The idea of a reality, what is real, is a subject of considerable necessity to think about. We generally have been taught to believe and accept that everything that we could touch, that we could see, that we could handle in any way – in other words, could be responded to the senses – was “real.” Anything that was not capable of being sensed directly by the senses was considered “unreal.” 

Then, of course, there is agreement, that people agree on certain ideas, and they have agreed that certain ideas are facts. And so this is considered to be a “reality.” That actually is only agreement. Basically, all the sensing is only an agreement. 

In the idea of the schools only that which is real is that which can bring about things. It is always considered to be invisible. In fact, the person is considered to be invisible, that one can see the outward tools which I – X – uses. And that is considered to be a tool and is not real because it is considered to be an event: it has a beginning and has an end. A human body has a beginning. It originates as a small baby. The baby goes out of existence, and a child is in existence. The child exists for a while and goes out of existence. Then there’s an adolescent, and in a while the adolescent goes out of existence. There’s an adult, and then the young adult goes out of existence. There is a middle-aged person, and the middle-aged person goes out of existence. An old man is around, or an old woman, and then they depart. So, it is considered to be an event. 

A tree originated from an acorn in the ground, the soil and the sunlight, and exists for a certain number of years and ceases to exist. That is considered an event. So, all the things that can be sensed are considered to be events. 

Now, this is not to be accepted, agreed to, or rejected; it is something to experiment with – and that that which is real is that which interprets the senses, that sees events, evaluates events, experiences events. So that which is real is that which experiences the events, recognizes the events, and in this way one has a different sense of reality. 

The whole idea of the school is that there will be a new man. A new man sees differently first. Seeing differently, he has a different attitude. Having a different attitude, he has a different behavior. Having all these he has a different state of being. He has an entirely different concept, or experiencing, or inward sensing of I – that inner sense of comprehension that sees the relationships of situations, events, and things. All of these he begins to see differently. So, a transformation has taken place. A new man has been born from the old man who saw things of the senses as real, and all other things as unreal, has been completely reversed. Consequently, there is a starting place.

So, let’s start with beginning to see and experiment as an attempted way of seeing things. Now, we are not going to accept this. We are going to find out for self. And if something comes into being and then goes out of being, that it was an event. We’ll take a watch – it was a bunch of assorted pieces of metal from here, there and other. Before that, it was ore. The ore ceased to exist as ore, to make the metal. Then it was an event for it to be ore. Then it was in ingot form possibly. Then the ingot went out of existence, and then it began to be molded into specific parts, so the ingot was an event. The various parts of the watch are put together; and only until they are assembled, is it a watch. Then it begins the event of being a watch. Sometime or other it is disintegrated – it wears out, broken apart, falls or has accidents, or what have you. It goes out of existence as a watch and that event as a watch is over. Now there is a new event, we’ll say, as junk. And then that goes out of existence too and then there is the complete cycle has been made. So as one begins to observe events, one has a different sense entirely about them. One has a different state of attitude about events.

It is told in a story that a certain great man, a king we suppose, asked all of his counselors to make him a ring that had an insignia on it, or an inscription on it that when he was too high, overly delighted with his ability and his powers, and the comfort of everything, and he might begin to be vain and think he had done all of this; he wanted the ring to remind him. And that any time he was sad or down in the dumps, he wanted it to remind him so he could be back to a more serene state. So, his wise counselors tried all they could, and they finally found a man who said he could give that formula. So they wrote on the ring, engraved on the ring “this too will pass.”

As long as one sees that everything is an event, one doesn’t have a false expectation that this will always be the case, and then obviously, it is not, because all events are very limited, even the longest one. [Without seeing this] then he would be disappointed, feel hurt, and start on the vicious cycle. But by being aware that “this too will pass,” everything is an event, and that events only come to pass away, then one doesn’t begin to be identified with the things of the senses. One knows that they are there, very useful, they may be interesting, they may be uncomfortable. But whatever the situation, this too will pass away. 

As one observes and sees reality as a series of events, one is liberated very decidedly. One is much more conscious of suggestion because suggestion seems to suggest that everything is going to be permanent, and that unless one makes very due great plans and sets up, one will be left in a permanent unpleasant state, or that one will lose some desirable state because something will happen, that evil is always present. But the person who sees that all are events is not identified with these various events and he is much less suggestible.

Suggestion leads us to the ideas of which the ancients had – magic. There were two brands of magic. The persons who were interested in magic went in two different directions. One wanted to rule other people, wanted to rule all things, and to control events. He wasn’t free to experience them; he wanted to control. In other words, he was under the influence of mammon – that the whole purpose of living was to gain pleasure and escape pain on all levels – and he wanted power in order to achieve this. The greatest power to achieve this control over people, of course, is suggestion and how to use it. A man with any kind of qualifications, either a man controlled by black magic or by mammon, can learn all the arts of suggestion. It doesn’t evolve him; it only puts him more in bondage cause that which he controls also controls him. But he doesn’t believe that. So, the greatest temptation that a person begins to know about the human mind is to be a black magician and use it to control because it is so easy. One feels one attains very quickly.

So, one begins to practice suggestion whether that be autosuggestion or suggestion to others. He intends to control by suggestion, knowing that he is dealing with an invisible force. “I” always reports to X what it feels to be true, and X always operates upon what “I” reports as being true. So it is very easy to gain power over other people. Autosuggestion, or as it’s sometimes called today, “positive thinking”, is an attempt to suggest from the conditioning to “I”, which is asleep in that case, to report to X that such and such is the case, when one really feels it is not. It understands that not only does the Awareness, the suggestible aspect of man, respond to exact words, but it also responds to certain sound. You can make certain sounds on an organ and very apt you will see people have tears in their eyes. Why? Because the sound works by association. And the black magician is well aware of the association of the mind, and therefore is able to control it by suggesting things that will remind one of the state which he wishes to induce in his subject.

So, the black magician controls self and others by increasing dependency. He has them to depend on something. So, if a man is conditioned to accept that he has good luck when he has a rabbit’s foot, or a certain coin, or that he has had certain events take place through the day, he is dependent upon this thing. He is dependent upon getting in a certain state. Maybe he is dependent upon having total quietness in order to get in the state he wants. So, it increases the dependency, both of the operator, and those which are operated upon. It certainly increases superstition because as long as a man doesn’t know what is happening and how it comes about, any sort of thing [can have] that has an association of power. 

In a certain area of the deep South, if a man should come out of his house in the morning and see two crossed chicken feet, feet cut off of a frying chicken, and cross-legged on his doorstep or somewhere on his walkway to the street, the man would be in an utter state of panic because he knows that a black magician is practicing gris-gris [voodoo] on him. And he feels that he has no chance because the black magician has marked him out. He is much like a member of the Mafia that knows there’s a contract on him. There isn’t anywhere to go that he can be safe, so he is in an utter state of panic. And as long as this continues, of course superstition increases.

lt increases all manner of violence – both psychic violence and physical violence – because the desire to control puts someone else in bondage. Anyone in bondage begins to be violent, and the one trying to hold the person in bondage is violent. So, there is an increase in violence, and it produces a sense of slavery and a slave master. The slave master is as much under control as the slave is. He has to be there to maintain his control. He can’t leave his subject, his slave, and the slave is caught.

So we see very widespread indications of black magic. We ordinarily don’t think of it as being such, but let’s begin to observe forms of black magic. This will be our assignment for the next few days: to observe how many courses are taught on how to control other people. You might call it salesmanship under certain things. Certain ideas, it’s called “leadership”, but it is all based on the ability to suggest without the person knowing the suggestion is being made.

When there is the scientific practice of hypnosis, where the idea of discovering how the whole thing works, and to gain certain clues it is called “overt hypnosis.” A subject is willing to provide half of the experiment and an operator is willing to provide the other half of the experiment and see what happens. The other kind is when the person operated upon, the subject, doesn’t know he’s being hypnotized; and in many cases the operator doesn’t. He is taught certain techniques to be used on all people he comes in contact with for the benefit of someone else. So, he really doesn’t even know that he is being a hypnotist. This is called “covert” [hypnosis]. In other words, it is covered up and hidden. It is behind the scenes. It sounds like logic and reason. It sounds like many other things.

So, let’s observe for as much as we can where we see one person controlling another, many times without the controller knowing that he is doing the controlling. He calls it being a successful salesman, or having leadership ability, or many other things. He may call it instilling loyalty, he may call it motivating people. There’s all sorts of beautiful names for it, but it still comes out to control – one person controlling another. It is a great temptation to do it. Just so that you could be tempted if you want, we’ll give you the most appropriate way in the world to do it. You see, you use the basic Picture of Man. You know that everyone wants pleasure and to escape pain on all levels, and you know the easiest methods to do it – both “A” and “B.” So, you complain for a person instead of complaining for self. You stick up for their rights. You tell them how different they are – that’s appealing to decision number 5 – and you tell them who’s to blame for the reason they are in the state they are. And you will find that person will do anything you want.

WE POINT THIS OUT, NOT TO BE USED, BUT TO BE AWARE WHEN IT’S BEING USED ON YOU. In other words, be aware of “covert hypnosis.” Somebody complains for you, tells you how you’ve been mistreated, how you are unfortunate, how you are discriminated against because of your sex, or your color, or your religion or what have you. They are doing much complaining for you and then they stick up for your rights so that you can have exactly your way when you want it, and you will be admired and respected. They will tell you how different you are, that that the only reason you are being victimized, as they’re saying, is because of some certain really wonderful attribute about you. And they will show you who the evil ones are who are doing it. If you will be aware of this, you will be aware of many incoming suggestions. We trust and pray that no one will use it to control another, but that one will use it to avoid being controlled by those who knowingly or unknowingly would control one. 

All the control of the black magician is achieved by suggestion. It is very easy to be a black magician as we’ve just pointed out. May we remark that THE BLACK MAGICIAN ALWAYS DIES FROM HIS OWN MAGIC. He is dead within; and he dies without from his own magic. He has no desire to know self, to be aware. He is interested in control – the Four Dual Basic Urges. 

For this reason, in various ancient books on black magic it says that the magician sold his soul to the devil. In other words, mammon is the devil, and a man has to sell out and serve him 100%. And then he is a black magician if he knows the technique. He can sell out and not be a magician too. That possibly is even more pathetic, isn’t it?

Now, the other people who understand the human being, recognize conditioning and know how suggestion works, are interested in liberating self first and then others from under this control of suggestion, from the control of association, and all the other forms under which control or hypnosis comes upon them – are called “white magicians”. They are interested in liberation. They want to liberate first self, and then they will liberate others. In other words, they’ve got to get the block out of their own eye so they can help get specks out of other people’s eyes. You see the “black magician” still has a block in his eye; and he’s going to “help” people by suggesting them into feeling good without removing the source of their stress. They, of course, come up with much worse conditions before very long. 

The white magician liberates people from dependency because he gets them to see the self, to see what they are really struggling for – to question the Four Dual Basic Urges as being the purpose of living. To question the methods that’s been used to achieve the Four Dual Basic Urges. It begins to be a liberation from dependency, from suggestion, from violence of all forms, from slavery of being controlled by suggestion both psychically and physically, and from all manner of conditioning. Most above all, he is interested in liberating the person from being controlled by suggestion.

We’ll never be beyond the point of being subject to suggestion, but we can be liberated from control of suggestion when we begin to see it. When one recognizes the method of the “black magician” – to complain for one, to stick up for one’s rights, to tell one how different one is, how important, and about who’s to blame – one recognizes the black magician. 

Adolph Hitler some years ago was a master black magician. He complained for the German people. He stuck up for their rights. He told them they were very different from all other people, that they were pure Aryans, whatever that may have meant. Then he told them that the Jewish people and the other countries around about them – the Jews within Germany and the other people roundabout – were the cause of all their trouble. He made them into a race of madmen, not because they were vicious – they were kind gentle people – but they were caught by suggestion. They were caught by the trick of the black magician – complain for them, stick up for their rights, tell them how different they are, and tell them who’s to blame. Of course, one will have total power over that individual, as Adolph Hitler had power over millions of individuals in Germany.

Now, under the black magicians, they are called shamans under certain language. And they are power seekers. They put people into bondage through suggestion, supposedly to liberate them and give them great rewards in the future. All the shaman’s control is gained by suggestion.

The white magician is usually called a Teacher or an advanced student, and his whole business is to eliminate stress from the individual by helping the person, giving them certain ideas to work with so that they can discover for themselves the state they’re in and the way out of it. He only carries the tools of the trade. This is why sometimes they were called builders, and sometimes they were called shepherds, and sometimes they were called fishers because they carried the tools of the trade. They were the lamp, not the light. They were the lamp that supplied the light. But the light is one’s own personal investigation. 

So, let’s also see if we can observe some examples of white magic. We have looked to see, we’re going to see many examples of black magic, but we’ll look to see where there is Teaching that puts a person in contact with the Inner Self, that that “self” may be understood and thereby rendered inoperative by X, and that I and X then runs the household.

And that only certain ideas or tools can be given to one, but one must use them for oneself. One cannot have it done for one. There isn’t any other way. But the tools can be supplied. The whole work of the Teacher or the advanced student is to give material that if the student uses, they will be awake. They will be aware. They will be different people if they use it. And they’re no longer under control of the black magician. It is sometimes considered to be very difficult and very dangerous to be a white magician. However, he has life everlasting. But the Way is not the way of ease and comfort. It is the way of work and an ever, ever, ever-increasing challenge and responsibility.

So, we will ask you to make two lines on your notebook sheet. One you will observe examples of black magic, black magicians. On the other, you will put instances of white magic. We are not talking about what you can read in a book. We are talking about what you may see in your everyday life. 

Don’t be too surprised if the side of the column under the white magician is practically, if not entirely, blank at the end of the week. But look and look very carefully. You may find, and you may find someone that is liberating another by giving them certain tools to work with – not by doing the work for them. 

In other words, the white magician is usually misunderstood. He doesn’t give a lot of help. In fact, sometimes he’s considered to be heartless and cold, because he is not “sentimental,” because sentimentality is feeling sorry for a person and is putting them deeper in bondage. You know, sentimentality has a wonderful name and if you will observe many gatherers of funds for great organizations – there’s one or so every month that’s gathering funds for a “dis-ease,” of all things… you know, they’re gonna fight it… “we’re going to catch it and run it in a corner, and we’ll gonna build munitions, and we’re going to run it off,” – and most of that is based on sentimentality, if you will observe. You will not find the white magician being sentimental. 

Do observe if you can find some example of a white magician. You certainly won’t have to look too hard to find many black magicians and the black magician’s ideas of putting man under control. Look carefully because this looking may be one of the more valuable things you ever do. Cause to be able to recognize the black magician is to prevent him from having power over you.