Just as the chemist has to understand the laws of chemistry, and the electrician has to know the laws of electricity, there are also several laws that govern all thinking, and in order to learn thought control, it is highly beneficial to know and understand these laws. One of the most important is the Law of Substitution. This means that the only way to get rid of a certain thought is to substitute another one for it. You cannot dismiss a thought directly, you can do so only by substituting another one for it. For example, you tell yourself not to think about a certain situation, lets use a school exam for example. If you want to dismiss a negative thought, the only way to do so is to think of something positive and constructive. The more you tell yourself not to think about it, the more you do. If you insted find something to occupy your thoughts such as listening to the radio, this works to distract the mind from focusing on the thing you didnt want. It sometimes happens that negative thoughts seem to stalk you with such a force that you cannot overcome them. That is what is called a fit of depression, or perhaps even a fit of anger. In this case, the best thing is to distract your mind in any number of ways. Go to a good movie or play, or read an interesting book, or something of the kind. If you sit down to fight the negative tide you will probably succeed only in amplifying it.

The Law of Relaxation is another important mental law. Usually the more effort we make, the greater the result. The harder you hammer a nail the sooner does it go into the wall. The exact opposite, however, is the case with thought. Any attempt at mental pressure will likely result in failure because the moment tension begins, the mind stops working creatively, and just runs along on whatever the old habit pattern is. You simply stop your creative power when you try to force and hurry things mentally. To enable your mind to become creative again you must un-tense it by consciously relaxing. When you start to relax, you let yourself ease into a slightly altered brain wave state where the conscious mind is suspended and direct communication with the subconscious is possible. How do we know this? When you relax, your heartbeat slows, your breathing will slow and even out, the muscles will relax and your thoughts follow along.

The Law of Subconscious Activity is the next one. As soon as the subconscious mind accepts any idea, it immediately begins trying to put it into effect. The subconscious mind will use every and all resources available to it and these are far greater then once supposed. Sometimes it takes a little time, sometimes it takes a very long time but if the thing is not impossible, the subconscious will bring it about once it accepts the idea. This works for both good and bad ideas. When used negatively, you will get sickness, trouble, and failure. When used in a positive way, you will get healing, freedom, and success.

The next law, The Law of Practice may seem redundant in the field of psionics but it is quite necessary. To become great in any field you must practice as no achievement comes without practice and the more practice, the greater will the proficiency be and the sooner will it be attained. This is true in the study of any field whether it be music, foreign language, in learning to swim or skate or ski or fly. It is true in every conceivable branch of human endeavor. Practice is the price of proficiency. Experience counts as practice as well and we are talking about intelligent practice here. Violent forcing or simply doing the same motions over and over are not desired. This leads us into the next step.

Every thought contains 2 things- knowledge and feeling. It is the emotional charge that is theorized to have given thoughts the power. It is theorized that no matter how greatly intelligent the knowledge may be, if it contains no feeling or desire, nothing will happen. On the other hand, no matter how mundane or insignificant the knowledge is, if the thought contains a large charge of feeling something will happen. In occult writings this is expressed with the symbol of the bird. A bird needs both wings to fly and this tells us that we need both knowledge and the energy of feeling to make the thoughtform take flight. It doesn't matter whether the knowledge content is correct or not as long as you believe it to be correct, its what we really believe that matters. A report about something may be completely false, but if you believe it, it's got the same effect upon you as if it were completely true depending on the quantity of feeling attached to it.

The Next Law is the concept of what you think upon grows. Whatever you allow to occupy your mind, you magnify in your life. The law works and the condition grows whether the subject of your thoughts be good or bad. Any subject that you keep out of your mind tends to diminish in your life, because what you do not use atrophies. The more you think on how bad you may fail, how terrible your computer is, how little you have in your life, the spouse or significant other that annoys you to no end, the more you magnify it. The more you think about your good fortune, blessings, abundance and good health, the more you will attract.

The last law is the Law of Forgiveness. You have to forgive others if you want to get over the herdle of your difficulties and to make any real progress. You don't do this for the sake of the other person, but for your self. It makes no difference to the person, but it makes a huge difference to you. Resentment, condemnation, anger, desire to see someone punished are things that fester inside of you and create negativity in thought and action. They have a much stronger emotional content than anyone suspects, and they work like glue to fasten your troubles to you. In this law, you are using several of the other laws as well, to not dwell on garbage and negativity or you draw it to you, the emotional energy coupled with knowledge that empower thoughts in a negative way and the law of relaxation, when you do not forgive and thoughts fester, you tense up. While I do not know if this rule is absolute and this has been my lesson for many years, I can say that I put a lot of weight in it and it makes sense to me based on all the other laws. Forgiveness doesn't mean that you have to like a person or be best friends with them, it simply means that you neutrally wish them well and let them go on their merry way. It also means that you do not want to let yourself be a doormat or be used in any manner. Again, intelligent thought here and walking the middle line.