The full exploration of the possibilities of working with the High Self, once contact is made through the use of self-suggestion, has not been completed.
At this time we cannot say what miracles can be performed with the help of the High Self, but, looking back at the instant healing accomplished by the kahunas of yesterday, we are encouraged to expect great and wonderful things.
In India, where self-suggestion after the Huna manner has been practiced for centuries by the devotees of Yoga, the belief that one must suffer in order to repay karmic indebtedness has prevented the use of healing potentials.
To list the possibilities, once full working contact is established between the three selves, we may safely put down:
1. Miraculous healing, both instant and slow.
2. Seeing to a limited extent into the future.
3. Obtaining High Self guidance and help.
Here in the Western world, where we are in our first approach to this part of the field, we are, however, not without instances of partial development of the abilities in question.
On pages 316–317 of "The Secret Science Behind Miracles" may be found the story of one of the first American mesmerists, Phineas Quimby, and an account of how, under mesmeric control, his favorite subject, Lucius, was accidentally found to be able to exhibit supernormal abilities. He could see what was going on at a distance, and could diagnose physical ills and heal them. Quimby had long suffered from kidney trouble and was healed by the laying on of a
hand by Lucius while under mesmeric influence but suddenly seeming to act of his own volition. This healing was instantaneous, and it lasted. That it was accomplished by something wiser and more able than the normal Lucius was evident to the mind of Quimby, and, while he had no knowledge of Huna, of course, he attributed the strange powers to some Consciousness higher than man and lower than Ultimate God. He called it the "Wisdom" or the "Power".
It makes no difference whether this contact with the High Self "Wisdom-Power" was made through the use of mesmerism or not. Hypnotic suggestion or self-suggestion would have accomplished the same results.
A more modern and well documented case which falls under the same classification is that of the late Edgar Cayce. In a trance condition usually induced by hypnotic suggestion administered by an associate, he exhibited abilities not possessed in his normal state. While this ability did not include such instant and direct healing as that exhibited by Quimby's subject, Lucius, it included similar prescriptions of remedies and the same diagnostic procedure.
Judging from the records of Quimby, the full contact with the "Wisdom" was rare on the part of Lucius, and many times a diagnosis and prescription proved to be useless. On the other hand, if Cayce failed to make a correct diagnosis or to describe the right remedy, little is said of it in the books which tell of his life and work.
Cayce frequently found obscure causes of illness or pain. In one instance he diagnosed the illness of a young man as something caused by a cracked vertebra in his neck. He then stated that a special form of operation was needed to correct the trouble, and
that there was only one doctor skilled in this technique. Asked who this doctor might be and where he was to be found, he gave his name and Boston address, adding that at the moment he was in Europe, but that on a certain date he would return. This information was found later to be correct from first to last. The doctor operated and the young man recovered. Many such cases were recorded, and the transcribed records are still in process of being studied and classified by an organization headed by his son, Hugh, formed to carry on this work.
It is interesting to note that Cayce advanced no set theory to explain his work. He knew that he made contact in trance conditions with some source of information far wiser and more able than himself. On one point he stood firm. This was in his denial that his work was in any way based on the aid of the disembodied or spirit dead. He recognized no "guide" or helper such as Spiritualistic mediums so often mention in their psychic work. (In passing, it must be said that many such spirit helpers have correctly diagnosed, prescribed and healed directly, even instantly, but their number is painfully small, and the pretenders to power are legion on the spirit levels.)
In the early years of Cayce's healing efforts the subject of reincarnation was not mentioned, but, after he fell in with a gentleman who believed in the Theosophical version of reincarnation, he began to peer back into the past lives of his patients, often stating that certain troubles were caused by one or more events in past lives. He described these lives at times in some detail.
Since the work of Edgar Cayce has become widely known (through books like Segrue's "There Is A River", and the excellent books on the reincarnation
angles by Miss Gina Cerminara, as well as through publications issued by The Association for Research and Enlightenment, headed by Mr. Hugh Cayce) there have appeared individuals endeavoring to make "life readings" similar to those made by Edgar Cayce. Usually, because of new and stringent laws against psychic diagnosis and the prescription of remedies, the work is confined to readings of past lives, and, because such readings can seldom be checked, their accuracy is open to question.
The use of hypnotic suggestion is also coming rapidly under restrictive laws, so, in the future it is probable that any person interested (as many are) in trying their hands at contact and direct work with the High Selves will have to use self-suggestion to reach the state needed for contact and work. Given time and success on the part of those who experiment, the medical world may eventually find in this corner of the field things of great value which merit attention and use.
Perhaps the only precaution to be taken in testing out the use of self-suggestion to try to duplicate the work of men like Cayce, is to make doubly sure that contact is not made with the spirit of a dead man, but with one's own High Self. Many spirits have, in the past, been contacted, and a few have claimed to be the High Self of the experimenter, but when they failed to show superior wisdom or power, they were seen to be what they actually were, lying pretenders. A great Huna initiate living in Judea long ago gave sage advice when he once said, "By their fruits ye shall know them."