216 THE CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES
too
long; for brain-fag is to be strictly avoided, as such a state
depresses instead of arousing the hidden and higher psychic faculties.
Even after considerable practice, the scrying should not be carried on
for more than a few minutes at a time. The faculty of visualization
plays a most important part in crystal-gazing. The image thought to be
seen on, before, or behind the surface of the crystal, is in its
essence a fancied projection of a purely mental image conceived in the
brain; such an image as is present to the consciousness of many when
they call to mind a scene of some vivid past experience, or the face of
someone they have known, and see it as an element of
consciousness. When it is possible to externalize this interior
vision, then we have at least a beginning of successful scrying. That
it may go far beyond this, that it may reveal to the gazer events
happening in some distant place, or even events yet to transpire in the
dim future, is often claimed. An acceptance of this claim must depend
largely upon our attitude toward premonitions and prophecies in
general. Here, as in the simple picture evolved by an image of the
past, the crystal is merely the background upon which are cast the
mind-pictures or soul-pictures arising within our being.56 A
use of crystal gazing to aid literary composition has been reported in
the case of an English authoress of note, who, if she lost the thread
of the story she was writing, would resort to her crystal, and would
see mirrored therein the scenes and personages of her tale, the latter
carrying on the plot in dramatic action. Aided by this suggestion she
was able to resume her composition and successfully terminate her
story.
°* See Hereward Carrington's Correspondence Course of Instruction in Psychic Development, Lesson 24, New York, 1912.
