creates a strong mental-picture or image of it, which sets into forces the
attractive power of psychic influence and draws the feared thing into
material reality. As Job said: "The thing that I feared hath come upon
me." The moral of this is, of course, that persons should learn to stamp
out fear and mental images of things feared. Instead, they should make
strong positive mental denials of the things that they may find themselves
fearing. They should deny the reality of the feared thing, and assert
positively their own superiority to the thing, and their power to overcome
it.

A great religious cult has sprung into existence which makes a leading
doctrine of this ability to materialize the things which one desires, and
to deny out of existence undesirable things. Many persons who have
witnessed the wonderful success of some of the followers of this cult or
organization, have been puzzled to account for the same on scientific and
rational grounds. A little understanding of fundamental occult and
psychic principles, as given in these lessons, will show the "why and
wherefore" of these strange and wonderful manifestations. In this
connection you must remember that the combined thought of the thousands of
persons composing this cult or organization undoubtedly gives additional
psychic force to the mental affirmations and denials of the individual
member thereof.

In past and present, and probably in future time, there have been many
instances of magical procedures tending to bring about the results that we
have herein seen to come about by reason of psychic influence, in some of
its many phases. These magic procedures have usually been accompanied by
incantations, ceremonies, strange rites, evocations, etc., which were
supposed to have great virtue in bringing about desired results. But the
true occultists now know that these ceremonies and rites were merely hopes
to the imagination and aids to faith, and thus tended to bring about the
psychic phenomena. There was no virtue in these ceremonies themselves, and
the same results may be secured by simply following the procedure outlined
in this book. The wonders of ancient magic have been reproduced by the
modern occultists, without all the mumbo-jumbo of the past rites and
ceremonies.

A gifted English writer upon the subject of the relation of mysticism and
magic, sums up the gist of the principles of Magic as follows:

"The central doctrine of Magic may now be summed u