er how uninteresting; and to hold it
there for a reasonable length of time. Practice upon some disagreeable
study or other task is good exercise, for it serves to train the will in
spite of the influence of more attractive objects or subjects. And this
all serves to train the will, remember; for the will is actively concerned
in every act of voluntary attention. In fact, attention of this kind is
one of the most important and characteristic acts of the will.

So, as you see, in order to be successful in influencing the minds of
others by means of mental induction, you must first cultivate a strong
feeling of interest in the idea which you wish to induce in the other
person, or a strong desire to produce the thing. Interest and desire
constitute the fire which generates the stream of will from the water of
mind, as some occultists have stated it. Secondly, you must cultivate the
faculty of forming strong and clear mental images of the idea or feeling
you wish to so induce; you must learn to actually "see" the thing in your
imagination, so as to give the idea strength and clearness. Thirdly, you
must learn to concentrate your mind and attention upon the idea or
feeling, shutting out all other ideas and feelings for the time being;
thus you give concentrated force and power to the vibrations and
thought-forms which you are projecting.

These three principles underlie all of the many forms of mental induction,
or mental influence. We find them in active operation in cases in which
the person is seeking to attract to himself certain conditions,
environment, persons, things, or channels of expression, by setting into
motion the great laws of mental attraction. We see them also employed when
the person is endeavoring to produce an effect upon the mind of some
particular person, or number of persons. We see them in force in all
cases of mental or psychic healing, under whatever form it may be
employed. In short, these are general principles, and must therefore
underlie all forms and phases of mental or psychic influence. The sooner
the student realizes this fact, and the more actively does he set himself
to work in cultivating and developing these principles within himself, the
more successful and efficient will he become in this field of psychic
research and investigation. It is largely in the degree of the cultivation
of these three mental principles that the occultist is distinguished from
the ordinary man.

It may be that