Lesson 5
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    Twenty Questions

    Preparation.
    If convenient, do the exercise lying down, to allow your hands and arms
    complete freedom of movement. Close your eyes and feel yourself
    relaxing from the top of your head to the tips of your toes, descending
    easily into a deeper and deeper level of mind.

    The Exercise.
    When you have achieved a trance state, suggest to yourself that your
    deeper mind will now choose one of your fingers to represent the answer
    "yes," by causing it to lift. At this point, deepen your trance a
    little, and wait until one of your fingers begins to tingle, and then
    to lift. It will probably tremble a little as it begins to rise, and it
    may rise just perceptibly or all the way to a pointing position. Either
    way, this finger now represents the answer "yes."

    Repeat the same process, allowing your deeper mind to suggest another
    finger to represent "no," a third finger to represent "perhaps," and a
    fourth to represent "I don't want an answer."

    If you prefer, you may also do the designating of fingers yourself --
    deciding, for instance, that the right index finger will represent
    "yes," the left one "no," etc.

    Now in simple and unambiguous terms, ask your subconscious a question
    to which your conscious mind does not know the answer, and await
    developments.

    A good opening move is to ask a question with a checkable answer, such
    as, for example, the location of an item -- a sweater, a pin, or a book
    -- which you've put away so carefully that you've forgotten where it
    is.

    Getting the first ideomotor response from your fingers may take time,
    and even when you have mastered this exercise, it is not a fool-proof
     technique. But its ratio of accuracy is high, and the technique will
     prove useful in many ways.

    Should you ask a question and get a response which does not seem right,
    reword the question; it may have been phrased too ambiguously or too
    all-inclusively to allow a clear answer. Like most exercises, this one
    also requires practice and the development of skills -- not the least
    of which is the ability to ask clear and direct questions.

    NOTE:
    At the beginning, it is better to choose subjects which do not have
    great emotional significance for you, because it takes practice and
    discipline to keep your questioning self-neutral, and to avoid
    conscious or unconscious attempts to influence the answer. Obviously,
    getting a response from the desired finger by concentrating on it, will
    elicit an answer based on wishful thinking rather than on the stored
    knowledge of the unconscious.

    End of file.