Copyright (C) 1999 by William Mistele. All rights reserved.
Chapter 3, Mental Exercises--Concentrating on Two or Three
Senses at once.
Introduction.
I could acquire a Ph.D. in education, psychology, physiology,
anthropology, neurology, etc. from Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, or
the University of Chicago. In doing so, I might have studied various
classes correlating biochemistry, perception, memory, cognition, the
behavior of individuals and groups, etc. But no where in these
institutions of higher learning would anyone have suggested or even
hinted that the five senses can be trained to the extent the Bardon
asks of us.
When anthropologist study indigenous tribes, they organize their
observations and data according to rigorous academic standards.
When scientists study perception and brain electro-chemistry, they
study individuals in clinical settings. They do not study their own
mind nor do they explore their own sensory perception.
When psychologists design an intelligence test, they have to limit
the variables to specific social and cultural contexts for the test to
have any practical application. And they have to work with large
numbers of individuals for their statistics to have any validity.
Consequently, it is rare for a psychologist to study the mind of the
great entrepreneurs, scientists, artists, and politicians. The mental
capacities of outstanding individuals are beyond the reach of their
methodology.
It is most difficult for a psychologist or scientist to comprehend
the way in which Einstein's brain could comprehend spacial-temporal
relationships. The holographic imagery used by the mind of the
physicist Steven Hawkins is beyond their grasp. It is a kind of taboo
for those in academic institutions to try to understand the extent to
which Stephen Spielburg can see, hear, and feel a character's
responses in a dramatic scene which he is about to direct.
What psychologist can analyze the conviction in the voice of
general Patton as he commands his men who are entering battle?
What test can measure the level of desire in the voice of Bill Gates
when he says, "I want it!"? or the concentration possessed by Picasso
when he stands in one place for twelve working on a painting?
As we practice these mental level exercises, we are crossing a
threshold. We are entering a domain in which the five senses
become invested with power. We learn to hold in our mind any
scene, any memory, any experience, and any sensory perception
without a single disturbance for five minutes, fifteen minutes, or a
half hour. The imagination trained to this way is a divine tool.
It can be used for war because it comprehends the enemies'
thoughts and plans. It can be used for peace because it is more
powerful than hatred, animosity, and fear. It annihilates those
obstacles and barriers to understanding that we are all of us brothers
and sisters. It can be used to heal the broken hearted because it
forges a love which is greater than loss or separation. It can be used
to probe and master the secrets of nature because nature is a
vibration which the mind can reproduce within itself and study until it
becomes familiar. And it can master the darkest desire because it
knows that darkness and craving have a place and part to play in the
full spectrum of color, light, and life.
A few individuals already possess a powerful mental
concentration. Most of us have to develop it through a great deal of
work and effort. But my point is this--a professionally trained
imagination is a spiritual tool and it is best used for divine purposes--
to heal, to create peace, to unite what is separate, to acquire wisdom,
to alleviate suffering, and to assist in one's own and other's
development.
If you think of acquiring these abilities for your own benefit
alone, then it will be easy to become frustrated or to rush through
your practice. But if you commit yourself to serving divine love,
light, wisdom, and purpose, the exercises can be mastered on their
own terms. You can take as long as you need and you can
experiment with them until you get the results you require.
Concentration is a divine virtue and those who would serve higher
purposes must possess this virtue in abundance.
The Exercise. In the previous chapter, we practiced concentrating on
one sense at a time. Now we go on to practice with two or more
senses at once. Start by concentrating on the sight and sound of
some object or scene--a clock ticking, a gong being struck, a stream
with the water rushing, a tree with the leaves stirred by a breeze, etc.
Bardon says, "Your imagination must be so perfect and so
constructive as if there were, indeed and factually, a clock hanging
on the wall." Practice until you can hold the visual and acoustic
sensory perception for five minutes without distraction.
At this point, choose your own subject matter combining two
senses. For example, experiment with sight and touch, sight and
taste, sight and smell, and so on working with all five senses in every
combination. Try three sense combinations also working especially
with sight, sound, and touch. Again, practice until you can do two or
three sense concentrations for at least five minutes without
distraction.
Bardon next has the student practice concentrating on places and
landscape, animals, and then people. In each of these practices,
observe the following points: 1) Start with a simple visualization
without movement or action and then add to this other senses along
with real life activity; 2) Practice first with your eyes closed and,
after mastering this, practice the same exercise with your eyes open;
3) Work first with familiar and known places and people and then
proceed to imagine unknown or completely imaginary scenes and
people including a variety of races.
Places and Landscapes. This exercise extends the previous one
primarily by adding more detail. Close your eyes and visualize a
familiar house, a town, a village, or a scene from nature such as a
forest, a garden, a hillside, etc. First check to see that your
imagination is perfectly realistic in every aspect including light, shade,
form, composition, color, perspective, etc. Now add to this sounds
such as the sound of a breeze, birds singing, and what sounds
normally accompany the setting. After you master this, add other
senses as well. Your imagination of any scene you choose must be
so real you feel you are actually there in front of it.
Practice now the above exercise with your eyes open. In other
words, your external surroundings should completely vanish so that
all you perceive is the content of your imagination. You can, for
example, fix your eyes on one point or stare into a vacant space.
After you succeed in this, practice with locations you have never
experienced until you can do so for five minutes without distraction.
Bardon goes on to suggest that the student get into the habit of
imagining events and scenes in this way when reading a novel.
Animals. Visualize a scene containing a familiar animal such as a
dog, cat, cow, sheep, bird, horse, mouse, etc. Add realistic
movement to the visualization. For example, notice the specific way
a dog runs, barks, lies down, eats, chews a bone, chases a cat, etc.
Do this with a number of animals until with your eyes first open and
then closed until you can do so for the usual five minutes.
People. Visualize friends, relatives, and acquaintances starting
with their general features and moving on to their heads and then
their entire dressed bodies. Add to this movement in which they are
walking, working, exercising, doing chores, etc. After this, add other
senses such as sound and especially voice. Listen for the specific
way they talk--the pitch, tone, intonation pattern, speed, volume,
resonance, etc. Strive to capture the reality of speech so your
imagination is accurate.
After completing the above, practice with individuals who are
strange and outside of your experience. Work with both genders, all
ages groups, and various races from around the planet. Supplement
your imagination by referring to magazines and pictures of different
ethnic groups. When you can visualize and concentrate on other
senses also for known and unknown people for five minutes without
distraction with your eyes both open and closed you will be done
with the mental training for this chapter.
I would note that later on in the book we increase sense
concentrations beyond the five minutes practiced at the beginning. In
regard to difficulty, Bardon says in chapter 10, the magician "must
go to any length for developing every faculty completely. Any kind
of haste or hurry with respect to his development is useless and will
work out awkwardly later ion in his magic task. To avoid
disappointments, the magician is advised to take a sufficient amount
of time and to work steadily but systematically."
Exercises of this kind require "perseverance, patience, persistence,
and toughness." The difficulty, however, is more than compensated
by the abilities, will power, and mental force which are acquired in
the process. Furthermore, this level of concentration lays the
foundation for mastery of clairvoyance, telepathy, clairsentience,
mental projection, etc.
Commentary
These concentrations greatly strengthen the mental body. They give
the mind the opportunity to focus directly on the five senses without
any astral-emotional or vital-etheric energies getting in the way.
Individuals, for example, do not see and hear as clearly when they
are upset or are over enthusiastic. It is also difficult to concentrate
when then the individual is feels strong physical sensations or is
experiencing high energy.
You might try this experiment sometime when you feel out of
sorts, anxious, or depressed. Concentrate on each of the five senses
for one minute each one after the other. This is like a little spell for
evoking mental clarity.
Similarly, some individuals may find it easier to practice the sense
combination exercises in this chapter for shorter periods of time than
five minutes. For example, a student may wish to concentrate on
two or more senses for a minute. That is, do a number of one
minute concentrations switching between different contents. Then
gradually lengthen the time you spend.
It would seem odd for a weightlifter to develop his body starting
with his biceps at ten pounds and then working the same muscles up
to eighty pounds before going on to work with his triceps and other
muscles. It seems healthier to work with the whole body little by
little and so too the mind. Bardon obviously wishes students to
master the sense of sight before the other senses. But in individual
cases, it may be better to develop all your senses at the same rate.
Otherwise it might be easy to become boughed down with
visualization or auditory concentration when you could learn faster
proceeding in another way.
Besides the fact that this mental level exercises are not taught in
modern education institutions, these exercises seem to me to be a
fabulous educational tool. There is nothing per se magical about
them though they may draw you into discovering all sorts of magical
abilities. For me, these exercises are the most fun and playful of all
of the exercises in Bardon's first book. We are being given free reign
to enter our minds and create any sensory experience it remembers
or can imagine.
Following Bardon's suggestion to start with familiar sights and
sounds, you might also like to experiment with familiar activities
which are enjoyable and in which you are emotionally involved. I
notice that without effort I can imagine myself playing sports in
which case the entire imagination seems real as if I am there. Sports
were that way for me when I practiced them--nothing else existed but
the activity in which I was engaged. Consequently, my body and
brain find it easy to reproduce my five sense experiences in these
areas.
Some individuals can imagine activities such as playing a game of
chess by visualizing in their minds the entire chess board and the
sequence of moves. Try to recreate some activities in which you
were highly involved. You might imagine playing with your dog or
cat, attending an aerobics class, working out with weights, riding a
bicycle, driving your car, swimming in a pool, playing a game of
golf, etc.
Similarly, try to recall doing everything you normally do through
a day--for example, waking up, taking a shower, getting dressed,
eating breakfast, going to work, walking, driving a car, falling asleep,
dreaming, etc. Memorize in exquisite detail the events and routines
of your daily life and of several individuals you know.
We experience the world through our five senses. Now we are
challenged in an astonishing way as if the magician we would
become says to us, "Prove to me that you can touch, taste, smell,
see, and hear anything which your senses have already experience. If
you can do this with the world you already know, then you will be
ready to encounter the unknown worlds which you do not know."
Further Thoughts on Content
I would point out that the taste and smell are important and should
not be skipped over because they are so grounding. After working
with the inner planes, it is a great advantage to be able to immediately
connect again with the physical world. Taste and smell draw your
attention back to the dense vibration of the material world. In other
words, having taste and smell highly developed intensifies your
awareness of your immediate physical environment.
Note a number of distinctions with the same sense. For example,
with touch notice various degrees of hot and cold, various textures
from smooth to rough, light to heavy, soft to hard, etc. With taste
also, add together individual tastes. For example, taste coffee or tea,
then milk, and then sugar and then concentrate on all three at once.
Note the effects of caffeine or alcohol on you and see if you can
imagine each of their physical effects at different levels.
With sound, reproduce the sound of a musical instrument and
several notes or several instruments playing at the same time.
Concentrate on the tones of the octave. For example, sing the do,
ray, me, fa, etc. and then reproduce the voice of three other
individuals one after the other singing the same scale by themselves,
with you, and all at once. Include an opera singer and members of
the opposite gender. Also, carry on conversations in your mind with
people you know and people you would like to meet and also
unknown people.
Recall a hundred different body sensations--such as being sleepy,
hungry, thirsty, having a full stomach, having eaten too much, feeling
tired, invigorated, relaxed, tense, standing in the sun, standing in a
cool wind, a moist wind, feeling cold, sweaty, short of breath, calm
of breath, an adrenaline rush, rapid heart beat and pulse, achy
muscles in different parts of your body, exercised muscles as in
lifting weights, running, stretching, gasping for breath,
hyperventilating, sitting in a vibrating chair, feeling an earthquake,
the symptoms from a variety of illnesses, etc.
With sight, visualize a color chart. Rotate objects in space. See
how many details you can recall accurately after glancing for a few
seconds at a picture. Visualize all the scenes from a few movies you
have seen. Imagine you are on the movie set during the shooting of a
number of those scenes talking to the director and the actors. Also,
spend some time drawing a landscape. Then memorize and compare
the picture you have drawn with the landscape you visualize.
For magick purposes, concentrate on bright white light, colors,
musical notes, people, sigils, scenes with the four elements--weather
conditions for air, volcanoes and fires for fire, water scenes for
water, and trees, rocks, and mountain scenes for the earth element.
Memorize your room and house in every detail as if you are walking
through it and touching objects. Spend some time then exploring
houses, castles, mansions which you have never seen. Every day
most of us glance into a mirror. Visualize a mirror in front of you
and recall as clearly as possible every detail of your face and also
your full body in a larger mirror.
In conclusion, practicing these exercises, I become a lot more
observant and perceptive. For example, without thinking about it I
notice all the different calls of birds around the house. Part of my
brain automatically memorizes them and searching for the bird which
goes with each call. When I look at animals or people, I see more
detail.
My visualization of people is so clear it seems they are indeed in
front of me when I visualize them or imagine talking to them. At
times, imagined physical experiences seem completely real. This is
helpful because I can then think clearly about experiences which
might happen or which I would like to have happen.
With this background of training, it is easy to enter dream states--I
can easily imagine myself within a dream, a vision, an imaginary
location and it all seems completely real. I can go back in my mind
to past experiences and enter them again as if they are just now
unfolding or change them to see how things might have been
different.
Above all else, these exercises strengthen the mental body so that
the astral and physical body are all drawn closely together. Some
individuals become psychic too soon. They are sensitive to the inner
planes, to others' auras and feelings, and to the world of dreams and
visions. And others have so much physical energy their chakras are
overcharged and they are driven by wild instincts and passions.
Developing our concentration on the five senses enables the mind
to clearly distinguish between the here and now and anything and
everything else. The five senses are then like highly tuned
instruments which are precise, exact, and never confused. You may
have profound intuitions and experience high ecstasy, but this does
not interfere with your ability to be practical, realistic, down to earth,
and fully attentive to the present moment.