our

readers compel us to state that White Magic has its opposite pole--that

opposite pole known as Black Magic, or the use of psychic force for

selfish and unworthy ends. There is no use trying to pursue the ostrich

policy regarding these things--it is always better to face them boldly,

and then to take means to avoid the evil contained in them.



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We prefer to quote from other writers on this subject, who have given

this particular matter the most careful attention and investigation, and

who have set forth simply and plainly the result of their investigations

and discoveries. Here follow several quotations from authorities of this

kind: