One of the challenges of being a hypnotist is found in movies. And novels. And TV shows. And comic books. And fireside stories. And "FOAF" (a "Friend of a Friend" told someone) tales. And the internet. And in hypnosis stage shows for entertainmnet. They all seem to have a powerful hypnotist making people do things against their wills. Old advertising image of a hypnotist directing group of people in things that appear to be against their wills. One man is wearing women's clothing and a feathered hat. Another man is using a cane but thinking it is a fishing pole. The man in the back is driving another man like a horse and carriage. Made by the Donaldson Lithographic Co. of

  Back when I was in high school, I took a course called "Drivers Education." Part of the class was a basic discussion on how cars actually work. When we got to a discussion of how many times the pistons in an internal combustion engine moved per minute, one student complained that an engine would never be able to keep that up. The teacher told the student that she was comparing engines to people. Image: George Rex/V&A Museum of Childhood The instructor was right. People are not machines. YOU are not a machine. You cannot work endlessly. So if you're going to school or have a job, and you're studying and practicing magick, remember to get enough rest and

Neuro-Linguistic Programming, NLP, consists of a large set of techniques for achieving excellence. The result of such excellence is improvement in your life and your ability to interact with others in such remarkable ways that it seems magickal. Indeed, the first book on NLP was titled The Structure of Magic. The cover implied that the book was occult oriented, so I looked at it when it first came out decades ago. At the time I wasn't ready for it and I bypassed it. I now recognize it as my loss, but I'm making up for lost time. I even include one very magick-oriented aspect of NLP in the new edition of my Modern Magick and you'll discover even more in books such as the forthcoming

[Part One of this Series: Click HERE] [Part Two of this Series: Click HERE] [Part Three of this Series: Click HERE]   People make a big deal over meditation. Unfortunately, there is more bad information about meditation than there is good. This is a shame, because it is a valuable and important technique for people learning magick. A levitating gnu, deep in meditation, wrapped snuggly in a gold robe. Both he and his computer float gracefully above the floor—only his tail lightly touches the ground. He gently holds a recorder between his front hooves, as if he has just gotten the inspiration to play music. There is a gleam in his eyes as he gazes ahead at his computer