The Candle Exercise

Psychic Maria Duval says that the candle exercise is excellent for achieving the level of concentration conducive to good visualisation. Settle yourself down comfortably and steady your breathing so it is calm and relaxed. Close your eyes and, behind the ʻscreenʼ of your closed eyelids, at a point located between the eyebrows, just above the bridge of your nose (third eye), visualise a candle, with strength and determination.

Create a mental image of a candle, first the base in white or coloured wax, the wick, then the blue, gas-like flame and finally the yellow-orange flame, which flickers gently, as if in a light breeze. Keep the image of the object firmly in your mind, without losing your concentration…donʼt allow other thoughts to invade your mind… Once you can manage to maintain a clear image for several minutes, without losing yourself in parasitic thoughts that dissolve the image, you can consider the exercise complete. You have to be able to ʻseeʼ the candle, in as much detail as possible, with your eyes closed.

Maria Duval confirms that this exercise will teach you to create thought-forms and to develop your ʻpsychic visionʼ.

If necessary, you can go through a preliminary stage before you do the exercise. This involves lighting a candle and focusing all your attention on it (at a distance of around 40 centimetres from your face), keeping your eyes open, without blinking. Try to memorise every last detail faithfully. Then close your eyes (before they start watering!): youʼll notice how the image of the candle remains fixed for a moment on the retina of your eye, before gradually dissolving. Before the image totally disappears, recreate the thought-form of that candle using a mental image… In other words, from that point onwards, focus your concentration on the internalized image of the candle within you and visualise it. Imagine a beautiful halo of golden light completely surrounding this candle. Hold this perception for as long as possible.

Persevere with your training: after several attempts, youʼll find youʼre able to hold clearer, more detailed images, for longer and longer periods.