“If memory were all that was needed to remind us of what we had seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted, then mastering the faculty of visualization would be truly easy to learn. But experience proves that few persons succeed in giving real effectiveness to the creative power of visualization. How can we, as students of mysticism draw upon our inner resources to make full use of this vital power”

Those who have read the last analyses will remember that it includes an extremely simple experiment wherein the recruit is asked to examine a color photograph of a familiar house. They are then told to close their eyes and visualize the details of this environment as if they were present there themselves. The recruit must repeat this process continuously, until he or she is able to recreate every last detail of the picture in their mind’s eye. You may recall that I described visualization as something that could be extremely dangerous if used incorrectly. If you doubted this hypothesis, then read this passage.

The Class Master now tells us that relying on memory (an image with a firm basis in reality) for visualization is not sufficient. In fact, the true potential of visualization can only be unlocked once the recruit moves away from this crutch and begins to insert themselves into environments and situations that have no real world counterpart.

At this point, I would like to give you a brief primer in how hypnosis works. Hypnotism can be closely compared to a dormant virus, one that lays hidden within the body until a particular catalyst causes it to manifest and wreak havoc across the immune system. Similarly, a trained hypnotist will use subtle imagery, language, and suggestion to implant certain ideas and within your brain. These ideas will not be immediately apparent to you. However, with repetition these concepts will be impossible to distinguish from thoughts and emotions that originated completely organically.

If you feel that this explanation is farfetched, then simply consider how advertising works. Companies pay millions of dollars to broadcast certain images and ideas to mass audiences. On the surface, these influences seem can seem like crass attempts at manipulation. After all, who could really believe that purchasing a certain beverage would make you more adventurous or attractive to the opposite sex? Nevertheless, as time passes these associations (if effectively communicated) become increasingly integrated into your perspective of the brand.

The next time you’re at a store and looking for something to drink, you may find yourself picking out a bottle from that brand that you once disregarded as ridiculous. Now, granted this doesn’t always work. But, marketers aren’t attempting to persuade everyone. Instead, they design their messages to connect with a particular segment of people; individuals that they know are already interested in similar products and services.

Cults like AMORC are particularly effective at marketing their material to specific audiences. At every step of the monograph, you will see how the Class Master separates members of the Rosae Crucis and those without into clear categories. While one group seeks enlightenment, truth, and the greater good of humanity the other remains shrouded in ignorance, and unable to see the awesome mysteries that lie just beyond their reach.

 “Now imagine that you are slowly entering the house and that you close the front door behind you. Upon doing this, go mentally into a room, then into another, and, depending on circumstances, sit down on a chair in the kitchen, look out at the window of the living room, lie down on the bed, wash your hands in the bathroom, etc. In other words, behave mentally as if you were physically in this house, and act in such as a way as to live emotionally each of the situations you imagine.” – Exercise 2; Experiment No. 8

Note that the Class Master has now taken his student past the realm of simple recollection. The recruit is now being asked to emote and believe the reality of their mental picture. They now wholly inhabit their memory. This process closely resembles a hypnotic therapy known as hypnotic regression, wherein a patient is led to vividly recall the details of some past trauma, the therapist then helps their patient to sort through the pain associated to their memory. 

Unfortunately, hypnotic regression can be as harmful as it is helpful. If the therapist chooses to insert false memories or emotions during this process then they can easily convince their patient of things that never happened. In other words, the therapist has the ability to influence the patient’s very reality. Now, AMORC hasn’t yet begun to actually shape or adjust the recruit’s memory, but we shall see if they take this step later on in the monograph.