day; a week, and so on. Difficultés vanish before him as he 
advancesj the extension from a day to the course of his whole life 
will not prove so difficult as the perfecting of the five minutes. 
18. This practice should be repeated at least four times daily, 
and progress is shown firstly by the ever easier running of the 
brain, secondly by the added memories which arise. 
19. It is useful to reflect during this practice, which in time 
becomes almost mechanical, upon the way in which effects spring 
from causes. This aids the mind to link its memories, and préparés 
the adept for the preliminary practice of the second method. 
20. Having allowed the mind to return for some hundred times 
to the hour of birth, it should be encouraged to endeavour to 
penetrate beyond that period. 1 If it be properly trained to run 
backwards, there will be little difficulty in doing this, although it 
is one of the distinct steps in the practice. 
21. It may be then that the memory will persuade the adept 
of some previous existence. Where this is possible, let it be checked 
by an appeal to facts, as follows : -— 
22. It often occurs to men that on visiting a place to which 
they hâve never been, it appears familiar. This may arise from a 
confusion of thought or a slipping of the memory, but it is con- 
ceivably a fact. 
If, then, the adept arememberî? that he was in a previous life 
in some City, say Cracow, which he has in this life never visited, let 
him describe from memory the appearance of Cracow, and of its 
inhabitants, setting down their names. Let him further enter into 
details of the city and its customs. And having done this with 
great minuteness, let him confirm the same by consultation with 
historians and geographers, or by a personal visit, remembering 
(both to the crédit of his memory and its discrédit) that historians, 
geographers, and himself are alike fallible. But let him not trust 
his memory, to assert its conclusions as fact, and act thereupon, 
without most adéquate confirmation. 
23. - This process of checking his memory should be practised 
1. Freudian forgetfulness tries to shield one from the shock of death. 
One has to brace oneself to face it in other ways, as by risking one’s life 
habitually. 
419 —