Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/325

Rh, except as included in the ideas, is not of the essence of the Ego. For a thing which only pays us visits in this manner and is distinctly recognized as doing so can be no indispensable part of that innermost something each of us calls "I."

Lastly, will appears to be quite uncomplexioned. Nobody pretends that his will differs from his neighbor's, except in strength, that is, in amount. It differs in its application, but not in itself. It works in one man on one thing; in another, on another: but that which works seems essentially the same in both. Will acts, in short, like any other impersonal force. Either, therefore, will is the I only as included in the Idea, or it is in no personal sense the I at all.

Now the method of getting into the trance state has something very apposite and important to say about all this. For the entrance to that peculiar condition lies through an abnormal use of selective attention. By keeping the attention fixed long enough on a very insipid idea, or, better yet, upon nothing at all, out go both ideas and will; that is, will can inadvertently bring about its own extinction when intent upon the extinction