Five Magnetisms:A Practice
followed by a text by Hazrat Inayat Khan
This practice is to develop magnetism at each of the five levels of our being, and to sensitize us to the reality of subtle energy. We come to be aware of both our own and the life fields of those who ask us for healing. The practice should be done with the feet flat on the floor, either standing or sitting. Breathe through the nose. You may use your imagination to assist you in directing the breath. The regular daily practice is to take five breaths at each of the five levels, but you may sometimes extend the length of the practice, eg to 10 breaths per level. You may like to read Hazrat Inayat Khan’s teaching on Magnetism in Volume XI, Part II Psychology, chapters 9-14. Part of chapter 14 is included at the end of this file.
1. Physical Body
Focus on your physical body. Inhale and exhale experiencing its life force and the vibrancy of its cells. As you inhale, the magnetism of the universe – the solar system, stars and galaxies – converges as your body. On the exhale, your body is en-livened, vibrant with life, and that life force resonates with the physical life all around.
2. Mind
Focus on your mind, and experience or imagine how its mental activity is creating a field around your physical body. Inhale and exhale, attuning to this level of your life field. Experience it as finer than your physical body and reaching out beyond it. Connect with the thought fields of all beings.
‘A living mind will show its life by its creative and perceptive quality…The pleasure that a man derives from a clear mind and a living mentality is a pleasure that cannot be compared with the pleasures that belong to this earth. A brilliant intellectuality imparts the pleasure of flying in the air, it lifts one above the earth. The thinker is like a bird that flies in the air compared with the man who is like an animal that stands on its four legs.’
3. Heart
Focus on your heart, and feel how its magnetism comes from the depths of your being, and touches the depths of other beings. Inhale sensing the deepening of your heart with its many qualities including compassion, mercy and beauty. Exhale, sensing how the subtle field of your heart extends beyond your physical and mental fields, is so fine that it is able to touch all beings. Without making an effort to develop this magnetism, allow its natural presence to live. Sense the magnetism of your heart, the field of your living heart.
‘It is not only that the awakened heart draws man nearer, but a living heart also draws God closer.’
4. Soul
Inhale and exhale attuning with the soft, subtle light of your soul. As you inhale, realize peace throughout your being, from your very core. As you exhale, feel the radiance of peace, innocence, harmony, wholeness, at-one-ness. With each breath, surrender more and more into the life at your soul level; experience the all-pervading field of peace, of love, harmony and beauty.
‘The soul has the greatest magnetism compared with the power of mind and the physical magnetism’ ‘The soul that is born again, the soul that has begun to live, the soul that has opened its eyes to the world, that soul not only attracts the wise and the virtuous, but also those who are devoid of wisdom and who lack virtue…It draws people walking on the earth and it draws souls that are not on the earth. It not only draws the living beings, the lower creation, but also the trees and plants are drawn to it. The atmosphere that an awakened soul produces lives for centuries in this world, unbroken and unpolluted.
5. Spirit
Attune to the pure life of spirit, to the life field which is being quickened with the ray of the divine sun. Inhale receiving the transmission of the ray of divine life as breath, being catalysed, transfigured, in the life of divine spirit. Exhale, allowing the spirit to shine out and spread its light and heat as a flame does. Let the field of spirit unveil your being, beyond the capacity of body or mind to define it. With each exhale, surrender into light.
‘Spiritual magnetism is the best and the most dependable magnetism. Its character is healing and very powerful. This magnetism appears with the unfoldment of the soul. …Then the soul begins to shine out as a flame does through the lantern, which spreads its light and radiates its heat so that everyone around can feel it. … When Jesus Christ bade us to drink his blood and eat his flesh, he meant that the spiritual magnetism which is given by spiritual personalities in the form of blessing, in the form of prayer, by their presence, in their atmosphere, should be our sustenance, should be the food for our soul. The spiritual path is a living path, because the magnetism of the spiritual path is living.’
At the end: remain quietly for two or three minutes in spiritual repose, receptive, open, peaceful.
Magnetism
Magnetism is something that can be wasted, that can be lost, and that can be made powerless. When a person consciously exerts the magnetism he has it becomes powerless. The very power with which one exerts the magnetism makes it powerless. Magnetism can be wasted if one does not have the strength and control to sustain it. Many possess great magnetism in some form or other, but without knowing it they lose some of it every moment of the day. As one needs a safe for keeping one’s treasures, so one must know the key to the control of magnetism of whatever kind.
Magnetism can be lost in two ways. A person who has some magnetism, without his noticing it may be robbed by another who does this either consciously or unconsciously. How can a man know when he robs another unconsciously of his magnetism? It is very easy to know. When he sees that people do not want to listen to him, when he realizes that people do not want to be with him for long but feel like running away from him, then he must know that he robs them unconsciously of their magnetism; that is why they run away. And magnetism may also be lost by lack of regularity in life, by lack of conscientiousness, and by not knowing how to keep magnetism intact. By being conscious of one’s magnetism one develops it, but by using magnetism consciously one loses it. And by being unconscious of one’s magnetism one retains its charm, but it develops slowly.
Magnetism is a life substance, a living spirit. It has its own particular science. The more one knows of this science, the more one will be able to value it, to maintain it, and to utilize it to the best purpose. Action develops magnetism, but repose controls it; that is why very active people always develop their magnetism, but without being able to hold it. With one hand they take magnetism, with the other hand they give it out, and there is nothing left. It is like earning money from one side, spending it on the other, and always being without.
A continual effort is necessary to control magnetism, and it can be controlled by a certain amount of reserve. But there are two things to consider. By too much reserve one will also close the doors to the development of magnetism, just as too much work will exhaust a man while working moderately will develop his muscular system. So it is with magnetism: when we use it continually it is soon exhausted, but when it is used no more than is needed in order to cultivate it and control it then it remains in proper proportion.
From Hazrat Inayat Khan Volume XI – Philosophy, Psychology and Mysticism: Part II, Psychology: Chapter XIV Spiritual Magnetism