PUPIL: Just what are the mechanics of giving a mental treatment for one who is present personally with the practitioner?

MASTER: The steps in giving a successful treatment under such circumstances are these:

• (1) Have the patient RELAX physically as completely as possible, all over, toes, ankles, knees, spine, shoulders, arms, hands and even the eye-lids (for the eyes should be closed in the silence). The whole body of the patient should be as limp as possible. The greater the physical relaxation you may induce on the part of the patient the greater his RECEPTIVITY to the mental treatment will be.
• (2) Have the patient "empty" his conscious mind as completely as is possible, trying to think of nothing at all insofar as this can be done; have him try to make a vacuum of his mind, as it were. This complete relaxation of the conscious mind also induces a much greater receptivity.
• (3) The healer must completely remove the line of demarcation between the patient and self. There are not two persons present, not really, not patient and practitioner. The two are one, and the establishment of this fact firmly in the mind of the healer is of untold importance. Remember that Mrs. Jones, practitioner, is not giving Mrs. Smith, patient, a mental treatment. As long as the one treating is aware of any sense of separation, or distinction, between patient and self there will be little if any results achieved.
• (4) Once all sense of separation is really removed from the practitioner's consciousness, the actual treatment is given. The patient is now in a passive, or receptive attitude, both mentally and physically. The healer is in an active, or generating, position. Yet the "two" are one, the one person being the negative pole, the other the positive, and between them the healing current of Life may now freely pass. Into the Absolute the practitioner now projects a steady stream of positive, constructive, powerful thought-energy, at the beginning of which process the patient's name is either silently or audibly called in order that the flow of Spirit may be given definite direction.

The receptive attitude of the patient picks up the flow of power and so it is made his own. The affirmation the healer uses at the beginning of the silence may be said aloud once or twice although this is not necessary. Into the Bosom of the Spirit, into the Fruitful Silence, the practitioner thinks and dwells with intense concentration and feeling, yet without any sense of strain whatsoever.