Notice: This MS, is issued for the private use of those who have passed the appropriate final

exams and who have taken a pledge not to reveal its contents or permit it to fall into other hands.

Serial No. 231

P.O. Box 1525, Los Angeles, Calif. 90053, U.S.A.

February, 1940

HOW TO USE THE TRANSITION TECHNIQUE OF ESP

By

C. C. Zain

With the exception of considering the different order of time which is encountered on the inner plane, a brief
outline of which shortly will be quoted from Chapter 11, Course 4, Ancient Masonry, (Serial No. 16), I have
discussed all the fundamental problems of inner plane life and of psychic development. The next step is to
sum up the practical importance of what we have thus far learned, and start to give it practical application.

Throughout the B. of L. Courses, and even in these NOT SOLD lessons, to avoid the implications
which popular and erroneous conceptions of the nature of the soul arouse, I have used the words uncon-
scious mind mostly instead of the synonymous word, soul. But I believe at this point in our studies we can
abandon more than an occasional reference to unconscious mind, and use the word soul without such
danger of misconception. This soul exists now on the inner plane, and after physical death it will continue
to persist and retain its identity on the inner plane. And even as now it is that which does all the thinking,
whether that thinking be objective or subjective, will it continue to carry out thinking processes on the inner
plane after the dissolution of the physical body.

Just as every normal person has eyes, ears, nose and a brain, so does every normal human soul
have inner plane senses and the ability to think on the inner plane. Consciousness of what goes on about
it, and the ability to make comparisons and draw inferences and otherwise to think, are as natural at-
tributes of inner plane life as consciousness of what goes on about it, and the ability to make comparisons
and draw inferences and otherwise to think, are natural attributes of human life on the plane of matter. The
differences chiefly are that, except through the Boundary-Line electromagnetic energy, physical forces
cannot affect inner plane consciousness—but for that matter neither can inner plane forces affect physical
conditions except through such electromagnetic energy— and that distance, gravitation and time are of
an entirely different order on the inner plane. This different order in space relations and the attraction
which supplants gravitation were explained in NOT SOLD Award 3, How to Contact Desired Information
on the Inner Plane, (Serial No. 228). As to the different order of time on the inner plane, let me quote from
Chapter 11, Course 4, Ancient Masonry, (Serial No. 16):

TIME ON THE INNER PLANE.— Now a point is a cross-section of a line, a line is a cross-
section of a plane, and a plane is a cross-section of a solid. It must follow therefore, that a
solid object is a cross-section of four dimensional existence, if existence has four dimen-
sions. And certainly we cannot define an object’s position completely unless we include time.
Thus in defining the position of an object it is not enough to say it is on the eight floor of a
building located at Second and Hill Streets, Los Angeles. That defines its position in three
dimensions. But if the definition is to be complete it must contain the year, month, day and
minute. When this fourth-dimensional position is added, then its place in the space-time

1
 continuum completely is defined. Furthermore, any solid whose position is thus specifically
defined is a cross-section of its existence in time, that is, of the dimension extending from its
past into its future.
One of the fundamentals of relativity is that there is no such thing as absolute time.
Time, as indicated in Chapter 9, Course 4, Ancient Masonry, (Serial No. 14), in connection
with space-time conditions that express in the day-year progressed aspects in natal astrol-
ogy, is relative.
The time of our clocks, for instance, is correlated to the velocity of the earth’s rotation on
its axis, but when, through some means, our consciousness is able to move more speedily to
distant points on the earth’s surface, we are able to apprehend events in our Now which,
relative to a time correlated to the velocity of the earth’s rotation, are in the past or in the
future. By radio, for instance, on a Thursday evening here in Los Angeles, we can hear
broadcasts of news of what is happening in Europe on Friday morning; and we can hear at
1:00 o’clock Thursday morning, a Hawaiian band playing in Honolulu at 10:30 o’clock Wednes-
day evening.
The soul, or unconscious mind of the individual, is the organization in finer than physical
substance of the sum total of his past experiences. Its own particular movement through the
dimension designated as time is called its World Line. Each entity has its own world-line. And
all back of the Now point in each world-line is fixed in time, or the fourth dimension; in other
words, the past cannot be changed. Furthermore, the trend of world-lines can be projected
into the future. But only in so far as the future is perfectly determined and not altered through
the intervention of intelligent initiative.
When attention is turned from the physical world to the happenings of the inner plane,
where velocities are greater than that of light, consciousness becomes more or less aware of
what is happening there. And one of the characteristics of inner-plane consciousness is that
in addition to observing happenings in their Now, it can move forward or backward along their
world-lines. This it can do by virtue of its velocity, which compared to the velocities of physical
life is as much greater, and as effective in altering the relative of time, as radio waves are in
comparison to the turning of the earth on its axis. Thus is the inner plane observer able to
view what took place in the past as if he were witnessing it in the Now, and able to observe
what probably will take place in the future as if it were taking place in the Now. To this extent
his faculties are cultivated thus to look along world-lines, his ESP enables him to see in all its
details any event that took place in the past, and any event then, unless there is intervention
by intelligent initiative, will take place in the future.

Yet because there are opportunities on the inner plane to view any past or probable future event, and the
bridging of distance is but a matter of changing vibratory rates, does not signify that the soul of every
individual is able to view any happening of past or future that at the moment seems desirable, or is able to
gain information from some three-dimensionally distant spot merely by expressing the wish to do so.

Every normal individual has physical senses and a brain. He thus is equipped to acquire great knowl-
edge of physical things, and to reach logical conclusions from the facts which he has discerned. Yet
pitifully few people are storehouses of such knowledge, and fewer still have the ability to think things
through sufficiently to give them sound judgment. They are equipped to acquire such abilities; but unless
they undergo suitable discipline and training they are unable effectively to exercise them.

In school, under the compulsion of a teacher, they acquire certain fundamental facts, and absorb a
certain amount of information. Some of them, a small minority, really learn how to think. And these contrib-
ute later to the sum total of human knowledge and the progress of the race. While the information gained
in a high school or college education has a value in the practical affairs of life, the chief function of such
schooling is to train people in the art of thinking and teach them how to go about it to get other information.

2
That is, when schooling is truly successful, instead of pretending to educate the individual, it gives him
instructions and habits that, after leaving school, will enable him to educate himself.

Some leave school after eight years, and others go to college four or more years after graduating
from highschool. But considering the great number who now finish highschool, these, equipped with
physical senses and a brain do not feel they have the ability to meet the problems of physical life until they
have spent 12 years training their brains how to acquire information and to arrive at correct conclusions
from what they witness going on around them.

And even with 12 years training objective consciousness, the majority of their mental processes
continue to follow that line of least resistance known as fantasy thinking, which to a less extent is indulged
in by animals power in the scale of evolution than man. Directed thinking, the thinking something through,
keeping the attention directed to some predetermined line of thought, is very hard work, requiring the
expenditure of much electrical energy, and is therefore largely avoided by most people even if they have
acquired a highschool or college education. Instead, the thoughts tend to be deflected by the various
stimuli from the external world, and by the stronger desires within the soul, setting up trains of cognition
and associated images which are not related to any predetermined line of effort. Yet directed thinking is
the most valuable ability that can be acquired int eh external world. On it depends not merely the capacity
to form correct conclusions, but self-mastery, the intelligent conditioning of the desires, and the power to
act upon conclusions derived from reason rather than obeying blind impulse.

DIRECTED THINKING ON THE INNER PLANE.— The habit of employing directed thinking in refer-
ence to affairs of the external world helps greatly in developing directed thinking on the inner plane. It
helps because the soul becomes conditioned to direct its activities into predetermined channels of effort.

Yet the ordinary type of directed thinking, such as is employed in thinking things through, is a cere-
bral process; and as such its exercise conditions the electrical energies to flow as largely as possible into
the Cerebral System of mental activity, depriving the Inner Plane System of mental activity of the energy
it requires if it is to do much work. Thus even though Outer Plane Directed Thinking is good training for the
control of inner plane activities of all kinds, while it is taking place it inhibits Inner Plane Directed Thinking
through depriving it both of attention and the necessary energy. And vice versa, to the extent Inner Plane
Directed Thinking is taking place, Outer Plane Directed Thinking is being deprived of the attention and
energy necessary to make it effective.

Now as valuable as Outer Plane Directed Thinking is, Inner Plane Directed Thinking is far more
precious; for on it we will have to depend to control our lives and activities after we have dispensed with
our physical bodies. Just as the habits to which the thought-cells and thought structures of our souls have
been conditioned determine our circumstances and fortune on earth, so will they attract to us circum-
stances and conditions in the after-life, on the astral level to which our dominant vibratory rate attracts us
with a power similar to that of gravitation on the earth. And our only power to alter those conditions there,
to control our actions effectively, or to acquire such information as we desire, lies in such ability as we
have or cultivate in Inner Plane Directed Thinking.

Quoting from Chapter 2, Course 20, The Next Life, (Serial No. 174):

If I were called upon to mention the most striking difference between the world where we
dwell after so-called death and the world where we now sojourn, I should unhesitatingly say
that the thing which has made the most forceful impression on me is the immediate respon-
siveness of the next world to thought.

Thought and feeling dominate our actions on the physical plane, and determine our condition in life and

3
what events are attracted no less than on the inner plane; but the responsiveness of the physical environ-
ment is less immediate, and therefore less striking. Even so, external events are largely attracted by the
inner-plane activities of thought-cells of whose movements we are objectively unaware. And while the
activities of these thought-cells can be controlled through Mental Alchemy, this in turn requires the exer-
cise of Outer Plane Directed Thinking. But when we have lost our physical bodies we will no longer have
recourse to Outer Plane Directed Thinking, and perforce, in the exercise of Mental Alchemy, or any other
method of control over our actions, over what information we acquire, or over what events come into our
lives, will have to depend exclusively upon Inner Plane Directed Thinking.

Do not think that as soon as an individual passes from the physical, either temporarily or perma-
nently, that the circumstances that he now functions on the astral plane alone brings him any great knowl-
edge of the facts of life there. Unless while in the flesh he has cultivated ESP, his power of discrimination
will be that of a child on the physical plane who has the power to look about him, and to hear what is going
on, but who fails to understand the implications of what he sees and hears. Unless he has had some
practice in Inner Plane Directed Thinking, the conclusions he draws from what he observes soon after he
passes to the inner plane also will be comparable to the conclusions of a child on the physical plane; for
until he has had some experience with them, the properties of the inner plane will be perplexing.

There is a quite natural desire, based on seeking the line of least resistance, which makes the idea
of becoming wise and powerful without the expenditure of energy attractive; but one no mover become
wise as to inner plane affairs without effort and training than on can become wise about external affairs
without effort and training. And the individual ont he inner plane who has not as yet trained himself in Inner
Plane Directed Thinking, is comparable to the individual on the outer plane who has never trained himself
in Outer Plane directed Thinking. People on the outer plane usually have opportunity to acquire an educa-
tion; but they do not acquire it unless they submit to the necessary training. It is true that an adult who can
neither read nor write often is able to make a living for himself on the external plane. But such an individual
is not competent to pass judgment on a mathematical problem. The only way to understand mathematics
is to train the mind in mathematical procedure.

THE SOUL NEEDS TRAINING IN EFFECTIVE ACTIVITY.— It is true that on the inner plane the
method of acquiring information is different than on the physical plane. The best method is that of Intellec-
tual ESP. And it is true that the accomplishment of some purpose on the inner plane requires a different
procedure than would a similar accomplishment in the physical world. The best method is to employ EPP
(Extra Physical Power). But just as acquiring worth-while information on the external plane, and the ac-
complishment of worth-while work, necessitates the ability to use Outer Plane Directed Thinking, so the
acquiring of worth-while information on the inner plane, and the accomplishment of worth-while work
there, necessitates quite as high a degree of Inner Plane Directed Thinking. On any plane where it ex-
presses, Will Power is Directed Desire (see Chapter 4, Course 5, Esoteric Psychology, (Serial No. 59)),
and it can be developed only through properly directing the thoughts and feelings.

Even on the physical plane (see Chapter 8, Course 5, Esoteric Psychology, (Serial No. 63)) action
always is toward the image receiving attention. But on the inner plane the action toward the image receiv-
ing attention is greatly accelerated, due to the quick responsiveness of inner-plane substance to thought.
Therefore it is highly desirable before permanently being transferred to the inner plane to learn effectively
to direct and control the attention to selected inner plane things.

To acquire mastery over the inner plane activities, and consciously to exercise Inner Plane Directed
Thinking effectively, is not something which can be done without the expenditure of much effort in pains-
taking training. However, the ordinary individual who will put as much effort into such training as he did into
the 12 years it took him to get to a place where he graduated from highschool, and thus felt himself ready
to meet the problems of the external world, will probably have gained an equal knowledge of how to meet

4
inner plane problems, an equal facility in gaining information through ESP, and an equal ability to perform
work-work on the inner plane. Sooner or later he will have to train his soul thus in inner plane activities;
and it will be to his advantage at least to start the training of his soul in inner plane effectiveness now.

I am not implying, of course, that it takes 12 years to get some very good results through ESP and
EPP. Often such results are obtainable after a very little systematized effort, But I am implying that to be
able to use the inner plane senses and faculties as effectively and with the same degree of control that we
use cur physical senses and brain on the plane of matter, can be expected to consume a similar amount
of time and energy in their training. Yet as even in physical matters when thus they have been properly
educated their value is priceless, and as in a few short years we will have to depend on them exclusively
for all information and accomplishment, whatever pains and work must be taken in their cultivation is
preliminently worth taking.

The object sought is to bring the activities of the soul under a high degree of control, to train its
faculties and senses to a point of great effectiveness, and to learn how to get it actually to accomplish the
work, whatever that may be, which is sought of it.

After all, the object of external education and training also is to bring the activities of the soul under
a high degree of control; for control of body and intellect imply a similar degree of control over the soul, or
unconscious mind. The cultivation of the physical senses to report information correctly, and the brain to
record it, is to promote greater effectiveness in living. Yet with all their formal education, far too few have
trained their souls how to use the intellect and the physical faculties to accomplish the things in life which
they desire.

Information is one thing, using that information in worth-while accomplishment is quite another. And
both on the outer plane and the inner plane, if the soul is to accomplish anything of consequence it must
have proper training, not only in reference to acquiring the knowledge of how the desired result may be
attained, but also in actually using such knowledge to get the required work done.

Course 5, Esoteric Psychology and Course 9, Mental Alchemy, give specific instructions on train-
ing the soul to acquire information and use it effectively in the outer world, and also considerable about
controlling its inner plane activities without much attempt at keeping conscious of these inner plane
activities. And Courses 5 and 9, treating as they do of the various laws of mind, or soul, give us the
general principles with which we must work in training the soul in ESP and EPP endeavors, that is, in
giving it an inner plane education of which there is considerable objective consciousness. The psycho-
logical laws, expounded in Courses 5 and 9 do not change; they are merely applied more extensively to
inner-plane activities.

Whether the activities are of the Outer Plane or of the Inner Plane there must be available to them
appropriate electromagnetic energies for their support. Furthermore, to make them thus available for the
type of activity to be engaged in, these energies must be diverted in proper frequency and volume to the
System of Mental Activity to be employed. These systems were enumerated in NOT SOLD Second Award,
How to Become Conscious on the Inner Plane, (Serial 227). And while the frequencies of the Inspirational
System and those of the Hypersensitivity System can be used to some advantage in inner plane activities,
those of the Inner plane System are still more effective.

Soul training, therefore, so long as the sour is associated with a physical body, implies among other
things experimenting with breathing and other matters until one knows how, on demand, one can gener-
ate not too much and not too little, but just the right volume and frequency of upper-octave electromag-
netic energies for the adequate support of whatever soul activities are to be attempted on the inner plane.
This has been explained in earlier NOT SOLD lessons.

5
 Already the soul and different groups of thought-cells within it, carry out various spontaneous
activities on the inner plane. But its chief training since associating with physical conditions has been in
directing the activities of the brain and physical body. It has been conditioned to spend its energies
largely through physical channels, and in so doing the constant attention given to physical endeavors
has diverted most of the electrical energies generated into the systems of mental activity which relate to
such efforts.

Therefore, one of the first steps in the more comprehensive soul culture is to train it to hold its
attention over selected periods of time almost exclusively to inner-plane affairs, and in so doing to divert
much of the electrical energy which previously had flowed into channels more suitable to physical pur-
poses, into those systems which enable high-frequency electro-magnetic energies to become transmuted
and acquire a higher-than-light velocity and be utilized to give force to the senses and faculties of the soul,
such as will enable it to perform the inner plane work that is required of it.

CONCENTRATION.— The method of accomplishing this is through concentration. But because the
word concentration has so largely acquired a connotation which conveys the idea of intense and focussed
brain activity, I have mostly avoided using it throughout the B. of L. lessons. For inner plane activity and its
control, the very thing we must avoid is just such thought concentration as most people who employ the
word concentration use it to signify.

The kind of concentration we must use is that which holds the attention so focused on the inner plane
and the activities of the soul there that hardly enough energy flows into the brain to retain a faint objective
consciousness. Stories are told of how Socrates, when confronted with a hard problem, would lean up
against a tree, and become so absorbed in communion with his daemon that for hours he would be quite
oblivious to the outer world and would pay no attention to anything said to him. He was not asleep, and not
in a trance, for he would remain standing, and apparently normal, except that impressions from the out-
side world failed to penetrate his consciousness. When he again turned his consciousness from the inner
plane, he almost invariably had words of wisdom which had been received from his daemon; that is, from
his own soul, which had been active in the solution of the problem during the period he had inhibited
cerebral thinking.

Mahatma Ghandi, the spiritual as well as the political leader of India’s teeming millions, at the time
this is being written, is faced with various crises in his endeavor to gain political independence for his
country. The inheritor of the traditional methods of acquiring control of his soul’s activities, he does not
place too great reliance upon the shrewdness and perception of his intellect. Whenever a decision of
some gravity is to be met, instead he “observes a day of silence”, or several of them, in which undis-
turbed by the outside world he moves his consciousness to the inner plane to acquire the wisdom which
he seeks.

Elizabeth Towne, one of the pioneers of the New Thought movement, in the December, 1939, issue
(Vol. 23, No. 1) of the New Thought bulletin, has this to say:

I am and you are and everybody else of the two billions of humankind are living in two worlds.
We ‘go into the Silence’, and try to live in the world of ‘I am,’ but unless we come out every
time and bring our ‘I am’ into the world of ‘I do’ we get all filled up with affirmations and feel
sort of ‘dead and alive’ as if we were not getting anywhere—and we aren’t, because we are
shutting off the avenue by which we get somewhere.

In NOT SOLD Second award, How to Become Conscious on the Inner Plane, (Serial 227), is given a
method to inhibit cerebral thinking. To some, the method of Craig Sinclair or the method of Rene Warcollier
as explained in NOT SOLD Sixth Award, How to Become Objectively Aware of Information Aquired From

6
the Inner Plane, (Serial 230), may seem preferable, or some other of their own devising. But whatever
method is employed to attain that end, any effective culture of control of soul activity on the inner plane
requires that consciousness withdraw its energies and attention from cerebral processes and focus them
almost exclusively on inner plane processes.

Consciousness and attention must be withdrawn almost completely from the region of the brain, and
even from the body itself. And the proper state is not reached until one is aware that the consciousness is
outside the physical body, so that it can, if it so desires, view the physical body, or consider it, as if it were
viewing the body of another person from short or longer range. The best method for many is gradually to
abstract the consciousness from one region after another until it has finally been abstracted from the
region of the heart, and there is the awareness that the observer, that which thinks and perceives, is a little
back or to one side of that region of the physical body.

The region of the heart is chosen from which to make the last abstraction of consciousness, an
abstraction which is produced by the exercise of imagination and will power, because the electrical ener-
gies of the body tend so readily through habit to flow to the cerebral region or to the region below the belt,
and it is desirable in attaining inner-plane consciousness that the electrical energies do not flow to either
of these regions, but instead sustain with their electromagnetic radiations the activities of the soul in its
work. The tendency is for the electrical energies to flow more strongly to the region occupied by attention;
and if the attention is held apart from the body, in so far as electromagnetic radiations of suitable frequen-
cies are present, they tend to transmute into higher-than-light velocities and furnish energies which can be
utilized in its inner-plane work by the soul.

All mental processes, including concentration of any kind, are conditioned processes, as thoroughly
explained in Chapter 5, Course 5, Esoteric Psychology, (Serial No. 60). And the kind of concentration
required to abstract the attention from the physical world and all thoughts concerning it, and from the
physical body as well, so that the attention shall dwell, except for a mere dim awareness objectively, on
inner-plane activities, is simply one kind of Conditioned response. In other words, to acquire it, so that it
can be utilized at a few moments notice, requires repeated attempts over considerable length of time. But
for a child even to learn the multiplication table and become skilled in its use also requires effort and time.
Certainly the training of the soul is as important as learning to solve problems in multiplication with facility.

THE TRANSITION STATE.— The practice of Intellectual ESP may be carried out while the soul is
supported through electromagnetic radiations of the ESP system of mental activity or the Inspirational
System of mental activity, and while there is objective consciousness ranging in degree from such oblivion
to the outer world as I have been describing, all the way to ordinary complete objective consciousness.
Extension of consciousness, as was explained in NOT SOLD First Award, The Safe and Most Effective
Method of Psychic Development, (Serial 226), occurs in a wide number of degrees, each, to some extent,
permitting information to be acquired from inner-plane sources. And especially is there no desire to dis-
courage the type of Intellectual ESP, in which there is intense objective awareness during the whole
process, that is derived from the activity of the Inspirational System of mental activity.

But in the soul training now being considered, the activities which are cultivated are practically iden-
tical with those which the soul will be called upon to exercise after it no longer possesses a physical body,
and which therefore not only lead to the most effective results while it has a physical body, but give it the
training which is best suited to develop it for most effective functioning in the after life. In this most effec-
tive of all training in soul power, the electromagnetic radiations which best support the activities of its
senses and faculties in the inner plane work are those of the Inner Plane System of mental activity, and
the state which most favors such cultivation of their activities is that in which the attention has been so
completely withdrawn from the physical body and the physical world that the only objective consciousness
experienced is the consciousness of what the soul is doing or apprehending on the inner plane.

7
 This state in one important respect resembles the moment of Transition between sleep and the
waking state. For this reason it is called the Transition State. In the moment of transition between sleep
and objective consciousness, there is only sufficient objective consciousness present to be able to recog-
nize and remember, at least for a short time, the dreams. The dreams may, or may not, be colored by
inner-plane experiences or inner-plane perceptions. It is possible to train them to convey ESP information
to everyday consciousness. But, irrespective of information of any value to be so gained, the individual
who as he goes to sleep, or arouses out of sleep, trains himself to stop his consciousness at this point in
between the two states, is able to bring through images from the region of the unconscious mind-fantasy
images, ESP images, or dreams—with facility.

So soon as cerebral thinking starts it tends to displace the transition images, which are soon obliter-
ated and usually forgotten. Therefore what is seen or remembered from the transition state should be
written down immediately after regaining consciousness, so it will not be lost.

But the Transition State most effective in the culture of soul activities differs most importantly from the
near-sleep state in another respect. Instead of being a condition in which the soul drifts into fantasy
images, or in which the soul perceives through ESP whatever condition happens to be making some
impact, the soul—not objective consciousness—retains an intense state of activity. It is being furnished
enough Inner Plane System electromagnetic energy to remain positive, that is, to keep a higher potential
than anything it contacts; and enough to enable it to direct activities to the accomplishment of whatever
work has been determined upon.

In other words, while the activity and perceptions of objective consciousness are similar to those of
the near-sleep state, and are held to the minimum consistent with remembering what the soul does and
experiences during the time it is in this condition, the thinking and activities of the soul on the inner plane
are consistently and intensely Directed. Thus the Transition State is cultivated for the specific purpose of
encouraging Directed Thinking and Directed Work on the inner plane.

Training in soul activity, which embraces Inner Plane Directed Thinking, ESP, and EPP, should be
approached much as a child should approach education on the physical plane. So soon as some little
ability has been acquired in furnishing the proper electromagnetic supply to sustain inner-plane activi-
ties, the individual should train himself to focus his attention on that which he is trying to do or learn on
the inner plane.

A child, without persistent effort over a long period of time, cannot hold its attention to its school
studies. To begin with, its thoughts wander about the school room, are engaged in the things the child likes
to do, are distracted by what goes on about it, and engaged by happenings it can observe through the
schoolroom window. Only through repeated and persistent effort, day after day, year after year, can it
learn to concentrate its attention and its mental processes on schoolbooks and lectures sufficiently to
acquire an effective education. Acquiring the mental state and degree of mental activity suitable to acquir-
ing an education on the outer plane is a large part of any individual’s external education. In a like manner,
acquiring the Transition State, and while holding to this state acquiring and maintaining the proper degree
of soul activity, that is, Directed Thinking and directed Action, is a large part of the work of acquiring an
Inner Plane education.

And just as the child, to handle its school work, must make daily and systematic effort, so must the
individual make daily and systematic effort if he is to learn how to attain and use the Transition State. He
should set apart some period each day to devote to practice; and should during this period of practice, not
merely loaf, but put all he has into acquiring the Transition State and into the ability to think and work on
the inner plane.

8
 When the individual has gained facility in employing the Transition State, he will be able to use it to
get his mind away from the cares and problems of the day. He will get so accustomed to using it—to
turning his mind to the inner plane—that when worried or faced with difficult conditions in the outer world
he will find rest and relaxation by moving his consciousness to the inner plane, especially in connection
with the Church of Light membership mantram—in the Outline of Initiation—or with similar thoughts which
permit him to contact a high and peaceful inner-plane level.

When people have learned to read, they can often rest themselves, and get away from intruding
cares, by reading some interesting book. But when as a child they were learning to read they found it hard
work, and even as adults, when they read to understand some difficult problem it is not restful, but tiring.
And when properly approached, because it is such unaccustomed word and uses up so much electrical
energy, there is no harder work in the world than developing Inner Plane Directed Thinking. The next
hardest work an individual can do is Outer Plane Directed Thinking.

One cannot accomplish either to advantage, or make proper progress in cultivating it, at a time when
one is worn out by a day’s work at something else. And as acquiring the Transition State is the first step in
Inner Plane Directed Thinking, one should try to set aside a portion of the day for practicing it while one
still has some surplus energy to divert into the effort.

LEARN TO RECOGNIZE INNER PLANE SOUL ACTIVITY.— A child can hold its attention to the
teacher, and to the books, without learning very much. That is, it can be conscious of them, but if at the
same time its mind remains relatively inactive, it acquires little information. And an individual who can
attain the Transition State very completely, if his soul remains inactive, will acquire little information, and
will do little work, on the inner plane. Directed ESP, or Directed EPP, requires a high degree of soul activity
directed to them. Therefore, so soon as some ability to attain the Transition State has been acquired, the
next step is to learn how to give the soul the degree of activity necessary to get things done. The soul,
through effort and practice, must be conditioned to use ESP and EPP. just as the child in school must
condition himself not only to keep his mind on his studies and manual training, but to give his brain and
hands the degree and kind of activity necessary to learn and accomplish.

It is not easy to explain how one knows while he is looking at a book whether he is hard at work
studying, or whether as he reads the words his mind is merely drifting along and making no effort to
understand the text. But the individual soon can learn to discern for himself whether he is merely drifting
mentally, or if his mind is making a strong effort to understand. And the individual who learns to acquire the
Transition State, also quickly learns to discern whether or not his soul is making a strong effort; whether
on the inner plane it is active, or merely drifting.

And this is something each individual who strives to develop control of soul activity should learn.
Through giving it attention, and using some discrimination, he will learn to recognize when his soul is
active ont he inner plane, and when it is not active. Also he will learn to recognize whether or not, and to
what degree, it has been successful in such endeavors as it has inaugurated.

With a recognition of the intensity of the soul’s inner-plane activity, or lack of it, will come also ability
to find out just what things favor giving the soul the little impulse, or shove, as explained in NOT SOLD
Second Award, which puts it to work at the task which at the time is required of it. One will come to know
what tends to Condition the soul to Directed Activities, and what things help in giving it the electromagnetic
and other energies which support it in its work.

THE TRANSITION TECHNIQUE.— In the acquiring of information through Intellectual ESP, or be-
coming aware of any other work done on the inner plane by the soul, it is not always possible to be
conscious of the various intermediate steps which the activities take on the inner plane. Even in directing

9
physical activities, as a rule we merely hold the thought of what we want to do—to walk, to raise food to
our mouths, to dodge an oncoming automobile—and leave all the intermediate details to the Conditioned
activities of the soul. And in inner plane activities, often it is more effective merely to give the soul the
thought of what is to be done and permit it to work out the details in its own way.
When it is information which is sought through Intellectual ESP, and the soul is merely given instruc-
tions to get it while the individual remains in the Transition State, and that which comes through to objec-
tive consciousness is the information desired with little knowledge of how it was obtained, it is called the
Transition Technique of ESP.

For practice in training the soul to acquire information on the inner plane, any information not at the
time available through ordinary sense channels, but which later can be verified as to accuracy, can be
used. Thus there is an infinite variety of tests which may be employed, some of which are valuable
because interest in a factor in Conditioning the soul to its work. Monotony tends to detract from its zest.

But for consistent training, nothing has been devised better than the ESP cards. A method for using
them to develop the Transition Technique is to recline as comfortably as possible, first shuffling a deck of
ESP cards and placing them face down with pencil and paper close at hand.

After suitable electrification, commence with the extremities and withdraw the consciousness from
them, and proceed as previously explained until the Transition State has been attained. Then hold the
consciousness in the Transition State until all memory trains, images arising from suggestion, and
fantasy thoughts or dream images cease to appear. You have previously made up your mind to perceive
the image of the card you now reach out and take from the top of the deck and hold in your hand. While
you hold it in your hand give the soul the little shove, the little impulse of activity, which puts it to work.
Hold the Transition State steadily a few moments until you are aware there has been some soul activity,
that is, until you feel sure that an inner plane effort has been made to perceive the image on the face of
the card you hold.

Then with the confident and intense expectancy explained in NOT SOLD Sixth Award hold the con-
sciousness, still in the Transition State, in the attitude of bringing through a memory. It is really the memory
of the image on the card by its senses the soul has perceived. When the memory comes through, if the
Transition Technique was successfully employed, the thought, or image, will rush up into objective con-
sciousness accompanied by a little energy charge which will give a slight shock to consciousness.

Verify the accuracy of the ESP impression or image by opening your eyes and looking at the card.
Mark your success or failure on the paper with the pencil, and then repeat the experiment with the next
card. Whatever the subject of the experiment may be, always check its accuracy and record both suc-
cesses and failures. Unlike ordinary ESP work, this Transition Technique method is very fatiguing, and at
first the test applied to only two or three cards, or even to one, will be as much work as you can stand. But
with practice the amount of such inner plane work can be greatly increased without leading to exhaustion.

10