Lesson 9
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    Body Mirage

    Introductory Note
    Study the accompanying photograph. Something seems odd, doesn't it?
    Because the faces appear behind a magnifying glass one expects them to
    be distorted, yet they are not.

    No matter what the facts and reasons may be for picturing a thing in a
    certain way, your mind, like the magnifying glass, has the power to
    alter this image for your benefit. The following exercise describes
    only one of an almost infinite number of ways in which this exercise
    can benefit you.

    Let us assume that you have gained an unwanted twenty pounds.
    Imperceptibly, as your figure has changed, your self-image has changed
    with it -- so much so that by now you see yourself as almost deformed
    by the excess poundage, even though your "objective" mind knows that
    your appearance is not really so drastically changed.

    Preparation.
    Put yourself into a medium trance by fixing your eyes on a point above
    eye-level, until they become sufficiently strained to close. Deepen
    your altered state of consciousness by suggestions of deeper and deeper
    relaxation.

    The Exercise.
    Picture yourself standing in front of a full-length mirror. You see
    yourself in your present, excess state. But as you keep looking at your
    mental mirror image, the outlines of your figure become a little
    blurred and your image recedes slightly. Focus on your blurred image,
    while maintaining or even deepening your trance.

    Now your figure is very definitely receding within the mirror, and
    becoming slimmer the more distant it grows -- as if if were receding
    not only in substance but also in time, to the period before the excess
    weight encumbered it.

    Now the picture becomes much sharper and advances again. Focus all your
    attention on this new image of yourself, and while holding it firmly in
    your mind's eye, tell yourself that you will now slowly count from ten
    to zero. When you have reached zero, the slim mirror image will begin
    to move, spontaneously, and it will move with the grace and agility
    that goes with its slim shape.

    Feel each of its movements in your own body -- for this is, after all,
    your own body, your grace and agility, your slim shape. You feel each
    movement as your own, because they are all your own. This graceful
    agile you is you.

    Watch your slim self walking, running, dancing, jumping, soaring. Feel
    the exhilaration of your supple, responsive, healthy body. Explore and
    know this slender, well-knit body and enjoy its firm, clean cut lines.

    Let is step out of the mirror and merge with your observing self, until
    there is only this one, slim you. And now, before terminating your
    trance state by the usual one-to-three count, choose one particular
    pose or movement of your new body which you like best. This will be
    your symbol for the new way of seeing yourself. It will not only
    quickly guide you back to this altered state of consciousness whenever
    you wish; it will also be with you in your waking state at odd
    intervals during the day.  And as you visualize the slim graceful you
    more and more frequently in both the trance and waking states, you will
    find that reality will begin to conform to it. You will in reality
    think, move, and act as the slim you, and eventually this mode of
    thinking will permeate you so completely that your physical image will
    be changed by it, not only in your own mind, but in the minds of others
    as well.

    End of file.