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to do any kindness. She is not a wealthy woman by any
means at all, in fact she has to work hard and travel many
miles to earn what is truly a mere pittance, yet Valeria
Sorock can always afford the time to do anything and to
help. So Valeria my thanks to you and my undying
friendship to you in return for the friendship you have
always given me.
There are quite a number of people who are definitely
above average, very definitely above average, and it's a sad
thought that these people most times are not at all well en-
dowed with this world's goods. Most times these people are
so decent and so modest that they definitely underrate their
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own abilities. I am thinking now of two very brilliant people,
Mr. and Mrs. Czermak. They are having a difficult time be-
cause, in my opinion, they do not  sell themselves .
Mr. Czermak is a man whom anyone could be proud to
know, a man of the better type, a man with a first-class brain,
and who excels at something which always defeats me -
figures! Figures that go 1- 2 - 3, etc., not the type that one
looks at although I have no doubt that Mr. Czermak could
possibly beat me at looking at those.
Then there is Mrs. Czermak, a truly very, very gifted
person indeed. She has most extraordinary artistic ability,
ceramics, photography, anything in the artistic line seems to
be child's play to her. She puts the brakes on her own pro-
gress, though, by tending to be too much of a perfectionist.
One cannot have perfection in this world, and if one strives
too much for utter perfection then one wastes too much time
on the unattainable.
Soon we shall be dealing with two questions, one from Mr.
Czermak and one from Mrs. Czermak.
Yes, people write to me with all sorts of strange problems,
and the longest letter I have received from any one person
was written on a piece of paper 9 inches wide by 13 feet 9
inches long. It was all one continuous sheet of paper and the
whole thing was closely typed. So, as I say, that is the longest
letter I have had. What would you do with it? So did I!
Then, of course, there's John Henderson. I became ac-
quainted with him following a letter or two that he wrote to
me. John Henderson is a very nice fellow, very capable, and
he's  going places . It is my hope that later he will be able to
unfold his spiritual wings and write a book or two, start a
Spiritual Retreat, and do whatever people on the Other Side
suggest that he should do.
Yes, I make some very nice acquaintanceships. Some
people who write in haven't the vaguest interest in meta-
physics, but what does it matter, what does it matter if one is
interested in metaphysics or not? In fact, it might be a good
idea now to answer a question from Mr. Hanns Czermak. He
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says,  Yes, I do have a question, Dr. Rampa. What is the
most important thing a person should or can do to develop
any latent occult abilities he or she might possess? I am
asking this because I seem to have trouble getting started
with the things you describe so clearly in your books. Obvi-
ously I am doing something wrong and I am wondering
whether there isn't a way of preparing one's mind and
body.
Actually, it doesn't really matter if you do astral travel or
not, consciously, that is, because everyone does astral travel
in the time of sleep. But if you find difficulty in doing some-
thing, then are you sure, really sure, that you want to do it?
Are you sure that there is not some bar imposed, let us say, by
difficulties in a past life?
Supposing a person - oh, not you, of course! had been a
witch in a past life. Supposing you had been burned at the
stake or bumped off in some equally interesting way, then if
you came back to this life with more or less of an interest in
occultism you might have some ingrained fear that if you
started again you would end up at the stake or at the end of a
rope, and so your sub-conscious would clap the brakes on
and you would make no progress.
The only way one can proceed if one finds real difficulty
in settling down to occult work is:
Meditate on the problem. Do you really, sincerely desire
to astral travel or to do clairvoyance or read the cards or do
anything in that field?
If you do, if you can say  Yes , then ask yourself why you
want to do it. You must clear up all these problems first.
The next thing to ask yourself is, do you fear that you will
be out of the body and will not be able to get back, are you
afraid that some strange entities will attack you if you get
out of the body? If so, remember that no harm whatsoever,
no harm of any sort can happen to you if you are not
afraid.
If you are sure that you really want to do occult work,
then the best thing is to devote a certain time each day, even
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half an hour of an evening, to thinking about it. And the best
way is to imagine as strongly as possible that you are doing
what you want to do, because when you can get over to your
sub-conscious that you want to get out into the astral he will
metaphorically, unlock the gate and set you free. Think of
the sub-conscious as a sort of idiot, a high-grade idiot, if you
like, who obeys orders quite literally so that if at some time [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]