MENTAL WANDERING
          This excerpt was taken from the grade VIII of the famous book "Initiation Into Hermetics" by Franz Bardon.
          
In Step VIII I am going to deal with a chapter that is of great importance in magic. I mean the
problem of leaving the body, or the separation of the mental and later on the astral body from
the material one. Every magician who has been working conscientiously in the magic art
must own this faculty, because it offers him the opportunity of leaving his physical body any
time he likes in order to bridge the greatest distances, to visit strange continents, in short, to
transfer himself to any place where he wishes to be. This apparently complicated faculty is
very simple for a skilled magician. In the same way as a pigeon leaves the dovecote, the
magician can as easily leave his physical body to betake himself anywhere else, where he will
see, hear and feel everything. This faculty does not serve the magician to satisfy his own
curiosity or to perceive more distinctly what is happening on the spot in question, but it
mainly destined to contribute to the well-being of other people. There is no material
hindrance for him, neither time nor space exists for his spirit, and he can rush around the
whole world in a single moment if he likes to.

Severing the mental body from the material body also enables him to move about freely not
only on our planet, but he can transfer himself with his mental body into other spheres as
well, which depends on his maturity. Thus he will learn to know the whole universe, and in
case of need, also to be active in some other spheres up to a certain degree. It ought to be the
pride of every magician to get acquainted with the whole universe, that is the macrocosm,
this being the proper purpose of the mental or spiritual wandering. A good deal could be said
theoretically about this faculty and everything else connected with it, but as this work is to be
a textbook for practitioners, let us not waste any time with the description of experiences and
occurrences, such as every magician will collect himself for the benefit of his own conviction.
For this reason we shall give our attention immediately to the practical part, for the
development of the mental wandering, which is in fact a transference of the consciousness,
consequently of the spirit.

It would be well for the scholar to pass at first through some preliminary exercises to get a
sort of preparatory training. A very important preliminary exercise for the mental wandering
is as follows: Sit down in your conventional asana in front of a mirror in which you can see
yourself entirely. If you have a big mirror, you need not have a great distance between your
body and the mirror, but with a small mirror the distance must be so great that the mirror
reflects your entire figure. Regard your reflected image for a few moments, then close your
eyes and imagine mentally your reflection in the mirror. Provided you have been able to
imprint your features very distinctly on your imaginative faculty, you may continue. If you did
not accomplish any result, you have to repeat the experiment until you have managed
mentally to retain each detail of your reflected image. A particular attention has to be given
to the head and the facial expression. As soon as you have been able to imaginarily grasp your
reflected image in all the shades of the original, then transfer your consciousness into your
reflected image in such a manner that you feel personified or embodied in it. This
transference of the consciousness serves the purpose to teach you how to observe your body
from the side of your reflected image. If you notice any success, try to observe those objects
that are visible in the mirror, but always from the side of your reflected image. This exercise
will be very difficult for you at the beginning, therefore you had better resort to your
imaginative faculty, impressing all the objects that happen to be near you very scrupulously
in your mind. In the course of time you will certainly manage to notice everything after
transplanting yourself into your reflected image, as distinctly as if you did watch it with your
physical eyes. When this faculty too has become a habit, you are fit for the actual mental
wandering. The scholar may seriously be warned not to risk this experiment before having
practiced thoroughly every single previous exercise, because the detachment or severing of
the consciousness from the physical body might cause severe mental disturbances in frail
people. For this reason the warning is absolutely understandable, and only those scholars who
can assert that they are mastering the exercises of all the previous Steps may approach not
only this exercise but all the others still ahead without any fear of damaging their health or
their spirit.

For the exercise of the actual mental wandering, the material mirror is not required, and you
work as follows: Take up you normal position and concentrate on your spirit. While you are
doing so, think that it is your spirit that is seeing, hearing and perceiving everything and,
absolutely free from time and space, is able to move around as if still connected with the
physical body. This operation has to be performed before every mental wandering. The deeper
the penetration of your meditation, the stronger your sensory experience and the certainty that
your spirit is unrestrained and able to step out of your body according to your will, all the
better and quicker will be your progress and success in mental wandering. Provided you have
the sensation of inner liberty and self-determination, following this meditation, which will
require only a few moments, then imagine yourself stepping out of your body just as from a
shell and standing beside it. You must understand how to transplant your consciousness into
your spirit in such a manner that you can feel yourself standing physically beside your body,
just as if you were slipping out of a robe. This performance has to take place in exactly the
same way with the help of your imagination. After all, you have been exercising long enough
in the imagination of the spirit I the shape and size of your body in front of your reflected
image.

Now try to look at your body sitting in its customary position as if it did not belong to you at
all. Then try often to practice this consciousness of self-determination and standing aside, the
point being to focus your attention on the body. Seek to see with your eyes every single detail
on your body, such as the expression of the face with your eyes closed, the calm, regular
breathing, the clothing, the seat on which your body is resting, and so on. At the beginning
everything is based of course on your imaginative faculty, as mentioned before. Later on there
will be no need of any imagination at all. As soon as you are positively sure of consciously
standing beside and watching your body, your next task will be to examine your nearest
environs. Your imagination will be a good help for you here as well. After having finished
your exercise always return into your body, just as if you were slipping on your garment, wake
up, and at once check if everything you imagined corresponds to the facts. You should attain
to such a skill of imagination that your imaginary mind does perceive all the objects in the
room as distinctly and truly as if you were looking at these objects with your physical eyes.
Provided you can book a success after a long spell of exercising, you may go a step ahead.
Now transfer yourself beside your body, and do not remain on one spot but try, similar to a
child, to walk around in the room, and do it in manner as if you were relying on your physical
body. Your own weightlessness and the sensation of timelessness and spacelessness may
tempt you eventually to move about with unusually long strides, unaccustomed to your
normal body, an occurrence that you ought to avoid in the beginning in order to allow a
manifest separation of the mental body. What matters is that you regard yourself as being
earthbound. Much later, after a long time of practice, you can make use of the rules of the
mental sphere. Providing the striding up and down in the exercise room has been successful,
go through the door as if you were inside your physical body, and try to leave the room, step
by step. At first it will be sufficient to go to the hall or the next room, where your repeat the
imagination of the objects there, and as soon as you have returned to the physical body,
identify these objects with the reality. Provided you are quite sure about being able to move
about in your mental body and also to perceive everything in the same way as with your
physical body, you are ready to continue. Practice makes perfect, and the whole secret of
mental wandering lies in continuous exercising. It cannot be emphasized often enough how
very important all these exercises are, because they represent the preliminary step to the astral
separation from the body, known as the so-called ecstasy, during which not only the spirit but
also the soul together with the spirit separate from the body. I will treat this problem in detail
in Step IX under the heading “Magic Psychic Training”.

Once you are able to move about with the spiritual mental body in the same way as with the
physical body in your own house or flat, you may undertake short walks outside of it too. At
first it will be quite sufficient to visit the house of a neighbor or to look up friends and
acquaintances who live in the vicinity and whom you know very well. Provided you have
obtained certain experiences after some of these exercises, other impressions are to be won
too, not only those of objects. The consciousness is being skilled in the course of these
exercises to such an extent that it will be capable of receiving sense-impression such as
hearing, seeing, and feeling in the mental body in exactly the same way as if one were
actually present with one’s physical body. Any result like this can, of course, only be achieved
by persistent exercises during the training of mental wandering. Go on visiting friends just to
see what they are occupied with at this moment. For example, you see people doing everyday
work. At first you can do this with the help of imagination. In order to make sure whether the
imagination coincides with the real facts, all you need to do is to imagine that the person is
doing something quite contrary. If you can manage this imagination just as easily, in
contradiction to your perception, you may then be sure that neither one or the other is true,
that it is still a matter of imagination. At first you will only sense that the imagination
responds factually to the reality, because your senses have already been withdrawn in a great
measure from your body. Later on there is no more reason for apprehensions, because you are
wining complete certainty about this problem, and consequently you will be able to
differentiate correctly whether the things being seen, heard or felt wile in the mental body are
real facts or imagination. After a long time of exercises, this faculty will become quite
familiar to the magician, and wherever he transfers his mental body, he will perceive only
what is true and coincides absolutely with the circumstances.

Provided you have made good progress insofar as you can walk greater distances without
feeling tired, exactly like in normal walking, only then have you matured to such a degree as
to occupy yourself with the laws of timelessness and spacelessness, and not before. In the
manner just described, separate from your material body and think that you are of longer
bound to time or space. While I the mental body, meditate on your being with it everywhere
you want to be at this moment. You will achieve this firm conviction by frequent deep
meditation while being in the mental body. If you wish to be anywhere with your mental
body, it will be sufficient for you to suppose you have already arrived there, and your wish
will be granted instantly. In the case of greater distances, you will obtain a satisfying skill
only after a long period of patient exercises and frequent transferences. Of course, you ought
to visit places that are known to you for a second time. Only when you are finally convinced
of being able to perceive everything with your senses, no matter where your mental body
happens to be, at whatever distance, at any time of the day, then you are allowed to visit
places absolutely unknown to you. The sense perceptions accepted on the very spot will leave
no room for doubt that all you have seen, heard or felt there was not fully up to the facts. You
must exercise for a long time and with great patience before you get used to such unfamiliar
impressions. For this particular reason, while in your mental body you will do well to visit
tropical countries, large cities, to go everywhere and see all that your heart desires. You will
achieve a wonderful success after numerous exercises.

The purpose of mental wandering is not only to perceive everything on earth that is actually
happening at the moment, but to be really active there too. For example, you are not only able
to see an illness wit your mental eyes, but you also have the chance to treat sick people with
your mental body, right on the spot, or of performing other favorable influences. All the
success and work you learned to accomplish with the help of an elementary now can be
managed by your own mental body on the mental plane.

If you are at home at last in the entire physical world with the help of your mental wandering,
and if this world has nothing new to offer you, try to visit other spheres in your mental body,
contacting the beings there and acquiring a knowledge of things of which the average human
being hasn’t the faintest idea. The elevation to any other sphere is now very simple and you
have to do nothing else but concentrate on the sphere that you would like to visit with your
mental body; you will feel, as it were, whirled round and lifted up vertically through a funnel.
The transition from our material world to another sphere happens as fast as if you were flying
around the world in a single moment. I had better say no more about this problem just now,
because the magician must make his own experience as far as this part of mental wandering is
concerned.

At the beginning in mental wandering the magician probably will feel an invincible
drowsiness that he must fight off with all his strength. This kind of drowsiness is explained as
the result of the separation of the mental body, i.e., the vital bond between the mental and
astral body is loosened, which consequently causes a transference of the consciousness, from
which follows drowsiness. As soon as the sending-off of the mental body has become a mater
of routine by constant exercises, the drowsiness gradually will vanish.
The mastery of this kind of wandering, described here, is an indispensable preparation to send
off the astral body. The detailed description of this practice will follow in the next Step,
under the heading of “Magic Psychic Training”.