LESSON XVI.

PSYCHIC INFLUENCE; ITS LAWS AND PRINCIPLES

One of the phases of psychic phenomena that actively engage the attention of the student from the very beginning is that which may be called Psychic Influence.  By this term is meant the influencing of one mind by another—­the effect of one mind over another.  There has been much written and said on this phase of the general subject in recent years, but few writers, however, have gone deeply into the matter.

In the first place, most of the writers on the subject seek to explain the whole thing by means of ordinary telepathy.  But this is merely a one-sided view of the truth of the matter.  For, while ordinary telepathy plays an important part in the phenomena, still the higher form of telepathy, i.e., astral thought-transference, is frequently involved.  The student who has followed me in the preceding lessons will understand readily what I mean when I say this, so there is no necessity for repetition on this point at this place.

At this point, however, I must ask the student to consider the idea of psychic vibrations and their inductive power.  It is a great principle of occultism, as well as of modern science, that everything is in a state of vibration—­everything has its own rate of vibration, and is constantly manifesting it.  Every mental state is accompanied by vibration of its own plane:  every emotional state or feeling has its own particular rate of vibration.  These rates of vibrations manifest just as do the vibrations of musical sound which produce the several notes on the scale, one rising above the other in rate of vibration.  But the scale of mental and emotional states is far more complex, and far more extended than is the musical scale; there are thousands of different notes, and half-notes, on the mental scale.  There are harmonies and discords on that scale, also.

To those to whom vibrations seem to be something merely connected with sound-waves, etc., I would say that a general and hasty glance at some elementary work on physical science will show that even the different shades, hues and tints of the colors perceived by us arise from different rates of vibrations.  Color is nothing more than the result of certain rates of vibrations of light recorded by our senses and interpreted by our minds.  From the low vibrations of red to the high vibrations of violet, all the various colors of the spectrum have their own particular rate of vibration.  And, more than this, science knows that below the lowest red vibrations, and above the highest violet vibrations, there are other vibrations which our senses are unable to record, but which scientific instruments register.  The rays of light by which photographs are taken are not perceived by the eye.  There are a number of so-called chemical rays of light which the eye does not perceive, but which may be caught by delicate instruments.  There is what science has called “dark light,” which will photograph in a room which appears pitch dark to the human sight.