half-focused ramblings

["Martin Cosgrove" <martincosgrove@...>]

Following Rawn's advice, I took the time over the weekend to read through the 
rest of IIH, which was something I wasn't sure whether I should do or not 
before. I was rather hesitant to read ahead and 'distract' myself from the Step 
One exercises. However, as Rawn pointed out, I had so many questions that I was 
already distracting (and confusing) myself by searching for answers in other 
places, such as on the internet.

When I read through the rest of the steps, I refrained from reading all of the 
details of the actual exercises, which I deemed to be irrelevant for me at the 
present time, instead I concentrated on the explanations, reasons and theory, 
i.e. the introductions to the steps, the justifications Bardon gives for 
certain exercises, HOW this is achieve, WHY a magician should be able to do 
that....

All I can say really is 'wow'. I had a rough idea of what I was ultimately 
'working towards' with IIH, but the details, the manner in which things are 
achieved, it's all even more fantastical than I thought. That's not to say that 
I don't believe that these things are possible, it all seems so logical the way 
Bardon explains it; obviously it takes a huge amount of commitment, will and 
tenacity, but the laws exist and so it is possible.

One thing that did concern me, in my naive state, was the amount of times that 
Bardon says such and such if not done correctly will result in the magician's 
death, or don't do this you'll go blind, or you'll be trapped in the Earth 
realm, or you'll become an empty shell etc etc... I have to admit that the 
first thought which crossed my mind was 'jeez, no wonder there don't seem to be 
too many high initiates about!! People are either too scared to do the higher 
exercises or they died!'

OK, I am being a little flippant there... but it remains a real concern. I do 
realize however, that it is a progression and if the exercises are done 
correctly then there is no need to be afraid and that this could also be 
applied to many things in life... if you drive a car on a motorway at high 
speeds without having passed your test for example.

Some of the comments in the book, such as the explanations of how magicians of 
the same level of development can communicate with each other in a variety of 
ways across distances made me really wonder how many true magicians there 
actually are in the world.

Rawn, I won't bother asking you this question directly, because if you do know, 
I have a feeling you wouldn't tell me :-P

It would be nice to have a rough idea though! I mean, when Bardon says to 
practice this or that with another magician of the same level, I got the 
feeling it would be difficult to find another magician let alone another one 
that happened to be of the same level. I know these aren't things which 
directly concern me at this stage, but my curiosity has been peaked now, LOL.

Hey, totally off-topic, I realized the other day the apparent etymological link 
between iMAGInation and MAGIcian...hmmm.

OK, enough of my ramblings.

Take care,

Martin



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