TRIGGERS Mind Programming System (Triggers; Triggers course; Triggers System; TRIGGERS: The Technology Of Instant Motivation): Personal development system invented by certified psychiatric social worker, hypnotist, and transactional analyst Stanley Mann, author of the bestseller TRIGGERS: A New Approach To Self-Motivation. (Prentice-Hall, Inc.) Triggers, or Triggering, is a means of harnessing magic powers hidden in one's personality, healing illness with a mere thought, and solving problems in a snap.

(See also: TRIGGERS Mind Programming System, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Time Line Therapy (TLT): Branch of NLP created by Dr. Tad James. Time Line Therapy is a group of techniques, one of whose principles is that people store their experience of time on a line in space. Journeying on this so-called timeline to the past and future charges one's life-energy and prepares one for the incredibly powerful magic of Huna (an esoteric tradition native to the Hawaiian Islands; see kahuna healing).

(See also: Time Line Therapy, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

OMNI-FORCE: Modular mail-order program developed by Gerard V. Sunnen, a psychiatrist, hypnotist, and reputed world-renowned expert in Eastern medicine. The program involves self-hypnosis and acupressure. , it releases one's inner powers and enables users to recharge their energy and direct healing energy to any part of the body.

(See also: OMNI-FORCE, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Aesculapius Asklepios (Greek) God of healing and medicine, son of Apollo by Coronis, educated by the centaur Chiron. When Aesculapius brought the dead back to life, Zeus at the behest of Hades killed him with a thunderbolt.

He is often identified with Mercury, the divine healer or cosmic serpent, represented by the caduceus of Mercury; and in some of his functions he is the same as Ptah in Egypt, creative intellect or wisdom, and as Apollo, Baal, Adonis, and Hercules (SD 2:208; 1:353). Also called the serpent and the savior: "Esculapius, Serapis, Pluto, Knoum, and Kneph, are all deities with the attributes of the serpent. Says Dupuis, 'They are all healers, givers of health, spiritual and physical, and of enlightenment' " (SD 2:26). Thus Aesculapius is mystically the divine healer or healing power, the ray of divine wisdom emanating from the spiritual sun in man.

(See also: Aesculapius, Asklepios, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

ATHAME: "a-THAY-me" the Witch's traditional magical tool, the consecrated, black-handled dagger. It is never used to cut, but can be used to defend; a personal knife, usually made of steel and is double bladed or edged; with a black handle. Double edged to Symbolize that power works both ways: healing & harming, creation & destruction; light & dark. Both sides necessary & both sides needing to be controlled. The black absorbs power. The owner often engraves magick symbols into the metal. A magickal tool associated with change makes it the symbol of the Element - Fire, and its phallic nature links it to the God.   It's direction is the South.

(See also: ATHAME, Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Faith Healing, Drugless Healing Apart from the regular medical and surgical practice, widespread forms of drugless healing are employed today. Public opinion generally is either frankly skeptical about the whole matter, or believes that such afford safe and easy means of relief and escape from suffering and disease.

As a whole, these forms of faith or magnetic healing depend on the "inborn or inherent, ability of the 'healer' or practitioner to convey healthy life-force from himself to the diseased person. This is the key to success, or the lack of success, in all cases, and in all kinds of healing of whatever so-called 'school'" (SOPh 622). If the practitioner succeeds in conveying the vitality of the pranic fluids from his own healthy body to the diseased body or organ of another person, that healthy life-force "expels" or changes the inharmonious vibrations in the afflicted part and, by restoring harmony there, brings about health. Such cures can be permanent; usually they are temporary, lasting from a few days to a few years.

All these methods were known to the ancients. Unfortunately, the Western lack of any true psychology leaves unexplained the rationale of these healing systems -- whether by hypnotism, magnetism, mesmerism, or healing by faith as practiced by the Christian Scientists and faith-healers -- and gives no hint of their end results. The potential dangers incurred, both physical and superphysical, are unsuspected. The magnetic healer's emanation of his vitality and will-force inevitably carries and implants in the person it affects something of his own quality of mind, heart, and body. The germs of any latent disease, hidden vice, or mental bias will complicate any supposed cure.

Moreover, the subtle infection on inner lines karmically links for the future both healer and patient in the outcome. Even diseased or evil-minded persons of strong will and animal vitality can displace a disease and, by driving it back onto some inner level of the sufferer's constitution, can make a seeming cure. Howsoever it is displaced out of sight, it cannot be denied out of existence, and sooner or later it will reappear in a more untimely, unnatural, and probably a more dangerous form because of its suppression at the moment of its endeavor to exhaust itself in physical expression. Physical disease, originating in wrong thought in this or a former life, becomes visible on the most material level in working its way out of the system for good. It is positively pernicious for a healer to act upon the will, conscience, or moral integrity of the sick person by hypnotizing his mind, will, and conscience into believing that sickness does not exist, or that he is a victim of fate instead of suffering from his own past actions. Any such control of another's conscious life is a form of suggestion or hypnotism, and falls under what was formerly called black magic.

On the other hand, we are morally obligated to help the sick and suffering in the right ways of treating the body, mind, and soul; right because involving the arousing of the patient's own inner powers of spiritual, moral, and intellectual resistance against the weaknesses in himself. The wrong ways consist in the overpowering -- however good the motive of the practitioner may be -- of the moral instincts, will, and conscience of the sufferer, thereby rendering him weaker than before. In genuine mesmerism the vital emanation from a pure-minded, unselfish, healthy operator arouses the inert or disordered forces of the diseased organ or body, causing them to vibrate harmoniously and naturally. Thus the sufferer makes himself whole or healthy, and has no bad reaction. The best of all drugless healing methods is where the sufferer is brought into a state of hope, self-confidence, and the higher kind of resignation bringing peace and inner quiet, all of which works in harmony with the body's natural resources of health and healing. This is the kind of faith-cure used by Jesus and others of similar spiritual and intellectual stature.

(See also: Faith Healing, Drugless Healing, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Enneagram system (Enneagram, Enneatype system): System of spiritual psychology based on an ancient Sufi typology of nine (ennea in Greek) personality types or primary roles:

(1)           the achiever (reformer) - orderly, rational, and self-righteous;

(2)           the helper - generous, manipulative, and possessive;

(3)           the succeeder (motivator, status-seeker) - ambitious, hostile, and pragmatic;

(4)           the individualist (artist) - intuitive, self-absorbed, and sensitive;

(5)           the observer (thinker) - analytic, original, and provocative;

(6)           the guardian (loyalist) - defensive, engaging, and responsible;

(7)           the dreamer (generalist) - accomplished and manic;

(8)           the confronter (leader) - combative, dominating, and self-confident; and

(9)           the preservationist (peacemaker) - easygoing and receptive.

Each type has a prime psychological addiction (fixation or blind spot), respectively: anger, pride, deceit, envy, greed, fear, gluttony, lust for life and power, and laziness. These addictions include Christianity's seven deadly sins.

(a)           Recognition of one's type is tantamount to spiritual awakening. in the process of neutralizing the prime addiction:

(b)          achievers become pathfinders,

(c)           helpers become partners, succeeders become motivators,

(d)           individualists become builders,

(e)           observers become explorers,

(f)             guardians become stabilizers,

(g)           dreamers become illuminators,

(h)           confronters become philanthropists, and

(i)             preservationists become universalists.

(See also: Enneagram system, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Yamabooshee, or Yamabusi (Jap.). A sect in Japan of very ancient and revered mystics. They are monks "militant" and warriors, if needed, as are certain Yogis in Rajputana and the Lamas in Tibet.

This Mystic brotherhood dwell chiefly near Kioto, and are renowned for their healing powers, says the Encyclopœdia, which translates the name "Hermit Brothers": "They pretend to magical arts, and live in the recesses of mountains and craggy steeps, whence they come forth to tell fortunes (?), write charms and sell amulets. They lead a mysterious life and admit no one to their secrets, except after a tedious and difficult preparation by fasting and a species of severe gymnastic exercise ! ")

(See also: Yamabooshee, Yamabusi, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

THEO

Greek root meaning "god" combines to generate many creative ideas:

THEOCRASY -- Mixed worship of the gods; intimacy with the  gods.

THEOMACHY -- Opposition to divine will; Fighting with the  gods.

THEOMORPHOSIS -- Transformation into a divine shape.

THEOPANAX --  The all-healing god.

THEOPHANY -- The showing of divinity in mankind.  However, the Neoplatonists meant man recognizing his own divinity showing in  himself.

THEOPNEUSY -- Divine Inspiration. Another Neoplatonic idea. The  inspiration, though divine, is one's own Higher Self.

THEOPOEIA --  Godmaking.

THEOSIS -- God impulse. Theos is the god's personality or  character as opposed to Daimon, a divine power or entity.

(See also: THEO, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

IMAGINATION

One of the two human magickal powers (the other is Will). Actually the two powers are but aspects of a secret third intelligence that goes unnamed. It is through the imagination, for instance, that healing takes place. A persistent focusing of the attention on the disease or affliction will eventually yield its dynamics and plan of action to the imagination, whereupon it then becomes possible to superimpose one's own healing pattern (also created by the imagination) over the modus operandi of the disease, forcing it to conform to one's own preference. Rather than simply "willing" something to happen, if you can imagine how the happening can occur, you can painstakingly go over each step in your mind until the event takes place.

Wade Baskin suggests that magic possesses but one dogma, which is that the visible is the manifestation of the invisible. Since the part contains the all, any part can control any other part. What you can imagine in sufficient detail you can and will produce. Failure to manifest is simply the failure to follow through in every detail and to give up too soon.

(See also: IMAGINATION, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

CADUCEUS

(keryx, "herald - a herald's wand, kerukeion). Representative of the spinal column: matter and spirit intertwining to produce the manifest world and to create a channel for the sexless Sushumna power. Pingala and Ida, the two serpents, are male and female. Ultimately, the embodiment of Kundalini: the sexual, hence vital force or "healing power." The doubled serpent is unconditional, absolute wisdom. A herald's wand confers immunity in all regions - protection from attack (especially since the serpents are vipers).

Apart from being the emblem of the wandering healer, the caduceus also stands for the Qabalah as a whole. The staff itself is the middle pillar and the serpents are the two flanking pillars, representing the slippery extremes that reflect one another back and forth. A recently unearthed hieroglyph depicts Thoth with a staff surmounted by two cobras bearing, respectively, the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt (the conscious and unconscious mind). In medicine, the black and white serpents signify disease and health.

(See also: CADUCEUS, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Haoma (Avestan) Hum (Pahlavi) Homa (Persian) The Tree of Life; there are two haomas: the yellow or golden earthly haoma, which when prepared and used as an offering for sacrifice is the king of healing plants, the most sacred and powerful of all the offerings prescribed in the Mazdean scriptures. This haoma is equivalent to the Hindu soma -- the sacred drink used in the temples, and is said to endow he who drinks it with the property of mind.

The white haoma (or hom) is called the Gokard, the sacred tree of eternal life created by Ahura Mazda which grows up in the middle of the Farakhard ocean (unbounded ocean or the waters of space), surrounded by the ten thousand healing plants, created by Ahura Mazda to counteract the 99,999 diseases created by Angra Mainyu. By the drinking of the Gokard men will become immortal on the day of the resurrection, according to the Bundahish. From the white haoma was also cut the sacred baresma of the Mobeds.

In later esoteric Persian literature, Simorgh takes the place of haoma at the top of Mount Alborz. It finally becomes the mythical bird that brings happiness and good fortune to those he protects.

The fruit of the haoma was the fruit of the tree of knowledge and wisdom (later transformed into the forbidden fruit), similar to the apples of wisdom and the pippala.

See also ASVATTHA

(See also: Haoma, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Haoma (Avestan) Hum (Pahlavi) Homa (Persian) The Tree of Life; there are two haomas: the yellow or golden earthly haoma, which when prepared and used as an offering for sacrifice is the king of healing plants, the most sacred and powerful of all the offerings prescribed in the Mazdean scriptures. This haoma is equivalent to the Hindu soma -- the sacred drink used in the temples, and is said to endow he who drinks it with the property of mind.

The white haoma (or hom) is called the Gokard, the sacred tree of eternal life created by Ahura Mazda which grows up in the middle of the Farakhard ocean (unbounded ocean or the waters of space), surrounded by the ten thousand healing plants, created by Ahura Mazda to counteract the 99,999 diseases created by Angra Mainyu. By the drinking of the Gokard men will become immortal on the day of the resurrection, according to the Bundahish. From the white haoma was also cut the sacred baresma of the Mobeds.

In later esoteric Persian literature, Simorgh takes the place of haoma at the top of Mount Alborz. It finally becomes the mythical bird that brings happiness and good fortune to those he protects.

The fruit of the haoma was the fruit of the tree of knowledge and wisdom (later transformed into the forbidden fruit), similar to the apples of wisdom and the pippala.

See also ASVATTHA

(See also: Hanuman, Hanumat, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Yoga:

Literally means 'link' or 'combination'. This word has broad implications and is used in many ways throughout the Vedas and within astrology. Literally means to 'yoke' - to bring together. A system of healing and self-transformation based in wholeness and unity. Primarily, the word yoga refers to the processes employed for reconnecting the soul with its divine origins.

For example, bhakti-yoga means to unite with God through devotion or bhakti. In astrology, yoga refers to various planetary combinations such as: saraswati-yoga - a yoga of planetary positions which indicate that one has the blessings of Goddess Saraswati, the goddess of learning. Yoga in this sense is also one of the five angas or divisions of the Panchanga (the five divisions included within the Indian calendar).

Unfortunately, no word has been profaned so much in modern times as yoga. Fire-walking, acid-swallowing, stopping the heartbeat, etc. pass for yoga when really speaking they have nothing to do with yoga as such. Even psychic powers are not yoga. Yoga is awareness, resulting in transformation of the human consciousness into divine consciousness.

(See also: Yoga, Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

Arundhati (Sanskrit) (probably from a not + the verbal root rudh to check, restrain, bind)

One who releases, frees, unbinds; a medicinal climber, with power to heal severe wounds; consort of the sage Vasishtha; consort of Dharma, meaning established law, procedure, truth, referring in this case to the cosmos; from Arundhati were born "the divisions of earth" (VP 1:15); personification of the morning star, Phosphoros or Lucifer-Venus of the ancient Greeks and Latins, one of the seven stars of Ursa Major; power invoked by the bridegroom for conjugal excellence; name of kundalini, the occult energy in humanity symbolized by a coiled serpent said to lie latent at the base of the spinal column until energized into activity by strenuous yoga exercises.

Arundhati is one of the most mystical terms in ancient Hindu mythology. The congruence of attributes suggests that Arundhati is the cosmic sakti or power stimulating, generating, and bringing to birth what would otherwise lie latent or relatively inactive in the abysses of cosmic force or energy. In her role of Lucifer-Venus, Arundahati may be mystically connected with the hierarchies of the manasaputras, the sons of mind, who quickened dormant mind in the early humanities.

(See also: Arundhati, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Seraphim (Hebrew, Jewish). Celestial beings described by Isaiah (vi., 2,) as of human form with the addition of three pair of wings. The Hebrew word is ShRPIM, and apart from the above instance, is translated serpents, and is related to the verbal root ShRP, to burn up . The word is used for serpents in Numbers and Deuteronomy. Moses is said to have raised in the wilderness a ShRP or Seraph of Brass as a type. This bright serpent is also used as an emblem of Light. Compare the myth of Esculapius, the healing deity, who is said to have been brought to Rome from Epidaurus as a serpent, and whose statues show him holding a wand on which a snake is twisted. (See Ovid, Metam., lib. xv.). The Seraphim of the Old Testament seem to be related to the Cherubim (q.v.). In the Kabbalah the Seraphim are a group of angelic powers allotted to the Sephira Geburah - Severity.

(See also: Seraphim, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

SEKHMET

Supreme female deity of Egypt in whose care we are nourished and protected. When her wrath is stirred she is without mercy. "The Powerful One," her head was a lioness, an attribute of Ra, i.e., his enraged "Eye," which cannibalized his enemies. She was a ruthless goddess of bloodthirsty slaughter. All the same, being so bloody she was also capable of fiercely driving sickness away and hence was also a healing goddess. A "priest of Sekhmet" was a doctor who could rout evil spirits. It is said (Gods of Aquarius) that she has returned in our time and occupies a collective unconscious realm somewhere between being and potential summoning. We do well to place her in the forefront of our pantheon because she is essential to our health and protection. She is an excellent demon-slayer.

(See also: SEKHMET, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Hippocrates health program (Hippocrates program): Variation of Nature Cure developed by wholistic health educator Dr. Ann Wigmore (1904-1994), author of Be Your Own Doctor, The Healing Power Within, The Hippocrates Diet and Health Program, Hippocrates Live Food Program, Recipes for Longer Life, The Sprouting Book, The Wheatgrass Book, and Why Suffer?. Wigmore founded the Hippocrates Health Institute in 1957.

The Hippocrates program encompasses brushing the skin, deep breathing, enemas, food combining, the Hippocrates Diet (see Living Foods Lifestyle), and exercises such as squatting. According to its theory, integration of body/mind/spirit is central to health. In Belief: All There Is (1991), Brian R. Clement, codirector of the Hippocrates Health Institute, in West Palm Beach, Florida, asserted: [B]elief can bring you anything that you desire (p. 41). He further stated that death is a sham (p. 67).

(See also: Hippocrates health program, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Mesmerism Named for Friedrich Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), a Viennese physician who conceived the idea that diseases could be healed by stroking the afflicted parts of the patient's body with magnets. Later he discovered that the same healing effect could be produced by stroking or making passes over the afflicted parts with the hands. Hence the name animal magnetism as descriptive of this method of healing which today is generally called mesmerism.

Mesmer's fundamental idea was that there resides in man a power, an odic force or nerve energy, which can be projected by the will and directed either to heal and cure, or to harm and kill. All people possess this power in varying degrees. The very life-atoms which continually enter and leave not only our physical bodies, but the higher parts of our composite nature, are charged with and carry with them this odic force or mesmeric influence. We continually exchange these life-atoms with other beings, unconsciously to ourselves, and with those kingdoms according to their respective natures or planes.

Mesmerism, however, means the conscious or unconscious projection by a human being of this odic or vital nerve force or magnetic fluid. But the possession of this power depends upon the physical vitality and health rather than the moral or spiritual status of the operator; while the quality of this power is very greatly influenced by the moral or spiritual status of the operator. In this lies the danger of the practice of mesmerism, for unless the operator is pure minded and of high moral character, the physical vitality or magnetic fluid which he projects to the patient will be morally tainted and may constitute a grave danger to the patient who, while apparently deriving physical benefit from the treatment, may become morally weakened by it, be it in however small degree.

In accordance with the constant transmigration of life-atoms between person and person, and among all the kingdoms of nature; and, as those life-atoms are of all planes -- physical, vital-astral, psychic, intellectual, and spiritual, each being of the nature of that plane and hence the carrier of the life-essence, prana, odic force, or magnetism of that plane -- it follows that no person can live to himself alone; but that all people influence one another either for good or ill, particularly those who are closely associated together. This is the occult significance of the power of example good or bad, the power of a cheerful, courageous, optimistic nature, or of a nature of opposite character. Hence we may speak of the mesmeric influence as operative theoretically on all planes; but when used for purposes of physical or psychic healing, it operates on the physical and psychic planes alone, because of the vital carriers or life-atoms in question.

Even so considered, the mesmeric influence not only supplements and thus arouses to renewed activity the latent vitality of the patient, but acts indirectly upon the patient's mind and will, by helping to remove the inhibitions upon the action of these due to physical suffering and lack of physical health; and can be used for either good or immoral ends when the influence is directed to the mental and psychic nature of the patient.

But mesmerism is not necessarily psychologization, which is control by psychic force of another's mind and will, resulting in a dislocation of the psychic nature of the latter, a usurpation or forcible direction of the thought and will of another by the psychologizer, an invasion of that other's most sacred rights -- immoral and evil in its results, whatever immediate appearances may be, and whatever be the motive, for it cripples that part in man without which he is not fully human. Nevertheless the psychologizer, as well as the so-called hypnotizer, invariably makes use of mesmeric influence, odic force, and the pranas, for these are the carriers of thought-energy and will, without which these latter could not reach and dominate the mind and will of the subject. Mesmerism, purely as such, depends solely upon the inherent natures of the pranas, and is solely a transference of pranic energy from the operator to the subject. Thus, according to the health, physical and moral, of the operator so will the subject be affected either for good or ill.

The greatest and only sure safeguard against baneful mesmeric influence, whether consciously directed against one or unconsciously exercised by another, is one's own aspirations, positive will, and endeavor to think and live one's best and noblest. If all people were spiritually enlightened, the true mesmeric power could be safely used for the healing of disease and even for aid in bringing about a rectification, by the patient's own will, of distortions and weaknesses in the patient's character or constitution. But as matters stand, the danger in meddling with the subtle pranic energies is invariably both very real and great. One may always use the power of suggestion when this is elevated to, and employed solely on, the high moral and intellectual planes, such as by lofty spiritual and ethical teaching, precept, and especially the power of high example -- because these instill thoughts and ideals in the patient's mind arousing his own desire to follow them. These facts also demonstrate the real danger of suggestion when employed as it so often is on the lower planes, thus frequently taking the form of what are commonly called temptations.

Because mesmerism, psychologization, suggestion, and hypnotism are interlinked, all these have their respective play and place in any usage by one person of his vitality upon another.

(See also: Mesmerism, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Medicine As the healing art, medicine is as old as thinking man. Before the latent fires of mind were lighted in the third root-race, disease and death were unknown. However, with the physicalization of protoplastic humanity, and the separation of the sexes, the unnatural linking with the animals in the third and fourth root-races disordered the harmonious relations between man and nature. In addition, self-conscious man's continued evolution into matter, with the involution of his spiritual nature, brought about forms of disorder, disease, and physical death. Then, beings from higher spheres descended, and dynasties of divine kings and spiritual guides taught men, leading them to the invention of all the arts and sciences, including the medical use of plants (cf SD 2:364).

Medicine was originally a divine science, providing for the well-being of the spiritual, mental, psychic, astral, and physical man. Archaic medicine included a profound knowledge of genuine astrology, of true alchemy, of occult physiology, of the finer forces vibrating as sound, color, form, thought, and feeling, and whatever related man to his home universe of natural law and order. This was the basis of the natural "magic" which tradition has linked with the medical art. This knowledge was dual in its power to work for life or death, for good or evil ends. Its full comprehension required not only a trained intellect, but the intuitive understanding of a pure spiritual nature. Nevertheless, the Atlanteans acquired enough knowledge of the use of dangerous powers that they became -- albeit with numerous and noteworthy exceptions -- a nation of sorcerers. Then, the white magicians established the Mystery schools in which to safeguard the sacred teachings from evildoers and to protect humanity from their influence. Thus, the deeper truths of the healing art have ever since been entrusted only to pledged disciples and initiates. Such fragments of it as have been rediscovered by intuitive physicians from time to time have usually been in keeping with the general cultural level of their civilization. The exceptions have been men who have frequently been too far ahead of their times to be understood. Such a man was Paracelsus in medieval Europe, persecuted for heretical teachings such as the psychoelectric and magnetic play of sidereal forces which linked man with the stars -- the spiritus vitae in man came from the spiritus mundi.

Of the archaic history of medicine -- as of the race -- little is to be found. However, echoes of the primitive wisdom have survived, and every country having a literature of its ancient periods has some account of the healing art. The Hindu sacred scriptures -- the oldest literature extant -- have treatises upon medicine and surgery, showing a profound and intimate knowledge of the subject. This high standard was not maintained when the Vedic writings became misunderstood and mutilated by later commentators. The exclusive Brahmins' assumption of the right to all knowledge also prevented original thought and research. What writings are available today are of little practical value without the lost key. Even our typically matter-of-fact interpretation of legendary and classical beliefs and customs, and of archaeological findings, overlooks that what is known of ancient medical practice is largely exoteric, symbolic of a deeper teaching than we possess.

Records of ancient medicine in Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, etc., tell of the temples being used as hospitals, with priest-physicians supported by the state giving every care to the sick who came, both rich and poor. In addition to material means of treatment -- many of which we have rediscovered -- these devotees of the gods of healing used special incense, prayers, the "temple sleep," invocations, music, astrology, etc., which we regard as harmless superstition of an earlier day. However, such conditions, intelligently adapted to each case, in making a pure, serene, uplifting atmosphere around the sick person, would invoke the influences of wholeness within and without him. By putting the inner man in tune with his body, his disordered nature-forces manifesting as disease would tend to flow freely in the currents of health. Natural magic is as practical as the unknown alchemy which transmutes our digested daily bread into molecules of our living body.

There is a mystic science attached to the caduceus, the classical emblem of medicine. To the priest-physicians in the temples, this symbol was sacred not only to the god of wisdom and healing, but stood for profound cosmic truths, knowledge of which was held in common by all initiates. It symbolized the tree of life and being. Cosmically this symbol stood for the concealed root or origin of universal duality which manifests as positive and negative, good and evil, subjective and objective, light and darkness, male and female, health and sickness, life and death.

(See also: Medicine, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Hypnotism (from Greek hypnos sleep)

One name for an artificially produced somnambulistic, entranced, or psychologized state. A better word for the procedure is psychologization, hypnotism being but one phase of the general subject which includes fascination, multiple or double personality, some religious ecstasies, and different methods of psychic healing. All these things operate in and upon the important intermediate part between our spiritual and physical-astral self and usually affect the latter self very strongly. This intermediate part is the human soul of the reincarnating entity -- the man or woman we see and know. As this includes the psychomental-emotional powers and faculties, it is intimately related to intelligence and sanity, to emotions and conduct, and to health.

Theosophy holds that mesmerism is not hypnotism. In hypnotism the subject's intermediate nature is disjoined from its natural relations with his physical and astral body and put out of the control of the person himself, becoming susceptible to other influences. This process is a reversal of all evolutionary currents which in every being unfold and manifest from conscious centers within. Such a reversal is dangerous and far-reaching in its results, spiritually, mentally, morally, psychically, and physically.

Moreover, the hypnotizer endangers himself by such intimate linking with the lower mind and feeling of his subject -- whose spiritual nature is always beyond another's control. From the operator's entrance into, and operation of, the subject's physico-astral body, there results a mutual infection with each other's faulty human nature. Whoever thus changes the forces and trend of another's life, obligates himself to share karmically in those changes to the end.

Psychologizing a person to heal him of disease or rid him of some injurious habit is also harmful. Bodily ills, in themselves, are the cleansing processes by which past inner wrongs of thought and feeling, having reached the material plane, can be worked out of the system. As for karmic faults and failings in character, the person restrained from them by hypnotism or psychologization merely loses a timely opportunity to develop his spiritual will by which alone every human being must consciously work out his own destiny. The apparent cure of disease, or of a weakness, means that these have been driven inwards, dammed back, inevitably to reappear with accumulated force at a less opportune time in this or a future life. Nor does the practice of self-hypnotization or self-psychologization prevent a disjunction of the person's intermediate nature from his immortal self. The results finally appear as mental disease resulting in crime or as physical disease which is the minor evil.

Suggestion has a dual power: for good or for ill, the results depending upon both the motive and the method of its use. The conscious and unconscious use of it for self-interest is unfortunately met with everywhere; as a part of modern training in high-power salesmanship, it pervades the methods popular in both commercial and professional circles. However, suggestion has a power of noble appeal to the intelligence and spiritual will of others whose better nature responds to a good example, impersonal teaching, and pure and helpful thoughts and feelings. Hypnotism and other such practices are dangerous because they so often fall into black magic or sorcery.

(See also: Hypnotism, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hypnotism (from Greek hypnos sleep)

One name for an artificially produced somnambulistic, entranced, or psychologized state. A better word for the procedure is psychologization, hypnotism being but one phase of the general subject which includes fascination, multiple or double personality, some religious ecstasies, and different methods of psychic healing. All these things operate in and upon the important intermediate part between our spiritual and physical-astral self and usually affect the latter self very strongly. This intermediate part is the human soul of the reincarnating entity -- the man or woman we see and know. As this includes the psychomental-emotional powers and faculties, it is intimately related to intelligence and sanity, to emotions and conduct, and to health.

Theosophy holds that mesmerism is not hypnotism. In hypnotism the subject's intermediate nature is disjoined from its natural relations with his physical and astral body and put out of the control of the person himself, becoming susceptible to other influences. This process is a reversal of all evolutionary currents which in every being unfold and manifest from conscious centers within. Such a reversal is dangerous and far-reaching in its results, spiritually, mentally, morally, psychically, and physically.

Moreover, the hypnotizer endangers himself by such intimate linking with the lower mind and feeling of his subject -- whose spiritual nature is always beyond another's control. From the operator's entrance into, and operation of, the subject's physico-astral body, there results a mutual infection with each other's faulty human nature. Whoever thus changes the forces and trend of another's life, obligates himself to share karmically in those changes to the end.

Psychologizing a person to heal him of disease or rid him of some injurious habit is also harmful. Bodily ills, in themselves, are the cleansing processes by which past inner wrongs of thought and feeling, having reached the material plane, can be worked out of the system. As for karmic faults and failings in character, the person restrained from them by hypnotism or psychologization merely loses a timely opportunity to develop his spiritual will by which alone every human being must consciously work out his own destiny. The apparent cure of disease, or of a weakness, means that these have been driven inwards, dammed back, inevitably to reappear with accumulated force at a less opportune time in this or a future life. Nor does the practice of self-hypnotization or self-psychologization prevent a disjunction of the person's intermediate nature from his immortal self. The results finally appear as mental disease resulting in crime or as physical disease which is the minor evil.

Suggestion has a dual power: for good or for ill, the results depending upon both the motive and the method of its use. The conscious and unconscious use of it for self-interest is unfortunately met with everywhere; as a part of modern training in high-power salesmanship, it pervades the methods popular in both commercial and professional circles. However, suggestion has a power of noble appeal to the intelligence and spiritual will of others whose better nature responds to a good example, impersonal teaching, and pure and helpful thoughts and feelings. Hypnotism and other such practices are dangerous because they so often fall into black magic or sorcery.

(See also: Hyperion, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)