12. Methods Employed In Making A Psychic Attack-g

He will help you.’ Then he became conscious of my presence and began calling on the Christ (all this in his dream) and everything vanished. This happened more than once. Only when I met him again did I tell him of my own experience. “I must add that a friend with psychic power came to see me at this time and said, ‘This last week, at night, I have seen you three times. You asked me to help you save a young man who was in danger. What did it mean?’” The above case indicates clearly the deliberate use of mental power by Z. His pretence of “spiritual healing” being an obvious attempt at hypnosis. My correspondent says definitely that she has never suspected him of deliberate evil; rather was he acting rightly according to his lights. I maintain, however, that any attempt to dominate others, or in any way to manipulate their minds without their consent, is an unwarrantable intrusion upon their freewill and a crime against the integrity of the soul. How can we judge the intimate spiritual needs of another, especially if that other has not elected to confide in us? What right have we to invade his spiritual privacy and thrust our tampering fingers into the wheels of his innermost being? It is so common a practice to send the names of people to healing circles with a request that they should be concentrated upon, without taking the preliminary precaution of asking their permission, that I have heard it announced from the platform of a large Spiritualist public meeting that only those cases could be taken up which gave their written consent. Fortunately for all concerned, the proceedings at such “healing circles” are usually so futile that nobody need mind being concentrated upon by them even if they were attempting murder. The principle, however, remains, and I can only record my opinion once more, as I have already recorded it many times, that such a proceeding is an outrageous breach of good manners and good faith, and contrary to all occult tradition. I think I can honestly say that I have never wished to direct the great currents of destruction upon my fellow-occultists, but there are some of them I would like to get face downwards across my knee!